Taiwan Day 19 - 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 18 - 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. 

Taiwan Day 17 - Taichung Day 3 (spring)

 Today we head back to grandma's house for praying at the ancestor altar. We headed out around 10am, we were one of the first to arrive. 

五嬸 was cooking and 五叔 has set up the altar with trays of offerings and various paper money. Hu'nio came out to sniff my hand and then left. Maiya came out at some point after I tried to chase her for a bit to say hello. 

I bought the prawn crackers and there were 2 bags left. 賢安 was still sleeping and 五叔 and 小智 went in and asked her to choose and wake her up lol. Soz mate. She chose black pepper flavour. Then we went out and left her alone for a bit. 

The doorbell sounded and it was such a nostalgic sound. It's like birds chirping in a tweet tune. Hard to describe. 

Soon 三嬸 and the two kids arrived along with 三叔. The kids bought play dough and some dinosaurs along. And then 四嬸四叔 and fam arrived with 康康's wife. I helped peel and break some beens for 五嬸 and that was pretty much all I could do. Once the dishes were cooked for offerings we light some incense and 拜拜. Then we had lunch. The braised meat was so delicious and tastes pretty much like what 奶奶 used to make. 五嬸 taught me that you heat oil, add iced sugar rocks, sauté the unblanched meat in the sugar until it caramelised, and then add soy sauce, let caramelised just a wee bit, add sake, and then water. A bit of aniseed. No onion no garlic. And that's it!!!!! What the hell lol. I shall try that next time. It's the same technique as 姨媽's chicken. 

All the veges had wokhei flavour. So delicious. Everyone ate. The house is a little bit less cluttered but still pretty cluttered. 奶奶' s room door was open at one point and Hu'nio went inside. The cats tend to hide when there's a lot of people. 四叔 or 二叔 said that 奶奶' s room is looking a lot better since they've been clearing it out slowly. They have to go through things one by one because who knows what 奶奶 has hidden here or there. They found $27000 once. 

After everyone has gone I asked L&M what the plan is and where they were. So 二叔 ended up offering to take us to the shrimp place near Fengjia, and that also means we can visit the Su'jian budaixi shop near by, and 二叔 can take the big box of shipping back with us. However L&M we're going to a bookshop and we ended up waiting about an hour for them before heading out to pick them up. 

We finally picked them up arpund 4:10pm and decided to head to Si'jian first as they close at 7om and then go shrimping so we don't have to rush. 

Thanks for the ride uncle. We got dropped off. The shop only had 1 person at the time but other people arrived as we were finishing up. I over heard the shop keeper talking to another customer that Pili plans to have a TBF 10th anniversary exhibit in Oct/Nov in Shinkon Mitsukoshi in Taipei. Ahhhhh does this mean I have to try come back at the end of the year?!!?! I want to try make it happen...

When L went to cash up the shop owner tried to take to him and asked if he only watches TBF. I had to hop over and explain he couldn't understand Mandarin. I asked the shopkeeper about the TBF exhibit and he said they get notified about the types of merch they plan to sell and to estimate the need/quantity for it. There will be a July exhibit in Japan first. The info will be announced on official platforms when due. 

After that we headed to the shrimp place and we ended up going to "Golden Hook Shrimp". 

The boss lady was really nice and explained how it work and looked after us. 

We had to wait for a seat to open up at the pool and I went ot the bathroom first. The kid (owner's kid obviously) took me to the toilet when I asked. Thanks kid. L&M followed when I asked them to take a seat to wait lmao. 

After I got back from the toilet three seats did open up at the male prawn pool, which was $50 more but all the prawns are bigger. It's $450 for an hour. We decided to do it. 

The boss? Set the rods for us with the weight and length, and we started fishing. Then I found out to go grab a net and got told to check there's no holes in it. 

There were two guys who were obviously serious about the hobby and explained and gave tips. They were smoking and drank beer. They had their own rods and their own rod cases. He said that once you see the buoy/marker sink or a sudden tug, pull the line and check, if there's a weight you caught one. The bait was those mini shrimps, and you take the head and tail off and use the middle as bait. Vore.... 

The boss lady asked where we were from and I said NZ. She knew we wanted to try experiencing shrimping, lmao, how did she know. 

He also gave the tip to put the bait in the middle of the hook and not the end. 

I ended up catching 3 shrimps, and one each for L & M. 

When I caught one the gentlemen taught me how to hold the shrimp, gently, but the back, and watch the pincer as it really does hurt. You can also hold the pincer arm backwards so they can't pinch you, and then just unhook or pull the line out. Then you place it into the basket net that's hanging in the pool. 

Thank you kind sir. At one point his buddy fished up a regular shrimp and they called out to the boss lady speaking in Taigi about how this is the 公蝦池 and why is there a small one in here lmfao. The boss man went and got him a big shrimp and said "gift/exchange for you" looool. 

At once point I did fish up another shrimp but it fell down as I was pulling it up along the side of the pool. And another one swam by near the surface, you could see it!!! Near the buoy but didn't bite lol. The gentlemen next to me said 路過 lol. 

We fished for an hour and we were pretty much done. I asked the gentlemen if they would like our bait but they were good. 

We returned the rods and then came back for our shrimp which we pulled the basket up and placed on the floor. L was worried they'd escape but the gentlemen said they won't. 

The boss lady came to help up do the grill and asked how many did we catch? We said 5. She went back and and gifted us a few more. A total of 9. Then she went and grabbed a bag of salt (this is a lot of salt) and tipped the shrimp in a basket with the salt and told me to 刷刷  like toss 'em. 

And then she came and lit the frill, and got us the grilling tray. Place the shrimp inside and started grill. She said turn after 15 mins. There were 2 others using teh grill with a lot more shrimp inside. Wow I felt bad watching the shrimp die. 

I cleaned and rinsed out the buckets and trays while I was waiting. 

Once the shrimp was done we moved tables and sat near the entrance for less cigarette smoke, and ate our shrimp. M didn't want any so I had 4 and L and 5.

It was really delicious.... 

The male prawns were harder to de'shell whilst biting so I had to actually peel with my hands. Poo lol. It got really salty at the end due to the amount of over-salt lmfao. Look at the huge bulk bag of salt just sitting near reception. The owner's kids were playing around and riding a bicycle after eating his noodles for dinner. 

After that we got ready to head home. I thanked the boss lady for her hospitality and then L, M and I took a selfie because it's the last time we'll see each other before they head off to Taipei while I stay in Taichung. 

We walked to the Maple Valley bus stop and M commented the bus drivers are brutal... Yes.... And I asked what route did they take on the bus today and they said 304. Ohhhh nooooo it's the same number as the one I took home yesterday - probably the same bus driver!!! 

We split up at the bus stop on Taiwan Bouvelard and I headed into the nearby FamiMart for a bread and a drink since we opted not to have anything else for dinner at the shrimp place (too much smoke for M). 

I got the choc flavour of the raisin one I usually get. It's nice but the raisin one is still the best. And the drink was honey lemon water. A bit sweet... But it'll do after all that salt lol. 

I walked home, it was about 30 mins walk in light rain. 

Then a shower and so tired, I didn't blog, and just went straight to sleep.