Dear Friends

I watched this 2007 J movie recently, called "Dear Friends".

Dear Friends follows a high-school student, Rina ( Keiko Kitagawa), who believes that friends are not necessary and that they can only be used in times of need. She is unable to maintain a decent relationship with her friends, classmates and parents.

I actually cried as the movie is quite touching. One has cancer and another has a neurodegenrative disorder. It's not the diseases that makes it touching but the friendship!!!

Self reflection~ as it makes one think that he/she should appreciate their parents more and not take friends for granted.

Yea, I must learn not to take things for granted which I know I did and still do.

~Still learning how to be a better me everyday.

Anyways, this is a great movie to watch if you have any free time at hand.

Here's the trailer:


Credits youtube, gaynelly

Taiwan trip part 4

Yea, 3rd day in Taiwan and we're back to the club where the party continues!!

Gave our Cd to the DJ where he played it. We wanted to mark the dance floor but dancers were already entering and well.....as what you would expect of all great dancers, they started to freestyle to the song!!!! *jaw drops*

It was noon and we're all hungry...so we went back to the little street filled with street vendors to hunt for food...many of which were still closed. In the end we settled for this.....

Next to it is a "ying liao tien" aka "drink stall". These are very common in Taiwan. You see them everywhere.....er....you find about 1 of them for every 5 convenient shops that you see. Lol...according to Mel's statistics. Mind you, their convenient shops are every where!!!!

The only non-beef eater in the troupe...opted for the "oh so normal chinese pork fried rice" while the others ordered beef noodles.

There's this one dish here below which looks super weird, all covered with red sauce..and I have no idea what's inside but according to the person who ordered this, it tastes nice. It looks like similar to the "oyster omelette".

As for drinks....some mango flavoured tea....with a scoop of mango sherbet in it. I'm guessing it's their promo drink of the month because there's a huge bunting with it's picture on it outside the stall.

Sigh~ day 3 and still no sign of my favourite mango ice. Plus this drink isn't anything to shout about either.

ahhh...I've been dying to try Taiwan's mango ice!!!!! You always see them in Taiwanese dramas.

After lunch was make-up time because our perf was scheduled to be at about 4/5pm.

Surprisingly, for a small stall like that, they had really clean toilets. Oh...talking about toilets....please don't discard your toilet papers into the toilet bowls there. Well....there are signs every where to remind you that anyways.

We were supposed to be back at the club....but being girls, we got stalled at the cosmetics setion of a nearby mall....checking out their promotions and comparing their prices. Next time you visit Taiwan, should definitely stock up on your cosmetics there as they have better deals and are much cheaper compared to here.

I'm really regretting wasting my time in the mall when I could be back at the club watching other dancers perform. Oh well....

....cuz when we got back to the club, the first half of the performances were already over and it was their jam session. Changed into our costumes, warm up a bit....watched the jam session and it's performance time!!! ahhh~~~~ no time to prac at all ever since we were there!!!

Anyways the jam sessionw as so cool! They had waackin songs and ahhh~~~ awesome! I was too chicken to show my lousy skills....but some of the others did join in. Ahh.....so cool!!!

First up after the break was *gulp* us.....lol~

hu~hu~ *breathes* huuu~haaaa~so colddd........ahhh!!! die die la!!!!

Here's the perf vid!! Not my best perf for this choreo but the video quality for this is definitely the best!! haahaha.....


Another angle


Messed up here and there. Firstly, I didn't tie my mask on tight enough and it nearly fell off at the beginning....so I was like pushing the mask back to position during my posing and missed a few beats!! OMG! Then after that I got kancheong and messed up my lines!!! *hides*

Then near the end, a face mask blocked my way and I had to kick it away...

Oh well....but it was a great and amazing experience! Super happy once the dance was over........Especially when the crowd cheered! whee~~ I thought I was walking on clouds.

After everything, it was back to the mall for the girls while the boys waited and waited for us......and when we returned we saw a bunch of boys waiting for us.... :0

ahh..gomen, gomen!!!! We were apparently supposed to head to a nearby hotel for buffet and were supposed to hitch a ride with these boys on their bike. Yes BIKES!!! OMG~~ I was so excited! I've never been on a bike before!!!

oh....did I mention the guy said, "Simply pick any guys!" hohoho.....

I climed clumsily onto the bike and grabbed onto the guy's shoulder tightly. I must've been heavy as I was carrying 2 bags (lol...trying to put the blame on the bags). Anyways, cuz we were without helmets and it was my first time on the...er.....Taiwan scooters?? I was scared!!!

I guess the guy felt it too because he asked if I was scared. I must've been grabbing onto him too tightly.

Ok...i've got some really BAD pictures of the food....how do you take nice pictures under yellow lights???

Appetizers.....

Tira...miss...you.....

Fruits.....

A nice view.....opposite where the legends were seated.

My FAVOURITE!! nyoms several of those love cream puffs, the yumym chocolate cake and raspberry cheese cake!!! Mushroom soup!

oh...this is the main meal which they served to our table. Chicken +beef+sweet potato+veg+rice.

Posing time....I look horrible!

whee~!!! happy to receive comments from him about the perf. I'll be attending his workshop at the end of this month!

After the meal, it was another round on the bikes!! whee~~~

lol...couldn't remember which guy I came with and simply went on another bike! haha......

We headed to Love river with the other dancers and look!!!

Free drink from the guy who gave me a ride! I wanted to buy him a drink but they all treated us instead. Great hospitality!

no idea what's in my drink but there's a huge block of black floating jelly......

whee~ Love River!!

I'm sooo happy!!!! because the dancers bought us MANGO ICE!!! yummy~ It taste even better after a tiring day and plus it's was on a cold chilly night.

Yummy!! Best in Taiwan!! Fried chicken that's crispy but not oily and it's thickeness is the same through out!!!

Us, listening to one of the legends talking. Plus an instructor was inviting him over to teach.

Taiwanese Sarsi???

One of them mixing a special drink for us.....the so called....taiwanese red bull??? It's like a mixture of red bull and alcohol.

The outcome.....bitter and it has a strong coffee taste!! Not my kind of drink.... Peace yo!!

Anyways it was wayyyy past midnight when all of us were still chatting at Love river when the police came to chase us away as it was a sunday night and we were probably disturbing the peeps from the nearby apartments.

Then it was a 3rd ride on the bikes back to out hotels......

...where we spend another 1 hour plus listening to storied from this legend down there!! I love him! he's sooo hyper!! plus he's a great actor!!! Throughout that 1 hour we saw ambulance and police cars stopping at a nearby club... someone must've been fighting :0

Up the elevator we went and before leaving....I had to get this pic!!! heehe....I love his house moves!!!

Gah~ the gal's messy bedroom after a long day......it was about 4 am in the morning. I'm slept on the right bed, next to a nice comfy red sofa.

I love love love this room!!! They have different themed rooms but this one is just nice for me! We each paid the same price for this room as the one we paid for at backpackers place. 50 per night! haha....what a huge difference!!!!!

Anyways did I mention, I broke the toilet sink?? Well...not exactly me...but I was in the bathroom, drying myself, when it broke. This huge block of cement thing fell from the wall and onto the sink and made a huge hole in it!!!

I love Kaohsiong and would definitely revisit the place in future!! Plus I love this hotel...kekee......

Taiwan trip part 3

...continuation of Day 2.

The dance party was amazing!! Seriously....a dance culture shock for me!! When I entered the club, it was packed with dancers doing their thing on the dance floor without a care in the world. Their freestlye and musicality was super good. When the music style changed, so did their dance style. It seems that many of the dancers there were well versed with several different dance styles.

Super cool~~

We headed to the 3nd floor where we were allowed to place out luggages in the VIP room since we didn't have time to go to the hotel first. We were already late anyways. The battles have already started.

Almost everyone is there to join the battle and not just 1 category...There were seriously many participants e.g for hiphop alone, there are more than 100+.

The judges were seated in front and the participants would all gather in front of them. Numbers will be called and for each number, there will be 3 dancers on the dance floor battling it out. When their turn is over, another number will be called. So you've got to be alert if you're participating as you wouldn't wanna miss your turn. Newbies might feel lost and dunno when to enter or exit as the music continues without stopping and you just gotta go out when ur number us called....

After the auditions is the quater finals, semi-finals and lastly finals. Half-way through the battles, we got hungry and left for lunch during the bboy session.

Walked out to find yummy street food. We stopepd by this stall where all of us ordered the same thing. For me, it's because it's the only thing that looks safe to be eaten. hahaa.....

The food was great! Super filling~ but I gobbled everything down.

Yummy glutinous rice + wontons...at least 10 of them + duck soup + old fashion glass bottled soft drinks for only RM10+.

wontons

duck soup.....first time tasting something like this....not bad~

see....old-fasion glass bottles. Couldn't even see this in malaysia nowadays. Plus this fanta orange drink....never even seen it before.

Old fashioned Fridge....

Before the finals was the long awaited judges showcase!! I thought that I would only be fascinated by the hiphop and poppin category but boy, was I wrong. My jaw totally dropped during the house showcase because I never thought that anyone's feet could move so fast and light too!!! My mouth was wide open the whole time!!!!

Ahh...it's soo nice just to sit down there and watch everyone dance!!! *happy* After the event, dancers swarmed around the judges, bombarding them with questions about dance.....and I just squeezed in to listen!...which is why there's this funny pic....

Smile!!!

At night the local dancers there brought us to this cafe for drinks but us girls were soooo tempted to shop that we went shopping by ourselves around the area and only got supper when there took us to a night market there.

It's actually quite easy to buy clothes to dance in around the area because I guess ppl there dresses up more stylishly or that there are a lot of dancers in that area.The only catch is that you can't try anything!!! Every single piece of clothing that I bought there were based purely on luck because we were not allowed to try anything on! Plus most clothes are free style, so it's take it or leave it!!

Whee~ after shopping we headed to the Liuhe night market....

First stop was to taste this delicious pork soup. hehe...it's like the taiwanese version of bah kut teh. Aaahh~ nice hot soup on a cold night! Yummy! the radish was tasty as it has absord the flavour of the soup and the meat was.....QQ??? about RM6 per bowl.

Whee...managed to try their aiyu bing....

Some stalls we passed by along the way...

Fried HUGE mushroom and octopus tentacles~ tried the fried tentacles and they were yummy but I dare not try the mushroom because I was afraid that I might get mushroom poisoning. Dare not take the risk as I'll be performing the next day.

Oooo...the super delicious "tigua".....fried, cooled and then coated with a layer of sugar syrup or honey!! I love this sooo much!

Yea, really hope that I can find this lovely snack in Malaysia.....yummylicious!!!

Another yummy dessert that we tried was the "leng dong yu tou"...cold yam soup which came in a clear sweet soup with a huge piece of yam, served cold. It looked plain at first but one bite andooo....ur in heaven! but among the 2, I still prefer the syrup coated fried potatoes....

...and that's the end of Day 2.