2014 Chinese New Year Trip to Taiwan

Left house at 9:15 on 1/16, but didn't get to San Jose Airport until 9:45 due to commute traffic on Brokaw road and 5 consecutive traffic lights.  ANA counter is on the ground floor but there's no direct route from the parking structure.  I still get hard copy board8ng passes from them even though I already printed them myself.Flight NH1075 took off on time, pretty much a full house except a few empty seats.

Had a small bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon very smooth and tasty, but I spilled 1/3 of it on myself, had to clean up in the W.C.

Got to Narita on time but had to walk 15 minutes to get to 28D for connecting flight, the gate is on the first floor of terminal one, all passengers (28A-28F) had to to be shuttled to their respective planes, this flight, NH1083, has two attached flight numbers (UA and EVA), the slow boarding process delayed the take off time by 40 minutes.  My seat was 45C on the last row, two young ladies joined me after the last shuttle but I was able to move to unoccupied 45B(and A) after plane doors are closed, yes!  After about half way throuh the flight, a lady came over and ask to use the set next to me (I did not get the exact reason why she could not sit where she was), I reluctantly agreed since it's only a couple of hours.

【Narita has improved, it has free Wi-Fi now, all you need to do is to register with an e-mail address and you are OK to use it, I called Anita after registering it. 】

1/18/2014: Had a unusally nice sleep, woke up by knocks on the door, it's mom delivering my clothes.  Had a hair cut at 建成, cost NT400, 10% increase from last year.  Setup Wii, Sharon seems to enjoy the game (Wii Sports) very much.  Tried the new game "Nicktoons MLB", gave up after 10 minutes, need to study it more - too complicated.  Had hot pot at 豆腐火鍋, very satisfiying.  Called 光華 at 8:08, she is coming to 内湖 to have lunch with her friends on Monday (1/20), will call me after to deliver my living expense (NT20000).

Woke up at 2:00 but stayed in bed until 6:00.  Everyone's asleep then.  Had a banana and a cup of coffee - something to do.  Spent some time reading Wii game info, learned why boxing was so difficult.

1/19/2014:Got up at 7:00, fooled around a while before breakfast.  Got a cold during doze off after lunch, fought it the whole afternoon to no avail.  Had to take a Panadol tablet, did help a bit.  Went to bed after dinner.

1/20/2014:Felt better after full 8 hours of sleep but my nose is still a little sensitive, need to be extra careful.  Visited 全聯 and got a bottle of booze, one Daiko, a bag of ginger, 4 bags of 可樂果 (one for NT20, 2 for NT36), one bottle of kitchen cleaner, and one bottle of glass cleaner.

Went to meet 光華 at 内湖高中門口 , got NT20000, should last me through the New Year.

1/21/2014: Had 3 bans for breakfast, one cup of coffee, and half cup of ginger soup - may be the cause of my stomach's strike.  Went to 湖光市場 with mom.  Went for walk at 碧湖, 2 complete circles, exactly 65 minutes total.  Picked up breaakfast bans at Bread Societe.

1/22/2014:Woke up at 6:00, got up at 7:30.  Did 香功 and warmup exercise before breakfast.Went to 全聯 to get stuff, thry are out of 蘋果日報 - for two good reasons, first they do not carry as many copies, and second they charge less (NT12 instead of NT15 at 7-11).  Got a few more 可樂果, they have promotions - one bag for NT20: two for NT36, and a third option (for 酷辣only) is one 4-unit party bag for NT64.  Went to "GoodLife" variety store to get some special stuff to take back to San Jose, but I could not find anything (silicone lids for instance) I need to my surprise, came back empty handed.  Got some breakfast breads from 麥香 (Miss Bread), their pastries are different in style.  Cleaned upper portion of the dinning room cabinet plus microwave oven and induction cooker.

1/23/2014:Got up at 8:00, back to normal Now except still felt sleepy at around 8:00 last night.  Made 碧湖 walk under bright sun light, one hour and 10 minutes.  Got breakfast breadsfrom 楓采 (F. Chime Bakery).

1/24/2014:Got up at 7:30.  Went to 全聯, got newspaper, and a can of 阿里山茶, could not find 南僑肥皂 - need to ask next time.  Still undecided on what wine to purchase for 初二永和 visit.Cleaned range hood, took nearly 3 hours - guess it's not that bad for full year accumulation of cooking grease.

1/25/2013:Woke up at 6:30, finished exercise at 7:30.  Went with 北黎 to get breakfast - 蛋餅, 蘿蔔糕, and a couple of 糯米飯團.  The whole family went to 東門市場 for some 年菜 shopping, the stor3s there are smaller that that of 湖光市場.  Had lunch at 大食代.  Went to 大潤發 and procured grocery for Chinese New Year, also got some snack to take back to San Jose.

1/26/2014:Didn’t know what to do with Maggie’s request to visit here and listening to her piano performance.  Went for a walk at 碧湖 - same two circles but with shorter time.  Got breakfast breads at 楓釆.

1/27/2014:Got up at 7:30, quiet normal now - it may also be the result that I did not drink beer last night.  Cleaned glue under the rugs in the dinning room, the double sided tape used last year was extremely difficult to remove, fortunately there’s some leftover "goo be gone” which reduced the amour of time needed to finish the task (to about one hour), got one roll of double sided form tape and finished placing all the rugs back to their respective locations.

1/28/2014:Sister stopped by to drop of flower arrangement material, but did not stay to arrange the flowers, gave her the scarf, soap, and chocolate.

1/29/2014:Made several rounds of purchase at 全聯 to fulfill the grocery list.

1/30/2014(除夕):New year's eve, went to 慈恩園 to pay repect to father, rode Metro 文湖線, got off at 麟光站, took shuttle there.  The smoke on 3rd floor was exceptionally strong, I had to cover my mouth to avoid suffocation.  Had some of the 祭品 before going home.  Started preparing New Year's eve dishes.  I made "培根高麗菜蝦捲", "清蒸海鮮", 與 "開陽白菜". along with "富貴拼盤(牛腱, 牛肚, 海蜇皮, 蜜汁腰果, 花枝", "紅燒獅子頭", "佛跳牆", "紅燒海蔘", "白鯧魚", "春捲”, “燻雞" 以及 ”湯”.


1/31/2014(初一):Had "蘿蔔糕", "年糕“ 與 ”紅豆糕“ for traditional 初一 breakfast.  Got 紅包 for me and Anita, gave Tina and Sharon one 紅包 with NT2000 each.  George drove everyone to 陽明山 and 竹子湖 for sight seeing but due to extremely congested traffic, we ended up 遊車河 most of the time.

2/1/2014(初二):Arriving at 永和 光華/小妹家at 11:00.  The meal locations were changed - lunch at 光華/小妹家 and dinner at 光耀家.  Had 5 oz and 7 oz of 58度金門高粱 for lunch and dinner respectively.  Lost NT250 playing 麻將 while Anita’s mom lost NT60.

2/2/2014:Helped mom preparing 年糕 breakfast, could not eat much - possibly inhaled too much smoke while frying the cake pieces.  Met Jerome at corner across from Metro 內湖站 at 7:30PM, we went to “Mos Burger” to chat - I ordered a fruit/vegetable juice, learned that his sister committed suicide last year due to intolerable diseases.  Not much else was happening though, he gave me 5 cans of “” medication and a box of candy from SUGAR.SPICE 糖村.

2/3/2014:Back to usual breakfast items - bread. Sis and her whole family (小虎, Maggie, 小龍 family, and 達達 family) visited at 3:30 prepared red envelopes - NT600 X 2 and NT1000 X 2.  I made scallop over turnip, cucumber hold taro, also served threaded turnip pickles.  A total of 17 people easily finished most dishes except chicken and fried fish paste chicken wrap.  Took some photos as well.

2/4/2014:Decided to have Western breakfast - egg, ham, and sausage.  Even though the result was different due to pan and spatula, but taste was OK.  Made a set of kitchen grease cover for mom using leftover cardboard box from Costco.  Looks all right.

2/5/2014: (初六)Got up at 8:15.  It bagen to rain heavily, looks to continue for the next week or so.  Bought breakfast breads from 楓采.  Procured several household gadgets from 百利金生活百貨商行.

2/6/2014:Got up at 8:10.  Got newspaper from 7-11, bought several more sewing strings and a juice extractor from 旺旺精品百貨.  The sound quality of call to Anita was good, the first in a week.  Hiked 2 circles around 碧湖, standard 1 hour time.  Purchased 3 breakfast breads from "Bread Societe/布列德”.

2/7/2013:Got up at 7:55, had 2 breads for breakfast - take them while I am still here :-)  Went and got a bottle of 58度 金門高梁, a bag of pumpkin seeds, and a can of 阿里山茶葉 from 全聯.

2/8/2014:Got up at 7:45 - have been waiting since 4:30.  Had one 水煎包 and a piece of leftover bread for breakfast.  ANA e-mails informed that check-in status OK from TPE to NRT but not OK from NRT to SJC, don't remember if it was always the case.  Went to 郵局 to turn in some activity so that my account won't be idle and then deactiviated,  since it is closed On saturday afternoon, I could only use the ATM to do it by selecting "balance query command".  Bought several breads for breakfast and lunch (connecting flight in NRT will be lunch time and last almost 5 hours).

2/9/2014: Stayed awake until 1:30, got up at 5:25.  Heading for 中正機場 at 6:25.  It was raining hard, but got to the airport without delay at 7:10.  I have never seen so many people at this airport.  Got boarding pass at the online checkin baggage drop-off counter.  Purchased a box of 紫芋酥 for the hiking gang.  Called Anita using airport free Wi-Fi, had a 起司肉鬆麵包 for breakfast.  The flight took off at 8:20, 5 minutes late.  Should be able to arrive NRT at 1:10 Japan time.  The flight was totally booked, no empty seat.   A family traveling together wanted to switch seat with me, I declined because it's a window seat, it would be painful for me - sorry.  I had fish steak l7nch, it was delicious, included was a sea food salad with shrimp, squid, and ham - also tasted good, had a bottle of red wine - Cabernet Sauvignon made in France - nice.  The plane landed at NRT at 1:05 Tokyo time, it taxied to the gate at 1:16 but due to heavy snow overnight in the area, many flights were delayed and thus all agtes are occupied, our designated gate was uased by an UA flight boarding, we'll have to wait at least 30 minutes.  We finally got to the gate at 2:22 - exhausting experience.  Went through security and got to gate 53 at 3:00.  Waited until past boarding time, there was no activities at the counter, checked and found out the plane was no where to be seen, it was obviously delayed when take off time came and gone.  After 30 more minutes after scheduled take off time, ANA offered ￥1000 for economy class passengers meal coupon - simply take boarding pass to participating vendor to redeem  the meal.  Walked around (about 10 minutes) and found the same  McDonalds I used last time under similar situation, I was going to try the Suhsi place but realized most dishes are over ￥1000, so waited in line (>10 minutes) and ordered a Chicken burger meal, walked back to gate 53 and consumed the burger - not bad.  After I bought the burger, found out from flight status display board that flight NH1076 was rescheduled to 8:00, not as bad as I would expect, but it doesn't count it actually took off.  Further delays were announced but we finally boarded the plane at 8:30.  The flight was not fully occupied, not sure if it's due to snow delay, normal occupancy, or someth8bg else, but the flight was once again delayed due to a couple of passengers not boarding the plane and the crews hd to remove their luggages.  We finally left the gate at 8:34 but did not actually leave the ground until 8:50, a long taxing.  Since the plane was quite loosely occupied, my next seat (34k) passenger decided he wants more room and moved to the seat (34G - 34F is also empty) across the isle from me (34H), no complaint :-)  As always, the meal onboard ANA plus the wine are excellent.  Watched "Last Vegas" and "Captain Philipis".  Th e plane landed at 桃園國際機場 at 1:05, 2 hours and 55 minutes behind schedule.  Got home at 2:00.