Dreams Have No Boundaries: December 2012

Thursday 20 December 2012

Hurray for Cassadee Pope!

Cassadee Pope wins The Voice Season 3! So Happy for her!!

Friday 7 December 2012

One Sweet Surprise In Taipei 101

It was a cold and misty night as the gentle raindrops tickle down the Taipei 101 tower. The buzz of tourists and audio guide echoes softly on the 89th floor observatory. The pair had finished their round of exploring of the many portraits of the tower's structure, it was getting too misty to try to view the area from the windows.

So she suggested that they use the beer float coupon, curious how vanilla ice cream would taste in beer. Settling down on a bench in a quiet dim corner of the observatory to rest their tired feet while enjoying their drink, he suddenly sets his beer down on the bench and asks,

Ryan : Do you know how much I love you?
Jo : Why don't you just tell me? And please don't put your drink there, you're going to knock it over.
Ryan : It'll be fine. Don't worry so much.
Jo : Whatever you say....
Ryan : I love you more than beer.
Jo : Wow....what a great thing you picked to compare *sarcastic*
Ryan : *laughs nervously* Why don't you put down your beer for a moment.
Jo : No, I don't want to spill it, the bench has too many gaps.

It was then she sensed that something was not right. He never puts his beer down unless he needs his hands, he keep checking his jacket pocket thinking she didn't notice. She panics a little trying not to assume what he is trying to do and quickly finishes her drink.

He started to behave more nervously and sticking his hand into in jacket pocket as he inches further to the edge of the bench.

Ryan : Jo, you're my fling.
Jo : What?? Fling?? *looks at him all confused*
Ryan : *gets all serious*
It has been a wonderful 5 year fling,
Now, with this diamond ring,
Would you be my everything,
And make me your king?

He kneels on one knee and presents a little golden box with a ring comfortably sitting there waiting to be picked up. She panics again and asks him to get up before anyone sees him.

Thoughts race through her head at turbo speed but concludes to nothing, she knows that she wants no one else but him and has been waiting for him to do this before they turn 30. And dreaming and hoping he wouldn't do something that draws public attention. She started feeling even more nervous but extremely happy, shy and close to tears for a brief moment and she answers.

Jo : Okay.
Ryan : So does the ring go on the left or right ring finger?
Jo : Left........
Ryan : Phew! I thought you would never put that drink down!

He gets up and sits a little closer to her, knocking down his beer float and spilling it all over the bench and carpet.

Jo : OMG I told you that you're going to accidentally knock it over! Now there's ice cream on the bench!
Ryan : OMG OMG OMG!
Jo : Quickly! Help me wipe it up!

They managed to wipe clean the spill on the bench while looking around hoping no one saw the silly incident.

Ryan : Quick! Lets run away! Nothing happened here!
Jo : Runaway~~~~~~ *giggles*

And off they go disappearing into another section of the observatory, newly engaged.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

A Trip To Taiwan

It has finally come to the time of the year where Ninja Ryan's family plans their annual holiday. 2012's destination? Taipei, Taiwan!

The trip to me was a bit spontaneous and all bookings were done in quite a rush, burned a hole in my wallet, but we all manage to secure a nice hotel in a very good location. We were staying at Yomi Hotel is Taipei which is about less than 10 minutes walking distance from ShuangLian MRT station. The hotel was really lovely and cosy, I could only complain about the pillows which were too flat. I need fluffy pillows!

Having only 5 days (26 Oct - 31 Oct, we arrived pretty late at night so it doesn't really count as a 6 days trip) to explore Taipei, we had to do a lot of impromptu planning at breakfast every morning. With the guide that my friend Pauline from work provided, along with a MRT map, we planned each location in sequence. And normally we tend to wake up earlier during a holiday trip so we won't miss out any sights, we discovered that almost every where is Taipei only opens for business at around noon. Our feet touched the ground of Ximen, Wu Fen Pu, Shilin, Jiu Fen, Tam Sui....... I can't remember the names of half of the places. Serves me right for waiting till almost a month later to blog about the trip.

The whole of Taipei was like a land of pasar malam. Every corner of the street are filled with little stores doing little businesses selling a range of things from shoes, clothes to food. And business starts from afternoon till late night. Their malls are quite small compared to those in Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan people are so much more polite compared to Hong Kong shop vendors. And it's so clean there though it is very tough to find a garbage bin anywhere! But the shop vendors actually offer to help us dispose of our empty wrappers after we have eaten our purchase of street food. Sitting is a luxury there, because hunting for a bench to sit on is like a treasure hunt! Little adorable doggies can be seen almost every area we went.

Luckily even though my Mandarin was not very good, it was quite alright communicating with people there and they tried their best to reply us in simple English too. I can't remember all the names of the places we visited, there were too many and all the names are in Chinese. But we did visit Shilin Street Market 3 times! We could not get enough of Shilin Market, we tried to try as much of the street food as we could too.

The weather at Taipei was quite nice during our visit there, even though it rained quite a lot towards the last couple of days of our trip, we were prepared with the automatic umbrellas we bought which were awesome! It was a fun trip, being able to enjoy the cool weather.

Random photos from the trip, mostly food ;p