surviving friday the 13th....

..so I spent a good half of yesterday traveling in the rain.... had to catch a flight to Manila, an early one - so I was up by 5:30AM.... and out of the house by 7:30AM... it did not help that I kept waking up all nite long every hour... must be the anxieties that comes from having to wake up early (always scared I'd miss the alarm - so I end up waking up before it even rings!); or the sound of the heavy rain on the windows; or most likely, the thought of flying on Friday the 13th....

First up was the bus ride to CKS Airport... normally takes me a about 40/45 minutes but actually took so much longer - because of the traffic in the rain.... good thing I left the house with much more allotted time.... then it was just a bit of time till I have to face the HORRORS of it all: Philippine Airlines Flight. Yes, you read that right, i flew PAL again, not by choice but because we are in the Holiday season once more so I have to be wise in finding the cheapers airfares... and they had it for this month...

since i already knew what to expect from my previous flight, i was all set... and I only had the turbulence to be scared of... and it surely was a bit topsy turvy flying in the rain almost throughout the entire close to 2 hr flight... But I survived, and got to Ninoy Aquino Airport in Manila at the expected arrival time... then it was the HORRORS of BAGGAGE CLAIMS.... I could not believe I actually waited for almost an hour to get my one single suitcase.... how could this be for a modern airport terminal... well, it did not help that on one conveyor, three flights' luggage's were all being dispersed...LOLs!!!

Anyway, all I kept saying to myself - just deal - and once out of the terminal you will be fine... sunny skies ahead - as it was only about a little after 2PM.... WRONG!!!! as i must have brought the rain from Taipei with me.... waaaaah!!!!

So maybe Friday the 13th was BAD LUCK after all.... still, am happy to have SURVIVED it once more!!!

Liouhe Night Market Trek

It is not often that we can drag Wu Mama out of her home... away from her sewing, temple activities and NUMBERS - so on this nite when she actually said yes to going out, we all could not contain our happiness and got ready we did.... Fast before she changed her mind, which she is known to do....

The place of choice is the Liuhe Night Market... one of the most touristy night markets in Kaohsiung... it was a fun nite filled with laughter, bonding, and even more lotsa' eating.... even Lala got to come and enjoy the nite.... Overall, it was a GREAT NITE OUT with the Wus... too bad Wu Papa could not join us -- i think he was tending to his garden and birds (one of his new passions).....

MORE PHOTOS HERE

Friday the 13th Funnies

DON'T BE A BLOODY TOMATO!!!

just a poster I saw at my GYM to warn jaywalkers.... for some reason, the image truly cracks me up!!! Happy Friday everyone... STAY SAFE!!!

another reason to go to DREAM MALL...

COLDSTONE ICE CREAM PARLOR!!!

This Ice Cream shop has been popping up all over Taiwan... from little stands in various malls - to their own big parlors... always a line - especially in Taipei.... so we never get a chance to try it - again with the lines....

the morning we set out to check out what's new @ Kaohsiung's Dream Mall, it was the first thing that caught our eyes... and since it was still quite early, no lines yet... so it was a no brainer - we went in and had us some treats....

it was off putting at first as the girl did not want us to take photos... ah heck, if there's a will there's a way.... and took photos I did.... even of the actual process... bloggers like me do find our ways around these things you see.... hehehehe....

well, though the ice cream was good - it was really NO BIGGIE to us.... Jason thought the ice cream was too sweet, while DAVID and I felt, DQ, BIG TOM and of course, HAAGEN DAAZ are much better.... still, it was a nice early morning treat... and to actually be able to scratch off another item on my "to do" list.....MORE PHOTOS HERE - BUT DON'T TELL THE COLDSTONE POLICE... hehehehehehe....

let him entertain you...

1 down, 5 more to go on this quest of mine for the OPEN YOUR DREAM premium program by 7-11.... weeeee...

(in case it does not appear here - CLICK HERE FOR DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO)
I GOT ONE... of course, I had to take him out of the box right away and test for myself... dancing cuteness with built in music to boot.... Plus yesterday, I got to see up close the COSMED EXCLUSIVE, Coco the Bird... definitely a MUST HAVE, too!!!

more photos of these OPEN PLAZA Premium cuties in THIS ALBUM

fun marc jacobs watches

I have loved mr marc jacobs since his Perry Ellis days - now of course, as the genius behind LV's resurgence... especially the collaboration with Japanese artist Murakami, those designs infuse the much needed hipness to the line and took LV to another brand new level....

his very own namesake clothing & accessory lines have been making waves worldwide the past few years, as well... just recently, he added a touch of cuteness and fun and called the line, miss marc - cartoon graphics on tees, bags, etc.... available for both men and women, too!!!

last nite, while running my errands, I happen upon his line of cool and fun watches... a specialty watch shop here in Taipei carries them... of course, I had to sneak some photo snapping!!! the premiere collection's prices ranges from about $125 to $500US (oh well, chuck it all to my XMAS WISHLIST!!!) - still reasonable compared to LV, Cartier, GUCCI or other designer brand watches.

ABOVE PHOTO: since none of the boy prints were available maybe I will go for this blue one.... besides it is on the lower end of the price spectrum... hahahahahahaha

"i can't go any further than this.."

this song is stuck with me the last few days.... especially Fergie's part.... so catchy it got me hooked on it...
MEET ME HALFWAY by Black Eyed Peas

ASTROBOY, at last...

Thought I was going to have to wait for the DVD release to be able to see Hollywood's treatment of ASTROBOY, but THANKS to Juliana - was able to see it today at Warner Village, Taipei -- one of the best places to see a movie, really.

As an avid fan of the MANGA and most Japanese Animations, I was put off at first with the look and feel of the film, of Astroboy himself.... but in fairness, once over my initial trepidations, I actually ended up enjoying the film. And now, am sooo glad I was able to catch it in the big screen. with the voices of Freddy Highmore, Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland and Kristen Bell (love her, love her voice!)- this version came on its own and can definitely use a sequel.

Of course, am still going to wait for the DVD release and add it to my ASTROBOY collection. Always Great to find friends who shares the same hobbies...

Open Your Dream

Back in August, while visiting my fave mall in KAOHSIUNG, Dream Mall, we happen upon this new cute little boutique - OPEN PLAZA. Cute characters printed in so many different goods: tote bags, umbrellas, tees, caps, etc.... and of course, the thing that attracted me to them in the first place, VINYL TOYS!!!

Over the last few years, OPEN PLAZA characters have been used for various promotional push by 7-11, but for the most part I have seen keyrings, plush items, and a few others. So, as cute as they are, I did not pay them too much attention. Not until I stepped into their shop, their wonderful world. So much VINYL TOYS - from music boxes with rotating figures, cute dioramas, and vinyl figurines... I was sooo enamored but still was strong willed not to start another new collection, after all, with just tokidoki goods alone, I really do not have more space for anything else.

Fast forward to this recent visit to the Wu residence in Kaohsiung, a visit not ever complete without hitting three places: our FAVE breakfast place, IKEA, & of course my personal fave, DREAM MALL. I dragged everyone to take a look at OPEN PLAZA Boutique once more - just to take photos. (^_*) Once again, I was enamoured with everything there - and was once again reminded how am loving these characters.

As if to egg me on more into wanting to covet them, the cutest 7-11 promotional tie up just commenced, ""Open Your Dream"". In this one, running through the holidays, the five main characters stands a top their own individual boxes. Cute I thought but why in the heck, do I need 60 point stickers (1 sticker per purchase of NT$30/a little less than US$1)!!! Well, upon closer look I realized that with a push of their individual buttons - they each start dancing -- and when you line them all up you got yourself the cutest chorus line. Now I gotta get cracking with these stickers - I now have 14 stickers so far - only 286 more to go in order to get all 5 figures.

Naturally, 7-11 was the next stop for a round of drinks - and of course, to get the stickers! Lo and Behold, as if they wanted to add SALT to my WOUND from pining for them, a cute mechanical display was put up at the Mall's 7-11 shop -- in it, a bunch of these cute figures are lined up, dancing away. And actually a 6th figure was added to the line up, a bird named Coco - this one I am told is a cross promotion that will run with another shop, COSMED. Darn, now I gotta go find me a COSMED to figure out how to get my hands on this 6th one. WHEW!!!

Open Plaza Cuties dance up a storm!Here's the cute ADVERT for the 7-11 Program, it stars one of Taiwan's Biggest POP Star, Jolin Tsai.
OPEN PLAZA PHOTO ALBUM HERE

"ONE"

did not want to let the 20th Anniversary of the FALL of the Berlin Wall go by without a little tribute here in my blog pages... so here is U2 singing "One" live - accompanied by a series of powerful photographs that someone has made - a very fitting song for the occasion, and a great reminder to us all how: "we are all one but we are not the same - still we get to carry each other..."

Computer Blues...

Almost a week of no REAL computer connection - WAAAAAAH!!!! yes that's right 5 days to be exact that we had no proper NET CONNECTION - an hour here and there, at IKEA or someone else's WIFI does not count at all...

always one of the worst things for me to go through is to not be able to connect... not only because of work matters but for all the personal reasons (always BUGS me when I cannot keep in touch with my Mom), as well.... and yep, admittedly, that includes FACEBOOK and BLOGGING.. (^_*) In other words, if I have to say what am addicted to - I WOULD, WITHOUT HESITATION SAY, MY COMPUTER!!

Anyway, the last few days had been good for the most part - not including my COMPUTER BLUES - got to go to Kaohsiung and visit with the Wu Family; play with LALA, who is getting on in years; visit the TOWNSHIP of LUGANG and EXPERIENCED a 5.plus Earthquake, and its after shocks while touring the town; got a really IRRITATING, more like INFURIATING letter to deal with; and processed lots of dollies to go out... in other words, LIFE, as I KNOW IT! and with that, i was reminded of this passage:

"Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Courage & Fear

My take on this is, is that:

COURAGE has to come from within... because it's opposite, FEAR, lives inside us all as well.ART made by Hans.