A Christmas Working Saturday

While most people were busy working on this working Saturday, I enjoyed the special day all to myself to celebrate an extravagant quiet Christmas weekend.

After a fun and crazy red Xmas party with Toastmasters last night, I woke up just in time to an er-hu seminar at 10 o'clock at Taiwan Music Center this morning. At noon, I followed the organizer of er-hu exhibition for a tour of 30 minutes with a crowd of 20 participants before I went fetch my blue scarf which I left at the party venue.

On my way home, I decided to give me a treat to enjoy a Christmas lunch at Cowboys Steakhouse. While listening to Christmas carols played in the air, I had a full course, starting with a bowl of corn soup, a plate of fresh salad, followed by a sizzling plate of chicken and Italian fusilli, ended with a cup of espresso and many balls of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Oh, my stomach was full!

While having the desserts, I  read "The Age of Turbulence:Adventures in a New World" by Alan Greenspan. It felt good to reminiscence good old holiday seasons in New Orleans three decades ago. In those days, I loved to drive around the residential area to see the shining Xmas trees in the living rooms and the exterior decorations at night!

Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight

Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh

A day or two ago I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank and then we got upsot

Now the ground is white, go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh and crack! you'll take the lead.

After lunch, I spent a quiet afternoon at Taipei City Library for a couple of hours in Jingmei. I borrowed half a dozen new arrival books for me to read during the holiday weekend. In the evening, I had a bowl of red bean and peanut tangyuan which I missed on winter solstice yesterday evening. In Chinese thinking, after eating the auspicious tangyuan, I should be officially one year older.

Wow, in less than two weeks, it'll be 2013. I need to burn the midnight oil to finish the new year resolutions of 2012. Firstly, let me plan where to have a luxurious brunch tomorrow!