Memory Walk

Seven Presidents of Grand Toastmasters Club participated in the Memory Walk organized by Alzheimer's Disease International Conference 2013 in Taipei Saturday morning, April 20th. They are the Incumbent President May Hwang, six past presidents Frank Tsao, Sherry Li, Helen Lin, Erin Ke, and IPP Gina Cheng.

Many thanks must go to Past President Helen Lin for inviting Toastmasters to join Alzheimer's Disease International Conference 2013 as volunteers. A short volunteers briefing with MCI was held Tuesday evening, April 16th. IPP Gina Cheng and I were assigned to be in charge of the registration of Memory Walk--the meaningful event for 3,000 people, young and old, to walk to remember.

Gina and I were excited to put on the red volunteer T-shirts the moment we arrived at Taipei Convention Center at 7:30 Thursday morning, April 18th. We had great time meeting up with many interesting delegates from abroad. Gina walked a long way with a doctor in need to get his Dexamethasone eyedrop at Taipei Medical School Pharmacy. She walked twice to the bus station on Hsin-yi Road with two lady doctors, one from Tunisia and the other from Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, I sat at the memory walk desk flirting with handsome gentlemen from abroad speaking all possible languages I can think of! They all encouraged me to stay happy, to cherish the present, and not to worry about the Alzheimer's Disease. It was indeed fun to participate again in the medical conference which I'd been missing for a long time.

Memory Walk started from 7:30 Saturday morning, April 20th. Incumbent President May Hwang brought along the club banner. While walking around the Taipei City Hall for about one kilometer, we were excited to showcase the solidarity among Granders to get involved actively and passionately in this important social event in Taiwan.

President Erin Ke's better half Joel Wright was interviewed by a local TV reporter about his opinion on recent Boston Marathon Bombing on our way. Joel was not worried about the terrors in Taiwan. He was happy to join the crowd to walk to remember! Erin, Joel and I had a lovely brunch together at a cafe' in the neighborhood after the early morning walk.

RRRR Treasure Island on ICRT

Red Room Radio Redux (RRRR, R4 in short) held a cast party at the Learning Kitchen Sunday morning, April 7th. Many R4 radio drama actors came one after another from 11:30 for lunch. Director Ruth Giodanao, Associate Director Sara Brooks and Evelyn Philbrook helped prepare the food and beverage. It was the first time I tried the home made Taiwan Hummus made by Evelyn. Simply yummy~ Evelyn gave me her recipe and I shall definitely try it out at the next Golden Ladies Toastmasters gathering!

Ruth turned on the radio before 12 noon. We were excited to listen to the Treasure Island on ICRT. Every actor seemed to listen to the radio with great concentration and satisfaction. At the end of the broadcast, everyone shared a piece of mind about the good points and room for improvement in the future. It's a pleasant gathering to harvest the hard work in the past two months drilling on the script of Treasure Island.

Many thanks to Evelyn Philbrook for her TAIWAN HUMMUS RECIPE from dry beans (uncooked) or cans (fully cooked) to be mashed to puree in blender.

(Made in a blender. The only cooking necessary is the chick peas and yellow onion until clear(garbanzo beans). These should be soaked overnight. We soak overnight ahead of time and put them in the freezer so they are always ready to go into a cooking pot with water. In a hurry? Buy two cans of 8 oz cans of garbanzo or chickpeas precooked)

3 Tbl of fresh garlic (I think this is two strong – I will try 2 Tablespoons next time)
1 tsp of cumin seeds (ground up) or buy powder
1/4 cup of ground sesame seeds or powder black or white or tahini
2Tbl of sesame oil
2Tbl of olive oil
2 Tbl of soya sauce
2 Tbl Chinese vinegar
3 cups of garbanzo beans or ltwo drained and rinsed chickpea from cans
3 pieces of fresh coriander or 1/8th tsp powder
1/2 tsp of dried chili powder and or black pepper
May not need 1/2 tsp salt (add more later if needed soy sauce has salt)
1/4 cup of water (use cooking water after cooking garbanzo beans)

optional: 1/2 medium onion – cook yellow onion, or use one spring of green onion
optional:juice of one medium lemon or lime (fresh)

Put garbanzo beans on to cook with plenty of water to cover them. Add a half teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to the water and be ready to skim off(remove) the froth (bubbles). When they are done frothing, pour this water off and add new water without anything added, boil until beans are tender. If you are using frozen, pre-soaked beans, 10 or 15 minutes after adding the new water is probably enough. If the bean don't seem quite soft enough, put the lid on the pot and let the beans set in the hot cooking water for a while more.
Then pour off all the water into another jar, be ready to add some to the hummus. Usually there will be more left over for adding to soup or other dishes.

As soon as you put garbanza beans on to cook, you can begin with the other preparation.

Blend garlic, cumin seeds and onion first, then add everything else. Leave the beans until last so you can fully blend all the other ingredients.

As beans are added, also add just enough garbanzo bean "soup" so as not to overload the blender, but not so much as to make the mixture too soupy. I tip the blender to take pressure off the blender blades and to help get the beans down to the blender knives.

Pour final mixture into a container and refrigerate. We find it keeps easily a week, maybe longer. Usually we eat it up before then. Serve with multigrain crackers, heavy bread, or with carrot, celery, cucumber, or brocolli stix.

It is better to mix this together and let is set over night, then taste it the next day. If it is too strong with lemon, or garlic... you can add mayonaise, or plain yogurt to taste, or more chickpeas.

Fly Butterfly Fly

Life is a sum of decisions. ~Albert Camus

It's a rainy Saturday. As always, it rains during the Tomb Sweeping Festival in Taipei. It's said to be auspicious to sweep the tomb when it rains. Yes, we're looking forward to another fruitful year of 2013!

After attending Grand TMC's Past President Helen Lin's celebration luncheon for her twin-daughters' 2 years and 5 months birthday, I rushed to support my voice drama teacher's live storytelling of James & A Giant Peach at Taipei City Library Jing-hsin Branch. Without delay, I hurried back to Jimmy's place to set the movie venue for today!

Only five people showed up at the first movie & dinner gathering in April. I wouldn't have expected more as I had received a few text messages on my mobile phone requesting for a break during Tomb Sweeping Festival for four days, from April 4th till 7th. Joy is visiting in Beijing for two weeks, so we changed the gathering venue to my brother Jimmy's Lounge in Hsin-tien.

At 2:30PM sharp, we started watching the Butterfly Effect (2004) directed and written by Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber. It's a thriller film about a young man Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) suffering from blackouts of significant events of his life. Upon family psychiatrist's recommendation, Evan keeps a diary of his blackout moments from the age of seven, so he can remember what happens. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories by reading his diary. He travels back into the body of his past self and rewinds his life journey. While he uses his powers to fix his past to save his childhood friends just to know that worse results happen than the past that he is trying to change.

After the first thriller movie, we had a 30 minutes discussion. Mr. Hung praised the acting job of Ashton Kutcher playing Evan Treborn, especially that of Amy Smart playing Kayleigh. I like the story telling skills of Director Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber to flash back and forth to keep the full attention of the audience. In the theatrical version, Evan becomes a successful physician himself at the end of the movie. But, I was told that Evan dies in the directors' version. To be or not to be, might be directors' answer to the question of Hamlet. Just like Evan could travel back in time 13 years ago to change his destiny, I wish I could see all movies of 2013 when I am 70 years old in 13 years. That makes a sound reason why I write this blog! Whenever I write, I feel the control of my destiny, the power of decision making, the flutter of butterflies in the soul of imagination! No writing, no soul!

Lola rennt (1998) is a another thriller film, written and directed by Tom Tykwer. It's about a young woman Lora (Franka Potente) in Germany who has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) before he robs a supermarket. After Lola receives a panicked phone call from her good-for-nothing boyfriend Manni who lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a mobster. Lola, desperate to save his life, reassures him that she can get the money to him by noon. Three different tracks happen along Lola's run, with every person she comes into contact with, their lives take on completely different forms, as shown by 30-second photo flash montages. The movie seizes the full attention of the audience for 81 minutes. From the first frame the film plunges into action and adventure with breakneck speed, and we find ourselves cheering for Lola right to the end.

After two nerve breaking thriller films, we had fusion food for dinner followed by a delicious chocolate Banana cake brought by Judy for dessert. The movie theme of April is "Destiny & Decision". Do you believe in destiny? Are you confident about the decisions you make for your future? Let's hope that we make right decisions at the right time, and create better lives for the future!