olivia yu - the first year

here's a video i made up of some photos from the first 12 months. enjoy.....

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happy 1st birthday to olivia!

olivia turned 1 year old today but the celebrations already got started this past sunday at my in-law's.....


other than karen's immediate fammily, we were also joined by some of her aunts and cousins.


when we lit the candle and turned off all the lights and everyone started singing happy birthday, olivia just froze there shocked and freaked out since she didn't know what was going on.


with karen comforting her, she started to come around and went along with it.


she still doesn't know what's going on, but with everyone around her smiling, laughing and applauding, she also started to smile probably thinking it was a game.


make a wish!


nice makeup.




then, since my sister cindy's birthday (11/25) is a day before olivia's, we bought a cake and they celebrated their birthdays together.....


the "1" candle is for olivia and while my sister went with the "?" candle. women and their age. really, age is simply mind over matter. if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.


cindy's 2-year old son ethan joins in on the festivities.


make a wish!?


cutting the cake.




ok. so finally, today 11/26 is olivia's actual birthday. we didn't do anything too special other than dinner with the family and a cake as usual.....


we bought her a cute teddy bear cake from 85c.


this being olivia's third cake and birthday celebration in 5 days, i think she's got the hang of it now. plus, i think the teddy bear shaped cake helped too. she started smiling as soon as she saw it.


"happy birthday to you... happy birthday dear olivia... happy birthday to you!!!"


cindy's son ethan jumps in on the fun again.


make a wish.....again.


yay!!!




olivia really enjoyed her cake!




olivia, happy birthday baby! mama & papa loves ya!

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a day in miaoli & hukou

on saturday, we spent a really nice and relaxing day in the miaoli cabin, which was topped off with a really good thai food dinner in hukou.....


first thing first. made a pit stop at subway to get some breakfast.


as soon as we arrived, olivia gets her own breakfast.


the weather couldn't have been any more perfect. the past few weeks have just been rainy and cold but we've really lucked out as the warm sunny weather has coincided with our outings the past couple saturdays.


view from the front porch.


my cousin jeff getting on with some chores, which included washing the front porch.....


and feeding the fish in the pond.


yes, there are a couple of fishies in the pond.


ok, maybe a little bit more than a couple.








not everyday that you get to see a corn field in taiwan.








the neighbours to the left.


the neighbours to the front.


speaking of neighbours to the front, they came over with their 14 month old son.


i don't know if olivia was happy or pissed to see this kid.....


since he took over her pink bike right away.


hey buddy, watch your hands!


hey, where are you going with my baby? you lucky you riding a pink bike and that you ain't older or i'd probably shoot you!


after some playtime, we were getting hungry so it was time to fire up the grill.


a staple grub in all our bbq's now, salty pork.


olivia knows there's some good food coming, so she gets ready and take the best seat in the house.....


right on the table!


karen and becky cooking with the dutch oven.

despite the amount of food served, we did not get ourselves too stuffed because we wanted to stop by hukou on the way home for some thai food. so we hooked up with hui-chen, mj and ashish over at ah-dong's.


the food was great as usual but what was cool is i got to try some vietnamese beer. now, that's a first for me.

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taipei photography club

darren melrose is putting together a taipei photography club.

info from darren.....

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Taipei Photography Club

It has been tried before, and I am trying it again. I am hoping to start up a Taipei Photography Club. This is intended to be a fun, social group meant for anyone with any kind of camera. Please do not believe that you have to have a state of the art DSLR; anything that takes photos is great.

I guess there are a few goals I have in mind. First, I am just hoping to build up a group of friends with a common interest; the social aspect is a big part of my ideals. Second, I am hoping that this can act as a motivation to get me and others out taking photos. Learning from others, perhaps helping other shooters myself would be nice benefits too. Mostly though, I want this to be fun.

Here is what I am thinking. The group would meet once a month, probably for breakfast or lunch, followed by some shooting. At these meetings, I was hoping that someone would give a talk on something photography related. As an example, I might do something on how to shoot strangers on the street, as that is something that is not easy for everyone. Other examples might be someoone covering post processing or cataloging, matting and printing, selling your photos, getting published, studio lighting, shooting for magazines or newspapers, or who knows what else. The speakers could be members of our group, but perhaps we could also have guest speakers too. For example, I am sure there is an AP or Reuters photographer based in Taipei and it would be cool to hear his or her story. Likewise, it would be interesting to hear from a professional studio photographer, a Nat Geo shooter or who knows who else might be willing to give up a morning. Perhaps at each of these meetings, it would also be nice to have everyone in the group show a few of their best prints from the past month? Just ideas all, but these are things I think might be fun.

At these meetings, I am thinking that we could set a theme or a project to shoot in the upcoming month. Fro example, it might be a scavenger hunt, where each member is to shoot (for example) 12 photos based upon 12 themes and then put them together in a set. Rather than a scavenger hunt, it might be a set number of photos based upon a certain theme, a roll of film shot with a disposable, etc? I am thinking that these projects might be done as a competition, with the winner being the one who sets the next challenge. If folks would prefer not to introduce competition into things, that is cool too. One of the good things I see about the month long challenge would be that in this way, people who can’t be at the meetings can still participate in the challenges.

Thinking in more of a long term way, I was thinking that other possibilities might open up. Perhaps the group could have their prints featured in a local gallery somewhere. I know all of the FNACs in town show photos, there is the Jhongshan Art Gallery, in the underground between Jhongshan MRT and Taipei Main Station shows prints and art, any number of restaurants and tons of other places I am sure I don’t know about but which do exist. I would think that many people would like the ego boost of seeing their stuff hanging somewhere other than on their walls. Who knows? Maybe something like that could even lead to a print sale or two?

We could also, after a few months, do the odd weekend road trip to some scene or event in Taiwan. We might rent a studio, studio lights and a model or two and try some studio photography; something I have never done but would be very interested in. Who knows what else might come up in time should this thing really get rolling?

I am sure there are lots of creative people out there who have more and better ideas than do I; please let me know what they are.

First off, I guess we should set a possible meeting time. Of course, it will have to happen on a weekend. I am not certain what day is better. Let’s think about making it the weekend of November 22 or 23. If you are interested, either leave your name and email in a reply here, or email me directly at darren AT darrenmelrose.com and let me know if Saturday the 22nd or Sunday the 23rd is better for you. After we know what day we will meet, we can decide where that will be. Please let me know if you have other ideas and please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested. We will finalize the meeting date by Sunday the 16th I guess and a meeting place sometime shortly after that. I am very open to ideas about where to meet too.

Like I said earlier, everyone is welcome. The only requirements would be that you have a camera of some kind and I guess a way to display them on the net. Maybe it would be best if everyone were to sign up for flickr? flickr is free as long as you don’t want to display more than 200 photos, so it need not cost you anything. If need be, I could also set up a permanent gallery on my site should that be useful.

Some additional things: First, I forgot to mention a link to the original group, which never really got the momentum going: http://www.flickr.com/groups/taiwanphotoclub/. Second, in order to get things rolling from the beginning, I will come up with a set of ideas for the first project/challenge. This one will be a scavenger hunt for sure and I will have a set of 12 subjects ready at the meeting.

Again, if you could let us know which day, Saturday the 22nd or Sunday the 23rd is better, that would be great. You can either reply to this thread, or email me at darren AT darrenmelrose.com.

Hope to see you soon.

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national center for traditional arts

about 6 years ago, karen and i went to the national center for traditional arts in one of our weekend getaways in yilan. unfortunately, it rained the whole time when we visited the center so we didn't get to see nor do anything. so ever since then, we've been wanting to go back but never got the chance to do so until this past saturday when we went with olivia and my parents.









































































google maps location of the traditional arts center.....

view larger map

i highly recommend visiting the center if you have kids. lots of traditional taiwanese arts and customs for young kids to see and learn. taking the hsuehshan ("snow mountain") tunnel, it's less than an hour (with normal traffic) from taipei, so it's not too far at all. even if you don't visit the center, there's still lots of places to visit around yilan. plus with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other; flat and farm lands in between with hardly any buildings, it's just such an easy going, laid back and relaxing region. the first sight of yilan when you come out of the hsuehshan tunnel is a feeling of instant relaxation. i simply love it out there.

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olivia @ 11 months

it's really hard to believe that olivia is turning 1 year old in two weeks. there are times that i still feel like she was just born not too long ago.

some of the newer more recent things she's been able to do:
- she can now stand up and take a couple steps without any support.
- she can climb off the bed on her own.
- she calls karen "ma" and both grandmas "ah-ma"; still working on "pa" for me tho'
- we can actually interact with her a little bit as she actually answers "hao" (OK in chinese) when we ask her something.
- she hadn't grown any teeth for the longest time but she's got 6 now... 4 up top and 2 on the bottom. she's still barely got any hair tho'!

it's been amazing to see her development. she's constantly learning and doing something new, which is really rewarding and just a great joy to watch.

here are some photos taken the past couple weeks.....


with the bicycle craze sweeping across taiwan, olivia was not to be left out. here she is riding her new bike in the garage. (thanks to ariel for this bike)


***honk - honk*** that koala makes a honking sound when squeezed, which olivia just loves to do.




olivia loves to get up onto the driver's seat and hold the steering wheel. future speed demon!


***vroom - vroom***


with olivia's best friend, cousin ethan.






taking a "walk" on the bed.

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north coast outing

we hand't planned anything for today therefore we were feeling pretty bored in the afternoon, so decided to take a drive along the north coast.....


as we made our way through danshui, there was so much advertising for new homes and real estate developments. the streets were lined with people like these holding up signs and handing out flyers.


tons of billboards too for these real estate developments. with the current economic crisis and recessions, makes you wonder when the bubble will burst?


driving past the legendary and haunted "ufo" pod village.




rain in the distance with the sun out full blast above, makes for rainbow in the clouds. sorry, kinda hard to see in the pic.


looks like we caught up to that rain the distance as we approached baishawan.


making a pit stop so olivia can drink her milk.....


and buy some famous liu family sticky rice.


time to resume our drive.


the shihmen wind power generator plant. sorry, windshield wiper got in the way of the shot.






we decided to stop for some coffee and snack, but this time we stayed away from young door. instead, drove up the road and stopped in this place, 'o sole mio. it was without a doubt a lot better as it wasn't as crowded and the food was a lot better.


olivia just hanging out and enjoying the outing.


oreo latte icey.


pretty good waffles. at least it wasn't so hard it made it taste like we were chewing cardboards.


karen feeding olivia some jello which we brought ourselves.


this place had a nice little swimming pool in the back. we're definitely bring olivia back again next summer. hey, what do you know? looks like i found nemo!


the rooftop had some very cool seating areas with nice views overlooking the ocean.


olivia hadn't taken her nap at this point hence the tired and sleepy face.






with nightfall taking over, it was time to go home.


what's an outing in taiwan without being stuck in some traffic?!

unfortunately, we left home fairly late (2:30pm) so we didn't get to see too much. we'd like to come back again soon but in the morning so we can see more, especially yehliu. haven't gone there since i was a young kid.

oh yeah, and by the way... speaking of young kids, since it's already passed midnight, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

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