Green House Red Room

My penthouse was re-opened to public with a new nickname "Green House Red Room" last weekend. As two walls were big windows, the house was bright like a green house. And my wishful thinking of a lot of reading of the Toastmaster magazines prompted me to call the penthouse Red (Read) room, and I might even paint one wall in red.

Six golden ladies Toastmasters came to the Red Room slumber party Saturday evening, August 27th. Michelle was the first one to arrive. She just came back from her three days business trip to Cambodia with a handful finger food, beef jerky, potato chips. She and I tried to make a primitive Othello Game for the evening. When Lydia joined us with a box of See’s chocolate chips, we began the Othello Game of the evening over a good round of beer and drinks before dinner.

Othello, also called Reversi, is a board game played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

While playing the Othello Game, I thought of Othello, the tragedy of the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare, based on the Italian story "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain"). The four characters of intrigue, love, jealousy, and betrayal were Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his wife Desdemona; his lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted ensign Iago.

After dinner in the neighborhood, we resumed merrily our Sex and the City scene, the women's talk about men, women, and relationships. Lydia and Michelle loved the Ugly Truth by Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. I watched it twice the following week, in Mandarin subtitle and in English subtitle, to understand the hilarious effect on them, to learn a few scatological expressions, and to spot how much was lost in translation.

Pamela joined us late in the evening with a box of her homemade brownies, bread and chestnuts stickers. I loved them all. I would definitely be the first student to sign up for her baking class after her retirement next year.

Upon Trini's suggestion, we played the Game Hearts, Gong Zhu in Chinese. The objective of the game is to score positive points and avoid penalty points. Gong Zhu means: Chase the Pig, for "pig" is the name given to the Q♠. All players start with 0 points. All points accumulate until any player(s) have lost, for which the game ends and all points will be reset to 0.

Six of us broke into four groups, Trini, Lydia, Pamela and Michelle, Kate and I. Being the beginner, Kate was lucky to win all the hearts again and again. Trini didn't and couldn't believe it. She told Kate that if Kate could win another round of hearts, she would buy her dinner. In the end, Kate won a big dinner from Trini.

The slumber party was not over till after midnight. After they said good night, I kept the Red Room in order and saw the Taipei 101 in dark before I retired for the evening. What a pleasant gathering of golden ladies of joy, love, and bliss!