Rumor has it she ain't got it;

It's been close to 2 months since I started working and I'm still as careless and slow with my work. Sometimes I don't get what's wrong with my eyes nor my mind. I've gotta be more careful!! Jiayou! 

& there's no one there to dry your tears

No there's nothing that I wouldn't do, to make you feel my love..







RIP, Cory Monteith..

Taiwan trip day 1 ; Ximending

Hello! I've finally got the time to start on our 10 days Taiwan trip from 1st - 10th September 2013! 

Every posts are gonna be full of pictures & words as I hope these details will help anyone who are heading to Taiwan have a better gauge of what to see/do/bring/, hence please bear with me ya! :)

To start things off, we got our flight tickets from Tiger Airways back in May 2013 when they were having a 1-for-1 promo for all NTUC card members. The prices were the same if we went for just 7 days or 10days, hence we decided to make our money worthwhile by opting for the 10 days duration. We also purchased a 20kg check-in luggage to Taipei and a 30kg check-in luggage back to Singapore. *Do note that Tiger allows combining of luggage(s) hence you don't have to buy for each passenger!*

Total price of air fares ~ S$539.99 / 2 = S$270 each for 10 days with 20kg/30kg check-in luggage.

Another thing that I would like to encourage you to bring along is this Taipei guide book that my friend lent to me! It's like a dummy's guide to Taipei or the holy-taipei101-bible. This book covers cafes, stalls, restaurants, shops from every MRT line. It's really like an adventure trying to locate some of the recommended places listed in the book but the end result?? COMPLETE SATISFACTION for the food and reaching a very short term goal. The bad news is.... I don't know where can this book be purchased as my friend's sister got it from Hongkong and... EVERYTHING IS IN CHINESE. HAHA GOODLUCK.

Oh yes, for girls who (like me) don't intend to shop in Taiwan, these are the amount of clothes I bring over. I actually brought a tad too much though! The only clothing item I bought in Taiwan was 1 paisley skort which can be seen in the later posts)

Here are the list of what I brought (in a snake manner clockwise) :

- 3 dresses *can actually bring 1*

- 2 rompers

- 1 shawl + 1 cardigan

-1 set of basic top + tweed shorts

- 1 set of lace top + denim hws

- 1 set of basic tank top + cotton on skorts

-1 set of houndstooth top + shorts

-1 set of sleep wear

- 1 spaghetti tank to wear under sheer tops / + megagamie digi prints skirt *can omit the skirt*

- 1 set of cream top + cotton on skorts

- 4 extra tops (peplum + tees) *can omit*

We woke up early for our check in at 0655 and thanks to my dad for driving us there! :)

Mandatory breakfast shot of Changi Airport's MacBreakfast.

Waiting for our numbers to be called before entering the plane. 

Goodbye Singapore!

We were really lucky to be allocated the emergency exit seats as there were more leg room for us for the 4 hours+ flight without any additional charge. 

Touched down at Taoyuan International Airport and the first thing we did was to purchase their Taiwan sim cards! P/s: For easy reference & calculation, every NTD100 is equivalent to SGD4.

When you exit the arrival hall, turn right and walk straight all the way until you see on your right there will be 3 telco counters selling sim cards. I think their 3 teleco's are like Singapore's M1, Singtel and Starhub. 

We bought the cards from 台弯大哥大 (Taiwan Da Ge Da) as it was the shortest queue of all but there weren't any hiccups during our 10 days in Taiwan so I would recommend this if the queue is short!

You can choose from the plan depending on how many days you are in Taiwan. We got ourselves a  10 day pass (Plan E) for NTD500 (~S$20) which consists of unlimited data usage and NT100 worth of talk time which is about 10-15minutes? I used that to call home on certain days and to contact our Hualien private guide - Tiffany Chang. Will blog about that more in Day 4!

We had late lunch at their convenience store called Hi-Life located at 1 level below the arrival hall. It'll be better if you take a lift as it leads you directly.

In Taiwan, you will never be hungry as their convenience stores such as 7-11, Hi-Life and Family Mart will leave you spoilt for choice from their instant noodles to their traditional Lok-Lok aka our yongtaufoo to their snacks and majority of the drinks that are not on the shelves anywhere in Singapore. Oh and did I mention that everytime you step into the 7-11 store, you WILL smell their fragrant herbal tea leaves eggs!!! I LOVE IT but because of the first day's herbal eggs purchase, the herbs were not fully absorbed into the eggs, I kinda ate a normal hard boiled egg instead and had a phobia of purchasing another herbal tea egg from any convenience stores. 

Tea Egg NTD8  + Creamy Chicken Pasta NTD 62 + Honey Red Tea NTD20 = NTD90 (~S$3.80)

Taiwan's easy card : 悠游卡 (Youyouka) which is similar to our ez-link card.
The card itself is a non-refundable deposit of NTD100 + we topped up NTD200 value. (~S$12)

We then took a Freego coach (from Hi-Life walk straight out, turn left and you will see some counters again) to our hotel for NT70 (~S$3) each and the ride lasted us for 2.5hours.

Before you go up the coach the driver or his assistant will pass you a map & guide you to inform you on which stop name to hear and look out for, and when it was the stop for alighting, the driver will call the station name out and we would alight - to then change into another shuttle bus to 西门 (Xi Men) as our hotel is located there.

Inside the shuttle bus!

However from the shuttle bus onwards you'll have to be sure of the roads & buildings as the driver wouldn't be informing you of your station to alight so please refer to your map!

As our hotel Muzik Hotel is located at 西门 (Xi Men), we alighted at 簏夏 (Lu Xia) and we were really surprised to see that our hotel is just walking distance from the alighting bay! 

Our hotel is inside/beside the huge "Miranda" poster. You can also see Just Sleep Hotel which is the green building on the left!

Entrance of Muzik Hotel, which is also known as  簏夏(Lu Xia) Hotel. Btw that is the closest "lu" I can get on my keyboard. Their lobby is located on the 5th level and rooms are on the 8th.

The prettiest hotel card I've ever seen!

As the hotel has a late check-in policy at 3pm, we were not affected by it as we arrived there at around 4.30pm and our rooms were allocated to us within 5mins! It is located 5 minutes away from the local 西门丁 (Xi Men Ding) and the location is really easy to find as it is opposite Just Sleep Hotel and near Xi Men station. Their staffs even helped us with 1 of our luggage and their bed is really huge and comfy! I like that their room is small yet cozy as stepping into the room makes us feel at home. Do note that for our room there are no windows, no cupboards though only 4 hangers provided but our toilet did have a bathtub. Housekeeping was done well too and they also provided complimentary snacks, coke, sprite and mineral water for us everyday. Free wifi is provided too but we didn't use it as we had unlimited 3G data! Their air-con however is hard to be adjusted into your required temperature as it will automatically change by itself (we woke up 1 morning to find that it was 16deg!)

I'd call this the triple king-sized bed!

We booked this room online via Agoda and they were having an early bird promotion. We stayed a total of 3 nights there and paid S$252.70 which amounts to S$84.23 per night! We split the hotel charges among us and each paid S$126.35, which is even cheaper considering we paid S$42.17 for this kinda hotel!

And now.. It's time for dinner at 西门丁 (Xi Men Ding) !

Food #1 : 阿宗面线 (Ah Zong Mian Xian) 

阿宗面线 (Ah Zong Mian Xian) 

Located at No. 8-1 Emei St, Wanhua District, Taipei City

Opening hours : 1100 - 2230 (Mon-Thurs) & 1100 - 2300 (Fri-Sun)

I couldn't really remember how to get to this stall but if you were to take exit 6 from Ximen Mrt, it will be about a 5-minute walk around the corner. 

A large bowl costs only NTD60 (~S$2.60)

Instead of the usual oyster mee sua, they actually served pork intestines and their noodles has a smooth texture to it. Beware of the chili sauce though! Just a tiny spoonful and it was kinda spicy for me.

Food #2 : 葱油饼 (Onion pancake)

Onion pancake + cheese ：NTD35 (~S$1.40)

This stall is just walking distance from Ah Zong Mian Xian and it is actually prata!! But the prata is already mixed with spring onions and we ordered one with additional topping of 1 slice of cheddar cheese. It's really naizeeeeeee when the cheddar melted due to the heat from the pancake and it's crispy as well! Definitely not the usual prata you have in SG. You should give it a try and it's available almost everywhere. *Do note that it would be better to go to the stall that doesn't have many of the pancakes already made as we may not know how long has it been left out in the open. Ours were made fresh!

Ps : Do you know that Cheese in chinese is actually 起士！Haha really direct translation.

Food #3 : White bittergourd with honey from 柠檬屋

This was in the Taiwan guide book but I don't have the exact location as I've already returned the book to  my friend. But it's really easy to find! When you walk towards 豪大鸡排 (Hot Star chicken cutlet), turn to the left, walk straight all the way and you will see the stall.  

Honey bittergourd : NTD60 (~S$2.60)

As BunnyBoi has said in his instagram @jxnr : trying this gives you a better understanding of the chinese saying 先甜后苦 (Sweet first, bitter later). You'll taste the sweetness of the honey at first and after swallowing the drink, you will then start to taste the bitterness lingering in your taste buds.

Heading back towards the direction of Hot Star, we couldn't help but be lured by the fragrance of the carrot cake and here comes :

Food #4 : Fried carrot cake from 天天利 (Tian Tian Li)

Fried carrot cake : NTD25 (~S$1.06)

This carrot cake has a very fragrant smell, is chewy on the inside yet crispy on the outside topped with their sweet chili sauce. I also like that it doesn't have much of the flour aftertaste unlike for some carrot cakes that has it.

Next up would another of the highly acclaimed by everyone else who's been to Taiwan :

Food #5 : 起士马铃署 (Prince Cheese Potatoes)

Club & Cheese : NTD65 (~S$2.80)

Their mashed potatoes are really delicious with the generous topping of corns & ham and for cheese lovers, this will be heaven for you as it is submerged in cheese. For myself, I find that the cheese gets a tad too overpowering after a few mouthfuls which made eating the potatoes very... Tiring?

MUST BUY BEVERAGE IN TAIWAN!!!!

Almost all of Taiwan's Uniqlo stores are flagship stores.

I'm finally done with day 1! Yay!! Here's ending this post with our OOTD!

On him:

Top & bottom from Uniqlo x Shoes from Vans

On Myself:

Dress from inhousefashion x Shoes from Bangkok

Best company ever!

My colleagues treated me Domino's lunch for my last day at work today! 

We ordered Hawaiian Paradise & Classified Chicken. I like that the latter pizza has a creamy cheesy flavor! Their twisted breadstix is sprinkled with cheese powder and it would definitely taste better toasted! 

Domino's delivers your pizza in 30 minutes and any minute later, you'll be given a free pizza on the house! Though the down side is that they provide additional chili flakes yet none for cheese powder.

 We also bought Pokka green tea from the convenience store just below our office and I must say that the new version of it without sugar really tastes soooo much better! It's just Japanese green tea chilled. One sip on it and it's decided that I'll never want to drink the original one anymore. 

        Went for a once-in-a-blue-moon jog around my neighbourhood and I passed by the same man after 20 minutes and he only managed to cover about 5m distance. It struck me that we will all grow old one day, and it's up to how you take care of yourself now and what fates lies for you in future. 

From my instagram @raayche :

I am thankful that I can see the moon shining ever so brightly while feeling the evening breeze in my hair. More importantly, I am blessed to have a healthy body that doesn't fail it's functions on me, enabling me to enjoy this sight with ease. As the saying goes "Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself."

It's been a memorable & thankful day for me as I am glad that I have met my wonderful colleagues and felt how it is like to work in a company that doesn't have any hierarchy and politics. This is the first time I felt so reluctant to leave but as my contract was over, indeed all good things must come to an end.

I sure have gained valuable insights that will be engraved in my memory & that genuinely nice people still, and do exist in this wretched world. :')

Finally!

I've finally managed to edit the blogger templates (with alot more areas to improve on)!

Have not been using all the codes and stuffs but thank god there's always Google :)

I can't wait to start blogging about our 10 days Taiwan trip which has been taking forever... and ever...

And ever...

Operation eat clean

BunnyBoi and I went on a #eatclean diet ever since we came back from Taiwan but it was really hard to stick to the plan.

Here are some of the healthy food that we made!

Purple & green lettuce with grilled chicken, eggs, garlic butter croutons, cheery tomatoes and potato hash.

Using the leftover chicken & purple lettuce and ham for lunch at work.

Oven toasted salmon with garlic for our lunch for the very first time which was really easy to prepare and oil-free! :)

Ten days is never enough..

Hello! We're back from our first ever long holiday together in Taiwan! It has been good 10 long days and unfortunately, time passes by quickly in the blink of an eye when you're having fun. 

Last night, not only was I having jet-lags, I was also having the lag-ness of having to get used to the absence of BunnyBoi's presence and the vibrant night life back in Taipei. 

Can't wait to blog about our 10 days as soon as I've gotten alllllll 100+ foodie photos from BunnyBoi's Instagram: @jxnr! 

Till then! :)

Consideration

My daily dose of enriching quotes that my colleague sends me everyday. 

Today's quote : Being considerate.

After last night's 2.5hrs interview.. I have been feeling so silly and cheated by allowing the boss to mentally challenge myself by lowering my expected salary and furthering the interviewing session.

But that's just how every bosses are, isn't it? They just want to lower their labour costs and get every bit out of their workers. 

I was wrong to not reject too.. I've gotta learn to speak up and protect myself in future cause this truly is a man-eat-man world. 

I hope I won't be like him though, cause it really was an inconsiderate and insensitive gestures displayed last night. 

Oh well.. Lesson learnt the hard way..

One year & 3 months

Finally had a proper date with 🐰BunnyBoi today! :))

Watched R.I.P.D and we both found the movie to be okay-okay & we headed to Vanilla Bar & Cafe for the third time! The food there is really delicious! 

He bought the deal online priced at S$19.90 for a 5 course meal : Soup/salad, appetizer, main course, drink, dessert. It's really worth it! The food tastes good, and the price is even better! :)

Carrot soup for him & salad for her. The carrot soup tasted sweet and sour with a tinge of spice in it whereas the salad seems fresh and I really liked the sesame dressing!

 

Breaded shrimps with tobiko mayo or otherwise known as ebi tempura. I especially liked that the crumbs were crispy and each bite into it is with a crunch!

For him: Wild Mushroom Risotto with chicken. Tried a few spoonfuls of it and boy... I'm not a big fan of risottos due to the stickiness of the rice but this dish won me over! The mushroom cream sauce is really tasty and its not very creamy that you'd stop eating after a few mouthfuls.

For her: Parmesan baked white fish with sautéed potatoes. 2 words: Very niceeeeeeeeeee. I think they used dory fish, as the meat is soft and tender, accompanying it is the layer of Parmesan cheese which just melts into your mouth everytime! It seems like the cheese is only a thin layer but the taste in your mouth is overpowering but in a good, tasty way. :)

Time for desserts! Their very own "dirt cake" which is actually Vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreos.

Overall we enjoyed our monthsary dinner! I wouldn't mind coming here over and over again as their food is above expectations and being a small cafe, we were able to dine with some privacy provided they didn't have alot of guests. Their service were commendable too! Their staffs were warm and friendly and efficient in clearing the table for you after each course. 

Vanilla Bar & Cafe is located at 3 Boon Tat Street.

Time spent with love

Finally met up with BunnyBoi now that my exam is over! Had a really cheap Japanese dinner around Ubi and I'm glad he liked it! :)

 Salmon Don S$3.80 x Chicken Katsu Don S$3.30 - MAD CHEAP RIGHT! Where can you find such pocket-friendly price and tasty Japanese meal?

Visited Teddy today and he really looks more like a ChiHuaHua than a poodle after his haircut! Haha but I like it when his fur all short though! :)