Right... I'm helping to spread the words.

If you are living in Singapore and would like to participate in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) which begins in November, please register yourself at its official website and stick a yes to the thread in our Singapore forums if you are keen to attend the launch party. This will be held on 27 October (Saturday) from 2.30pm till 5pm at the Earshot Cafe (The Arts House). What's more, they have goodies bag to give away too!

I had a great time meeting all wannabe writers during the Nanowrimo launch last year, and I will definitely attend this party again if nothing crops up at the last minute! :D

This is an outside view of Dalongdong Baoan Temple (大龍峒保安宫). Notice we didn't shoot any pictures inside any temple due to respect to the Buddhas.

So after having our lunch at Danshui Station, we took this bus to our next destination - Fisherman's Wharf. We have heard good remarks about this place, and that it's beautiful at night but of course we couldn't wait until evening because the distance from here back to our hotel isn't nearby.

There it is - Fisherman's Wharf (渔人码头). If the daytime view is considered pretty, I can't imagine about the evening view.

The bridge is also known as the 'Lovers' Bridge'. I heard this is one of the hotspots for the dating couples, hehe.

Look at these boats! Can you count how many of them? I couldn't as there were too many! I was glad the weather wasn't too hot then, although the sky did look a little gloomy.

I like this particular boat with the Fisherman's Wharf logo on it.

A capture from the bridge looking down.

We found this interesting tree during our walk to the wharf. We gather the tree must be quite old by looking at its roots.

So after visited the Fisherman's Wharf, we took the bus back to Danshui Station. We saw this dessert shop before we went to Fisherman's Wharf but of course we saved the best for the last. LOL. If the mango ice we took on the previous day was good, this one was even greater! Just one look at the toppings (chunks of mangoes, strawberries & kiwis plus a scoop of mango ice cream) is enough to have you drooling... Originally I wanted to order a bowl of Strawberries Ice, but the staff told us that it will only be sold during winter season. Oh! What a pity! (Although I didn't ask further, but don't you find it strange that they could serve bits of strawberries here?)

After having the yummy-licious dessert, we stopped at Jiantan Station to visit Shilin Night Market. I find the interior of the station interesting.

This is the Shilin Market (士林夜市). You can find many eating stalls over here. We only tried the fried chicken cutlet because there was a queue and we thought it should be good. And indeed it was!

Inside Shilin Market. I found several stalls that are selling desserts. (I think I will grow fat if I keep on having their desserts here, hehe.)

We mingled with the crowd and did some more 'exploring' before we returned to the hotel to have a good rest because we were be leaving the next day. Ahhh....

End of Day 4 - To be continued...

• Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty for winning a copy of The Dollmaker;
• Nathalie for winning a copy of Before Sunrise; and
• Alice at Hello, My Name is Alice for winning a copy of The Mathematics of Love.

Congratulations to all winners!

1. The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens
2. Before Sunrise by Diana Palmer
3. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin (different cover from Amazon)

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday?
10. Well, birthday falls only once every year, so of course I'm looking forward to it.
(By the way, Happy Birthday to Julia! :D)

Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of?
Sacked.
(Ack! Enough said. Not that it happened to me before though...)

Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like?
Nope. I don't have any sunglasses.

Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it?
How I wish this is true! Miraculously if this happens, I'd like to dedicate it to my mom. She had always told us to have faith in ourselves no matter what we do.

Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy.
Green tea! And I never get tired drinking it everyday!

Booking Through Thursday

Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them? (grin)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Well, I suppose I can read anything and definitely have no issue with it, but of course there is a limit to it (i.e. if the book focus mainly on sex and not much story plot). Being a reader of the romance genre, I can fully understand the sexy scenes in the books because we get to see the passionate side of the couple being in love. So far, I'm quite comfortable with the scenes unless you are talking about erotica, which is another different matter.

So we visited Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (国立国父纪念馆). And here is the statue of Sun Yat-sen.

An outside view of the Memorial Hall. My husband shot this angle to show a comparison between the traditional and the modern architectural (Taipei 101).

Front view of the Memorial Hall.

So after lunch, we took the MRT to City Hall Station and from there, we took a free shuttle bus to Taipei 101 (台北101). As you have guessed, there are 101 stories in this building. What a spectacular view!

Besides that, there is also a mall in this building. How cool is that?! Of course I had to shop around! And on top of that, I found a bookstore! I bought two books there - School's Out and Broken For You.

(Note: Wendy, thanks for your great review! Because of this, I bought the latter :D)

Interesting ceiling we saw inside the mall. What does it makes you think of?

We saw these interesting 'pyramids' located outside the building. When I stepped closer to have a good look, I could see some shops beneath.

So after visited Taipei 101 (we spent almost the whole afternoon here), we took the MRT to Ximending to have our dinner. (Seems like we couldn't get enough of Ximending. There are so many things to see there!) Anyway, I found this shop where they are selling desserts and just couldn't resist this. Chunks of mangoes on top of grated ice. This is yummy!!! Reminds me of our good ole Ice Kachang.

We happened to see a full moon at Ximending. And then it dawned on me that it was Mid-Autumn Festival that day. No wonder the moon looked so big and round.

So that's the end of our third day in Taipei. To be continued...

This was the bus we took for the city tour. (My daughter and I were both wearing pink that day, hehe.)

This is the front entrance of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

The Memorial Hall. Such a majestic view!

Our next stop - Jiufen (九份). We actually have to hop onto another smaller bus to get to this place because it is a mountain town and the routes are narrow and there are slopes. This is the view we took from the top.

You will be suprised to see there are lots of shops in this little town. It is one of the tourist attractions but it was too bad that we were only given an hour to shop at this place. I bought a few souvenirs and some local products (i.e. mango jelly & some local pastries).

After lunch, our next stop was Martyrs Shrine (忠烈祠) where we learnt more about its history, and the heroes who sacrificed their lives to the revolution before the establishment of the Republic of China and who fell during the Sino-Japanese war and the Chinese Civil war are worshipped here. As a respect, hats and/or sandals are not allowed to be worn here.

I was impressed with these military police officers. A few of them could be seen guarding the gate and they were like expressionless statues. They were 'oblivious' to their surroundings and no matter how the tourists teased them, they remained stonelike.

Our next stop was the National Palace Museum (国立故宫博物院). Over here we got to see collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks.

An overview of the National Palace Museum.

Rows of banners with Chinese characters are hung from the glass ceilings. I view them as another form of art. ;-) After this visit, it was our free time. We visited Ximending again and had our dinner before we returned to the hotel.

End of Day 2. To be continued...

Word for 3 October: recidivism

Definition:
A tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of behavior; especially, a falling back or relapse into prior criminal habits.

Noun, Adjective: recidivist
Adjective: recidivistic, recidivous

This was taken in the coach on a highway to our hotel. The tall building is Taipei 101.

Rows of shophouses and buildings as we bypassed the street. Motorbikes can be seen almost everywhere. Just look at the signs on their buildings... what an interesting sight!

This is the front entrance of the Longshan Temple (龙山寺). It was walking distance (about 15 mins walk) from our hotel to get here. Even at this hour (it was around 7pm) there were still people visiting the temple to offer their prayers; most of our local temples close around 6pm.

This is the token for travelling with Metro Taipei (just like our MRT system except we use value cards instead of tokens).

Waiting for the train at the station.

This is Ximending (西门町) - one of their busiest shopping areas. There are lots of things to see here, and most of the crowd are youngsters/teenagers.

Ditto. We didn't shop much as it was getting late. Moreover, we had made plans to visit this place another day.

End of Day 1. To be continued...

But life wasn't a bed of roses for Jacqueline after she moved into his family. Bahrin appears to be a different person back in his own country, and he no longer romances her the way he did back when they were in Australia. He wanted her to be an obedient Muslim wife, and she wasn't allowed to do this or that without his approval or permission. Princess Yasmin (as Jacqueline was now known) began to wonder about this 'stranger' whom she called her husband. And her nightmares began when he began to hurt her, even when she was pregnant with child.

After giving birth to their two children, she decided she had enough after knowing that her husband had secretly married another woman. Feeling cold and distraught, she left for Australia with her children. But things don't end just there, her husband abducted their children and this is where her real nightmares begin.

I love fruits! I have several pictures of various fruits saved in my hard drive just for my desktop wallpaper. A few coworkers commented they like looking at my wallpapers because the pictures makes them go hungry, hehe.

Here's how you play:

(A) Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key). Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V). If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

(B) Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

(C) Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

(D) Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

I'm tagging:

1. Jennifer - Just My Life
2. Wendy - Musings of a Bookish Kitty
3. Debi - Nothing of Importance
4. Kathy - *RittyRats*
5. Library Girl - Musings of Library Girl

iRonnie - I Set No Corner
Thess - Thesserie
Rebecca - Skippy Heart
Knoizki - A Dialogue With K
Beng - Kauderwelch
Tina - My Good Finds
Rachel - Heart of Rachel
Alice - Hello, My Name Is Alice
Julia - Julia's Books Corner
Melody - Melody's Reading Corner