Day 2 in Taipei 2013

I certainly have a sense of being at home in Taipei. A lot of familiar things bringing smiles to my face. :)
Breakfast at Taipei Hero House was really value for money. It is mainly Taiwanese style, Chinese dishes and with soya bean milk, buns (mantou) and porridge. We didn't eat too much because we would be getting a treat for lunch lol.

After breakfast, we browsed at the 7-11 store in the hotel. There are so many different variety of drinks and food as compared to Singapore's 7-11 stores. It is so much more interesting here. :)

After breakfast, my mother's youngest sister brought her second daughter over for a "hello" as she couldn;t make it for dinner last night. It is really nice of them to take the trouble to do that. :)

We slowly made our way to our lunch venue. My mother's friend treated us at Jen Dow Vegetarian Restaurant. It is buffet style and it is a very popular restaurant! I love the desserts lol. Although it was vegetarian food, we felt really satisfied and full. :)

After lunch at 2pm, we took the MRT to Tamshui Old Street. We met another old friend of my mother's and she accompanied us to the Tamshui Old Street. There are many exciting shops at the Tamshui Old Street as well as food vendors selling interesting food. Unfortunately we didn't try any food as we were still trying to digest our lunch!

Our favourite Owl store :)

A temple along Tamshui Old Street

At 6pm, we made our way to our dinner venue. My uncle was giving us a treat and it was a special occasion too as his three out of four children happened to be in Taipei currently. We were shocked to find out it was buffet again! Our poor stomachs! :P There is a good mix of Western and Asian dishes.

An enormous oyster! A table spoon is placed next to it for comparison. I didn't dare to dare it.

After dinner, we went to my uncle' place for a short while. I chatted with my cousins as I last saw them many years ago, ranging from 12 years to 21 years ago lol. Plenty of laughter. We, the cousins, took pictures with one another and our children also took a photo together lol. :)

By the time we reached our hotel, it was past 10pm. With so much food in our stomach, none of us could sleep lol. :P

Updated 12:38am, 8 June 2013
We experienced earthquake tremors. An earthquake happened in Hualien on a scale of 6.2. Juliane was fast asleep so she didn't feel it. Marieann was playing on the iPad and she didn't feel it. I didn't know what was going on except wondering to myself why are the "Make up the room" sign rattling against the door and the cloth hangers banging together in the closet. Thought for a moment I have a visitor from the other realm haha. :P Only my mother was alert. She was in bed and she at once said we are experiencing an earthquake! What an end to the day.

Tremors

I felt the tremors of the earthquake(s) in Aceh, Indonesia. I was at home in the early afternoon after my counselling. I was seated on my bed and playing my iPad when I felt this shaking and felt dizzy too. At first, I thought I was experiencing vertigo! Then I noticed my blinds were rattling slightly. It lasted for a minute or so. I realised I must have felt the tremors of an earthquake.
True enough, the earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia was reported in the 6.30pm news. I hope there is not much damage and casualties...

I Feel the Earth Move under My Feet...

"I feel the Earth move under my feet!"
No, I am not singing to the song of Martika. I literally felt the Earth moved under my feet. I felt an earthquake this evening at about 7:15pm. It lasted for at least 4-5 minutes. The tremors we felt were from an earthquake in Indonesia measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale.

I was sitting down to have my dinner when I started to feel giddy, kind of like having vertigo. Then I noticed that various objects in my flat were moving, like the chandeliers moving to and fro, my mother's antiques in her display cabinet shaking, the plants "trembling", our Chinese cabinets' handles "clanking" away. The chair I was seated on was moving ever so slightly and the floor was shaking too. Lol. I told the girls that we were experiencing an earthquake. But they couldn't feel the shaking at all. They are probably too young or not sensitive enough to feel the shaking sensation. But they could see the things moving around in the flat. Lol.

Once a teacher, always a teacher, I immediately seized this golden opportunity to explain to the girls what was happening and the concept of an earthquake. I also showed them pictures of the effects of earthquake such as shaking and ground rupture, fires, landslides and avalanches, and tsunamis. (Ah, the wonder of Internet.) They seemed to understand pretty well. Smart girls. Lol. I think they deserve some praise for their quick understanding. Hahaha.

This is not my first time experiencing an earthquake. I don't mean just feeling the tremors of an earthquake that is happening in a neighbouring country. I experienced my first real earthquake when I was in Taipei, Taiwan during my yearly visits to see my mother's family. I think I was in Secondary 1 or 2. It was pretty scary that time. The whole bed was literally shaking away. My first thought, however, was not that of an earthquake but that of a scene from 'The Exorcist' where Linda Blair's bed was shaking because of demonic presence. Hahaha. Yes, I watch too many horror movies. Lol. Anyway, that was a learning experience for me.

"I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you're around" (I Feel The Earth Move lyrics)

Oh dear, now the song is stuck in my head. Hahaha.