做朋友的道理

我曾在新加坡艺术馆看到一章书法艺术 《亭闲有竹春常在,山静无人水自流. 莫言今日无知己,自有清风作故人》。

当时的我竟然处境伤情。书法好像仿佛了自己的生活。 曾经社交圈宽的我现在好像在小岛上徘徊。 虽然我一个人， 但我不觉得寂寞、孤苦伶仃。因为我享受平静，宁可一个人拉小提琴、学作、游泳， 也不想卷入人家的恩恩怨怨、找茬 （看不出来吧！）。

但总有时还是会有点悲观，看到一旁的人在网上描述他们的精彩生活，自己还是会思考道为何自己没朋友？难道性格恶劣？还是自说自爽的态度无意中得罪他人？

爱人安慰我，说“想想看， 当时你跟很多人聚在一起， 但是不可能大家都是你要好的朋友吧。”

可是。。。

今天我与小猪出差，在德士里讨论这个话题。司机先生也冒昧加入，说“人在这世上， 有时是来逃债的，而有时是还债的。当两人再也没联络，表示他们的缘分已经结束了”。

难道我跟朋友的缘分是那么短暂得吗？

回家时，我们继续讨论话题。 另位司机先生等到小猪下车， 立刻对我说“做朋友的道理很简单。你要记得Deny yourself.”

???

看着我目瞪口呆，他继续道“有时他人向你倾诉时， 不要立刻反映。 因为现在的他情绪化，容易误解你所说的话，认为你在讽刺他。

大家都要面子，都要整风相对，只承认自己是对的。 所以， 你等到他平静下来，才说出心中的话会比较适当吧。”

Yummy Yummy @ RaoHe Street Night Market 饶河街夜市

Note: I am housekeeping all my drafts in this blog account. Found this one and decided to finish writing it and post.

The Fantastic Pepper Bun "胡椒饼" stall is right next to this gate. Don't miss it!

RaoHe Street Night Market ( 饶河街夜市) is the most inaccessible of all the night markets by MRT 捷运. We ended up walking from WuFenPu (Clothes district) over to the place, because it was on the way. This place is very hard to find. I asked four Family Mart cashiers before we managed to find this place. Typical of a man, B1 absolutely refuses to ask for directions (even in Japan, when he is the only one who can speak and understand Japanese). We love Family Mart cashiers, they are always so polite and helpful, which saved our lives at Xin Beitou when we were trying to find our secluded inn).

It was our last night in Taipei so we covered a lot of areas, like Shilin again (which I finally got to eat the absolutely delish 原上海生煎包). By the time we reached this place, I think it was 2230hrs so I was pretty exhausted since we were backpacking (everytime I say I will reduce the stuff I bring, and yet I still carry tons of stuff in my backpack! *annoyed* How just like a girl!) and I have been walking A LOT.

I think I was in a super bitchy mood by then. Hahah. Strange, this I recall?! We had been arguing over something trivial (I think I was mad because he always make me do all the asking for directions) because we were both exhausted (this is something typical whenever we backpack, wait till you see how we entertained a Japanese Salaryman when we gesticulated but whispered angrily at each other on the JR Rail last year. His eyes were agog and he was actually smiling... Creepy) and hungry (note: B1 , adorable as he is usually, cannot stand being hungry. His bitch/nag factor can go up by 10x, so I always carry food in my backpack => always heavy)

 

Luckily there was an extremely delicious Pepper bun sold just near the gate that you see in the pic above.  This baked bun contains meat, diced onion and cilantro (I think, cannot remember so well) restored our faith in the world and we continued on, where we also bought Koi Bubble tea, which you can find in Singapore.

Because there wasn't much time, we still have to run back to catch the very last MRT 捷运, so we just quickly bought some more buns (this is the steamed and then lightly fried kind, same as 原上海生煎包), and some ultra smelly tofu, which comes with Chinesisch Sauerkraut *hahah* 

Then it was a mad dash to the train station, past Wufenpu and then to Houshanpi station (台北捷運藍線後山埤站)... I must say here that I have a pretty excellent sense of direction. Once I go a certain route I know how to return and sometimes take a shortcut as well. Which is a good thing to have when you backpack...

Thrice Upon a Time and other Exhibits

Hidalgo's Las Virgenes Cristianas. It spoke to me, when I came across it. I stood for a long time staring at it.

I liked Amorsolo's Dalagan Bukid a lot too

A piece of art with a sense of humor. I like!

It's going to be Chinese New Year Soon...

Yesterday I had a family event which necessitated the use of an ang bow "红袍". But I forgot to bring one from the house when I went swimming. Since B1 refused to swim because the water was going to be cold (it was, wonderfully) as it was raining very hard (though no lightning, for which I am thankful), I asked him to buy the ang bow paper for me while he was getting a drink from Coffee Bean. 

He couldn't find the ang bow paper that people use for weddings so he bought those for Chinese New Year. *Faints* He bought some really cute ones with Hello Kitty. I think they are so cute, they deserve a post!

Saturday Munchies 23 - Kung Pao Chicken and then... Kung Pao Shrimp

I did something incredibly stupid. I saw this recipe for Japanese Cheesecake in my colleague's latest I-Weekly and asked to photocopy it. She generously told me to tear it out instead, which I did, and then forgot to bring it home.

Stupido.

Rather than refer to my pre-existing recipe for Japanese Cheesecake, I decided to do it the next week. Instead I tried to experiment making the Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti we had at California Pizza Kitchen last Thursday with some leftover chicken breast. So I made that and with the remaining chicken stock I used up the clump of spinach I found in the fridge and made 3 eggs (meaning bits of hard-boiled salty duck egg, thousand-year egg and chicken egg drop) with spinach soup.

I tried to call B1 three times, but he didn't pick up all the way until 2 pm. So we ate up his share. Sehr bad, right?

When he finally showed up at 3pm, he was screaming holy murder because there was nothing left... so I found some shrimp and made him a Kung Pao Shrimp version. Haha.