Mr Brown Avenue, Taitung, Taiwan

Rolling green fields without a pole, picture this....

This place seems to go on forever. Some people cycle on the tar roads, some people walk on it but due to my knee pain, I took shelter under a huge tree with some of my tour mates....I wonder what is so fascinating about this place....hmm...

Maybe it was this picture frame that slanted toward the sky. You could stand behind it and pose in so many different ways....it was a like a huge picture frame transpose against a blue sky...

Other that I did not find anything special about this place. Many we did not walk far enough to the cafe to drink the Mr Brown coffee that made this place got its name......

FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE FAMILY

It was the biggest and grandest wedding I have ever attended!

Sample wedding invitation sent via whatsapp for confidentiality purposes and to save postage costs....


After the dinner, Tim made touching thank you notes to send to our guests thanking them for their generous gifts .....never mind if the smallest ang pow was RM50 and the biggest was RM800...

The fact is that if we were to match the amount collected with the actual cost per table it would be definitely insufficient to cover the entire cost. In fact we would have to top up the cost per table!

Thank God for BS and KH, my son-in-law's parents who insisted that we keep all the ang pow collection that night. According to Chinese tradition, the boy's side will host the wedding with allocation of tables for the girl's side. 

The parents of the bride can invite their friends for the dinner and keep the entire collection! Thank God for daughters...but we have one son so this collection would have to be saved to fund his wedding....

The wedding of A and D will certainly be remembered for our generations to come. Held at Tropicana Golf & Country Club, we were given 18 out of 74 tables by the groom's family. All our tables were taken up leaving only one vacant seat.

We had prayed that all who were supposed to come will come and that all seats had to be taken up. God heard our prayers. Only one seat was vacant out of our 18 tables.

With guests from my company, solicitors and church friends, it was such a wondrous occasion. 

Even more meaningful was a reunion of sorts for us with old friends like the Yaps, the Lees & the Engs. My best friends like the two Karens & MS also attended the dinner. Although I had not seen them for a long time, it was only like yesterday!

It was great to see their children all so grown up. The Yaps came with 2 of their daughters. The Lees also had 2 young adults daughters. Equally delightful was to see my 2 Karens who are my best friends. I really do have a lot of good friends named Karen!

The wedding started about an hour late. Not the fault of the bride but the kitchen was not ready. First time sitting at the main table, we got our food individually served on small plates. However as we had to greet the guests we could not finish the last few courses of the mushroom, the rice and the desert. We did not get a chance to savor them as we had to wait at the entrance to shake the hands of departing guests!

I wore a very expensive azure blue evening dress with sequinned shoulder top. It fitted me to a tee. though I am not slim, I must say that the dress did not look frumpy on me. In fact I looked good.

I went with A to the beautician and hairdresser in the afternoon to do up our hair and makeup. First time in my life, I had so much hair! I don't know what the hairdresser did but my hair was so buffed up and sparkles were put in my hair!

The father in law gave a wonderful and touching speech welcoming A into the family. Tim's speech was super short. Tim said that he was glad to read out the poem I wrote for A and D. That made up 90% of his speech. 

God inspired me to write the poem for the couple and dedicated it to them. The poem has been printed out and given to eldest daughter and her husband. May they remember to apply the principles in the poem for ages to come!

I recalled the Lord's promise to me that He will bless me and bring increase to my family. I can see His faithfulness to me on May 21. My extended family has grown. I have a new son, a wonderful sister (D's mum is generous and love my daughter lavishly) and a wonderful brother in KH, D's father.

Also I was happy to see so many of my long-lost cousins attending the wedding dinner some of them giving big ang pows! 

My cousins, P, K, A and S & their families made the night so meaningful. It was great to see them happily greeting my 85 year old mother whom they had not seen for many years. Actually the reason for this was because my mother only kept in touch with her side of the family during CNY. All my cousins who came to visit my mum during CNY were from her side of the family. The cousins that came in full force for the wedding were from my late father's side. I also have at least 2 more cousins in Australia, O & J from my mother's side who sent us good wishes.

THANK YOU JESUS. YOU ARE AWESOME!

Pier-2 Art Center - Taitung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Continuing our interesting journey in Taiwan...

One of the fascinating places that we visited was this Art Center in Taitung. At this place, we saw sculptures made of steel and looked misshapen yet they had a special meaning. 

We saw sculptures of anime characters and super-heroes like Spiderman and Ironman. People came in droves to take photos with these sculptures.

Many young people come here to show off their anime costumes and dress up as Disney characters. A pair of young ladies dressed as Elsa and her sister in the "Frozen" movie!

This place really jolts your eyes and your mind. Some sculptures like Transformers are larger than life. Some sculptures seem to stand out of nowhere...here are some pictures and you will see why.....

A great testimony - God hears our prayers

Is the government having financial problems? Why are they not calling the medical and pharmacy graduates to do their training at government hospitals? Why is the list of training companies for pharmacy graduates so limited?

Why are people who graduated last year still waiting for their placements at government hospitals? Some of these graduates have no choice but to work at retail pharmacists for only RM1k a month! How to survive in KL what with rental, transport and food!

This is the question on the lips of many of A's friends who graduated with her last year. There were about 80 pharmacy graduates and about another 200 odd medical graduates. 

Most if not all of her classmates are languishing at home waiting for the government to place them in hospitals to do their internship so that they can get their pharmacy licence. Much like a doctor, a pharmacist also needs a licence to practice. This seems to be ultimate goal of pharmacy graduates. Many will not settle for less.....

My daughter was getting frustrated. "Mum the longer I wait the more rusty I become. I will begin losing the knowledge I have of the drugs and medicine that I learnt in my course! A job with a pharmaceutical organisation will keep me on my toes and I will be continually learning new things!"

Say what you may, my youngest girl have always had a sense of mission in her chosen career path. She sees being a pharmacist as not just a job but a mission to help people.

Imagine how great it would be if she were to tag along with me to Sarawak for missions. She would be busy treating people with all kinds of sickness and prescribing the medicine to help them!

However her initial stint at Health Lane, Kepong was a failure as all the aunties and uncles communicated to her in Cantonese. She shed tears when she could not communicate with them or help them with their ailments. You see, A (like my other 2 children) are bananas - yellow on the outside, white on the inside! Chinese on the outside but English speaking!

She quit after about 2 weeks and became very depressed. She was a go-getter who was used to employers lining up to employ her and not the other way around. Also to be jobless is unthinkable for her. She was always do something - Uber or Grabcar or whatever part time job she could lay her hands on.

So I prayed and prayed and prayed. I asked my prayer partners to agree with me on this matter.

God heard our prayers and gave her a really good job at PayPal. Yet, it was not her heart's desire. She was solving customer's problems online and was excellent at her job. In fact she was so good at her job that she won several awards. At one time she was earning about RM5k a month!

She continued applying for a pharmaceutical company that would be able to provide the training for her to get her licence. Also the PayPal job required her to work on Sundays and also late night shifts. Sometimes she would be coming back so late that I really worried for her safety....

Once again, A asked me to pray for her to get a job at J & J. There was only one opening but there were 200 applicants lining up for that one job!

A said something to me that struck a chord in my heart - "Mum, if I get this job everything will fall into place for me. Pray that God will give me the job!"

That really moved me to pray for her. I got my pastor's wife, my life group members to pray for favor for the job.

A cleared the first interview easily. They said that she was passionate and had an excellent attitude.

At the second interview the MD asked why HR did not source for a first class graduate! 

Though A made it to the Dean's List twice in her final year semesters, she missed the first class by a few points!

She kept on asking me to pray for her as she really wanted the job! Once again I fasted and prayed for her and got people to agree with me!

God is great! He heard our prayers as A got the good news just 2 weeks ago! She got the job!

A may not be first class but our GOD IS FIRST CLASS!

Fengxia night market

Claimed to be the largest night market in Taiwan, Fengxia night market was established in 1963. Its location is near the Fengxia University. At weekends the place will be teeming packed with students and parents....

This place is just teeming with all kinds of Taiwan street food, the likes of which we will never get in Malaysia...the smells, the sights, the taste of the food all bring us to the uniquely Taiwan experience...

The variety of sausages, fried cuttlefish, fishball, chicken balls, innards, fish, meat balls are just mind-boggling....

The food sold is uniquely Taiwan...the bubble tea is simply yummy, the fried nuggets just scrumptious...

Fengxia entrance

Vendors call out to you to try their unique food....so much variety...

Stinky taufoo...I just love it....actually it was not as stinking as it should be...pop it in the mouth...

Gigantic fried squids, prawns, crabs...

It was at Fengxia that the father got 'lost'. The instructions were for us to wait opposite Watsons. However the father waited at Watsons. 

Slowly the tour group members returned from their shopping but we were wondering where the father was. After waiting almost 20 minutes, I started praying for his safe return. I tried calling him but could not get connected as he was using a different service provider that was not recognised in Taiwan....

Somehow he saw us opposite the road and came over. God is good!

A found some very nice stuff at this night market. I found some striped casual pants that I could wear without looking frumpy. Only about RM20 per pants....

Taiwan - Yehliu Geological Park

Another fascinating tourist attraction is the Yehliu Geological Park....

The famous Queen's head is only found in 2 places in the world and one of them is in the Yehliu Geological Park.

It is a natural rock formation that was formed as a result of the weather and the seawater coming up to land eroding and washing over the earth after many many years. Soon quaint rock sculptures with shapes and stories of their own were formed over the years. They look so sentinel and surreal from far.

From far they looked like mushroom-shaped rocks but if you look closer you will realize that each of these rocks have definite designs that were unique to them....nature is the best sculptor.

When going into the Yehliu Park, one has to be very careful especially when it came to posing with the rock formations. Henry told us that in the past some eager tourists hoping to get best shots would stand really close to the edge of the sea (there is no wall that separate the park from the rough seas) and be washed away by the thundering ocean...we were warned to keep a safe distance away when taking photos.

Just Sleep & Mioali Flying Cow Ranch

Small but neat and clean...breakfast is delicious with porridge, salads and Taiwanese delicacies....love it!

So unique is this hotel called Just Sleep....in this room for e.g. there are some mathematical equations written in something like permanent chalk on the walls....makes me feel like I was Einstein or something.....

Taiwan is an interesting place. I can only describe it as a cross between Hong Kong and China. I love the hotels especially the quaint boutique hotels known as Just Sleep. When Henry our tour guide told us the name, I thought he was joking!

I love Taiwan for its night market, the beautiful rough seas, the Geo park, Taiwan 101, the shopping, the street food and Sun Moon Lake!

My all time favorite must the the one night stay at the Flying Cow Ranch at Miaoli. The farm hotel was rustic yet comfortable. The bed was soft and downy and the the room look like home with its wooden floors and clean white sheets. However it was not a place to be cooped up in the room. There were lots of fun things to do here. 

The dinner was unique. How many of you have eaten steamboat with its soup base as cow's milk? Yes, Miaoli is a cow farm and what else do they serve with the steamboat ingredients but cow's milk!

The fun thing about this place was also the activities that they had planned for us.

Our tour group took part in a night activity. We were given a soft pencil case made of canvas and stickers of animals. The artwork was to glue the pictures onto the white canvas. It looked easy but when our stickers refused to stick it became rather frustrating for us to figure out what went wrong.

However it was all in good fun - even if some of us ended up with animal pictures that didn't quite stick!

We had a very restful sleep in the farm. Breakfast was in a small but charming farmhouse with farm fresh food. We had eggs, porridge, salads, fruits and vegetables that fresh and organic.

We felt sad to say goodbye to Miaoli because there were so many parts of this farm that were just begging to be explored. From our bus we could see an expanse of green rolling field that seem to go on forever....