Teacher Florence January 20, 2012
Posted by Zara's Mama in : celebration, development, my two girls , 2 commentsTeacher Florence is not my teacher, but the girls’.
I was planning to send the girls for art & craft class, and after seeing a couple of places and not quite happy with what they were offering, I thought of Florence, my ex classmate whom I’d not met for 20years; she was very good at art during school days, and currently teaches art class at the Japanese Cultural Centre. After several SMSes and phone calls later, Florence agreed to teach the girls at her place.
The girls enjoy her class because besides doing art and craft, Teacher Florence jokes with them and plays with them. And while the girls are working (on their pieces), Florence and I catch up, there’s 20yrs events to fill up, considering we were very close in school (don’t ask me why we didn’t bother to meet up all these years, I guess we always thought a meeting could wait).
It’s been 2 months since they started with Teacher Florence. Recently, I was considering switching them to a centre near by (As Teacher Florence is 30mins drive away from my place). Zara said, “Nope. I want to attend Teacher Florence’ class only.” When I asked her to give me a reason. She said, “Teacher Florence is your friend. Sometimes we say funny things or do funny things with her. We offered her milk shake with sequin the other day, and she laughed at our jokes. If you go to a centre and the teacher is not your friend then what will happen? She will say we’re crazy or ask us to just sit down!” o.O”
So Teacher Florence it is. They can enjoy their class and jokes, while I can continue to catch up and exchange recipes with her.
And these are the things they created in Teacher Florence’ class.
After a few classes, we could see a trend in the girls. Zara prefer something simple, while Zaria likes all the blink blink, sparkles and fancy stuff.
Zara’s no-nonsence paper doll and her clothes.
Zaria’s gypsy girl paper doll and her clothes.
Check out the make up on the doll!
And this was done last week, which I like very much!
In line with the last 2 drawings… here is to wish all of you a Happy Chinese New Year!
Taiwan Part 5 – Taipei Zoo, Taipei City, Shida Market January 6, 2012
Posted by Zara's Mama in : going places, home affairs, my two girls, notable , 6 commentsContinues from here.
♥Dec 7th – Sunny♥
Initially, I planned to spend the whole day shopping, but the weather was so good compared to the last 2 days I thought it would be wasted if we didn’t do any sight seeing.
We decided to go to the zoo, do a quick dash and see what the girls have not seen before, i.e. Panda, Penquin, Koala, and then we can do the shopping after that.
We wanted to take the metro, but the station master told us to take the bus instead, as it’ll be quicker. The 45mins bus ride allowed us to have a snooze, which was good.
We were glad we went to Taipei Zoo (臺北市立動物園), a zoo that encloses 165 hectares, including 90 hectares open to the public (compared to Singapore Zoo which is 28hectares and charging almost 10times more). It’s a big and lovely zoo, with lots of wide open space; with eateries, restaurants and rest areas scattered all over the zoo. The entrance fee was TWD60 for adults and TWD30 for children. What a steal for this world class zoo!
We could have spent the whole day there, with so many to see, but we had to be selective and spent time only on the animals we wanted the girls to see.
First stop, Giant Panda House. Unfortunately, both the Pandas were far away from us.
One munching on some bamboo.
Another taking a nap.
They have a big gift shop at the Giant Panda House, girls wanted to choose something to bring home.
She wanted to get something cool for herself.
And when there were children having a go at the vending machine, both girls wanted a go too.
Zaria with her prize.
We have to dash to the next point of interest, the Koalas, after the Giant Pandas (with a zoo so big, it was quite tiring actually).
(no photos of koalas although we saw quite a few of them).
We had lunch at one of the rest area, bought some pizzas and buns from a bakery (no inflated price, btw), and just ‘picnic’ there.
When we asked what’s the nicest thing they did or saw in the zoo, the answer was “Jumping on the hippos.” at the African Animal Area.
Decos around the African Animal Area.
Caught one real hippo surfacing.
We spent some time at the Nocturnal Animal House to look at Owls (Influnce from Harry Potter and Legend of the Guardians), then it was to see the Penquins.
There’s a children zoo as well, but we didn’t have time to check out. 
It was already almost 4pm when we left the zoo. Next time, we have to come back and spend the whole day there.
We took the Metro this time to the Cityhall Station (市政府).
While having tea at one of the food court, the girls poured out the content of their bags. Their goodies from Taiwan.
Zaria’s loot from Taiwan
Zara’s loot from Taiwan
We wanted to head towards Taipei 101 and have dinner around there, and just our luck, we saw a huge Budhist procession near Tapei 101. It’s a procession with ~500 monks, where a Buddha’s tooth relic was featured (佛光山佛祖舍利台北巡境祈福). It seems these monks are doing a round island procession.
Hundreds of monks were walking along the busy Songshou Road (松壽路).
No special privilidges. They wait like us to cross the busy road.
Along the roads, there were little tables set up to provide offerings.
We were also given bottle of waters, little book marks and souvenirs for just being there!
There were African, Indian and Caucasian monks as well. 
Monks passing Taipei 101.
The procession was so long we didn’t wait till the end.
We went to City Hall area actually just to see Taipei 101
but was lucky to catch the procession.
The busy Songshou Road.
We had dinner in a Ramen Restaurant, a meal was not worth mentioning, and then did food shopping in the supermarket and food halls around that area.
♥Dec 8th – Drizzle♥
The day has come to go home. Girls were getting excited, but Zara was dreading the flight home.
After breakfast, I went out to Shida Market to shop for some food stuff. After that I came back to pack, while it was Daddy’s turn to go to the market to take photos. These were the shots taken in the market. (And if you’d followed my site long enough, you would have realised we always like visiting markets every where we go).
Shida Market lane. 
All sort of fish.
The market was not too crowded, and rather clean
Chicken seller. (Take note the chicken there have ‘black feet’)
Cooked meat seller.
Super delicious dried persimmons (we bought some).
Sesame oil and tea oil for sale.
Bamboo shoot.
Breakfast counter
Vegetable stall
Hot spring salted egg.
Humongous Chinese Yams.
And guess what this is? Each of them the size of my palm?
BBQ Goose eggs it seems. Didn’t try it. Should have just bought one and tried.
By 12:30pm, we were out of the hotel, and headed to the airport for our flight.
It was a good trip. And the girls can walk. On a daily basis, we left the hotel at 11am, and returned at 9pm. They just walked and walked and walked with us, sometimes even refusing to take the escalator but use the stairs instead at metro station. Just so much energy.
Taiwan is relatively cheap compares to Hong Kong or Singapore, and there are still so many beautiful places we’d not seen. I believe, we’ll be going back to Taiwan again when Daddy accumulated enough airmiles.
Taiwan 2011 Part 4 – Pingxi Railway Line, Jinguashi Gold Ecology Park, Sashimiya (平溪線, 金瓜石黃金博物園區, 三四味屋) January 3, 2012
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Uncategorized, going places, home affairs, my two girls, notable , 3 commentsContinues from here.
♥Dec 5th – Rain♥
We planned to do sight seeing today, taking the Pingxi (Pingshi) Railway Brunch Line (平溪線鐵路) which will bring us through sleepy mining towns which are famous for sky lanterns. Alas it was raining!
We thought since we’ll be taking the train, maybe we can still see some sights and with some luck, the rain might stop, so we stuck to our original plan.
After breakfast (of ham and cheese sandwitch, the standard breakfast Windsor B&B offers), we took the bus from Jiufen to Ruifang station, bought ourselves a Pingxi Railway all day pass (平溪線一日週遊券), which is TWD52 for adults and TWD26 for kids. The pass will allow us to hop on and off the train at the various stops along Pingxi Railway Line.
Despite the rain, the spirit was high. 
We chose Qingtong (Chingtung, 菁桐), the last stop on the Pingxi Raiway Line as our first stop.
The rain was quite heavy, so we only managed to walk around the station. Spotted a pagola hung with lots of bamboo wishes
We dropped by a restaurant across the station, thinking of grabbing a quick bite. However, there was only 1 person working there, and he took time to make the drinks as well as cooked our pasta, making us miss our train. We had to wait for more than an for the next train.
In the rain, we really couldn’t do much. We had to kill time in the small station. 
Zara did drawings after drawings (she’s well prepared)
.
It was pure time wasting. By the time the train arrived, it was turning dark. We decided to go to Shifen (Shrfen, 十份). Our last stop. The rain was even heavier, but since we saw some sky lantern upon arriving, we went to search for the location where they were releasing the lanterns.
There were lots of shops along the rail way track providing such servies. You can purchase the lantern, write your wish on it, and then they will help you light it up so you can release it. We saw some Korean getting theirs done. 
.
3 of us getting back to the station (that was how we travelled the whole day)
We didn’t stop at Pingxi, and headed back to Ruifang for a simple roadside dinner (asked around and were told there was no restaurant near the Ruifang station), then took the bus back to our B&B in Jiufen.
It was a wasted day in my opinion due to the rain. Hmphh!
♥Dec 6th – Drizzle♥
The rain has subsided to a drizzle, which was good news to us. As we planned to go to Jinguashi (金瓜石) a small town notable for its historic gold and copper mines, about 10mins bus ride from Jiufen.
After breakfast, we checked out and left our bags at the B&B and then took the bus to The Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園區) at Jinguashi.
The park has several attractions. The first we went to was The Japanese Style Residence (四連棟) which housed Japanese officials during WW2. 
The Restaurant at the Park to is themed. It’s called the Miner’s Canteen. You can get Miner’s lunchbox here, which is pork rice in a tin box with a set of cutlery wrapped in a scarf. 
We had something Western. Nuggets and smiley fries for the girls.
Spagetti with a kind of watery pesto sauce (quite unlike our pesto) for Daddy.
Horrid testing sesame chicken mee-sua (wheat noodle) for me which I didn’t finish. 
To give visitors an experience of being in an actual mining tunnel and understand the working conditions underground, the old Benshan Tunnel No 5 (本山五坑) was opened to public. We paid TWD50 to get a miner’s experience.
First you put on the hygience cap,
then the hardhat.
Listened to some instructions then off we went to the tunnel.
Then it was out for more adventure. 
We have our hands on Gold Panning (淘金體驗) as well for TWD100 per head. 
The Gold Ecological Park has huge grounds, and pretty scenic, with an old rail track serving the tunnels.
(Little one trying to hold her breath when we wanted to take a photo of her)
What we missed was entering the Museum Of Gold, which you can actually touch and try to lift a 220kg 999 pure gold ingot.
The surrounding area of Jinguashi is very hilly.
There was a nice cafe around that area, but becasue it was quite far we gave it a miss.
Instead we have dou-hua/taufu fa (豆花) instead at the park. 
It then started to rain again, by the time we got back to Jiufen, it was pouring. Our plans to go to Keelung (基隆) has to be changed. We headed back to Taipei instead.
We decided to have a nice dinner, and selected a restaurant recommended by my guidebook.
Upon arriving at the Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝復興) metro station (where the restaurant is located), the girls were so happy to see all the various art works at the station.
3D art work showing all the famous Taiwan Snack.
They were so attractive, Zaria requested photos to be taken.
The restaurant Sashimiya, better known by its Chinese name, 三四味屋, was a good choice, as the whole family loves Japanese food.
Here are some of the things we had. Chinese Yam (山藥) chips.
Girls love the chips!
Fried prawn.
Grilled chicken wings (for the little one, a chicken fan)
Grilled Onigiri
We were back at Li Yuan Hotel for another 2 nights stay.
Taiwan 2011 Part 3 – Jiufen (九份) December 29, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : going places, home affairs, my two girls , 4 comments♥Dec 4th – Cloudy♥
After breakfast, we checked out of Li Yuan Hotel, stored our baggage there, and headed to Taipei Main Station (台北火車站) using the Metro. We bought our tickets to Ruifang (瑞芳), our transit point to Jiufen (九份). Adults and kids ticket with numbered seats cost NTD76 and NT38 respectively.
Train was comfortable, and took us about 40mins to arrive Ruifang.
Ruifang Station Underpass was turned into a photo gallery
Girls were not interested in the photos, but the ’sparkly’ pebble washed wall. o.O”
This girl will use the disable ramp instead of stairs; and climbing through barriers, instead of just walking passed it.
And she’s always eager to do something dangerous. o.O”
We wanted to have lunch at Ruifang. We walked through the street market but could not find a place to eat.
Pork sausages.
So we got a bus and headed to Jiufen (九份), a picturesque town which used to be a prosperous mining town.
The moment we arrived, signs of minsu (民宿) or homestay is every where.
Using the directions sent to us by the minsu owner, we found our minsu, Windsor B&B/溫莎堡景觀民宿, easily.
The entrance to the reception area of Windsor B&B or minsu.
We got room no. 3 for our first night. Girls love the spacious room we got. With 2 queen beds; a balcony; bathroom with wooden tub; separate living and dining area (although cooking is not allowed); and a little attic with floor to ceiling window, which the girls loved the most. Zaria called it the ’secret’ room, and everytime we got back to the room, she would ask us to go there to share secrets.
Our room balcony.
Jiufen’s main attraction is the old street, filled with eateries, and shops selling food stuff. It was good place for us to get some snacks as late lunch.
Instead of pop corn, there’s pop rice (a crisp made from puff up rice) 
This stall stinks, but it serves extremely tasty fried stinky tofu.
Don’t miss it if you were in Jiufen. The shop name is Jiufen 1st Shop (九份第一家).
We actually went back for another serving of this stinky tofu before we left 2 days later. 
While we had stinky tofu, girls had the fishball there (not bad too).
This is a very famous snack in Jiufen. A dumpling made with red yeast and pork or Hongzao Rouyuan (紅糟肉圓).
A group of workers making the dumpling.
Boiling them in water.
And this is how they look like.
As it’s filled with pork, we didn’t try any.
Yam/Taro Balls or Yu Yuan (芋圓) is another famous snack in Jiufen. This is the balls that you get in your Snowflake dessert.
Business is brisk for this famous Taro Balls shop Lai Apo (賴阿婆). Tourists buy them raw to bring home as souvenir.
.
Making of taro balls in Lai Apo
Most people would just buy a bowl and eat in the shop.
(we’re not most people, instead we went to another shop for Taro Ball Dessert o.O”)
Vendor selling various stew dishes.
Signage of a herbal tea shop.
Shaved peanut brittle with ice cream (花生捲冰淇淋) is another popular snack. A big block of peanut brittle is shaved, and laid on top of a springroll wrapper, 3 scoops of ice cream is added, and then topped with some coriander leave and wrapped up.
We had one without ice cream. The coriander and the crunch of shaved peanut brittle was a nice combination.
Jiufen has some ‘traditional’ toy shops which of course attracted the girls.
Jiufen is a place to sip tea, relax when enjoying the view, so the old street is lined with tea houses with fabulous view. Jiufen Teahouse (九份茶坊) is probably the most posh one. 
Love the way they boiled water for tea brewing.
After checking how much it cost to have some tea here (~RM300 for the whole famiy), we thought better of it. What more, Zaria was touching everyhing, and I was worried she might break something.
We continued walking came to a cafe (988 Cafe).
Zaria decided to hang around and try out riding on a bike while Zara and me went into the cafe to get a table with a view.
The cafe didn’t serve nice drinks, but the view was spectacular.
We can see other cafes or tea houses along the old street.
As well as Keelong town far away. 
After sunset, Jiufen is still very picturesque.
The restaurant street of Jiufen in the night.
Looking up at the restaurant street.
We took dinner hopping from one stall after another while the girls took the onigiri from 7-11 (which they loved and had it a few more times the rest of our trip).
To be continued.
Sugars In Your Growing Up Milk II December 27, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : notable, parenting , add a commentTo supplement my earlier post, I have a few Videos to share from the experts who recently visited Malaysia discussing the disadvantages of added sugars in GUM (growing up milk).
Here is his 1st video
It’s a myth where parents assume children need a lot of added sugars for energy and growth. In fact any form of added sugar (Corn syrup solids, glucose syrup solids and sucrose) when consumed by a child, those extra calories may simply convert to excessive body fats and may contribute towards later overweight and obesity.
Here is his 2nd video
As a guideline, the World Health Organisation say we should keep added sugar intakes to less than 10% of our total calorie intake. So for a growing up milk for a 2 to 3 year old child, that’s not really many calories to put aside for added sugar – only 150Kcal or less than 7 teaspoon per day maximum.
Here is his 1st video
There’s natural sugar level (lactose) of 11g-12g per serving in children’s milk, anything above this can be considered added sugars.
Do check the ingredient list for added sugar ingredients.
Here is his 2nd video
The nutritional definition of sugars represents more than just mono- and disaccharides because the body digests and metabolises things like corn syrup solids and glucose syrup solids just like sugars and they give rise to sugars immediately in the body.
Added sugars include Corn syrup and glucose syrup solids.
To give yourself a guide to the amount of added sugar, look at ‘carbohydrate per serve’ in a growing up milk powder.
Here is his 3rd video
He reiterated the fact that looking at ‘carbohydrate per serve’ is a good to give us a guide to the amount of added sugars in a growing up milk powder. Anything higher than 11-12g for ‘carbohydrate per serve’ is added sugars.
In short, all these videos are asking you to learn to recognize the different names of added sugar, and make sure you are checking the nutrition information panel of the growing up milk you are buying.
Taiwan 2011 Part 2 – Palace Museum, Shida Night Market, Bali, Danshui (故宮博物院, 師大夜市, 八里, 淡水) December 23, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : going places, home affairs, my two girls, notable , 9 comments(Continues from here)
♥Dec 2nd – Drizzle/飘雨的台北♥
My collague, Teresa, came to the hotel to meet us. Somehow, Zara and her ‘clicked’, and the rest of the day, they were glued together (oh well, Teresa was looking after Zara for me).
Because it was drizzling, our plan of going to the zoo has to be changed. We went to the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院) instead which was packed with tourists who came in bus load.
Zara showed lots of interest in the artifacts, reading the didactic to learn more about them, not Zaria though.
However, both were intrigued by this longish painting from 1085-1145, which is 528cm long capturing the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital. It’s called Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖).
You can view the animated River of Wisdom, to see why it’s so interesting for the girls.
(No cameras are allowed in the museum, so no photos of the artifacts)
Teresa bought us a simple lunch at the Museum Cafe (delicious!) and then we went to Shinkong Mitsukoshi. The Taipei Station branch there was having an aniversary sales, and I don’t know why, I didn’t buy anything even with the good discount. o.O”
Teresa bought us dinner as well in Shinkong Mitsukoshi, and got the girls some presents. The girls said Teresa took care of them like their Gu-ma(姑妈), and called her their Taiwan Gu-ma. o.O”
In the night, after we parted with Teresa, we went to Shida Night Market again (師大夜市) since it’s so near the hotel.
Trendy boutiques to cater for university students are every where. This one has some rocking horses at the shop front.
Another funky shop.
The display window.
Bubble tea is sold everywhere, this one has miniature samplers.
A nightmarket can’t do without some stalls selling food. This old man was burning grilling some corn.
Eww. Pig’s blood cake.
Tangyuan (Glutinous rice balls) shop where we had 2 bowls of tangyuan from. Maybe because they do tangyuan with pork too, the sweet tangyuan we had tasted a bit porky. o.O”
♥Dec 3rd – Sunny/放晴♥
After a day of drizzling, it was sunny. Lucky for us, because we’d made plans to meet up with my collagues at Bali (八里), a seaside town near Tanshui (淡水).
We took the metro to Guandu (關渡), one of my colleagues, Iris, met us there, and then together, we took a cab to To House (兔子餐廳), and met up with the rest of my collagues.
To House (八里兔子餐廳) is a theme family restaurant with a compound housing lots of rabbits.
Healthy looking rabbit in To House.
Besides rabbits, there are other animals too, i.e. Parrots.
There’s also a pig!
Girls spent the whole time petting and feeding rabbits. Coming in only to have their lunch. Leaving me lots of time to catch up with my collagues whom I was meeting for the first time.
Deco around To House.
We left the place only at about 3pm with Iris, we took the bus and went to Bali Ferry Port.
The Streetfood, mainly selling seafood, around the Ferry Port, attracted lots of customers.
Salted eggs are supposed to be famous here as well.
And in Taiwan, Stinky Tofu is sold everywhere.
Guess what? We didn’t buy anything from these stalls, except a stick of squid cake. We were too full from lunch, and I didn’t feel good everytime I wanted to get something, Iris rushed to pay.
We took a short Ferry ride to Danshui.
Over at Danshui, it’s the same, food stalls are everywhere and each one of them were very crowded.
This is the famous Amah’s sour plum drink, but we didn’t really like it.
Danshui street.
Catching the sunset is one of the main attraction, but the evening was gloomy.
Girls found a new game of throwing pebbles into the river.
Riverside Living Statue.
There are lots of streetfood available too.
As the only pork eater at home, she has the honour of having a stick of famous Taiwan grilled sausage.
There are grabbing game machines again.
And other games.
Once we got to the Metro station, Iris, left us to run her own errands.
Outside the metro station, we caught a puppet show.
Lottery icket seller outside the Danshui Metro Station.
Busker crooning Jacky Cheung’s hit.
We had BBQ buffet dinner at Danshui before taking the metro back to the hotel.
To be continued.
Taiwan 2011 Part 1 – Ximending, CKS Memorial (西門町/中正纪念堂) December 21, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : going places, home affairs, my two girls, notable , 5 commentsWhen we suggested for a holiday further away from Hong Kong, Zara made some noise, “What’s the point of going for a holiday when all we do is walk walk walk?” “It’s so boring taking the plane.” “I have ear problem, and you still want me to take the plane” etc etc.
We gave her 2 options, either go with us, or stay home with Jelly. Of course, she chose the former.
Daddy’s airmiles could cover 4 of us to either Perth, or Taiwan. Looking at the AUD exchange rate, we therefore decided to go Taiwan instead. We have to time our trip according to flight schedules claimable by airmiles and to make sure I’m in town on December 9th because I have bought tickets for Jacky Cheung’s concert. Hence, the trip was made during the wet season in Taiwan. Sigh.
♥Nov 30th♥
We arrived at Taipei about 7pm+, it was already dark. Upon arriving at the hotel, a package from my Taiwan colleague, Teresa, which consisted of a Taipei Guidebook and 2.5Kg of Taiwan rice welcome us.
Our hotel for the next 4 nights will be Li Yuan Hotel (儷園飯店), a small hotel located near Shida (師大) and 1 minute walk from Tai Power Metro Station (台電大樓站).
We got a family room with 2 queen beds. The room is small but functional and clean.
Soon after we checked in, we went straight to Shida Nightmarket (師大夜市) for dinner. We picked a restaurant which specialises in herbal chicken soup, 龍涎居雞膳食坊. We were too hungry to take any photos, but Daddy who’s not a chicken eater claimed they serve one of the best chicken soup he’s tasted.
We did some walking about the nightmarket after dinner, and then headed back to rest.
♥Dec 1st – Gloomy♥
We woke up late and missed the hotel breakfast and had to eat out.
Our first destination after breakfast of road side pao and bubble tea was Bo Ai Road (博愛路), the Taipei Camera Street, to get a lens Daddy was eyeing (he did the research before arriving and knew exactly which shop to go to. o.O”).
We spent sometime in Ximending (西門町), for lunch, to glance through some of the small shops.
Shops and stall at Ximending :
菓風小舖, the sweet shop where we spent most time in. 
Roadside Sweet Potato Ball Seller
Girls kept asking for money for these ‘games’, but I didn’t let them.
Lots of shops have dogs at the door front, this is one of them.
上海老天祿 stewed duck wings
The Red House (西門紅樓), Taiwan’s first public market now a theater.
Girls were fascinated with the many costume shops across the Red House.
Besides getting some sweets from the sweet shop, we didn’t buy anything else in Taipei’s shopping street. o.O”
As Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂) is nearby, we thought we’ll visit it as well. Not knowing we’ll spend so much time there. As it’s surrounded by a big park, lots of locals walk their dogs, do team practice for various events etc etc.
We saw a brass band practice in the park.
Zaria spent so much time chasing after pigeons.
School team practicing march.
Li Zhen’s Sculptures (李真雕塑) were exhibited in front of the Memorial Hall.
Girls wanted to take photos of the sculptures.
And wanted to be photographed with the sculptures.
Inside the Memorial Hall, the girls could not believe the still guards were real, and not human. 
Zaria asked who the statue is “Is he the King of Taiwan?” o.O”
As we were there in the evening, instead of change of guards, we managed to catch the flag lowering ceremony (at 5pm).
As night fall, they started lighting up the whole park.
Li Zhen’s sculpture.
That night, recommended by my Taiwan colleague, we went to the Eslite flagship bookshop (誠品信義店). A bookshop with 8000m² of floorspace! Heaven for me!
We even had dinner there at their food court, then just glanced through the various floors.
We love the 杏仁燒, an almond dessert with grass jelly, peanuts, red bean and tosted almond chips from this dessert shop Summer Tree Sweet (夏樹甜品) at the food court.
(sorry no photo).
(To-Be Continued)
>Insurance for Kids?< December 20, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : girls' angpow , add a commentThe girls are getting older now, besides getting them Education Policies, I think I should start looking at getting them term life insurance as well.
Is this something you do at this age? Or leave it till they are old enough to earn their own money and buy their own policies?
My parents didn’t get me any, my 1st policy was bought when I was close to 30. A late starter, I have to pay quite a high premium.
>Cashiers’ Efficiency< December 18, 2011
Posted by Zara's Mama in : girls' angpow , add a commentWe shop in Mydin a lot, and always thought their cashiers were slow. Sometimes, the barcode scanner does not work, sometimes the receipt printer does not work.
Everytime when I see more than 2 people in the queue, I would decide to leave my things behind and go to 7-11 instead.
They should invest in better scanner and an Epson TM-T88V, for their cashier to improve efficiency of the cashier.
>Shoe Tastes<
Posted by Zara's Mama in : girls' angpow , add a commentI’m one who cannot wear shoes with all my toes covered up.
I’m all for womens sandals.
They are comfortable to walk in, allow my feet to breath, and some of them are very stylish too.
The girls have different preference though. Zara likes shoes which cover her feet, Zaria prefers sandals like me, but she likes them with some heels (the higher the better), although I prefer mine flat.
3 females, 3 different tastes.
