{Warm Afternoon Green Tea Addiction}

12.29.2005

Ryan, giving a speech at the wedding

Ryan and Val

Nat and Graham

One of the gifts among the pile under our Christmas tree was this disc sent from Canada. I finally got time to check out the photos inside.

It was the photos of Natalie's ( Ryan's sister) wedding, the main reason for the trip to Canada.

It was such a beautiful wedding (my first experience of attending a Western wedding) that I thought I'd share the pictures here. :)

For Val, Nat and Graham: Merry Christmas and Happy 2006!

12.25.2005

Christmas gifts are wrapped. They are placed under the tree. Just getting ready to wake up in the Christmas morning and open the presents!

Merry Christmas to all who bumped into my website! ;)

12.19.2005

Christmas is coming! Although Taiwanese people don't celebrate Christmas the traditional ways like westerners, you can definitely smell the atmosphere of Christmas here. The trees (though not real) are set up with pretty lights twinkling. There won't be big turkey meal with families, no snow nor ritual of the birth of Christ. But there's romantic dinner, gift exchanges and parties for sure!!

What do we celebrate for today??

We celebrate the gorgeous SUNSHINE! :)

12.14.2005

The Wall in Taipei

Finally, the photoblog seems to be working again.

12.13.2005

Something's wrong with the computer... there are bugs living in our computer, and we just can't seem to kill them all.

Anyway, I've been trying to upload some pictures from the weekend we spent in Taipei, (shots taken with my new digital camera) but failed.

So we took the night train to Taipei after work on Friday. We arrived at our friend's apartment thinking we wonuldn't have to spend a whole lot of money on a hotel. We opened the four-lock door with seperate keys and dropped our bags. We grasped the keys, stepped out trying to find some food in the middle of the night (which is actually easy in Taipei) and closed the door....Realizing at the wrong second that we have left one key on the table.

Frustrated, starved and actually mad, we tried to find a locksmith that might be open after midnight. There she was, standing at the corner of the night market. I asked, and she said "go back to where you were and wait for me!" she said it in Taiwanese. She came about thirty minutes later, turned to me and said: "Sorry kid, my tool is twenty years old, can't help you here. If you like, come to me tomorrow afternoon. I'll ask my 'master' to try again for you..."
Feeling sorry for the poor lady using her antique tool gun for so long. I gave her 100 NT just cuz...

We gave up that night, of course. What else could we do?? After trying two or three hotels near the Train Station, we finally found ourself a bed. A not-so-comfy rock hard bed. But, we were happy, cuz it was a BED.

The second day started with a great free breakfast from the hotel. Not a bad beginning. After that, finding another locksmith seemed to be the first right thing to do. (We planned to celebrate my birthday in Taipei for god's sake!) We saw the sign of a key on a street corner. We came up, and rang the bell. He agreed to meet us at the friend's apartment. He studied the lock for a while and came to a conclusion: "Sorry guys, this lock is NOT openable without the key..."

"WHAT?! Seriously, what???"

So he used his electric tools to make all kinds of noises trying to set up a new lock for us. I felt so guilty that we might break our friend's door. All I could do was sit on the stairs and pray!

Two hours passed. The old unlucky lock was replaced with a shiny new one. Three thousand NT was gone for our stupid mistake and what was left was a half weekend...

We decided not to hang around in the Shi-Da area where we had just too much bad experiences. But we went almost everywhere else in Taipei after the pain-in-the-ass accident. We went to Kung-Guan area, saw some live indie bands at "The Wall", we went to "The Shi-Lin Night Marke" for some shrimp fishing...and we also went to the "High-end" Taipei 101...Oh and we also bought me a kick-ass camera for my "lucky" birthday. Yes. We played hard, we did everything we could afterwards. You would, too!

What a weird weekend now I think back, and all I can think of is how hard we had laughed at ourselves in the hard bed that we finally found that night.

Iris

12.02.2005

John

John:" faster! iris!"

Huck and Tom

Having fun posing!

I love photography! The other day i took my 9-year- old nephew out. He's jut got a new hair cut and i happened to have the camera around, so i took a bunch of picture of him. John is growing like tree...sometimes i don't know he is more handsome or beautiful, he's got amzing features!

The same night, we set our apartment up for a photo shooting of a great local band "Tome and Huck"! It was so much fun, we didn't have any proper lightings or any proper background. A green sheet (blanket to be exact) and couples of lamps (that we borrowed), my guitar and my SLR turned out what you see here! :)

He he...what can I say? I love taking photos!