A step forward

Oct 23rd~ the day I was born. 28 years of my life has gone by in a blink, thanks to friends who have reminded me to celebrate my final single B-day!

I still remember the time when I totally enjoyed being the bday gal, sharing the complimentary stucchi's ice-cream, discounts from enjoying a lovely meal @ different restaurants each year! The year when I hit 25, having a year's working experience, feeling uncertain about life, lack of skills even with a BA/MA, working to pay monthly bills..

Sounds like the "quarter life crisis" most 25 year olds felt. My friends felt it, we all felt it and 3 years have passed, no one mentioned it lately, Feelings of turning older doesn't seem such big of a deal once we've passed the quarter of our lives. Hooray to the passing of the quarter life crisis and welcoming glamorous 30's~!

Catching Up!

wink wink* I'm finally catching up with October! A visit to Mantou's new home in Taipei probably made her day, as she continued bumping her head and butt towards us~ She's grown up & weighs 20kg! Her STRONG affection can be bruising if you're not careful but we love her no matter how many times she pounced on us..
Leaving Mantou in her cage & a bowlful of dinner, we visited the PIXAR exhibit in the evening, hopefully with less crowd. fingers crossed!

It was still crowded, but we made it!

Along came Sunny, who bought more PIXAR souvenirs than any of us.

it was till 9pm when we had our dinner~~ and Along came John

Late night @ Coldstone's,

the strawberry mania wasn't as sour as we appear to look

till then~ i'll be off to attend Koo's wedding in S'pore this weekend~

Bye Sept, Hello October!

October is one of my favorites, with me officially growing older and with halloween around the corner. I wish it's a lot cooler, leaves turning yellow to red... well not in Taiwan. Unfortunately, Mooncake festival and Taiwan's National day falls on Saturdays this year~

Last bits of Sept includes:

Babysitting~ Cliff's cute little niece

A good old chat over english tea~

International Association for Facilitators 2009

IAF conference Aug 28-31, ended more than a month ago and it's taken me a while writing about some interesting experiences, before I forget.
My entire work-team, including our supervisor attended the conference. Familiar faces were seen from last years Chinese Facilitators Workshop and my cousin, Olivia attended the conference, which is a great time for us to catch up in between tea-breaks.

Anyway, this year's conference was definitely more internationally oriented- with participants from Netherlands, Scotland, Singapore, Korea, China, Hong Kong, US..etc. Besides learning more on facilitation processes, hearing participants share their work on facilitation in their country was rewarding.

It's funny how a number of individuals, particularly one who was so shocked that I can speak Mandarin fluently...right when I offered him a pair of chopsticks. He thought I was hmmm a foreigner. And a number of people felt that I have a strange mandarin accent. So, I'm a minority in Taiwan where I currently reside, a minority when I lived in Sinpore and also a minority when I lived in the states.. I'm minority everywhere and I'm gradually accepting the fact.

Voom voom! ~LEV test-run

After 4 intense days of the International Asian facilitator conference, getting out of bed for work was tough! At least I get to save 2 days of vacation for later~ Besides getting back to report writing, reflections after the conference...meetings.. etc. I spent 30 mins driving- our electric-mini -car around our Research campus! Scooter riders, car/bus drivers, pedestrains smiled and waved at me as I drove around... Although it got bumpy on the roads, i had loads of fun, and wouldn't it be lovely to drive it around the city?!

Mantou's Road Trip

A 1.5 hour road trip to Taipei turned out just fine~ although she poked her head left & right by my ear, breathing hard by my face, ripped her pampers off her butt, and tore it into pieces... She managed well while her sister Jasmine drove carefully via the highway.
Finally, this is one in the 20 photos i took that isn't blurry~

MOMA meets MOCA

From sending Pnoodle to the pet salon, to visiting possible wedding locations to watching UP in 3D, to Charlotte's wedding engagement. And finally to MOCA, Museum Of Contemporary Arts in Taipei for a calligraphy exhibit From X-O (from "Nothing-ness" to the creation of "something"). On a smaller scale compared to MOMA, I flew in love with the red-brick building. Tickets to the exhibit was sponsored by Creativity Lab, as it is an interactive exhibit with a blend of technology and cultural traditions.

無- X- "Nothingness"-
Horizontal ink-line drawn of 無 on the seat is represented by the wooden back of the chairLooking for a projection of calligraphy words on the paper fans It was quite a sight with a large pool of "ink pad" and people practising the art of calligraphypapa writing patiently