Month: March 2007

It was a good weekend, tho I’m really beat right now… Here’s the summary.

Thursday – Shwe’s birthday party. We surprised him at his house and had his favorite food – pizza!

Friday – Climbing with Julie, Wasi, Josh and Pei-Yean – Pei-Sun’s sister. Pei-Yean had just flown in from Malaysia on Thursday night, went to Shwe’s party, and then came climbing with us. She had been sleeping all afternoon, before climbing. And we all went out to eat after climbing at 10:30. I didn’t get to sleep until 2:30am.

Saturday – woke up at 7am to go hiking with Anu and Jonathan and their new husky mix, Chutney. We went off to Montara Mountain in Pacifica. It was good to catch up with them. I hadn’t seen them in awhile. 8 miles, and we were done at 2:30. Right from the parking lot, Mike and I changed and took a hard bike ride on the 1 for 1.5 hours. And afterwards we went the Asian Film Festival to watch Shanghai Kiss. I would review it, but some folks I know are going to watch the second showing in SJ this Friday. And of course, we ate afterwards. I didn’t get to bed until 2am.

Sunday – woke up at 8am to go on Yet Another Hard Bike Ride – for about 2 hours, with Mike, Ky and Ray. Afterwards, we had an all day affair with the Karims, because Akil is moving to LA next week. We had brunch at Stacks, drove up to Golden Gate Park to check out the De Young Museum. I shopped with Zainab a bit in the Haight, and we went to eat a Burma Superstar. Yummy, but the wait is so long that they make you put your phone number down on the waitlist and they will call you when the table is ready! And then we went to the venerable Ghirardelli Square to have an Earthquake – 9 scoops and a ton of toppings. I didn’t sleep until midnight.

and it’s not going to end there…

Monday – climbing/date
Tuesday – swing dancing
Wednesday – another asian film in SF and eating afterwards
Thursday – mixers and bowling
Friday – climbing
Saturday – go kart racing, and dinner

sheesh!

April 22, 2001 – the day we took Ruby home!

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Scientific name: Philodendron selloum
Location: Singapore

I tried a bicycle built for two and I really liked it, especially at the beach where the terrain is flat and the speed is slow.

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Scientific name: Pachystachys coccinea
Common name: Cardinal’s Guard
Location: Singapore

Jeremy might be strong

but I am stronger.

Grrrr…

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The last we saw Icarus, she was sitting on a ledge waiting for some free space in the apartment to be blocked.

So during our trip to Taiwan, I used our bed as the blocking surface since it was going to be unoccupied for six days.

Into a lukewarm bath

A quick, hectic pinning – we were leaving for our flight soon!

The shawl turned out even better than I expected, I wore it on the dog walk today.

Look at the “feathers”.

Couldn’t be more pleased… woo hoo!

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Scientific name: Celosia Argentea
Common name: Phoenix Tail
Location: Singapore

On Thursday, we went to the Taipei Children’s Museum of Transportation and Communication which was really a mini amusement park with a few displays on trains, planes and automobiles.

The ball room was damp and smelled like a gym.

After a lunch at Din Tai Fung, we went to the Su Ho Paper Museum where we all made a sheet of purple paper.

In the evening, I had the chance to have coffee with two of my three Taiwan cousins which now means that I’ve met them all!

This is a terrible picture but my cousins are the really tall guy and the girl with the curly hair and jean jacket. The guy in the white shirt my cousin’s boyfriend and the woman holding the baby (our 2nd cousin – she’s 2 and a cutie, Donald!) is his wife. The cousin who got married over Chinese New Year was the one we met during Christmas of 2002.

My cousins don’t know any English so we had an hour or so of very stilted conversation, but I did it! I called and arranged our meeting in Chinese and sat there and tried to make conversation. I love how my Chinese has improved while living in Asia. I have no problem asking for directions and speaking with cab drivers and ordering meals and having fun with friends. It made traveling around Taipei a breeze.

A moment about logistics – we decided to not bring the stroller with us on this trip. Taiwan is not very stroller friendly, lots of narrow steps and uneven sidewalks and we didn’t rent a car and we had a bunch of luggage so we didn’t want an extra thing to carry around. Jeremy carried her a lot – at 35 pounds Jeremy is still OK with hauling her around for half a mile. It’s too tough for me to do. There was a lot of difficult behaviors to deal with, especially at meal time in restaurants, but we managed to be cheerful through all the “oo-oo-ooing” from Edda and the squirming from Vincent to really enjoy this vacation.

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OK, Secret Pal – round 10! Here we go…

Hi Secret Pal! I can’t wait to get to know each other over the next few months. I love any sort of natural fiber – both plant and animal, I’ve only worked with linen and wool so far and I just started my first cotton project. I do have a handy-dandy needle holder and I do have a winder – but not a swift. I’m a intermediate knitter, I’ve knitted a lace shawl and some pairs of socks and a top-down raglan sweater, but I haven’t yet really seamed a garment yet. Finishing is definitely intimidating to me. I don’t spin, but I do have a spindle and some natural roving that my parents got me for Xmas that I haven’t used yet. I’d like to learn entrelac and I’m always looking for patterns for projects! I love IK, but I don’t have a subscription yet! I look forward to your knitting surprises!

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Scientific name: Stachytarpheta indica
Common name: Snakeweed
Location: Singapore

Our last morning in Hsinchu, we climbed the local mountain (The Hills of the Eighteen Peaks).

Then we took the new high speed bullet train to Taipei – about 35 minutes traveling time.

We are staying at the Grand Hotel in Taipei and we got upgraded to a suite because they were fully booked. Here’s the night time view from our balcony.

Today we went to the National Palace Museum which just reopened with new renovations. It looks very modern with interactive explanations and snazzy new displays, lots of bronzes and I did get to see the famous jade cabbage. As expected, we went through it with lightening speed – mainly Vince always complaining about being tired. We did spend more time in the Museum gardens where we fed the huge fish.

Then off to the Tian Mu neighborhood for lunch where Vince finally ate something! Hooray for mini pork dumplings. That boy has been living off glasses of milk and white rice for days now.

Then we walked to a Children’s Art Museum where Vince got an hour-long personal museum tour. Edda liked the hall of mirrors.

Chilled out at the hotel for a few hours. Then we rode a ferris wheel at a nearby mall.

Apparently I have a date tomorrow. Laff. We’lll see how it goes. I’m trying to figure out what to wear. I’m such a girl.

I guess I’m bored at work. Plus they are pretty to look at. Another website on why diamonds suck.

It was a good weekend. Climbing on Friday with Julie, Wasi and Josh. Saturday played some bball with Mike, Ray, and George. Went up to the city to hang out with T and Arif at Cafe Greco. Sunday was the main event, as I got like 15 people out on a beautiful ride down Canada Rd. It was 80, warm and sunny. Pretty much perfect. Of course, there was a slight preride scare, as Vicki had to go to the hospital. Nothing serious really, just dehydration. She had ridden to the start point, and apparently, she hadn’t ridden in awhile. She stop ridding, and was talking to me, and then like a minute late, was like, “I’m going to faint.” We grabbed her and sat her down and she was better after that. The EMTs came. It was a whole affair. 🙂 We also had a picnic afterwards at a nearby park. Good times to let everyone chat and chill out. 🙂

Here’s Mike on the attack! 🙂

Sarah, Darice checking out their rides in Woodside. Ken’s in the background

Google is so smart! I knows you are in Taiwan, so it switches everything from English to Chinese in Blogger.

Anyhow, it’s been a whirlwind of friends and food here in Hsinchu where we lived for 6 months in 2002.

Sunday, we went to Be Pu, a small town outside of Hsinchu where the main attraction was grinding your own strange tea. You start with tea, that’s for sure, but then you add sesame seeds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds. Made for a very soupy tea.

On Monday, we went to Linda’s buffet shop and had lunch:

Then we went to Mr. Hung’s house and saw his rabbits. We also met his wife, but I don’t have a photo of her.

The kids are doing great! Vince is good natured about everything being in Chinese, Edda is not fussing too much (this is mainly due to her being entertained by the video iPod). Last night was our main endurance test for the kids, a two hour sit down meal at a fancy restaurant. As usual, Vince was a bit all over the place. Edda was quite vocal, but we lived through it all and had a great time. Jeremy and I laughed because Mr. Hung almost refused our invitation because he only owns sweatpants and thought it might be a bit informal. Dude, no one will notice your sweatpants when you sit next to our circus act!