Around Asia in 30 days!!

Certainly feels that way!!

We'll be spending Christmas in Hongkong and Macau (1 week before Christmas) and then D has a training in Bangkok on Jan 2nd and then we'll be going to Korea on Jan 31st for 8 days.

Think we might just skip Bangkok, think we should save the moolah! The only reasons why i wanna go to BKK is to:

1) Pray
2) Sun!
3) Eat my fish maw
4) Swim

hmmmm... 4 reasons, good enough reasons to go?? :)

But i still think we should save the money for extra spending money in Korea!! And tickets to BKK are ridiculously expensive!! $350usd for one!! And we're not going for the entire training of 2 weeks, we're going for 5 days as somebody has to watch the cats...

And we also have a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May, May 13th to be exact, these tickets were bought in July 2010, have never in my life managed to get any cheap tickets thus i HAD to buy these!! :) We only paid $200+USD for 3 tickets from TW to KL!! :) (pat on the back)

I've never been to KL, am pretty excited to see KL for the first time, Petrona Towers and all, will goggle wat's there to do in KL.

And we'll be spending the Summer in DC, D has training before he leaves for Syria, ideally, we'd want to be there for 2 months, but what about the cats??

Sigh~~

Leaving Taiwan...

There has been talks about leaving Taiwan but how do you leave a decade of your life behind? With all the great friends and contacts you've built up over 9 years? Saying goodbye is never easy, especially for me... it's really hard for me to say goodbye to friends and Taiwan is no exception, after living here for close to 10 years, it has become more than a friend, it is my dear close friend.

Brendan is 4 now, he turns 5 next year. He should be in nursery/kindergarten but he is not as i don't really trust the schools here in Taiwan and the International schools are just too far away and i don't wanna move. For the sake of his education, i believe i have to leave Taiwan. Kindergartens aside, what about when he starts elementary school?? I can't read a word in Chinese (ok, SOME words--pork, beef, fish, chicken, noodles...) but definitely not enough to help him with his homework. Every subject is in Chinese, Math, Science, Social Studies... Dear Lord, we could be up for weeks and months and yet no homework will be done. I'll probably have to hire a tutor to come in everyday just to help him with his homework!!

The sad part is Brendan loves and misses his dad a lot but sadly, his dad doesn't feel the same about his own son. B is getting older, as a mother, i wanna prevent further hurt to my son. Why stay in a place where i have no kin at all??

Leaving Taiwan with 6 cats is NOT easy!! 1) Costly!! Very... :( It'll probably cost us at least $10,000sgd for all the cats to leave Taiwan. I've to start saving for it... 2) The next move has to be permanent? Somewhat as it's really costly to locate the cats and it won't be fair for them to be in quarantine all the time!!

How do you leave an entire decade of you life behind? What do you bring with you? It was easy to pack and relocate as a single but now with all these baggages, how do you do it?

Well... nothing is confirmed yet. Just a thought......... it could happen next year or the year after.

Meet & Mingle

So, what exactly is Meet & Mingle?? Is it just the name for another playgroup? Or a networking group? Is it just for mothers? Is it just for ladies?

Meet & Mingle is actually a networking and socializing group for anyone! Mostly mothers with kids, mothers meet and chat while the kids play and mingle with each other. But fathers are more than welcome to come too!! Single ladies? If you love kids and love great company, food and wanna have a good time, you're welcome to join us too!

Meet & Mingle meet biweekly on a Tuesday at various locations.

Email me if you're interested in hosting the next Meet & Mingle. :)

Michele: michele_tang@hotmail.com

Shapes n Alphabets

Instead of allowing B to watch tv/dvds all the time and apart from playing with his toys and reading his books, i thought of some creative stuff for him to do indoors...

Shapes & Alphabets!!



I drew different shapes on a piece of art paper from my various skin care bottles... :) And also cut put the shapes of them on colored paper. (we used floral papers)

Then I wrote Alphabets on the cut out papers and also on the art paper, B had to match the alphabets on the floral paper to the right alphabet and shape on the art paper.



As you can see, it didn't involved much effort on his part, think i spent thrice the time preparing for it!! The alphabets weren't very challenging for him, it seem a lil too easy. I'll come up with something else next time, maybe the name of his trains??

Political Farewell Party

Summer is a not a fun time when you work for the state department, many farewells and many colleagues on long summer vacations... Come next year, it'll be D's turn to leave too, dunno where the next post will be, we'll know this August. All i know is that if it's China, we ain't going. Anyhow, I wanna spend another 2 years in Taiwan, this will be our last 2 years in Taiwan as Brendan will be starting school (elementary) soon and if we don't leave Taiwan, i dunno who is gonna help him with the homework as everything here is in Chinese!! (Math, Science...etc)

3 of D's colleagues from the Political Section were leaving in August, Angelo and Darlene were posted back to Washington and Dave was going to Afghanistan. Dave is Denis' boss, he is well-liked and respected by everyone in AIT. (American Institute in Taiwan)

We decided to throw a farewell party for them. It was to be a closed door
party as the Director(Ambassador) and the Deputy Director were coming to the party.
So... am supposed to organize this party, plan the food and drink menu and the theme. Have come up with a Red, White and Blue Theme to show our respect for all the hardworking Foreign Service Officers and it's was also like a Pre-4th of July Party.

I was up till 2am preparing the kebabs and all, D was in Lala land as he had Dragonboat Race the next morning at 7am.

The Director, Bill Stanton giving a speech

But am glad to say that the party went well, all my efforts were paid off...the guests enjoyed the food, drinks and the company!! :) We did pretty good considering the fact that we were grilling in the small balcony.

Finally found a way to entertain the kids, played Kungfu Panda and put them in front of the computer.


Goodbye Dave, Angelo and Darlene, hope to see you soon!!

Brendan's 4!!

I didn't wanna have a party this year as Brendan has so many toys!! I even had to think of a new 'brand' of toys that he doesn't have to buy for him and thus i chose Playmobil, i remember growing up with them... (but i dun remember the small parts that they come with!!)

Then i decided to have a small party with some of the closest friends we have a Taipei and with kids close to B's age group.

Party supplies and party favors were all ordered from the US, the boys favors were so late that i got kinda worried on the last week...

It was a Spongebob Theme party with fried food and snacks and of cos, a Spongebob Cake that Brendan chose, 'goofy Spongebob with glasses'.

Thank you all for coming!! :)

Happy Birthday Brendan!!

Muffin Tin

Ok, am not much of a baker but a terrific cook!! ;)

Guess what i stumbled across today and i was SHOCKED!! Kids meals on muffin trays!! :) Think my fussy, picky and slow eater will eat more and faster now??

Am off to a bake shop tomorrow to look for muffin trays!! Will update this post with our creations... (hopefully soon)

http://www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

Mother's day 2010

It's been many many many years since Mama last spent Mother's Day with Grandma as they've always lived apart for many many years. So this year was an exception, Grandma was still around during Mother's Day and this year we had a 2 day celebration!!


We went to South Africa Day at Huashan Cultural center on Saturday, the adults were bored to tears but i had fun running in and out those bouncy castles and running around with the other children!!



After that, Mama & Denis dropped Grandma and I at home and they went to a Cinco De Mayo party.


On Sunday, Mother's Day, Grandma, Mama and i headed to Din Tai Fung for lunch, daddy even popped by to drop off 2 any pows for Grandma and Mama. After lunch, we did a little shopping as Mama is looking for a red and white stripes top. And i got to run around a little at the playground behind Sogo and even ate ice cream at McDonalds.

Then Mommy complained that she was tired and we headed home for a nap before dinner. I was buying the ladies dinner...

Denis came over with flowers for the ladies and we headed out to Maji for Mama's favorite, Japanese BBQ!!

We had a delicious dinner and headed to Raohe nightmarket after dinner. I even got to fly my own private jet!! ;)

Happy Mother's Day to Grandma & Mama!!