Photos of Trip to Taiwan (January 2011) =D

Capturing the CNY mood before take-off to Taipei...


Landed - at Taipei Train Station for the very first train journey to Hualien =)

First meal - a Taiwanese Bian Dang (modelled after the Bento) - made popular especially in the 1960s...


Some pictures of scenery of northern Taiwan as the train continues to run along - it will take 3 hours before we got there...

Finally! - At Hualien Train Station (In Chinese)

Hualien as a town itself is peaceful and quiet - especially so in the mornings - and we then move along for our tour or Taroko Gorge ( or Tai Lu Ge in Chinese)...


A look at the mountains around Hualien - a preview of what's to come at Taroko...



A first peek at Taroko as we reach after a 30min drive...

Stopped for a change of helmets - a dead must because of the real threat of rockslides - the guide mentioned that the most recent rockslide happened just 9 months ago - killing 12 tourists alive...

A view of the mountains upwards...

And a view of the river that runs below...

At Kaohsiung - at the hotel I was going to stay for the 2 nights...

Taking the Metro to Lui He Night Market - very similar to our own MRT....

The sign to Liu He...

And finally - yay! Personally for me this marks my return to here after 7 years - the last time I was here was during NS.... haha =)

And a picture of us both - haha I won't show the food eaten here - but do try the delicacies (chicken chop, stinky tofu, dumplings etc =) )

At entrance of Cheng Qing Hu...

Update (November 2011)

It has been quite a long while since I posted here – the only explanation I can give is that I have been too busy to look at it...

But yet still I try to look for an opportunity to update – today happens to be one such day which I can talk about what happened since the last time I wrote... I shall try to stick to the usual proceedings =)

First things – work updates. I have changed my workplace – after spending two and a half years at a place in Upper Changi Road North near Selarang Camp... I always wondered how would I feel as I would send the final email that would tell all the peeps that I am gone and thanks for everything. My feelings on that day – and I would not forget that day – were mixed. This was largely because while I could finally say adios, I had to stay for a very long while to do so. When I did type that email – I sent it at nearly 10.30pm. That wraps up the way I entered and left Prisons – alone when I came in, alone when I went off.

And now I am at a new place at Novena which the work culture is decidedly better – I suppose it is a whole new change of environment – with different bosses, a different working culture and different set of colleagues. Having to work in an environment which bosses and colleagues are female in majority is a challenge – that is a marked departure from the previous environment which is all male. Still, that has to be accepted given the fact that there are generally more females in the workforce. I suppose the new found independence which I am given to complete my taskings is also something which I treasure now, but now expected to manage better. Its a steep curve to learn which I am supposed to help as soon as I can – and I admit that I am just trying to learn as much as I can while trying to be an effective contributor as well. Coupled with a change of bosses (yes, yet again similar to Prisons after a few months) and it all becomes a bit trickier. But there is only one direction – forward. And forward I will go to achieve better results.

Secondly – home issues. My nephew has mastered the ability to walk – and he cannot stop walking. He somehow derives the fun and joy when walking such that he will laugh and keep going around to the same places and then mutter something else. But I am quite sure he will be able to master the art of talking as well – and I can see that he will be quite a chatterbox – like me when I was a kid =D However all this is tempered by the fact that my grandfather is not feeling well – and that he is generally very weak. This may have come partly due to longstanding back and neck pains which have hurt his appetite as he consumes less and less despite the best efforts of my grandmother and my mum in making him eat. Seriously, I hope that he lives well to see my big day next year....I truly hope he does.

Lastly – this leads up to – yup, myself and my fiancée. We finally had our luck with our flat application as we managed to get our flat at what we think is an excellent location – the only downside is that it is near the ground floor... But nothing is perfect in this world – so we will take it anyway.

Before I proceed on, the reason to why I have mentioned fiancée is because – yup, I have proposed =). Should clarify that as I did not mention it in my previous post – actually I did it sometime back....

Yup then on we already went to settle other things...the hotel’s done and dusted – as in admin wise, while we are busy with the photoshoot. All things smooth, we should be able to resolve that by next month. Therefore the only thing that remains will be to settle things for the actual day and honeymoon...which I don’t think I can mention yet until the end of the year...

And yes, I missed the IPT training deadline for my IPPT – that means I have to train on my own and try to pass IPPT – and I have only 2 months to do it. Still, given the fact that I have been on an extensive training and gym program which I have lost considerable weight (no, not kidding – 10 kgs of it) – I hope to clear that asap. Otherwise, it will be quite a major issue.

Will be in Korea this coming Sunday for a week – I will update with photos and a post trip report =)

To sign off – here are some pictures of the trip in Taiwan that I did not post (yup I know it is super overdue...) - I will post up the link in the next few days...

Mid 2011 - elections and work and everything else...

It has been a long while since I updated my blog here - but several things have happened since the last time I updated here - here goes then...

A first overseas break in more than a year brought me to Taiwan - long overdue I think - but it was a good trip all the same - went on a hectic round the island trip encompassing Taipei, Hualien, Green Island, Kaohsiung and Alishan. More pictures on this can be found on my facebook profile, and definitely with my beloved with me it was all the more sweeter. We sure experienced a lot of good food, good scenery and comfortable rooms as well - especially with the mountainous ranges in Taroko and Alishan, and with the city fun in Taipei and Kaohsiung. We even had fun exploring Qijin in Kaohsiung on a bike which broke down on our way back =) The only regret that we had was that we were unable to see the sunrise in Alishan which was spoiled by a heavy mist. But in conclusion, we decided that we would come back to Taiwan soon - but not sure when...

But the trip back home brought about a bout of gastric flu to me which did not make me enjoy CNY then - but anyway I suppose it is easy for one to pick up illnesses from another country and suffer so..yeah...

Next up is on work which I will probably move on to a new place soon - but the only problem to that is that I am rushing to tidy up a lot of things before handing over and moving to a new location soon. It is still ongoing, and my scheduled time has been delayed to two weeks from now. At this time, my move has been overshadowed by the posting of my colleague which undoubtedly she has done a lot better than me - so she will be missed. Not that I care much though - I intend to carry my lessons learnt to my new place which I aim to do better. Anyway, my new workplace happens to be at Novena - so thank goodness I need not travel so far...

Following up then is the elections just concluded yesterday. Campaigning and publicity for various candidates had been ongoing for a very long time - for myself I took the time to enjoy the mood by attending several rallies - including rallies in my constitutency which had not been contested in 20 years. I will not comment more on the candidates as there are a lot of posts that can found elsewhere, but the conclusion of this is that this is a watershed for Singapore politics and nation-building - with the rise of the post 70 and 80-ers the perception of good governance will differ, and this is here to stay.

On home issues, celebrating the birthday of my nephew was a big thing - he sure can talk and has grown teeth - but he has also grown very stubborn as well - and clamours after my parents who dote him a lot - obviously...haha... but I love him all the same =)

Finally, with my beloved - I suppose the only thing I can say is that we can say is that things have picked up a lot more quickly for us both... mainly because we are pragmatists haha... we have sped up applying for a lot of things and bought some stuff as well...and things have not ended for us yet. Obviously we have experienced our highs and lows especially with the HDB - but life moves on... Will update as soon as there are developments =D

Ok...that's all from me...hopefully more of the good and less of the bad for the rest of the year will do me just fine =)