W Taipei

We decided to stay at W Taipei. It's a hotel that's 10 minutes away from Taipei 101, right next door to Uni-Hankyu departmental store (much like Takashimaya with a food court and other food stalls in the basement), Eslite (an entire building that's a bookshop), above the City Hall MTR station, and right next to the Xinyi shopping district, which stretches for kilometers both above and underground. There's another shopping centre opposite the hotel with a small supermarket in it, but I don't know what it is called in English.

In the picture below, is this the bed in our hotel room?

No! It's the "sofa" at the lift lobby which brings us up to the rooms. W Taipei has quite an interesting layout. The concierge is on Level 1 (ground level), but the reception and the lifts that bring us up to our rooms is on Level 10. The swimming pool, which is open only during the warmer months, is also on Level 10, just beside the lobby bar.

Cathay Pacific

22 Nov 2012
Something really struck me about Cathay Pacific. Below are pictures of the plastic cutlery for the regular meals and child's meals. I don't know if this is true for all Cathay flights, but on both sectors travelled today (SIN-HKG and HKG-TPE), the cutlery were plastic! How environmentally unfriendly! I'm sure these cutlery will not be washed and re-used by Cathay, but tossed away after one use. :( I certainly hope they are at least recycled.

Taipei, here we come!

22 Nov 2012
Finally, school is out for Casey and we are on our way to Taipei. After spending 5 days in Taipei, we head to Hong Kong. :) DH will be speaking at a conference in Taipei, and doing a poster presentation at a conference in Hong Kong.

This is also the first time that I'm traveling on Cathay Pacific. Cathay flies direct from Taipei to Hong Kong, so it's much cheaper to fly via Cathay on all sectors. Unfortunately, Cathay doesn't fly direct from Singapore to Taipei, we have to transit in Hong Kong first, before heading on to Taipei.

Below are some pictures taken at Changi Airport and some in the airplane. There's a picture of DD trying to show us the wart on her toe, which is going to drop off soon after it was burnt off a few weeks back.

Unboxing my iPhone 5!

We were very lucky to have been able to get onto Apple's website on the day pre-orders for the iPhone 5 started, and our iPhone 5 arrived on 21 Sep, the day it was released. Yep, buying it online is much more comfortable than having to camp overnight outside an authorized Apple retailer just to get it on the release day. So, just for fun, here's the unboxing of my iPhone 5. :)

Here it is! Arrived just after noon on 21st September.

The iPhone 5 box well-protected by the thick postage box.

And I'm getting closer to seeing what the iPhone 5 looks like in real life!

Here it is! I wonder which Foxconn employee left these finger prints on my screen?!?

The EarPods that come with the iPhone 5 are supposedly made according to the "geometry of the ear". I haven't tried it yet, but I think it looks really painful! So I'll pass and stick to my good ol' wired earbuds or Jawbone bluetooth instead.

Mini-Master Chess Players?

DS and DD seem to have taken an interest in chess recently. I have no clue how to play the game, so I think they know more about chess than me at this point in time!

DS and DD playing the game very seriously.

Of course, DD couldn't resist the opportunity to give me one of her funny poses for the camera.

Shinji by Kanesaka

This is where we had lunch for our 10th wedding anniversary. Shinji by Kanesaka is located at Raffles Hotel. Shinji Kanesaka is a 2-star Michelin chef and he chose Singapore to open his first restaurant outside of Japan.

We would highly recommend this restaurant. Unfortunately, after eating "real" sushi and sashimi here, I don't think we'll find Sushi Tei* or Sakae Sushi* as enjoyable anymore!

*Sushi Tei and Sakae Sushi are well-known franchised Japanese restaurants in Singapore which have sushi trains (also known as conveyor belt sushi).

Here is where we sat. Right in front of the chef where we can see him work to prepare our food and chat with him at the same time.

With two very sharp knives in front of the chef, we reminded ourselves to keep any negative comments about the food to ourselves. Hehe. Luckily, we enjoyed every dish tremendously and didn't have to hold our tongue at all. :P

Chef Shunsuke Yoshizawa at work. We were really impressed by how quietly and quickly he worked to get our food ready, and at the same time keeping his working area clean and tidy.

Picture taken before the meal. If it was taken after, our abdomen will be noticeably larger!

A very special pedicure. :)

It's not everyday we're going to find a brother painting the toenails of his little sister! But DS likes painting and DD likes painted nails, so I guess that works out well. :) However, I'm not sure if DS will be repeating this anytime soon because he wasn't very happy with DD's grumbling that he didn't do a very good job! Haha!