Taiwan - home

Mom spent 2 weeks in Taiwan. I thought she'll like it here since people here are genuinely nice. And especially respectful of older people.

Plus mom as a shopper is a really difficult one - I believe we got yelled some choice Cantonese words in Hong Kong some years ago - just from her style of shopping. Frankly, I think she sometimes deserves it.

But in Taipei, you can stand in line to buy a latte in the mornings and then change your mind a couple of times and still be served with a smile and an easy 沒關係 (it's ok).

To my chargrin, it didn't quite work out so rosy. She explored as far as my neighbourhood and refused to venture beyond. No taxis, no MRT, no buses. Anywhere on foot she was ok with, but having to take some form of transportation scared her. And this is the same mom who quite happily rode the London double-decker buses to downtown High street during my MBA days not too long ago - alone. She asked around to find out what buses takes her whereever she wanted to go to in London.

Yes, she was scared in a city (Taipei) that is possibly the friendliest in Asia - my sincere opinion.

Despite Taiwan's warmth and genuineness, it could not compensate for the low levels of spoken English on the streets of Taipei.

Mom was afraid of getting lost and then not being able to communicate with anyone. And that fear alone stopped her from venturing beyond the small radius of home.

It is a pity.

It's getting cool here

Today it's 22 degrees. Funnily it got cooler right after mom left. She kept whinging about how hot it gets - it was probably 25 degrees while she was here *roll eyeballs*

I really don't get it when Singaporeans bitch about the warm weather. Comeon already, we're south-east Asians, we live practically on the equator, don't tell me you hide out in an AC room all day. It's such pretentious, phoney behaviour that makes me sick.

Ok, I'm grumpy... I'm coordinating the next Marketing Summit and it has been eventful. Originally planned in San Francisco and then last minute big boss man says move to Houston. And we scramble to change. I hate the mothercity of cowboy state. Hate is a little strong yes, perhaps I strongly dislike. True to form, the cowboys start to whinge almost immediately. Oh, the venue we're considering is too far, the 1 hour commute is too long, oh the place is too dangerous, too expensive... Hello? There's people flying in from France, Singapore, Taiwan, California and Florida - and the Houston people are complaining a 1 hour drive is too far?

I've been sucking it all in and patient. But I lost it on Friday late night, pushed over the brink by this 1 rude cowboy who ironically worked out of the Taiwan office for almost 2 years.

What was Sunday's sermon about? Love. No. 1 love the Lord Your God with all your might and all your soul. No. 2 love your neighbour.

Think happy thoughts... going back to my Alishan weekend. And if you think these photos are gorgeous, well, I shot them. Yeah, me and my lousy skills achieved this - you can imagine how much more majestic in real life the sunrise or the 2000year old cypress trees look (and smell). Oommms!

Of mothers and Alishan

Having my mom visit for 14 days in a tiny apartment in Taipei was perhaps too ambitious. Despite me dragging my colleagues out to eat with me and then even dragging a few of them along with us to Alishan for the weekend, still, it really highlighted the difficulties we've had in our relationship.

I discovered I actually disliked being around her to listen to her whinge, complain, blame... I naturally walk away from her whenever I can. So much so that my colleagues would walk with her and then yell me... a common refrain was, 你又忘了你妈！You forgot your mom again!... Actually I didn't forget, I'm just plain avoiding.

Despite my best efforts at love - the Bible says so, when I see/hear her, I just want to flee.

I would imagine when couples divorce after many years of marriage, citing irreconciliable differences, it's because the hurt's so deep, that you're really beyond caring. Just a simple sentence brings with it a huge wave of anger/hurt that's accumulated over many years.

Don't get me wrong, I do all I ought to. I take her to dinner every night, we visit night markets, I took her to all the places a tourist should go in Taipei. I give her all she needs. When she nags, complains, I remain silent. But I just don't want to be close to her!

At times like these, it would do one well to count our God given blessings :
- mom is healthy
- she lives in Singapore
- I live in Taipei
- my 2 brothers take care of her (thank you 2!)
- my colleagues are really sweet people - thank you Rae especially! You'll make a great daughter-in-law one day
- weekend in Alishan was fantastic. The cypress woods with trees up to 2000 years old.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157608210290955/

- and most of all, Jesus loves us all.

“All Prayers Answered”

From Fr Philip Heng's daily reading commentary -

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures us that all our prayers are answered because God loves us. If we are not convinced of this Truth, then either Jesus is lying or we are “blind” to this Truth. Love and Trust God more and we will experience the Truth of what Jesus has promised.

Thu 10/9, Gospel - Lk 11:5-13
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”

Diving can be pretty therapeutic...

Went diving over the weekend in Kenting. I had heard the water visbility wasn't as good, plus our original plans was Orchid Island which is the best diving Taiwan has to offer... but typhoons kept wrecking our plans.

Kenting was a last minute decision as well - after the typhoon veered into Hainan narrowly avoiding hitting Taiwan for yet another weekend. Pictures parked here!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kci9kimo/20081003#

I had a great weekend! And I have a happy song stuck in my head...

More bad weather forecasted...

By Shelley Shan STAFF REPORTER TAIPEI TIMES Wednesday, Oct 01, 2008, Page 2

Those who have outdoor or travel plans this weekend may want to reconsider. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday that a low-pressure system near Guam has been upgraded to a tropical storm and may approach Taiwan this weekend.

The newly formed tropical storm is named Higos, which means “fig” in Spanish.

At press time yesterday, the bureau said the center of Higos was located 610km southeast of Manila, which is about 1,600km from Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻). The storm was moving northwesterly at a speed of 20kph. The radius of the storm was 200km. CWB forecast center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said the tropical storm is near the Philippines, and its structure may be damaged by land there.

It was unlikely that the storm’s intensity will gradually increase at this stage, Wu said. Nonetheless, Wu said sea temperatures from the east of the Philippines over to the South China Sea are still quite warm at this time of year. Even after the storm sweeps across the Philippines, it is in an ideal environment for developing into a typhoon, he said. Wu said the bureau would be better able to determine the situation tomorrow.

If Higos does approach Taiwan, it would be the fourth weekend in a row that a storm will have threatened the nation. Typhoon Sinlaku hit Taiwan on Sept. 14, Hagupit loomed off Taiwan’s coast on Sept. 21, and Jangmi just left on Monday after battering the nation with strong winds and rain.

The bureau yesterday added that a dry seasonal northeast wind is expected to arrive today and may lower temperatures in the north to 22°C or 23°C.

In related news, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday that Jangmi caused the nation some NT$1.37 billion (US$42.5 million) in agricultural damage. Broken down by sector, NT$1.22 billion in crops were lost, translating into 15,491 hectares of land, with rice paddies being the hardest hit, and grapes, bananas and other fruits also being affected. Nearly NT$5.61 million was lost in livestock and the COA said that almost 110,000 chickens died because of the typhoon.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education yesterday said it would allocate NT$15 million in emergency assistance for schools damaged by Jangmi to help them re-open.Around the country, 56 schools remained closed yesterday because of typhoon damage, the ministry said, adding that it was the worst typhoon damage in recent years.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MEGGIE LU AND CNA

Typhoon Day Holiday Today

Ah the feeling of waking up at 11am on a Monday morning... ZZZ...

Stuck indoors again - typhoon no. 4

Typhoon Jangmi approaches -4th typhoon to hit us this year and also the strongest storm. It made landfall in Yilan, where the Central Mountain Range buffet the biggest impact.

We've had typhoons hit us every weekend in succession. The land's still pretty waterlogged in the mountainous areas and low lying areas. Lots of landslides plus shaky bridges are still unfixed - a bridge in Taichung collapsed during last week's typhoon, rescue workers are still trawling for the bodies of the 4 missing people. May God have mercy on their souls and their bodies be recovered quickly so that loved ones have closure. This time around, the authorities are more conservative and took better preparations. Thus far, things are better.

Jangmi typhoon kicked up winds up to 250km hit northern Taiwan, Hurricane Ike which caused so much devastation in Texas was only up to 233km/h. In Hualien, a tour bus flipped over on its side - just shows how bad the wind was - fortunately no deaths.

Before the typhoon hit, yesterday, I was in Fulong 福隆 yesterday (Sat) with Rae, Alex and Pingfan for some cycling off the North-East coast of Taiwan. A newly restored old train tunnel - the Caoling Tunnel is also the basis of an old Taiwanese folk song. In fact Rae sang almost the entire song as we cycled through it. It's about 4.6km and then we went back to Fulong for the famed Fulong biantang 便當.

Then we cycled in the opposite direction intending to cross a nice drawbridge. But we missed a turn and gave up after the scenary turned industrial. Plus it got dangerous when the traffic around us were mostly semi-trailers.

I was a little wobbly initially - having not cycled in a while. Rae cycled behind me, yelling warnings at me every so often - 小心！Disclaimer - I was preoccupied with the scenary and wasn't watching the front too often. In fact at 1 stage, I got too close to Pingfan and our tires met briefly. All she yelled was, 请不要碰我！The Taiwanese sense of humour is really subtle. Kills me everytime.

Emotions, feelings... groan!

All this Aunt Agony moments I keep having is starting to grate on me. It's either that the girls in the office are younger with an active social life or that I'm just in the office a lot/online so much that I get dumped with these moments.

Looking back, I realise that I've endured that a lot - my whole life in fact, I've spent many hours sitting around and being that listening ear.

The thing is, it doesn't make me feel good - if anything, it reminds me how much I lack in terms of BGR (boy-girl relationships). I only had 1 serious relationship with Hon - and he left me in the end. And late at nights, alone, all these come back to me in the form of inadequacy - how lonely I am and how much I want to have my own family - husband and kids.

Maybe this is mid-life crisis and singlehood for too long - all rolled up into 1 messy me.

Gah! Does the good Lord hear prayers anymore?!

Oh and I finally got around to parking the Snow Mountain trip pictures. Due to typhoon, we weren't granted a permit to climb the Eastern Peak which was the plan. But since we were already there, it became a camping trip. The views of the Snow Mountain area are really spectacular, a pity we didn't make the summit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157607431238395/

Divorce and reality

Recently 2 friends got divorced. Both of whom are great, really nice people married to seemingly nice decent men. What's happening today?

While the Church's stand is pretty clear, the rising number of annulment it grants is also a telling story. http://www.catholicinsight.com/online/church/divorce/c_annul.shtml

To those going through/midst of divorce, may the good Lord stand by you, strengthen and be with you.

My Assimilation is Complete

Found myself downloading Jay Chou music on a Sat morning... I hereby pronounce myself truly assimilated to life in Taiwan.

Ignore the fact that just 2 days ago in China, the factory guys thought I was some ABC (American born Chinese).. Boo! They all came up to me speaking really stilted English cos someone told them that I don't speak Chinese. I'll kill whoever that's spreading such vicious rumours...

It was supposed to be a fun island weekend on Orchid Island. But as it turns out, Typhoon Sinlaku has other ideas.

Let's just say, there were some pretty long faces in the office yesterday. Those of us "supposed" to be lying on the beaches of Orchid Island.

And I have no clue what to do this really wet and windy weekend... lie in bed somemore or hit the gym..

PS I bought a bag for mom in Shanghai - and thanks Steph, but I made it safely out without any dramatics.

Citibank - my credit card of choice (again)

Thank you Mr Pradeep Pant - VP of Credit Cards Taiwan and his assistant Sophia.

My faith in Citibank Taiwan is reinstated.

Pick me up Tuesday

It's a Tuesday night and Emily wanted to order pizza and work late today again - I refused! Managed to convince her to go out eat, then return to work. We went to eat 小籠包 near Guting MRT station. And feeling poor after buying some hiking gear (we're going to Jade Mountain in Oct! I bought a new Lafuma jacket and she hiking boots), we walked to take the MRT instead of our usual taxi after dinner. Plus we overate - ok ok, that's the real reason. We were too stuffed and needed to walk off our bloated bellies.

She pointed down 1 dark dank lane and said, hey massage place. Now those 2 words are magic to me, so I walked down with her. She is right, the lane was pretty interesting. It has an antique shop, very traditional provisions shop (with all the 7-11s and 24hr convenience stores in Taiwan, it survived!), some quaint old buildings. While walking back out to the main street, we saw this interesting shop. I thought it was Japanese curios, Emily though jewellery, it was a very high class Japanese styled desserts. All hand sculptured. You have to see to believe how pretty they are. Fillings range from redbean to green bean to some jelly. We ate 1, the yellow bird. It tasted really good! The owner came out to chat, she spent 2 years in Japan learning the craft. And it takes up to 15mins to make a single complicated one. Makes for good gifts. Might buy some for Michelle when I next go home. The store is called Tang Ho 唐和.

Sunday - Fitness 0, Culture 2

The excesses of the week caught up with me. Basketball with Paula (from the office) til late on Friday and some really hard routes at the Wanhua rock gym Sat morning plus the preparation run sessions I had all week over lunch -> it all took it's toil on me. I forget sometimes that my body is aging faster than my mind. Or is it the other way around... hmm...

In any case, I overslept my Nike Run on Sunday morning. I was all prepared! I was eager, I was excited, I was tired. I woke up with a start and it was 6.14am. Grr! And the weather was beautiful! And it was a new route - a 10km run! And the president of Taiwan ran too!

So when I met Ghee Hwee for church and lunch at 10-ish, I was super grumpy. Pissed at myself. Dumped on her and felt much better by end of Sunday. Poor Ghee Hwee...

Complained to her thru lunch and by the time the ballet started, I felt much better. :)

Oh yeah, we caught a ballet. The Russian Ballet was in town, we caught the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky. It was simply fantastic. I yelled bravo at the end of the performance, much to Ghee Hwee's consternation - she hissed 'this is a classy place!' at me.

We walked around the area afterwards and realised the Woolly Mammoth exhibits were on display at the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall (just behind the National Theatre where the ballet performance was). It was ok, just a bunch of tasks and fur and lots of teeth. I guess a lot's lost in translation - it was almost 100% in Chinese.

Fitness 0 (for missing the 10k run)
Culture 2

Not a bad weekend.

Window Cleaners

I was in the pantry with Emily this afternoon. She was whinging about how difficult the HP digital camera was to use while as usual I ignored her and made tea.

Then these 2 guys popped up and she snapped this shot - they actually posed for us.

Ain't it cool?

Wild Wet Weekend

As you can see, I spent my weekend, skipping rocks, platform diving, sliding/floating/bumping my butts in a stream. Well actually 2 streams...

I went with Rae, Alex and Emily to Miaoli, 2 hours drive south-west of Taipei. It's called 溯溪 or River tracing, popular in Taiwan.

We were deep in Ayatal aboriginal lands, nestled amongst the beautiful mountains, where the air is pure, the stream waters icy cold and crystal clear, with birds & insects chirping and the sounds of water gushing down waterfalls... Being one with nature, and I loved it!

Altogether we walked in 2 streams. A baby one on Saturday and a much harder one with bigger rapids on Sunday. Thankfully I bought new booties just before the trip that comes with green-wool sponge attached. It's uniquely Taiwanese and creates very good grip on slippery rocks.

My camera isn't waterproof - but the others in the group had great pictures -http://photo.pchome.com.tw/spark00/082/

My pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157606943035548/

I really enjoyed the weekend, the only thing that got me was the icy water temperature 22degrees.. brr!

After all that activity, I managed a nap, ahhh...

A Season for Everything

Ecclesiastes - Chapter 3:1 to 8

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

I went back last week to attend the funeral of my beh-day (or Eldest uncle in Hainanese) - Cheng Sim Kin.

After my paternal grandparents passed away, he has assumed the role of patriach the last 3 decades, and he did so dutifully, responsibly, cheerfully, quietly.

So he returns to Jesus and we're left behind to pick up the pieces. Pls keep the Chengs in prayer. It was especially hard on the immediate family - my aunty and cousins.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

To 43 years of nation building - Majulah Singapura!

Funnily enough, it took me being out of my homeland to discover how much I love my country.

I had the national flag as my MSN picture since yesterday and was feeling all patriotic and all.

Over my boring lunch hour (I should be in the gym, I know, I know) I browsed Mr Brown and it killed me - I had to seriously stifle my giggles. http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2008/08/singaporeans-in.html

To all your Singaporeans overseas - stand up and sing in 1 voice "count on me singapore!" cos the cold & paternalistic government of ours certainly couldn't care less.

Climbing 七星山 - tallest mountain in Taipei City

Finally I made it up 七星山 or 7Stars Mountain - which at 1120m is the tallest mountain in the district of Taipei City. We took about 2 hrs to huff and puff up and slightly over an hour to walk down. It was a beautiful walk up. After the midway point, we were enveloped in the clouds - the pictures I took doesn't do the place justice. It was simply heaven on earth.

After the walk, Peter scootered over the other side to show me 擎天崗 or Jintiangang. That's our next planned walk ;)

Lazy week out of office

Out of office all week!

At Green Island decadently lazing/diving/eating/sleeping til Tue. Wed to Fri at a Marketing training + offsite.

Monday (today) is declared a holiday all Taiwan, we're cowering at home from Typhoon Fung-Wong. At this current moment, the eye of the storm is in Hualien - I suppose cows are flying about there...

I should take that bad. The farmers and people of Taichung/central Taiwan already suffered floodings from heavy rains brought by the last typhoon - Typhoon Kalmaegi which hit 18 Jul. I saw on TV these same people again evacuated last night for fear of landslides and floods. My heart/prayer goes out to them.

Green Island is being battered bad right now too - pictures on TV shows waves of up to 3 stories high...

I still have 2 calls today : system team meeting at 2.30pm and a regular conf call with Houston at 10pm.

First up, nap... zzz