My new exercise regime

Xinyi Sports Complex just opened, and it's right behind HP. From now til next week (I think), everything's on free trial.

http://www.cyc.org.tw/xysc/intro/intro.html

There's even an itsy-bitsy wall, worth bouldering for fun.

Emily & I went over and signed up for 4 classes of Pilates - Mondays over lunch from Jun 1.

I figured I'll bring my rock shoes into the office and perhaps go bouldering over lunch - since it's soooo convenient and it's free for the next couple of days!

Gasp! I saw Vanness of F4!

Seriously, I saw Vanness of F4 - i was waiting for the lift which was taking forever. Then the lift opened and right there, Vanness! He looked really good. Sigh. Truthfully, I only know a couple of things about him -

1. He's hot - look at his abs!

2. From many years ago, CY (our planner then) thought Terry Teng looked like Vanness of F4. CY while she's a great person, doesn't have very good eyesight. Terry Teng is NOT Vanness.

3. Vanness was on TV a couple of nights ago, and he quietly talked about no premarital sex until marriage. That he wanted to put God first. I respect this guy, to say that on Taiwan tv where he's a big star.

How to count calories

Ok, so I realise that my really inactive lifestyle in Taipei is not doing my health much good.

I eat erratic meals, I don't work out enough and there's way too much junk food consumed.

Counting calories, I realise I only need 1600 calories a day. I think a single biantang costs me close to that already *gasp*

Gotta get an exercise routine going. This ain't good.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598

Sick

Yes, I caught the dreaded flu and no, it's not swine flu.

Yes, I'm ok now and no, I did not have a good weekend.

Yes, I slept it off all day Sat & Sun and no, I did not go to the exciting and free Turtle Island cruise nor, did I manage to RUN UP THE 101!!! Which I trained 2 weeks for!!! Arrggh.

Yes, my emotions are ok now and no, I am not totally over missing the vertical marathon.. it's the 101 *whine*

Yes, I've forgiven Rae for passing me the flu and no, er.. I lost my train of thought.. I need more sleep - my head hurts.

Reminiscing Australia

Watched the movie Australia on my HDD - my colleague Emily er.. acquired the movie.

It was nice hearing the accent again. And watching the red dusty soil of the outback.

That plus the weekend in the cypress woods which smelt of Australia.

Hmm... reminds me of 15yrs ago when I was out at Geelong.

Sigh.

Happy mother's day

1 day belated. Hey, better late than never - as mom would say :)

I can't believe this, but seriously my mom used quite a few of these words...



So I called her a while ago...

Another weekend, another mountain...

First trip with HP Mountaineering society to 太平山 and a visit to Kavalan whisky distillery (the only one in Taiwan). The hikes we did smell fantastic - the cypress woods I guess. It smelt like spas most of the time. Really enjoyed it, except it was mostly steps - like being on a stairmaster all weekend. My calves ache like hell now.

And the other highlight was the whisky distillery. It's recent, into it's 3rd year and as the whisky distillation process takes 2 years, technically it is the first year of producing whisky. I bought 2 bottles back for Michelle/Ian & Calvin. We got to sample a small sip - it's nice. Rae and I clink glasses and downed it, much to the consternation of everyone else at our table, we got dirty looks of 'you alcoholics'...

Our overall itineary

5/23(六) 第一天(午餐自理)
6:50 am 台北集合出發=== 8:20 太平山入口(土場)，停車購票=== 9:15 太平山莊下車，整裝
9:30 搭09:30 分蹦蹦車去走三疊瀑布...每一小時一班，若沒搭上09:30 分蹦蹦車，就先遊走
鐵杉林自然步道全長1.7km，再搭10:30 分蹦蹦車去走三疊瀑布～～步行
三疊瀑布2.7km 下切3 百公尺，若不想走這麼累的人，建議可以走茂興懷舊步道
14:00 搭14:00 分蹦蹦車回太平山莊，Check In，自由活動，下列步道依個人體力作選擇，
於當日再召集有興趣者共同出遊，
1) 鐵杉林自然步道全長1.7km
2) 鳩之澤自然步道全長2km
3) 見晴懷古步道全長2.35km
18:20~19:20 太平山莊用晚餐，夜空數星星太平山莊(宿)

5/24(日) 第二天
5:30 起床...看日出，不看日出者可繼續見周公
6:30~7:20 太平山莊早餐，
7: 20 集合，7:30 搭接駁車往翠峰湖===8:20 抵翠峰湖～～8: 30 台灣山毛櫸步道入口
8: 30 台灣山毛櫸步道～～3.8 km * 2 來回約需220 分鐘(普通腳)，若不想走這麼累的人
中途折返，建議可以走翠峰湖環山(湖)步道
12:00 回程往太平山莊===12:50 抵太平山莊
12:50~13:50 太平山莊午餐
13:50 集合上車，14:00 開車前往金車KAVALAN Whisky 酒莊===14:50 底達酒莊
14:50~17:50 金車酒莊參觀，品酒，喝咖啡
17:50 集合上車===18:30~19:30 礁溪用晚餐(Option:礁溪洗溫泉，不包含於費用中)
19:30 上車回台北===20:30 底台北

IRAS - truly blood sucking

I realized last night that I was still getting monthly GIRO deductions made out of my SGP bank account.

I have been working in Taiwan since Aug 2007!

You'd think IRAS would realize that when my net income in 2008 was a big fat 0!

So much Singaporeans being global citizens, IRAS needs to get with it!

I called this morning, spoke to a Puvana who told me I still need to write in either email or via fax - "black and white", ironically what Jack Neo's movies always say. Not so funny when it happens to you in real life.

IRAS! Stop deducting my $ and I want a full refund with interest! You blood sucking vampires!

Steph, call IRAS today and tell them you work overseas or they might do to you what they did to me!

I made it to morning mass!

It's a first time since arriving on Taiwanese soil. Yes, it was all in Chinese, but for what it's worth, I'm happy.

I was walking home last night and thinking about my Catholicness - I couldn't explain to Emily (my co-worker) how many archangels there are, and why Michael is an archangel. And I felt so guilty. I suppose I could've taken that moment to explain about Jesus.. but I let that moment go by. And in the morning, I woke up at 6am (having slept like perhaps 3.5hours) and could not fall back to sleep.

Guess it was a sign, to go to church, to receive Communion and to take an active stand as Catholic, as Christian.

Dame!

I've been saying that a lot lately.. dame means 'very bad' in Japanese.

Esp now. I finally made it back into the gym after 2 months. It was dame! I was seeing stars after getting off the treadmill, after running 30mins really slowly. Had to sit to recover. And the stars returned after 20 chin-ups (assisted of cos!).

Dame! I either gotta work out more or that age is catching up on me and I gotta ease off. Hmm...

Long weekends are the best!

Labour day fell on a Friday giving us a long weekend. I had intended it to be a slug weekend - sleep-in and watch movies/tv etc...

As it turns out, I did labour a little - cleaning the house, stocking the fridge up with food/drinks, doing laundry and ironing my clothes. The day to day errands that I've neglected since I started working til late nights the last 2 weeks.

Also I had dinner with Sharon who was in town - we had mala hotpot which gave me the runs. I hate eating mala hotpot with the inexperienced. They kept throwing in raw food and not letting things cook thoroughly... Kinda negated the otherwise excellent mala hotpot dinner.

Saturday, Garin called me and made me go down to Zhongli - 45mins away by train out of Taipei to race each other silly on go-carts. Go-carts here are 270cc, pretty powerful lawnmover engines ;0 Then we came back to Taipei and ate ourselves silly.

As we sat there talking over dinner.. it felt like old times all over again. Not too long ago, it was just me and Garin, exploring Taiwan. Then Vinny and Kuansie arrived here and the dynamics changed... for the worse. We spent some time discussing it, and wondering what exactly happened and how it could've avoided - we put it down to just personalities and differences.

In any case, it was nice having Garin to hang out with again. We met up again Sunday to catch X-men Wolverine.

And just like that, the slug weekend came and went.