My Exhilarating 2015

Hi,

2015 has been good to me mostly, and this blog post is to commemorate such a good year, that is SG50 for Singapore, the first time of many things that happened to me in my life.

The year started off being sad as I celebrated being single for yet another year again. However, not long into the new year, I found Chiwawa, the girl who gave colours to an otherwise boring and aimless life. With me being attached would mean lesser time for Dota and Yong Sheng, whom I play NBA 2k15 together every weekend, which is the only activity i look forward to as a zombified working adult.

She wasnt working when I first got together with her. This is a stressful thing not because i have to provide for her; she is fiercely independent, but because she have too much time on hand and i have to deal with a project that was nothing less than a pressure cooker. As every start of a relationship, especially that she is my first, she was my everything. Juggling with work and her would mean that i ended up exhausted physically and mentally, leaving me with no time for any other things, including visits to AWWA, meeting up with friends and doing my own sports and leisure.
Idling is also bad for health. With too much time on hand, she has no idea what to do, and her self esteem suffered very badly, especially when her peers are doing pretty decent while she does nothing for a living.

Things got better as she devoted more and more effort into finding opportunities everywhere, learning new things from reading and surfing the internet. And she finally found her job!

She was my lucky charm. With her around, i felt that i am the luckiest man on Earth. And so i started joining Facebook contests that i have always dismissed as waste of time. It wasnt long before i won something. The first of them all is a pair of computer chairs. Then things gotten more interesting. I won things ranging from Collagen drinks, vouchers, Beerfest tickets to foodstuff goodie bag and even a Diskette, a useless relic in the age of Cloud storage. But my best win is still a Braun Buffel clutch and long wallet which eventually went to mummy and Chiwawa.  I have to apologise to my mummy and lao sis that they have to accede to my requests to go get my freebies as collections are usually Monday to Friday working hours.

Work have not been easy this year. But despite tough times with the project, being there allowed me to get into contact with another group of people that are mostly unrelated to the rest of the company. You see, most staffs that are hired into this project have only ever worked in this project, and have never felt the warmth nor the good working culture of my company. So being there makes me felt like being in a different company. These people are generally nice and funny. They taught me many different things, both technical and soft skills. They also showed some negative examples. 9 months in the project was enough for me as firefighting for a prolonged period took a toll on my mindset and turned me negative. Fortunately for GTAP program, i have a legit reason to move out of it.

In my new department, people are even nicer. they understood that i have been firefighting and they are very supportive of me when i requested to clear my leaves, despite them having manpower issues as well. They are willing to teach, and while they do not give you everything, they would always give you a guiding light instead of letting you chase down the wrong tunnel.
I was also given a chance to attend high level meetings. Such meetings are eye opener as being at the lowest food chain of the company, we are non contributors in the meeting, and will only take up space. However, company doesnt think so and gave us chance.

This year also gave me chance to go overseas with someone to accompany me. Though we only made a major trip, that is Taiwan, we made mini trips like going to Penang to visit her Maternal Family members, and to Batam for a super short birthday getaway. We also have a rolling good time having a staycation at Xiuhui's hotel.
These small experiences were my first, and every time i see you falling asleep, I JUST FELT LIKE PULLING OUT THAT OVERFLOWING NOSTRIL HAIR. LOLOLOLOLOL. okay, i just feel so blissful.

But not all went well.
Some time in May, me and Chiwawa almost met with a fatal accident where a single lamppost stopped a car charging in our direction.
Quarrels still happened.
My regular visits to my old friends have became irregular until to almost none.
Less time at home and seeing popo getting older is also a painful process.
New home have yet to have any positive news as the year ends, moving towards a another new year.
weight wasnt lost.
OT and weekends working became more common.


Well, thats abt it! shall add more when im free!

The epic trip to Taiwan 2015

Hi,

I really think my Taiwan trip is a freaking interesting trip, and therefore I would really want to introduce our itenary in this blogpost.
I do not claim any credit for this itenary as it is done up by my super detailed friend, Alvin Ng.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25169194/Taiwan%20Itinerary%202015.docx


So since we started our trip slightly earlier than others, we explored the area for Wen Quan. And yes, we did found it. It was a pretty comfortable experience, although the place looked like an old children water playground. No photos taken inside, but here is the exterior.


Nearby, there is this pretty epic fishball soup.
And since we explored this place without following the itenary, this place is known as Da Keng, which is damn near the Carton King that we would go on the next day...



this is pretty stupid. we went to the same region twice, two days in a row. The bus ride was nightmarish. the theme park is pretty boring, but if taking nice photos is your objective, this is a good place to go to.

And of course, since we are at Tai Chung, and staying in the midst of Feng Chia,nighttime would definitely be to scout Feng Chia Ye Shi for food and deals. For that, no photos were taken because of how devoted we are to our shopping and eating.

So the last full day at Taichung, we decided to book a van for the 6 of us to visit some Meh meh, building and some flower place. 

The Cai Hong Cun has nothing but decorated graffiti all around the place. While i find the place underwhelming, the history behind the place is pretty rich. An old man who refused to be relocated, started painting his area with weird yet striking graffiti, and ended up drawing enough attention to let him preserve the place and became a tourist attraction.

Pardon my 3 month pregnant stomach

Next, we head to somewhere with flowers. This place is pretty high up and hence it was kinda cold. At first look at the place, we thought it was a natural outdoor flower garden, with the temperature of Gardens by the bay Glass Domes. But as we zoom in into the flowers, we realised that not all the plants there are real. Some are plastic. But i enjoyed the place anyway, as i get to feed some ducks.

The last place is CingJing Cao Yuan, where sheeps roam and eat food off your hands. My suggestion is to get a big pack of sheep food and walk around and feed those hungry sheeps. Although there are shitload of grass all around the place, im pretty sure those sheep food pellets are akin to our titbits because they definitely prefer them to eating those lush green grass.

So after that day, we took a bus to Ri Yue Tan. To be honest, Ri Yue Tan is a place that i will only go once in my lifetime, similar to Ali Shan. 

At Ri yue tan, since 4 of us stay in a different hotel as the other 2, we happened to know that the other 2's hotel have better deals, as well as better services. 

I would suggest you go Mei Jen house if you are able to book it.

Anyway, there is a tour that you would require to buy ticket for the boat ride, and they are selling at 300twd. This is a price that you can try to haggle if you are lucky enough. Some people bought their tickets at 150, some 200. but mostly locals gotten cheaper tickets. 

I would say the island hopping was pretty much dull, apart from 1 of the island with an old street selling amazeballs food, which was mentioned in the itenary.

the dinner at ri yue tan as suggested is this!

The next day, we headed for Ali Shan, and thats the first and last time i go there. because going there is a PAIN and there isnt much to do. if you are expecting to see Ali shan de Gu niang who would serenade you with beautiful voices, sorry. all you get is shitload of trees, that are very pretty as well.

So after 1 day in the mountain, we went down to half way in the mountain. The tea garden minsu is pretty. but no aircon, which is okay, since the weather in the mountain is still quite cold. To me, we could have decided to explore alishan den gotten to halfway mountain to stay, instead of spending the night in alishan. this is because at alishan, there isnt much to do. and neither is there much to do at mid mountain during the night. 

the minsu is expensive, but that is because there isnt any cheap hotels in that region. 

And anyway, the only place we can go in mid mountain is fen qi hu. this place is worth going IMO, because this old street is pretty good to walk about, with some pretty decent food like the epic donut we ate there. oh, and not forgetting the squarish bamboo forest.

After this, we are back to Taipei, which is pretty much all about shopping. At there, we didnt have any photos as it is only 1 night for us before going back. but the rest stayed on, and the itenary also covered some of the nicer place to go in Taipei. 

Taipei is all about ye shi. So do remember to visit all of it, and take it easy during day time. their ye shi closes late, so u can shop till late, and wake up later.

Thats all folks!

This is a wonderful memory, and since i have no permission to post photos of others, i shall only include photos of 2 of us!