hmm today was a pretty hectic day, had to go down for a few interviews. so came back home really shagged and thus i took a nap on a sofa, and now i’m super awake. durr. not good. cos i’m supposed to rest for tomorrow. 

anyway i’ve suddenly gotten this end-of-year blues. like the feeling that, omg, another year has ended! i’m only 2 years away from the second decade in my life (sounds weird, what i mean is that i’m 2 years from 20). looking back on these past 18 years, i’ve got to say this year and the last probably played the biggest role in making me grow up. i can’t say how or why, but it just did, and it can’t be put down in words because i don’t know how to explain it. all those days working under pressure to finish eetokia, pulling all-nighters, getting blasted by teachers for no reason and the like. these reasons sound superficial, but i think ib really made me a more resilient person. that’s not to metion friends and the good company. :) thank you everything who’ve made a difference in my life, and have made it better. you may not see this, but i really appreciate all the times and the little things! point 12, guitar, babes and everyone else. thank you! without you i would’ve been stuck in at the bottom of a pit of depression still. words can’t express how grateful i am. sometimes all it took was someone to talk to help me out of my stupid fits. i feel really blessed to be alive and kicking, with friends and family all around me. i really am. and i’m not saying this just because it’s the new year and it’s time for saying thank you and writing resolutions and stuff. yup. and i wanted to write this because i’m not sure if i can blog again until 2jan the earliest.

hope tmr night will be fun! CHEERS EVERY ONE AND HAVE A NICE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR!!

fermented tofu… you can almost smell it through the screen!

the first night there i had a room with an attached living room (and a king-sized bed)!! that was the best

the towns nestled on the slopes of the mountains, shrouded in clouds

we took the train to kaohsiung and travelled through tunnels that led straight though the heart of the mountains, and past long stretches of abandoned beaches that led to the pacific ocean. and at that moment the sunlight filtered through the clouds onto the sea, and it looked as if it had taken on a sparkling, greyish-lavender colour with the consistency of silk. i couldn’t explain it, and as weird as this sounds, i felt like reaching out through the window to pluck it out of the distance and feel it in my hands. plus the wild grass and flowers in the foreground was silhouetted against the sea, the sky and ground. it was that pretty.

we went to this aboriginal culture theme park, which was quite sad because they had to build cheesy theme park attractions which had nothing to do with aboriginal culture to attract people to come. and we went into this indoor place with so many kiddy rides, like the space adventure roller coaster that a lot of elderly queued up for without knowing what it was, only to back out at the last moment because the operators had to explain to them in hokkien what the ride was, only to go on the milder rides… like the merry-go-round. with such i caught the weird sight of ah-peks ridding the wooden horses and ah-mahs sitting on the adjacent carriages, all painted in garish high gloss paint and covered in spinning, flashing lights. what to say, as we get older we get, the more child-like we become.

on the last day we had time to kill before leaving, so we went to check out the chiang kai-shek memorial (which had its own mrt station named after it) there was this huge wide plaza surrounded by 2 temples facing each other, the gate and the memorial. the weirdest thing was, there was this bunch of cheerleaders practicing right in front of the memorial at the park attached. and other groups of people practicing hiphop. idk the plaza was prolly built to let people exercise but it seemed so incongruous to me. then we ate at dingtaifeng at sogo, which my gran and parents thought was the best meal of the trip. i beg to differ. i thought the street food was the best. especially the smelly tofu and the barbecued eel.

yup that basically sums up my trip. and as you can see it did not involve much shopping even though my hotel on the first and last night was right next to ximending, which is like this uber trendy shopping district, because i travelled with my family. end of explanation.

and as to why i’m sleeping so late, that’s because recently i’ve been waking up intermittently in my sleep due to dreams that disturb me, but whose content i cannot recall once i wake up. well some i do… for a moment and then try desperately to remember because once of twice i came upon a revelation, but then couldn’t because i fell back into an uneasy sleep. and there was one night i was awake, unable to fall asleep, staring at my ceiling full of glow-in-the-dark stars. times like this i wonder… wouldn’t it be nice to actually sleep under real stars? like while camping, or in a field. not inside a huge yellow box of a room.

i’m in a real down mood right now. which is ironic because a few hours ago when i stepped out of the shower i felt really good about life and actually wanted to write about optimism here. sucks how life suddenly seems different within a span of a few hours for no reason. maybe it’s just the time; it’s 3am already. maybe i should sleep earlier. it’s time to meet the sandman.

bc is back in singapore! hmm taiwan was a happening place, but it wasn’t as exciting as expected. it was like a more backward version of shanghai lo, but surrounded by mountains and forests. but i’ve got to say the service and cleanliness in taiwan is much better than shanghai, like even the toilets in the countryside are uber-clean? that’ll be impossible in china. hmm what else. the tour guide kept bringing us to buy expensive stuff. like this SGD$2000++ mushroom! yikes. that was my least fave part about the trip, the forced shopping and what not. hmm my favourite parts were probably eating, eating smelly tofu (there was this kimchi+smelly tofu+sweet chilli mix i ate in shilin night market that was very very nice :D), the hotel bed and the museum. too bad we didn’t really stop long in the museum to appreciate the works properly. and the time we ate at this homely hotpot place which had lcd tvs showing anime, that was pretty nice. except you’re supposed to go there to eat the smelly hotpot (which was smelly tofu, meat, cabbage and nice things in it) but my dad prevented me from ordering it for the interests of the other people of the tour bus. LOL. ohoh and we went to this temple to see statues carved out of white jade, and the buddha relic. i felt quite noob cos i didn’t know the “goddess of mercy” was male, and indian!! who knew he dressed up as a woman to treat sick people in the olden days. anyway the carved statues were really exquisite, from an artistic standpoint. next time i should go on those museum tours, like tour all the museums and art galleries of a country. that’ll be nice! i hope to visit the paris louvre and the british museum one day.

on the 2nd last night we stopped at this novelty restaurant that served you food in mini-toilet bowls. the whole restaurant was like a giant bathroom, like the seats were actual toilets and the table was a bathtub with a piece of glass on top with an actual showerhead attached to the wall! that was pretty fun!

other than that taiwan was slightly boring la. it was like a backward version of shanghai, might as well go shanghai again, there’re more things to do there. and i’m too lazy to put photos. maybe later

and in other news i need more kachingzzz. maybe i should go get a job

from tomorrow till 14/15 ish. not sure. looking forward to eating all the yummy street foods and the hot springs!! :D hope nothing too disastrous happens, as prior experience shows that one major glitch is bound to happen every family vacation. it’s like some curse or something.

and i’m sad/happy to say that the thing gaga is singing about in bad romance is happening to me as well. :( i’m at a loss for what to do.

please, if anyone up there hears this, please send me a sign.

hi guys, it’s me, bao again, who else did you expect. anyway prom is in 20 hours. time is of the essence but i’m here blogging away. i’m psyched for it but at the same time i’ll be glad when it’s over! no more trekking though the amazonian concrete jungles of orchard and suntec, no more blisters, no more feeling like my ankles are gonna fall off. but then yet again this pain is all self-inflicted i guess, i could show up in granny slippers and my pajamas (i’ll be wearing a mask anyway, no one would recognise me) and spare myself all these hours shopping for prom-related stuff. well shopping when you know what you’re looking for spoils all the fun. and i’m gonna go for a foot reflexology massage on wednesday to sooth my already creaky old-lady joints (and i’m only 18!)

and then there’s lnat to look forward to after prom. :( it’s this law school test thingy for uk unis that i have to sit for. it’s only mcq compre but it’s so difficult, or maybe it’s just me. if i get less than 20/30 i’ll put my family’s ancestral name to shame. *sobs into silk handkerchief embroidered with Chinese peonies* oh deary me i really do i do well for it D:

BUT! After that I’M GOING TO TAIWAN ON THE 9TH OF DEC!!!!! EXCITING SIAAAAAAAAA, OH MAI GAO!!!! ahem, sorry for that slip of the ah lian tongue. well, i’m looking forward to the hot springs!! :D the tour guide says you have to put on a swimming costume for the outdoor one but who wears swimming costumes into a hot spring!! cmon guys! that ruins all the fun. you gotta go in naked! it’s like skinny dipping you don’t wear a bikini/swimming costume when you skinny dip. so bring it on baby, i’m gonna enjoy the indoor one in my birthday suit glory. :) (my dad says “people will secretly take photos of you and then when you become powerful and influential they’ll blackmail you” BUT WHAT DOES HE KNOW) and i’m looking forward to eating snacks at the night markets and going to xi men ding and shopping and lots of stuff. *whispers* and if i’m really lucky i might see a political demonstration on the street. HEE

haha ok that was retarded. gotta go sleep now, i kinda have a headache. :/ seeya guys, peace out.