Farewell 2014

What could have been more rewarding at the end of an year than going to a hair salon to have hair set up before a joyful gathering with golden ladies at the Second Floor Restaurant at the newly opened NangKang City Link Wednesday afternoon, December 31st.

In year 2014, I didn't have my hair trimmed short, except at Taipei Fringe Festival 2014 at Daan Forest Park, to support a new fashion of hair style--Ear of Rice. I didn't mind to have my hair cut short only on the top of my head so long as I kept the rest intact. As far as I could remember, my hair has reached a new length in 2014. When I stood up and got ready to leave, an old lady at the hair salon gave me an admiring look about my sassy silky curly long hair. It felt blissful to walk into the unknown last day of year 2014 with a humble share of pride and complacence.

It was the first time I ventured to Nangkang City Link, three huge buildings (B1, B2, C1) connected to MRT, Taiwan Rail and High Speed Rail. After taking one hour ride of MRT from Xindian to Nangkang, I was not in a hurry to find the Second Floor in the huge labyrinth decorated with many avant-garde sculptures. I looked around to take photos. I knew it would take a long time before my come back.

Be it the last day of year 2014, it was still a working day in Taipei. To my surprise, restaurants were packed with patrons.No sign what-so-ever about the economic downturn in Taiwan could be smelled simply by looking at what people ordered for their lunches. The new apprentice waiter looked at me when I ordered a Second floor burger. He warned me that it was a huge burger, double layers with hamburger and bacon. I told him that I was starved to death, I could eat a horse.

When my burger came with a side dish of French fries, I attacked the food within a second. The volume was big, my stomach was stretched at least twice bigger, if not trice, as the usual size. I even gorged down a piece of pancake from Trini's All-in-One and a piece of French toast from Michelle's All-in-One. Oh my God, what an insatiable woman on the verge of 60 years of age.

At dinner, Jimmy made a table of dishes to celebrate the New Year Eve with Ruth, my husband and me. After going home and taking a shower, I called Jimmy that I decided not to see the firework of Taipei 101 as I was so sleepy that I would hit the sack at once. In bed, I felt my stomach cramps all night. My stomach kept me awake to warn me not to do it again on the New Year Eve of 2015.

Light Cafe'

Many cozy coffee houses are at every corner of Taipei. They have mushroomed with the advent of i-phones, i-pod, i-what-so-ever. Drinking coffee has been a lifestyle for people around the globe for more than a decade. Young and old people gather at the coffee houses with WIFi to exchange information, to work as free lancers, and to experience the new chics in metropolitan Taipei.

The turnover of the coffee houses is fast, too. There are always new coffee houses waving at you and me. I am not a coffee aficionado. I can't tell the differences between a cup of coffee at the chain store or at a brand coffee specialty. But, in addition to reading and daydreaming at my veranda in the winter sun over a cup of instant coffee, I don't mind joining the crowd to explore an unexpected coffee house in the small valleys of Taipei.

When Jenny told me she would show me her favorite coffee house in Gongkuan Tuesday afternoon, I was full of expectations. After having Thai noodles for lunch, we searched for her dream coffee shop, only to find that it had moved to another place 3 months ago. Without a little disappointment, we walked into Light Cafe'. Oh my God, the place was packed with patrons. The food and drinks were appetizing. And the waiters were young and handsome. We were lucky!

While we were talking about our life plans. I decided to add another new year resolution in year 2015. I shall study Spanish again for several reasons, to learn flamenco in Andalusia in southern Spain; to learn Argentine tango in Buenos Aires; and to venture to Mexico with family and friends in LA.

When Jenny showed me the book she was reading, The Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren, I told her that I also used the book for my workshop at District 76 Fall Conference 2014 in Tokyo. I talked about the 5Ps in language acquisition in Toastmasters, People, Programs, Practice, Passion, Purpose. I was grateful to Jenny that she shared her experience listening to Rick's sermon at the Saddleback Church Irvine. She was impressed and she couldn't mind going back again. I agreed with her about the power of Rick's sermons after I saw a few videoclips of Rick Warren on TED Talks. A life with a purpose is it, it's not about the affluence, not about the influence, but it is about the significance to give others what you acquire along the way.

Toastmasters Clubs in Prisons

Toastmaster Kazumasa Umemoto shared his experiences visiting 8 clubs in prisons Massachusetts, including 6 gavel clubs and 2 Toastmasters Club.

Joint District 67 & District 76 Year-end Party

It's been a tradition for some time that District 67 & District 76 holds Year-end joint meeting in Japanese in Taipei.

Six Japanese toastmasters, including Kiichiro Saito, Noriyuki Kobori, Kozue Sakai, Katsimpro Toyomichi, Mayumi Uchizawa, Kazumasa umemoto flew to Taipei to participate in the last meeting of Pacicific Toastmasters Club Saturday afternoon, December 20th.

Year 2014 was special. Toastmasters from Central Toastmasters Club in Taichung, Toastmasters from Success Toastmasters Club in Taoyuan also joined the year-end gathering.

At the dinner party at Santos Hotel, I joined a group to sing and perform a children song "The Sound of Music" in Japanese. It would be awesome if we can sing the song in three different languages (Japanese, English, Chinese) at District 67 Spring Conference 2015 in Taipei.
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どれみの歌 　ペギー葉山版

ドはドーナツのド
レはレモンのレ 
ミはみんなの ミ
ファはファイトのファ
ソは青い空
ラはラッパのラ
シは幸せよ
さぁ歌いましょう

Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow so
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Do, oh oh oh

Do 唱歌兒快樂多
Re 就忘記眼淚
Mi 你真是太甜蜜
Fa 我有個辦法
So 我有話對你說
La 把煩惱拋開啦
Si 我對你笑嘻嘻
唱起歌來快樂多


On Sunday, I joined a few Toastmasters to pray for the health of Toastmaster yoshihito Watanabe at Lungshanoon. Toastmaster Yoshihito Watanaba has visited Taipei twice a year for the past ten consecutive years. We wish Toastmaster Watanabe can get well and visit Taipei soon with his family..

CDE Toastmasters Club

CDE (Center for Drug Evaluation) Toastmasters Club (3736005) was chartered in February this year. I was honored to be the club mentor and I received a club mentor certificate from the headquarters on September 17th after the completion of six months mentoring of the club.

 CDE holds enlarged meetings every three months to accommodate all CDE colleagues (about 100+ persons). President Jean Lai took initiatives to organize a demo meeting to promote Toastmasters to more employees at CDE's year-end enlarged meeting at the Glory Church Tuesday afternoon, December 16th. The demo meeting started from 2:30PM and ended at 3:30PM.

It was a successful and joyful demo Toastmasters meeting full of excitements and laughter at CDE! I wrote Jean an congratulatory email about my observations. I have full confidence that CDE Toastmasters Club can be entrusted to organize an impressive international conference for the Ministry of Health.

Nevertheless, I suggest that 1. the poster outside the building impressed the celebrities, but it could be better with bigger poster and the photos of the celebrities; 2. The back of the meeting agenda can give credits to all who are involved in making the fun meeting possible, like the end of a movie, including venue preparation, costume design; 3. The social gathering time can be a little longer, say from 1 minute to five minutes. Consider about playing music in the background to encourage audience to walk around or giving high five to one another. A short variety session to warm up the audience at the beginning of the meeting for five minutes is recommended.

The meeting room at the Glory Church is fantastic with music instruments and spot lights on stage. I felt like a real Toastmaster celebrity, and I believe all Toastmasters in District 67 would be thrilled to be invited to CDE's year-end meeting in 2015
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Toastmasters Sisters Clubs

MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Toastmasters Club is unique in District 67. MOFA has more Toastmasters sister clubs than any other club in Taiwan. They are eager to sign sister club agreement with any club in the world.

Down the Road of Writing

Writing is indubitably a great pastime for me. Writing makes sense of my life experiences. Writing helps me figure out who I am. I've been sitting in front of my desktop since I got back from my travel in Mongolia in October and my trip in Japan in November. I had a lot to document during the wonderful two months in 2014.

I'm training myself not to censor or criticize my thoughts and ideas too much. For better writing, two indispensible books are The Elements of Style by Strunk / White / Kalman and On Writing Well by William Zinsser.