recap of 2016

2016 has been both a fulfilling and challenging year for me. fulfilling because darling and i finally have our own house to stay in, and of course we have our yuan ze arriving to the world on september 14. challenging for me because it is my first year in a new work environment and i think i have adjusted quite well, although i still miss the people and the memories at the previous workplace. 

moved in to our new house at woodlands in march. really want to thank my in-laws for helping with the renovation of the house. they contributed 80% of it. and after that came a series of house warming for our different groups of friends. we cannot have one house warming for everyone simply because our house is too small. #typicalBTOproblem

a special dedication to the pe dept of the new workplace. it is a wonderful and dynamic dept, led by the motherly and caring HOD. we have great teamwork and we are the envy of all the depts because of our strong cohesiveness. thank you to the pe teachers for making me welcome and feel belonged since day 1. :)

and of course another special dedication to my first form class at the new workplace. heard terror stories of this class, and it was a jia lat class due to certain individuals, and it has no class spirit, and its classroom was placed nearest to the KP (Key Personnel ie the HODs SHs YHs AYHs) room for the most obvious and strategic reason. so the school management felt that putting in a fatherly figure and a experienced teacher can change the class for the better. and i think the school management have great foresight and i repaid their faith. HAHAHAHAHA. but all these could not be possible without my wonderful partner FT, miss ong. she is a really dedicated and passionate teacher and she played a huge part in energising me and relighting the flame of teaching that has become smaller over the past 6 years. we worked hand in hand to reform the class and bring out the best in every individual. the class thanked us by holding a wonderful teacher appreciation party for us and both of us were honestly impressed and touched by their efforts. 

although i have left the previous workplace, but i have been there for 6 years, so the memories and the friendships can never be erased. thankful to be still able to meet up with colleagues and students for this year, and thankful for welcoming me back as if i had never left. 

another important milestone for this year, which is i finally finished my 10 cycles of reservist and we had the MR parade at the majestic Singapore Sports Hub. what a good way to end the reservist cycle on a high. MR lohhhhh!!!

the most significant milestone for this year is the arrival of yuan ze on 14 september. from a son, i became a father. 

the wonderful baby shower for yuan ze. it would not have been possible for my two students, denise and jean, as well as darling's cousin, jeremy (who happened to be denise's ex bf hahahahahahaha sg is so small). 3 of them did all the decorations. also want to thank my sister for letting us have the baby shower at her condo's function room. and a big thank you to all our friends/colleagues/relatives/students for the baby shower gifts. 

a big dedication to my family, who have watched me grow over all these years. always look forward to go back tampines on sundays to have meals with my parents (seldom see my two lovely sisters who are always so busy). but kudos to them, ever since yuan ze arrived, i see the two of them more often on sundays. hahahahahaha. thank you for your huge love towards yuan ze. i am so happy to see that my parents have finally upgraded to become grandparents, and my two sisters have become 姑姑s. 

also want to thank my in-laws family, for taking such good care of me, and helping me so much. making sure i was well fed, helping with the renovation of our house, taking care of yuan ze, giving us advice on how to take care of yuan ze. a shout out to my niece, who will always be our happy fruit. initially darling and i were worried that she will be jealous of yuan ze because our attention will be more focused on yuan ze. our worries were actually unnecessary because she love yuan ze alot and she is always so happy to see him. in the past, when she first step into the in-laws' house, she will greet me. now, she will immediately go and find yuan ze, and say these: 源赜!!! 我很喜欢你 lehhhh!!! 

and for the final picture, the most important dedication to my love, my lifetime partner, my wife. thank you for all the love, for giving birth to yuan ze, for looking after yuan ze and me, and for all the sacrifices that you made. i cannot imagine how my life will be without you. we shared many beautiful memories together, travelled to many different countries together. from now on, we can't wait to create more beautiful memories together with yuan ze, our bundle of joy. thankful to be able to go to taiwan this year for a short holiday, which will not be possible if my mum did not volunteer to take care of yuan ze. thank you mama. taiwan 2017 and new zealand 2018, here we come!  

wednesday post

it is already 21 dec. 2 more weeks to sch reopen. 

this holidays have been wonderful, for me to rest, relax and recharge and gain weight. hahahahaha. i had really put on alot of weight and hope my colleagues/students dun judge me when i appear in sch in my sports attire with a protruding tummy. 

last sunday we went to vibez for dancescape singapore's christmas party. thank you mr derek seong for the invitation, and also for the christmas gifts. so paiseh that i din get you anything. i will see if i can get you something on the actual christmas day. this picture really says alot. i first met xiaoyun in 2007 when i first joined nuscd. then in 2008 we work really close together because i danced in two of her items for psyche 2008, 'dare to dance' and 'distance'. 'dare to dance' really brought me out of my comfort zone because i have to do hip hop. as for 'distance' i quite enjoy that dance because most of the time i just need to act, and through 'distance' i also get to know xinyi, who was my dance partner, and later on became darling's personalised obstetrician. later along the way i get to know wilson, who was xiaoyun's bf, then became fiance, and finally became husband. and then some time in 2008 xiaoyun jio me to derek seong's wushu class and that's where i first met him and his wife. work closely with him in 2012 2013 where i performed for his dance items as well as competed in his wushu 集体拳 套路, that enabled me to relive my wushu memories when i was sch team wushu representative for sec sch and jc. the collaboration did not stop here. when i started my career as a teacher in the previous workplace, xiaoyun wilson and derek help me alot in creating a vibrant arts culture for my students, as well as giving my students a platform to shine on stage. the respect that we have for one another is mutual and that's why when they have any events, i will definitely go and support them because they gave their best for me, i should of course give my best for them. and look at us now. all of us are now parents! 

on monday we went for a family outing to changi airport. yuan ze was really intrigued by the bright lights and beautiful architecture of changi airport. and we also experienced having our meal with yuan ze. our meal was interrupted by him pooing and crying. so we have to take turns to pacify him. one of us continue eating our food while the other bring him out for a walk. more of such experiences to come! 

for tuesday we initally wanted to go to katong because i have a craving for katong laksa. but later on decided not to because the route from katong laksa to 112 katong is not very stroller friendly. so we went to thomson plaza instead. and the same experience came when we ate our lunch at imperial treasures. monday's experience was good training for us. :p

as for today, my pe classmates came to our house for a long overdue house warming/yuanze's baby shower. i really treasure my friendship with them. today is also 冬至 and darling prepared 汤圆 for them. and the 汤圆 tasted really good! kudos to darling for her maiden attempt in making 汤圆. it was really a good time catching up with them and sharing about our previous cock memories, for example myself being a so called devoted buddhist by not eating beef but ok to drink the soup from the 牛肉面. hahahahahaha.  

tomorrow have to go back to the workplace for a meeting from 12 pm to 530 pm. please let me survive. 

saturday post

writing this because i have survived 3 hours alone with yuanze, as darling went for her friend's wedding banquet at orchid country club. 

for the past 3 months, i am happy and proud to have done all these, as a father:
- change his diapers and clean his shit (that's the first thing i learnt) 
- prepare his milk and feed him
- bathe him
- entertain him when he is awake
- put him to sleep 
- help him change into a new set of clothes (extremely stressful when he is struggling and crying)

but honestly, when he is throwing a tantrum and crying at the top of his voice, i can never ever calm him down, no matter what i do. only darling can. it is not only the power of the mother, but it is also because... darling can sing better than me. hahaha. 

luckily during that 2.5 hours he never cry at the top of his voice. and i must say that i am so thankful when darling came back home. together with my in-laws. 

it is really very fulfilling to become a father. i feel a greater sense of purpose in my life right now. i always have a sense of purpose in my life, but right now the sense of purpose is GREATER. 

next week we are going to bring him out, before the school holidays end. stay tuned for pictures! :)

#throwback 3 days ago when we went to suntec city to watch the little ponies performance. one of the ponies is meizheng. thank you for telling me about this show! my niece likes little pony alot and her favourite one is pink (who is coincidentally meizheng). HAHA. 

taiwan day 4 and day 5

2nd last day in taiwan! lunch was at 参和院, near 忠孝复兴 station (exit 11). it has the cutest and most exquisite dim sum, and also interesting dishes. 

the nicest one is the green colour bun with the cartoon character face. as for the rest, they look pretty but taste normal. 

this is the worst buy. looks nice, but it is tasteless. yes tasteless. the coloured fillings also tasteless. the biggest disappointment. 

this omelette is good! goes very well with rice. 

after lunch we go back to ximending again for some more shopping. we went to the h&m which is one whole entire building on its own, with 4 storeys. and they have a very big kids section. darling and i had a fun time choosing yuanze and xuanxuan's clothes. 

ta da!! yuanze's clothes! hope that he can wear the long sleeve blue shirt and maroon pants next year when we go to taiwan! 

went back to our hotel room to chill. roader's hotel is very nice to give us a room upgrade on our 2nd night. the upgraded room is much bigger in space, and has a bath tub by the window, which you can see the view while bathing in the bath tub. so i soak myself in the bath tub, drink a bottle of 纯萃 milk tea, and play fifa. this is the ideal holiday~

in the evening we are meeting up for dinner with my colleagues from the previous workplace: yu laoshi, who teaches mother tongue, and was my co-form of 2E1 in 2012; mr john lim, teaches geography, now he is a subject head of geography at another sch in the east; mr felix yap, teaches chemistry, who is my angel last year. 

and the dinner place is 锅爸, a steamboat restaurant that i chance upon online. 

it is a really awesome place and i shall let the pictures do the talking. 

drinks section #1

drink section #2: if you dun like packet drinks you can also go for old school bottled soft drinks  

drinks section #3: hot drinks such as latte, milk tea, cappucino. also have iced milk tea. 

check out the beautiful meat! 

the soup flavours that they have are: 麻辣, curry, tomato, kimchi, and another 4 flavours that i can't remember. i personally like the tomato one! 

out of all these food, darling and i actually like the deep fried youtiao, which we never see before in singapore's steamboat restaurants. 

this is my personal favourite! 麻辣鸭血! a delicacy that cannot be eaten in singapore. the 鸭血 is so smooth, even smoother than tofu. and the translation is... -.-''' the 卤肉 was also not bad. i scooped it and drenched it on white rice. so gooddddd! 

softee or chocolate fondue for dessert? 

this is the ultimate winner. haagen daaz and movenpick side by side. 16 different flavours of ice cream to choose from. shiok!!!

thanks for the great catch-up! :) 

nothing much about day 5, because we have to check out at 1015 am and our taxi driver is picking us up at 1030 am. check out procedure was very smooth and efficient. 

our taxi driver super on, 1010 am msg me to tell me that he has already reach. 

so 1030 am when we went out of the hotel, we were expecting a yellow taxi, but who knows a 7-seater pop up in front of us, and the driver came out and saluted me. omg both darling and i were shocked. 4 seater yellow taxi send us to airport cost us NT1000. 7 seater vehicle also cost NT1000. we were so lucky! the driver told us that his vehicle is first class atas vehicle, and it is being used to ferry big shots from DBS bank, taipei city mayor and other big shots from various countries. the car is really very comfortable, and he said that 坐五六个小时都不会晕车. and so we talk cock alot during the journey and also got his contact. so if anyone is going to taipei with a big family of 7 pax, you can get his contact from me. i guarantee you that you will not be disappointed with that atas 7 seater vehicle. :) 

i must also say that taiwan airport security are super serious about check in luggage and prohibited items. at the check in counter, the counter staff ask me whether got selfie stick in hand carry. she said need to put in check in luggage, if not at the departure hall the airport police will ask me to throw away the selfie stick. and then she ask whether our check in luggage got power bank, and i said no, because my power bank is in my hand carry. 

so at the departure hall, the airport police scan my passport, and then he stop me and say my check in luggage got problem, and tell me to go back to the counter. i was like super stunned and when i was walking down and i realise... ... it is the new ironman power bank that i bought!!! ggggggrrrrrrrrr... so immediately went to the counter, took my luggage, and took out the ironman power bank. HAIYAAAA. 

another tip guys, sign up for citibank credit card, and you will get this priority pass card, which you can go to the priority lounge at every single country's airport and enjoy their services. last year we went to the priority lounge at hong kong. so this time we went to the priority lounge at taoyuan airport and we had our lunch there. the food there was quite good and they also provide lots of beverages such as beer, red wine, soya bean milk, fruit juice and coffee. really quite shiok. :)

on the flight back, i watched Ghostbusters and Jason Bourne. super happy to watch 4 wonderful movies on the two flights. i think i am not going to fly budget anymore. hahahahaha. 

taiwan day 3

started the day by ordering breakfast from 古莫尼 again. actually i walked to 他给 first to try my luck, but the queue was even crazier as compared to tuesday. so forget it, 古莫尼 it shall be. this time round i ordered the thai basil pork sandwich for myself, and the signature bacon egg cheese sandwich for darling. the thai basil pork sandwich didn't disappoint! 

after breakfast we check out from our airbnb apartment and took a cab to 台中高铁站. the cab fare cost us NT305. cab fare on monday from the 高铁站 to our airbnb cost NT300. 

we reach 台北高铁站 at around 1130 am. and we took cab again to our hotel at ximending, which is only 1.1 km away, and we reach the hotel in less than 10 min. cost us NT80, if i remember correctly. 

in the past i have stayed at either rainbow hotel or east dragon hotel. this time we stayed at Roader's Hotel, and i must say that both of us are very impressed with Roader's Hotel. let me tell you why! 

first of all, their lobby. the lobby is the most impressive and hipster lobby i have ever seen. got a fireplace (with fire projection hahahahaha), and many sofas/couches for the tourists to sit. got a big screen to show movies from HBO or live nba basketball matches. provide these items FOC 24/7: popcorn, tidbits, instant noodles, 包s, coffee, hot chocolate. for breakfast they will put donuts and sandwiches at the lobby, first come first serve. 

and the lobby got a photo booth! 

damn cool right. there is a printer underneath and you can collect your photo printout. 

and paste it right here on their bulletin board! 

the many flavours of instant noodles that you can choose from. 

secondly, the hotel staff are very young and dynamic, and they make sure all the guests feel at home. they are very prompt in entertaining requests and are always so cheerful and friendly. 

our room! 

our room has a pretty nice view. :)

we head to 永康街 for lunch. for my previous 6 visits to taiwan, i have never been to 永康街 before. i must say, this place is amazing man! so many restaurants, so many good food! what have i been missing out during the previous 6 visits! 

lunch is at the famous 鼎泰丰. the queue there is totally crazy. 

but they have a very good queue system. first you go to the counter at the front of the entrance and tell them how many pax. then they will give you a paper slip with your queue number. and the paper slip will also tell you the waiting time. mine is 35 to 45 min. -.-''' 

then they will also pass you the menu to let you order the food first. so one of the staff will actually walk around to collect the menus from the waiting customers. at the front of the entrance there is also a big tv screen that flash out the queue numbers. and some of the staff are bilingual or trilingual. they pin flag badges on their right chest to show what languages they can speak. i saw usa, japan, korea, and the most outstanding one is... SPAIN. a local taiwanese can speak Spanish?! wow simply awesome. 

ok since i got 35 to 45 min to waste, i walk up and down the 永康街, while darling is pumping out her milk at the 浦乳室. a good thing about taipei mtr is that every station will have breastfeeding room, and the breastfeeding room is very well equipped with a table, power socket and hot water. 

i queued at the very famous 天津葱抓饼 and tasted it, but it did not live to our expectations. it was overrated. darling and i have tasted much better 葱抓饼 at hualien in 2008. i remembered vividly that when i bite into the 葱抓饼 the egg yolk exploded with the egg yolk juice swimming inside my mouth. the guide told us this is called 炸弹葱抓饼. and therefore... 天津葱抓饼 was a major disappointment. 

but thankfully 鼎泰丰 did not disappoint. i ordered alot of food. hahahaha. it was a good change from the 夜市 food that we were having for the past 2 days. when i tasted the 小笼包s and 虾仁蛋炒饭 i was like OMG SO GOODDDDDD. 

we had matcha dessert at matcha one cafe, also at 永康街. presenting the hand model, my darling! the matcha crepe cake was really good, but a bit pricey. tried once can liao. 

and after that we went to the famous Chia Te bakery to buy my favourite 3Q 饼. i was shocked when i saw a queue outside the bakery. but luckily the queue was moving quite fast. Chia Te is also famous for its different flavour pineapple tarts. i also saw egg tarts and they look really good, but i was too full to try them. 

for the whole night we went back to ximending for shopping and dinner. :) 

taiwan day 2

our taichung airbnb location is really very good. at night no need to worry about food because once we step out of our apartment, all the street food is available. and it is the same for breakfast! from our apartment walk 1 min and will reach 逢甲路, and the whole stretch of 逢甲路 has numerous stalls selling breakfast. 

the most popular one is 他给吐司, and the queue there was insane. so i went to the one with lesser people. 

古莫尼 (Good Morning)!!!

i ordered a kimchi pork sandwich for myself and a ham cheese sandwich for darling. the kimchi pork sandwich tastes amazingly good!!! darling said the ham cheese sandwich is normal. oops. 

so for day 2, we hired a taxi and the driver drove us to different places. he came to pick us up at 9 am and these are the places that we will be going: 彩虹眷村，新社古堡，薰衣草森林，中社花海，and finally 高美湿地. he charges us NT3500. if you want his contact let me know! 

and i also need to specify that 新社古堡，薰衣草森林，中社花海 requires entrance fee. is around 100 to 300 NT. can't really remember. but the good thing about 新社古堡 and 薰衣草森林 is that part of the entrance fee can be used to purchase food/drinks. 

彩虹眷村

a very small village whereby all the murals are painted by this 94 year old grandpa. normally the grandpa will be there to take pic with tourists. but he was not there when we were there. and when we reach there, there were tonnes of tourists. so we quickly went to a quiet spot, take a pic, and left. the driver said people normally spend 30 min at rainbow village. we spent 3 min. 


新社古堡

we love this place! we redeemed our hot drinks (darling ordered honey tea and i ordered cappucino) using the entrance fee. the cappucino taste really good! probably because drinking a hot drink in cold weather makes the cappucino taste exceptionally better. 

after 新社古堡 our driver drove us to a mushroom farm to let us see how mushrooms are being grown (FOC). darling bought some mushrooms and mushroom tidbits for her family. the mushroom tidbits taste surprisingly good. even the niece likes it. hahahaha. 


薰衣草森林

didnt really see that much lavendar (maybe it is not the season yet). the lavendar ice cream is good. must go try. darling ate the ice cream very happily because it was her first ice cream in 9 months. the drive up was horrendous (think genting highland). 


中社花海

it's a real pity that the weather was cloudy on that day with no sun, which made the 花海 look less beautiful and spectacular. 

after the 花海 it was a bit too late and we decided not to go to 高美湿地. our driver was very kind to charge us NT3000 instead of NT3500. so i gave him NT3000 and another NT200 as tips. 

and so we walk around 逢甲夜市 again for dinner. and we went to the convenience stores to check out the 纯萃. 

wooooo so many flavours! huat ahhhhh! 

we had to eat this again. our favourite mochi wrapped with pork, at our favourite yakitori stall. 

that's the end of day 2!