A Rainy Day of Tight Schedule in Kaohsiung

A Sumptuous Brunch at Muddy Water from 10 till 11 (Greek, Spanish, and Smoked Salmon for three golden ladies on diet. I helped Linda and Lydia finish half of theirs and was full up to my throat. Lydia's friendly neighbor Julie came join us for coffee and paid the bill.)

An Exclusive Orientation of Mansion 克里翁 with Juilie (a new experience in an intelligent building with lots of electronic gadgets for security. Public facilities include luxurious entertainment room, bar lounge, billiard and mahjong rooms.)

A Short Visit to President Chen's Mansion (No. 228, what an address! I'd love to live in the same mansion overlooking Kaohsiung Arts Museum in a beautiful city park of lush green. If it were not noon time, we would have toured the gorgeous building with the help of Julie.)

Visit Kaohsiung Arts Museum (closed on Monday, took a few photos in front of the museum)

Visit the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung (opening ceremony will be held on July 16th, all tickets are sold out. The huge spiral stainless pipe stadium of a question mark is designed by Toyo Ito.)

Visit Military Community Culture Center (I used to pay a visit to my aunt working as a nurse at the Navy General Hospital in Kaohsiung every summer in my childhood. The community we stayed is now a empty grassland with three paved funk holes.)

Visit Kaohsiung Dome (no time to get inside of the dome, took a lot of photos of the dome in the rain)

Late Lunch at How-chi Stinky Beancurd (How-chi was established in 1995. It has been a well-known stinky beancurd shop in Kaohsiung since then. The two-story new shop with Taiwanese style interior design opened less than a year ago. People must wait in a long queue to get a bite of the tasty steamed and fried beancurds. The innovative idea to convert an old dish into a new brand was the success story of the young entrepreneurs.)

Desserts at Marianne Ice Cream (Young and beautiful Marianne's Lady owner told us her story of success. Her husband works day and night to improve turn a shaved ice dessert of Taiwanese into a new creamy flaky ice cream of different flavors. What impressed me the most was her positive thinking attitude. She would definitely be an awesome toastmaster leader in District 67.)

Afternoon Coffee at Me Love Me Love with Julie's husband Jay, Linda, Lydia and I took the opportunity to have an impromptu toastmasters demo meeting for Julie and Jay. I took charge of a tabletopics master, Lydia answered my question. Linda explained the rules of a regular meeting. Jay commented that the skills of active listening would be more crucial than those of public speaking in his company).

Red Wine Farewell Party at Mansion 克里翁 (Many thanks go to Julie and Jay for their friendship. Julie prepared lots of seasonal fruits and two bottles of wine for our last minute farewell party at home in Kaohsiung.)

Departure at Kaohsiung Station at 9PM (Jim gave us a lift to Kaohsiung Train Staion. Linda, Lydia, and I invited Jim and Gary to come visit golden ladies in Taipei anytime. I read "台北人 Taipei People" by Pai Hsien-yung for two hours on my way back to Taipei. In Kaohsiung, Taipei People are called 台北客 Taipei Guests, because they invest in real estate in Kaohsiung, but live in Taipei.)

Arrival at Taipei Station at 11PM (I didn't waste a single moment to change to the metro. I contined reading Taipei People for another 25 minutes. It was a smooth ride back home.)

Home at 11:30PM

PS: 再會又是重逢的開始 Our trip was too short to ride the metro K (K looks like 長) and to chat with newly installed D67 Lt. Governor Marketing Grace Shih in Kaohsiung. We have sound reasons to venture back to the south soon in the future.