Taipei Day 7

The girls enjoying their drinks at the streetside cafe

We had some shopping at the
早市 near our hotel. Bought some very nice
水蜜桃 and guava

Megan wanted to have a pic taken with the cute characters on the pillar outside
小林煎餅 shop

Megan having her silent moment before checking out from our 'home' for the 7 days. She and Matilda were repeating the cheers of "
台灣加油" and "
我愛台灣" (they picked up from the Typhoon Morokat charity TV show) all the time, on that day

Taipei Day 6

Very nice chicken soup restaurant in
師大夜市. Dap had
蛤仔chicken soup while I had
鳳梨苦瓜 chicken soup. Pigs blood cubes and vege made up the rest of our dinner.

Didn't take any pics except the 2 above for the whole day... 6 days of carrying Megan is no joke!

Taipei Day 5

Megan enjoying her cake @
古宮 museum. A big pity that photo-taking are not allowed in the museum

Nicely mod car outside the Adidas Original shop @ the quite groovy
敦化南路

Yielding to pedestrains? Why didn't they use the simple "giving way"? Hahaha

Taipei Day 4

中正纪念堂

西門町

Famous Mee Sua (I don't find it nice though)

台南 cuisine = Nice!

Yummy indeed

Taipei Day 3

Waiting for food @ Kiki (Sichuan Cuisine: had Pigs ears and spicy bamboo shots amongst others)

Matilda @ 101

Matilda & Megan with the 101 mascot

Megan & Me @ 101

Guppies catching in
繞河夜市

Taipei Day 2

九份老街

九份

Nice spread of very fresh meat and vegetable @ Momo Paradise (Its eat till u drop)

Waiting for the food to be cooked in the steamboat @ Momo Paradise

鮮芋仙 Desert

Taipei Day 1

Our Home for the 7 days in Taipei

The girls in my life enjoying
啊給 fishballs in
淡水老街

Ferry Jetty @
淡水


Matilda & Megan enjoying the
捷運 (MRT) ride to
士林


The sign shows it all. Haha Not! (Didn't take any photos at the Night Market as too tired from carrying Megan)

Taiwan Holiday

Or should I spell it as Taipei instead because there's effectively where we were for the whole of the 7 days. We could not go anyway outside Taipei as a result of the most devastating Typhoon that hit the Island nation in 50 years, a week before our trip. We were already thinking of calling off our trip after seeing all the news report in the papers and TV. Was a bit devastated as we had been wanting to go for our first trip to Taiwan.


Luckily, as the days drew nearer, we got to know that Taipei was relatively unscathed. In fact, Taipei was not even raining much for the few days prior to our trip. On hindsight, I wished Taipei was raining a bit more ... for the entire 1 week we were there, it was bloody bloody hot! I have a bit of a tan now. Because of the fact that we could not go to any of the other attractions outside Taipei, the highlights of this trip were the shopping, eating and more shopping and more eating... I think I have eaten a whole months worth of my normal intake of food in my seven days there. Luckily because of all the walking while carrying a 14kg 2 year old, I did not put on much weight - 1 Kg only


Well on the whole, purely on the merit of all the things in Taipei (boh pian), I would rate the trip as slightly above average. I was most impressed with the courteousy of the people. I was offered seats everytime I board the MRT (was carrying Megan all the time!). Also, taiwanese girls are mostly pretty, with nice figures :P And they are so 'tair' in the way they talk, no matter whether 15 or 55. Not saying that I am sucker for this 'tair-ness' but it beats the 'por la' way that many Singaporean girls talk anyday :P Taiwanese food, from roadside stalls to the restaurants are also nice. The major minus point though, has to be the super hot weather! We were sweating loads! Will remember not to go Taiwan in August again.

Red Heart - Part 3

The Reds on Cruise:

This song for the gaffa, Rafa Benitez

Red Heart - Part 2

The Reds on Cruise:

1st song is for Carragher - Vice Captain

2nd song is for Jay Spearing (promising reserve team player)...hahah he was not expecting that

Red Heart - Part 1

The Reds on cruise:

Hahahah... Sore throat + A pint too much = Bad bad singing. Torres was a little embarrased but still acknowledged me. My effort paid off :)

I miss Scuba!!!

Last night at my HTAC SO reunion, 2 of my cronies were talking about their respective plans to upgrade their Scuba skills. Hearing them talk about Scuba made me so envious! Its been 8 years since I last dived. I remember all the fun and great experiences in my diving days. We were so on the ball! The almost weekly boat rides out to P. Hantu were followed by dives in bad visibility. They were good training though and brought about the greater appreciation for the good dive sites overseas (remembered being blown away by what I could see in the water of pre-commercialised P. Redang). I enjoyed diving so much that at one point I was even considering making a career out of it. Alas, the good days didn't last and our divings 'ground to a halt' when my mate is cheated by his dive shop partner. All of us have since 'retired'...all except Alvin. Alvin was the last in our group to pick up diving but he is the only one regularly diving now. In fact, he is damn super on about diving. His underwater photographs even get featured in dive magazines from time to time.

Sigh. When will I get to dive again?

NDP - Duty to Nation

I have just handed over duty after a 12 hour, weekend DO shift. On another day, I would be getting ready to go back to home sweet home. Not today. I am going to continue to work till almost this midnight. Its National Day and I am on standby at the F1 Paddock Carpark. And if that's sad, I will be on standby again tomorrow at Istana for the National Day Reception. *Sigh* Boh pian...Hobson's choice. Well, I should be getting used to this, shouldn't I?

Since the NDP in 1997, I have been involved in many NDPs...er I can't even remember exactly how many. The most memorable has to be the 1st one -

when I was in the RSN Guard-of-Honour contingent. Months of months of training, everyday waking up at 5am in the morning to draw arms, all to ensure the clockwork like drills in the 4 main parades that year. The NDP being the last one, was also the easiest one (shortest time, least amount of drills). It also filled us with the most pride, with TV coverage, 55000 live crowd watching in the stadium. Without being biased, the Navy No.1 is by far the smartest - White peak cap, white uniform, white boots. And the attention of the crowd and bystanders during training and rehearsals never failed to vindicate this.

Anyway, my role in NDPs nowadays is very different. For starters, there is none of the glamour that I basked in as a Guard of Honour. Instead of the all whites of the No.1, I am donned in the hue of navy blue. And instead of being part of the performance, I am in the back seat, on standby for any contigencies (touch wood). Regardless, despite the small complaints, deep down, it still fills me with pride to be able to contribute in the biggest National celebration event of the year :)

Gracias Xabi Alonso

To the tune of the Beatles' song, "Ob-la- di, Ob-la-da": "A-L-O-N-S-O, its Alonso, Xabi Xabi Alonso..."

The greatest, longest transfer saga for this summer has finally come to an end. Xabi Alonso has gotten what he wanted. It still does my head in, trying to figure out why such a top top pro like Alonso will want to go to the circus that's Real Madrid. Anyway, Alonso was adamant and there's absolutely no way Rafa would have done any better in dealing with that. Full credit to Rafa for not being bullied by F-ing Real Madrid and keeping to our valuation. I won't begrudge Xabi.... kudos for handing in the transfer request and saving us your massive, loyalty bonus. One of Rafa's first signings for Liverpool, Xabi has been nothing short of brilliant for us. Testimonial of his class must be the determination displayed by Real Madrid in signing him.

Xabi, thanks for Istanbul, the wonderful goals, the superb passes, the brilliant tackles....

Thanks for the memories...

Nunca caminarás solo

"Chairman Mao has never seen the greatest show of red strength"

Its been a week since Liverpool came, saw and captured the hearts of many Red fans of this tiny island nation. I bet many of the Liverpool staff and players would have been shocked at the level of support that fans from 7000 miles away from home(Liverpool) could reach. Even Carragher and Sammy Lee who were here (the last time Liverpool came to our shores) 8 years ago would have been surprised at the huge support this time round. All the peripheral events prior to the match have one thing in common - Red fans galore. Even I was surprised by the Singapore Reds when I was in the stadium. I must say that theres probably more Red shirts in the stadium than NDP time. It was definitely leaps and bounds better than during the match eight years ago. At least this time round, theres some Kop songs being sung, albeit by small sections of the crowd only. Just as suspected, theres still some way to go for Singapore's Reds. But definitely, theres big progress. I still remember the first time the Reds came to Kallang all the way back in 1991. 99 percent of the fans back then were so much more ignorant about the Reds. One instance which sticks out was when it was announced that Steve McManaman (an exciting youth player then) was coming on as a sub, the majority of the crowd were laughing at the stadium announcer, and saying that he should have pronounced it "Steve McMahon". Steve McMahon was of course the midfield dynamo of the first team. But I and my mate could tell at once, from where we were, that the player about to come on was indeed the tall and lanky McManaman and not who the majority others thought it was.

Talking about progress, I really really wish that the team can build on last years great great effort and emerge the Champions this time round. Alas, we were so bloody close - 4 bloody points short! With Rafa at the helm, I am really sanguine about the prospects. By the look of the support in Singapore I am surely not alone in the level of optimism... Whatever it is, the famous team in Red will never be short of support :)

SANGUINE = WITH HOPE = RED