Birthday Woes

Hey hey! My dear readers!! My ankle is much better now, thank you. I can already walk normally now :D

Anyway, as most of you know, I'm throwing my 17th birthday party soon and I'm pretty excited! FYI, its the first birthday party I'm throwing in nearly 10years. Why didn't I celebrate my birthday in during the past 10 years?

One word; Lent.

Its the period when Jesus fasted in the dessert for 40 days before he was crucified and later resurrected from the dead. So during that time, celebrations of any sorts are forbidden and we're not supposed to eat meat every Friday.

Usually that season lands on my Birthday. So no birthday party for me :(

However, this year the season of lent falls on the 9th March which is 4 days after my birthday. That means I can 'legally' celebrate my birthday! YAY!!!

And so the invites are sent out, the guest list is set, the birthday cake has been ordered and the outfit is ready. But one of the things that bugged me most of all while I was planning the birthday party was the attendance of the guests.

Although the invite clearly stated by which date should you RSVP, most people wouldn't even bother telling me if they could come or not until I have to go up to them personally to ask if they could make it or not. Which by the way, is pretty embarrassing for me because then, I'd sound desperate or something like that.

During that time, I almost felt like shouting "RSVP my damn invite!!"

But now that everybody has confirmed their attendance, the next thing most people are bugging me about is what I want for my birthday.

Not that I'm complaining or anything. Usually, hardly anyone asked me what I want for my birthday until now that I'm having a birthday party. So its nice to receive more than 2 presents for a change.

So anyway, to make your lives easier, here's some of the things I'm interested in to help you choose my birthday gift. Yea, I know it sounds so perasan (self centered), but face it! I'm actually getting present(s). Not a present, but presents for once in my life!

I won't tell you exactly what I want, but I'll tell you what I like.

First off. I love Mini Coopers

See that? ITS MINE!!!

Another thing I like is...

That's right! Nail art!

I also love to read...

Romance and comedies are my favorite.

I like to learn new songs on the piano. Currently, I'm interested in the Classics and the Blues or Jazz. But I like to play pop music as well. Bruno Mars is my favorite artist at the moment.

Also, you can never go wrong with accesories. Right now, I'd like to add some earrings to my collection. But everybody please don't get the same idea!

One of my recent obsessions are shoes; you can never feel too fat when you put on a pair of gorgeous shoes.

I like trying on high heels now, but in practical terms, I'd like a pair of casual sandals or ballet flats because I now only have high heels and I threw away my old sandals because it got old and torn.

I like embroidery, but lately I haven't been doing that lately because I've run out of threads and ideas. This is my lastest work. My mom and I did it together.

And finally, my favorite flowers are Roses. I fell in love with that Rose garden I visited back in Melbourne here.

That's all I can think of so far. But honestly, I'll be happy with whatever I receive as long as its coming from the people I know and love. Remember, its the thought that counts.

So now that you guys have a rough idea of my interests, Shoo! Don't bug me on what I want for my birthday again.

I love you guys.

E Y E S.

"A cat on an a table in Chefchaouen". Taken by Claude Renault

Tradition Hangs On

"Confucius takes his place in modern China. Liuzhou, Guangxi". Taken by Expatriate Games

Arts in Bloom

"A photo of Christchurch in happier times. The wonderful Arts Centre, which used to be the University of Canterbury and now belongs to the city as a centre for arts, including craft workshops, cinema screens, a theatre and markets. It really buzzes at weekends, especially during the Festival of Busking". Taken by Caroline

Street in Montignac

France. Taken by Ben Heine

Cairo

Cairo, Egypt. Taken by Peter Gutierrez

Kelimutu Volcano

Kelimutu Volcano, Flores, Indonesia. Taken by Rick Wezenaar

Shining Future

Alego, Kenya. Taken by Ross

My Last Day

Wow! Time does fly, especially when on vacation. My ten days in Taiwan have now come to an end. Tomorrow morning, I head on out to the airport to go home. And, then it's back to work the very next day. Almost another six months before my next vacation! I better not dwell on that thought.

Anyways, today being my last day, was a day devoted to shopping. My first stop was to the Guang Hua Digital Plaza (see the two pix) only three subway stops from my hotel. This electronics toy heaven is similar to Akihabara in Tokyo and Yongsan in Seoul; a few blocks of computer and camera stuff that would cause any lover of the stuff to salivate uncontrollably. It's a lot smaller than the incomparable Akihabara and about the same as Yongsan, only smaller. I liked it, of course. LOL

I really didn't expect to find anything on my shopping list there. But, I did! I was looking for watch tools and was going to order from eBay sellers when I returned to Canada on holiday. Now, I don't have to at all. Everything I needed was not only in one store, but in two stores. Now, that was totally unexpected. Of course, my computer related stuff is still too specialized to find there. So, it's back to eBay for those items in six months. Meh!

My final stop of the day was back to the Taipei Main Station underground shopping mall. It seems that anime related stuff in Taiwan is almost totally located down there. I hit the mother load the first time there and didn't even know it till further research proved it to be the case. Of course, Akihabara is the place for all things anime. But, that was last year and this is now. I wasn't looking for them to purchase at that time. I found one highly rated anime figurine at a decent price; close the original published (debut) price. These things are highly valued by collectors and only go up in value over time.

Anyways, that was my final day. Plus, packing and wasting another few hours in posting! I type abysmally slowly with mistakes in almost every second to third word. And, I can't proofread to save my life, as you might have noticed. So, rereading the same thing three to four times and correcting all the mistakes that I can catch takes a long, long, time to do. A lot of the mistakes I cannot catch. That's just the way the human mind works. So, I think I am going to post less during my next vacations away. I would rather spend more of my time enjoying the place than wasting my time typing. I'll see how it goes. I still like having my thoughts down for my own memories, too. Although, if this website ever goes out of business, all those recorded memories will be lost.

This is also my final Taiwan post. You will know that I got home safely if you don't read about me in the news tomorrow. Think about it! All airline disasters make worldwide headlines. No headlines. No disaster. Home safe. The next time you read something new from me it will most likely be about some new restaurant I found with some great, or not so great, food. So, thank you for following along with my adventures.

Note:

There are only two pix to this post as most vendors and store owners HATE it when you try and take pix of their stuff and/or store. You will get tossed if you persist. I got tossed for even just handling a boxed figurine. Needless to say, that store never got, nor ever will get, my business.

El Castillo

Chichen Itza, Mexico. Taken by M'roy

Around Hualien City

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was here in Hualien to meet with some distant relatives. And, everyone turned out to be really nice. My second (third?) cousin showed me around the (almost) two days that I was in town. The town is relatively large with a very, very, long main street where all of the stores and action are. It's in many ways quite similar to some of the busy streets in Taipei; lots of stores and boutiques with lots of people. I did a few family type get togethers and meals. But, for the most part, I was exploring the city and surrounding countryside.

The pix here, though, are a mixture of the places that I was taken to and shown. I've no idea what most of the places were. But, they were interesting non-the-less. One was a Japanese shrine and the other was an old military lookout converted into an art gallery.

It's also an interesting observation, and it's one that I've seen many times before, and it's that when one lives in a city, one usually does not visit the places tourists visit. So, some of the places we went to were totally new to my second cousin as well. The irony of it all. LOL

Taroko National Park

This was my last day in Hualien and my second cousin took me to Taroko National Park. The place is gorgeous. The pix do not do it justice and the sense of depth and scale is totally lost in the two dimensions of the images. The Taroko Gorge, where most of them were shot, is HUGE! The little stones and pebbles in the pix that you see are not little stones and pebbles, they are GIGANTIC boulders. This is a place that you can take days to explore. The path carved into the cliffs that we were on, and as seen in the pix, is around 4.5 km long. We maybe covered about half a click ("click" = kilometer; Canadian slang for those who are wondering what I just said with that world)! Like I said, a few days exploring would be great. But, I did not have that amount of time. Still, though, it was great to see even the small part of it that I did see. There are such wonderful things in nature to behold, especially in this part of the world it seems.

After that, it was lunch at a Chinese style BBQ restaurant I found on my first day here. Probably the best meal I've had during the entire vacation. Now, don't get me wrong, though, the food in Taiwan has been very good. It's just that Taiwanese food and Chinese food, Cantonese in my case, is just different and I grew up with Cantonese style food and find that best fits my tastes now. Anyways, a bit of a rush with some in-town exploring and meeting some more relatives before catching my train back late in the evening and that was that. Two days came and went too quickly.

The train ride back to Taipei was uneventful as there was nothing to see outside in the dark. I just watched a couple of movies. I almost missed my stop because I remembered the time of arrival incorrectly by being 10 minutes later than it actually was. Good thing I can move fast when I have to.