Taiwan Day 4

This day, we would be heading to Hualian. We had a simple bfast in the hotel before we headed out.

It was a long, long ride to Hualian. This day is mainly sightseeing, which actually doesn't go very well with our kids. Hualian is about 3.5hours car ride from Taiwan. Barely 5mins into the car, the kids already started asking if we had reached our destination. That was the first tell-take that it would not be an easy ride. Sightseeing seriously meant nothing to our kids. Regardless of how beautiful the sea and mountains are, they didn't spend more than 5sec looking at them each time. I felt like a broken recorder telling them constantly to look at this mountain and that cloud. The only thing that they were looking forward to was this beach that the guide had been telling the kids about, filled with very pretty stones and the kids can pick them and bring them home. 

We stopped along the way at one of the 7-11. The outlets in Taiwan are big and spacious, selling all sorts of stuff. More importantly, they come with nice clean toilets for everyone to use. Their tactic is to entice visitors to stop and use their toilet and the visitors would likely end up buying something from the stores, just like what we did. 

The ride was very scenic. We had to go up and down mountains and we were constantly surrounded by mountains, greenery and blue sky.

The roads were very winding and often narrow. We also had to go through tunnels dug through the mountains. We also had a glimpse of the old roads that had collapsed. The guide told us that roads could disappeared overnight due to falling rocks or the roads collapsing simply collapsing. When such happen, there are usually casualties. Shivers. 

The kids started whining until they grew tired but we were still not there. After much whining, Lil Isaac finally napped in the car. Lil Shauna got car sick and fell asleep to when she was told to lie down on my lap to rest. Hehe. Then, after like forever, we were finally at the beach. It was gorgeous.

The beach is 2-tone, a very nice sky blue and dark blue. The beach was right next to the mountains. Rocks from the mountains fell onto the beach and were washed and polished by the waves into nice, smooth pebbles after years. The entire stretch of beach that seems to go on forever was covered in peddles! We have never seen anything like this before! 

We had to walk down steps and steep stairways to reach the beach. Lil Shauna was skipping and running and I had to constantly ask her to slow down bcos it was so dangerous.

If you could see us, we were right on top of the stairs way, totally insignificant against the mountains.

The kids spent a long time at the beach picking and choosing stones. They were only allowed to pick the smaller ones, mummy would QC before they were allowed to put the stones into their bags. Lil Shauna was totally immersed. 

Lil Isaac grew bored after a while and started building a rock mountain. I grew bored too and helped him.

The stones were really pretty and there were some really huge ones. 

We had our family photo taken beside Lil Isaac's rock mountain.

When we finally managed to coax the kids to leave the beach, we headed to 燕子口, which is supposed to be the house for the sparrows a long time back but as more tourists visited the place, we barely see any now. This sits in the Taroko National Park. 

The guide let us off the car and to walk and enjoy the scenery. We were basically walking on 山路, overlooking a cliff. 

It wasn't so scary initially, until we saw plenty of Chinese tourists walking along the road, wearing helmets. Then we saw many of these signs, warning us of falling rocks and asking visitors to pass quickly over certain areas. It felt more and more scary. Lil Isaac refused to walk. He was worried that the rocks would fall on him and he would fall into the cliff. Duh!

Lil Shauna was the strongest amount us all. She was the only one that I saw in short skirt and short sleeve and kept insisting that she wasn't cold and didn't need extra layers. Lol. I made her piled eventually.

The guide told us that the inner part of the park is even more beautiful. To access the inner park, visitors had to apply for permits. This is to prevent damaging the park and also for safety reasons. I supposed it is too secluded and visitors may get lost easily thus they have to watch the number of heads going in and ensure that the same number got out. We saw a hanging bridge that reaches the inner parts. It looks really scary but I could also imagine how beautiful the inner park would be. The picture of the hanging bridge is already an art piece on its own. 

We had a late and light lunch after 燕子口. We had a local delicacy, rice in bamboo. It is basically just rice but extra fragrant after being cooked in the bamboo. Daddy Lim and I were expecting to find some fillings within and rice and were a little disappointed to realise that it was simply rice, nothing but rice. Lol. Afterall, we were hungry and we wanted to eat meat!

We stayed in a 民宿 that night and were glad to find 2 huge beds and a big bathtub.

After settling down, we went to the night market in Hualian. The kid took silly pictures before we left for the night market.

There plenty of nice food, as per all night markets in Taiwan but the kids were not at all interested. 

They were all eager to play the game machines and to win prizes.

 Unfortunately, there were very limited machines and the toys were very lousy, which mummy wasn't keen to bring home. They are like the super cheap toys that we can find in Singapore and of quality that mummy wouldn't even consider buying. However, it was a holiday and mummy thinks that it is important to keep the kids happy. Lil Isaac yanked the doll's head off in less than 5sec after he got hold of the doll.

We had an early night and turned in at about 9pm.

Mummy Lim

Kids at Work Day

Today is "Kids at Work" (KAT) day in my office! I never had that previously bcos of the safety concerns in my ex-workplace. Moreover, not many parents would be keen to bring their kids to a dirty yard filled with foreign labor. 

In ang mo countries, bringing kids to work thereby allowing the kids to experience what the parents go through in a typical day is a big thing. Lil Shauna and Lil Isaac saw it in the Lil Bill cartoon on TV, where Lil Bill went to his daddy's company and briefly understood what happened on KAT day.

The KAT day was supposed to take place in June but was postponed due to the haze. Lil Shauna was so disappointed then and had been asking when she could visit my office. Of course she was over the moon to know that she could finally visit mummy's office. As usual, Lil Isaac is the clueless one and would happily tag behind jiejie.

We woke the kids up at 7am this morning. The kids were to assemble at 9am but we had decided to be earlier so as to bring them for bfast and to reach my office at 8am, which is the official start time for me. 

Upon arrival, the kids were happily snacking and monkeying around in my room. Lil Shauna was showcasing her artistic talents on my huge whiteboard. I tried to work but it was impossible and had to usher them to the meeting place to wait for time to pass. 

There were so many kids, so much noise and I was so glad when the event finally started. The kids were each given a nice little lunch box with munchies.

The kids were distributed according to their age to enable better learning. As such, Lil Isaac had to be parted with jiejie and he was very reluctant. He was even more upset to know that mummy couldn't stay with him. He was grumpy and started sobbing when they started getting into their groups, even when I was standing right behind him. I think he was the only boy to cry. Aiyo. On the other hand, Lil Shauna was very independent and happily got to her group. When I kissed her goodbye on her cheek, she even looked embarrassed and wiped my saliva off her cheek! Wah lau. Lol.

I accompanied Lil Isaac to the first station to make carbonated drinks using fruit juice. The boy started opening up and was happy to make his drink, shake his bottle without mummy holding his hand. He still peeped to make sure that I was in the room every now and then.

As they were proceeding to their second station to make cookies, Lil Isaac was ready to go independently. He couldn't even care more when I told him that I am leaving but he could ask the aunties to help look for mummy if need be. But in the very least, he gave me a kiss when I asked for it. Lol.

I peeped in on Lil Isaac about half an hour later to see that he was happily making his shaker chips. I couldn't even locate jiejie but knew that she was in great hands and would be totally fine. It was an hour later that I saw them again to bring them to the toilet and they seemed totally great. I even saw Lil Shauna happily chatting with her new ang mo girlfriend.

I had lunch with the kids. They had catered buffet for adults and MacDonalds Happy Meal for the kids. On top of that, they kids earned $ for the "work" that they had done, similar to the BabyBoss concept that we experienced in Taiwan. However, the organising committee was very generous with the commodities that the kids could buy with their $. Each kid earned about $6 and the very nice notebook, magic-pens, chocolates, puzzles are prized at $1 or $2 each. The kids went crazy shopping.

At the end of the event, Santa distributed presents to every kid. The kids were so eager and were all crowding around poor Santa. Lil Isaac was the last few to get his presents. He was so anxious and ended up asking me why Santa didn't want to give him his present. Lol. And you can probably imagine how long the wrapper stayed on the present. 

I packed the kids back to my office after that. Shortly, I called for a cab to send the kids to JP and enroute back to the office. We went to office with a small recycle bag but cake back with a huge paperbag. Christmas had definitely came early for the kids.

The kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Mummy was so tired despite not doing much actually. I can only conclude that kids and work don't gel well. I am so glad the KAT day only take place once a year.

Mummy Lim

Need a New Phone

I need a new phone. I have been tolerating my current iPhone for months. I almost threw it into the toilet bowl when it wiped out all my contacts automatically for the 3rd time. It saved itself when it retrieves all the contacts after I upgraded the software. Then again, I bet you have also heard how the upgraded software comes with its side effects and I shall not touch on that. I am waiting for my current contract to expire, so that I have the option to downgrade to a lower plan (I don't use that much of my phone) or switch telco altogether. M1 is far from being the best with all the recent screw-ups. However, a new number is the last thing that I need. The day is finally approaching. My current contract will expire in mid December! I am so looking forward.

This iphone has been with me for almost 2 years. The home button seems to be failing and I have been exercising my thumb muscle a fair bit. The button now requires more a few hard pushes to work. But I am grateful that at least it still works.

The iPhone’s memory cannot be expanded. Currently, I have over 500 pictures and 50 videos in my iPhone and I am constantly hovering at the limits. The pictures and videos are of course back-up in my home computer but these are the really precious ones that I would like to keep in my phone so that I could look at them every now and then. Bcos I am so near to the maximum capacity, I have to constantly do housekeeping and also hesitate whenever I want to take new pictures/ videos. There are also hardly any games or apps in my phone bcos memory space is so very precious now.

Then, for the recent months, I realized that I am constantly encountering errors when I tried to download the pictures to my computer. I have to keep disconnecting and connecting and ended up taking very long time and a lot of frustrations to transfer a few pictures. Sometimes, after trying for like forever, it still wouldn't work and I would lose out to the phone’s determination to keep the pictures to itself. Transferring videos is literally impossible. I read on the web that this seems to be a common issue with big files and I am nowhere near geeky to understand how to work around the issue. So all the more I do not use the camera function in my iphone now. Sad.

Recently, another problem appeared. I kept getting missed calls on my phone but I do not think I heard it rang or felt it vibrate. I came to realize that something must be wrong such that the phone automatically rejects the 1st time the caller tried to call in. Daddy Lim verified that. It doesn't happen every time but pretty often.

As you can tell, my smart phone isn’t all that smart now. It barely fulfills the minimal criteria of being a phone. I think I have been amazing to tolerate all its nonsenses thus far. I have been on iPhone since I started using smart phones but it now looks like the next one will be a Samsung. I need expandable memory! Now I know what I want for Christmas. Daddy Lim… hehehe.

Mummy Lim

Bye Bye Milk Bottle

Lil Shauna loves her milk. When she was a baby, she used to drink every 2 hours but she has a small tummy for milk and had been stuck at 120ml since baby time. Now, she drinks only in the morning and before bed and is still using her bottle. She sometimes skips her milk, depending on how full she is and on her mood.

Actually, she's no longer reliant on milk. She merely seeks comfort from her milk bottle and chose not to have her milk without her bottle. For the past 2 years, we wouldn't even bring her milk bottle when we go for overseas trips. She fine and would then opt for fresh milk as she claims that her powdered milk tastes funny in a cup.

We have been telling her that she has to stop using her bottle when she reaches K2, bcos she would be a big girl then. We didn't bring her bottle when we went to Taiwan and we all agreed that her bottle have to go when we are back. We did just that.

It was ceremonial. Mummy threw her bottle into the bin on Sunday morning and we all clapped for her. She hadn't look for her bottle since. She didn't really had her milk too. Her first milk was a while ago, in a cup and she drank using a straw.

Lil Shauna is a big girl already.

Mummy Lim

Doing Homework

Lil Isaac was assigned his very first homework of his life from his phonics class. It was very simple. He had to do 3 pages of homework. For 2 of the pages, he was to name the pictures (total of 4 pictures in 1 page) and then colored them in. He also had to trace the dots of the last page of homework. This is just the beginning and he is building up on his vocabulary and also his penmanship.

Jiejie found it so interesting to do didi's homework and started helping Lil Isaac with the coloring. She was even telling him how to do the coloring.

When Lil Isaac got bored and ran off to something else, Lil Shauna was still patiently filling in the empty spots left out by Didi. She even helped to beautify the pictures. So funny. Haha.

How I wish she shows the same eagerness when doing her own homework or learning her spelling. 

Mummy Lim

Phonics Class for Lil Isaac

Lil Isaac started his first phonics class on Sunday. Jiejie was also about 3 years 2 months when she started phonics. 

Lil Isaac was ok to go to class. He didn't cry. Jiejie also has class at the same time, in the classroom right next to him. We made it a point to have one of the adults in the center, just in case he needed somebody. We saw him peeped at us every now and then and also heard him chatting with his new friends and teacher Rebecca.

Ah yee and I left for lunch when Popo came to take over our "shift". When I went back to the center at 2pm, I saw that Popo had taken cover in one of the empty classroom as it was too chilly in the waiting area. 

When the kids were released from class, Lil Isaac was red-eyed. He cried so pitifully when he saw me, asking to be carried. Teacher Rebecca said that Lil Isaac couldn't find us in the lobby when one of his classmates opened the door for the toilet. That was towards the end of the class and then he started crying. Haha. Otherwise, Teacher Rebecca said that Lil Isaac was great. He was participative and interacted with Teacher Rebecca and the other kids. He is so unlike Lil Shauna who took a long time to warm up when she first started her phonics class. 

We explained to Lil Isaac that we were in the center waiting for him and didn't leave him. We told him that we would do likewise next week when he goes for his class. I hope he will continue to enthusiastically go for his class. *cross fingers and toes*

By the way, we have finally introduced to him all the alphabets in upper case! We just introduced N to him this evening. He can't remember all of them now especially the ones that we just taught him, but I think he would do fine soon. Arrgghhh.. There are still the lower case!

Mummy Lim

Night Shift Starts

Daddy Lim starts his night shift tonight. Ouch! It is tough, especially when mummy is suffering from PMS, post holiday blues and Monday blues. This is like the deadliest combo. Bleeehhhh..

We had been reminding the kids, telling them that there will only be mummy in the night for the next 2 months. Hopefully, it would help prepare them. More importantly, I am hoping that this will remind the kids to be more merciful towards to during the nights. Haha.

Daddy Lim had to nap before he starts his night shift. Thus, we parted ways after he sent the kids for their phonics class at 1pm. Popo and Ah yee were with us today. Thank God.

We went to Happy Willow after class. Mummy just wanted to sit with a cup of coffee and stone. My energy always go all time low after holidays. Thus, indoor playground was the most appealing thing to do. 

The adults took turns to entertain the kids and I did had some great time with the kids. Then we headed for dinner.

Lil Isaac missed his nap and was grouchy during dinner. He then insisted to be carried. We took the train back and I was carrying him for most of the way. Ouch, my arms, my back! It was great workout. I think many such nights will come when I bring them back from Centris. The kids always like to bully mummy. I think the flats that I bought in Taiwan will be put to good use.

The boy was tired and slept at 9pm while jiejie was at the iPad. She turned in at 9.30pm. They were both tired and didn't need much coaxing.

So I survived night 1 of the many nights. Arrgghhh... I hate night shift.

Mummy Lim

Taiwan Day 3

The guide picked us up at 9am and brought us to have the traditional bfast of 油条, 豆浆, 小笼包 and stuff. Our hotel comes with bfast but we willingly forgo that for authentic Taiwanese food. Hehe.

The weather forecast said that it was supposed to be a sunny day but when we got out of the hotel, we  realised that it was raining. Our windowless room doesn't tell day from night, sunny from rainy. The weather ended up exceptionally cold and mummy had to suddenly pull more clothes together. We were definitely not prepared for such cold weather. Daddy Lim trusted the weather forecast and was dressed in T-shirt and bermudas. He even rejected the guide's offer to loan him a jacket, thinking that Mr Sun would start working soon and ended up having his butt froze off. Lol. It was that cold.

六福村 is a much bigger park than 小人国. It is definitely newer too. There are a total of 5 sections, including the water theme park. The water park was closed. Anyway, it was way too cold to be anywhere near water. The sky may look blue in the picture below but it was actually drizzling and cold. I think it was less about 16 degrees that day.

The kids had even greater fun at 六福村. There were even more thrilling rides for Lil Shauna. The most exciting one that Lil Shauna took one that swung her 360 degrees. This is her first very ride that goes upside down and she was very brave. Lil Isaac was braver than usual USS visits too. He even asked to go on the roller coaster ride. Daddy Lim and I were hesitant, especially when we have seen how he cried so pitifully when we put him on roller coaster in USS. However, Lil Isaac was insistent and so we went. He didn't cry but didn't seem to enjoy that much as well. Lol.

There was Christmasy mood in the park. They were giving out free Santa hat for adults. Bcos it was so cold, we so willingly don the hats, hoping that it would provide whatever little warmth to our heads.

We also hopped into one of the cafés for hot coffee and cakes. It was heavenly to be in a confined space with heater.

The sales was really friendly and helped us with our first family photo.

Right outside the cafe, the display for Halloween was still intact and Lil Shauna had a great time posing. Lil Isaac wanted no where near those scary stuff. It was actually quite strange to find both Christmas and Halloween display in the park.

One of the parks is the animal safari, that is somewhat like a small scale zoo. The interesting part of it are the train rides that we took to look at the animals, the bus for the ferocious ones and a "bicycle" ride to look at the monkeys. The ride requires the riders to peddle and goes on the track above the monkey closure to look at monkeys. 

We also too the train that brought up close to the animals. But I think the ride wasn't that interesting cos Lil Isaac fell asleep. Lol.

Time passes really quickly and the rides started closing at 4pm. We left the park shortly after 4pm and the guide brought us to ling xia 夜市. Bcos it is winter, the sun sets at 4ish. The sky would be dark at about 5pm. It actually takes some getting used to and also gave us a false sense of time.

At the night market, there were plenty of good food. The guide recommended us this oyster egg that was really delicious, much better than the oily ones that we usually find in Singapore.

More importantly, there were little games for the kids and they get to win prizes after each game. One of the prizes that Lil Isaac won was a sword and he was so happy. This is bcos Popo threw away his old sword at home when he was too naughty once. Look at all those colorful machines. No wonder the kids went crazy.

Then we headed for some late shopping at Taipei main station. The kids bought 2 pair of shoes each and were happy but grew tired and grouchy. Lil Shauna threw a tantrum and got slapped on her hand by Daddy Lim. She cried and we could tell that she was tired too. Lil Isaac took the stroller and we ended up carrying her all the way back to hotel from Taipei main station. Luckily, it was only one stop from our hotel. 

The train was amazingly crowded even when it was already 9ish. A crowded train arrived but we squeezed in regardless. We needed to get back to the hotel ASAP as staying out with grouchy kids is suicidal and we would not wait for the next train. We weren't the only one squeezing anyway. Daddy Lim squeezed in with the stroller and rammed the stroller into the mrt. I pity the people in his way. It was packed like sardine and I constantly felt that I was leaning on somebody's hand but I can't helped it. I was so glad when we finally arrived.

Lil Isaac felt asleep on the train and I was secretly happy. However, when we were walking through 西门订 to the hotel, some vendor was peddling bubbles and was creating big bubbles on the streets to aid her sales. Then suddenly, Lil Isaac woke up!

Back in the hotel, mummy packed while the kids soaked in bath tub. After we settled kids, Daddy Lim went down to shop and got himself a nike jacket, which would probably  cost  about the same as in Singapore. Well, so long he is happy. Lol.

The kids felt asleep very quickly after we put them in bed. The adults were dead tired as well.

Mummy Lim