Shopping was awesome, with all the sales around. HAHA. Yufan & I plan to limit our shopping expenses in February, and just concentrate on eating at the places we've mentioned before. And eat at cheaper places, or else we'll be really broke. So, no more Double Bay! :( I hate tiny fitting rooms, one should at least be able to stretch out the elbows!
I've needed a proper bag since a year ago. Whoopee. Failed to find a bag I like despite hundreds of excursions. Heh. I'm too picky. =/
Australia was enjoyable, though a little draggy.
Somewhere over the rainbow.
Red Cliff 2 surprised me, in a good way. Haha.
Changeling was touching...
Inkheart was quite nice too.
I want to watch Rachel Getting Married, Ponyo, Slumdog, Valkyrie, Marley. Why are there SO many movies with Nazi themes or influences or stories coming up??
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We've received the disc of photos from the Allied Health event! My laptop can't read it, so I grabbed the photos off Facebook. (Lousy quality!)
The team :)
__________________________________Now to do something I've been procrastinating... The Taiwan pictures! :) It's a beautiful country, both the rural & urban areas. We had a fantastic vacation there - shopping, eating, walking (lots!!!)... Again, some of the photos were grabbed from FB.
After we reached Taiwan, we visited a strawberry farm, where we picked strawberries! :) They were super sweet, juicy & quite addictive. Haha. We then proceeded to our hotel - Onsen Papawaqa. Our rooms were awesome. Thank you, YNJJ!! Our dinner was delicious, with a DIY barbeque too. Yum yum.
Sadly, we only stayed at Onsen Papawaqa for a night. =(( The next day, we went to an "old street", where we got our first whiff of smelly tofu. :X We also played around with clay at a pottery place.
Then, we went to see a waterfall. (I'm so sleepy... Heh.)
Day 3: the Red Bridge! The spot where we did countless jump shots & revealed tummies. Haha.
We visited Cingshui Cliffs (Clearwater Cliifs?) next. The vast view of the sea made me feel really, really small & insignificant. The water had variations of blue, I found it much prettier than Singapore's murky sea. It was quite peaceful until more buses arrived & the packs of tourists swarmed the area.
It seemed that the 3rd day was a day of walking. To increase our energy, we had lunch at a traditional restaurant, which served frog's stomach. =/ Ugh. I got force-fed a few pieces of it...! Other than that, the dishes were normal & tasted good. So, we went to walk a mountain trail. The river water had dual colours; turquoise & a leafy, yellowish green. :)
We could go right down to the river banks! It was a Geography moment there, due to all the large rocks ("Upper course with a very small gradient"). The water was very clear & cool, and there were tadpoles swimming in the quieter spots.
We walked, walked and walked to see the swallow caves. I think they were swallow caves? Haha... Some parts were pitch black, so Ning & I held hands while running through those sections. Sisters love! :) There was also a temple built for the 100+ or 200+ workers who died while constructing the highway that led to the mountains. Unfortunately, chimneys (aka smoking tourists) spoilt the visit.
Day Four! We had a blast pedaling little boats around a lake. This was also the day my camera became Out of Action. Sobs. Anyway, the boat pedaling might look easy but it kills the legs after awhile. Haha. It's like 2.4km, without the stitches.
Lunch at another somewhat traditional restaurant included chicken that tasted weird. I still remember this tiny detail. Heh. We visited a musuem (and I really need to start noting down the names of places, because I've forgotten the name again). Had green tea ice cream, Azabu Sabo's is way better. :) That night, we went to a small shop where we had yummy gravy rice & a veggie soup which was so, so good... Haha.
Fifth Day. Went up some mountains! The area was the set location of a 2006 Taiwanese drama, Corner with Love (I think), starring Show Luo. :D My sis told me about him at the start of the trip. He's cute! Hahaha. It was quite cold, if I remember correctly. We had hotpot at a cosy restaurant, then some of us sat down to have tea at the shop next door. Their oolong tea & pu'er tea were fragrant. At least, I think it was those two teas...
Next, mushroom rocks area! Haha. They're part of a protected site, because of the continual erosion from the waves & weathering (Geography, heh). It was freeeeeezing cold due to the strong blasts of wind! The sun was setting, so temperatures dropped too.
Day 6 - back to the urban area! Ning & I didn't get a... good room. :(( Turned out to be nothing in the end, but it's still unsettling. Sorry for the inconvenience! We lunched at Din Tai Fung, which means one thing... Xiao long baos!!! I feel that the XLBs at Nanxiang, Shanghai tasted better than the Taiwan DTF's. Mmmm. We also went to the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, where we could see Taipei 101.
The 7th day was Christmas! The Babes made preparations for gift exchange and we even shipped a miniscule Christmas tree over in the luggage! Decorations consisted of Spongebob, Rhino the hamster from Bolt, Jiahui's keychain & ribbons. Haha. It was fun seeing who was whose Santa. :D We also brought moose hairbands to wear, which we did, even in Xi Men Ding. Haha. We travelled to Maokong for lunch, and some sight-seeing.
I think we went to Wulai on Day 8. Hmm. Their boiled corn & sausages are delicious! At our arrival spot there was a river with both hot and cold flow, how cool is that? :D The locals were cooking the eggs in the water while they soaked in it. Hahaha. That night, we had dinner at a sushi chain, and Yong polished off a pile of sushi... :)
On the 2nd last day of the trip, we trooped down to Danshui early in the morning. It was an unusually warm day, we overheard a tourguide saying. They had their own Fisherman's Wharf which slightly resembled Sydney's. It got really packed as the day progressed, or to sum it up, people mountain people sea. Haha!
Last day of the trip arrived too soon. :( Ning & I met up with Eehern, had a great time laughing & catching up! Ning was devastated to learn we walked past Aaron Yan's band autograph signing at Xi Men Ding. Lunch at a sushi restaurant was delicious. The sushi was served on a moving miniature train! Heh.
__________________________________Like the previous year (& the previous gatherings), we went to Yufan's house for the countdown. :D Theme - Act Cool. Haha. We were supposed to wear a tie & shades for the party. Had a blast playing Guitar Hero, Rayman & taking 'act cool' pictures. Haha. Kudos to YF for all the hard work she did, especially the handmade memory books she made for each person!
__________________________________The HR colleagues & I went to CQ for dinner & drinks. Haha. It was to celebrate Huifang's birthday, and Tricia's "fake" birthday! It was a night of laughter & the even/odd drinking game we played at Lunar.
__________________________________Also from weeks ago, the AFK Sushi Mafia gathering! :) Dinner at Aston's annoyed us because of a guy-loving (seriously!!) waitress. Everyone did a lot of catching up, as Adlin gee-eff was back from Australia too!
__________________________________The guitar girls went to Double Bay, a rather new Australian bar at Raffles City, for dinner. The food was above average in terms of quality & quantity, but the prices were slightly ex... :( Amantha led us to Jitterbugs, where we persuaded her to dance for us! =p Hahaha.
__________________________________Recently, we've been bringing our guitars to the office to practice once a week. Hahaha. It's actually relaxing & enjoyable... :)
__________________________________The parents just stormed into the room, half-shouted the same sentence at us for 5 minutes & switched off both the room light & modem. -___- Okay. Must remember the Determination tablet. Har har. It is at a time like this when I wonder why I even bother trying.
Happy Lunar New Year? *fingers crossed*
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