宜蘭：好山好水好無聊

My mum learned this phrase while she's in Taiwan. "好山，好水，好無聊". One of my uncles describes 宜蘭 as such. My mum quickly applies that to New Zealand, too.

Little did I know that I was really going to 宜蘭. Basically, it was like on the day of the trip, my uncle said, "by the way, you and grandma are coming with us tonight". I went along without knowing much about what we were going to do in 宜蘭.

Well, as it turned out, not much. I don't think it confirmed "好山，好水，好無聊", I think it was because we didn't really plan where to go and what to do, so we didn't really do much except driving around. The notable things we did were, hot spring spa at the hotel, cold spring spa at 礁溪 (礁溪冷泉), and had some fried seafood at 大溪漁港. That's about it. Other than that, it was mostly hours of driving, with a 1 year old kid growing impatient in the car, haha.

By the way, going through the tunnel is much faster than driving along the coast. It took just over an hour when we went to 宜蘭 on the first night. Then it took hours of driving when we drove along the coast on the way back.

hm, maybe 童玩節 at the 冬山河親水公園 would be nice. But it doesn't start till July...

跟家人集體行動的幾天

這篇是流水帳。這幾天都在跟家人在一起，比較沒自己的時間。
週六中午跟以前同事在公司附近吃午餐，下午冒著大雨去外公家誦經。
週日告別式。
週一入塔位。
週二跟爸媽出去逛一逛，晚上和爸爸這邊的姑姑叔叔家人們吃晚餐，晚餐後直接和叔叔嬸嬸往宜蘭去。
週三在宜蘭玩，和沿著北海岸慢慢開回台北。
週四陪隆媽媽，晚上送去機場 :'(

一年不見隆媽媽，這次回來也大都在處理事情又匆匆走了。
不知道ㄟ，感覺起來以後會越來越多這種搬來搬去的生活型態，家人就聚少離多。也許有些國家可能現在就很尋常了，像大陸、美國這種大國家，可能家人在不同的省或州是很平常的事；紐西蘭這種小國家則是市場太小所以很多年輕人去別的國家工作？
不過之前跟同事、同學聊，感覺起來在台灣有些人能想像到的最遠距離是台北─高雄。但是也有人開始考慮台北─上海、台北─深圳這種距離了。

Melbourne Baby

Hari has told me that he's going to work in Melbourne.
"Melbourne Baby", as he says on his MSN nickname.
I so feel eager to sing a song to express my feelings. Say, maybe 千里之外?
But Hari's such a close friend. He deserves this one. 再見 我的愛人
We should sing and cry like that. haha. Hari, let's do that if I meet you in Auckland.

旋轉跳躍我閉著眼

I had 旋轉跳躍我閉著眼 as my MSN nickname message and a friend of my messaged and said
"your nickname is so funny, seems you are a big fan of Jolin...haha"

haha ... not quite.
It's an insider joke la. somehow my ex-coworker used Jolin for comparison. so I said
旋轉跳躍我閉著眼
工程師的喜悲沒人看見
He likes the second sentence and used that in his nickname. So my one is the 上聯, sort of.

Anyway, Jolin is very popular ya. Her performances are eye-catching. I don't mind being thought as a fan of hers.

金曲獎

最佳年度歌曲獎:寶貝,小情歌,千里之外都輸給今天妳要嫁給我!!? 評審是最近要結婚還是被Jolin迷惑了嗎?
隨便一首都比那首好。當時在宣佈「入圍的有...」的時候，先看到「千里之外」，我想說，這首好了；然後出現「寶貝」，我說，這首超越了，就這首了；再來又有「小情歌」，我又說，好難選喔，可能這首吧。最後出現「今天妳要嫁給我」，我堅定的說這首不可能。
結果真的就是... 當時頒獎人是張信哲和 MC Hotdog，我覺得 MC Hotdog 當時心中應該很不爽吧？ In this case, 我還滿希望他在台上把獎座折斷或什麼的 :P
完全不接受... 哇勒 Jolin in da house. DT in da house. @@

不過後來 MC Hotdog 得到最佳國語專輯獎，他大概心情好很多吧。不過，這也是我沒想到的得獎人。

Hari 實在很厲害，又是早早就在聽蘇打綠、張懸、Tizzy Bac 這些比較"不紅"的歌手、團體，又是在金曲多項入圍，蘇打綠和 Tizzy Bac 也的確得了獎。
Hari 之前就在這些人不紅的時候就聽陳奕迅、黃力行、蔡健雅，後來都得了金曲獎，Hari 是不是有混在評審團之中呀?

蔡依林得最佳國語女歌手獎，應該是 Hari 在評審團中對造型部份給了高分吧 :P

謝金燕得最佳台語女歌手獎ㄟ， OK, I don't actually listen to her music. But I just find that cool.
電音搖滾台語英文混合歌曲... 整個很國際化的台。
(HotDog 來串場： "我愛台妹，台妹愛我")

Anyway, 推薦大家聽張懸和蘇打綠囉！As for Tizzy Bac, ask Hari.

之前同事 Jenny 一直聽小情歌...
"就算大雨讓這個城市顛倒 我會給你懷抱"

也推薦了這首可愛的歌，寶貝
"我的寶貝寶貝　給你一點甜甜　讓你今夜都好眠"

就去聽吧，去唱吧。
不過 Hari 點太冷門的話別人可能沒辦法接受，哈，唱到上次 K 姐在 KTV 說不想再看到唱蘇打綠，後來還是靠小情歌來為他們平反一下。

SCJP test

Yup, I finally got around to take the SCJP test today.
We got home late last night and left me with no time to squeeze in some last minute studies for my Java certification. I didn't care much because when I signed for the test, there was a promotion to give the candidates to retake the test once for free.

In the early parts the test I thought I'd run out of time and actually make use of the free retake. When I finished the test I guessed I might just pass. In fact, I passed, and well above the passing score. A nice surprise! :)

So yeah, I've got my very first probably useless computer certificate.

I feel like babbling some more :P
Things aren't done until you've done it.
I first had the idea of getting this certificate when I just left university. But it isn't until today that I actually did it.
I still hear a few friends casually say they'll get this certificate. But just saying doesn't get you anywhere.
hm, same for driver's license. I got my full license after university. Quite late. :P
Anyway, I just feel that it's what you do that counts, not what you say you'll do. I observed that in my last job. :P I guess that's for life in general too.
End of babbling.

端午 with family

I was with family on 端午節 the whole day this year. In the morning, I got woken up early to go out with mum and day for breakfast. Mum just arrived in Taipei the evening before that. I was with the father side family later in the morning and lunch time. Played with 1-year-old cousin; Did a bit of 端午祭拜.

My parents and I then went to my mother side's family's place. We joined the relatives to 誦經 for my granddad who recently passed away. The session lasted all afternoon. We stayed for dinner and chats afterwards. I was with my extend family the whole day.

By the way, I didn't eat any 粽子.

今天要弄倒哪家餐廳

上次跟K姐在台北車站附近找餐廳吃晚餐，去看了兩家之前去吃的餐廳，結果都關了！一家的門口還貼了告示說餐廳老闆支票跳票什麼的。

有上次經驗，今天跟K姐碰面時，她問說要去哪吃晚餐，我就說：「看你今天要弄倒哪家餐廳。」
結果去台北東區，去看看一家之前一起去吃過的素食餐廳。
沒開！貼了告示說租約到期 blah blah..

太強了，我們已經吃三家倒三家！

我說是K姐太賽了，吃了就會倒。K姐反駁說她自己吃就沒事，跟我一起去吃之後才倒。雖然我還是覺得她帶賽的成分居多，以前一起在奧克蘭的 food court還會碰到火災警報亂響。

K姐說我們應該去網路上招標，看有誰要出錢弄倒別人餐廳，我們就一起去那家吃。
我提議去吃鼎泰豐，如果真的倒了就太強了！可惜K姐吃素不能去。

另外又是K姐帶賽(exceptional luck)，居然我在東區地下街碰到以前的同事，是我認識的另一個 Claire 姐姐 :P 兩個 Claire 姐姐居然碰面了！

同事跟我聊了一下。同事離開後，K姐說那個女生長的好可愛喔，我說她也叫 Claire。K姐說：「叫 Claire 的都是可愛又漂亮的女生嗎？」
喔，受不了，都不會臉紅喔？


ps. 後來我又想到，之前我們有一起去「台灣故事館」門口，Claire有去問他們的餐點，沒有去吃，想說哪天多找一些人再一起去，結果大概兩三週後台灣故事館就關了。追加台灣故事館到倒店名單上。

港澳行：佛心來的

這次 hostel 住的房間真的滿容易被干擾的。凌晨 1, 2點還會聽到走到上有人的活動、談話聲，今天連早上 6 點也聽到有人已經起來走動、梳洗。被吵醒後，想去上廁所再回來試著睡，沒想到踏出第一步就摔了一大跤。四肢各有破皮、瘀青等傷勢，痛！臉撞痛了但還好沒破相。這次帶著上次在新加坡買的OK繃，沒想到真用到了。(看來旅遊會增加我受傷機率。)

一開始想到的詞是最近學的台語"雷殘"，後來想到這裡是香港，應該是用"PK"那個代表倒在街上的那個詞。
其實這兩個詞詞意都不符合我跌到的狀況啦。

右手肘關節附近貼了兩個OK繃，痛，還是試著回去睡覺。又痛又吵睡的也不熟，好像一會兒又過了幾個小時。雖然累，想想還是該起床了，不然今天搞不好來不及走遠，就只能待在市區裡。
因為我昨天實在太 enjoy 南ㄚ島的沙灘，今天還想說如果時間夠的話還想再去，或是就不去看天壇大佛，直接再去南ㄚ島。但是摔了這麼一跤，手腳破皮受傷，如果去海裡游傷口可能會很痛吧，感染的話就更糟。也許摔這麼一跤真是佛心來的，有意讓我排除其他行程，一定要去景仰一下大佛。

所以哩，就去坐了昂坪360纜車上山去，總共坐了快半個小時。

(這張圖沒什麼好看，只是顯示纜車走得高，看得遠。)

嗯，我覺得這樣的觀光纜車還滿酷的，讓遊客輕鬆看view，又方便遊客到一個比較偏僻的景點。請自己來體驗吧！
其實不能自己來體驗了，因為這一篇是回國幾週後才寫的，纜車在上週才發生了脫落墜毀的事件，現在停駛。
News Link:
香港昂坪360纜車脫落　車廂全毀

纜車的終點是昂坪市集，行前看別人的旅記寫說是一個人工市集，沒錯，的確很人工，完全是為觀光客打造的街道與店家，幾乎所有的店鋪都在賣紀念品方面的商品。這時一個人旅遊總算有好處了，這些東西全跳過，大步向大佛走去。

大佛.. 就是大佛，還能介紹什麼呢？看圖。
其實走上去要爬滿多層階梯的，這張照片照的位置已經是快走到頂了。從下走階梯時陸續看到其他遊客停下來休息，猛然有個想法試試能不能不中斷地走到頂端，還真的給我走上去了，有莫名又無趣的成就感。佛心來的。

之後，這一天就比較沒什麼，就在東涌、尖沙嘴、中環各晃了一下，稍微特別的是看到這個"New Zealand Educated"廣告吧：

後來晚上在去機場前還跟 Kenny 在旺角碰面，短短的逛了一下。而且還真的找到了一張媽媽要買但是在 NZ、台灣都沒找到的 CD.
在機場則終於吃了"許留山"的甜品。"大家樂"的鼓椒牛肉飯意外地好吃。接著就上飛機啦。
擔憂昨晚沒睡好，降落時又會爆眼，不過這次降落時我一直深呼吸，居然沒爆眼，但是整個人感覺還是怪怪的，好像皮膚裡外的壓力不同所以還是怎樣感覺怪怪的。Anyway，平安降落啦，又回到台灣了；再次從方便的赤臘角機場進入，從動線奇怪的漏水航廈出來。