Wow! It has been a really long time since I last blog. Well, I'm really busy since I started working again, and I really missed the time I stay at home with the kids.

After my business trip to Korea, I finally managed to find time to take a day off from work during this March holiday to bring the kids out and do something together with them.

During one of our grocery shopping early this year, I saw this gingerbread man mix/kit. I always wanted to make gingerbread man together with the kids so I bought the kit and we started making the cookie yesterday.


Gingerbread Man cookie kit.


The kids helping out with kneading the dough.


Little helpers helping to roll out the dough.


Cutting out and decorating the cookie.


Finally, freshly baked gingerbead man and gingerbread kitty.

The children really enjoyed making the gingerbead cookies and of course they also enjoyed eating them.

Posted by bb2005 :: 8:23 AM :: 0 Comments:
Post / Read Comments

Bought this packet of Curry Crab sauce during one of our trips to Kwong Cheong Thye Soya Sauce factory. I used prawn instead of crab cos' I damn scare of handling live crab and seriously, I dare not and don't know how to kill one.



The taste of the final product... I like it!!! It smelled like Assam Prawn and it taste good and spicy. Can't really tell if it is curry and it doesn't look and taste like the regular curry we usually eat.

I also bought a packet of Chilli Crab sauce too but I've yet to cook it because I cannot decide what should I use to replace the crab. I was thinking of crayfish. Anybody has any better suggestion?

Posted by bb2005 :: 8:14 PM :: 2 Comments:
Post / Read Comments

Universal Studios Singapore was opened for preview from 14 Feb 2010 to 21 Feb 2010. Thanks to Gavin's classmate Bryan's mommy, we were able to go for the preview.

Each preview ticket was priced at $10 (inclusive of 1 combo meal worth $10). Although no ride or show will be available but it is still worth it for a sneak preview of the park before the official opening.


On our way to RWS. Can you see the castle?

We were early at RWS, so we took the opportunity to roam around RWS.



Although no ride and show but it was still an enjoyable trip. The kids loved the trip very much and were already deciding which rides to take on the next trip after the park was officially open. We will definitely be back again but probably not in the near future as I anticipate that it will be really crowded once it is officially open.

Posted by bb2005 :: 12:07 PM :: 0 Comments:
Post / Read Comments

Crochetted this Hello Kitty Handbag for Jaime. It took me a while to finish as I was busy during the school holiday.

The crochet part was not too bad but when it come to sewing the pieces together, it was terrible cos' my needle work is horrible, I can't sew very well, I need to work hard on this.

Initially I planned to make another piece for my niece, Gabby. But guess with my 见不得人的 sewing skill, I'll crochet another piece that does not required much sewing :p

Posted by bb2005 :: 10:53 AM :: 0 Comments:
Post / Read Comments

Day 1 - 10/12/2009

After months of planning, finally, we were going off for a vacation in Taipei. We boarded our flight on China Airlines, which took off at around 10:25 and arrived at Taipei Taoyuan Airport at around 15:00. I've arranged with the hotel to pick us up at the airport and we reached our hotel in Ximengding at around 16:30 which was much earlier than I've expected.

After settling down, we went off for our dinner at a small Japanese restaurant at Yanji St, which is near my previous company Taipei office. I like the sushi there as they make it only when you order it and it is cheap and fresh. Although small, they are quite accomodating. My MIL was supposed to be on a vegetarian diet, so they fried a plate of vegetarian fried rice for her. In fact most of the restaurant in Taipei are very nice as they will make the dish "vegetarian" upon request.


Here's the Japanese restaurant where we had our dinner.
This was my 3rd time there.

After dinner, we took a cab to Tonghua Street Nightmarket. We bought and ate lots of snack from Taiwan Sausages, Fried Sweet Potato Ball, mini Burger to 釣鐘燒. Everybody loves the food. We were all tired after all the travelling so we called it a day and went back to the hotel.


Day 2 - 11/12/2009

Today, according to our plan we were supposed to go to Leofoo Village Theme Park but after checking with some friends and the driver that picked us up from the airport, we decided to cancel our trip as there are minimal rides for young kids with high entrance fee, so it is not worth the trip. We changed our plan and headed for Taipei Zoo instead.

After a simple breakfast at the hotel, we took the subway (MRT) to the zoo.


Taking the MRT to the zoo.



There was not much at the zoo. We took a train ride but we ended up did not get to see any animals on the train (very different from the zoo we have here), and the kids started to grumble so we left the zoo shortly.

After the zoo, we planned to go to a public farm in Maokong. It was a farm featured in the tourist booklet. We tried to get a cab to bring us up the mountain but in the end, we didn't find the farm as the driver was not sure of the location of the farm as Maokong is mostly famous for the tea plantations. So in the end, we went back to the MRT and headed to our next destination, i.e. Taipei 101.

We enjoyed our trip and view at Taipei 101. As the weather was good, we were allowed to go to level 88, 89 and 91. Among the three levels, level 91 is an outdoor observatory, the view there is very beautiful but very cold especially with the strong wind.


After Taipei 101, we took the MRT to Wufenpu, where it is a garment wholesale market for some of the latest Jap, Korean & Hong Kong fashion. I was thinking of getting some clothes there but (as usual) the kids were grumbling so we hurried to Raohe Nightmarket instead.


Wufenpu


Raohe Nightmarket. (Right) The famous pepper pie/cake.


Day 3 - 12/12/2009

Today, instead of eating at the hotel, we went out to find our own breakfast. As most of the shops were closed, we went to McDonald for breakfast.


We had our breakfast at this McDonald at Ximending.

After breakfast, we took the MRT to Xinbeitou for our hotspring journey.


(Left) Xinbeitou MRT Station.
(Right) Direction showing the hotspring resort and tourist attractions.


Scenery along the Zhongshan Road.


(Left) Scenery along the Zhongshan Road. (Right) Beitou Library.




At Beitou, we visited the Beitou Hotspring Museum and a private hotspring bath at a hotspring resort.


(Left) Beitou Water Park. This is a public hotspring. The charges is very cheap around NT$40 per person.
(Right) Jingtu Hotspring Resort. This is where we had our hotspring bath.

After our hotspring bath, we wanted to go to the famous Manlai Ramen for lunch but it was closed. So we ended up having lunch in a Vegetarian Restaurant next to it. It was a good choice, the dishes were very delicious.


(Left) This is the vegetarian restaurant where we had our lunch.
(Right) Sweet chicken, sweet crispy mushroom and gyoza.

After lunch, we wanted to go to Thermal Valley but it was under maintenance so we headed for our next destination: Danshui.



It was a wonderful trip at Danshui. Our timing was so good that we managed to catch the beautiful sunset. We also ate lots of nice snacks like grill squid, mini bun (taste like gyoza), 阿給, black bean touhua and DIY candy floss.


Day 4 - 13/12/2009

We did a lot of walking for the last few days and we were all exhausted. So for today's trip, we hired a cab to bring us around the less accessible places like Yehliu and Jiufen. Thanks to Jaime's childcare teacher, Teacher Pang, she recommended a good cab driver for us. Instead of bringing us to only 2 places which we suggested, he also brought us to Pingxi (Shifen), Jinguashi and some scenic places for phototaking.

Our first station were Wanlixiang and Yehliu GeoPark. Again, we had a blessed journey, the weather is very good, sunny and yet cooling. The sky and sea were so beautiful.


Wanlixiang. (Right) Look at the sky and sea, they were so beautiful. Perfect for phototaking.




After Yehliu, we headed for the well-publicise Jiufen. Since it was a sunday, this place was super crowded. We tried going to the Jiufen Old Street but it was so crowded that we had to abort the idea halfway through our journey. Well at least we had some sweet snack (though not the famous one) along the way.


After Jiufen, the driver brought us up to Jingguashi to view the beautiful Taipei. He called it Little Genting. But the fog was so thick that we couldn't see a single thing when we were up in the mountain.

Next we headed off to Pingxi Shifen. It is another scenic place but a pity that the famous waterfall is closed. We ended our country journey by lighting a lantern in Shifen Old Street up to the sky with all our wishes.



We had our dinner back in Ximending at a doggy restaurant called Ah Mao Restaurant, selling different kind of risotto, which is just infront of our hotel. The restaurant had a border collie (can't recalled his name). They also had another restaurant nearby and there's a retriever there.


(Left) Ah Mao Restaurant. (Right) The fork & spoon nicely displayed on the table.


(Left) Veggie Cream Risotto. (Right) Bacon Risotto.


(Left) Smoked Chicken Risotto. (Right) The border collie own by the restaurant.


Day 5 - 14/12/2009

After breakfast, we headed off to the long waited theme park - Window of China (小人國). We took the High Speed Train to Hsinchu and took a cab from the train station there.


Taking the High Speed Train (HSR) from Taipei to Hsinchu.




It was not very crowded at the theme park, probably it was a weekday. The park is quite small but the kids really enjoyed themselves with the rides and seeing the Doraemon display.




After 小人國 we visited the Longshan Temple. Another lucky day for us because we only managed to reach the temple at around 6pm and (by right) the temple should be closed, but the temple happened to be celebrating its 270 anniversary and it was opened :)


Longshan Temple

After the temple, we walked toward Guangzhou street, which happen to have a nightmarket there. We were hungry. We saw this braised meat rice eating house and it was not crowded, so we had our dinner there. The food served were very nice and cheap too.



After dinner, we jalan jalan along Huaxi Street Nightmarket and called it a day after grabbing some snack from the nightmarket.


Huaxi Street Nightmarket.
(Right) Look at the big Python. Huaxi Street is also famous for their snake alley.


Day 6 - 15/12/2009

Today we had an easy day. We woke up later and left the hotel around 10am to hunt for breakfast. We walked along Ximengding and found the famous Ah Zhong Noodle shop which had just opened. So we bought a bowl of noodle and a rice ball from a street hawker and sat on the bench along the street for our breakfast.


The famous Ah Zhong Noodle


(Left) The street hawker selling rice ball. They were also selling soya bean milk, pancake & etc.
(Right) Our rice ball.

After breakfast, we had a stroll/walk around Ximending and had our lunch at the Modern Toilet Restaurant.


The Red House Theatre



After lunch, we took an MRT to ZhongXiao East Road and went to Eslite Bookshop and Sogo. We ended our trip along ZhongXiao East Road by having our dinner at the Hello Kitty Sweet Cafe.



After dinner, we took the MRT to Shilin Nightmarket.


Shilin Nightmarket


Day 7 - 16/12/2009

Today is the last day of our vacation. We bought our breakfast from the 7-11 just opposite of our hotel. The 7-11 in Taiwan has always been my favourite place, they got a great variety of snack/meal you could get to fill your stomach anytime anywhere.


Here are some of the stuff I got from the 7-11 there. I like the Onigiri and bento, they are fresh
and delicious. I'm sure going to miss the 7-11.

After checking out for the hotel, we took a last stroll along Ximending and had our lunch at Tamago Ya before heading for the airport.


(Left) I like this candy store, they sell candy packed in a very unique way.
(Right) Some of the candy I bought: Band-aid choc; Condom choc, Sanitary Pad Mashmallow.

Posted by bb2005 :: 3:47 PM :: 0 Comments:
Post / Read Comments