Taiwan in December

My end-of-year trip to Taiwan was filled with randomness, bad lucks, nice discoveries and warm and rainy weather. It was probably the weirdest trip I've been too, filled with sweetness, just as much as bitterness. 

The trip started on a bad note. 

We set our alarm to 5AM because the flight was at 9h20, so we'd be there around 6h30 and would have the time to chill at the airport. After missing one flight back home from Japan, for the amazing price of 2.5K$CAD, I always feel reluctant to get to the airport late.

The alarm didn't ring.

I woke up in a wayyyy too relaxed state, and looked at my watch. 7h38AM.

Fuck.

Wake up Heather, run out of the apartment with our stuff - that was luckily ready to go - and wait in line for a cab. We can make it.

7h45.

No cab.

7h50. Maybe we can make it?

Cab comes, we get in, tell him the time of our flight. That he would be the greatest cab driver in the world if he brought us in time.

At 6AM, there is no traffic. It's too far from the 9-5 schedule.

At 8AM, however, it's a different story. 

The cab was silent. I stopped trying to make conversation after the first 20 minutes. Neither of us had had coffee, so talking was the second worldly most dangerous thing to do, after deep sea crab fishing.

We got to the airport at 8h40. 

...And $50 and 5 minutes later, we had ran to the Cathay Pacific Airways counter.

35 minutes to the flight.

They had filled the seats with people on the waiting list.

Had closed the check-in counter.

Fuck.

We were re-directed to a travelling office counter, one floor below, in the huge airport. Had cancelled our flight reservation as they told us, since we haven't gotten to use the reservation.

Casualties assessment: - CAD$600 (cab, flight ticket)... CAD$1,018 if we take into account the yet non reimbursed previous flight ticket we had bought. 

The trip started on a sour note.

But we got on the plane alright, and after the 30 min delay before takeoff, we were finally getting there.

We also, almost missed our flight back to Korea. Isn't that amazingly incredible? I am starting to believe that this year was really the start of my samejae 삼재(三災）* explanations in detail at the end of this entry...

Taiwan was nice though, it was nice to walk along the streets. Temperature was mild and nice, I had a day I took off on my own and walked back the streets I used to walk when I lived in Taipei some four years and half ago. I also got to meet up with a long-time-no-seen friend who gave us some time out of his busy schedule. End of year, is end of year. I never expected to see Taipei so busy.

We told my friend that we wanted to chill in a nice place with drinks. He suggested we go to a nice bar in a big hotel, where his friend works. We get there. And the place has been rented out for an event. (samjae? or New Year?) 

We then get in a cab to go somewhere else. When we get there, the place looks nice. I mean, as nice as an empty coffee shop can look? I was not quite grasping the idea of a coffee shop being a good replacement for a bar, but at this point, I remember thinking: Okay, let's just go with the flow, I don't want to bother anymore, too many badlucks in one day. Coffee shop? Sure. 

But it was not really a coffee shop.

Do you know what a "Speakeasy" is?

I didn't. Those are bars that opened in the States during the time where alcohol was illegal, and people just started running those fake coffee shops that had a hidden room at the back, a hidden bar. 

There was a sections with a heavy wooden wall, and doorbells put in frames. One of the frames on the wall had a hand pointing down, towards a button. That was the doorbell of the Speakeasy. After waiting a moment, the massive wooden wall opened and a white dude dressed in old style bartender clothing gets us inside.

It felt like we were doing something bad, something secret. It felt amazing.

 We got an amazing Thai massage one night. I really liked it. It was funny to have the people giving massage, not able to communicate completely with us (bunch of non-mandarin-speakers) and having a massage that usually requires a minimum of communication to do the moves correctly.

 All in all, I was happy I got a feel of Taiwan after all those years, even if the timing has not been the best, and couple of bad lucks tainted the trip. I am happy I got to try- retry and hang out with my two coworker for Sanbon <3 that I don't get to see as much since I moved to Dongtan.

Next time I go to Taiwan, I want to try a couple of the things we did not get to do during those few days: hot spring, clubbing, foot massage, go back to the hill where you can see all of Taipei, do some KTV, eat more taiwanese food.

The term “samjae” means three years of misfortune, based on zodiac birth signs. In the old days, people attributed samjae to the disasters of war, infectious disease and famine. It also implied calamities such as fire, flood and wind. In modern times, it refers to a recession of our activity, constrained circumstances, and unexpected obstacles. People often say, “Oh my samjae starts from this year, I have to be careful for three years now.” If you know your birth year by zodiac, you can easily figure out in which years you’ll undergo the ill luck. In 2013, those who born in the year of the pig (1959, 1971, 1983, 1995), the rabbit (1951, 1963, 1975, 1987) and the sheep (1955, 1967, 1979, 1991) will be in samjae. The possible hardships are slumps in business, deadlock in financial circulation, being swindled and distress with diseases. People also try to avoid or postpone important events such as weddings.

LinoHandMade

When I was young, my friend's mother had a little store - actually I cannot remember well the place, so I am still unsure whether if it was her house that had many things she made on sale, or an actual store so I apologize if I end up lying without knowing - where she sold tons of really pretty things that she hand made herself. It would go from simple knitted stuff to complicated house decorations made of different material. Being one that likes hand made detailed stuff, seeing the things she made always made me very happy. One day she stopped her store however, probably because while looking at nicely done hand made stuff, the price to pay for all those hours of work is often high enough so that in the end there are not enough buyers in a small town to keep a business like this.

I lost sight of my childhood friend for some ten years after this, so I don't really know what her mother had been up to meanwhile, but when I got in touch with her again, her mother mostly did seasonal hand work: some knit work in the winter and some hand made stuff in the summer, mostly as a hobby.

In the last years however, she started selling on ETSY. What started with the making of handbags, makeup pouches and wallets turned into crochet work key holders, knitted work and now fine jewelry. I really like her work a lot and whenever I have a crush on one of them I buy it from her. I did so with a hand knit neck warmer earlier this year, and last week I got a pair of earrings.

My childhood friend and I met up last week to grab breakfast in a restaurant and she brought me the earrings - instead of having to wait after the mail :P. The things her mother makes are always made with such care and even the wrapping is really pretty. I strongly encourage you guys to go see her work and let yourself be tempted if something in there gets your attention!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Linohandmade

There is a place in my hometown, a place we call "La Ressourcerie", where everyone can bring stuff they don't use anymore. Anything, I mean anything, is fine. Upon receiving the used stuff, the place picks out what is still fine and usable, cleans or restore it to the best they can, and sell them at really really cheap prices. This place is technically meant to be used by people without much money, but is open to anyone. When I left for Montreal for University, I got all my kitchen ware from there. I got a pretty white/cream set with light green and brown stripes. The wholes set included some 9 cups, 4-5 small plates, 8 large plates, 10 bowls all in good shape. All this for $11.

While most of the stuff they have is quite old, me and my mother really enjoy going there in the hope of finding some cute treasure. The other day, my mom brought back a baby size white wicker rocking chair matching the desk and chair I have in my bedroom and when I came back from work, I found out that my huge teddy bear now had a seat - I might upload a picture of the chair sometime later...

Last Wednesday thus, I found a really pretty milk holder in japanese porcelain with a very detailes drawing on the side and golden lines. Isn't it really pretty? I just love finding this kind of little surprise. It was $1 for the set with the little plate.

On our way back from the Ressourcerie, my mother and I stopped by a bookstore and I bought a book by Christian Dior. While I am biaised by all that concerns brands I like, what attracted me first was the book itself, an old style fabric covered neat grey book with a mirror and a bow engraved in silver color. I read a couple of lines and I was seduced by the author's pen: simple, straight forward with a knack of sarcasm. While the books is by no means great literature, it picked my curiosity so I got it, regardless if the price, that I judge a bit expensive for a non-translated work (about $40). When I am done I might do a review on it if it is worth it...

 While Christmas is over since a while already, we never had the time to open our new year surprise socks. Yesterday, after a supper with my brother and his little family, we all got our gifts and mine was a very detailed pretty Camée, in delicate pink tones and gold casting. It can either turn into a brooch, by folding the chain loop down, or into a pendant. I love it so much!!!!

 

January Shopping

The other day I had an awesome dessert <3 My aunty made some hm.... how would I call this. It's like a pickled apple recipe, save that it's a bit like apple jelly... but with whole baby apples. Basically it's got nothing to do with pickles. Save the fact they're put in similar pots. Oh well. 

We had those with Coaticook's maple ice cream - a delightful ice cream, one of the only brand of ice cream we can buy that is actually made with 'milk' and 'cream' instead of powdered milk and water (IMO, we are stupid to make ice cream with the transformed product of the milk we sell to the US, and that they sell it back to us in powder, for cheaper: I mean, where's the logic in that? I don't blame the US for this, especially if Canadian companies are too stupid to take advantage of our rich milk production right here in our own country... really, some tings really don't make sense).

The mix of sweetened apples with the maple ice cream was quite too sweet, so we ate it with a delicious old cheddar. Really, people should all know about the bliss of mixing sweet and salty things. Not trying it is, IMO, missing out on an important blissful pleasure of the senses.

My boss is, with two other people, starting to build a food catering (?) - I'll need some feed-back on this term, I do not know if this one is accurate. It is basically what we call "Traiteur d'alimentation" in French, meaning we provide prepared meals to events and special occasions. We had a very busy Christmas time at Bistro Jezz, so the preparation took long enough to put itself together, but now the restaurant has its own food catering cart, with images of the awesomeness of our food on it. It's all shiny and really well made - refrigerated compartments, drawers and very easy to use to transport the various plates 

 I love how much energy my boss has, putting in place all sorts of projects. She is full of ideas and I respect her straightforwardness - is that a word? Anyways. I am happy of all the things she brings to my hometown, we really had a need for this kind of business. Plus, the food she makes is pure bliss. Do I use this word too much?

My mother and I are still waiting for the missing material we need to make frills, so while waiting for a call from the store we put together a piece of cork to practice basic points and get aquainted with the concept of working with those small bobbins. It's interesting how you pin up the thread all along the work. I still cannot picture how to use these to make flowers, fruits, and detailes frills, but I feel like I am on the right way teh he...

Talking about warm drinks I'll talk about coffee. Coffee is a monster. Coffee will, in time rule the world, I am sure. Coffee is probably worse than most drugs and addictions, for it is a recognized 'necessary good', and people don't see it as what it really is: a monster. 

Try not to take coffee for a day when you are used to drinking it everyday. You know what I mean. You know, that stupid headache you don't know where it's from? Yeah, exactly. Get my drift? 

Coffee is evil. 

Now that we are clear on this point... I went to have a cappuccino with my mommy this afternoon at a bakery close to my place. In the cold weather, the bakery was a good compromise between the really close Abstracto - where I think there is not enough light to go during the day - and the Chocolaterie le Gisement - much farther away, and full of too sweet stuff for the line :P. So we went to have a coffee, bringing a book, but in the end we just talked and the reading period that was planned did not happen. There will be other times.

La Pâtisserie Saint-Honoré has been open here for quite some time now, and it has awesome fresh breads and cute small cake, plus a variety of sweet delicacies and home-made jams. The owner of the bakery, a French guy from Alsace, earned the title of 'Sir' from the French Embassy last fall, for the extent of his work here and what he brought from his country to Quebec.

I love the colors of the Bakery/restaurant - here is a little screenshot of the place, sadly enough,
they did not have many cakes in the display today, as they don't make too many of them in advance

I went to do some shopping today, to look for small gifts to send to some friends living away from here - like, everyone I know, basically - but whose birthday are close, or who I'd told I'd send them gifts for Xmas and the like. I stopped at a kid toy shop I love particularly, owned my a friend of my brother. I am a big baby basically. But there is this one brand of dolls that I love, that has scented dolls, with different ethnicities - they even have read-heads :3... I think they did not need to... ha ha, but that must be why they got so many prices: they show love where other people show hatred :). I love the middle one <3 so cuuuuute the baby asian :)

So here is my accomplishment of the day! I put all the things together and will go post them tomorrow. I still have to Xmas cards to answer as well. But my mom has some as well so I'll write them when she does, so we can have tea together at the same time. Me loves spending time with mommy. Right now she is putting up wallpaper upstairs in the room beside my bedroom with my daddy. I'll take some pictures when we finish it and put the decoration altogether.

Week end Synthesis...

Last weekend (well on Friday actually) we had the King's day.... have no clue on how you English peop call this day, but that's the day the Arab kings came upon the lil Jesus' bed after his birth. The celebrations we have for Christmas are all christianity-related, so let's embrace it. Whatever. While I am not a believer, I like this day a lot, since we used to bake a cake at home, and put a dry bean or something, in the mix before baking it. The person who'd get the piece of cake with it would become the 'king/queen' of the day. Dunno if it was my parents' doing, or just me being lucky, but I actually have good memories of getting quite often the said bean. then people'd have to oblige to my every wish for the day. I guess this is why we always had this cake close to going to bed... ha ha parent's cunning ways should never be underestimated. 

Well. I personally would never put up with myself as a queen for a day, especially as a kid. 

I was a monster.

A few years ago I learned that in French bakeries they actually use fine porcelain figurines that they put inside their almond paste pastries. It's much more interesting to keep those than to keep beans, if you want my opinion. When I was living in Montreal I bought one, and ate the whole thing with my best friend, just to have the thing, and it ended up being the leg/arm-less top half of a woman body wearing a corset. That was quite depressing... I personally had hoped I'd get a cute strawberry cupcake, like they had as display figures in the store. My bad. 

Anyways, point is that this year, we ordered 4 of those tarts in Bistro Jezz for the occasion, and had three couples in a row getting the figurines. We gave them golden paper crowns to wear - looking back now, I wish I had taken a picture of those people with the figurine and the crown. that would have been a nice memory - and let them keep the figurine. Sadly, a couple forgot it, so we kept it at the restaurant. A cute baker-lady and her fresh bread. 

I add up also, two desserts of the week, a chocolate génoise with chocolate mousse, maple and strawberry sauces and a cheesecake with a raspberry mousse and mint leaves. The first, I tried, it was delicious. the latter, I missed the opportunity to taste. I am sure it must have been great... *sobs*

This weekend was the last few days my parents were away, so I took most of my time cleaning the second floor - where my bedroom is - and did it like a bauss :) I actually hung curtains I had made last year for my apartment, and it helped a great deal with the look of the bathroom. I am quite happy with what I ended up, even in this very old-school in-need-of-retuning-bathroom. 

My mother and I took hours to make three curtains similar to this one. I am very picky you know, so just choosing the colors and patterns to use was quite a big deal ha ha. But I love the result. It's cute, without being too over the top.

 On Monday, my boss had an awesome menu for the lunch. Lacquered turkey - Quebec turkey - in maple sirup sauce, sweet potato chips, pecan confits, veggies and sour cream. Bliss. Literally. Now you know why I did not take the cheese cake. There was no more space in my stomac after this, especially since, waking up pretty late, this had been my breakfast...

La Rose des Vents

Picture with Santa <3

I had my Christmas Staff Party yesterday, with 10 people from my workplace. Some 2 or 3 of them could not come, and the kids washing dishes did not come either. We went to bowling around 3P.M. and had quite a lot of fun, being the only ones - plus one little family - in the entire place. I usually suck at this sort of stuff, lacking quite the strength to throw the balls like people normally do - I basically aims the best I can, and let the ball roll slowly and happily down the alley. My usual score is around 80-90. Probably the most I can ever get in bowling. We were not really good anyways, so I was actually in the high average. 

What was funny enough is that on the television showing the scores, there was also something that calculated the km/hr of each throw, which I had never had the occasion of using. The average speed was arouns, I would say, 17km/hr, which is quite fast IMO. One of the girl cooks had easy 25km/hr, beating the guys often by far.

Here, though, I must have broken records. My average was around 6km/hr :) Ain't I a sweet weak little person? Now I do not wonder why I never beat anyone with strength, there is no way I can.

After the bowling, that was more like a get together and chilling in the afternoon without the stress of work, we went to a Fine Cuisine restaurant calles La Rose des Vents to get a Christmas dinner. It was my first time going so I'll take the time to make a review. Ever since I tried The Bistro Jezz, I felt like all the other 'fine' restaurants around town were not going to be much impressive (Afterall, the place I work at actually has me saying it makes the best Western food I ever ate in my life, and I believe I've tried quite my lot of different places). I had heard of La Rose des Vents a couple of time without having gone, since it could be classified as more or less equal in quality with Bistro Jezz food-wise. At least that's what people say about it. The very fact that the Rose des Vent actually chose to have it's Christmas party at our place, and us at theirs could explain that we both have around the same standards. Anyways, yesterday, I got to try it myself. 

God it feels so good, in restauration, to actually be the ones to be served!!!

First impression: a cozy little restaurant, with probably a capacity of 20 people maximum, nice floral pattern on an old school wooden bar, big wooden chairs and white table cloth. The decoration is really sweet, much more my style than Bistro Jezz, that has more of a modern look (you can see the picture on the website I liked to, as mine did not turn out quite as well in the feeble lighting of yesterday night). We were the only customers, most people having already had their Christmas party before the Holidays, and the fact that the place is quite small. There is a big blackboard on the side of the room, with a listing of the day's menu, starters, main dishes, and Trou Normand.

After we settle down with alcohol, the chef (judging from the accent, French, but I did not get to ask where from) explains us everything in the menu in detail, from the ingredients, to the cooking methods not forgetting to mention why he chose one ingredient instead of another, and the intention of each of them. Just listening to the explanation had me gain 3 pounds I am sure. Everything seemed really good, especially the starters. There were two of them that got my attention in particular: Duo de Foie Gras and a Pâte feuilletée of regional goat cheese. I hesitated for a long time whether if I should not actually take two appetizers, then the onion soup offered before the main dish comes, and end up with a dessert - the latter being written on a separate little blackboard on the other side of the room. I ended up choosing a cranberry goose main dish, served with mashed potatoes seasoned with chestnuts. 

Verdict:

After the first impression, we had an awesome red wine Les Charmes - I'll have to look up for the whole name later... - and I took the Foie Gras Starter. It was pure bliss. Served with a Spice Bread - like those gingerbread men - each bite was like an explosion of flavor. People who took my second choice, the goat cheese one, said about the same thing. I can say I was anticipating the main dish more and more.

Goat Cheese Starter - I apologize for the bad quality of the picture, iPhone is not meant to take pictures underexposed
Ironically, I haven't taken a picture of my Foie Gras starter, I was too busy eating it.... Shame on me I suppose...

Thing is, the main dish was really insipid. The meat was cooked quite fine, the plates looked good and the ingredients were all nice and all, but there was literally no taste. I was really sad I did not stick to my first ideas, the two appetizers. A coworker and I had planned on sharing our plates, which we did (she got a beef tenderloin), with the same sad result. We had to come face to face with reality, the food was tasteless. 

Goose mean with Cranberry sauce and chestnuts potatoes

This is why I ended up taking a dessert. I felt like I had to finish with a positive overview of the place so I wanted to give it a last chance. My boss ordered three big plates of various cheeses, that were really good. Among them one of my personal favorite, the Cendrillon, which we had at Christmas at my brother's. I took a chocolate mousse and praline on a layer of crispy cookie served with red berry sauce. The dessert was just as blissful as the starters, luckily. This, IMO, saved the day. 

The quality of this picture got surprisingly much better than the other photos. lucky

So my suggestion is, if one needs to go at La Rose des Vents - and don't misunderstand, I absolutely recommend it - he should take the starters that appeal to him most, maybe two of them, instead of getting the more expensive and not tasty enough main dish. To end the evening in fashion, let him take the Trou Normand, of which there is a good selection, my personal favorite being the one with apple sherbet (really tasty, with little peel of apples in it), cheese and a dessert. They have a very big and good selection of wine, alcohol and cocktails for amateurs too. 

Having fun in between services....

Playmobil, Oh Dear Childhood Friend....

Bling Princess

Bling Princess - Backview

Flower Princess

Flower Princess Backview

My friend gave me a Surprise Playmobil bag for Christmas! <3 I was lucky enough to get the prettiest princess one. I feel so blessed. ha ha ha, since I could have gotten pretty much anything in all the weird stuff they had. The gift I recieved from my friend is actually the second one, the "Flower Princess" as I call her. She is the one I made by following the model of the bag. Later on that day, others of my friends were jealous of my awesome gift, so she went to the store and brought back some more for everyone. 

We were with a guy friend who picked out the exact same princess, and was quite sad about it so I swapped it with my new one: a redhead holding a stereo... I feel like we both got lucky out of that swapping. I personally figured that having two princesses would look much better in my bedroom than having a redhead punk with her stereo.... I decided to decorate the second princess otherwise however, since it would have been too boring. I personally like my creation better teh he :3

I went to the pharmacy today and bought some make-up brushes and highlights, plus nail polish items. My nails have been in bad shape for the past few months, which is the first time it happens to me - and to my mother as well, oddly, so I guess it's one of my new polish that we might both have used, that was of bad quality. Thus, I decided to get a base coat to try to put both our nails in shape. I also got one of those crackling color. Never figured out if I liked or not, so I finally decided to get one and try it. Why not anyways?

There is a brand store that is closing, for the owner is going to a formation in Paris and will be in all sorts of important fashion programs and TV shows, so she's leaving for good. Good for her too. But I'll be sad her store'll be gone. At least for now I get big discounts on her stuff :3

Silk and Cashemere Lacoste shirt $97.50

BB Dakota Cashemere and whool large sweater $90

Eve Gravel dress (looks awesome when worn) - $79

This was another gift from my friend who gave me the playmobil doll: cute bow <3