From the geniuses at 50 Lan:There's a chain of milk tea shops here in Taiwan called 50 Lan. 50 Lan is awesome, and easily my fave milk tea shop on the planet. Here's another blogger who does a great job of introducing 50 Lan, which is re-branded as KOI in Singapore. In Japan and America, it's known as bubble tea. In Taiwan, it's known as "Boba". However, I love it without any (tapioca) bubbles. Taiwan is the center of the milk-tea universe. There is ceaseless milk-tea-innovation here. 50 Lan has added all sorts of new variants which didn't exist a couple years ago. Look at this! ...but...WAIT! What's this!? Yeah...gotta try that ASAP! Quoting the infinitely-quotable Commander Ed: Q: How's it taste commander? If you look carefully at the bottom right side of the menu above, you can see tea options: amounts of sugar and ice. I chose 70 sugar for this, which is 70% of "normal" sugar. Next time, I'll choose 50%. I also chose normal ice. The effect is a cold, diluted, lightly-sweet tea, that slowly becomes creamier, and sweeter and colder, as the ball of ice cream melts. GENIUS!!! If you've read this far, then I have a treat for you. I found a bizarrely-wonderful music-video about milk tea. Unfortunately it's stoopid and NSFW (just like me!). However, like a great milk tea, the video is great fun, if not perfectly healthy. This video captures the unpretentious, young-joy of milk-tea culture. If you email me, I'll send you the link. I'm ashamed to admit I've listened to it on loop over a dozen times. Please don't judge :) Ndoguro is a great restaurant, but it's very difficult to get a reservation. We tried for many months. Luckily, there was a cancellation on Mother's Day. The chef and staff really went out of their way to accommodate Vivi. We were setup with a double table in the back lounge area. It was like a private dining room. We brought 13 different "courses" for Vivi, since we knew it might be a long night. Vivi ate from 9 of the 13 courses we brought for her. Did I mention that Vivi is very, very spoiled in the food department?!? Most importantly, Vivi was very well-behaved, with no crying or temper tantrums. The chef and staff said we can bring Vivi back any time. That's some amazing mom-ery right there! Happy Mother's Day to all! To celebrate, I combed through 120GB of videos today, and posted some great Vivi vids below. Vivi fans, Enjoy! Out of a bazillion miles of footage of the inside of Vivi's hand, here is one, clean, well-framed shot! She does it all the time, swaying from foot to foot. Sometimes, we don't even notice the music. For instance, at the grocery store, it's easy to ignore the background music. Then you see Vivi rocking away, and you notice the music. Luckily, this area is very hip, so the music is never elevator music. :) Fun, because she's laughing :) Vivi is very smart, and she simply will not stop, if she want's to learn how to do something. I remember hearing her babbling, but not crying, late at night. This lasted about an hour or more. As a new parent, no crying means -- keep sleeping. Here you can see Vivi bored, and she figured out how to climb on top of the crib, like a hammock. She babbled and played, napped and babbled, then went back down. Pretty funny, right? Well... Unfortunately, this internet camera was live-streaming to my in-laws in Hong Kong. They were understandably worried that Vivi might pitch overboard, or possibly get tangled. Also, they couldn't hear the audio and thought Vivi was crying too. So they decided to call our cell phones. This is where the real trouble started. My cell phone blocks unknown international numbers, so it chirped a couple times, but not enough to wake me at 4am. My wife almost always has her mobile phone by her bed, along with the nanny cam, set to loud volume. However, in this case, her phone was accidentally left charging in the kitchen. Mom's get tired. Things happen. So, the nanny cam just had quiet babbling, or silence, no reason to wake us. My in-laws are freaking out, thinking Vivi is crying, apoplectic, and about to dive onto her head. Their 4 phone calls to each parent went to voicemail, or hung up. Not. Good. We are in the process of building a taller crib. Also, at least my wife's phone is set louder and charged by the bed. Someday, we will laugh at these pictures more than now. Well, ok, they are still pretty funny now! :) We got this stuffed bear from our neighbor, Bob. We call him Bobbie Bear. This is a gorgeous, fuzzy bear from Germany, which Bob's family has passed on through generations. We will do the same. It's wonderful to see how much a child can love a toy! It really doesn't translate to adulthood. I can remember loving my banana-seat, red, Schwinn bike almost this much. This footage takes me back. :) Vivi is positively mental about house keys! We've seen her play with them for 15 minutes, and eternity in baby time! Also, Vivi is constantly puttering around the kitchen, removing things from the baking implement cabinet. |
AuthorI'm an applied-math-research Ph.D. and serial startup founder. I am a recognized computer security expert, fortunate to join the ranks of many, great CTO's. I've founded and seed-funded multiple, successful, VC-backed companies. I'm still at it! Archives
December 2020
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