Phiten-ed

Decided to check out the Phiten shop since it's on the walk home anyways.

The lady at the store was pretty nice - I still have the Phiten plasters on my left shoulder (she says leave it for up to 7 days) and she also applied the Phiten fluid onto my sore shoulders. I climbed the night before - the bloody sloper route killed me. I feel like Ms Hardcore - got 'koyok' on my shoulder 1st time in my life.

I bought the wrist band afterall. Hopefully it will cure my achy fingers of my right hand. Wasn't too expensive - NT490.

Lee Ang's "Lust, Caution"

Ashley gave me free tickets! Yay Ashley!

Taiwan being a more sophisticated society, showed the movie in its entirety - read no censorship.

Personally I thought the sex in it was pretty unnecessary, isn't the movie about war and the underground resistance against the Japanese occupation? The steamy sex scenes took away some of the message - or at least I assume that's the message Lee Ang had.

Garin seemed to enjoy those scenes alot - he even noticed details like how she didn't shave her armpit hair, how you can see Tony Leung's balls... Maybe the Catholicness in me blocked my vision, I caught nothing!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/lustcaution/trailer/

Vanity thy name is woman...

The weather's gotten colder - it's now 22-25 degrees celsius. I had to go shopping for warmer clothes.

Tagged along my colleagues expecting to just buy a jacket or 2. I ended up spending almost $500SGP - bought all the furry stuff I always wanted but couldn't in tropical Singapore. I even bought boots that stop just shy of my knees. Garin thinks it makes me look slim. Hee...

It's only Oct and I'm cold. Probably I'll just die in Dec... Brrr...

Important milestone - my first scooter ride last night. Peter whom I met at the climbing gym gave me a ride to the MRT station after our climb. I had wanted a scooter so bad when I first got here, but everyone else tot it a bad idea... well, i guess scooters are really overrated. It was er.. dusty.

The weekend I forgot my camera...

The weather turned cooler - it's now average 22-25degrees, grey, drizzly mostly. This affects my brains - I am more forgetful now. Ok ok, it's an excuse. I missed numerous photo opportunities this wknd.

Saturday
Promised the hardcore folks to do this. Buy Longdong topo guidebook. Once done, went to climb in the gym in Beitou - Idea. It's way bigger than Y17 and open in the day (Y17 only open to public evenings) and allows leadclimbing. Cool!
-- forgot camera, no pix. Imagine.

Sunday

I tot I saw rafting at some activity centre near Shilin. So Garin and I went to verify this unreliable info. So I'm wrong. There IS an activity centre, but no rafting. The Keelung river nearby stinks and is too pathetically narrow there anyways.

We were right by the Grand Hotel so went up to check it out. It is beautiful! I want to get married here! First I need a guy to marry, small technicality - sob! :(
-- forgot camera, no pix. Kicked myself. Imagine.

Then we went to Tienmu for dinner as Garin's never been there. This is like little America, actually it's rather nice. Quieter, nestled again mountains, just no MRT station nearby and a little far out of city. Lots of little restaurants and stores. Saw a Hello Kitty store and spent some time giggling thru it.
-- forgot camera, no pix. No cutsy shots. Imagine.

There's also a Phiten store there. I was tempted.. but resisted.

We eventually ate at a Chinese restaurant that had Peking Duck in its signboard - but they bluff us, they ran out of duck! Dang...
-- forgot camera, no pix, no duck anyways. Imagine.

Messy then massive cleanup week

Calvin came to visit Monday shortly after I returned from Houston. He bought a birthday cake - awww.. how sweet.

Also gave me some cushions for the couch so the place looks more homey.

The whole apartment is so small - with their luggage and me sleeping on the floor downstairs, it got a little cluttered and messy. I took 4 hours to clean up after they left and felt so good - it's true, housework is rather therapeutic.

Nontheless they left Friday early morning, and on Friday evening when I came home to an empty home, I missed them. Missed all our night chats. Sigh. I miss my big bro... Comforted myself with the last slice of my birthday mango cake - cake is good... and he's right, my fridge is set too cold, i had to thaw it out a little first before gobbling it down.

Greeted home by Typhoon

Another typhoon - 4th this season greets me. It's nice to have someone (thing?) meet you at the airport. I did however get a great taxi driver who literally backed into the main door & deposted me and my 60pounds of lugguge dry and at my doorstep. Can't ask for more. I have his name card - the best taxi driver I've met thus far in Taipei.

Typhoon Krosa lashes Taiwan, halting air and sea traffic - from the China Post. It's stronger than the last one which gave us a holiday ;) but as it hit Yilan - which is real close to Taipei, it's really windy and rainy right now. Probably stay in, unpack, nap and do chores like laundry.

The last 2 weeks in Houston was nice. It was good to meet the extended team in Houston, plus I got to eat my brains out with hamburgers, tex-mex (I love tacos and enchilladas), pizza. I added 1 kg butt (pun intended) my body fat went down - probably due to the 3 guilt induced gym visits. The Hilton Garden Inn gives you free access to a huge 24hr gym just behind it.

Nice to be driving again - I miss driving! Just that driving on the wrong side of the road took some getting used to.