The videos that I shared in my previous posts were all from Experts who shared their opinions on sugar in Growing Up Milk (GUMP). I watched a couple of them when I was waiting in Mediklinik TTDI Jaya via the Queue Channel.

Thanks to technology, we can find all the related videos on youtube as well.

These videos are mainly trying to educate us as consumers on added sugars in GUMP, and asked us to make informed decision when it comes to choosing the right GUMP for our kids. You should definitely take a look at these if you are interested in doing what is right for your children when choosing their GUMP.

Here is a print ad from MOH (Ministry of Health) that was in the papers which also talked about similar points mentioned in the video.

Two very interesting points that I picked up from this MOH print ad are:

As per Malaysian labeling guidelines, all sugars are declared as part of carbohydrate, which includes sugar, sugar-rich ingredients and digestible glucose chains (e.g. sucrose, corn syrup, glucose syrup and maltodextrin) – all declared as “Carbohydrate’ in the Nutrition Information Penal)

1) Added sugars can have many different names. Corn syrup solids, glucose syrup solids and sucrose are all added sugars.

2) Be aware that products claiming “no added sucrose” or “sucrose free” could still contain other types of added sugars.

Not to offend any brands of GUMP, but now, when you next pick up a pack of GUMP, be informed that even the MOH says that corn syrup solids, sucrose and glucose syrup solids are added sugars. What does this mean for some of the GUMPS that have made certain claims about their formulations?

MOH also says ‘no sucrose’ doesn’t necessary mean ‘no added sugars’. What does this mean for certain GUMP that has this claim on their packaging?

So far in the market as far as I can tell, Anmum Essential is the only growing up milk powder that really has no added sugars.

Do make informed decision on your next purchase of GUMP.

Teacher 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!

Continues 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 101but 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.

Continues 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.