Diving pictures - my 1st!

My top 3 (personal favourites). I esp like the cuttlefish that didn't go away and actually tried to frighten us away by assuming a larger personna. Interesting!

Diving with a camera is kinda fun. It gets a little hard to balance and hold still regardless of currents. But otherwise, I try not to turn completely into photography mode, ie I dive per my normal self and the camera comes into play only when something is really interesting.

The full lot is parked at my flickr -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157617298444301/

And of cos the selected lot on FB.

Busy and tired of it all...

Been busy for a bit now... after a row of working til midnight, it's all starting to get to me. I'm tired of working 13hrs in a day and still not feeling I'm in control of things. I hate the feeling of people asking you for something and you do your best 'deer caught in headlight' look.

Walked into office bitching to Emily about wanting a job switch. She in turn has BGR issues, so it was me bitch to her, she bitching to me... Sigh.

The good thing is the weekend's finally almost here.

And, I'm going to Kenting to dive.

Plus, I have a new underwater housing (thanks to Francis!) for underwater photography!

Expect some underwater pix here shortly.

Cycling in Taipei

Woke up early on Sat to go cycling with Rae & Xinhan from the nearby National Taiwan University (NTU) grounds to 和平公园cycling trail by the river.

Me with my sunscreen..

Rae. See our foldies? I just realized our bikes aren't the same models! Her's is Dahon Vitesse, mine's Dahon Roo. What's the difference? Who knows...

Rae - she was folding her bike back up.. yelled at me, no pix! Xinhan in the background.

I used to begrudge the cyclists in Taipei, how they ride so carelessly on pavements and through pedestrian crossings.. so dangerous!

As a cyclist & a scaddy-cat Singaporean, when I approach a crowd, I freak out and try to avoid them all. But Rae and Xinhan just plows straight through into the crowd and magically sail along. I tend to swerve to avoid people and do circles about the crowd only to eventually lose my balance and then stop and walk my bike through the crowds. Sigh.

Seriously, the best thing to do is plow straight through... Also perhaps safer as it's a predictable path and people know how to avoid you.

In any case, NTU grounds are big and very little cars/traffic. Can head back here later.

Of cos after cycling, I went home to take a long afternoon nap til dinner time. Being a slug on weekends feels great.

Stop the world, I wanna get off...

It's been an insane week. I had taken a couple of days off as I had Francis then Yz & Drea visit me in the last weeks. That plus the new platforms are being RFQ-ed right now, a lot of discussions/conf calls of late.

By the time I waved a teary bye-bye to Yz, my ignored work had snowballed out of control and I was buried under an avalanche of emails/undone tasks.

In a valiant attempt at regaining lost control, I worked til almost midnight in the office before giving up.

It's truly, thank Jesus it's Friday and end of week!

Nice song!

Saw Miley Cyrus perform this on American Idol last night. Pretty cool song!

The Climb - Miley Cyrus

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing,
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes they might knock me down but
No I’m not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on,
cause

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you’re going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It’s all about
It’s all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

He hears...

He hears... our risen Lord hears.

I whinged about how He asks me to give all the time. But then in return I received a dive housing for my camera and a pretty little 5 leaf plant.

I whinged about He sends me demanding strangers from out of the blue and asks me to be nice to them. But then I get an unexpected thank you email and that was nice.

I whinge about how I feel so stuck in my career. But then I get a call from a head-hunter offering me a regional director role. Ok, it's just talk for now, but I get it the sweet gesture.

On this Easter week, I wish you all the intimacy of our Risen Lord.

What's in a holiday?

I realise everyone has a different concept of a holiday, my experience of having people crashing at my little apartment here a lot.

So when I read this comic in today's papers, it really made me laugh.

Must life be so action-packed then even our holidays represent our work life? I do recall some years back when I still had a bf (*sob*) he complained that I didn't know how to chill out. Well, yeah, we were lying on a beach on beach chairs reading our books and I got bored after 1 hour.

Guess this confirms me as being a type A character. Great, destined to die the same way my pa did - can't overcome genetics I suppose.

Happy Palm Sunday!

With Palm Sunday, we're into Holy Week. I really can't wait for Easter, I love Easter.

Oh and Yz arrives Thu thru to Tue. Yay! Time to head out to the 1st hot spring :)

Francis here last week, then a couple of days to recover at work (oh the backlog of emails.. argh) then Yz!

It was nice having Francis here - together we explored Tainan (the historical part of Taiwan as it's the 1st capital city) and also climbed at Longdong again (a much better experience this time around vs that eventful trip with the hardcores when I first arrived). Going to Longdong was much easier this time around - we hired a van! And the driver Mr Xie mobile no. 092896928 used to be a climber! What're the odds? He happily took pix of us while we climbed. Thanks Mr Xie, you made the climb trip much more comfortable and convenient.

Me on a nice long climb... ah...

too much holidaying... my head hurts

Normally I'm sluggish while in Taiwan. I make unambitious plans for holiday - I hit 1 city 1 day.

In the last couple of days, I've dragged Francis along to Hualien/Taroko Gorge for the weekend, taken him to various night markets, eaten various taiwanese fare. Yesterday it was Tainan for the day. Tomorrow it'll be outdoor climbing at Longdong, off Keelung and the northern coast.

I'm kinda tired right now. My throat is not feeling too good and my head feels heavy. I had 150 emails today and I'm down to 50 and I need to get my weekly report out as well. It's 7.30pm and I'm a bad host - asked Francis to go explore Shilin night market on his own.

Sigh!

While I love exploring Taiwan and I'm glad Francis is here to do it with me, I think it's too much of a good thing. My mind's exploding with glee, my body's too old to cope!

Wish me luck climbing tomorrow - will need to double down on the anti-inflammatory drugs tonight.

Francis in town

Francis finally visited! We went to Hualien + Taroko Gorge over the weekend. We spent half a day in Hualien - basically just following Rae's list of to-eats : from dumplings to dessert to pancakes. Then we rented a car and drove ourselves into Taroko Gorge. It was great! Our pix are being parked.

Yeah, Francis helped me buy (an English speaking) digital camera to replace the one that was stolen from me - boo you thief! Mostly he has control over it, so please, no comments about the photographic skills on my Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157616127698862/

We just got back from beef noodles + ice monster at Yongkang Street, and I'm sitting at my favourite time of the week - the marketing meeting conference call. :( I hate these late night conf calls!

Planning to take Wed (go climb at Longdong) and Fri (climb 7stars peak at Beitou, followed by visit to Tainan). At least that's the plan!

Management of Change

My new manager Edward who came from supply chain has been most helpful. Today he got someone from supply chain, a project manager to come give us a lesson on Mangement of Change.

I thought it might be interesting, plus it offered free lunch since it was scheduled between 12 to 1.30pm.

The guy starts to talk and then I realized he literally was talking about a management of change project.

WTF?

Our whole life's a change! I'm in IT - for goodness sakes!

We're talking about Moore's law and Chaos theory here and he's coaching us about getting a sponser + project manager for a change?

It was too rude to leave after 15mins of him talking, so I ate my free sandwich, complained to Ghee Hwee via MSN, then starting clearing my emails. Tried to type as quietly as I could but I bet that guy was silently cursing me.

So this post is dedicated to Ghee Hwee - she suggested I blogged about it. On hindsight, I think she was trying to get me off her back. Hmm...

Weekend amongst the trees

The good thing about living in Taiwan is that the mountains surround you. In just 2 hours, we went from urban Taipei into the mountains around Hsinchu.

It was a weekend of 霞客羅古道 and 鎮西堡巨木群. Translated, it means I walked amongst trees :)

Honda said it'll be an easy weekend of easy walks. He brought his family including his 2 kids. Others brought their 3 year olds along. Frank brought his 2 year old Scottish terrier. It can't be all that difficult a walk right? So Rae and I happily joined.

Day 1 (霞客羅古道) was nice, a nice flat 10km route through the mountains. This is an old Japanese built trail and we were literally amongst the tribal villages of the Ayatal people (aborigines of Taiwan).

Day 2 (鎮西堡巨木群), we woke up at 6am, over breakfast it started to rain. In the rain, we rode a van to the trail head - loaded up like cargo, our bruised butts bumped around for that painful half an hour ride over a dirt/rocky path. By the time we walked into the cypress forest, it was raining even harder. Thankfully my new Mammut goretex jacket & that 200NT rain pants + my goretex hiking boots kept me dry. Technically, I was wet - from perspiration. The elevation was crazy - we kept climbing until we saw our first cypress trees. Then you feel it is all worthwhile.

More pix here - http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/9718picture-9718picture/gallery?fid=105&page=1

The rise of China

Over lunch, I had this argument with my co-workers (who're Taiwanese) on the use of Simplified Chinese. As with most Taiwanese, they feel they are the main protectors of the Chinese history, culture and language. And while I do agree to a large extent (China went through the cultural revolution afterall), on language I beg to differ.

Language is supposed to evolve with people - if it doesn't evolve, it dies, like Latin did and such.

Simplified Chinese will one day be the no.1 language - whether Taiwan likes it or not.

Just purely on the backs of China as a new superpower.

I was in Palau 2 weeks ago and if you spoke English or Japanese, you're easily understood. There will come a day when speaking Chinese will get you understood all over the world.

When we, the descendants of the dragon 龙的传人 (the Chinese race) will be as widely welcomed and accepted worldwide.

Don't believe me, here's a hint of things to come...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/16/business/compete16.php

My best diving ever in Palau

Palau is just a short 3 hour flight away from Taipei. And in that 3 hours, we went from 17degrees to 27degrees. Ah.. paradise in the sea.

We set off Friday night, arrived in Koror, Palau early morning, took a 1hour nap and then the diving started.

Altogether we did 9 dives : German Channel, Blue Corner (twice), Blue Hole, St Cardinal, Chandelier Cave, New Dropoff, Big Dropoff. Snorkeled Shark City where sharks swam right by you, huge remora fishes swam minus their host shark - one of which tried to stick to Blues when he was showing off his free diving skills :) And the highlight was swimming with jellyfishes who have evolved to lose their stinging abilities.

I was a little spooked initially - been stung bad before. But these ones are really harmless.

The huge schools of fish, the sharks that swam lazily by you without fear of humans, turtles that ignore the harassment of divers. I grew so blase that I found myself stroking a manta ray (yikes!). It swirled around and bared its teeth at me. Tsk tsk!

Pix of me coping a feel of the Napolean wrasse after it gobbled my hardboiled egg.

We stayed at the Palau Hotel which is Taiwanese owned (naturally since I was in the company of a Taiwanese dive group) - it's a little old and smelt a little musky, but otherwise was clean and comfortable enough. The location is very convenient, right smack center of town.

I really enjoyed every bit of it. Kudos to Blues for pulling it all together.

Coco's pix - http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/cocoislandphoto/98030610palau#

Jack's pix - http://cid-4febe688e58ae2dd.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/20090306%20%e5%b8%9b%e7%90%89%e6%bd%9b%e6%b0%b4%e8%a1%8c

Blue's pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aniceday0101/

good weekend

Saturday - Culture Day!
I visited first the Taiwan National History Museum where the Silk Road/Xinjiang treasures were on display. The centerpiece was the Loulan Beauty, a Tarim mummy preserved in the arid/dry conditions of the silk road sands. It was super crowded, which took a little off the enjoyment of the place, but otherwise, very good exhibits.

Next stop : CKS memorial hall where Andy Warhol - king of pop art was on display. After Xinjiang, somehow the light-weightness of pop art really sank in. But the vivid colors and the cheeriness almost outlandish styles was pretty uplifting. While it was also crowded, the real crowds were in the gift shop! There was Andy Warhol everything, from the standard mugs and tshirts to stationery, fridge magnets etc. The queue to pay snaked all the way out, seems like 50 people long. While I would've liked to get a poster or 2, the queues put me off. Perhaps another day or not all all.

Sunday - Sports Day!
Since I was still nursing an achy middle finger tendon (not sure if it's from over-climbing while in SGP or washing my electric blanket out after winter - perhaps both!), so no climbing for a little bit more...

Cycling - I finally bought a bike! I went to the Giant shop nearby chuch in Minsheng E Road. Original intent was a simple mountain bike but those cost up to 8k, and are ugly! So I got a Dahon foldie in pretty red for 12.5k. Then I cycled it home the 4k distance. It really surprised me, it's speedy and I could hit speeds of 17-20k quite effortlessly despite of its tiny wheels. The only unfortunate was I picked a really cold day - it was 16degrees and cloudy. It was a little cold for me.

Gyming - and then I hit the gym in the late evening instead of cycling my little foldie around. Just too cold today.

Guess what I'll be doing next weekend? I am diving Palau! Whale sharks, hammer-head sharks, manta rays, here I come!

Happy Ash Wednesday!

To further reinforce the depressed mood everyone is in of late (with the added pain of a 5% salary cut), Lent is suddenly dumped upon us.

Went to Ash Wednesday bilingual mass (only the sermon) at St John Bosco.

I was happily singing in Chinese until the part where it goes, Lord grant me peace or, 主赐我平安. Unfortunately I sang it as 主踢我平安 or, Lord kick me into peace. You will not believe how much restraint it took, not bursting into laughter in a very solemn mass.

After mass, I took a bus home, stopping by the nearby 7-11 to buy milk. I forgot that I did not clean off the ash cross mark on my forehead. And the Vietnamese priest drew me an ultra thick and black one for added effect. Great, all of Taipei now knows what Catholics do during Ash Wednesday mass.

Buzz

I visit Maggie's new place, it's way out in Hsindian (south Taipei) plus it's on top of a hill. Yeah, it took forever to get there, but it's really nice once you get into her estate. It's brand new 3 storey houses (yeah, landed property in Taipei). And gives you an awesome view of the nearby mountain range. Simply breathtaking. Her house is very nicely done up too.

We had some BBQ, then Emily & I left early to meet up with Ghee Hwee for KTV. The taxi ride back into the city district costs us 500NT. (Indicator of distance!)

KTV started out really fun. Cos there's only 3 of us singing, it was nice wholesome fun. Emily sang some Taiwanese songs (Taiyu), we did some rock numbers, it was hilarious. Then someone suggested alcohol.. We thought GaoLiang sounds interesting, plus we giggled at the listing "Yushan Gaoliang Chiewh".. chiewh is wine literally spelt.

So we ordered that. And we toasted the first glass to each other. And Emily & I were drunk.

Somehow Ghee Hwee single-handedly got us both home. Emily was worse off, she was sleeping on the couch and we had to walk her up 5 floors to her apartment.

It's all the blasted 5% paycut.... (easy excuse for all our sins).

Gaoliang incidentally is 38 to 63 percent alcohol content. My personal advice, do not ganbei with it.

Let the bad times begin

1 week ahead of Lent, we were informed of a 5% paycut for all HP employees. Boo!

Considering that our increments are like, 1 or 2% annually, 5% takes me back a couple of years. Double Boo!

Just last weekend, I went to Iris' new place for a housewarming party. It was nice, brand new building, 10mins walk to Ximenting, overall almost 40pings. You know, it made me want a new apartment. Even though I did at one point in time own a new apartment, I never had the experience of furnishing it, living in it. I was toying with the idea of moving. Seeing how I am in a rental place anyways, I could always move to a nicer place, today's economic climate it's possible to find a brand new apartment for roughly what I pay today in rent.

But with that 5% pay cut, perhaps I should be more prudent. Triple Boo!

Spring time!

Strangely it got warm a little earlier this year. It got as warm as 28degrees on Friday! The flowers - cherry blossoms in particular, are starting to bloom!

Here're some pictures on my walk in to work of the gorgeous cherry blossoms,

Not all the trees/flowers bloom though, some still think it's winter,

Spent the weekend putting away winter clothes, removing my heating blanket and washing it all.

The Chinese New Year latern festival is held at the Sunyatsen Memorial Hall, GH & I wandered through the park after work on Friday night. I remember last year (my 1st time), it was cold, crowded and I was really impressed with the displays. This year, it kinda lacked atmosphere.. or I'm just getting jaded, or I'm really rueing the fact that I have no camera to take pictures with cos some thief (my handbag was stolen in early Jan at the Sheraton Taipei hotel) is happily using it. Here's my 1 picture of the night - it had Singapore in it!

Please excuse me while I practise my forgiveness exercise again... ommm!

Back in Taipei

Back at Taipei.

Had to reapply for new phone SIM card, new ATM card, everything was froze after my handbag was stolen just before going back to Singapore. Now I have to reinstate stuff. Tedious, plus costly as everyone wanted a replacement fee. It sux.

Today's Thu and I've hit the gym once, the rockgym once, and 1 super-duper heavenly massage. Quite proud of my self discipline.. for now.

Last week I was gushing to my best friends about Wall-E being the best movie of 2008 - IMHO. And he commented that it's cos I'm lonely so I can relate to Wall-E (the sole robot left on Earth). Now that I'm back in Taipei, and back to er.. being lonely, just sets me thinking....

Hello God?