Thursday 29 August 2013

Taiwan trip and GlobalTiC Award 2013 (Day 1)

I'm fighting a sleepy spell while writing this entry, and procrastination has a silent genius of its own. I planned to write an entry every night whilst in Taiwan, but laziness, sleepiness (I had time to myself only at night) and lack of any mood to write a recount of everyday culminated itself into this, one big lump of blogging homework, but I'm enjoying every typing moment of it!

Why do I say genius? Because I now have a very different opening than I would have if I'd started writing diligently from the first day of the trip. I'm thinking the other version would have gone something like this, 'Ah, Taiwan, my food haven and supplier of good quality CDs!' I think I prefer the opening I used.

Anyway, this was my second trip to Taiwan but this time, I toured Taipei exclusively, visiting some new places and revisiting some old favourites - I can't help but mention 'Danshui' here. This trip wasn't meant to be, but as fate would have it, the tickets were booked and I was in Taipei city before I could get my Mandarin vocabulary in working order - not that I had very little time to prepare.

I was watching a movie one night while Mom and Dad were busy searching for tickets to Taiwan. Dad had to go because he was bringing a team to compete in the GlobalTic Awards. In a stroke of genius my Dad thought bringing me along would be a great idea and Mom agreed enthusiastically. I had no idea of this until Dad asked me to check his passport number. On the screen, expecting to see only one name, I saw two, and it took a while to sink in, that I was going to Taiwan! Then, my Mom remembered something important - my violin exam. I would be coming back on the 25th, and two days later would be the exam day. Talk about great planning. I'm thankful we went ahead with the trip. My parents were cool about it, 'Ah, no problem', they said. This was an experience not to be missed. Mom couldn't go, due to some commitments, but I hope we can all go together the next time.

Since the event was scheduled to be held from 20th to 23rd August, we planned for two days of exploring and self-touring. So Sunday and Monday were days to ourselves.

Dad and I arrived in Taoyuan Airport on a Sunday afternoon. The flight was delayed by half an hour. Dad and I had some difficulty activating the roaming feature in our phone so he bought a local sim card. Outside, a busy Taipei awaited our stomachs and taste buds. It was summer and the heat was no relief, since we just flew in from a tropical country. The taxi driver we hired was quiet at first but after we spoke to him in Tai-yi, he opened up and even recommended some food streets near the hotel. See what a common a language can do?

We checked into our hotel/hostel and went down to the nearby night-market just at the end of our block. There were many food shops and another market on the same block as the hostel, many convenience stores, and even a metro station. Convenience at its best. Eager to start our food adventure, we went down to the crowded street at the end of the block.

Ningxia Night Market
Ningxia Night Market, composing of one food street and one games street, is comparatively small to Shihlin nightmarket, but not lacking in good food. The first thing we tried was the stinky toufu - 'chou doufu' - a must-have when in Taiwan, and we washed it down with some 'aiyu' drink, which would soon become my favourite jelly drink from Taiwan. The drink is sour, plum-ish and lemony, the jelly itself is tasteless except for a hint of sour but is very smooth and fun to squish - a very refreshing drink on a humid summer's evening! After the appetiser, we had another Taiwanese favourite, the Taiwanese sausage ('xiang chang')! Glazed with honey, grilled to a shine, slathered with fresh blended garlic, and succulent from the generous chunks of fat in it, I was in a sausage-lover's paradise! We even got to see a hawker making the sausages. He pours the ground meat - his secret recipe, of course - and fits some tubing, I'm guessing made of pig's intestines, at the outlet. He turns a handle and the tubing gets filled with meaty goodness. He leaves some room to tie a knot at the end, and loosens up the contents.

Ok, enough with the sausage, the next items on the menu were braised (and the fried) large and small pig's intestines, curdled pig's blood with glutinous rice cake and duck's tongues. The selection was quite costly but worth every yuan. The large intestines were fatty and melt-in-your-mouth and so, so tasty; the small ones were more crispy; the blood cake, although slightly different from the type I have back home, which doesn't have glutinous, was very good; and the duck's tongue was fatty and tasty - though I didn't know the correct way of eating it, oh well. Some of you may be disgusted, while some of you may be watering in your mouths. Either way, I hardly have to tell you this, but my taste buds were thoroughly satisfied.

Ah, next was my Dad's favourite, 'lu rou fan', or braised pork (minced) rice. The pork was fragrant and the rice was the short, pearl type. Under the light, the oily rice had that beautiful glint you see in Chinese recipe books. Dad and I were too well-behaved we only shared one bowl.

It was clean for a night market, unlike the food streets back home, which are more wet and have litter everywhere. One way they keep their street clean is having a good sewage system. All the water from the sinks go down to the sewers through piping that is attached to a small manhole. Each stall is located near one and they can remove the piping and cover the holes after they close. There's a general civic conscious to keep the streets clean, but of course, you still get rubbish on the ground.

The twilight sky slowly turned to the starry night sky, but the city didn't seem to be slowing down. In fact, the night life was just getting started. By eleven Dad and I were full and quite - due to the heat and humidity. We shared a beer, which brought immediate relief to our throats and the heatiness. We were sticky all over but we're quite used to that feeling already. We headed back and called it a day.

(To be continued)

Cheers
zhusun

Monday 26 August 2013

Grade 8 Violin Exam, ABRSM

(I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to my violin teacher - a very patient and creative man, my accompanist - for being patient as well, and especially Mom - who practised the aural section with me and gave me pointers for my pieces, and for being the wonderful music teacher that she is.)

Woke up at 5 in the morning even though the alarm was set at 6. Spent some time reading through the aural specimen tests, and some butterflies started to flutter their wings the more unusual terms I saw. But sitting there and letting the mind occupy itself would have made the butterflies flutter faster - thinking too much of the exam. I tried not to remember that I only got back on Sunday and had only yesterday to run through everything. During my week-log trip in Taiwan, I forgot about my violin exam almost completely - I said, 'almost'.

The journey to the venue wasn't pleasant. What could have been a 15-20 minute journey turned into a 45 minute one due to the traffic. It was 7 a.m. when we left the house and were met with the second wave of office-goers. The constant jerking of the car, closing the gap between our car and the one in front, and the air-conditioned air of the car made my head a bit dizzy and my stomach a little uncomfortable. I hate it when this happens... Dad was very kind to walk to a nearby 7-Eleven to get me some sweets. The minty Mentos does wonders.

My examiner looked pleasant, and spoke in the Queen's English, clear and music to my ears. She's from the Royal School, go figure. Whilst in the exam room, my hands felt cold all of a sudden, and a slight tingling started to run through my fingers. After tuning my accompanist had to wait outside because my first piece, Partita 2 by Bach, was a solo. Considering this was the first time I played the piece ever since waking up - I am not a morning person, by the way - I think I did alright, albeit having shaky hands. The problem was having a shaky right hand, my bowing arm, which made some parts sound like my violin was hiccuping - a potent skill, I must add. I was relieved when Mom said it sounded not bad, she could at least hear the expressions and some double melodies.

After I was done I invited my accompanist back in and we proceeded to rock out the second piece, Swediesche Tanze, 5th, 6th and 7th movements. Te 5th and 7th movements were more up-beat, and I hope I portrayed the overall feeling clearly. The 6th movement is a sweet piece, and I just hope it didn't sound like a chicken being slaughtered. I took a deep breath before starting the last piece, Sonatina 1st movement, by William Alwyn. A very romantic piece, and my Mom describes it as lovely. I thought I played this better than the first two pieces. Mom agrees, remembering that yesterday's playing was a sleepy murmur.

The scales section was up next and I'm thankful I went through my own drills yesterday. Sight-reading was fine, though I played arco when I was supposed to play pizzicato, and played one part too loudly as I missed out the piano direction. But I think the overall feeling was just right. Don't even talk about the notes, I can't tell you how out of pitch I was.

Then came the most dreaded section, aural. I think I got my cadences wrong, and my modulations as well, even though it was the easiest thing they could ask. I hope my description of the piece in the last question was acceptable! I even asked for my examiner's autograph. I am insufferable...

Coming out of the exam room, I felt a big boulder tumble off my shoulders, and was happy to see Mom and my violin teacher standing a few rooms away - it was held in a hotel. He came to cheer me on, after getting in caught in the traffic jam. Thank you! Ah well, I won't be seeing him for a while. I've decided to put violin on hold for the moment until I get my degree. Maybe I'll go for classes every no and then.

Now that this is over and done with I'm starting to think what the nervousness was for. I would've played better and enjoyed myself more, but I'm satisfied with what I've done - I shouldn't speak so soon. I can now start writing on my 'short' account of my exciting trip to Taiwan. So stay tuned!

Cheers
zhusun

Friday 2 August 2013

Kick the SOCCKET for Light!

The SOCCKET
Energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transferred. That was what I learned from my science classes back in school. Hence it is possible to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy. This knowledge is not new, but how a team of scientists applied this knowledge has given new meaning to 'the power of  play'.

As you might have guessed, the SOCCKET generates electricity whenever it is moved.  Unlike the dynamo on a bicycle, the SOCCKET has a pendulum inside it which swings and converts kinetic energy into electrical energy which is then stored in a rechargeable battery. Like a dynamo, it powers a light source - an LED in particular - when connected to the charger. It is estimated to be able to generate 3-hours of light from 30-minutes of play.

There is no need to worry about fragility. After all, it was designed to function like a regular soccer ball. It is actually more durable than the conventional soccer ball, in that it will not deflate, as it is made of a specialised foam.

The inventors, Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman, founded a social enterprise called Uncharted Play in 2011, which mass produces the SOCKKET. However, the initial patent for the invention is held by Matthews and Silverman, along with Jessica Lin, Hemali Thakkar and Aviva Presser, who are alumni of Harvard University. The project has almost raised $100,000 on Kickstarter, a fundraiser.

I first came across the SOCCKET a few months ago when my Dad showed me a commercial for it on Youtube. I hope the SOCCKET becomes a more readily available especially in countries and places where children and people in general are poverty-stricken, or have limited access to electricity.

Cheers
zhusun