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!
i went to taiwan with darling from 5 dec to 9 dec.
actually this trip nearly did not materialise because yuanze had colic and he throws alot of tantrums in the middle of the night. darling is worried to leave yuanze in sg alone and she will feel very guilty, worried and uneasy if she travels to taiwan. so honestly speaking, i am prepared for the worst case scenario of not going for the trip.
but thank goodness, yuanze has no more colic, and he sleeps better in the night. and thus, our trip went on as usual. i also want to take this opportunity to thank my family (especially my mum) for looking after yuanze while we were away. she specially took leave just to take care of yuanze. and of course my two sisters. huanyang for playing with him and letting him listen to ang mor hip hop songs. xiaoyu for borrowing story books from the library and reading these story books to him, and also entertain him in 101 ways, and taking photos and videos of him and sending them to us.
and this is my how many times to taiwan? let's recall.
first time was with my family. i was in primary 6.
second time was with the army. we went there for training for 3 weeks. we were known as the 星光部队.
third time was with my jc friends.
fourth time was with darling, in 2008.
fifth time was with my pe friends, in 2009.
sixth time was with brotherhood (xuehong, nzj and hw), in 2012.
so my 7th time is with darling, in 2016, 8 years after 2008.
and this is our itinerary:
5 dec - taichung
6 dec - taichung
7 dec - taichung to taipei
8 dec - taipei
9 dec - taipei
it is a very very short trip. this time we flew by china airlines. the air ticket is $545. we book the air tickets very early, which was in june. accomodation at taichung is an airbnb room, right smack in the middle of 逢甲夜市. cost $59 for one night.
china airlines is not bad. it is after all taiwan's national air carrier. i watched 2 movies: 寒战II and Suicide Squad. i watched 寒战 I with darling at macau and totally love it. when 寒战II was aired in singapore, i din wanna watch it because it is in mandarin. i was overjoyed when china airlines has the cantonese version. :)
we reached taoyuan airport, bought our taiwan sim cards, bought the bus tickets to 桃园高铁站, and once we reach 桃园高铁站 we bought the 高铁 tickets to 台中. reach 台中 and took a cab to our airbnb. this cab driver drives like a f1 car racer and i was so traumatised. from a 25 min journey become a 15 min journey. and so we reach our airbnb location at about 620 pm and our kind host was already there waiting for us and brought us to the door of our apartment, and also introduced to us what are the nice food that must try. he even prepared a food map for us!
the famous 黄金右腿. perfectly bbq-ed with cheese on top, together with tomato salsa within the chicken and fresh salad underneath the chicken. what a wonderful combination. i can eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
the very famous yakitori restaurant. we saw this restaurant being featured at one of the taiwan travel variety programmes and told ourselves that we must go there! their signature yakitori is the mochi wrapped with pork. damn nice, damn addictive, damn creative. how can pork and mochi taste so good together?!
the instagram worthy galaxy drink. right now galaxy is the in thing. galaxy cake. galaxy donuts. galaxy bagels. and this drink taste surprisingly good and refreshing.
this concludes day 1. :)
天地人和, brought to you by 新艺舞团, was concluded on sunday evening.
i did not dance in this production, but neverthelss i still wanted to contribute to the dance troupe, and i am very thankful that peter (the director of the dance troupe) gave me the role of the FOH manager (sounds super atas hahahaha) and also asked me to order dinner for the dancers and the production crew. at the same time i also want to thank darling to allow me to go help out with the production. she is always so understanding of my passion for performing arts.
the dance troupe is only in her second year. i was heavily involved during the first year, when i followed the troupe to sibu for the Sibu International Dance Festival, and i was also involved in their first dance production held at victoria theatre. as i had mentioned before, the reason that keep me going for dance is always the people. there are people inside that i had known for a very long time from the nuscd days, for example xuehong, bin gege, nzj. the people that i only knew from last year, such as regina, sandra, viv, zixiang. i started off being a bit shy with them, but when time goes by, we clicked and became good friends, united by our passion for chinese dance. i am always thankful to be able to make good friends and forge strong bonds through dance.
ok so enough recapping of what happened in the past, let's now focus on the present. for this year, myself, zixiang, sandra and guofeng did not dance. but they got many strong dancers in, for example tan fangxi, a very strong dancer that i had noticed since my uni days, who was actually in the same nus chemistry batch as me, and was in dance ensemble. my student foo chunying had also joined the troupe, and she danced in 3 items. not forgetting to mention elizabeth chan who came back to singapore after her studies at HKAPA, and i actually had the honour to dance on the same stage with her 8 years ago at buddha tooth temple for DLS item. although there are only 20 dancers in total, but i think the overall quality of the dancers was stronger compared to last year.
Opening Item: 天之上 云卷云舒 Clouds Billowing
Choreographer: Xuehong
天之下 风吹草舞 Wind Whirling
Choreographer: Elizabeth Chan
地之刚 峰峦月下 Moon Soaring
Choreographer: Bin gege
地之柔 碧波浩瀚 Waves Rippling
Choreographer: Nah Jiemin
地之烈 动如雷震 Thunder Rumbling
Choreographer: Viv
人之欲 患得患失 Desire Unending
Choreographer: Yoke Kay
Crowd Favourite Item (that's why deserve 2 photos hahahahaha): 人之爱 矢志不渝 Love Enduring
Choreographer: Xuehong
人之和 和睦祥安 Peace Everlasting
Choreographer: Bai Laoshi
and the finale!! arranged by xuehong!! super duper nice. totally what we should expect from the GWH choreographer. :)
WELL DONE 新艺舞团!!!
this year is my 3rd time doing the chief presiding examiner role for the year end national exams.
first time was in 2013. second time was last year. both the first and second time are at secondary schools in tampines.
and the 3rd time, is of course at a school in the north. and it is at one of the most talked about schools, if you have been following the news. :p
so anyway, if you have not been following the news, these students (who are from sec 5) sat for the wrong maths paper 1, because the teacher of that school, who is one of the HODs, registered the paper of the wrong subject code.
how did the students realise? after the paper 1, when the students went back home and start to compare their answers from their friends of different schools, they realise that they actually sat for the wrong paper. they alerted my presiding examiner, and also alerted their form teacher, and shortly after that the principal knew about this matter and... you can guess the repercussions after that.
so the next day, when i go to tiong bahru to collect the exam papers, i was given the maths paper 2 of the correct subject code for these sec 5 students.
definitely the school have to do the necessary follow up, which is to work with cambridge to mark the paper 1 in such a way that the students will not be short changed. and the school also have to make a phone call to every single parent of these sec 5 students, to assure the parents that their children will not be short changed.
there were other incidents that also happened during the year end national exams.
the other major one actually happened at my previous workplace, when one of the private candidates actually use a bluetooth earpiece to communicate with his friends, during an english paper. he got caught by one of the invigilators.
the next one is during the english listening comprehension. there was actually an interference during the first 3 seconds of the broadcast. at first i was so worried, thinking that whether is there something wrong with the radios. but after checking with my friends who are also CPEs/PEs of various schools, then we found out that it is a nation wide problem. and hence the radio station replayed the broadcast again for the first passage, and as a result... the listening compre paper ended later... -.-'''
thank goodness after that... no major mishaps happened. and the national exams was finally concluded last friday. :)
on a side note, this is my first time conducting the national exams at an air conditioned hall! so happy!!!
the most beautiful birthday cake ever. thank you darling. (photo taken from cream and custard instagram account)
and this is my first birthday as a father. what an important milestone. :)
some meaningful birthday wishes:
"happy birthday mr tan! 做好老公好父亲是必须的，但也不要忘记对自己好一点。"
"happy birthday mr tan! thank you for always giving me so many opportunites in dance and for letting me be a part of your many milestones in life. have a blessed birthday!"
"happy birthday mr tan!! thank you for always being the most supportive teacher!! thank you for all the opportunities you have given me, and allowing me to see through many milestones in your life!! continue staying cool and awesome yah!!"
新艺 Dance Company is proud to present their year end show: BEING 天地人和
Based on the concept of Heaven, Earth and Man. The show will travel through 3 Chinese dance styles namely; Han Tang, Classical and Ethnic Chinese dance with some contemporary elements.
Come and enjoy an evening of diverse Chinese dance choreographies with them!
27 November 2016 | 7pm
Victoria Theatre
Standard Price $25, Student Price $20
For tickets, please contact 9763 0573 or email xinyidancecompany@gmail.com
Photo Credits to James Wong
on tuesday evening, i was at the living room watching tv. darling was in the bedroom with yuanze. and then she whatsapp me, ask me to go to the other bedroom to get yuanze's body powder.
ok so let me explain about the demographics of the bedrooms. right now i am staying with my in-laws. let's name the in-laws' place as 663. 663 has 4 bedrooms - 1 master bedroom for the in-laws, and 1 bedroom each for darling, darling's two sisters.
darling's jiejie bedroom is used to put yuanze's 摇篮. so whenever who does night duty with yuanze, the person will sleep at darling's jiejie bedroom. sunday night, and monday night to thursday night, darling will sleep in 摇篮 room with yuanze. i will sleep in 摇篮 room on friday night and saturday night.
darling's bedroom is used to put yuanze's baby cot. the baby cot is the place for yuan ze to 抹身 and change diapers. 抹身 is the tone down version of bathing, which will happen in the evening. bathing takes place in the morning.
all right so let's go back to the episode where i am watching tv at the living room. so darling was at the 摇篮 room with yuanze, and she msg me and ask me to go to the baby cot room to get yuanze's body powder. so i hurriedly walk to the baby cot room, took the body powder, and went to the 摇篮 room and pass it to darling.
darling look at me and said: "you never see anything else?!"
i was thinking to myself, what should i see?
so i went back to the baby cot room, and behold, i saw this:
darling actually went to causeway point on that morning and bought 2 more figurines, ultron and black widow, to add on to my captain america and ironman! thank you darling! it was a really nice surprise and i was so so so happy for the whole night, so happy that all my tiredness from doing o level duty went away and so happy until i couldn't sleep. :)
the next day there was only one paper in the morning, and it was from 8 am to 930 am. so darling and i decided to go and have some quality couple time. super thankful to my mum in-law for taking care of yuanze while we go enjoy our couple time.
first, we went to cream and custard, which is just opposite SEAB. SEAB is the place that i collect and return papers everyday.
on the left is their signature strawberry watermelon cake, but both of us actually prefer the passion fruit cake on the right. they also have the special galaxy cake, which unfortunately was not ready yet. after eating the cakes we went to sushi bar at far east plaza, which darling has a very big craving for ever since she got pregnant. we ordered the usual stuff: scallop mentaiyaki, salmon aburi roll, hotate salmon aburi roll, and we also ordered their special promotion item which is the salmon fin karage. and OMG the salmon fin karage is so good! deep fried until perfection and the salmon flesh is so tender, so juicy and so fresh.
today is 10 nov, and 4 years ago, this happened:
thank you grace tiang, jingwen, hw, nzj and fen for helping with the epic wedding proposal. and thank you darling, for saying yes on that day. :)
the niece's mum (ie darling's sister) went to bangkok for a holiday, which means the niece spends most of the time with us.
which also means we have to manage an infant and a hyperactive toddler at home. hahahaha.
so for the past 2 days, i engaged the help of a toy bubble gun, that was given to Yuan Ze during his baby shower. and honestly i cannot remember who was the one who bought the gift, because on that day there were too many gifts. once again i want to thank all my friends, relatives and students for buying these gifts for Yuan Ze. :)
let the pictures do the talking!
