Dare to try?

Visiting a new country has never been easier these days... Just a few clicks, u could read almost anything about the place.... CooL!

When Jane i first visited Taipei in 2000 for a 1.5 months study course,  all we knew about Taipei is that they have many funny TV shows, famous celebrities, which we learned from the TV programs rented from the video shop in China Town.... now you know which dinosaur age i came from haha...

We were very lucky to live near to the infamous Shilin Night Market. Everyday after our class, we would visit the night market with our course mates. To me, Shilin is a totally new world... i had never seen sooOoo many people and so many stalls selling things beyond my imagination in my life! And the colourful signboards sticking out and overlapping each other made my head spun... Gosh! this is so vibrant! I love this place! 

Everytime we went to Shilin, we discovered something new! AMAZING! I remember our first night there, we discovered smelly tofu. The smell (fragrant?) was new to my nose... When the smell hit me, I thought one of us had accidentally stepped on wet dog poo! All of us stopped in the middle of the street and started checking our shoes... to find nothing... so we concluded that, the smell must be from the blocked and dirty drain or rubbish bins nearby and we cursed the inconsiderate people for polluting the world.... 

Then suddenly, we saw a yellow sign with 3 red Chinese characters - 臭豆腐(Smelly Tofu)…. People were actually queuing up for what smells like rotten food to me... Being curious and adventurous, we decided to try it... just to find out why people actually like it.. Why people are willing to handover their hard-earned money for something that smells awful! When we received the fried tofu in our hands, we took turns to smell it.. OMG, it smelled just like SHIT. What's more, we actually paid NT30 to eat shit! No way we were letting our money go down the drain! so we ate it! 

Hehe, i must say, smelly tofu is just like durian  ~ smells awful but tasty!

Fried Smelly Tofu

~ Look ordinary, smell awful but yummo!

So the moral of the story? Never judge a book by its cover.. Sometimes you will be surprised when u look "inside"... 

However, I absolutely cannot swallow Steamed smelly Tofu... it's 753904820495 times smellier and it tastes  53904820495 worse than the fried one... I couldn't even let it sit in my mouth for 1 second more. Yup, i spitted it out in disgust... Sorry to those who love steam smelly tofu... I tried my best.... And for that effort, it's OK for me to judge :P

Jungle durians

Not everyone's favourite but it's OK coz that means

We can have them all to ourselves! Yaye~  

Fruits we love

Bought a few local avocados from kakak. Mum loves avocados! When I went to the pantry to choose, i was amazed at how big there were!! The skin was dark purple in colour and from far, they kinda look like eggplant!

I want avocado milk.....

When I brought them home to show mum, mum was surprised at their size too! So how did we eat these babies? We made avocado milk every morning. It's fatty i know but in a good way, so never mind :P I remember, when i was in Hanoi in 2008 (has it been that long??), we found this place that serves many variety of fruit drinks. And one of our favourites is ice-blended avocado milk of course! We went there everyday for it!  It was pretty cheap too.. $4 for a big cup I think. 

Mum loves avocados so much that we even have an avocado tree in Aust home. When mum made sushi for us, she always put a lot of avocado slices... Do you know that avocado goes very very very well with Japanese mayo? Double the fat but it was yummmm... :P  Recently, mum managed to grow an avocado tree here.... from scratch. She brought many avocados back from Aust and decided that she wanted a tree here  so she could just pick her favourite fruit from the garden next time... so she planted the avocado seed and  it's growing fast! Hope I don't have to wait long to pick my own avocados!! hehe... 

I must say, mum has a green thumb. She can grow anything she wants. Of course she showers them with lots of love too... Just look at the fruit trees in our garden! 

Pameloes danggling on the tree!

Assorted tropical fruits in the garden!

We also have mango tree, passion fruits, coconut trees and just not long ago, mum planted durian tree! ha! this, i will have to wait a very long time before i can enjoy its fruits. I wonder if I would still be around by then... :S

Celebrations

Psk... It's my FIRST post for the Snake year! 

First of all, I would like to welcome LJ back... She was gone for 3 months and how i missed her dearly! Am grateful that she hasn't abandoned me even though she now has a little princess to feed.. errr i mean look after.... BIG flying kiss from me to u, LJ! Hope it didn't got hijacked half way :P

My cousin finally tied the knot with her British bf, well, now husband on the 2nd last day of 2012.... Many of my relatives came from all over the globe to attend the wedding and oo la la.. Did I have a lot of fun.... it was nice to have a big family reunion, but it would be much better if there were transportation arrangements made for them... Can you imagine that we managed to squeeze 14 adults + 4 big luggage bags in our 2 cars @_@ We almost had to send some people to sit on the top of the cars just like how it is done in Bangladesh liao.... 

A few times, my relatives drove me nuts... because all of them wanted to do different things and be driven to different places  I would if i could  T___T The problem is, there was only one Jenn~ My mum got a bit upset at my aunt because she left us to do all the hard work for her while she and her family partied at home with the in-laws T__T I was supposed to be somewhere partying too instead of slaving away maaannn....  T____________T

On a happier note, the wedding itself was an interesting one ~ there was Muslim prayer, traditional Chinese tea ceremony and an European-style wedding reception. We called it a 3-in-1 wedding haha... It is good that the far-away guests got to experience all 3 different cultures in one go! My cousin's British in-laws adapted pretty well and especially loved the tea drinking and ang pow giving session haha... BTW, my cousin looked gorgeous on her big day! 

Here are some of the funny pictures taken on the wedding night... 

Immature boys :P

When will they grow up?

Finally, a proper one... 

Still in one piece

Before X'mas, there were rumours that it would be end of the world on 21122012.  I don't have anything against this belief because it could be the end for everyone any day... that's the way life is... So, instead of worrying something which is beyond my control, I might as well cherish every moment and enjoy life ... like eating pinkish snow balls (glutinous rice balls)! Y(^.^)Y

My Winter Solstice meal made by mum ~ YUMMY

It was Winter Solstice festival （冬至） on 21122012. Mum made snow balls in chicken ginger soup for us to eat.  When small, we always helped to make snow balls.. I know snow balls should be round, after all, they are called snow BALLS .... But  being creative is what kids do best so instead, we made square ones, heart-shaped ones, animal-shaped, snowmen, gingerbread men, alphabet-shaped etc.. it was so hilarious to look at a pot of all-kind-of-shapes snow "balls". At the dining table, we would try to identify the masterpiece's creator! haha.. Our masterpiece  sometimes turned out to be a disaster too... like when we were trying to make 'hot dogs' and instead it looked like big fat worms floating in the soup... well, i guess before there is success, we all have to go through some sort of failures to perfect ourselves.... 

So, end of the world did not happen.... Some people complained and asked why it did not happen as promised. Hmmm... what's all that about? The world has become strange. Isn't it good that it didn't happen? I don't know about you but I certainly feel grateful that the world is still in one piece. I feel fortunate that I can still smell the fresh air, stare at the moving clouds, feel the sunshine, be with my loved ones.... the list is endless! What's more, i get to open my X'mas present! yayeeee.... 

I've been a good girl this year, again (what's new? :P) Guess what I received this X'mas? 

I received a nice lunchbox set from Santa Claus... Oppps, guess my love for food must be very strong... So strong that even the far far away Father Xmas knows it! *blush*  I love the bright colours ... even the lunch bag is cute... and it looks so good on me, as if it was made just for me! :P From now on, every bite of food from my lunchbox is gonna be a bite of happiness!! 

My gift from Santa!

Life is good.... Life is the way you want it to be.... 

It's Xmas soon!

Like last year, we arranged a little gift exchange session in our office.. Guess what? The gift opening session is this Friday! Ooooo... I can't wait...! Not only I wanna see what i get from Santa Claus (I have been a very very good girl this year), I also wanna see the happy faces of my colleagues when they open their gifts from their secret angels \(^V^)/

Some people say they don't mind what presents they get because it's the heart that counts. True but I believe it would be more meaningful if the person receives something he/she really likes. That's why, as soon as i got the name of my 'Little Angel", who i will be buying Xmas gift for, I started my mission to find out what she likes... hehe,  I am like a spy.. testing her thoughts about the gifts i intending to get.... 

U know what? i think i have found a perfect gift....  It's all the way from Taiwan and Limited edition!

Beauty Masks 

Nicely wrapped by me!

We have decorated our Xmas tree... with colouful xmas ornaments and of course, Xmas Presents!! I can feel Xmas already! Fa la la la la la.... 

Guess which one is mine?

Stay tuned to find out what i get from Santa!  *can't wait!!*

Big Big Butterfly

Many people regard today as a special day. Simply because it's 12.12.12. 

Although I don't see today any different from any other day, I still wanna drop a few lines here just to 'record' the "special day" *kiasu*

Saw a very BIG butterfly at my office building. It's really really big! like bigger than my face! If you know me, u will know how big my face is... T__T 

The butterfly is really beautiful... it kinda looks like a kite...  and you could see the patterns on its wings.. NICEeee....

The things mum do for us

While cleaning one of the cupboards in the house, i found a dress mum made for Little Jane and Jenn, when we were 4 or 5. It looks really teeny weeny! With my king kong size now, it is kinda difficult for me to imagine that i was once so tiny! haha.... Hmmm... what did my parents feed me when I was small? :P

We have an old-fashioned sewing machine at home. U know, the one that has wooden frame and to get the needle moving, u  need to paddle and paddle and paddle ... Yup, that antique belongs to my mum. She used it a lot when we were small to make us dresses.  We would stand in front of her with our hands stretch out while mum measured us here and there so she could make us dresses that fit perfectly.  Apart from that, she also made bedsheets, pillow cases, cushion covers, table cloth, quilt cover etc ... 

Mum is really talented. Not only is she outstanding in cooking but can also sew well. you know what? I think i have inherited her talents because I could sew and cook too (yeah, even I can't believe this! Good thing I captured these unbelievable happenings as proves.. Pls see DIY) ahahaha... just that am still at the kindergarten level :S 

I remember that mum made me a dress to wear to a piano examination. It was light blue (my favourite!) in colour and has a blue ribbon at the neckline. It was really pretty...  And because it was full of mum's love, i looked really pretty in that dress ( although my natural beauty is 50% of the reason why it looked so pretty :P *厚脸皮* ) 

Now that we have grown up, mum stops making us dresses... Instead she buys for us... it's her way to show her love... of course, her love has brought some tragedies too like, 2 months ago, she actually exchanged my newly purchased DREAM clothes for something else because she thought I didn't want them T___T Okie i should let the past be buried and not mention about it anymore haha.... 

Lately, mum is into something I would never buy... 

Polka dots blouse + matching bag! 

   

I have always felt that polka dots isn't for me. Ha, don't ask me why, it's just not my thing.... Surprisingly, they don't look awkward on me at all! wow, mum actually changes the way I think about polka dots! :P

Guess i will always be the little girl in my mum's eyes... she even made me a cute bedsheet this CNY. Hmmm.. I wonder what I will get from mum next CNY... i wish for a pyjamas with cute prints!

I will let you know once i receive anything from mum ya!