The Inevitable

The inevitable has happened.

CLM called 911 today. 

Sigh.

For the record @2Y7M11D

又一個月喇！

Wow.  Based on my bucket list that I made almost a month ago, I've accomplished all of ...

zero items.

I'm such a retard.  This month has slowed down work-wise; the only major thing was a tedious 2.5 day conference that I had to work a few weeks ago and otherwise, just normal daily happenings.  Hmm... so besides taking life one day at a time, nothing has really happened.  Literally.  LOL~

Then I started cleaning, then de-cluttering, then touch up painting, then cleaning some more, then income taxes -_-", and then guess what?  More cleaning!!  Now I can truly say:  I - HATE - CLEANING!!!!!!  I've cleaned so much that all my muscles hurt.  Damnit!  Honestly, I absolutely ADORE a clean and minimalist lifestyle.  I get so happy walking into a clean and tidy home.  Which means I really need to get rid of crap that I don't need.  Like around 15 years of Food and Drink magazine??  They are so freaking heavy.

**********

CLM's been a funny guy lately.  He's been very particular on certain things depending on his mood, which can change so quickly you won't know what hit you.  Some popular quotes:

• Cur Cur B 唔坐過0的唔俾0的位婆婆坐！
• Cur Cur B 唔同媽媽 "hihi" 唔錫淡媽媽！
• Cur Cur B 唔睬爹爹，睬婆婆！
• Cur Cur B 唔影相，第日冇相相睇！(and while he knows that, he still won't let me take photos of him)

While it's cute that he has his opinions and determination, it gets a little annoying when I'm trying to sit down and have dinner and he won't let me sit; trying to take pics of him and he gets upset; I leave for work and want my goodbye kiss and he won't come...

The cuteness continues to just before bedtime, when we do his nightly ritual:

Me:  Cur Cur B 今晚想聽咩歌呀？
Cur:   聽“牙牙歌”  (刷牙歌)
Me:  跟住呢？
Cur:  跟住我0地聽“牙牙歌”， 之後覺覺豬，之後刷牙牙，之後換 penpen (diaper), 之後奶奶 ja!!!

The order is obviously mixed up but CLM is very particular to have to listen to his “牙牙歌”, “打開蚊帳” and “大笨象會跳舞” while brushing his teeth, then he kisses my teddy bear good night and afterwards he gets his 奶奶 ja. What a little bugger, lol~~

**********

On another note, I think I've found my dream pair of shoes!  I've been looking to replace my crummy, worn out, 14 year old pair of Nike Shox for the longest time but haven't been able to find anything that I liked.  Mui sent me a link to Nike's custom Shox page and I custom-built the pair that I really want to have!!  Totally didn't expect to be able to do something like this.  Now I just have to order it.

My dream pair of Shox:  Black Leather, purple accents.  LOOOOOVE!

Wow, just realized it's 4am.  I think I'm going to sleep now ... more blogging later.  Hopefully it's not 4 weeks later, lol~

MIA Again?!?

Yes!  I'm MIA again...

December was a whirlwind of cold weather, storms, lost power, parties, food, baking marathons, CLM milestones, Jumping Clay and general Christmassy things that I need to catch up documenting.

January went just as quickly as it came with more cold weather, post holiday syndrome, UV2 office moving, CNY celebrations and promos that lapsed into February.  CLM turned TWO!  and OMG, he's now a "pre-schooler" and no longer a "toddler".  Where the heck did the time go?!?  Made myself a "new year resolution" of going to sleep before midnight.

February is half over with more work related busies, UV2 catered radio remotes, working seven days a week, three new sites opening up before the end of the month, 太上文生's visit, and more CLM funnies.

Once again, I find myself falling behind on P365.  Of course, sleeping earlier means less time to scrap.  I told myself I'm only doing two layouts per month but guess what?  I'm three layouts behind (ie, I haven't started).  Sigh........

Up ahead:  tax season, more non-stop working, finish Jumping Clay project that I started a month ago, SCRAP SCRAP SCRAP, service the Roomba (again), maybe a DIY project if I feel like it, stick to my new year resolution...

Off to bed.  Now.

Cur Cur B Then and Now

Well here it is: the long overdue post documenting CLM at 20/21 months.  Oh, I'm just what, 2 months late?  Better late than never I guess.

So CLM back in October of this year really liked doing certain things:

• Hides behind 爹爹 when he knowingly pissed me off
• Loves pushing buttons (dishwasher, monitor, rice cooker, woowoo 機 or any other electronic or whatnot).  As long as it has buttons, CLM's pushing 'em
• Picks up things that he's not allowed to be picking up.  When caught he says: "俾媽媽" thinking we'd believe that he picked up the item just to bring to me (sneaky)
• Favourite saying: "唔係唔係唔係唔係..."
• Loves eating "meat meat".  Chicken has been coined "gok gok meat" in my household
• Started drinking his milk from a straw and termed it 奶googoo or  奶奶goo.  Milk from the source is now 奶奶ja
• Somehow, the "but da but da" sounds just evolved into a random "拔 da 悲" here and there as he learns more words and sentences.  Sometimes CLM will still purposely make random "baby talk" babbling just for fun
• Loves clamping his little clammy cold hands onto my thighs when I change out of my pants and hearing me scream "凍凍凍!".  Proceeds to chase me around the room hoping to get more screaming from me
• Asks for 爹爹 specifically to come into the shower to 拍拍水
• Still scared of woowoo 機 (Roomba) and when we ask him "woowoo 機咬邊個?", he answers: "woowoo 機咬婆婆!!!"

Fast forward a month (November) and he talks way more, starts singing songs, loves watching 恐龍火車 (Dinosaur Train) and gets more particular on who he wants feeding him, what he wants to eat for lunch/dinner, where he wants you to sit (ie, "爹爹坐梳化!").

文生 was basically out of commission the entire month of November OT-ing so I spent most weekends out and about with marmar and CLM doing random things like grocery shopping without the Man.  We decided to check out Fairview one day and saw that the Christmas decor was exactly the same as last year so I took a picture of CLM outside of the Lego Store in front of the exact same tree.  While comparing the photos I couldn't believe how much CLM changed in the span of a year.

 

For the record, I was downtown on November 7th for a meeting and brought CLM with me to the Financial District.  He had so many firsts that day!

• Walked on a downtown street.  Never ever saw so many cars, streetcars, and woh woh's!
• Took an escalator
• Had a fat laan jaa moment (meltdown) in public at East Chinatown.  He was completely sprawled on the sidewalk, screaming.
• Ordered a "kid's meal" off the menu.  Mind you, CLM didn't finish it but it was definitely a first "outside" meal that was ordered just for him!!
• Finally sat front-facing in his car seat because my car broke down and we had to go home in my aunt's car which doesn't have UAS.  To make my life simpler, I just faced CLM forward.  He LOVED it!  So many 巴士's and 媽媽車車's to see.  By the way, all cars are 媽媽車車's apparently.  How nice.  "好多媽媽車車!!!"  Yes BB, just like how dinosaurs are woh woh's.

Sanity and Laziness

Lazy, lazy, lazy.

I come to my blog each day to tell myself I'm long overdue for a new post.  I have so much to write about but too lazy to type.  I think mostly because blog posts are boring unless accompanied by photos and I'm just too lazy to find nice photos to share.

For the last two months I've been thinking of documenting a "CLM then and now" type of post and although I run the points through my head almost daily, I haven't really gotten around to doing so.  Meanwhile, work's been a little crazy, CLM's been a little handful (and then some) and I've still got myself wondering why I don't get to sleep decent nights.  STILL.

Abandoning P365 this year after Hong Kong was probably the biggest "mistake" (or relief, whichever way you look at it).  Not having to document every single day means I have no excuse to blog.  No "me time" to get away from things, which doesn't necessarily translate into more time to sleep.  Looking back at my P365 posts and pages for last year always give me a sense of accomplishment and I'm glad I got to document CLM's first year (and life as a mom).  Although I freed up a lot of time by dropping the idea, I do regret not continuing with it this year.  As CLM grows every day, talks more, learns new things, it's a pity that I won't have anything to look back on.  At least I kept up with his "picture a day" so I can still track his facial changes even if I won't remember what happened that particular day.  I can't believe CLM's 22 months already and will be two soon!  They grow up so quickly!

Lately, I've been thinking about baking a lot.  I think I just need something to do so I can claim it as "me time" and a source for keeping my sanity.  Not that my sanity is jeopardized/compromised in any way *shifts eyes*, not at all...

文生's been working crazily for the entire month of November and finally got a weekend off so we opted to go downtown, have ramen and then hang out at Meishan's for a bit.  Ronna and Meishan picked up some Jumping Clay at the Ex this year and have been inviting me to join them to make things for a while now.  Finding out the clay smells like jasmine did it for me!  LOL~~  It's so much fun!  It doesn't stick, isn't messy, smells great, doesn't require baking, is lightweight and you can basically make whatever you want from it.

This little guy measures about 2" tall

CLM was really cooperative while I made my cutie little penguin.  All was well and I was about to make another one and then CLM fell down two steps of stairs and hit his head.  The remainder of the night was spent at Sick Kids but at least he has no fractures and seem to be himself again today.  做阿媽真係大責任.  I wasn't really freaked out until he started vomiting.  Ew...  Once again, I am grateful for great friends as Meishan, Ronna, Tinlop and Jeffrey all came to the hospital to calm our nerves and just to be with us.   Thank God CLM is fine.  I just wish I reacted a split second earlier... sigh...

On another note, the 16" x 20" stretched canvas 2014 calendar that I printed arrived and it looks great!!  Originally I was going to do a poster print and then frame it but I found a coupon code for a canvas print that was too good to pass up on so I opted for that instead.  I'm so glad I did because it's lightweight and it looks more professional!  I got them just in time before the coupon expired so I ordered a few more.  I'm pretty sure they will be well received gifts this Christmas!

Now I think I will procrastinate some more and yet again leave CLM's "then and now" post for another night...

Me Time

Work continues to be crazy as we prepare for the Urban Towns at Bayview & Briggs opening and the phone calls just keep on coming in for UV1.  Occupancy issues, sigh... this is Richmond/Rosewood all over again!

For the last few days, I've been having trouble falling asleep before 4am and that's sans caffeine.  Which probably means I'm just really wired from the day's work and can't doze off despite being exhausted.  Me, the adrenaline junkie, aiya~  So I told myself I'm going to unwind tonight and do something for myself after CLM goes off to bed.  In no particular order, I wanted to do up a long overdue scrapbook page; start making a photo calendar for the grandmas for Christmas; try to fix my three MS mice; bake a cheesecake (I was going to do that when CLM was 7 months.  AND... he is now 20 months...poo).  Well, since CLM didn't head off to bed until midnight, I just managed to look up how to fix the mice (yay, the internet) and did one whole page!  Hoot!  Feels good to get something accomplished.  I can't believe a simple page like this took almost 3 hours to do.  Must be getting rusty!

Doot 嘴-ing with Cur Cur B

Knock on wood, CLM has now FINALLY started sleeping through the night.  He has been consistently going to bed around 11pm and waking up around 6:45am to 7:30am.  I can finally say "it got better".  He currently has six teeth and I can see the next ones coming in so I guess I should cherish these 7-hour stretches of sleep while they last but of course I have to be wired and can't sleep.  FML.

The little bibibak continues to test my patience daily with his new-found interest of lugging out all my bottles of Tide and lining them up nicely along the window sill.  Where he gets the energy I have no idea.  Well, to prove he is no match for mammie, I hid all the bottles.  I'm so mean, lol.  Will do an update on his recent development when I have more energy/time.  Since it's now after 3:30am and I have officially screwed myself over sleep-wise for the third night in a row.

Off to bed, my dear.  Now.  Please.

唔係唔係唔係唔係唔係....

I hear most babies learn the word "no" first since the it's so easily pronounced and so commonly used.  CLM on the other hand, actually doesn't use the word "no" very often as he chooses to say "唔係唔係唔係唔係唔係....".

Me:  Cur Cur 食飯飯好嗎?
CLM:  唔係唔係唔係唔係唔係....

Me:  唔食飯咁白豬喇好嗎?
CLM:  唔係唔係唔係唔係唔係....

Me:  今日乖唔乖呀?
CLM:  冇........!!!

Nope.  In all cuteness he doesn't use the English word "no".  Lol~

(SIGH) But Da But Da But DAAAAAAAAAA.....

Of course I knew it was too good to be true!  The "sleeping 5-hour straight" lasted that one week and we're now back to waking up a couple of times a night again.  AND sleep time has been pushed to 11:30pm.  CLM the night ghost...

CLM is learning how to talk!  For a month now, he's been perfecting a few of his words.  He's very clear and articulate when he calls me 媽媽 or when he wants his 奶奶.  I'm so flattered!  婆婆 still sounds a bit like 波波 but calling 爹爹 is loud and clear!  Especially when he's looking for 文生 to 拍拍水 while taking his shower.  He knows to say 地地 when he wants off my bed and says GO GO when he wants to play with Lego.  Amongst his other words of 拜拜, woh woh, 襪襪 (which sometimes sounds like 媽媽), 粒粒, 包包, 飽~, 跌底! and some other words that I can't remember right now, he still uses his "but da but da but da" a lot.  I still don't know what "but da but da" means, but it just sounds so cute!  Sometimes in a conversation of "but da but da"-ness, CLM will throw in a loud "拔 da 悲!!!!!!"  No clue what it means but it definitely plays a prominent role in his babblings.

One of the recent most cutest CLM moments is when he picks up any random object, places it against his ear and uses it like a phone: 「喂! 喂! 喂!」  So far, I've seen him with mui's old cell phone, car keys, cardboard, PS3 controller, his palm, random bottles, etc.  He doesn't really say anything else but we've been telling him it's 太婆 calling.

「Cur Cur, 太婆搵你聽電話!」

I can't believe I found time to do a layout! I'm so behind with P365 that I think I'll just let it go until next year...

Now if only we can get that sleep pattern back...

He Proved Me Wrong!

A week goes by and it wasn't a fluke!  My dear CLM slept an entire week from around midnight to 5am for a grand total of five straight hours per night!!  OMG, now I gotta go celebrate the "milestone"!  You mean it does get better?!?  Ha!  I'm not that hopeful.  Well, until the next tooth comes along, I guess I can enjoy the next few weeks...

So much fun just holding an empty Vita box

For The Record

Yes, I've been MIA for over a month because I've been super duper busy, stressed and almost suicidal (don't ask), but for the record, CLM fell asleep in the car at about 11:30pm last night and slept all the way 'til 5:30am this morning!  Haven't had one of those in like... ever!!

And of course by documenting this I will have jinxed it and he'll be hellish tonight... I just know...

拍拍攬

I gotta love MarMar for teaching CLM how to do really cute things and contributing to his overall learning experience.  It goes to prove that babies do learn very quickly and they do understand each and every word you speak, even if they can't voice it.

Notably, what we termed as 「拍拍攬」 (something that CLM got to do really well) is when he gives something (or someone) a big hug and a few pats on the back.  It is so incredibly cute and makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside every time.  No joke.  So passionate and so......... frigging CUTE!!

Hi Stitch, 拍拍...

... 攬 ...

Your turn!

Hope that made your day!  It certainly made mine!

Catch Up, Catch Up... Can Someone Motivate Me Please?

I've been so lazy lately.  Haven't wanted to do anything productive but still managed to run around like a headless chicken every weekend.  Every time I tell myself to catch up with P365 (or blogging for that matter), I find something mindless to do, like play fb games.  So bad!

I finally updated the photos from the last few days of my Taiwan trip.  Only two more blog posts and I will be finished documenting my HK 2013 trip.  JUST TWO!  But that means going through hundreds of photos, touching them up, making them Blogger friendly, uploading and then converting my point form phrases that were written while half asleep in HK into semi-intelligible paragraphs.  So much work!  I really need to be motivated.  Somehow.

CLM, on the other hand, is having a few good days of non-koala-ing and being relatively co-operative when it comes to most things.  I'm not complaining!  But I do hope that by saying so, I don't jinx things...

I love it when CLM makes his scrunched up 笑矇眼 look.  So adorable!  Lately, he's been doing a lot of 笑矇眼 on demand, talks/sings out loud to himself when no one's talking or playing with him, recognizes all of his toys, runs around nosing in other people's belongings, still waking up 3 times a night ...

But hey, he's only a toddler once... I LOVE YOU CLM!!

(but please, can you sleep for maybe a 4 hour stretch??)

Self Mutilation

Oh, my lack of sleep... am I ever going to sleep more than 4 hours anymore?!?  CLM is a poor sleeper and always has been.  I keep telling myself it'll get better, it'll get better but I just don't get how he can function with such little sleep.  Not to mention waking up 2-3 times every night still.  Sleep through the night?  Hell no... Don't even start or attempt talking to me about that unless of course you want me to slap you.  LOL~

I've been very hostile toward a lot of people lately, mostly strangers (good thing for 文生 and unfortunately for the "victims") and I blame it all on my lack of sleep.  My temper is short to begin with and couple that with 15 months of sleepless nights will definitely release the vicious beast in me!

Last night, CLM didn't want to go to bed despite being completely exhausted.  Fussed around, refused to nurse, rolled around in my bed, wanted me to hold him while wanting to play on the floor (?!?!) - yes, it doesn't work!! - and eventually I said F it, left him screaming and for the first time EVER, he managed to fall asleep without me.  Kudos to 文生 because I thought CLM wouldn't ever go to him at bedtime.  Mind you, he still screamed for a good 15 minutes before falling asleep so I have a feeling he just passed out from exhaustion.  That was 2am.  FML.

After hanging up all the laundry, made lunch for today, tidied up the kitchen, got ready for bed, and it was 3am already. CLM was up at 5:30am.  FML x2.

To make things more interesting, CLM stuck his finger up his nose this morning and must have ruptured the membrane because he got blood EVERYWHERE (yes, it was so bad the word "everywhere" deserves all caps and italics).  Hands, face, clothes, highchair... he was a mess.  I really hope he doesn't have a psychological disorder, like self-mutilation (OMG), because between pulling out his hair at only a few months old, to ripping up his ear, poking his eyes out, scratching up his face until it bled and now self-induced nose-bleeds, I really have to keep my eye on him now.  點解啲脾氣咁臭嘅呢?

Right, 似老母.

Moving along ...

Wanted

一名中國籍男子，年約歲半，早前於多倫多某住宅涉嫌偷桔。以下是閉路電視圖案:

據目擊者透露，疑犯有可能聲稱「桔」為「橙橙」。如有該疑犯消息請與版主聯絡。薄酬。

"But Da But Da But Da ..."

All the chew chew chew, drool drool drool of the last 10 months have finally led to CLM's top tooth peeking through!  Poor dude though, he's been so miserable.  Couple that with having a two-day fever, cough, runny nose and throwing up will get you a full-blown grouchy, whiny, clingy, koala bear CLM!  What a way to spend his 14-month birthday huh.  A couple of days pass and we notice the bottom tooth cutting through too!  Good thing the fever's gone and he's back to his albeit clingy but cheerful self this past week.

Top and bottom teeth coming in at the same time.  No wonder CLM was so grouchy.

Life's been pretty uneventful lately and I've been exceptionally lazy since I'm so behind with scrapping my P365 pics.  When I'm only one or two weeks behind schedule, I can at least sit myself down and get somewhere but when I thought about the 3 months worth of layouts I cringe.  With CLM koala-ing me a lot of the times, I'd be lucky to even go to the washroom without him crying his eyeballs out let alone sit down at the computer.

I'm enjoying discovering his new-found skills (aka developmental milestones) though.  One day he reached over to hug me and then gave me a pat on the back, then cracked me a big smile!  OMG, I so melted on the spot!  He's no longer afraid of the Roomba, but sometimes will actually listen to me when I tell him not to touch it.  Meaning the rest of the time he just ignores me and gets a kick out of getting it to start.  He points to things he wants us to give him, recognizes his BB兔 and his 含蓄的 moosey.  I love it when we tell him to 錫錫, he gently head-butts us.  That's his idea of 錫錫.  Haha~  跳舞舞 is the funniest as he swings his arms from side to side like an orchestra conductor.  He doesn't bob to music, just swings his arms.  I'm actually surprised that his bye-byes are still very 含蓄.  I have a feeling he's associated that type of wave with the term "含蓄".

跳舞舞!

Took CLM to the Sears Portrait Studio - March 23, 2013

CLM's definitely more vocal now and we're trying to teach him how to say certain things.  Although I always refer to myself as 阿娘, mom's been teaching him 媽媽.  I don't know if it's me but I hear "mum mum" all the time, especially when he's cranky and wants me to hold him.  Then it's "mum mum mum mum mum mum muuuuuuummmmm..."  His speech development comes in phases I noticed.  He'll go through a set of sounds one day, and completely move on to another the next.  By the time we catch on to his babbling sounds, he's already miles ahead of us.  Who's teaching who eh?  Sometimes we tease him and still imitate his "but da but da but da" sounds (one of the earlier phases).  We're so old school, lol.  A few weeks ago, we took him to see the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit at the ROM and he kept saying "woh woh ar!".  Yes BB, those are very big woh woh's!!

I'm here to see...

... woh woh's!

I'm not a fan of cleaning up messy food off of babies (or the floor) so I don't really let CLM feed himself.  I'm not worried that he won't learn how to eventually stick things into his mouth but one time we put a container of blueberries in front of him and he basically "chipmunk'ed" them all into his mouth!  Wah!  Where did he learn that from?!?  See, I'm not worried at all...

Good Friday 2013

 Okay, verbal diarrhea over...

Testing Waters

It's been a while since I've posted!  Yes, I've fallen behind on P365 2013 which means I haven't done much since coming back from HK.  What I finally ended up doing late last night though, was catch up on the photo-a-day for CLM.  I took the photos, just had to put them into the digital album.  Now that that's done and up to date, maybe I can tell myself to get cracking on the 8 weeks of layouts that I'm sort of dreading to do, haha...

CLM is finally walking!  That little bibibak is always practicing by walking round and around the kitchen island, stopping by the Roomba every once in a while to stare at it and wondering if he should go touch it.  When CLM was still crawling, he used to go touch the Roomba all the time despite us scolding him not to.  One time he pressed the button and the Roomba started "coming at him" so I told him urgently: "你仲唔快啲走啊!?!  Wuwu 機來咬你喇!!"  He would go "test the waters" and touch the Roomba and quickly scoot off to see if it'll actually come after him and since the Roomba attempts to re-dock itself after it gets moved, it'll start making noises which freaks CLM out even more so now he knows not to go near it.

Still no teeth, but adorable nonetheless!

However, he still tests me by going to my computer, pressing the keyboard and throwing my mouse.  We've told him so many times over NOT to go near my computer (he once picked up my portable hard drive and whipped it across the room, while it's spinning).  Last night, I was working on my computer and he would come around every time I walked away to do something, just to see what he can do and get away with.  After shooing him away a couple of times, I noticed him quickly walk by, nonchalantly press a key on my keyboard and quickly ran off!!!  That little sneaky CLM!  Giggling the entire time!  Babies nowadays are just too smart!

Spoiled?

Oh dear, CLM has been up every hour tonight since going to bed... it's going to be a looooong night..... *yawn*

Taipei Days Two and Three

Jan. 30, 4:19pm, 屯門市中心
Curtasee turned one! Omg, my little boy, one already! *tears

I'm one today!! (well, the day this pic was taken at least)

Where's my present Mammie??

*cackle*

Unfortunately, not only is his birthday present lacking (from me only as one of our tour buddies, Hans, got him a Mashimaru doll) but he was continuously sleep deprived! Although morning call was a little later, 6:45am, I still had to wake CLM up from his already scarce sleep.

Breakfast was really impressive as it was in a banquet hall type space with rows and rows of hot tables. I still don't get how people can have salad at 8 am though.  It's not the first time on this trip that I see salad offered for breakfast. I mean with Italian dressing too... go figure. As usual, I was running short if time so I quickly gobbled down some congee and we had to gather up to leave for our final guided tour day in Taipei.

Pretty much my breakfast every morning while in Taiwan

The tour guide made sure we visited everything on the itinerary by Monday so that we can have all of Tuesday to explore on our own. 文生's mom was pretty miserable from the pain so I'm guessing she'll have nothing good to say about this trip. My guess is she definitely didn't enjoy the last two days as I haven't seen her whine and complain so much, sigh.

Our first stop for the day was to check out some deer embryo (tastes like 豬肉鬆, lol) and 赤靈芝. This time we actually wanted to buy 靈芝 so their sales pitch didn't bother me as much.

鹿胎 before being ground up to a fine powder, so appetizing... uh, yeah...

Feb.1, 1:22am, at home under covers
Geez, this post is taking way too long to write!

I don't think I've ever put so much money on my credit card! Omg, crazy amount, sounds worse when we're taking Taiwanese dollars, lol.  So we got them to throw in some freebies, like royal jelly, keke.

Afterwards, we went to 圓山大飯店 to 門外拍照. Omg, I didn't know that was considered something to do, Lord. Well, we actually went inside to see some salt sculptures and look at the interior but still, I thought this stop was retarded.

Lunch was next and we went to a restaurant that specializes in group lunches. Quite an interesting concept, but food was still just meh. You get what you pay for I guess.

More interested in watching these guys make a batch of 蔥油餅 than listen to a broken record of a sales pitch

View from 九份舊街

Before heading up the mountain to visit 九份, another sales stop. This time, tea shop. Honestly, these people cannot sound more bored. But I guess if you recite the same speech 5 times a day, you'd sound like a broken record too. At least they tried to get the audience involved, but I was more interested in the 蔥油餅 making next door. Lol. Didn't buy anything so wallet saved!

I fell asleep going up to 九份 and good thing too because the ride was apparently pretty freaky. We lucked out and it wasn't raining there but it was definitely chilly. I wandered into 九份舊街 by myself, as mom wanted to rest and keep CLM warm, so I checked out all the yummy food stalls alone. There was a booth selling shaved peanut candy with 2 scoops of ice cream wrapped in a 糖蔥餅 wrapper. Quite good and not too sweet. I really wanted to get some taro dumplings but couldn't see myself finishing it if mom didn't want any. At least I sampled some. It was very Q (as Taiwanese calls it), yummy! Then I bought the worst tasting 檸檬愛玉 I've ever had. Tasteless, yuck. By the time I got to the end of the street, it was time to go back since our 活動時間 was only just over an hour.

A big batch of tea eggs brewing.  How I wish there were people around to share all the foods I WANTED to try... sigh

Yet another sales presentation was lined up, jade this time, before we left to check into our nasty dirty hotel in 西門町. CLM was fussy for a nap so I took the opportunity to walk away from the stupid 風水 lesson and sales pitch. CLM fell asleep and for the first time ever on the trip, he was able to nap properly during the day, albeit the short half hour.

Our hotel room for the final night was by far the worst I've ever stayed in. Floors were filthy and not vacuumed. Sheets were dirty, there were coffee stains on the cabinets and the closet reeked.  I should have complained.

Mom stayed in with CLM while I ran out to buy dinner. I finally got to get my 大腸包小腸, picked up 阿宗麵線, bitter melon juice for mom and bbt of course for me. I wasn't full, and I wanted ramen, but didn't want to leave mom alone with CLM too long in case he freaked out or something. Dinner was good, can't complain!

What's a trip to Taiwan without eating at 鼎太豐

No morning call the next morning, yay, but CLM didn't sleep well so I really didn't get to sleep until mom watched him and gave me half an hour to nap after breakfast. Yet I'm not the one who complained most about the lack of sleep *rolls eyes*.  I packed up everything, checked out at noon and left to go to 鼎太豐 for 小籠包! The restaurant wasn't too busy, the service was good and the servers were all really pretty. Only problem was CLM couldn't sit still and pissed me off.

Look who hijacked my pic? Get that hand outta there CLM! Really liked these dishes. Too bad they don't sell them!

Mar Mar rarely takes pics!  Lovely smile!

OMG, these were soooo good... all three dozen of them!

By the time we finished our 3 trays of 小籠包, it was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the tour to go to the airport. When we got there I thought I would use the washroom but omg, of the 8 unoccupied stalls, none of them were useable! Damn, no one flushes their crap and no one cleans! I was so grossed out. Good thing I found another secluded unadvertised washroom and it was actually clean. So much for an international airport. Sheesh.

So that was my last impression of Taipei, crappy, lol.

Such cute key chains, but so expensive!!

For no known reason, our luggage took forever to come out when we arrived back in Hong Kong and poor 阿叔 and 阿嬸 waited for an entire hour before we came out. Went back home for dinner (10pm already) and then took a really grumpy 太上文太 back out to take a taxi before going home and calling it a night. 

My much needed beauty sleep, aiya. Embrace me! (2:23am)

Taipei Day One

12:59am, 住都大飯店
Wah, what a long day today! Morning call was at 6am, with breakfast at 6:45am and off we went towards Taipei at 7:30am. CLM's wake up times and nap times were once again severely interrupted throughout the day. As soon as he'd fall asleep, we'd have to wake him up to get off the bus. Poor little guy.

Visiting Taipei for the second time as well, I also found the city to be a little different from the last time I was here. Prices have definitely inflated just like Taichung but I'm glad we're going to spend a little bit more time here to see more of the city.

Big scale model of 忠正紀念堂

The detail! So reminds me of work, LOL~

Our first stop this morning was 忠正紀念堂, a very very big museum commemorating the first president of Taiwan. It was raining when we got there so it was definitely chilly. After walking from the bus through the courtyard into the museum, I saw that they had a Teresa Tang exhibit on. So random, lol. I wasn't too interested in the history lesson, especially from the big headed, country loving tour guide of ours so I wandered off by myself.

More interested in 鄧麗君 than 蔣介石, I wandered off and saw these cuties on display

After the museum, we were sent to a ghetto pearl factory where some guy tried to educate us with a really outdated slideshow and his really dated humour. Before arriving at the factory, we were "educated" by the stupid tour guide to at least appear enthusiastic and he gave his reverse psychology sales pitch which kinda pissed me off. The sales ladies all tried to get me to buy some pearl powder to give to CLM and I really wanted to tell them to buzz off. For once, CLM's fussing was actually well received as it was an excuse for us to leave the factory and wait on the bus!

Lunch was next on the itinerary and although it wasn't anything to write home about, the place was actually clean. One of the waitresses saw that I had a stroller and offered me the staff elevator. So nice of her! While on this trip, I try to avoid drinking too much liquids as washrooms aren't exactly the cleanest and most are squat toilets. 

Next stop was 忠烈祠 at 2 pm, where we saw a bunch of soldiers exchange shifts. Sadly, it's like they were putting on a show with so many tourists snapping pictures and taking videos. That was a quick stop so we were back on the bus within half hour. Then we went to 故宮博物院 to see the cabbage and pork chop (lol) again, where CLM started a meltdown because we woke him up from his nap. Every corner I turned, there was someone with a "shh" sign either giving me dirty looks or actually coming up to me to ask me to shut him up. So I had to leave the group, leave the exhibits, find the nursing station and calmed the fat-lan-jaa-ing CLM. Because I had left without the stroller, the next half hour was brutal as I sweated through the really busy museum to find my group again, the entire time making sure CLM kept quiet. Of course he wasn't really interested in my holding him and had to wriggle around to see everything and everyone around him. I wanted to see the cabbage again and I knew the group would eventually get there so I found the exhibit and waited around for them to show up. I was so glad to see mom and plopped CLM back into the stroller. 

Since it was Sunday, the museum was packed with locals as well as what seemed like 40 tour groups. I didn't get a chance to see anything else and we had to leave.  Sigh.

All smiles, after a complete meltdown. Thank goodness for nursing rooms!

In the last week or so, CLM learned to 放電 so everywhere we went, he attracted many females, young and old!

古宮 was followed by a stop to a famous pineapple cake bakery where we spent almost $100CAD on souvenirs. Six boxes of twelve...freaking expensive bite sized cakes!

By far Mom's favourite highlight of Taiwan: FRUITS!

Once again, no junk food for me! :( What's the purpose of this trip again??

Yet another 夜市 awaits us to visit and this one's changed too! 士林夜市 is no longer in a covered outdoor space but moved into a 新街市 type building. The food level is now underground with booths selling souvenirs and carnival type games on the ground level. We bought some fresh fruit and I got a bbt and a not so great 雪花冰. This 夜市 wasn't too busy when we went but I still didn't eat anything because we were told dinner was next and we were having AYCE hot pot. Sigh, me and junk food don't match this time around. Stupid thing was, hot pot was limited to an hour only and between trying to eat and keeping CLM from fussing, I didn't get to eat much. 

Hot pot! Even though it is nothing compared to HK, I actually liked the variety

The couple at the table next to us felt sorry for CLM (probably wanted to shut him up, lol) and offered him an entire bag of rice crackers! We wanted to only take one packet but they insisted on giving us the whole bag. Wah, such nice people, them Taiwanese.

During the entire hour long bus ride to our hotel, the tour guide just would not stop talking, or rather bragging, about his life story. The entire time CLM was fidgeting and I really wanted to sock em. Both, lol.

Okay, time to hit the sack and I'm just gonna forget about the 3, yes 3, cups of 燒仙草 that the narcissistic tour guide gave us.

Gotta recharge my minuscule EQ and hopefully won't blow up at CLM tomorrow, on his first birthday! Omg! (2:02am)

More BBT, I can get used to this!

Taichung Revisited

12:39am, Lichia Royal Garden Hotel, Taichung
Our first stop in Taichung was 日月潭 which was one place I wanted to see but didn't get a chance to last time I was in Taichung 4 years ago. I didn't expect it to be so big! Actually I was pretty surprised at how much Taichung differs from what I remember it to be. Somehow everything looks so modern now. Well, more so than before but still not like Hong Kong or Toronto.

日月潭 looking exceptionally pretty in the nice sunny weather

I didn't sleep much last night as I was sharing a twin bed with CLM and he kept turning and almost falling off. Hence I pretty much stayed alert all night. So when I saw that 文生's mom wasn't napping, I asked her to take CLM so I can catch a snooze. Big mistake because she stood up to grab CLM and the bus jerked. She was thrown back and 連人帶 Cur fell into the emergency exit stairwell! I felt horrible! Good thing she only bruised her back and didn't hit her head. CLM, on the other hand, was only slightly scared. That basically meant that she was pooped for the rest of the day, from the pain and not knowing if she was internally hurt, until the tour guide brought her to the hospital for a full checkup. Thank God she's okay and nothing's broken! 

Lunch was a 風味山地餐 in which the word crappy would be an understatement. The restaurant was filthy and the food was not very appetizing. Blah.

One of our stops was a peacock garden in which stopping for 5 minutes would have been too long, lol. Can't believe this place even showcased a few roosters. I mean, really? Who hasn't seen a chicken? Better yet, who wants to see a chicken?

Hardly impressive, ya know?

So, back to 日月潭. The weather was very nice so our cruise on the lake was very enjoyable, if only I'd not listen to the stupid tour guide and took a Gravol! I should have known better. I didn't start feeling really sick until we got to 文武廟, where I unfortunately threw up everything, including lunch despite taking a Gravol. Hence I only hung around outside and didn't bother going in since I'd get more sick from the incense. I hate feeling nauseous.

See that orange covered area to the far right? That's where lunch came up. All of it :(

Last stop before dinner was a quick unguided tour of 埔里酒廠 which was actually a museum-like place where you walk through and look at containers, videos and whatnot.  I was more interested in finding what local food was worth trying as opposed to peering at the overpriced tourist trap of stalls that sell wine jellies/snacks.  That's when I spotted our two tour guides head across the street to a 酒釀豆花 stall, bought a cup each and simply devoured it!  Hmm, I thought to myself, they wouldn't eat touristy crap food if it wasn't good, so I thought what the hell, I'll go get some too.  It was actually pretty good!  Couldn't taste any alcohol whatsoever, but the 豆花 was really 滑.

Giant canteen outside 埔里酒廠 welcoming visitors

酒釀豆花

Yummy! and slurpy too!

Just before 6 pm we arrive at 逢甲夜市 which I visited in 2008. Boy did it change! By this time I noticed CLM has a fever again so when 太上文太 went off to the hospital, I went to get some cold patches for CLM. The poor dude. The 夜市 was a complete madhouse and we had to be back at the bus by 7 pm so once again, I didn't get to buy what I wanted to. The lineups for 大腸包小腸 were at least an hour long each, the streets were so jammed packed it makes the DVP during rush hour look empty. Things are about 30-40% more expensive so I basically left with a papaya milk shake for mom and a couple of rice stuffed chicken wings. Now I know why there was no lineup there lol.

These LOOK good at least!

Um, can we say, LINE UP?!?

We checked into the hotel and for interested parties, the tour guide brought us out for bbt (outside of our itinerary). Apparently it's the place where bbt was invented back in the 80's. I admit, the bbt was pretty good despite the price tag but the food was mediocre. Once again maybe because I didn't eat it fresh. Everyone wasn't feeling well, including me, so I just went out to buy takeout. While I was at it, I walked further to Watson's to get some diapers for CLM but they didn't have any! Had to go even further to a pharmacy and by the time I got back to the hotel, it was after 9 pm, CLM was cranky, my headache was still in full swing, hives flared up again, angry MIL and I was not even hungry anymore.  Poo.

Most expensive BBT I've had in Taiwan!  NT120, four times the cost of an average

Wake up call is 6am tomorrow and I know I'll be cranky. I just hope CLM feels better. (1:21am)

Taichung looks so different. Now, what pharmacy doesn't sell diapers?!?