Joy Shared is Joy Doubled

It was after midnight when I left Toastmaster Joy Chyr's apartment. After a full day of movie and dinner gathering on the second Saturday in January, I still lingered for another two hours to watch three episodes of CCTV's "Fall in Love" on Joy's i-pod.

In the rain, I arrived at Joy's place with a bucket of La-ba congee at 3PM sharp just in time to watch the Bucket List 2007, an American film directed by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The movie is about two terminally ill men with a wish list of things to do before they "kick the bucket". It was the opposite attraction between Blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson).

Carter is a gifted amateur historian and a loving family man with wife, children, and grandchildren. Edward is a four-time divorced health-care tycoon and cultured loner who enjoys nothing more than tormenting his employees. Edward likes drinking Kopi Luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Carter enjoys Chock full o'Nuts, that heavenly coffee, better coffee Rockefeller's money can't buy.

Carter died on the operating table, Edmund lived up to 81 years old. It was the cruel reality that poor man without money can't afford the state-of-the-art medical technology. I like the ending of the story, two Chock full o'Nuts coffee cans alongside at a summit in the Himalayas. I thought of the Bridges of Madison County.

As I ran in and out of the kitchen to prepare the la-ba congee, I didn't get the chance to see the protagonists travel around the world. I thought I didn't miss anything, because I believe that we should seize the moment and take action when young. Don't procrastinate till the last minute when we become incapable of traveling on our own.

Talking about skydiving, it was the first joint activity on the bucket list of Carter and Edward. If I had the chance to do skydiving, I would definitely have a self-photo taken with me holding a Toastmaster magazine in my hands in the sky and send it to the Toastmaster Magazine to share with traveling Toastmasters all over the world.

Being a translator, it is a habit of mine to compare three Chinese translations, 玩轉身前事 in Hong Kong, 一路玩到掛 in Taiwan, and 遺願清單 in China. Three of them reflected the subtleties of Chinese speaking people in three regions. Of course, I like the translation in Taiwan the best, literally "to have fun till death".

After the Bucket List in the afternoon, we had an early dinner. Toastmaster Linda Chu believes that "Variety is the spice of life!" She loves to try gourmet food of different nationalities. Her wok of curry chicken tempted the tasting buds and satisfied hungry stomachs of seven participants. I look forward to more of her exciting dishes in coming weeks.

After dinner, we saw Death at a Funeral 2007, a British comedy film directed by Frank Oz and written by Dean Craig. It's about a family attempting to resolve a variety of problems while attending the funeral of the patriarch. From the beginning, the wrong casket of Daniel's father was delivered, the hallucinogenic effect of LSD misplaced in the Valium bottle ensued chaos among relatives, till Daniel's perfect eulogy, Joy's living room was full of laughter. When everybody went crazy, the problems were solved themselves magically!

Three Chinese translations of  Death at a Funeral worth discussion. I can't speak Cantonese, therefore I don't understand 倒瀉籮蟹搞喪禮 in Hong Kong. In stead of 超完美告別 (Super perfect Farewell) in Taiwan, I prefer 完美告別式(Perfect Funeral Ceremony). As for 葬禮上的死亡 in China, it was word for word translation of the English title. It's hard to comprehend. If I were the translator, I'd translate the movie into 一了也百了!

After two movies, first timer A-mei, a friend of Linda, stood up to tell us her early retirement as a spicy high school teacher and her struggles with students of juvenile delinquency at school. Her shared sorrow became half a sorrow. A-mei came from Yang-mei and brought along local Hakka delicacies. We were happy to have her among us!

After A-Mei left for the day, I sang a few Taiwanese and Mandarin songs upon the request. The TV celebrity Jing-pong(金澎) encouraged me to sing with feelings. He also told us the story behind a famous popular song "Your Tenderness" (恰似你的溫柔). When I stood up to give it a try to sing Your Tenderness, I had tears in my eyes. Imagination is indeed powerful. Singing with a story in mind makes the performing art of words and melodies soothing and comforting.