This cold weather is nice

December 11, 2013 in Everyday | Comments closed

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Being such a fan of Summer, I never thought I would ever say this, but I am really enjoying the cold weather we’ve been experiencing lately. Well, I’m not happy about all of the horrific (& unfortunate) traffic accidents. My well wishes go out to the people involved in all the snow-related car pile-ups on the road.

However… On a happier note, I am quite enjoying this frigid weather. In the city where I live, the Summer weather tends to trail off by late September to early October, but this year it stayed warm all the way up until the end of October, & I was starting to worry a bit. When was Autumn/Winter going to arrive? (I’m not going to ramble on-&-on about global warming.)

Ahh… Winter has arrived! The weather has been in the 30s, 40s & 50s (Fahrenheit) for the past few weeks, & I quite like the change from the warm-ish climate of the Summer. Since Christimas is coming up very soon, & that’s my favorite holiday of the year, this blustery cold front really enhances the mood/feeling of the holiday season!

I used to dislike cold weather when I was much younger. Winter weather always brought upon extremely dry, itchy skin & allergies galore. The itchy skin was the worst! No matter how much I scratched & applied lotion, it just wouldn’t stop itching. Then, having to peel away all the layers of clothes just to scratch that hard-to-reach spot on my back would drive me nuts!! Thinking back on those times is practically making my skin itch right now. I have since then developed a skincare routine for my itchy skin & a method to fight off my nagging allergies. Now I am ready to take on Jack Frost!! (Ha ha.)

Not wanting to over-explain my story here (too late), I have made up a short list on why I think this Winter weather is awesome.

01. Wearing warm & cute scarves (& thick thermal socks too!)
02. Shopping for new sweaters
03. Sitting by the fireplace (w/ family & friends of course)
04. Curling up under a thick blanket
05. Sipping hot drinks (e.g. coffee, tea, hot toddy)
06. Wearing a puffy down jacket, which makes me look like the Michelin Tires character
07. Dressing up my husband with cool beanie caps & hats

Cheers to staying warm & safe in this cold weather.

My gel pen addiction

November 25, 2013 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Ever since I was a little kid (who was obsessed with Hello Kitty & ALL THINGS Sanrio), I’ve been hoarding collecting pens.  It started with my habit of “keeping the last one before I use it all up”.  Just like I do with my letter sets, I keep the last sheet of paper & envelope as a way to show a timeline of all the sets I’ve had over the years, & also as a keepsake to look back on all my old letter sets.  As for my pens, I’d use the pens until they were almost out of ink, then I’d save the pen & not use it again for the same reasons.  I’ve pretty much packed away my old stationery sets & sent them off to my storage closet for safe-keeping, but I still have a huge craft box (see previous entries for a visual reference) of all the pens I currently use.

Lately, I’ve been extremely addicted to the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink pens.  I’ve been collecting all of the colors little-by-little, & I believe I have amassed a collection of approximately 20 pens or so.  I’ve been mainly collecting the plain colored pens & not the metallic pens.  I’m not a fan of metallic gel ink pens as I feel they tend to smudge easily.  My favorite pen tip thickness is 0.5mm; it’s just the right amount of thickness that I like for writing, & the tip is not too thin/sharp to tear the paper.

While I was on my trip to Asia, I kind of went a little crazy with stocking up on stationery again.  I recently saw a new collection of scented pens by Zebra, which was a collaboration with Lipton tea.  The pens all have a different fruit tea scent.  I normally don’t care for scented ink pens, but… 1. these were part of a limited edition set, 2. the scents smelled nice, 3. I love Lipton tea, & 4. I just couldn’t pass them up!  These are the pens I picked up.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the packaged sets, so I am missing a few of the colors to make a complete collection.

Photo on the Left courtesy of www.JapanToday.com

Photo on the Left courtesy of http://www.JapanToday.com
Set A + Set B
1. Grape Tea
2. Muscat Tea
3. Caramel Tea au Lait
4. Lemon Tea
5. Vanilla Tea au Lait
6. Peach Tea
7. Valencia Orange Tea

I also picked up one pink pen from the limited edition Pink Series.  There are a total of 5 various ‘pink’ colors in this series.  I only chose the coral pink “mustache” color.

Pink_Mustache_Fotor_Collage

This is what the entire series looks like:
Zebra_Pink_Series_Collage_Fotor

Yep, I guess you could say that I’m really bananas for this Sarasa Gel Ink clip pen.  I might need help for my pen addiction. Hellllll~p!

Highlights of my trip: Part 1

November 22, 2013 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

I had so much fun on my trip.  I don’t even know where to begin.  I started my vacation with the intention of blogging photos of each day, but *pffffft*, that obviously DID NOT happen.  Every day was like a whirlwind, & by the time I had gotten back to my hotel room, it was extremely late & I was exhausted.  My two friends who got married had a beautiful wedding (with a few very minor glitches).  I have never experienced a half traditional Taiwanese , half Western mixed wedding before, & my friends pulled it off wonderfully.

One part that really amazed me was that my male friend was asked to sing a song during the wedding reception.  According to my female friend (who is Taiwanese), it is part of a newer type of wedding tradition where the groom is required to prepare & choreograph a special song (of one’s own choice) & sing to the new bride.  I was so happily surprised to see my male friend, who is usually quite shy, get up to sing in front of the entire wedding party.  He chose to sing a popular/well-known Chinese pop song, & he sang the lyrics in Mandarin…which was a feat by itself, since my male friend mainly speaks Cantonese & English & was not very familiar with the Mandarin language until he met his new bride.  He was really great with the choreography too!

Overall, all of us as a group had a really awesome & memorable experience in Taiwan.  For some of us, it was a first-time experience.  For others, it was like visiting familiar territory.  I didn’t go as crazy with the food eating as I had initially thought I would.  However, I DID go a little buck wild with the shopping.  I really wasn’t expecting to do that much shopping in Taiwan.  I gave myself a budget (I did stick to it) & had planned to spend a majority of my shopping budget in Japan…but I could not resist all of the cute stationery popping up around every corner!  I ended up purchasing quite a bit of postcards, greeting cards & sticker sets.  (Yes, I was a bit of a naughty girl.)

I have a special use for all these things, I promise!

I have a special use for all these things, I promise!

Here’s a quick rundown of all the things that happened on the Taiwan leg of our Asia tour…

A glimpse at the food we ate:


01. Won Ton soup noodles
02. Ramen Kagetsu Arashi (花月嵐拉麵) – tonkotsu ramen with onsen egg
03. Japanese beef curry with rice
04. Lion Head meatball (獅子頭 – shi zhi tou)
05. Locally farmed organic chicken with sliced green onions
06. Mini soup dumplings (小籠包 – xiao long bao)
07. Rao He night market – a very popular fried bun filled with minced pork & veggies
08. Fong Da cafe latte – this place is very famous & has been open since 1956!
09. Ice Monster red bean shave ice with ice cream & condensed milk
10. Ice Monster (very popular) mango shave ice with mango sorbet
11. All-you-can-eat hot pot – side A = spicy broth, side B = mild broth
12. You can choose up to 3 types of broth for your hot pot!
13. We celebrated our dear friend’s birthday with a tiramisu Mille Crêpe cake!
14. Believe it or not, Taipei is known for some really good Japanese sushi spots. We topped off our sushi extravaganza with some Negi Toro hand rolls.
15. We visited a 50+ year old beef noodle soup shop to have 紅燒牛肉麵 (hong shao niu rou mian – red roasted beef noodles).
16. Yes, we also tried Shanghainese food in Taiwan. This was some good slow cooked beef with some veggies in a delicious broth.
17. Didn’t get enough veggies yet, so we ordered a steamed cabbage dish
18. Shredded chicken noodle soup
19. Shredded bean curd served cold
20. Small river shrimp with a special vinegar sauce for dipping
21. The best thin rice noodles I’ve ever had at the 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong Mian Xian – Ah Zong Noodle Line) food stall. No tables, no seats. Everybody just stands around the shop & eats on the sidewalk. You can add your own fresh mince garlic or special hot chili sauce.
22. A plate of duck with a bowl of soup noodles at 鸭肉扁 (Ya Rou Bian – Duck Meat Slice). I found out recently that the meat is actually wild goose, not really duck.

 

MORE PHOTOS AND INFO TO COME…

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