Annular solar eclipse and Poochi’s new car

26th Dec was the day of the annular solar eclipse in which the moon covered the center of the sun, giving the appearance of the ring of fire. This event can be viewed all over Singapore and the next time it occurred will be in 2063....which I’m probably already dead. So I took half day leave and meet up with Hubby to view this extraordinary once in a lifetime event. Hubby intended to go early to get free solar glasses at Ang Mo Kio but all 300 pairs were gone before he had a chance to glimpse at it. So, our initial plans were ruined and we ended up at Nex eating Moss burger as everywhere was v chaotic and traffic was jammed up in places known for this viewing. When we were in the car and getting ready to go home, I looked up through the solar film of the car windshield and managed to see the eclipse coz it’s impossible to see with the naked eye as it’s so damned glaring bright. It’s also not possible to see anything using the Hp. Suddenly I had an idea and we drove to the top of the multi storey car park next to Nex and decide to view the solar eclipse from the car using the solar film of the car. Luckily there was a pair of sunglasses in the car compartment and coupled with the sunglasses and looking through the car’s solar film, we managed to watch the eclipse and the ring of fire formed. 
Picture take form hp through the car’s solar film. It’s not possible to see the eclipse at all. Think u need a special camera with certain settings in order to take a pic.

This is from my hubby’s colleague who posted it on social media.

We did managed to see to ring of fire. It was amazing. I din feel the sky darkened at all. Still bright as daylight when the ring of fire was formed. The above pictures were taken using some special settings which explains why the clouds were blackish coz in reality, it’s not like that at all.

Even through the solar film, the sky was still glaring bright. However Hubby said he felt the temperature dropped a bit when the eclipse happened coz it suddenly dun feel a hot as before when the moon totally covered the sun. I din notice anything as I was inside the car the whole time.

Anyway, I guess some ppl were disappointed with this event as they thot Singapore will suddenly be plunged into darkness during the eclipse but actually, there was NO difference at all. If I had not known there was this eclipse, I would not notice anything different on that day. Sad.....so boring.....

On a bright note, I finally managed to make this trolley car for Poochi at last. He really enjoy being wheeled around inside the trolley. 

It’s a typical NTUC trolley cart small size costing around $35. It fitted Poochi just nice for him to sit down on his butt but not big enough for him to lie down. I placed some cardboards at the bottom and at the back to make the base and added a small carpet to make it more comfortable.

The fact he was not whining or fidgeting around inside the trolley means he is happy with it. Anyway it was quite fun for me to push him around since nowadays he can’t walk much as his legs are weakened. With this trolley, I can bring him to more places now....yeah!

Thermomix TM6 cooking experience

My TM6 finally arrived yesterday and we can’t wait to start using it!

It was delivered by ninja van. We waited at home just to receive the package. 

We put it next to the window so that the smoke will go out from there.

Next we need to connect it to the internet so we can access the cookidoo online recipes.

Our first recipe using TM6 was mint lemonade and fried bee hoon.

It was successful and taste not bad. Loved the mint lemonade. For the bee hoon, we just rinse the dried bee hoon. No soaking was needed. We added the canned stewed pork meat, carrots, cabbage and fish cake. The carrot and cabbage was cooked till soft and nice and without the raw taste and bee hoon was al dente. Overall, it did a pretty good job cooking bee hoon. 

For dinner, we tried out the mapo tofu and turned out like this. Not a success coz it looked like some regurgitated vomit. However, tastewise was spot on. We had some difficulties using the butterfly whisk and also the instruction on the cookidoo was not accurate in the sense that it did not tell us to use the reverse mode after adding the tofu. Maybe that’s why it turned out like this. Will need to fine tune the recipe again....

We found it excellent in cooking vegetables such as this Chinese spinach or chye sim etc. We followed the instructions on cookidoo for stir fried vegetables and making some tweaks to it by replacing the salt with oyster sauce and adding mushroom and fish cakes to it.  

The vegetables turned out better than me cooking it on the stove coz it’s not overcooked or yellow at all. The vegetables were cooked perfectly with a slight crunch to it. I believe the temperature was well maintained to prevent overcooking so as to maintain the nutritional value of the vegetables. 

There were so many recipes that I have yet to try out. So glad I’ll be able to have more home cooked food from now onwards. Yeah.... 

Hubby’s 42th Birthday

Today 16th October is hubby’s birthday. I took half day and went Jewel to treat hubby for lunch at Burger and Lobster. It’s the first time we had Burgers and Lobster. Hubby was on birthday leave the whole day and I can see he was v happy not going to work.

We ordered the starter king prawn and the lobster roll set for each of us and a Tropicana drink. The king prawn was nice but felt it’s a bit too small for a king prawn. The lobster roll was the main star. It comes with fries and salad at $40. The bread was soft and warm and the lobster meat was plentiful and surprisingly not as tough and chewy as i thought. It actually taste quite tender and qq....worth the $40. For the Tropicana drink at $8, it was tasty but too little...

Service wise, except for one guy who was friendly and cheerful, the waitresses all seem rather glum and sianz to be there...oh well...

Conclusion, would I go again? Unless I got a strong craving for lobster, I probably won’t be coming back anytime soon.

Ended the day with a strawberry shortcake from Henri Charpentiar. Oh course, Poochi also get to eat a slice of it.

Wish hubby a happy 42th Birthday and May he be happy and healthy always!

Day3-back to SG

Last day in Taiwan. So sad, time passed so fast when you are having fun. Our flight to Singapore was 3.50pm so we still have the morning to do some last minute shopping and eating. 

Got up early to try this Chen Ji intestine and oyster vermicelli which I heard was much better than Ay-chung flour rice noodle. 

We took the blue Bannan line to Longshan temple station. From exit 2, it’s just a 5mins walk to the shop. Above is a picture of the store front.

There are not much people in the queue, thankfully. Maybe we came at a right time? 

You can chose either with oyster only, pig intestine only or both mixed. I took the oyster only large bowl as I don’t eat pig’s intestines. The big bowl was 75NTD and small was 60NTD. 

Hubby enjoying his intestine and oyster noodles and he said the intestines were much better than the ones at Ay-Chung coz it’s braised and had more flavor. 

After that, we went back to Taipei main station to do some shopping at Q-square which was a shopping mall. Bought myself a Lesportsac tote bag with a Taiwan exclusive print. I dinoe Taiwan had its own exclusive print until now. 

Got myself this blue tote with Saturn planets embroidery designs all over. It’s Taiwan exclusive print. However, it’s quite pricey at about $200 SGD after 20% discount and tax rebate.

After checking in our luggages at Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 1, we made our way to Terminal 2 by taking sky train for quick lunch before boarding. Terminal 2 had way more food selections than terminal 1. They have a foodcourt in the basement and many eateries on the 2nd floor. We decided to have Farmosa Chang’s braised pork rice.

Hubby posing with Mr Chang.

Ordered this set with another braised pork rice to share. Comes with braised beancurd, veggies, soup and braised egg.  Nice and cheap meal which had a home cooked feel.

Good bye Taiwan, it’s been a short and fulfilling trip. Can’t wait to go back for another Pokémon Safari next year!

Day 2-Pokemon Safari, Sushiro & Ichiran

Start of day2 in Taipei for the Pokémon Safari event. This time round, we were armed with sunscreen and sunblock. Manage to get another 4 more shinies and 3 wonder heracross.

Yeah, managed to get a total of 9 shiny Pokémon from the event and complete my Gen2 Pokédex. 

Although trainertips, zoetwodots and some of the other Pokémon youtubers were supposed to be there, I din managed to see any of them. Guess they were hiding either from the heat or from the smell of Stinky tofu in the air....haha....too bad, maybe next time.

So we called it a day at around 12pm and went back to hotel to take a shower before heading out for lunch.

For lunch, we had Sushiro. It was hubby first time trying Sushiro while I had it when it’s first opened in Singapore. Seriously, the sushiro I had in Taiwan was way much better as compared to Singapore in terms of price and quality. 

I learnt that you can download the sushiro Taiwan app and use that to make reservation which was a must coz the waiting time was insanely long. 

After downloading the app, just click on the red button to make a reservation. 

After that, just pick the outlet you are interested to go. The yellow button indicates making reservation using the app. After indicating the number of persons, date and timing you wanted, the reservation is completed with an allocated number.

On the day of the reservation, just make your way to the restaurant about 10mins before your allocated time and check in on the machine. 

A green Chope will appear on your app screen indicating you have check in. What’s so amazing about this app was that it also provide live updates on the queue status so you will know what are the numbers before your allocated number. 

After a good lunch, we went Animate next door for some comic book shopping. Chinese comic books are much cheaper as compared to Singapore.

Next stop we went to check out this shop selling v cute  drinks.

Hubby standing outside the shop. We went around 8pm and there was hardly anyone in the queue.

We ordered this Tiffany blue honey lemon drink with a pug mashmallow on top. It’s so cute! I’ve been wanting to get this drink ever since I saw it online. They also provide a photo taking table for your drink. 

How cute is that!? Can’t bear to eat that mashmallow. Also, the theme was Halloween as it’s coming soon. 

Would definitely go back and get another of their cute drinks agin.

For dinner, we had Ichiran. Yup, that’s right, Taipei had an Ichiran Branch. Why can’t Singapore have one? 

Was there around 9am. The wait was about 50mins. 

As usual when you get ur number on a piece of paper, there was a QR code to scan so you can find out the queue status. I find it much better than the system in Japan where u have to stand and queue in line for as long as an hr sometimes. For Taiwan, u just need to take a number and then go out elsewhere to linger or sit down until your number is called, then u just come and join the queue for about 5mins before being lead inside. There was no vending machines inside to order your food from. Instead just fill in the form provided and hand over through the screen . Then they will pass u a receipt and your food. After eating, just bring ur receipt to the cashier to make payment.

As compared to Ichiran from Japan, the one in Taiwan had more noodles, therefore it’s not necessary to add extra noodle. Tastewise was similar to Japan and we also ordered this matcha draft beer which I don’t see in Japan. What a unique drink! It taste really good as well. 

Above is the Ichiran menu from Taipei. Oh yah, another thing is that the half boiled egg was nicely peeled for me unlike the one in Japan where I have to peeled it myself. 

Outside the restaurant. Ichiran Taipei is open 24 hrs. They also sell the instant ramen at the store.

New Taipei City Pokemon Safari 2019

Decided to take a short 3D2N trip to Taipei just for this Pokémon safari event held at New Taipei Metropolitan Park. It’s the second time we attended a Pokémon safari event in Taipei, the first being in Tainan last year. 

It’s hubby’s first time taking Scoot and our flight depart from Changi to Taipei at 12.50am. Since it’s my idea to go for this last minute trip, I sponsored the air tickets and also to treat Hubby to a holiday after he paid for everything during the last US trip. We went early to have dinner at Shake Shack in Jewel. It’s crowded even on a Thursday night around 9pm. I had the double smoked stack which is the double beef patties with smoked bacon. It’s was delicious! And pricy too, haha.... Hubby had the portobello cheese burger with added bacons and we shared the fries and drink.

After that, we went to watch the rain vortex light show at 10.30pm. First time watching it and it’s pretty cool.

Check out my video at this link

 

https://youtu.be/fAlkcQKFmvA

It was a short 4.5 hr flight to Taipei. Managed to get some sleep in the silent zone seat area (no kids allowed zone)  but I feel there are too many unnecessary announcements like clearing trash, duty free shipping  etc in 3 different languages which makes it not so silent anymore.

Arrived in Taipei at about 6am and we took the MRT to Taipei Main Station on the airport line in around 35 mins. This time round, instead of Cosmo or Cesar Park hotel, we stayed at Cityinn3. Since it was still early for checking in, we left our luggages there and went for breakfast at Mr Brown Cafe nearby. 

Had the peanut butter and beef sandwich with Mr brown coffee latte. Comes with a small serving of mash potato and a small yogurt. It was a nice cozy, quiet place to have brekkie and it’s air con! Din get to try their alcoholic coffee beverage as I was still in a state too tired to get drunk. Maybe next time...

After brekkie, it’s time to head for the Pokémon Safari event which starts at 10am. Went there earlier for photo taking. It’s just one MRT stop away from Taipei Main Station on the airport line. 

It was a sunny clear day. Unfortunately we left our sunscreen inside the luggages and we forgot to take them along when depositing the luggages in the hotel. In less than 3 hrs, our skin started looking red and burnt especially on my hands, back of neck and leg. My skin also felt itchy and hot from the constant exposure of the sun. There were hardly any shade and the sun was blazing down like death rays. 

Luckily we had the jungle hats on to protect our face. Saw people carrying UV umbrella, must remind myself to do bring it along next time. Also, saw people wearing this white long sleeve thing on their arms to protect against the UV. Should also get that too. 

AR photo of shiny pikachu with Hubby. 

Posing with Snorlax.

Pikachu with Pikachu.

There were also inflatable starter Pokémons from the new Pokémon game sword and shield. 

After photo taking was over, it’s time to get serious with the grinding. All the Pokestops were on lures. The spawns were amazing! So many Pokémon spawns non stop constantly.  There were no time to take pictures as we were too busy checking for shiny or catching Pokémons. 

Even though we were burning and sweating buckets under the inferno heat, it was still a fun experience and what I like about Pokémon Safari in Taiwan was the many many food stalls selling local Taiwan delights at v reasonable price. 

By 1.30pm, we decide to call it a day after getting 5 shinies and went for lunch at Shun Shui Tang located at the basement of Mitsukoshi mall at Taipei Station. Love Shun Shui Tang and always make it a point to try it whenever I am in Taiwan. 

Time to check in and take a shower. The rooms were clean and modern. Cityinn3 provided many free amenities such as free coffee and tea in the morning, free use of washer and dryer including washing powder. Room came with hair dryer, kettle, free bottled water everyday, and free snacks in the drawer. 

Although they provide free slippers, it was the thinnest I ever wore. Not the most comfortable but well, at least it’s a free slipper. 

After showering and resting for a while, it’s time to hit the famous Shilin Night Market!

Manage to try my Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang which was a Chinese sausage wrapped inside a glutinous rice sausage. The taste was different from what I last tried, maybe it’s a different stall....so kinda disappointed.

Also get to try the black pepper pork bun which was so highly raved about. It’s really nice but too hot to eat it on the spot. We bought extra to keep as brekkie for tmr and it still taste as good the next day.

Also bought grilled oyster mushroom and this cooling green herb drink. Notice a lot of claw machines at 10 NTD a play which was quite cheap. 

Thus, we ended the first full day in Taiwan.