Strata's First BBQ

It was very kind of John for inviting us to his humble mansion for the first company BBQ given that we all live in our small tumble down houses. He really couldn't have picked a better day as it was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday!

Ruster was fashionably late as usual, only this time he was two and half hours late! Er..because he couldn’t decide which pair of jeans to wear, out of the 20 pairs he owns?! Though it was undoubtedly a very good party and it was so good that we couldn’t remember how many bottles of wine we had! Bear in mind, we all each turned up with a bottle and the boss bought two dozens PLUS 40 cans of beer AND two champagnes and according to John there were only three bottles left at the end of the evening!!! Ummm, that’s just put it this way; I had a splitting headache when I got home! T and I passed out the minute we got home and the next thing we knew - it was already 12 midnight and we were on the sofa....

Personally I really appreciate the fact that I could actually sit down and have casual chats with them on the weekends as some of you might know that the experience I had with my former employer was atrocious, let alone seeing them out of office hours!
The guys I work with now are bunch of decent ones but most importantly, we have a laugh.
I don't wake up in the morning dreading to go to work, instead I look forward to it.

Anyway, hope everyone had a good one too!

Yoga Rugs

I sweated buckets in today’s yoga class and so it was the first time I found the mat slippery.

Just did a bit of research and thought I might actually give cotton mats/rugs a try since it’s actually the traditional India way to practice yoga. They are recommended especially for ashtanga yoga well, any sweaty practice really as they absorb sweat. Rod luvie, you might want to invest in one of them.

I am looking forward to the weekend as we are having our very first company BBQ!

नमस्ते

Taiwan IV - Food, Food and More Food

The effect of the prominent food culture in Taiwan seems to have left obvious trail on someone. Well, to be fair, the amount of food that someone wolfed down bounds to pay off.

I am not criticising at all as I am happy that he enjoyed the food there and hence the quantity of food was consumed. Oops, did I say he? Oh, dear – sorry Tao, I didn’t mean it! Though one thing I do need to point out is the pearl milk tea which is T’s absolute favourite. He would have one before lunch; one after lunch; one in the late afternoon and one after dinner. (yes, I do know how calorific they are !)

I don't really need to introduce the famous niu rou mian, but we did discover something that I didn’t know about and apparently it’s been around since 1950! It was some sort of specially cooked & smoked goose with noodles/vermicelli in Ximending. According to the duck expert, it was the BEST ever bird he'd tasted!!!

However, Tao didn't enjoy Ding Tai Fong. To quote - '’the food was okay, nothing spectacular; didn't really have the wow factor!’' Well, I enjoyed my shitake mushroom dumplings as well as redbean dumplings - they are my all-time favourites.

Nevertheless, we utterly thoroughly adored the meal we had at 雞家莊 the day before we left. Traditional Taiwanese cuisine, just by looking at them now makes me dribble.

Here's the spicy steam pot we had with the girls.

To be honest, we had so much food that I just can’t name them all. All I would say is that we had some serious indulgence.

I just want to say huge thank-yous to Benson, Chasel, Ming, Kuan, Joyce and Andrew. If it wasn’t for you guys, our trip would not be as enchanting as it was.
Thanks again and we looking forward to seeing you very soon!

Bandha Worked For Me Today

After two weeks' food indulgence and lack of exercise, I was actually quite surprised with myself in today's yoga class. My hamstrings were tighter than usual, which was normal, but I wasn't feeling as tired as I expected. However, I wasn't able to do Utpluthee - well, I did but only for 5 breathes which was rubbish. On the bright side, I think I kind of got the hang of Vinyasa In by landing on the top of my feet and not getting bruises!! Thanks to BANDHA!

The other thing we learned today was when we do Vinyasa Out, we should ideally get straight into Chaturanga but since it takes practice; we will just do the plank for now.

नमस्ते

Taiwan III - Nantou & Taichung

This is where we stayed for the night and thanks to Benson, he couldn't have picked a better location. It was just a shame that I couldn't get my lazy arse up in the morning to enjoy the freshest air ever!

This was taken after the wholesome breakfast we had! not to mention that someone scoffed down FOUR mantou!!! or was it five?

The Puli Winery - famous for making Shaohsing wine.

Inside the winery.

Here comes the interesting bit. This is the renowned Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taichung. Just look at the architecture! It certainly doesn't look like a temple to me, well, at least not the 'conventional' ones. The temple is 150m tall and sits on a 60-acre lotus hill outside Puli.

It was completed in 2001 and is one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan. It took 10 years and the donations of countless members of the community to complete this masterpiece. The five us were completely taken by the grand, contemporary look and realised not to underestimate the power of religion!
Chung Tai Chan Monastery now has established more than 90 meditation centres and branches in Taiwan and abroad.

Some serious top-quality materials were used and apparently one master craftsman is said to have spent ten years collecting coloured jade for the 18 Lohan reliefs.

Fresh orchids were available on the table for anyone who was interested in repeating some sort of motifs.

We were there as if we were visiting a museum!

Taiwan II - Sun Moon Lake

Ah, the famous Sum Moon Lake. Is it what I expected? No, not at all, in fact, 100 times better! I was absolutely overwhelmed with the scenery that made me appreciate Taiwan more. It might be a small island, but there is so much to do and see. Sun Moon Lake is the greatest natural lake in Taiwan and it is composed of diamond-shaped Sun Lake and curve-shaped Moon Lake. The lake is formed by the accumulated water in the broken basin between Yu Mountain and Ali Mountain streams.

We took a boat tour around the lake as well as to the nearby islands to see the legend of the Thao tribe, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Surrounded by green mountains, clear water, happy people, I was contented after months’ anticipation.

The beauty of the Sun Moon Lake is rested upon the mountains circling the lake; peaks rise one upon another and range upon range of hills; the light of waves and shadow of mists, in my eye, a true picturesque place to see.

The five of posing for a 'picture perfect'!

Winding down the evening with shabu-shabu.

As usual, I fall alseep early and missed all the fun the guys had...playing the old cards-and-drinking game.

I just remember that it was a peaceful night and I sure slept like a baby.

Taiwan I

Right, here it is…the beginning of my ten-intensive-day-trip. We arrived home at around 7.30pm on Friday and we headed straight to the steam-pot restaurant near by since both of us were soooo hungry that we literally ordered everything on the menu and washed them down with bottles of icy cold plum juice (yum!) We were also really greedy that we kept ordering while we were eating and there was a point that we thought we would have lots of leftovers. But then it rarely happens when T and I are present and not to forget that mum was there and she is also a steam-pot lover, so we actually finished most of the food on the table! It was amazing! The shocking thing was that the total bill came to around NT$2,500 which was equivalent of £40. It might not sound a lot but NT$2,500 for steam pot for three people is considered dear, even in Taipei. However, we truly enjoyed the meal and went to bed with satisfied tummy as well as happy taste buds.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to get ready for the two days excursion organised by Benson and Chasel. T had a ‘Taiwanese’ burger with soya milk for breakfast before jumping into C’s car. We then picked up Ming in Hsin-Chu and headed to Nan-Tou. We had our lunch (street foods) there and T had various things including the famous ‘little sausage in big sausage’ as shown above, a grilled sweet corn, oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu, ice-cream, and some sweet bean curd soup with red beans (YES, all in one go!)

This is an interesting photo, not the three of us looking rather indolent after all the food but the temple behind! The way it collapsed due to the infamous 921 earthquake back in 1999! It is now one of the tourist places to see there!

okay, I am having a few issues with uploading photos here and hence I thought I'd publish this short post first and follow up later on....with more pics and hopefully will figure out a way to do it.

I am Back

I am now back and I apologise for not updating my blog for a while and I was so busy and got completely wasted the day before I left that I didn't even put up a notice (as if there are any customers, but still...) that the cafe would be closed while I was away.

I promise I will upload photos and update my trip as soon as I have time.

Cuban Killer

I thought I was a disciplined person and also because I had a mission (to pack) therefore I stayed on after my first mojito.
Before I knew, I was already on my third one going on to fourth. And they were large ones as well.
We were there to celebrate hence champagne was involved and I should have known better that mixing my drinks was just not on.

Benny boy then came and we had a rather interesting conversation and I didn’t realise I was already on my 5th mojito PLUS a large double G & T.

In the end, I decided to leave with ruster without knowing what was ahead of me. I literally ran straight to the bathroom the minute I got home and then the rest was just a blur. Daddy then called me up at god knows what time and started to tell me his plan for next week! I can’t remember how we ended the conversation….

I then woke up at 4am with a rumbling stomach but didn’t have the strength to actually do anything.

When I finally got up at 7am I was feeling rough to say the least and the hang over is just beyond me. My head was pounding but I knew my mission was not accomplished. I just threw what was in front me into my luggage and also the goodies I bought.

Anyway, I know it is probably a lot of people’s famous last word but I really am not going to drink again. At least not for a week before I come back!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Problem in the Bedroom

I have not been able to sleep for a few days now and it is starting to take a toll on me. Therefore I decided to do a bit of research to see what I can do to help me to get back to the old me….fall asleep like a baby the minute I hit bed.

Apparently the old trick of counting sheep doesn’t really work - Counting is stimulating. Not that I do this when I can’t sleep but I remember that’s what my mum used to tell me to do when I was little.

On top of that, reading or watching TV in bed is also not a good idea – well, this used to work for me but not anymore unfortunately.

One thing that has worked every time is for T to tell me ALL about economics and I kid you not, I would fall asleep the second he starts! Hahahahaha

One thing I am thinking to do is to get back to body combat classes. I have to admit that I do miss the empowering cardio workout where I always get totally unleashed and feel really good afterwards. The problem is that I’ve been to a couple of classes led by different instructors and Janet is by far the best, and I mean THE best! She just does the moves so much better and she knows how to motivate the class and not to mention her toned/sculptured body. She just doesn’t do body combat at the gym I go to anymore…

In any case, I shall look into my new workout regime when I am back in two weeks!

My New Look

A big thanks to my dearest Rod/aka bidarlah who updated the new look of my blog! I was almost in tears when he did it because I realised that we must still 'connect' in some way even though we haven't seen each other for so long and he is in the distant Bandar Seri Begawan and some how he chose something randomly, which was exactly something that I'd been looking for!
Big kisses and hugs, luvie!