Progress of Xiao Xiao 1

We went back to the gynae for another scan in order to check on the foetus' status. This time round, the thin white line had grown into a bigger ball of cells, which was more visible. The gyane assured us that everything was normal and alright and thus scheduled us to see her again next month.

More updates then.

Xiao Xiao's second scan

Magadascar 3 and Zhizhong's House-warming

My dear had been explicitly expressing her interest in watching this movie over the past few weeks and I had decided to give her a surprise by feigning ignorance about the show. Well, as bright as my dear was and still is, she soon knew prior to the trip that we were going to watch the movie. It was however by chance that the my colleague sold me the tickets for the Youth-phoria held at the Singapore Discovery Centre back in May, in a bid to support my school team in this event. It was a great deal as, in addition to Magadascar 3, we were entitled to watch another show, all for $10. The only drawback was that it was located in the far western part of Singapore.

The show was continued on from the previous instalment where Alex and his friends were stranded in Africa while the penguins had selfishly took the plane to Monte Carlo and enjoying themselves in the riches and glamour. Alex, after having a nightmare of growing old in Africa, decided that he wanted his original life in New York City back and requested the gang to seek the penguins for help to return home. How they managed to reach Monte Carlo on their own was a mind-boggling mystery but that trip resulted in everyone being targeted by a self-egoistic animal control officer, whose mission was to collect animals' head trophies.

While fleeing, Alex and his friends met up with a circus group and after realising that the circus train was the only way back home, Alex lied to them that they were circus animals as well. As such, the penguins expended their resources and bought over the circus from the humans. It was only after a show that Alex's gang realised that the circus was a flop and it was mainly due to the lost confidence of its main star. With that in mind, Alex decided to rejuvenate the circus by convincing them that they themselves can put up a good show. The main star also regained his confidence by using hair conditioner in his hoop squeezing act instead of extra virgin olive oil.

Meanwhile, the animal control officer found out the true identity of Alex, which led to the confession that Alex's gang were not circus animals at all and the temporary splitting of the new circus group. After returning to the zoo, Alex's gang realised that the circus was their new home and they wanted to go back, only to be captured by the animal control officer. However, she did not manage to kill Alex as the zoo thought that she was returning the animals to them, thus she postponed her murder to the day of the thank-you ceremony. By then, the circus animals returned to rescue Alex's gang and the animal control officer and her accomplices were instead captured and placed in wooden crates, similar to how Alex's gang were in the first episode.

It was quite a warm-heartening and hilarious movie, as well as some intellect stimulus from the tactical wits by the penguins. After the two shows and a walk around Singapore Discovery Centre, we later proceeded to Jurong Point for a short walk before going to Zhizhong's housewarming near Jurong East for some more walking.

His EM was spacious and nicely decorated but I guess the stairs lost its appeal on us, thus an EM was never in our consideration during our lookout. Strangely, we were the first group to reach, despite us mentioning that we will be late due to our movie outing. Well, that means no queue for the food for us =) The rest soon came and we were toured around the place. Soon, everyone was enjoying each other's company, time flew like nobody's business, and it was about time to leave for our dinner at home, which ended the short house-warming party.

What a long and eventful day to spend the weekend =)

38... Harry Potter Exhibition and Singapore Flyer

My dear had been a great fan of Harry Potter and hence the trip to the Art Science Museum for this exhibition. My dear had also been pestering me to visit the Singapore Flyer ever since she knew that I went before and she had not. So what better way to celebrate this 38th month anniversary is it than to visit these two places at the same time. That's killing multiple birds with one stone and I shall be a great sniper then =)

It was our second visit to the Museum and the crowd was overwhelming despite it being a weekday, no thanks to the large number of Potter fans in Singapore. I guess all of us have the mentality that weekdays are less crowded and thus everyone decided to avoid the weekends and go on a weekday.

We reached at around 4+ pm and we were informed that no photos can be taken inside the exhibition which I believed should be the same policy for the Titanic exhibition. The first checkpoint was the wearing of the scarfs belonging to the different houses and some photos were snapped there. Proceeding into the gallery, we were presented with the various clothes and artefacts used in the Harry Potter movies, complemented by the bits and pieces of trivia associated with them, and most of which were very familiar to my dear.

Upon reaching the end, which was the souvenir shop, we were greeted with the scene of greed and exorbitant prices. We were disgusted at the organisers' exploitation of the fans' strong sense of belonging to the Harry Potter name, to the point that we left the place without a token of some sort, and yet surprised that so many people were so willing to be fleeced. No wonder prices of things had gone up pretty fast these days.

After the exhibition, we had a small meal before proceeding to the Singapore Flyer. I initially wanted to be on the flyer to experience the transition of the sunset but I forgot that there was an exhibition prior to the ride and we spent quite some time having fun and taking some photos there. The view on the flyer was great, now that Marina Bays Sands was constructed and though the Gardens by the Bay was still in its works, the night view of the city landscape was spectacular. Though it was tiring, I believed my dear enjoyed it very much.

Now, the only problem is the location of those photos. Hmm, I will post them if I find them as they might be lost with the repair of my phone.

The existence of Xiao Xiao

My dear roused me from my slumber very excitedly one morning and in my half consciousness, I thought something was wrong. I quickly ditched my dream, if I can ever remember it, and rushed out with my dear. Then at the kitchen, I saw the object of concern. There it was, lying on the table, was the positive result of the pregnancy kit. I was quite surprised as the test kit showed a negative result previously and I wasn't harbouring any hopes after that.

The double lines within 5 mins for a positive result

As such, the original plans for the day was happily dumped and we quickly booked an appointment with a gynecologist, whose contacts was found hastily from the internet, based primarily on the fact that she was female as my dear felt strongly against male doctors. Guess the only peeve was that the receptionist actually asked my dear whether she wanted to keep the baby. Not very PR indeed. Maybe the doctor had too many clients and wanted to lower the possibility of getting another one.

Anyway, as newbies to this, we totally had no idea what to expect during our first visit, and so we just followed the instructions of the receptionist (not sure if it was the same one) and waited for our turn. Once inside, we (or rather I was) were surprised to see that doctor was pregnant as well. But she was not in any way lesser of doing her job well. Some time later, we saw our xiao xiao in a pictoral form.

Xiao Xiao's first scan

Not an easy picture to decipher but the small white line (you probably need to enlarge the picture to see it) in the middle of the black space (the water bag) on the left photo was all that xiao xiao was. Guess we need to wait for a while before we can actually see more of xiao xiao.

Taiwan Day 6

Our last day can be considered to be relaxed and true to the name of being free and easy. After watching some documentaries on Discovery Channel, we decided to explore the vicinity of the hotel since we did not really got a chance to do so in our stay there.

We first replenished our morning energy at one of the old coffee shops, which did not turn out to be very nice as its stuffs were very oily. Nonetheless, we had refueled (literally) and we took quite a few photos of the unique surroundings. We were actually very impressed that their construction sites actually took the effort to print the original facade on the debris net while works were in the progress. Our next surprise acquisition was a cherry coke, which we finally found in a small 7-11 store.

Several hours later, our bile seemed rather efficient in disposing the earlier oil intake and we soon settled into a hotpot restaurant for our lunch. Good ambiance, good food and my dear loved it.

The oily breakfast

The colourful sundial at the corner of the street

The symmetrical street from the overhead bridge

The decorated debris sheet

The remains of the west gate of Old Taipei City

The lucky dip at the hotpot restaurant

Her pot

His pot

After checking out of the hotel and reaching Taipei Railway Station, we then realised that our bus depot was not there. Panic set in as it was nearing our bus departure time which we had checked out earlier and by missing that bus, we could potentially miss our plane as well. The matter was compounded by the fact that my dear was feeling unwell. It felt like some sort of a deja vu of our Hong Kong trip.

Luckily the situation was quickly resolved, after a long walk to the nearby building and the purchase of the bus tickets, while my dear was painfully nursing her headache. Upon reaching the airport, we decided to stop somewhere for a quick rest and we completed the last leg of the overseas fast food adventure with Burger King.

After which, it was mainly photo taking and a few hours of rest / movie watching while en route home sweet home.

Our savior tickets to the airport

The BK meal

The sophisticated writings on the wall

The mascot of I-do-not-know-what

Our tickets back home

We at our departure gate

The colourful wall at our departure gate

His meal

Her meal

Taiwan Day 5

Day 5 started with a simple breakfast of 葱油饼, 油条 and 豆浆, before we proceeded to another museum in our itinerary - Miniatures Museum of Taiwan (袖珍博物馆). As the name implied, the place contained a lots of miniatures, many of which exquisitely done. It was, however, baffling that such an interesting museum was located at the basement of an office building, which happened to be not in very close proximity to any MTR station.

The hearty breakfast

The underground entrance

The chop for re-entry

My dear loved the place very much and we were utterly impressed that they actually had a miniature working tv in one of their model homes. The tv was broadcasting some unknown show that was on a loop, but we were already awed off our feet. We took many photos there but it was a pity that the lighting was bad and a lot of the photos had reflections off the glass covering the artifacts. Below are some of the better ones:

We then had our lunch at the reputable Ding Tai Feng and naturally we ordered its specialty dish - xiao long bao. We also ate some noodles to fill our stomachs.

The original xiao long bao

Her noodles

His noodles

She with the cute mascot

He with the same bun

The rest of the day saw us walking around several iconic places in Taipei. Let's see if you can identify them.

The same person sitting and standing

Spot me!

A different view to the place

The replica of Taipei 101

We then rested our feet at Taipei 101 where we continued our quest for the overseas fast food experience in KFC.

The next overseas fast food experience - KFC

En route to the night market, the facade at one of the MTR stations there caught our eyes. Its artworks actually got lights embedded in them, definitely one level higher than our local walls, though some of our art pieces at the newer mrt stations were good. Nevertheless, our focus was on walking the night market, though my dear was put off by the large number of stalls selling seafood. After eating some snacks and even more walking, we went back to the hotel, ending our last night at Taiwan.

Artwork 1: A cute lighted display

Artwork 2: Pretty lights

Artwork 3: Another Taipei 101 fascination

Artwork 4: Me stopping the train

Artwork 5: My dear enjoying the rain

Artwork 6: Fireworks galore 

At the streets of Hua Xi

The hello kitty pancake

The fish balls and the ai yu bing

The fried chicken, though not the original big one

Some Japanese touch to our supper