Yilan Day 2

Woke up at 5 am plus automatically. My body clock is now tuned like that, thanks to my job, and also because of my duty as a father. 

I open up the curtains a bit, and saw the sunrise! Felt so happy. Stepped out of my room and went to witness it. Felt so blessed that I am able to stand here and witness something so nice and so magical. 

Let me say more about 蜻蜓石. It was opened by this guy, 石教授, who is a professor, and his area of research is insects. Based on what I know, and the information that I gathered through magazines and TV shows, he chanced upon this piece of land high up in the mountain, and then he noticed many dragonflies here. And he spotted an opportunity as well as potential in this piece of land, and decided to build a 民宿 on this piece of land, and the 民宿 architecture is shaped like a dragonfly, and hence this place is called 蜻蜓石, because of the dragonfly design and the professor's surname. 

This place is really great, and is a place that I really will want to come back again, even though the drive up to this place is quite torturous. Google maps brought me to this nice house up in the mountain, but is actually not 蜻蜓石, and thank god darling spotted a sign labelled 蜻蜓石 further in front, and I followed the signs all the way for another 1.5 km. Omg. But once we reach this place, the scenery and the positive vibes coming out from this place totally made the drive worth it!

breakfast! looks good isnt it? hot porridge with sweet potatoes, carrot cake, egg, saba fish, chicken floss, some purplish green veges plucked from their garden, together with warm soya bean milk. definitely a breakfast for champions. 

thankful for this good weather because before we came to yilan, we checked the weather forecast and it said that it will be raining everyday for the whole time we are in yilan. in fact, day 1 and the morning part of day 2 was the only time we saw the sun. after that it was rain, rain and rain. this pic shows yuanze using his hand to touch the water in the pool to feel for himself how cold the water was. 

we went for a farm tour, conducted by one of their staff. he was very knowledgeable and introduced us the various fruits, plants and animals that they have in the farm. 

yuanze also had the opportunity to collect eggs at the chicken coop! its really once in a lifetime experience for him. 

we checked out at 11 am and our first destination for day 2 was Lanyang Museum. the design is nice, but we did not go in and view the exhibits (because we are not museum people LOL). so we straight away proceed to the next destination, that is called 掌上明珠, for lunch. 

掌上明珠 is a very atas restaurant, and serves omakase for lunch/dinner. for kids, they have an ala carte dish, that is fried rice. the omakase lunch course is NT1500 (SGD68). 

the words written on the table cloth is actually the menu. 10 dishes in total! omg. there is only 8 dishes in the pic because my hp camera anglen not wide enough. 

first dish: appetiser. bun with sweet potato filling, with ikura on top. and i also found out only today that yuan ze likes to eat ikura. #mindblown

that is the fried rice dish for yuanze. tastes quite good. yuanze loves the little coloured balls at the side. we asked the waitress what it is and wanted to buy for yuanze if is available in taiwan supermarkets. the waitress said is actually some sort of rice krispies and can only be found in japan supermarkets. WOWWWW. 

THIS FISH IS DA BOMB. so so so good. the whole white chunk on top is salt. 

this prawn also. omg, so so so good. 

after lunch, we went to our 2nd accomodation for this trip to check in. our 2nd accomodation is 湖漾189风格旅店. 

this 湖漾189风格旅店 is a heaven for kids. they have a big playing area indoor, as well as a big playing area outdoor. they have many electronic motor vehicles. yuanze was really so thrilled. 

as for the room, we booked the 亲子三人房. NT4800 (SGD218) per night, breakfast included. 

  

WARNING: the toilet is a bit too open. HAHAHAHA. 

one of the reasons why yuanze love this place so much. 

anyway this place is quite ulu. so in yilan, it is best that you rent a vehicle and self drive. for our dinner for both nights, i drove to nearby restaurants to da bao food back to eat. 

that's it for day 2!

Yilan Day 1

The nth time that I am going to Taiwan. This time we decided to just focus on Yilan, because we want to bring Yuan Ze to the nature places, for example animal farms and fruit farms. We want Yuan Ze to experience something that he can never get to experience in Singapore. 

converting yuan ze to become an adidas ambassador. 

at the departure gate, waiting to board our flight. i also bumped into my jc friend. didnt know she was here until she sent me an instagram msg, saying that she saw me. hahahaha. she is going to osaka with her family. 

reached taoyuan airport at about 12 plus in the afternoon. darling went to the nursing room for her mother duty, while i go collect the car. this time we decided to self drive, because yilan is quite inaccessible in terms of public transport and hiring a personal driver is more expensive.

so off we go to our first destination, that is our 民宿 called 蜻蜓石. it cost NT7800 (SGD354) per night on their website. but they only allow pple to book on their website 3 weeks in advance. but on airbnb, i can book it 1 month in advance. being the kiasu singaporean, in case the rooms run out, i book on airbnb first. book on airbnb has its cons as well, because got hidden fees such as the airbnb service fee and cleaning fee. hence next time if i want to book, i will book on their own website. high chance will be able to get a room, as long as you dun book on saturday nights, and avoid their summer vacation (that is around july august period). anyway i booked the cheapest room that is on level one, where you can see the pool. the rooms on level 2 can see the yilan scenery and of course more expensive. 

the drive to 蜻蜓石 was stressful, because it is left hand drive in taiwan. the last time i did left hand drive was 5 years ago, with brotherhood. and i didnt sleep much the previous night, so i was quite tired. but thank goodness, we reached 蜻蜓石 safe and sound, and we are blessed with good weather! 

蜻蜓石 also provides afternoon tea, dinner and breakfast for their guests. so for that amount of money, i think is quite worth it. the dinner is omakase style! as for yuanze, they prepared steamed egg, braised pork rice, a bowl of soup and fruits. that was more than enough for yuanze. 

the appetiser palette. 

the chicken was so good. from their own farm. so tender, so juicy. 

their version of goreng pisang. 

dessert. 

there were other dishes as well, for eg the sashimi platter and the soup dish. both dishes were so so so so good that we forgot to take pics. the dishes above were very good as well. 

stay tuned for Day 2!

11.11

it has come to the point that my birthday, 11 Nov, is closely related to Shopping Day. this year alot of birthday wishes come in "Happy Birthday and Happy Shopping!!" along that line. hahahahaha. 

for me, the birthday celebration kicked off at my sister's newly renovated condo. she ordered hai di lao to her house. she chose the cheapest package, that is $260.00. and then we ownself buy more ingredients from the supermarket. damn shiok to eat hai di lao steamboat in the comfort of our own home. 

the next day, darling and i brought yuanze and enxuan to ArtScience Museum for the Walt Disney Exhibition. Thank you darling for the tickets. :)

the best part of the exhibition for me is the theatre that shows video clips of the mulan movie, and then prompt us on what instruments to use for sound effects. enxuan enjoyed it alot and spent quite some time there. :D

thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! 

Teacher's Day 2019

The celebrations for Teacher's Day 2019 kicked off with our ACES Day dance. Simply amazing to see 1200 students and teachers dance together in the parade square. 

Next is the class party, organised by my form class. To be honest, I was not expecting much, but when I stepped into the classroom, I was amazed by the amount of effort they had put in. They exceeded my expectations. :)

Lastly is Staff Appreciation Dinner. This year the dinner is held at Lakehouse @ ORTO. The theme is Avengers. I am a huge fan of Avengers and of course I was super thrilled when this theme was approved by the P. I was still thinking of what to dress up as, then as I was scrolling through my instagram feed, I saw that my friend, Kenny Seong, who also happen to stay near me, posted a photo of the Mjolnir (Thor's hammer). So I asked him does it belong to him, and yes it belongs to him, and I ask him if I can borrow it from him, and he agreed to it. So yayyyyyyyy, my next step is to search for a Thor costume, and I managed to find one from Miio Costume!

This year, I was the emcee for the Staff Appreciation Dinner, together with our in-house emcee Nuriah. So happy to finally get the chance to partner with her! And her effort in dressing as Incredible Hulk is 100%!

It was a day filled with fun, love and laughter. Thank you to my students for the gifts and cards, thank you to my colleagues for the gifts, and Happy Teacher's Day to all my fellow teachers!

Tan Yuan Yi 陈源毅

i am very happy to announce that our 2nd son, Tan Yuan Yi, arrived safely on 21/7/19. 

this date is very special, for some reasons:
1) 21/7/19 is the day of 观音诞

2) 21 is my FIL's lucky number

3) 7 x 3 = 21 (a bit no link but nvm)

so actually darling's edd was supposed to be on 27 July. on 16 july (tue), she visited her obstetrician, dr john tee, at KKH. dr john tee said that the baby's weight is now 2.8 kg, it is better for the baby to be delivered by this weekend, because if wait until 27 july, if baby is heavier than 3 kg, darling may not be able to push the baby out due to her petite frame. so dr tee advised darling to go for induce on saturday (20 july), and he will reach KKH on sunday (21 july) at 5 am to deliver the baby. 

on saturday (20 july), we checked in at KKH Delivery Suite at 4 pm. then we went to ward 32 for darling to be induced. the medication was inserted at 605 pm. normally the first medication will not have much effect. when darling had yuanze, she only started to have contractions after the second dose of medication. but this time, after the first medication, she started to have contractions, after about 15 min. the nurse checked darling's dilation, 2.5 cm, decided to send her down to delivery suite to get ready. 

so here's the chain of events:

605 pm: induction (first dosage)
620 pm: dilation 2.5 cm
630 pm: send down to delivery suite
830 pm: dilation 4 cm
840 pm: administer epidural
1020 pm: dilation 5 cm
0025: water bag burst already. senior nurse call dr john tee to come down to KKH. senior nurse started to ask darling to push.
0035: dr tee arrived at delivery suite. with a just woke up face. his first sentence to darling was: wahhhhhh you so fast ah? 

dr tee started, together with the help of the senior nurse, and TAAAA DAAAAAA, Tan Yuan Yi arrived in this world. 

when darling had yuanze, the first obstetrician was dr ck khoo. 

as an observer, and having the honour to observe two great obstetricians doing their job, i must say, dr tee and dr khoo are very very very different. 

dr khoo is like the more hip and modern obstetrician. once yuanze is out, invited me to cut the umbilical cord. instructed me to take photo of yuanze on the weighing scale, while he collect the cord blood and remove the placenta, then proceeded on to stitch darling up. and he stitched her like damn fast. swift and decisive. then instructed the nurse to take a group photo of me, darling, yuanze, nuscd xinyi and dr khoo himself.

dr tee, is very calm and steady, very assuring. during yuanyi's delivery, there was a slight complication. darling's vaginal wall is blocking yuan yi's head from coming out. so he asked me to go to the front, showed it to me, explained to me, then said he is going to use a pair of forceps to push away the vaginal wall, and when yuan yi's head come out, will have the forcep marks on his face, but ask us not to worry, the marks will go away in 2 weeks. and need to let yuan yi come out fast, because yuan yi's heartbeat is dropping. and so he proceeded, and within the next few seconds, yuan yi is out already. OMG. dr tee is really damn calm and steady. and right after that, he cut the cord himself (tbh i was getting ready to cut because i thought he will also ask me to cut HAHAHAHAHA), and then collected the cord blood, remove the placenta, and stitch darling up. he is totally not into this photograph nonsense. he spent a much longer time in stitching darling up. darling felt that there is a difference in her stitched wound. i guess dr tee is more meticulous in the stitching, and because he used the forceps on the vaginal wall, so probably need more time in repairing the vaginal wall. 

thank you so much dr tee, and all the nurses in helping with darling's delivery, attending to her needs after she delivered, and looking after yuan yi so that she can have more rest. 

it's really a surreal experience, to welcome a newborn for the 2nd time, to our family. 

well done darling. love you so so much. looking forward to quality family moments with you, yuan ze and yuan yi. 

Admirals' Run 2019

this deserves a post, because we actually get to organise our Admirals' Run, at Singapore Sports Hub. it is really no joke, from woodlands come all the way to kallang. alot of effort has been put in the planning. just for the recce, i came here a total of 4 times. 

all ready to start the race! my duty on that day was to set-up the running route, deploy the route marshallers along the route, being the Starter of the run, as well as being the rear scout.

giving a briefing, before starting everyone off. 

such a scenic place to run, isnt it?

yes we did it! the awesome PE dept, great teamwork in making this event a success!

Happy birthday Darling~

the birthday feast. we ordered roast chicken from kemono (our first time trying it). their signature roast chicken is the organic chicken, which they claim that the chickens listen to music when being reared. there are 2 roast chicken in the pic. the blacker one is the organic chicken, and the fairer one is the normal chicken. we deliberately bought both so we can try the difference. at first it taste about the same, but towards the end the organic chicken taste much better, being more tender and juicier. just like running 2.4 km, the first 100 m you cant tell the difference between 2 runners, but at the end you can tell the difference. (good analogy isnt it?)

hee hee so cheeky the packaging. guess what is this?

taaa daaaaaaa!!! put on these gloves and tear the chicken apart. 

ordered this bouquet of flowers for darling, from floralisonstudio. Floralisonstudio is opened by my ex colleague, from my previous workplace. she has resigned, to fully concentrate on her floral business. i did ask her whether is she happier. she said that the pay that she gets monthly is not as good as teaching, but she is definitely much happier. 

darling's birthday cake. 6 for 48 dollars. 1 eclair for 8 dollars. price is steep, but the eclairs are really good. if you have the entertainer app, can get 1 for 1. 

happy family of 3. come july, it will be a happy family of 4. :)