Taiwan Day 18 - Taichung Day 5 (spring)

 I naturally woke up just before 8am today. Had breakfast, some wood bread with a banana (yum), and then headed to the post office just after 8:30am.

The post office was busy with 11 people for banking services and 3 people for postal. I went to print the EZ Post label but it didn't come out. It took ages to print. So I tried again.... And then decided I need help so took a number. 

The gentlemen was patient and went to get the label from the print - it was an A4 paper and he said only the small packets print from the EZ Post machine, the EMS ones are bigger so they get printed inside. Sorry... I printed twice... 

The package was 6.1kgs and cost $2305. Pretty cheap if you think about it. 

Then I bought stamps for the rest of my postcards - he was going to stick it on for me but I said I can do it, and he can service someone else. 

That's also because I didn't leave enough space for some that ends up getting 2 stamps so I have to rewrite what it covers up... 

After that, I headed home and got ready to go to 三舅媽's place. 二叔 offered me a ride since he needs to go charge his car. Yay I don' t have to solve the problem of how to get the stuff I'm bringing for 三舅媽 onto the Youbike lol. 

Once arrive, I greeted the auntie that fries the eggs. She told me 三舅媽 is at the back 在打麻將 loooool and then I walked there and found out she meant it as 炒麻醬. XDDD 

I gave the stuff and then chatted with 三舅媽 for a while. 

And then got bitten many times by a mosquito just hanging out around there... Vicious. 

When 三舅 was free I greeted him and asked if everything was good. 

At some point Honey wanted me to hold her so I got to hold her twice. 

I got fed 麻醬麵 and 豬血湯 which was all delicious. 

They had less customers today. A lot of the stalls were closed and that was kinda a rare sight. I even went to the dry goods store in the arcade, but both were closed! 

Instead 三舅媽 gave me 2 packs of dried black bean instead. 

三舅媽 told me about how they went out to Hualien on a travel trip with a friend, and their lil brother suicided so had to go back ASAP without completing their trip. It was so sad. The brother was happy about anything the wife did - he fried chicken for a living and the wife would just come to collect the money. (My brain went, I bet she's a narc, I think I may be partially right). He would do anything to please the wife. At some point the wife wanted a divorce, and he took it way too personally and couldn't unthink himself out of the depression pit. All his siblings were supporting him and said that they'll support him in what he wants to do. The day before he was found dead - hung himself on a bridge; he sent a photo to his sister dressed up all fine and got a new cut and shave. Asking if he was handsome. His sister said, of course, you look absolutely handsome. 

ON the way back this friend insistented on dropping them off at home, when 三舅媽 said that just drop them anywhere near their neighbourhood and they can  arrange a taxi hime, and would save them 2 hrs travel time as it'd be faster for them to go to the funeral home straight from the highway. But nope they insisted... 三舅媽 also said the friend likes to go see animals, like eagles that cost a lot, and the aquarium/sea park in Hualien (they have one to?!). Originally they were going to go to Kenting's one but then they got the news. I felt so sad as well. The brother probably thought it was him that was at fault when it likely wasn't, and the trauma bond just took a really bad turn. 

About 12:45pm I left as they were packing up. It was raining lightly when I left, and I managed to find a Youbike (2 left!) with a dry seat.In the 10 mins that I cycled home, I got drenched lol. But at least my undies stayed dry hahaha. 

A shame, I couldn't stop at the juanchun spot on the way home. I forgot an umbrella. 

Once home I got changed and the rain lovingly helped me to wash my pants which I had splashed the noodle sauce on lol. 

After a wee break I headed out to the TVGAME 360 shop, but they didn't have Ryuusei no Rockman package version. Oh well... Guess I'm going to 小拳王 then. They did have!! And also Rockman EXE Collection. For some reason $200 more lol at $1390. I also spotted the MHST3 Amiibos around $580-680. But I really, don't have space for them, especially in the box, as it's so big. 

I exited the shop, and walked a wee bit debating. Since the package ver was in Chinese and the cover art was different and not Japanese, it felt weird. And inconsistent with the rest of my games. After like 15 mins in the pouring rain I ended up going back and buying the game. Lol. $1190.

Then I went home as it was raining hardcore and my feet were real wet. 

I changed out from my socks and just chilled. 

At some point I ate dinner from leftovers in the fridge. And then decided to sort some luggage out. 

Then decided to go out at 7:45pm to grab the Pompom shirt I had sent Ange a photo of a clothes store stand. Just as I left the front door downstairs, I bumped into 四叔 going home. He said he was worried that I didn't have enough money left. I said, then I will take $10000 to give back to dad so he can spend straight away when he comes back later in the year. He handed me the cash right there lol. 

I got to the shop CACO and they had a 2 for 12% off promo, but one shirt was $790 (they signed me up for membership so I could get that $790 price, otherwise it was like double the price). I had a look around but I didn't really like the material they use for their shirts and stuff. So just ended up getting the one shirt for Ange. The ears on pompom move, it's cute. 

On the way home I looked at a couple of figure shops, and eventually found a cute human Eva blind box as a gift for Bridget. OK this will do! I picked the heaviest one as I think Rei or Misato would be heaviest based on their hair. The carton comes as a full set. There were 4 left. It was $280. I hope Bri gets the girl she likes. 

Then home and shower. 

Taiwan Day 17 - Taichung Day 4 (spring)

 Today I slept in until 10am. Lol I really needed that sleep! I didn't do much in the morning, just organised packing a bit more and fluffed around until 11am or so, then I finished yesterday's blogging. As it was almost 1pm, I got ready to go out to get some lunch (as I had some breakfast, late, but not much). I also asked L to fill in the details for their parcel online on EZ post. 

Meilin ayi has gone out to get a haircut and came back with instant noodles just as I was getting ready to go out. She said I can have. Oh thank you!! There were also some kumara leaves in the fridge from 二叔's garden. So I rinsed all of those out (it has some basil leaves in it too) and blanched it before cooking my noodles. 

It was the 台酒 beef noodles. Very delicious. And also the kumara leaves were yum. I added too much water so ended up having too much soup lol. 

After a rest post-lunch, I went out and started to do shopping. I went to Watsons first, around 3pm, and then the sales lady got me to try a Watsons house brand of vitamin C. And I saw they also had Retinoid, so I got that too. Everything is currently on special, and they were $799 each. They also had a promo going on with buy over $488 over 2 items and then get $100 off. And then I went upstairs to check stuff out - the sales lady upstairs started selling me Dr Wu lmao for vita C. OK then. Since it was on $598 for the vita C brightening serum, on special form like $1399 or something, it was a really good deal. She said she has never seen it that cheap. 

I had a look around the store for other stuff and just picked up a Kiss Me eyeliner as well. 

In total I spent over $2000 lol, and managed to get tax free too. They also had a promo with Ariel pods (washing detergent), for $89 if you buy with another item which is like half price for 11 pods. I had used one at Tainan at the hotel, and the smell is pretty much what the Japan laundry smelt like at that Apartment in Osaka! 

I took my goods home as I had also run out of cash lol. On the way, the old Watch & Clocks store that has been open since I was a kid, had a banner saying "closing down sale, all must go". They are finally finishing business... I don't blame them, but it's still a little sad to see. I went inside and asked if they had any Jaga watches, and they still had 2 children's watches. I ended up picking the black and pink one. It's $590. I said I'll come back as I need to get more cash. 

I got home, unloaded my stuff, and then went back to do more shopping and stopped by the watch store. Another older oucple walked in at the same time. The boss man saw me come back and I paid for my watch. Thank you. He said that he's been open for 30 years, when I said I remember buying a Jaga watch here as a kid. 

Off I go to Daiso. They only had 1 item I was after - the B5 OPP slider zip folders. They didn't have anything bigger than my A3 one to put my laptop in, and their oshikatsu section didn't have any nui holders. Ah well. No YBC Aerial too. 

Off to PX Mart. I didn't mind the microfiber cloths, but did find my Pocari and Dalli, along with picking up a tub of cotton buds. The economy pack of Felix cat brand was made in Thailand, and only the round pottle ones were still MIT.  The PX Mart was busy and the air quality wasn't great. Over 1000ppm. 

Then I was tired and almost dinnertime so I went to buy myself Yixin Stinky Tofu. I opted for 2 servings and a side of 泡菜. Home to eat. I only managed to nibble the 泡菜 and struggled to finish the last 2 pieces of the second serving. I did it though! 

After a break after dinner, I went out again at 8pm to grab another box of Ariel laundry pods. Since I discovered half the tub is empty, I can fit 2 tubs in one! When I got there one of the lady's saw me just with the 1 tub, and said that I needed to buy something to go with it. I said OK I'll look for the wipes I like - and went to the shelf. But they don't stock it here!!!! I ended up buying cotton pads (made in Greece?!) which I thought was $59 but turns out it was $79???? Oh well teh Ariel was $89 and I had got tax back of $100 so I guess I still save. 

After that I walked to 久久大賣場 to buy the extractor hood filters. I couldn't remember how many dad said to get so I just grabbed like 8. Any extra can sit here lol. They were $65 each and total was $520.

Then back home, and 二叔 wasn't back yet. It was 8:50pm. I told Eilin ayi I'll go take a shower first, and then after my shower 二叔 had just come back. 

After I blew dry my hair I tried to consolidate some of the skincare but it was annoying and they didn't wanna fit as diff sizes and the bozes were just a bit too small. Ugh. 

And played around with packing a little bit. Then I went to sleep. I will finish blogging tomorrow. 

Taiwan Day 16 - Taichung Day 3 (spring)

 Qing Ming Jie today. We woke up early and headed out to the grave at 8:20am.

We were the first ones there. They had traffic control set up near the entrance to Dadusan, and the control officers wore all orange long-limber clothes, with a hood-to-neck covering, sunglasses and a surgical mask. For maximum sun protection! 

There were a lot of those arched gazebos set up near the ash tower, for families to place offerings as there's no space in the tower. 

The weather turned fine for the morning when it was originally forecasted to rain. A little too fine lol. 

Someone from Nana's family had already come and done the offerings. There are flowers in the pots next to the graves. One candle holder was on the floor for some reason?? I picked it up and placed it back where it should be. 

三叔's family were next to arrive. And then 四叔 and 五叔. 五叔 bought all the goods, the offerings, snacks, incense, water/tea etc. 

People helped place the offerings on the graves, and the paper yuanbo too. We got given paper money and told to place it on top of the mound using stones to weigh them down. One was placed on top of the gravestone. I wonder if these stones were the sames ones we got asked to pick up as a kid? I remember going around to pick rocks up for this purpose, it must have been when 爺爺 was recently buried. 

We also gave offerings to the 土地公 and 龍神 ？. After everyone prayed and put their incense into the holder pot, they hung around. I asked for one for 姥姥 and 姥爺, and one for the 土地公 on their side.

五叔 gave me a disposable cup and poured some water for the 土地公 and 姥姥 and 姥爺. 

The family just hung around and chatted. 五叔 was telling 安安 about using a bank's app to buy ETFs and how her mum does it lol. Someone commented they have been buying gold instead. 

Then they were looking for the 擲筊 which was placed on the top of the red drinks cartons so it blended in LOL. They took it out of the plastic and put it around the cup of drink offering. 

Later they 擲筊 and started to burn the paper money. There was a lot. A looooot. But a lot of people helped so it wouldn't take as long lol. The little burner was shaped like a house so the holes (windows) on top and sides were easier to place the paper in to burn VS the front door. I called dad just so I can update him and said hi to everyone. 

Before we finished burning 二叔 said I had to go now so he can pick Meilin ayi up for lunch. Aww. Can't stay till the end. 

We went and picked ayi up and then headed to Tokiya 陶板屋 and parked at the nearby parking lot costing $90/hour on weekends. Yikes! The whole family went. I was a bit anxious on the indoor air, but looks like the building has proper HVAC. The Airspot read ~560ppm at reception, and then we were in a side partition room with one other table of other diners, and 3 big tables were our family. It read about ~800ppm before the rest of the family arrived and it read about 1000-1200ppm, which isn't too bad for the amount of people. I think I can survive this. 

The food itself was really good though. You pick a salad, a soup, a main, a side, a drink, and a dessert. So stuffed. I picked fruit salad, beef/tomato soup, steak/fish combo main, takoyaki ball side, Yuzu soda drink, and caramel pudding dessert. 

The steak they asked how done, and I said medium, which is 五分熟. Everyone else asked for 七分熟. When the steak arrived it was medium rare consistency... Mmmm looooool. Everyone else's was more medium to medium done. Lmao. Okay so it's different here. Oh well I can still eat the steak no biggie, just funny. Next time I also ask for 70% done. 

Since it's a Japanese style, western teishoku the flavours were pretty nice. The pudding was awesome. The takoyaki ball was eh. The beef soup was lovely. The main was nice but not amazing. Overall it's pretty yummy. The waiters were all dressed in chef-style neckerchef uniforms and a hat.

At the end of the meal, everyone huddled together for a family photo. The restaurant printed out a copy and a frame for every family. That's nice. 

After that we went home and I sorted out my postcards, printed some more to make up for the ones Kayla didn't get because she didn't pass along her address to me in time. 

That took the whole day.... I took a nap from 4-5:30pm and when I woke up I went to 7-11 and bought my yoghurt drink and a Supau ($49 + $29). And printed off those postcards on the ibon machine ($56 for like 9 cards). Then I went back up to 8F and tried to get some air - wasn't much of a breeze. I felt so groggy and drank the Supau. Felt a little better. 

Dinner is at 6:30pm. And Meilin ayi made dumplings from 八方雲集 with 3 side dishes. Thank you ayi. Afterwards we finished the pork spine and bamboo shoot soup. I accidentally smashed the bowl when I tried to get the last bits of the soup out of the pot, with the pot handle slipping back and crashing into the lip of the bowl. Rip rest of the soup. 

二叔 helped clean up and I did the dishes. He ended up vacuuming the whole house as well. After clean up I finished the rest of the postcards. Then it was almost 9pm, I took a shower and finished blogging for yesterday. 

The washing was done around 10:30pm, and I hung it out and then went to bed. So tired.