Ice Skating 106: Back on Ice after a Long Break

We had been away for 2 weekends and that is 2 weeks without ice time. Additionally, we were struggling with ice skating before the break. I didnt dare too expect much.

On Thursday, AN and ER asked the kids for impromptu ice skating date. Popo was willing to send the kids to the rink and I was hoping that it would give Lil Shauna the much needed ice time.

Turned out, the kids really did have a lot of fun but Popo packed the old skates for her instead. She complained that her pinky toe barely has space and she had to take plenty of breaks to rest her pathetic toes.

The kids even ended off the date with ice cream!

Auntie J was all praises for Lil Shauna on ice and I was sure to convey those praises to her. Lil Shauna said that she couldn't spin on those old skates but did do a couple of jumps.

Yday, we arrived at the rink at about 11am, like usual. Lil Shauna was eager to capture her "winning shots".

The rink was so crowded; people were probably making use of the last holidays before school starts. She warmed up and I was surprised that her form appeared to be much better than before the holidays. Hehehe. It is not that she can land all the jumps; it takes time to find those jumps back after the long break but she was willing to try and worked hard on ice.

Then, it was lesson time.

We are still struggling with her sit spins. Look how pathetic she is after EVERY sit spin. So drama.

Coach Raymond said that she can now hold her sit spin for 2 or 3 revolutions (she needs 3 to be considered as accomplished a sit spin) but is unable stand up after that.

She was totally exhausted after class and complained that she had multiple spots of pins and needles. She said that her toes were practically stone toes. Haha.

We took a break and she put up a good fight in not going back to the ice. Of course she didn't win and went back after the ice surfacing for 15 mins. Haha. Come on, I provided a chocolate snack for break and she must earn her chocolate. For those 15 mins, she was forced out of her comfort zone to skate faster and theno the usual jumps. She needed speed if she wants to do well in competition and she needed to have the confidence, to cross the fear barrier. I dont think she can't skate faster but she doesn't want to for a fear of falling. She really needed to break that.

Overall, it was a good session and much better than I had expected. Hehe. I am actually very excited that her form is back.

We came back to the ice before off ice this afternoon. Her form is still here. Hehehe. She was pushed very hard to go fast and do her jumps. At one point, she freaked out and wanted to give up. We stopped to do spins instead and I was glad that Lil Shauna didn't gave up trying altogether like how she would on days that she wasn't on form.

We still didn't nail her sit spin but she did a few very nice scratch spins. The last 15 mins was spent on jumping at faster speed and I think we are very close. She needs to get used to the speed and get comfortable with it.

I gave her a lot of affirmations to let her know that I could see her hard work and effort. I hope the form is here to stay. It is very enjoyable to watch her.

Mummy Lim

Taiwan Day 9: Taipei Zoo and Home Sweet Home

We were finally at the end of our trip. After 9 long days, though I wanted the holidays to last forever, I was willing to go home. Our flight was at 1.30am, which meant that we would have to linger on the streets the entire day after we had checked out. We asked the hotel to arrange for a car to drive us to the airport at 9.30pm for NT$900. It would be a 45 mins journey and we would be way to early but we thought that it was safer to have ample of time plus the kids would be tired.

For once, we weren’t rushing for bfast nor to leave the hotel room to start our day. We slept in and bought bfast from the bread shop right downstairs. They had tim sum and Daddy Lim was very satisfied with the bfast.

We only have 1 destination on our list for the day – the Taipei Zoo. We went to the Zoo the last trip and it was enjoyable. It wasn't too crowded and the cooling weather made Zoo walking very pleasant.

It was a long ride to the zoo but fortunately the kids were in good mood and played well.

Yeah, the zoo! It was super cheap at NT$60 for adult and NT30 for kids.

Probably bcos it was a Sunday, the zoo was freaking crowded. It was lunch time and the only eatery – Mac, was filled with people. We decided to move on and snack along the way. I did regret not preparing enough snacks.

Daddy Lim needed to take a dump. While he was in the toilet doing the actual business, the kids were happily taking pictures with piles of dung.

The animal enclosures hadn’t changed much.

We had a yoga posing ah meng.

The only difference was the need to fight with the crowd. Before long, Lil Shauna started complaining that she was bored bcos she couldn't see much of the animals. Zaky was much more enthusiastic and always managed to wriggle his way through the crowd to see what he wanted.

Our tummy soon protested and the 1st snack bar that we came across was overflowing with people. Luckily the 2nd one was more manageable and we had hot dogs and fried snacks for lunch.

Lil Shauna’s whines must have gotten to me bcos I started feeling frustrated with the crowd. Only Zaky was still eager to look at the different animals. I remembered that there was a shuttle bus in the zoo that will bring us to the zoo’s other exit and we could take the gondola from there to Maokong. Zaky was really upset that we were leaving the zoo but he had a choice. I traded screen time in exchange to leave the zoo.

The shuttle went a long way before arriving at the exit and I realised how freaking big the zoo is. I wonder if anybody managed to conquer the zoo by foot. We bought tickets for the gondola at NT$100 per pax for 1-way ticket. That is dirt cheap as compared to the cable car that we have to pay in Singapore.

The jackets started coming on when we arrived at Maokong. Daddy Lim said that we should all take a hoodie shots bcos we would look Americans?!! What? So, American looking or not?

The last we were here, we had a bite at the crowded food center and had a few pictures. This time, we forgo the food center and walked further along the road, following the crowd. It had gotten to the point that the kids would protest when any walking was involved. Lol. Along the way, we tried this peanut shaving ice cream that we saw everywhere and finally tried it. It wasn't nice. The ice cream is tasteless, relying on the sweetness of the peanut shaving.

Lil Shauna took 1 mouthful and decided that she didn't want more. Zaky couldn't try bcos it had peanuts; we promised him ice cream when we found one. By the way, I think he had outgrown his allergy. In Lihpao Amusement Park, I fed him a chocolate sandwich that that brought from 7-11 and it had peanuts. He took a mouthful and exclaimed that there were peanuts; I wasn't sure until I saw peanuts as one of the ingredients. Well, he didn't had any allergy reaction in the park.

Eventually, we didn't on a restaurant for some coffee break. It was al fresco dining in the rooftop. The kids were busy with the gadgets, leaving the parents to savor as much of the little time that we had left.

We left when it got way too cold. This time, we took a taxi down instead bcos the Q for the gondola was super long. It actually cost lesser at NT$75 each person to take the taxi. The taxis were 7 seater taxis and we shared the cab with another couple. Then, it was a long way back to Ximending via the MRT.

We had thought of bringing the kids to the dog/ cat cafe in Ximending. We did that the last time. However, they had probably closed down when we tried to google but couldn't find any. We had a good 3+ hours to burn before it was time to take the arranged car to the airport. We almost caught a movie; any movie that would do to burn some time. While queuing for the tickets, Daddy Lim saw a sign for a 2-hour rest  at the hotel located on the 12th floor of the same building at NT$480. That would cost less than the movie tickets and the idea to rest on the hotel bed was definitely more appealing than watching a movie.

Lady luck was with us and we got a last room and opted for the 2-hour rest at 6pm. We figured out that we could have a late dinner thereafter since we had been snacking non-stop. The windowless tiny hotel room was God sent. We all squeezed into the queen size bed for a much needed rest and watched animal planet for 2 whole hours. Animal Planet was the kids’ preferred channel the whole trip bcos it was in English whereas the cartoons were in mandarin.

We checked out at 8pm sharp and wandered the streets for dinner. We didn't find anything particularly appealing and ended up in Mac. We bought this pretty Pocky but it didn't taste that nice; it was some tangy fruit flavor.

Finally, we were back in the hotel and did last minute packing. The driver was already waiting for us. Zaky fell asleep in the car and Lil Shauna soon joined. I bet they were exhausted; we weren’t any better. The kids continued sleeping while we Q to checkin our bags. I was surprised that Zaky can still squeezed onto the luggage; he had grown quite a lot since our last long trip. Lil Shauna really dozed off in that position.

They had to wake up and clear the immigration and were grumpy. I would be too. They continued sleeping while waiting for the gates to open.

Then slept somemore when they boarded the plane. Haha. The adults definitely did sleep too on the flight home. I was sure that I slept better than the 1st flight bcos I was so tired. The kids didn't wake up until it was time to disembark. It is so fortunate to be kids. By then, they were finally wide awake and we had a hearty kaya toast, runny eggs and nasi lemak bfast before we headed home.

Overall, it had been a wonderful holidays. There were some hiccups, particularly the Yilan segment but everything turned out well eventually. I liked it that the kids are now older and much more independent and we could easily travel on our own on buses and trains. With the wifi egg, it is also much easier to find information while traveling and gave us a lot more flexibility to make changes. It definitely helped to shut the kids up too when we needed a much desired quietness and peace. I loved that we could now explore more instead of sticking to kids-centric theme parks and indoor playground. I do hope that the kids learned how to self-entertain and start to endure long car journey better.

It had been 5 days since we had been back and I am already itching for the next long holiday. I supposed that will happen only half year later. Sob. My radar is searching. I need hope and something to look forward to.

Mummy Lim


 

Taiwan Day 8: Taipei Wulai

One of the planned itinerary was to conquer Xiangshan, some mountain in Taipei. Unfortunately, after so much walking and stairs for the past 7 days, the kids didn't share my enthusiasm.

We googled the night before and came across this town called "Wulai". The reviews were good and we nailed it.

It was MacDonalds bfast this time but it was less well received. The Mac bfast in Singapore tastes nicer in my opinion. We got out of the room at about 9am.

Quiet Ximending in the morning.

To get to Wulai, we had to take the MRT to Xindian and then change to bus 849.

Obviously Wulai is a popular destination.  There was a long q for the bus.

It was a really sunny day! The kids got bored of waiting and started posing for me. I don't mind.

The bus ride costs NT$15 per adult and NT$8 for kids. It was a long ride, at least 30 mins. Wulai was the last stop. We met an American on the bus who told us that there was some Christmas party in the Forestry museum but we never make it there.

Luckily the kids were seated.

Majority of the people alighted at Wulai. Look at the blue sky!

It was about 5 mins walk from the bus stop to the old streets. We just had to follow the crowd. The moment we saw the street food, we knew that we had arrived.

With the nice hot spring experience we had in XinBeitou, the kids were bugging to dip in another one - Wulai is also famous for the 泡汤.

Before we headed to the private ones, I had to let the kids experience the authentic and all natural one. I read that at the end of the old street, after crossing the bridge, there are natural old springs along the river. We saw people by the river while we were on the bridge and walked towards their direction.

We joined a group of people. Only 2 of them were soaking their feet and the rest were resting or playing by the stream. I had thought that the entire river's water was filled with hot water but it was actually icy cold. The heat/ heated water only appeared at some part of the river bank. People before us had then dug holes to contain these hot spring water.

The way to control the pool's temperature and volume were through these 2 channels dug to allow inflow and outflow of water. So ingenious. The 2 persons soaking their feet were really nice. They explained how the hot spring works and asked our noisy kids to join them. Our kids tried the hot pool but were quickly more interested in playing with the cold water.

There was another group further down the river and those pools were much larger.

I could see bubbles surfacing and guessed that is the source of the heat/ heated water.

The kids were happily expanding the inflow channel and disturbing the 2 nice persons who were soaking. There was a pool nearby but the in and outflow channels were cut off. Daddy Lim crazily suggested for the kids to work on that pool instead, which Lil Shauna took very seriously. Soon, she and Zaky were digging away, attempting to create the inflow channel. I helped so that we can complete the project faster and continued on. While we were pouring sweat, the project suggestor aka Daddy Lim, happily went off for toilet and smoke break. Zzz. It was such hard work and I was started to perspire in winter but Lil Shauna refused to give up. What the..

When Daddy Lim finally came back, we actually made progress but there was still alot of work to connect to the pool. We had to convince Lil Shauna to abandon the project and move on. My back!

We proceeded to one of the shops for lunch. The kids ordered 卤肉饭 and plain fried bee hoon. They were so simple but delicious. We had to add on another serving of bee hoon.

We saw the log train and wanted to take it, which meant a long flight of stairs to reach the station.

The log train that we took was a much improved version. The log train was manual when it was 1st devised, meant to transport logs from the mountains. Now, it was purely touristy.

More waterfall! The kids weren't interested but I was trying to take in as much as possible. Well, when can I see another waterfall?

We came across more street food and saw that we can go further up via a cable car. Of course I had to try. That was our destination - it says some resort.

However, to get to the cable car station, there were more stairs to climb. No wonder there were taxis services offering to send people to the cable car station.

Finally, we arrived at the foot of the station. That was the cable car that we took. It reminded me of the old school cable car that we used to take to go Genting.

The cable car tickets were expensive. We paid almost NT$1k for the 4 of us.

There was about 15 mins wait and it must be the lunch bcos I dozed off. Zaky took my phone and was happily snapping pictures.

I woke up when the cable car started moving off. Zaky squeezed all the way to the front for a good view. Taiwaneses tend to be more tolerance of kids. I needed that... alot.

It was a short ride and the jackets finally came into use at the top. We saw that they used to have an amusement park but closed down probably due to the lack of crowd/ funds. It would be thrilling to ride a roller coaster at this height!

We were above the waterfall that we saw earlier but there was ANOTHER waterfall! Waterfall, waterfall.

We made the kids climbed somemore to look for the water source. By then, Zaky was about to give up and the signboard came in so aptly.

The boy didn't care and we had to play game to distract him. That was why the tiredness all disappeared. Chey.

The kids must really thank me for making them climb bcos we saw paddle boating on top of the stairs and the kids were dying to try.

That lake also forms the source of the waterfall.

Well, not exactly technicially bcos there was still water trickling down from somewhere higher up.

We did the paddle boating, of course we did. It started with Daddy Lim rowing.

Then the kids bugged to take over. The uncoordinated rowing kept us going in circles, banging into the walls/ banks/ bridge at times. We had so much laughs.

The kids would have rowed for hours if we didn't stop them. We would never reach back to the starting point too if Daddy Lim didnt take over. It was getting late and we needed time for the hot spring that the kids were pleading for.

There was actually a hotel at the top. I wonder who would want to stay and be trapped here. It must be a very peaceful stay. We did have a coffee that their in-house cafe.

Then the kids kept rushing us off bcos the next stop was the hot spring. Haha. We took the cabin car down and were right in time for one that was moving off but a tad crowded.

We could pay for the log train to go down but I actually wanted to walk, much to the kids' protests. I pretended not to hear and walk ahead of them to block the noises. Hohoho. Come on, it wasn't so bad, here were people who were walking up the slope when we were heading down.

We found a 汤屋 easily bcos there was a whole row of them. Some of them come complete with beds and we opted for a simple one, similar to what we had in XinBeitou.

It was so much cheaper. We paid NT$2k for 1.5hr at XinBeitou whereas this only cost us NT$500 for 1 hour. The room was slightly more cramp but the water didn't have the same mushroom smell that Lil Shauna complained about.

This time, the novelty worn off quickly and we were ready to get out in less than an hour.

The sky was already dark when we left. We were peckish and we saw pizzas. The kids shared one and then more street food to tahan for the time being.

The kids also tried the marble soft drink and said that it was lousy. Haha. They were so eager to try before that.

We walked back to the bus stop to see a snaking q. The bus came some 10 mins later and we boarded the bus even when there was no seats available bcos we were all too tired to wait. It was a roller coaster ride to the MRT station. It didn't help that we couldn't see what was outside bcos it was too dark. I had my arm muscles well trained during the ride. Not only was I holding on to prevent falling, I was holding on to Zaky, who dozed off standing midway! I had to give him my phone to keep him awake, who was then distracted and I had to hold him tighter.
That was an antagonizing 40 mins ride of my life.

Back at Xindian MRT, we bought bread to snack. Yeah, bread!

We took the MRT to Zhongshan and walked to the Ningxia Night Market. It was our last night and we wanted to let the kids enjoyed more games, which weren't available in Ximending. The night market was about 5 mins walk from the MRT station. We were here a couple of times during the last trip.

Ningxia Night Market was far more crowded than the other markets we had visited so far. The 1st thing that greeted us was the game area. There were so many stalls doing different kinds of game machines and the rewards were so much more decent.

While the kids were battling the machines, I attempted to buy some food only to realise that the food stall area was so freaking crowded. I was moving forward bcos the crowd that I was in was doing so. I ended up empty handed bcos of the crowd and also bcos I didn't want another 台湾香肠 or another fried chicken or grilled squid.

Daddy Lim and I stood around waiting for the kids to spend all their money. Seriously, they didn't care what they would be able to win; they were just contented with playing games. As it was so, I told the kids to play enough to win me a neck pillow, which would come in really handy when we fly back the next day.

Eventually, I got my neck pillow. I think we spent S$17 to win that. Well, it was better than spending S$17 on rubbish toys that nobody really wanted.

We managed to grab a cab back to Ximending and back to our hotel. Right in front of our hotel, there was this diagonal road crossing that we finally got to try. Hehe, cheap thrill.

We had been snacking the whole time but not proper dinner and decided to catch a bite at the eatery next to our hotel - bfast menu at 9pm in the night. The kids were loving and missing toast, eggs and ham.

It was again another long day. We were back in the hotel only at 10pm.

Mummy Lim