Taichung Day 5

 Typhoon holiday today.

Last night I woke up during sleep with in digestion around 1:30am, managed to fall asleep and then woke up and hour later, with intense gag reflex and I ended up running to the bathroom and vomiting. 😭 the shallot smell was quite strong and I could see some rice in the bowl. Whhyyyyy the acidic taste is so badddd. It made my throat swollen when I went back to bed throughout the night.

I ended up getting up late because of the lack of sleep.... :') 

And then turns out (after late breakfast), that 二叔 said we are going to cuz Joy's auntie's place for lunch???? Uhhh I wanted to stay home and rest. 😭

Ended up going anyway and it was quite windy at the intersection on our way to their apartment after parking the car. A few spits of rain. Auntie had cooked a few more dishes including the 蘿蔔糕 we got from the buffet dinner yesterday (it was a gift). The 蘿蔔糕 has a very strong 蘿蔔 taste, it's quite nice. She also good a type of drunked chicken with Korean rice cake, and two vege dishes along with a baby corn, tofu, and seaweed soup. 二叔 bought KFC on the way. The chicken here is so much nicer than NZ?? Heck the skin is crispy and flavoured, and the chicken is moist. The skin is always soggy in NZ and the chicken kinda dry. They also had nuggies and tart. They still call the nuggies 麥克雞塊 even though it's not from McDonalds!!! xD Classic case of brand name becoming item name. Uncle sliced some papaya and it was ripe and delicious. 

After lunch we sat and just watched TV while auntie tidied up. I noted they had a Hitachi air purifier (cool!!!) that I had never seen before. They also had their balcony door open and one at the kitchen end, so there was some cross ventilation. Also their bathroom doesn't smell dank even though there's no window!

They have a fish pond in the communal area....

If you stretch your hands out the fish comes and gathers cause they think you got food lol

At 3pm we headed home because the rain is supposed to come in soon. 二叔 did an interesting thing at the management box (gatekeeper at the entrance) where he gives them his car keys and gets an elevator key in exchange to visit. And then return the elevator keys to get his car keys back.

二叔 stopped at a fruitsmonger and we bought some 釋迦, large green/yellow mandarins, Fuji apples. Then hometime and I was pretty tired... made myself some tea then started working on the pomelo. This one isn't as flavourful as the last one I had.

Golden dragonfruit. First time seeing it!

Eating Pomelo whilst typhoon... feels like 中秋 LOL

Caught up on some anime (Shangri-La Frontier, then Re:Zero S3 later in the evening), then had dinner which was just some thin noodles in fools sauce. Accidentally set my noodles on fire because the gas stove flame was larger than the pot. Oops. I ended up scrubbing the fridge exterior and also the adjacent wall so it's nice and clean now. 

Some tea and got told to shower early in case we get a power or water cut. It's not even 7pm... alright. 

After that I just surfed the net, caught up on animes (seriously try-lingualing with Re:Zero because it's region blocked on Crunchy, so I have to watch it on Muse). 

Think I will go to sleep early. And finally be able to visit some shops tomorrow.

Taichung Day 4

 Just had a bakery bread for breakfast today. 二叔 headed off for a rehab lesson (?) and I decided to clean the toilet, and then ended up vacuuming and mopping the floor. It was about 10:30am when I finished, and I was getting hungry so I decided to head to 三舅媽's place as a typhoon is coming, and she's closed tomorrow. 

I took a ubike and cycled through, and could already feel the heat coming down... sweaty.

Once I got there I said hi to both 三舅媽 and 三舅. It wasn't too busy at the stall and it was calming down. 三舅媽 fed me food, ah it always tastes so good~ added just the right amount of spice. 三舅媽 is really good at starting conversations but I am not so good at starting convos. I wanted to talk to 三舅 some more but IDK what to say, and I think he is not the talkative type. 

Later after I finished 三舅媽 took me to bu a spatula that mum wanted. It was $50. Wow I get a little intimidated at the 菜市場 but there's so many good wares to be found. On the way back she tried to buy me heaps of other food but like I tried to decline... semi-successfully. Ended up getting some preserved fruits and half a traditional wedding cake (pineapple flavour) - $85. She wouldn't let me pay. 😭

We went back to the stall and I sat at the back for a bit and started to eat the preserved plums. Had a bite of the cake but it was kinda dry so I didn't eat any further. 

Then I went back out to see what they were doing, 三舅媽 was cutting up blanched pork into pieces and discarding the too fatty parts. I asked if I could help but she said I don't know how to cut. So I just looked. Honey had already gone to the groomers for a bath. 

After staring for a bit and small talk, it was then time for them to close the stall. So I said good bye and headed back via bike. 

I got back and 二叔 was home. It was just after 1pm, and he said we were due to head out at 1:30pm. Oh man. No rest huh. 

Off we go, headed to 三叔's place. 二叔 wanted to discuss something with 三叔. When we arrived, it has been over 10 yrs since I visited their house. They used to have 3 dogs? Now only 1 remains. I think the others passed away from old age. 球球 was lying on the mat but barked a lot when we arrived. Their living room was also super cluttered with various toys and kids things... wow. 三叔 cleared a spot on the sofa for me, (thank you), and he then sat on the floor close to 球球. When 二叔 was talking to 三叔, he wouldn't look at 二叔 directly and kept fiddling with things, like finding dirt on the floor, picking it up and throwing it in the bin. His body language was also like, "none of my business" sort without being direct. He did look at me for a short while though when explaining about where the main ancestor and family grave is in China though, and explained what it was (I forgot the word). He is still very skinny... 

球球 on his mat. He gets fed freshly cooked food 4 times a day and goes to laser rehab once a week for his joints. He's well looked after! 17 years old.
皮皮 was another dog and passed away at 19 years.

The river outside 三叔's house. Sometimes at dusk fish would come up!

Once done we left and headed out to pick up 小智 for dinner. Dropped into the house and greeted 奶奶and ancestors. 

The balcony still looking just the same!

We swung by 日出 so I could get the stamps I missed on Monday. And then on the way I saw a cool advert, for Giant. I think their Mando name was different way back then.

Next was to pick up my cousin Joy's aunt, but we were a bit early so 小智 and I took a walk around for 30 mins (meet up at 4:30pm). I saw a cart selling the bean cakes!! and they sold a turnip strip one?? Pretty nice?? Peppery flavour and kinda tastes like breakfast. $15 for 1. I had to save some tummy for dinner.

We then took a walk and ended up at a park called 三信公園, and there was a little plaque explaining that the park was donated or sponsored by 三信 credit union. 小智 tried to explain what they are and looked it up on wiki (credit union) and then I understood. We got on the Space Walkers for a wee bit after walking around the park, and then it was almost time to head back.

When we got back at 4:30pm, auntie and uncle was already in the car. We then headed to the hotel where teh buffet was - I was trying not to freak out too much due to covid safety... dining indoors... I was hoping there wouldn't be too many people at opening and that the HVAC inside would be on strong, and that we would be away from people. Since we were early we passed by 中央公園 and 二叔 said he'll take me to go see the runway they left. They made a sculpture showing where it is, and also there were so much 含羞草 at this area!!! Man!! Leave me alone with some time and I would just play with them haha. The adults waited near the car and 小智 took a walk with me to the sculpture to have a look. I then stopped by the toilet on the way back.

The sculpture they made, but I don't think the actual runway had pebbles

The plane wheels

What I think is the actual runway if you turn around on the sidewalk looking at the sculpture

Heaps of 含羞草!!!

There was still a little bit of time and they sat at the lobby waiting. I was looking at a charity organisation's magazine and started to read a comic, where the first panel had some swimmers asking kids why they were playing at the wharf and not at home doing homework. The kids replied saying that mum and dad isn't home and ah-gong is illiterate, hence them playing here. I think the next panel had the swimmers/surfers take the kids one and them sitting them down at a desk and teaching them their homework? I got called away and couldn't read the rest of the 8 panels... 😭 The magazine had 3 letters and I can't read the characters, and it did say charity magazine or something on the front cover corner. I'll never find it again. 

At least the sunset is pretty.

Once it was time everyone filed into the elevator and went up to 2F into the restaurant. Spacey my ass. This is moderate not spacy. 二叔 said it was spacey and we were seated next to other people. :/

Well, I can see HVAC vents and I turned my CO2 monitor on. I'll try to eat as fast as possible and mask back up. The food was really good though. Seafood was fresh. They had crabs but I was too wimp to try them. Sashimi and nigiri... hell yeah. Gimme. Their tofu was also super silky and flavourful. They ordered temaki and it had like alfalfa on top. That's new. The auntie said it was pretty good. But if I ate it it would bulk me up. They also ordered a 花魚? which is apparently a bit more expensive. They had a drink that was pretty good. It was almond or some sort of bran/barley type, white milky liquid. Pretty sweet but had a nutty taste. Dessert was movenpick. I tried not to breathe too deeply whilst eating... it got busier.

I had another plate of sashimi and nigiri after this

After I finished eating I masked back up and just had a cup of tea doing the hold breathe and unmask method. And waited for them to finish. 小智 ate a lot and kept looking at QQ, lol. Auntie ate A LOT. Uncle ate moderately. 二叔 also had a fair amount. I didn't want to overeat. The buffet cost $629 and 二叔 has some coupons to use plus they get senior discount. I checked my CO2 monitor throughout and it showed under 600ppm all the time, in my bag. !?! I expected it to be higher but okay I'll take it.

Then we went home. 二叔 dropped me off first while he took the others home. I took a shower and it's almost bed time. Tomorrow is a typhoon holiday, lol, my second one.

Taichung Day 3 (Shuinan and grave visit)

 First thing today is the Family Grave visit. As there's a typhoon on the way, best to do it in case the weather is unviable. So early in the morning (like 9am) 二叔 took me out to Dadu-san. It wasn't as far as I thought it was from 二叔's house. We passed an technological/industrual area that included the Semiconductor factory (or one of them), and Giant (the bike manufacturer). There's a golf course next to Dadu-san which apparently was bought by TSMC for semiconductors and they're gonna build more factories there. Wow. That's a lot of space. Apparently it's not even enough?? ????

Up we go the mountain. We arrived at the grave but didn't put on any incense. I let 爺爺奶奶 know I was here, and 二叔 added in to help me find a partner to marry.... think that's a hard ask, bro. I also let 姥爺姥姥 know that I was here to see them. I teared up a little, and when I looked at 姥姥's photo it was like she was smiling extra at me. I mean, she's already smiling in the photo but it was like, even more. We had a look around and sat a bit. They had put some paper money under a ball of earth on top of the gravestone, and the little temple house in the middle. They had put some new grass over where the burial mound was when they put 奶奶 inside. There's quite a few dragonflies of all sizes and colour? flying around. I spotted at least 3, and 2 butterflies. One was a big one that was black n iridescent blue, and one was a small yellow one with a black dot near the tip of the wing. Looking into the distance down the mountain you can see a factory that was producing heaps of smoke, near the big bridge structure we passed on our way here. I wonder what that is. We stayed about 30 mins and then left. I let 爺爺 奶奶 and 姥姥 姥爺 know that we were going, I'll come back next time I have a chance. I did 爺爺 奶奶 first, and then 姥姥 姥爺 which I teared up before speaking and it was a bit hard to get the words out. I feel like 姥姥 probably came down to visit. 

On 爺爺 奶奶's side there are some small pomengranate bushes.  奶奶 liked them.

二叔 drove the car down to the carpark, and then went into the main tower to visit and check out the plaque spaces. We had a look around (there's crystal and normal), and enquired at the desk. I wonder where 大舅二舅 is... A shame I don't know how to visit them...

Then headed back around 10:40am, and 二叔 will drop me off near 三舅媽's stall, at the Dapeng primary school. I arrived at around 11am and said hi!! The stall was still a little busy. 三舅媽 was at the back cooking the special chilli condiment, and I gave her her souvenirs and she tried to give me $3000! I was like no! I don't know how much it was, since parents went to buy it. She then went outside to check how busy it is. Told me to sit and she fed me.

Honey was there~ she had a super short haircut and some moles (?) that were of old age. She was also a little shaky. Ohh~ so cute. But she is very well behaved. She kept looking at me and sniffing my food but she won't try to steal it. Too bad sis, I can't be irresponsible and feed you. You can't have chilli.

Plenty of people would stop by and look at Honey. A man stopped on their scooter (wearing a surgical) and asked about Honey. I said she's the 老闆娘 pet, very well behaved. He said something else but I couldn't hear properly. And then he left. 

The food is so good~~ this is the flavour I miss... mmmm~~~

三舅 spoke to me and asked how long I will be here~ he seemed more willing to talk today! Very happy.

After food I went to the back and watched 三舅媽 cook the chilli condiment. She uses all oil, peppercorn 花椒 first to get the taste out, remove, and then ginger. And then garlic, black bean? whole bag of minced chilli, pepper, and then peppercorn powder. Takes about an hour. Asked me to go out and ask 三舅 for the big container of salt. I went out and called 三舅 3 times after he finished an order, he wasn't used to me calling him. xD And showed me where the salt was. 三舅媽 added like 5 big tablespoons of salt. Then just simmer it on low heat... smells so good.... and talked about how people would essentially steal the chilli and take it home in their own container. 

Plenty of other stallholders would walk past and talk to 三舅媽 and ask who I was. One lady talked about how the vaccine screwed up people's immune systems and I tried really hard to refute that without being too rude. orz It's so bad the misinformation... the convo stemmed from telling 三舅媽 to go to NZ and have a good holiday.

Around 12:40pm now, and they gotta tidy up. I bid goodbye to both 三舅媽 and waved bye to 三舅.

The house next to the skywalk still has the old tiles... hasn't changed! And their gate is still the same!

I headed to 大展文具 and had a good browse. Ah~ the old man isn't here today but the young one was. I bought some stickers, craft knife blades, shoe glue (I hope this one works in place of Daiso one), stickers, some zipper pouches, and a few permanent markers, and a 3M hook. Total was $529 after discount~

Sadly they didn't have a postage stamp collection book.

Made my way back to our old house and neighbourhood and the gammy shop just outside. On my way I took photos of some of the older houses, and noted the empty spaces and carparks where old Juanchun housing used to be. 

Then I walked into the street where the 7-11 is now, and the house with the finely trimmed bushes had added eyes and a tongue on one of the bushes for a dragon. So cute. A lot of the houses along this street has been rennovated on the outside, and the old Budhhist hall is currenty under construction and you can see the skeleton of the house. I headed to the 福德官 and noticed that they have built a new house for the deities now??? Oh wow. Man it's nice but it's changing so much I hardly recognise it anymore. I sat for a bit, as they have moved the bench from next to the sink to further up where the tree used to be. 

There used to be a gammy shop on this corner. Juanchun house.

The carpark used to be all Juanchun housing.

This is still the same but they did the carport up!

Can you spot the dragon? There are two! The house owner was sitting in their yard... a little awks if they noticed me lol.

The dragon with eyes and tongue

They moved the benches here

I feel like the roof is new too

Same furnance, at least.

Some new banyan trees, might be the ones that took root from the original one.

New house for the deities.

I put the $5 I found on the bus station seat into the donations box. Sorry not much! But it's a suitable occassion to donate that. 

Then I made my way towards our old house. The warehouse on the corner had their back doors open and two ladies were busy sewing bedsheets. Oh, I guess this place is still in business! A couple of houses on this row and their exterior redone. Then through and onto my street... it hasn't changed too much. The 阿嫲 next door still has heaps of recyclables heaped out front. Ooh~~ she must still be around!! Didn't see her though. Looked at our old house.... car is out but a moped is in. Gates are still the same. :')

Alleyway after just leaving the 福德官

The old water tower is still here!

Looking towards where you'd go for the rice paddies, hasn't changed too much

My street....

My old house....

Tiling is still the same!

I kept walking and the little flowerbed where I used to eat the red four-petal flowers were overgrown and mini trucks were parked in front, so I couldn't see. I walked up to the end of the street and looked at the store that used to be Mike Conbini. The tiles are teh same but the windows have been replaced. And the roast meats bentou place is now on the corner. 

House just across at the intersection. Still the same!

Same house as above. I wonder if the house across the road still has their fish pond?

The gammy shop... is open!! Ahhh!!! Lovely!!! But the boss kept walking out so it was super hard to get a photo under the shade without being weird. I bought a chilled Supau ($20) and had a look at the sweets shelf. They didn't have the lemon flavour Vita C so I got a plum flavour ($10). And saw a rock candy on the shelf too, so grabbed that ($15). Total was $55. Thank you boss. I looked to the side of the table and they don't have eggs there anymore. 

I left without walking further into the shop, and looked at the breakfast shop. Their stuff is still outside, as their sign, so I guess they are still in business!

Old hydrant near my old house

What I bought from the gammy shop

That odd structure that kinda looks like a bunker, is still there!

I rememeber playing with some other neighbourhood kid in this area. They had those chair swings then. And some normal swings. Told me a ghost story of how the normal swing chains twisted and kept twisting, and then beheaded someone and their ghost haunts this place.

Back of where the old 涼麵 noodle stall/juanchun house used to be. The houses have been demolished but people have still put up a shop front. You can see the brick wall remaining from that in between the two shops.

Time to go home now. I walked my way back towards the market and then walked down the main street, and went past 三舅媽's stall again. Her moped was still there, but the stall has been closed. The Ubike station was empty, but thankfully there were 3 bikes around the corner. Borrowed the bike and made my way towards the big Central Park.

I took a detour and cycled up the path that 二叔 mentioned there is a small part of the airport runway left. But I didn't see it at all. I got to the end and came to the road, and cycled back in the direction. Man I should have really sunscreened today. Got to the Ubike station and parked. Went home. And ate myself a whole pomelo.... mmmm.

Ended up cycling my way to the ball park.

Cute decoration at the entrance.