blue rebel

Blue looks a lot less absurd on my fingernails than I would have expected. I would most definitely not have purchased this particular nail varnish if the salesman had not thrown words like "limited edition" and "last bottle for sale in the entire nation" at me. I am a sucker for wanting to feel special.

& there's nothing much like ending the day with a steaming fresh pot of Japanese green tea, the way the ladies in Paris do!

home

There's a lot of things I will miss about this place I call home. From the dirty stalls of the market that seem to forever reek of stinky tofu fermentation to the tropical fruits that are swollen with a sugary juice that can only be produced by the brilliant minds of the agriculturalists here. At home I am surrounded by my entire collection of furry plushies that I tearfully left behind during my move to college; a collection contained with youth, innocence and faint memories of boys and middle school cafeteria dances.

Although I have accumulated many things in my life time, few make it to the storage systems of my room but even fewer make it to the top shelf of my bookshelf. The pencil sharpener shaped like a yellow castle was a gift my dad brought home from a business trip when I was 5. Every pencil (whether colored or not) I have dulled since I was 5 have seen the inners of that castle. The trophy marks one of my greatest childhood achievements; 4th place in a chess tournament. And that chicken, a gift from Andy for babysitting Chicken, his pet rooster, for two weeks. It's my earthquake indicator. Every time I see the wobble of the chicken, I find the nearest desk in sight to hide under. I earned it though. Not only did his pet chicken bite then twist the fat on my thigh, but the cops came to look for the queer family that kept a chicken hostage on a city balcony.

This is Chicken (oh how badly I wanted to slay then fry him when it crowed at 4am every morning):

1am shake shack craving

Just yet another odd craving I have at 1:00am in the morning. A SHAKE SHACK burger. Just look at that cheeeeeeese oozing out. Oh gosh, how I love cheese. Whether it be parmesan, cheddar, feta, gouda, mozzarella... But most definitely the kind that melts and runs when placed in a oven of 200 degrees.

But seriously, the burger; the tender pink of the meat. And the gentle creasing of the soft bun as it gives way to the firm grip on the burger. This is too much.

the taste of an old memory

For lunch, my dad brought back these xiao-long-bao on his way home from his golf game. I ate them all despite the unfortunate fact that they are not regular xiao-long-bao that are 1 inch in diameter. No, they are  basically bao-zhi, very delicious ones. Which reminds me of a joke. 

Must be read with a stereotypical Asian accent. Hehe. Why didn't the man-tou cry when the bao-zhi broke up with it? Because it has no fillings!

Anyway, when my dad handed me the paper box that was damp with evaporated heat, he told me that every time he eats these buns, it reminds him of the time way back in the day, when he had his first job. On his way to work, riding his old and beat up scooter, he would stop by a stand that sold these xiao-long-bao and, ten of these buns and eat them on the trip. So as I ate all five of the buns my dad brought home, I couldn't stop thinking that this is what his past must taste like.

I, however, spent much of my break kicking my feet up onto the desk and watching TV shows on my laptop till I see a hint of dawn. Yesterday night while I was engaging myself in such shenanigans, I couldn't stop staring at my toenails that were somehow spotlighted by the only light on in the room, my desk lamp. Beat and cracked from sports and flip-flops; I decided to get a pedicure.

So yes, now they're perfectly shaped and painted with a color that seems to be the result when Red knocks-up a Metallic Fuchsia. I find it very pretty. Reminiscing back to my first two bottles of nail polish; one was red and the other green, both from Wet 'n Wild. It was obviously Christmas and I was 6. Good times.

i love thai town

{watercrest cooked in shrimp sauce}

{green curry with coconut chicken}

{shrimp pancakes}

{lemon steamed fish}

{mo-mo-zha-zha}

E brought me here, which explains why I got to order all my favorite dishes. Hehe. Some might think 6 dishes (including dessert) is much too much for two people. But nope. Not when it comes to us. And not when we come here. Much too delicious.

moca

{picture from bikehugger.com}

I went to Taipei's Museum of Contemporary art today. Ai Wei Wei had an exhibition at the time and I guess you can say, I enjoyed it. The last one I went to was the Guggenheim in New York City and that was really good. Ai Wei Wei had a piece, Forever Bicycles, a tower of 1000 bicycles that represents the rapid change of China's social change. However, it seemed to cause the entire museum to be filled with the odd stench of new tires. And of course, the museum put up a sign to confirm the safety of the smell. The rest of the museum unfortunately, exhibited things that were not so much my interest, as it was my mom's.

You can't force your own shoes on someone else's feet.

white to blue

White gets a little bland sometimes. Today I paid B&Q a visit and purchased two buckets of paint. I'm going to have a little bit of DIY fun and alter my white wall to a more fabulous Tiffany blue. I've already taped down the edges but wil have to wait calmly until tomorrow morning at least before I move the furniture so I don't wake the old man living a floor beneath me with the squeaks and creaks of heavy desks and drawers.

While my mother decided to spend ages looking at china and silverware, I went to the LA-Z-BOY section and hunted down the most expensive recliner they had on display. Ahhh... I don't care what my future husband says, I'm definitely getting one of these for my future home. I swear the padding must be made of clouds.