On Christmas Day 2012

When Jimmy called at 11 o'clock, I just finished watching the movie of "The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby" of 1978, based on the novel written by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. With a merry Christmas spirit, I accepted my dear brother's invitation for lunch on Christmas Day. I brought along a new Sony cybershot digital camera DSC-WX1, the Christmas gift 2012, from my husband.

On a working Christmas day, only a few tourists showed up at Bitan. It was blissful to enjoy the tranquility to walk along the Hsin-tien river in the sun. When Jimmy and I were about to order lunch, I saw a newly acquainted Chinese Music teacher walk in my way. I met Ms. Te-Yu Shih at a seminar on vocalization with er-hu (two strings Chinese instrument) at Taiwan Music Center Saturday morning, December 22nd. Ms. Shih has a beautiful voice and knows many folk songs of various regions in China. What a surprise to meet a acquaintance on Christmas day!

For lunch, I ordered Smoke Turkey & Bacon Pizza, Taiwanese Sausage, Blue Girl Beer, and Coca Cola for Jimmy and myself. Being the residents of Hsin-tien, we enjoyed a 10% discount for food and drinks at the eateries at the Bitan Food Arcade.

To my surprise, I saw a log-time no see Toastmaster friend George Chang walk by and I asked him to join us for coffee. George is a veteran Toastmaster with funny bones. He didn't waste time making my brother and me laugh when he was around. He talked about his versatile and colorful life journey in 50 plus countries and his mission in promoting the Taiwanese language.

After lunch, George, Jimmy, and I had a walk on Bitan bridge before we said goodbye. Jimmy was happy to ask George to come to his place for dinner one of these days! What a serendipity to run into Toastmaster George Chang, the Mr. Santa Claus, for a surprise encounter full of laughter on Christmas Day!