Taipei Study Trip

J and I had the opportunity to go on a study trip in Taipei.  It is a self-development course that strengthens ties and redefines our attitude in life, and lasted for 4 days.  Since this was our first Taipei trip, we decided to take the opportunity to do some sightseeing as well.

Yangminshan National Park

Vegetable farm

Bamboo forest

We visited our dear Malaysian friends who are working there and stayed with them.

When it was time to attend our study course, we made some new friends.

Hotel coaster, drawn by my Taiwanese friend Jing

All in all, it was a tiring trip because we really, seriously studied.  Our attitude in life is learning whether it is in or out of classroom setting.  Because of this our relationships flourish, our lives are fulfilled, and we would not have missed out on anything.  Truly blessed.

5-Striped Blue Tailed Skink

This photo that I captured while hiking at Yangminshan National Park, Taipei, is worth a post all by itself.  While it looks like an ordinary "cicak" (house lizard), it is actually a 5-Striped Blue-Tailed Skink.  What a great opportunity to meet this little creature close up!

The Peninsula Bangkok, July 2013

A memorable but short working trip, staying and having meetings in one of the most beautiful hotels in Bangkok.

Afternoon tea at The Peninsula

Birthday 2013

A special celebration at home with my family is how we always celebrate our birthdays.  Nothing better than being at home with our loved ones and being thankful for each other and all that we have.

Rainbow

"Mummy, the rainbow likes me.  It is following me..."

Such innocence from my dear Baby Xin, growing up too fast.

And the rainbow, teaches us to stop, and seize the moment.

Refurbishing my kitchen worktop

After many months of suffering from leaking taps and leaking water from a poorly sealed sink, we finally got our kitchen worktop, and part of the cabinet bottom replaced today.
We were fortunate to be able to find a kitchen cabinet contractor that would even do this refurbishment work, all thanks to the contact of my good blogger friend, Anie.
It took almost 1 month to do the measurement, quotations and preparations, but finally today was the installation.

Installation

 The entire length of the worktop was replaced, due to the leakage causing water to seep in and make the kitchen worktop swell.  It also looked dirty and unstable.  Parts of the kitchen cabinet flooring under the sink also rotted.

The replacement took an entire day.  We reused our existing sink but the taps have to be replaced and thoroughly checked by a plumber on another day, in order to let the sealant to dry properly.

This is the result after replacement.

Looks good as new now and we were very happy with the handiwork.

Kidzania Visit - Kai!

Wei and Yuan have been bugging me to take them to Kidzania for the longest time, and finally I took them today.  I wanted to choose a day when it was not really a national school holiday, and yet my kids were off school this week.  Also I am thankful to be able to utilize a voucher that I got from the Curve during a shopping spree, which gave me a 10% discount if I buy at the counter.

Lining up to deposit their hard-earned Kidzania currency

As they are old enough, I let them in unsupervised at 10am and came back to fetch them at 5pm.  They had varied experiences.  Yuan practiced being a HitzFM DJ and Wei was a judge, a TM employee and a CSI investigator among other things. At the end, they decided to deposit their earnings of the day into the Kidzania CIMB instead of spending them, hoping to cash them out on another visit.