olivia "walking"

here's a video taken yesterday of olivia "walking" around the living room using the coffee table as support.....



she should be walking on her own pretty soon as for the past couple weeks she's been standing up still for a few seconds on her own without any support.

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olivia & ethan eating lollipop and watching tv together

olivia (who turned 11 months 3 days ago) & cousin ethan (who turned 2 years old yesterday) hanging out in the living room eating lollipop and watching tv together.....

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blogtoberfest 2008

on saturday, we headed back out to hukou again for the bushman's octoberfest, which was held at a local thai restaurant and attended by some of the most prominent english bloggers in taiwan; plus family & friends. the food was great, the alcohol was flowing non-stop, the ktv was cranked up and overall, it was just a lot of fun. it was great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. bloggers in attendance were (in no particular order): mj, mt, carrie, david r, david e, neil, todd, darren, ashish, bailey, craig, mei, mark and wayne.

the only photos i took are the two i've posted above. however, i now really regret not taking a few photos of olivia together with chloe (darren's daughter) & alice (neil's daughter). well, i did manage take some videos.....


mj and oath from fong band.


"team mike" singing english songs in chinese!


more of "team mike".


carrie rocking the party with her great voice.


carrie seranating john.

i've got a couple more videos which i will not be posting (yet). i will keep those incriminating videos for future blackmail. muahahahahaha!

finally, i'd like to take this opportunity to give huge congratulations to carrie & john, to cathy & todd, and to david & catherine. all three couples are engaged to be married soon. then, also congratulations to selina & ashish, whom are expecting their first baby in february. congrats to you all!!!

google maps location of the party.....

View Larger Map

update:
party recaps.....

http://www.flickr.com/groups/898789@N20/pool

http://www.thenhbushman.com/2008/10/25/blogtoberfest_fun

http://www.thenhbushman.com/2008/10/29/bushmans-blogtoberfest-the-story-from-my-perspective

http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2008/10/blogtoberfest-in-hukou

http://neilcthompson.blogspot.com/2008/10/blogtoberfest.html

http://thedailybubbletea.com/2008/10/27/daily-photo-fried-egg-salad-blogtoberfest

http://davidintaiwan.blogspot.com/2008/10/bushmans-blogtoberfest.html

http://www.darrenmelrose.com/blog/?p=30

http://toshuo.com/2008/trip-to-hukou

http://www.craigfergusonimages.com/albums/album/72157608405107115/Blogtoberfest.html

http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2008/11/02/hukou-blogtoberfest-with-the-bushman

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bushman's blogtoberfest

info from the bushman (or click on the banner above)....

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"If you're an English blogger, please mark your calendar for October 25th, and join us in Hukou for the biggest blogger event in Taiwan: Bushman's Blogtoberfest!"

Bushman's Blogtoberfest, 2008

Sat Oct 25, 2008
(Timezone: Taipei)
Hukou, Taiwan (map)

The biggest blogger event ever! Every English blogger is invited to attend.

Send this to every English blogger you know, even if you think they might already know about this. Respond as soon as you can to let us know if you will be attending.

This is what we did last year: http://www.thenhbushman.com/2007/10/22/blogger-grill-party-the-untold-story/ This year's event is on the same weekend as last year's.

This year we have our own restaurant to ourselves, down the street from the famous Shao-hui's. It's a lesser known place but the food is excellent, as many of you already know.

There will be a PA system on hand for announcements and any presentations that people would like to give to the blogging community. There will be karaoke, some live performances, and all you can eat and drink of a variety of Thai food and beverages. The price will be approximately NT$500 per person. This includes alcoholic beverages.

If you have a presentation that you'd like to give to the English blogging community, now is your chance. Please inform us of what you'd like to present and the length so we can schedule it into the program.

The actual location for this event is: Blogtoberfest @ 24.867078,121.02545 Plug this into Google Maps and you can get directions. This place is on the same road as Shao-hui's in Hukou. Many people have been there. There will be a sign out front so you can't miss it. You may use the comment space in this calender to hook up rides and talk about the event.

I will be setup at the venue and ready to receive guest at 15:00. The event will end when the party breaks up.

Space is limited so the most important factor is letting us know that you'll be attending.

I am looking forward to meeting many of you for the first time, and seeing old friends again.

---

everyone is welcomed, blogger or not. if you did not get an invitation to this event, please leave a comment here and an invitation will be sent immediately!

here are some posts from people that attended the last get-together:

http://www.thenhbushman.com/2007/10/21/blogger-grill-party-2/

http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/10/21/bbq-with-the-nh-bushman-and-friends-in-hukou/

http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/10/23/a-fewclassic-photos-from-the-blogger-grill-party-in-hukou/

http://thedailybubbletea.com/2007/10/22/hukou-blogger-meet-up/

http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2007/10/hanging-out-in-hukou/

http://davidintaiwan.blogspot.com/2007/10/taiwan-bloggers-shindig-in-hukou.html

http://bbluesman.com/2007/10/22/chilling-with-the-bushman/

http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2007/10/day-of-bloggers.html

http://dreintaiwan.blogspot.com/2007/10/shot-from-grill-party-in-hukou.html

http://dreintaiwan.blogspot.com/2007/10/ass-kicked-by-sang-som-in-hukou.html

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congratulations are in order

i want give huge congratulations to nick, who last month married kristy, and to carlos, who last week married min. i've known both guys since junior high, so that's well over 15 years. they are both very good friends and are dear to me like brothers.

so, to both nick and carlos. congratulations on both your weddings. wish you guys absolutely nothing but the best. now, go make like bunnies and start having babies!!!


kristy & nick


min & carlos

also, congratulations goes out to john and karen whom renewed their vows a couple months ago. i've know them both since high school, so we go way back as well with john being like a brother to me.

congratulations guys! now, how about a little bro / sis for jeanine?

(sorry, don't have a photo of karen & john)

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the bushman's block party in hukou

this past weekend, we got an invitation from our good friend mj "the bushman" klein for a block party he was hosting in hukou with some of his thai friends. we used to have block parties back in canada every summer, usually setting up in someone's front lawn (it was my buddy steve's house most of the time) with at least a couple coolers full of beer, a bbq grill going and a boombox going full blast. i've never been to a block party in taiwan, plus the idea of sitting outdoors drinking, grilling, listening to music with some great company and the possibility of causing a riot in the neighbourhood like the good old days..... it all too good to resist, so off to hukou we went on saturday.

karen, olivia and i arrived a bit past noon at mj's place. the plan was for mj and i to go to the block party, while karen and olivia stayed back in the house with mj's lovely wife hui-chen.

soon after we arrived, mj and i loaded all the equipment into my car and off we went to the other side of hukou to get the block part going, with a pit stop at a supermarket to get some meat for grilling and some mixers for the sang som of course.

when we arrived, some of the thai guys already had a couple table set up in the lot and from the looks of it the singha beer had already been flowing for quite a while from the amount of empty bottles they had on and underneath the tables.


on the right is mj's friend oath's convenient store and on the left is the empty lot where the block party was set in motion. check out the sky, not a cloud to be seen. just beautiful weather for a block party.


mj setting up the equipment and making sure the speakers were stable and sturdy. the wind was really strong that day, and the empty lot we were in sits at the end of an alley without any building or obstructions on either end. that made the alley become some sort of a giant funnel making the wind even stronger, with us on the receiving which i actually kinda liked it since the sun was out full blast (even tho' we were in the shade, it was still rather warm) so it was very comfortable and relaxing.


with everything set, it was time to get started. first things first of course, a bottle of sang som!

after getting in a few shots and everyone loosening up, it was really time to get started. here's mj just doing that.....



then ah-gu joins in on the fun by taking over the mic to sing a few fong band songs in thai.....



after a little while and killing the first bottle of sang som, more people joined us.....


so it was time to break out a second bottle of sang som, with a little mickey bottle on stand-by just in case. from this point, i only had a couple more glasses and had to stop drinking because i needed to sober up to drive back to taipei later on the night.

we called it a night around 7pm and headed back to mj's place to meet with the wives and grab dinner. it was a great day and a lot of fun as usual; and as usual, we can not wait to go back and do this again!

make sure to check out mj's post with a much better write-up and photos here: http://www.thenhbushman.com/2008/10/19/bushmans-block-party

google maps location of the block party...

view larger map

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blogger party in taipei

hosted by bike hugger & textura design.

from the hosts.....

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Hello,

We're tech & bike bloggers based in the US coming to Taiwan to cover the Intel Developer Forum and would like to meetup with Taipei bloggers on Sunday 10/19 for drinks and apps (we're buying).

Sunday October 19, 2008
7:00pm - 9:00pm
In House
No.90. Song Ren Rd, Taipei

---

for more details & info, visit http://bikehugger.com/2008/10/taipei_blogger_party.htm

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first taiwanese in the nba

as i was watching the nba pre-season game between the milwaukee bucks and the golden state warriors last night, which was being played in guangzhou, china, i learnt that milwaukee bucks player joe alexander was actually born in taiwan!

from wikipedia.....

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Born in Taiwan, Alexander lived there briefly, moving to Silver Spring, Maryland when he was two. At the age of eight, his family relocated to China when his father got a job working for Nestle. Joe lived for the next six years in China (Hong Kong for six months, the rest in Beijing) where he became nearly fluent in Mandarin.

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yeah, he's 100% american but based on the nba's method of idetifying players' nationalities by their place of birth, joe will be billed as coming from taiwan. so there you have it, first taiwanese in the nba! we'll claim them however way they come.

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wedding in taichung

this past weekend was a long weekend with friday being double-ten holiday. despite having 3 days off, we didn't do anything other than go to my cousin's wedding in dali city, taichung county.....


the table decor.


from right to left... my aunt (my dad's youngest sister), my uncle, my cousin, his new wife and his new in-laws.


olivia having fun with a balloon.


both mother and daughter looking fabulous. this photo makes me glow with proudness & pride.




my newphew ethan doing what he does best..... mayhem & ruckus!

after the wedding we went to buy some taro ice cream, which is one of the foods this area is famous for.


we were told by the locals to go to meifang and we now know why. the place did not disappoint as the ice cream was great.....


and even better was their grass jelly! we were fortunately enough to have this last bowl. yeah, this was the last bowl left in the shop for the day. you know it's good when they sellout in half a day!

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girlie olivia

i think i might have jinxed olivia in this post when i said "wouldn't it suck if her hair took forever to grow back". well, it's been 8 months since that post and she's barely grown any hair. yeah, it does really suck especially since most people think she's a boy due to her lack of hair (plus it doesn't really help that she looks a lot like me!). even when we deliberately dress her in pink clothes, people still ask if she's a boy.

well, we've bought some hair clips to use on what little hair she has.....









what do you guys think? does she look like a little girl now?

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