the yr 2008

ok it's already coming to march... why am i so slow in making my comment abt the yr, or the past yr...

Simply, the 2 months that has passed juz went by in a breeze... shortly after the arrival of janielle, and 2 weeks of leave staying at home being the full-time caregiver.. helping out with the baby and stuffs...it's been rather bz when i go back to work... even yan teased that she realised i've been working OT every since jan is borned... (a co-worker jumped to rescue explaining that i was really very bz at work...hehe..)

so far, like i said, it's been bz, both at home and work... i asked a colleague one morning, wad did she do the previous evening after she got home from work... the usual.. bathe, dinner, watch tv, read papers etc... for me? dinner... take care of jan... then slp.... haha!! but im not complaining... it's nth really exciting for lotsa ppl i guess... ppl generally din wanna be tied down by such things... they wanna go out after work..hang out with friends, dinner, drinking sessions... no one really wanna go str8 home from work to take care of babies de mah... but apparently, as new parents.. lots of us actually quite look fwd to going home early... juz to catch a glimpse of the little one being awake and not too restless... juz the time to play with them... ya they dun really play... but u can carry them..talk to them... see them responding to u.. jan smiles when i tell her things.... haha... i haf a fellow reservist mate who was saying to me abt 2 yrs back... we've got night's off that evening... so we can go out for dinner or wad... but need to be back to slp la... he drives... but he say he din wanna go back home.... coz once he's home, he won't bear to come back to the barracks once he saw his toddler son... Awwwww..... haha... new-age dad huh!

ya by the time i get home from work... it's usually close to 8pm... and jan slps at abt 10pm... i still need to haf dinner and bathe leh... i dun wanna bring those animal fur and stuffs close to the kid leh...

work wise... at this moment...im quite please with how things are progressing for me in the new team.. however i still need to be better in the analytical side of things... the mass spec and stuffs.. (i'll spare u the details la...) to be more competent... to perform....

so that's abt it.... the 2 mths of 2008... other than the Taiwan trip... it was basically baby and work..

Resolution for the yr?

mayb not resolution... i'll try my best to do these things la...

at home:

• Be a gd daddy; make sure janielle grows up happy and healthy...
• Be a gd hubby; thou wedded, thou the kid is born.. muz remind myself nv to take things for granted.. muz cont to go out for dates and wifey's still my best companion for movies and travel!
• Be a gd son, be nice to my parents and try to provide them with wad i can... i do admit i havent been a very gd son before la... only woke up in recent yrs... (applies to treating my brother too)

at work:

• Be competent in daily work; in vivo and analytical...
• Be creative and more innovative; i need to do more out of my daily jobscope.. need to do things which spurs me more in reseacrh.... else i'll sink into juzdoing service in the company... like a robot.. being part of the process.... NOooooOO.....!!
  
• Be more involved in PDWG... this newly formed group which im part of but been missing out on... mainly also because im not yet experienced and competent enough to contribute much....
  
• Be gd to colleagues; some politics going ard... im not involved and dun wanna be involved... so i'll be gd and friendly and neutral... =) i need to be nicer to ppl la...

taiwan

my very 1st time in Taiwan.. was over there over the CNY.. hehe.. ppl say we damn smart... got away during new yr but left baby behind...hehe...aiyah not on purpose one... juz that we couldn't really bring jan ard... it's damn cold there and she juz too young!!

anyway it's still winter over there.. was ard 10 degree in the Taipei city but very much colder elsewhere... it was freezing in Jiufen! we went YangMingShan too...it was 6 degrees there! cool!!

very briefly.. taiwan is a friendly place for travellers/backpackers..that is if u're chinese-speaking.. generally the ppl there dun speak very good english... but they tried hard.. once ppl know that we're from Singapore...they spoke to us in English though we keep replying in mandarin...guess they din realised that we're not very confortable with speaking in english there... anyway... ppl are generally very friendly and they're almost always glad to help and point directions to u... or give u advice on how to get to places...

we were there for 8 days... seems quite a long period hor? but we only managed to get to 2 cities properly!! only Taipei and Hualien... initially TaiTung, AliShan and even KaoShiong were in our destination list.. u see why it's not really possible....

Day1 - Taipei: Shida Night Market (we arrived late in evening so only managed to go for night market...)

Day2 - Taipei: Ximending, Shilin

Day3 - Hualien: ZhongShan Rd, ZhongZhen Rd (we arrived early afternoon, so after settling down it was already afternoon)

Day4 - Hualien: Taroko Gorge National Park, night market (forgot name le)

Day5 - Taipei: HuaXi St (aka Snake Alley)

Day6 - Taipei: Jiufen, Ruifang

Day7 - YangMingShan, Beitou (Xing Yi Rd)

Shida/Shilin/HuaXi - Night Markets
Ximending - shopping street for the trendy/younger generation (us included)
Hualien St - street stalls of eateries and provisions and fashions.. lots of variety la.. got KFC,Mac etc too
Taroko - natural gorge winding about the Central Highlands of which is mainly made of marble... marble is a major produce of Hualien and in this national park u get to see many nice nice landscapes formation, streams, rivers, cliffs.. u got the idea la...
Jiufen - a (used to be) small town set on the slope of the mountain away from the main city.. lots of ppl come here for a short getaway from taipei.. the famous st here is called JiShan St.. the popular eats will be the jelly cakes and some kueys and taro-ball... it's nice to walk along the streets!
YangMingShan - gotta love their national parks.. in fact as long as it is a national park outside singapore, likely that u wont be disappointed visiting it... i wanna go Africa's national park someday!! anyway it was flower-blooming season then.. actually it's juz starting...they were hardly blooming yet.. juz very wet and droopy..
Beitou - 2 reasons why we're here.. 1stly.. we need to go YMS vis Beitou.. 2ndly, how came we miss hotspringing in winter!! lotsa hotspring facilities here! take ur pick!

some representative shots of the trip... for more, visit my multiply albums!