this taiwan trip is only 5 days 4 nights. i agree it is a bit short. especially when we are all discussing the itinerary, it seems a bit too packed, and darling's sister commented that we seem to be going there to eat, and not to tour. hahahahaha. the thing is we are travelling with two young kids, and we really do not know what to expect, and we are afraid that they may fall sick, so to play safe, i think 4 nights is just nice.
of course at taiwan, my number 1 place to stay at is ximending. very convenient location, no worries in getting food, all the shopping can be done here.
and then darling commented that the 2 young kids may be bored, because shopping doesnt entice them. why not stay at a min su where there are big vast areas for them to run around. i totally agree with her so i start researching for a good min su.
i chance upon this dearbnb website, whereby it introduces all the different min su in the different areas of taiwan. and i must say that the min su that they introduce are all very nice, and of course very pricey.
after doing much research, and weighing all the possibilities, i decided to go with this min su, 幸福山行 at 平溪. 平溪 is located at the outskirt of taipei city. from taoyuan airport to 平溪 is about one hour fifteen minutes ride. and then on the next day when we check out, the journey from 平溪 to ximending is about 45 minutes. and this 幸福山行 has a big green field for yuanze and xuanxuan to run about. it also keeps animals, such as a tortoise, a wild boar, a dog and even a blue bird. and the room is super nice.
we book the 8 pax room, known as the 蓝鹊山房. sunday to thursday, each night cost NT10300. fri and saturday, eve of public holiday and public holiday, each night cost NT11800. cny period and special event period (eg 平溪天灯节) cost NT15800. NT10300 is equivalent to 464 sgd.
this 8 pax room consists of a living room, and 3 bedrooms. bedroom 1 is like a master bedroom, with a tv and a washroom. bedroom 2 also has a washroom. bedroom 3 is the smallest room, with 2 big mattresses that can sleep 4 people. and the living room itself also has a washroom. hence is not too bad for 8 pax to share 3 washrooms. i remember in 2014 when we went to stay at a hk airbnb, it was 5 pax having to share 1 washroom. a bit nightmare. hahahahaha. ok let the pictures do the talking!
the glasshouse that we are staying at. we staying at the first floor. second floor consist of other rooms. you can book the whole glasshouse. for the rates, please check their official website. i lazy to write here.
this is the entrance to their reception/check-in counter.
the living room. also got a tatami area for people to sit there and drink tea. darling said she can imagine her parents sitting there drinking tea, while watching yuanze and enxuan run around at the field outside. hahahaha.
this is bedroom 1, the master bedroom. also have a tatami sitting area.
their washrooms got a bath tub. even the toilet bowl is the japan version one. which means got the bidet to wash your backside after you shit, and also warm toilet seat so that your backside wont freeze.
the washroom at the living room.
the small bedroom for 4 pax.
a playground in the eating area. how amazing is that. the down side to this is that enxuan and yuanze wants to play here before they have their meals. anyway i also want to add that all the carpentry here was done by the owner of the min su. not just this playground. the swing, the rocking horse, all the carpentry in the glass house, all done by him. so crazily talented.
our dinner. very filling. each dinner set cost NT380. equivalent to 17.10 sgd. each dinner set consists of a main dish, a bowl of rice, a bowl of organic vegetables, a roasted pumpkin that is really very yummy and sweet, a small dish of salad that is made of some 瓜 and salted egg, and a bowl of soup. and also comes with a drink. for the main dish, you can choose from a saba (mackarel), deep fried chicken cutlet with their signature spicy sauce (my FIL loves this sauce alot and requested for extra sauce), bbq chicken cutlet, and cherry duck breast (i personally think the cherry duck breast is the best dish among the rest). the drink you choose coffee, milk tea or soyabean milk. and i ask the owner whether can prepare meesua for yuanze and enxuan, and he agreed. then when i ask him how much does the meesua cost, he said it is FOC. so nice of him. that is taiwan hospitality!
the next morning. i really like staying at one big house with everyone. enxuan likes it too. it was drizzling at that time. both of them were waiting for the drizzle to stop so they can go out and play. i wanted to have a morning jog too but the drizzle forbidded me from doing so. :(
even though got drizzle, both of them still very happy. :)
this is their hand drip coffee, served to us for breakfast, as well as for dinner. it is very nice!
their breakfast! very western. not the local taiwan breakfast that you are expecting. consist of a plate of fruits (pineapple, apple, lychee, water melon), a yogurt, and a panini sandwich that has egg, cheese, pork cutlet and peanut butter. really very filling. oh yah the pineapple and lychee was the best that i have ever eaten in my entire life. so nice until my FIL ask the owner where he got the pineapple from, and so nice until my MIL ate 9 lychees.
ta daaa this is the owner of the min su. 吴先生. thank you so much for the great hospitality.
oh yes he also got sell 天灯 that cost NT150.
will i come back again to stay? of course i will. i love this place.
and yes, it finally happened.
we went to taiwan from 10 june to 14 june. a total of 7 adults and 2 kids.
a few months before the trip, my MIL warned us not to say anything about the trip in front of the 2 kids, especially when we are going, because she has heard horror stories of parents getting very excited about overseas trips and keep mentioning it in front of their children, then sway sway on the day of the trip, the child falls ill and the trip was cancelled.
so we were all very careful. as the day start counting down slowly to the trip, i keep praying and praying. pray that both enxuan and yuanze will be in good health.
and thank goodness, 10 june came, and off we went to the changi airport terminal 3 to take our flight to taiwan!
yuanze's first trip overseas. anyway the minnie mouse luggage doesnt belong to him. it belongs to enxuan.
we took china airlines to taiwan. china airlines ironically is not from china, it is actually taiwan's national airline. i booked the tickets in december 2017, at 560 dollars per ticket. it was actually a bit more expensive as compared to the air ticket in 2016, which cost 545 dollars. i have actually been monitoring the price since november 2017, and it started off at 600+ dollars. then when it finally came down to 560, i decided to purchase it already, after permission given by darling and her family.
and then when darling's sister bought her air tickets in march 2018, it was at 500 dollars. omg damn heart pain. but then from april onwards, the price soar up to 1000 dollars. ok that made me feel a bit happier.
at china airlines, once you secured the air tickets, you can go to the website to select your seats. when i went to taiwan in 2016 with darling, i only discovered this 2 weeks before the trip. so by the time when i book my seats, we were only left with seats way at the back of the aircraft.
so this time round, i can choose the seats 6 months before the trip, and i chose very good seats that is in the middle of the aircraft, with alot of leg space, and even have room to put a baby bassinet, although yuanze is too tall for that bassinet.
for this trip, i am very thankful for darling's family, because they all help to look after yuanze. i even have a few precious hours on my own to shop around ximending, and i am very thankful for that. hence for couples who want to go on holiday with your little one, bring your parents along too, not only you can bring them for holiday and make them happy, and they can also help to take care or entertain your child. :)
ok that's it for the first post of taiwan trip, more updates coming up!
the wushu national school games started on 28 march (tue), and ended on 6 apr (fri).
the whole competition was held over 8 days, the first 6 days was at chung cheng high main, my alma mater, and the final 2 days was at toa payoh sports hall.
out of this 8 days, i bring students out for 6 days. although i do not need to teach, but still, it is mentally tiring and energy draining to bring students out for competition.
the last time i brought students for wushu competition was in 2011, when i was still a wushu teacher in-charge. as you all know, from 2012 to 2017, i was in performing arts.
after a 7 year hiatus from the wushu scene, i am finally back again.
i am really happy to go back to my alma mater again after so long, eating the canteen food.
i feel really happy to see my sec sch and jc wushu coaches.
wushu has changed so much ever since i joined the cca as a student. during my time, we wear polo tees with wushu pants. or if we have more budget, we wear track suits. now, everybody wears wushu costumes. the schools with more budget wear costumes with outlandish designs. the schools with lesser budget wear normal plain costumes.
as i was sitting on the spectator stand yesterday, watching my juniors competing in the group events, i was tearing, because all the memories came back. last time we train on concrete ground. under the hot sun. now times have changed. they train indoors, on proper wushu carpets.
the singapore wushu scene is really evolving. for the better.
this year is my first year as the wushu teacher in charge of my sch wushu team. i learnt alot of things.
next year i will prepare my students even better for the wushu national school games.
mark my words, i give myself 4 years to make admiralty secondary school wushu team a household name, if not in singapore, at least in the north.
happy birthday darling~
this year i bought a bouquet of flowers for her birthday present. bought it from an ex colleague, who have quit teaching to become a full time florist. she will go to her flower supplier on the day itself to select the freshest and most beautiful flowers to make it into a bouquet. and comes with free delivery.
you can just tell her what you want or what you dun want and she will customise it for you. so i told her no tulips because last year i bought tulips for darling.
darling, thank you for coming into my life. i cannot imagine how my life will be without you. love you always~
10 weeks have passed! it is the end of term 1!
anyway last saturday was speech day, and i was in charge of the performance aspect (as always, what's new). one thing i like about this workplace is that performing arts is not the niche, and so the staff may not expect too much in terms of standard of the performance. but still as a performer myself, i do expect the best from my student performers, and honestly speaking, that day's performance from both the dance club and wushu was bad. really bad. bad until i refuse to speak to my wushu students after their performance.
my last year's form class students came back to receive awards for getting good results for their o levels. on the extreme left is ziyuan, the top student, now in hwa chong jc. probably she is the only one in the history of the workplace who made it to hwa chong? the next person is ee qing, now in national jc. followed by kellie, now in anderson serangoon jc (due to the merger). next one is qing hui, the only one who chose poly. she is studying vetinary related course at temasek poly. and last but not least, the only male power, tra bibi, who is from cambodia, now studying in anglo chinese jc, and he also got Admiral Of The Year, because of his good results and also his outstanding leadership in the band. out of this 5, there are 3 foreign talents (ziyuan, ee qing and bibi) and 2 locals. congrats everyone!!
jia xing, my dance president from last year. we can relate well with each other and she always share her problems with me, be it friendship, dance cca problems, syf problems, etc etc. it is important for a teacher in charge to have chemistry with the cca president, and i am glad that over so many years as a cca teacher in charge, there are a few students that i have good chemistry with, for example rachel and chauli from show choir, shermin, audrey and estel from chinese dance.
taaa daaaa, drum roll for ms cheris tan! the world is really very small. i know her husband when he was a camp instructor during my days at the previous workplace. i will meet him once every year, during May because we will hold level camps during the last week of term 2. later on he became a pe teacher, and then i went to the current workplace, and when i first spoke to ms cheris tan at the current workplace, she told me she already knew of my existence. hahahahaha. we got along very well with each other and i am really amazed how our paths cross with each other.
next week is the march hols but i still have to go back on mon and tue for remedial, as well as go back on fri for a mock wushu competition that i am hosting.
nevertheless i am glad to have a break on wednesday and thursday.
next term will be a busy term because of the upcoming wushu competition, and i am also the overall in charge for the admirals' run, which will be on 13 april.
looking forward to the june hols because i can go to taiwan with my family!!
this year's cny eve falls on 15 february, which is also the day where we commemorate Total Defence Day. so the cny concert for this year is combined with TDD elements, a 2-in-1 package.
anyway this year is also my first year leading the wushu cca in preparing for the cny concert. after much scolding and much training, they did really well for the actual performance. i am very proud of them.
specially travelled to tiong bahru to borrow this costume from xuehong. thank you xuehong for agreeing to lend it to me and thank you nzj for staying at home just to pass me the costume. :)
the face paint was done by me. heeheehee.
applause applause. great job everyone!
of course must take pic with the pe dept.
after school i went back home to do more spring cleaning.
and then was reunion dinner round 1 at my inlaws house. my MIL prepared this really delicious 盆菜, consisting of ingredients like scallops, asparagus, prawns, fish maw, mushrooms, etc etc. so damn good.
round 2 was back at tanah merah, which was steamboat. it was great to see my relatives again. i really see them once a year which is during reunion dinner so i really treasure this occasion.
this year's v day was a day before cny eve.
last year i remembered getting a balloon in a box as a v day present for darling.
this year i did keep a look out for v day presents. and they were either overpriced, or not suitable. so i just tell darling that i was not able to get a v day present for her. she told me she also never get anything for me and we should save up the money and buy things for yuanze. yes i also agree! so thankful to have darling who is such an understanding wife. :)
and then a few hours later, darling sent me a post from sgag, which is a meme on how couples spend their v day, from the par tor era to the bf gf era to the married husband and wife era. hahahahahahaha.
the o levels results release was on 12 jan.
for the whole of last year, me and my partner FT keep motivating the class and setting high expectations for them.
they did not disappoint us. they got 100% pass in chemistry (i was their chemistry teacher) and for physics (my partner FT was their physics teacher) there was only one failure and the rest passed.
100% pass in chemistry is a very good result. and their overall results for chemistry was better than the previous cohort. i was really really very happy.
i joined the school in jan 2016. and then in May 2016 their chemistry teacher resigned. and so my science HOD decided to put me as their chemistry teacher at the second half of the year when they were in sec 3.
and so in 2017 i followed up with them as their chemistry teacher in sec 4, and i also became their form teacher.
my science HOD, who is also a chemistry teacher, spoke to me alot about the class, and also how to improve their results. he really stretch me to the limit such that i always keep asking myself how to let them enjoy learning chemistry and also will score better once they love the subject.
during the second half of 2017, my science HOD discussed with me on the option of splitting the class. i support this idea. so we sit down together, analyse their psle score, their psle science grade, and the chemistry results that they have been achieving in sec 4. and so it was decided that my HOD will take the elite group (which is 15 students) and i will take the rest (which is 24 students). his job is to make sure that this 15 students will get their A1s and A2s and for my group, my job is to value add their chemistry grade and also push the failures from a D7, E8, F9 to a pass.
to be honest, both of us really work very hard. we give them weekly tests. we give them the test on monday, mark them and give them back on wednesday. we let them do numerous past year papers from other schools and do TYS. we mark their essay questions and write feedback for them, and return to them within 3 days.
the last time i taught pure chem was in 2011, and really, my SH Chemistry at that time never ever sit down with me and discuss all these strategies. last year i really grow alot as a chemistry teacher, thanks to the guidance and support from my science HOD.
and so, on the results release day, my science HOD came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and spoke to me softly:"they did not disappoint us. 100% pass in chemistry."
omg when i heard the news from him i was really on the verge of tearing. tearing with happiness of course.
i had 4 students, from sec 3 EOY all the way until sec 4 prelim, who keep failing their chemistry. for the o levels, 2 of them scored C6, 1 of them scored C5 and 1 scored B4. the student who scored B4 really surprised me.
and from my group, majority scored B3 (they were all in the C5 and C6 region), and i am so happy that 2 from my group scored A2. i had done my job in securing the 100% pass, as well as value adding for the students.
can you spot me standing? i was standing up and clenching my fists in happiness when the principal announced that pure chemistry got 100% pass and my form class was clapping their hands and cheering. :)
i am really thankful to my students for working so hard. thankful to my science HOD for trusting me to teach chemistry to the top express class. and of course the school management for choosing me to be their form teacher when they are in sec 4. thank you 4E1 2017. i will always remember all of you.
happy 2018 to all my readers!
tomorrow is the first day of school, and i really have this feeling of dread. it is no joke when you have 1 month of holiday, getting to spend precious family time with yuanze and darling everyday, and the next day you are back to work. i am so going to have withdrawal symptoms, no matter how strong or how positive i am.
2018 will be going to be a big change at my workplace. a VP is leaving, which is a pity, because i always look up to him for being so inspirational and so charismatic. he has the ability to turn a meeting room with 80 sian ji bua teachers into 80 happy and not that sian ji bua anymore teachers. that is the ability that he has.
my own HOD is also leaving, which is also a pity. she has been a big sister to all the teachers, guiding them and giving them support. the school will definitely miss her.
the ict HOD and the lower sec year head will also be leaving. some teachers are also leaving. this is the biggest turnover rate i have ever experienced.
this year i will be the form teacher of a sec 4 normal academic class. i will still be the wushu teacher in charge. and i am still inside the discipline comm (OMG I REALLY CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I AM IN DISCIPLINE FOR THE 3RD YEAR RUNNING).
and i have also just volunteered to be the chief presiding examiner again for o levels 2018. it is really a good avenue to earn milk powder money.
this year i want to be a wonderful father, wonderful husband, wonderful son, wonderful son in-law, wonderful eldest brother, wonderful friend, wonderful colleague as well as a wonderful teacher.
i wish everyone to have a wonderful 2018!
yessssss i am going taiwan again next year during the june hols! already bought the air tickets. flying by china airlines again, which is taiwan's national carrier.
going with darling, yuanze, darling's parents and darling's meimei. xuanxuan's family still TBC because it all depends on her dad's schedule and can only wait until after CNY then can confirm. i really hope they can go. it will be an epic trip!
i am going to list down my wish list for food once we are there!
西門町新開的馬辣頂級麻辣鴛鴦火鍋(漢口店)！
美好年代(西門店)！隱藏在電影主題公園內的復古餐廳！
西門町超頂級燒烤吃到飽-上禾町燒肉吃到飽！和牛、帝王蟹、烏魚子、三點蟹、鮑魚、天使紅蝦通通吃到飽！還有壽喜燒跟火鍋，啤酒無限暢飲！
