I tugged the bunch of keys out of my pocket as I walked towards the lift lobby underneath my block, fiddling with it until I got the correct one for my letterbox. I opened it up, secretly hoping to see letters written to me by my admirers.

Oh, bills again.

Slammed the door shut and made my way to the staircase at the other end of the void deck. Did I lock the letterbox? Did I lock the letterbox? The question kept replaying in my mind, probing for an answer which I wasn’t able to give confidently. Climbed the stairs up to the second storey, where my unit was.

Did I lock the letterbox? It kept flashing loudly in my mind, demanding an answer after I stepped into my house. Heck, I decided to make my way down again only to find my letterbox securely bolted.

---

Ever had this experience of doing something and then forgetting about it just moments later? That was something that I had to struggle with for the past few years, especially when it comes to locking something - like my door to my house and the letterbox.

I would always have to walk back just to clear that doubt off the back of my mind after moving away. I knew I did lock the door, but was it properly locked? And this is getting to be a pain in the ass for me. Until one day, I came across this article on the net which offered a helpful solution for my issues.

The trick was simple, in order to force your mind to remember things, you just have to say it out loud after you’ve completed the task. So, after locking the letterbox, I would just say out loud to myself - “locked”.

Once again, the question would start flashing brightly in my head, and I would then be able to confidently answer myself that I’ve locked it because the memory of me saying “locked” is still glowing in my head.

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This post is continued from Hello Taipei #8.

I wasn't really fascinated by the sea view of Tamsui back then since I was still serving my National Service in the Navy and the sea view reminded me of work.

A video of the view around Tamsui.

There were many variety of games over here and we were playing quite a lot of games.

Wasn't really interested with the games though since I'm a grown man - all I want interested in was the food and a stall caught my eye.

Roasts the bird's egg. The stall owner probably translated it directly with Google Translate or something. What a wrong name.

But name doesn't matter, it's the food that matters most. I mentioned about the Iron Eggs in the previous post but I still like the original best. Look at this, I bought many sticks from the stall owner because it was too good.

Took the train back after that and was very impressed with their public transport system. The public queued up in an orderly manner, no one was fighting for seats and people offered their seats to my elderly grandmother.

If you're feeling unwell, you can also request for such a sticker at the station so that people can offer their seats to you. I wonder if anyone has abused this system though.

Beautiful scenery on the train journey back to Ximending.

It rained on our last night in Taipei, the weather was rather erratic that night. The rain came in intervals. It was okay for 30 minutes before it started pouring again for the next 30 minutes and the whole cycle repeats.

Overall, it's a good place and I've enjoyed the stay there. I don't mind coming back here again for another holiday.

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The band score for my IELTS was released today. I was given a grading of 7.5, meeting the minimum criteria of 6 which I needed for the course I'm applying for.

If everything goes to plan, I will be starting school on May 21. A new season in life has just begun.

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This post is continued from Hello Taipei #7.

The next morning, we made our way down to 淡水區 (Tamsui District) on the metro. The one thing I love about the subways are the way people actually queue up to board the train.

Look at the "lanes marking" on the floor. Unlike here in Singapore, so messy during peak hours. They even have a staff placed there to signal when the train is arriving (which Singapore recently implemented).

After the pretty long train journey, we finally arrived at Tamsui.

If you're not blind or/and stupid, you should be able to tell Tamsui is located at the costal region of Taipei.

We were there early in the morning and the shops were just beginning to start their business for the day. Weather was pretty hot but it wasn't enough to stop me from exploring a new place.

Being in Tamsui is like going back in time to your childhood. Lots of toys and games to be played. I will go more and that later but in the meantime, check out what I've found.

I used to have one of this when I was very much younger and this was one of the designs I remembered. Old times. Since it was made of styrofoam, it wasn't very durable but at least it lasted a decent amount of throws.

One of the famous food in Tamsui is their 鐵蛋 (Iron Egg).

Lots of flavour to suit your taste. These are actually quail eggs and the reason why they're called Iron Eggs because it's quite hard. I didn't like it though.

In Tamsui, there are also a lot of game booths with prizes to be won.

That is why I said, it's a time machine back to your childhood. Don't expect prizes like your Playstations or iPods here, childhood games have childhood prizes like these.

My grandmother had a lot of fun playing this game and she was pretty good at it too.

More of Tamsui to be continued in the next post.

Update: Up next, Hello Taipei #9.

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The rain fell heavily as I left the office today. I took small steps because I didn't want my shoes to be wet from the rain puddles. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this fine young lady taking quick but steady strides in the heavy rain.

She was so vulnerable out there alone and she looked like she could need the help of an equivalently fine young gentlemen like me. I quickly advanced towards her, ignoring the puddles of rain I was previously trying to avoid on the floor.

Me: Hey, want to share the umbrella?
Her: No, sorry!

Her answer took me by surprise. How could she reject me like that? Though her umbrella might be small, it was definitely enough to include me in it. I walked away carrying the pain of this world, all drenched from head to toe because someone is not willing to share her umbrella with me.

This is a fictional story and under no circumstances I would walk up to a lady and get her to share her umbrella with me. I'm just bored.

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Little Talk: I wasn't able to post about my Taipei trip last year because my PC motherboard was fried and all my Taipei photos are in it. Well, it's back now.

This post is continued from Hello Taipei #6.

So, after Taipei 101, we made our way back to the hotel which is around the area of Ximending.

I continued walking around Ximending while the rest of my family headed back to the hotel for a short break. I don't really like Ximending as most of the shops there sells pretty much the same stuffs and there's so many "lanes" to explore.

Went back to the hotel after that and the night stars soon filled the sky. It's time for night market again. This time, Raohe Street Night Market.

It was drizzling slightly but it didn't dampen our mood for it. What I love about Night Markets in Taipei are the wide variety of food.

This is known as 魯味 (Lu Wei). It's like the Taiwan version of Lok Lok in Malaysia.

So you just take whatever you want and put them in this metal bowl and the stall owner will prepare the food for you.

Sorry for the lack of text in this post, here's a photo of a very nice bakery in Taipei to make up for it.

Until next time!

Update: Up next, Hello Taipei #8.

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Little Talk: This was supposed to be up on April's Fool Day but I was too tired to post it.

This is a video of Amos Ang sleeping. The video might take awhile to load so hang on...

The reason why he's still not moving in this video is because he's sleeping.

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While I was preparing to leave my workplace at 5.30pm today, I could see droplets of rain when I looked out the glass panel. It started getting heavier as I walked towards the glass panel just to make sure my eyes wasn't playing tricks on me.

The confirmation came when a colleague of mine who was sitting near the glass panel told me it's raining and offered me his umbrella since he has his own transport arranged. I politely declined and decided that I should wait for the rain to stop.

At 5.45pm, the rain started hitting even harder and there wasn't any signs telling me it's intending to stop anytime soon. Lightning and thunder followed soon after. I continued waiting patiently in the office.

Fifteen minutes later, the onslaught of rain was irritating me. I have no intentions of staying back in the office for this long. I walked over to that colleague and asked if I could borrow his umbrella. He handed it to me and I could finally leave the workplace.

The rain is an asshole, so is my decision-making skills.

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There's on article on The Sunday Times today which talks about Kim Choo Kueh Chang.

I've been to the shop once back in 2010 when I went for my own mini tour in Singapore and I was reminded by the warmth of Mdm Lee Kim Choo and the really good dumplings which I ate in the shop.

It's really heartening to read about her story, how she braved through thick and thin to become who she is today. She even wanted to commit suicide twice but she had to think about her children.

There is something to take away from her story. The dark days will end no matter how rough the patch you're going through, just persevere on.

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I'm slowly getting accustomed to my new lifestyle after I completed my National Service slightly more than three months ago.

My new lifestyle includes the following activities:

• Waking up early.
• Spend rest of the day at work.
• Go for a run after work (on days when I'm not lazy).
• Have dinner while watching The Big Bang Theory.
• Manage the day's finance with Quicken.
• Sleeping early.

If I'm lucky, I might be able to add in one or two activities to further enhance my social and mental well-being.

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Little Talk: I need to fix up the desktop in my room which has the photos from my Taiwan trip which I've yet to upload.

Back at the start of the year, I put up a six months plan for myself. Let's see how it's going so far.

• Take my IELTS

Applied and paid for the test which I will be taking in April.

• New Watch

I've been shopping around but it seems like that particular model which I want to get has somehow disappeared from the face of this Earth. Still actively looking for it.

• One Attempt In Traffic Police Driving Test

Yet to apply. My Final Theory Test is on the coming Monday, let's see if I can pass that first before we talk about the practical test.

• Bangkok

Managed to get a few friends interested in this trip and we will be booking the air tickets sometime later this month.

And so, it seems like my six months plan has been pretty successful thus far. I've decided to add two more items into my list of goals.

• Shopping Spree

I want to save up (around) $500 and go on a shopping spree. Buy new clothes, shoes and whatever I like. Retail therapy. Better than seeing the doctor.

• Fix my Desktop

I think the motherboard has been fried because I didn't install a good cooling system. It's an AMD system so it gets pretty hot easily. Time to go back to Intel.

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There are two ways to classify kids ever since the beginning of time. One are the those that were born with that special piece of silver spoon in their mouth, and the ones without.

I recently saw a long Facebook status on my news feed by this guy who was sharing his opinion on why there's nothing wrong with kids leeching off their parents money.

It was something along the lines of this:

The grape is sour because you can't eat it. People are complaining about the nice cars parents buy for their kids. Their parents work so hard to earn the money, why can't their children enjoy it?

Being raised in a not so well-to-do family, I don't get nice cars to drive or a good amount of pocket money. Heck, I don't even get new toy cars when I was younger and I stopped getting pocket money after graduating from secondary school.

Whenever I see kids from wealthy families enjoying their holidays while I have to work, whenever I see kids not having to worry about their school fees, I have to admit - sometimes, I do envy them.

But I'm really glad at the end of the day. Because I was taught to look at life differently. You know the feeling of putting in long hours at work just to have that extra income to buy the things you like?

I bet that feeling of working to have what you want is so much better than asking money from your parents. I still know people who at my age, still relies on their parents for pocket money. No, don't get me wrong. I don't have any issues with people relying on their rich parents who worked hard for their children to have a better life.

I just feel that their parents are awesome, but they're not.

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Little Talk: I don't really watch tennis but this one here is really good.

My Google Chrome browser crashed on me recently when I closed a YouTube video tab. I thought it was just an one-off incident until it happened pretty much frequently.

Here's a quick fix that you can use this solve this annoying issue.

1. Access your Plug-ins page by keying "chrome://plugins" in your Google Chrome Address Bar.

   

2. At the right upper corner of your Plug-ins page, expand all the plugins by clicking "Details".

    

3. Look under "Flash" and you should see something like the one I have.

    

4. Disable the one that is located under your "system32" and it should solve the issue.

You can ignore the version that I have since I no longer do updates for my Flash ever since Google Chrome bundled themselves with the latest Flash version.

Update: Please ignore this fix as the problem came up again. Google is currently working on a fix at the time of writing.

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Little Talk: Samsung disses Apple once again in their new TV ad. Apple fanboys just got "Samsunged".

Here are some of the things I'm targeting to achieve in the next six months.

• Take my IELTS

I have already applied for school but I will have to take this International English Language Testing System before I can start school. The only setback for me right now is the $310 test fee.

• New Watch

This watch caught my eye few weeks back and this would cost me another 300 bucks. So unless I can find another watch which can divert my attention from this (very low probability), this one would be on my wrist soon.

• One Attempt In Traffic Police Driving Test

Clock at least one attempt in my Traffic Police Driving Test, which I'm aiming for a first time pass. I think the test fees are damn expensive and I'm not going to let them rip my money off this way.

• Bangkok

I've been wanting to go Bangkok since 2009 but the idea has always been thrown aside by me after awhile. Either it's because I don't have enough money, or there's no one interested to go with me. This time, I want to make it happen.

Let's see if I can achieve all these in the next six months.

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Little Talk: I don't have a New Year resolution, but I've a lifelong dream to achieve.

My brother has this game on my dad's iPhone called Fishing Joy. It's one of those games that uses your coins to catch the fishes which in return, gives you more coins.

Sometimes, I would join in the fun and try to catch some fishes while he's playing. And he would always push my hand away when I try to tap the screen, preventing me from tapping.

Since the iPhone does not belong to him, he only has a limited amount of time with it. One day, I decided to download a similar game (Fishing Diary) on my Android and showed it to him.

We were playing it together for quite awhile when suddenly I pushed his hand away and told him, "Since you don't allow me to play your game, I won't allow you to play mine too". So for the next few minutes, he just stood beside me watching me play.

I could really feel his urge to tap on my screen at the point of time. Revenge is sweet.

A few days later, he was playing the game on the iPhone again. This time round, he came to me and showed me the number of coins he had. What happened next was even cooler. He took my hand and told me to tap and catch some fishes. The victory was mine, but it wasn't enough.

Last night I decided to play the game again, on the loudest volume. The sound soon attracted my brother into my room and he was beside me again, with that urge to tap. I kept quiet and continued playing, waiting for him to take the bait.

True enough, his hand came and touched my screen once. I gave him my most serious face, closed the game, locked my phone, (gently) threw it on the table and walked out of the room.

I've caught my revenge.

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On the last day of 2011, I went Johor Bahru. 

I tried to have a good bowl of Wanton Mee (I ate at three different places) but all of the stalls disappointed me.

I saw how tapioca chips were made after seeing this guy selling it along the road. Take a tapioca, slice it into thin slices into the oil.

I was feeling disappointed because I didn't get to have good roadside food until I saw the Lok Lok mobile van.

That was how I spent the last day of 2011.

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This is going to be a really random post. We'll see how it goes.

I came here because I had a sudden urge to write but the moment I opened up the editor, my mind just went blank. The feeling is as if you're walking bare naked down a crowded street, desperately looking for anything you can use to cover yourself with.

I just walked into the crowded street with the intention to flaunt my dazzling clothes only to realise that I'm actually defenseless against the stare of the crowd. That was how I felt when I came here to write.

But somehow, I managed to cook up this stupid theory and I can now publish this as a post - to momentarily pacify the craving the post something while I try to do some soul-searching of what I really want to write.

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And this is how much I'm tempted to eat on some days when I'm really hungry even though I know that I'm supposed to watch the portions I'm eating.

(via Nedroid.)

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This post is continued from Hello Taipei #5.

It's a new day and today's destination would be the Taipei 101 building. But before that, we have to take a little trip down to the train station since we're taking the train there.

Firstly, we going to buy a train ticket to Taipei City Hall station, which is 25 TWD (SGD 1.07) for a single trip journey.

This is the single trip ticket which comes in the form of a coin which you're supposed to tap at the gantry. Maybe it's more cost effective to manufacture a coin instead of a card, but I sure feel weird to tap in using a coin than a card.

We finally arrived at the destination. Here I'm, standing under the second tallest building in the world, but I don't feel the "kick". I remembered standing under Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and I felt really good but I just couldn't get the feeling here.

Shopped around and it was finally time to go up to the Observatory on the 89th floor after lunch.

In the world's second fastest elevator at a speed of 1010 metres per minute. I know this is stupid but the world's fastest elevator is located at the world's tallest building.

So it took us 45 seconds to go from the 5th storey to the 89th storey. That is so much faster when compared to me using the stairs.

I took quite a number of photos but I'm just going to throw in the ones which I think are nicer and I'm not going to write much since I don't get paid for writing.

Oh look, I saw something really interesting. Can you see the girl bathing in the toilet? Check out the tunnels at the background of the photo.

So cool. As I walked around the observatory deck, I saw something even way cooler.

Credits must be given to this little bugger who manage to make his way up here.

Update: Up next, Hello Taipei #7.

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