Our Mind-lifting Reading Gathering on a Heart-cheering Valentine's Day

The first Goldies' Reading Gathering on Feb. 14th, Valentine's Day, was full of sharing and fun. We shared thoughts, cars, apparel and food. We quacked and laughed all the way till end. Think that we have nine (9) goldies who all stucked up much energy during Chinese Lunar New Year and couldn't wait for the the moment to come to have it burst out! It's not difficult to imagine what a hilarious scene we created. To record the whole gathering, where should I begin with? It seems that I would need several pages to minute goldies first grand reading gathering in year 2009, year of the Ox. I'll do my best not to make it long.

Our reading gathering was brought up about a month ago. The gathering had been long planned and created high expectation to everyone. The date setting on Feb. 14th, Valentine's Day for goldies gathering was against all odds and very unconventional. Shouldn't goldies spend the day with their better halves? Interestingly, everyone managed to get herself free for a half day. Along the way, we discussed it back and forth several times as to what articles to read, where to dine, how to arrange carl pools and what to wear.

The nine goldies who joined the gathering are Gina, Irene, Kate, Leslie, Linda, Lyida, Michell, Sherry and I. We felt sorry that Virginia had another mission at the last minute. Pamela knew right in the beginning that she had no way but to miss it due to her business trip in SanHai. Sherry wanted it to be a 10-goldie group. Yet, despite our effort, ten became a tough mission though Sherry eventually invited her classmate Leslie in the University to join us. We all welcomed her with open arms, and she blendared in immediately showing her pleasant and extravert personality.


Place: It was Linda's turn to coordinate this gathering. She chose articles to read; booked 名流水岸, quite a luxurious, yet classic restaurant built at HsinDien River Side and offering an excellent view of the river; arrange car pools.; and researched the driving route. Disappointedly, due to Valentine's Day, it was fully booked, and we had to settle for another option . It was further down in 烏來WuLai, opened by the son-in-law of Linda's T/Ms friend. She recommended it because they offer scrumptious food.

Dress Code: As usual Sherry proposed a dress code at first that we all wear a designer's hat. It's been an interesting tradition originally brought up by Sherry to create versatility and excitement to our reading activity. Pity that I don't wear hats, could do nothing about it except enjoying watching others' hats. By chance, we changed the dress code to ChiPao to demonstrate the grace and elegancy of ChiPao. Yet for the sake of comfort and movability, we agreed on bringing ChiPaos with us. ChiPao can only function for photo-taking purpose.

It all started a week ago when Lydia Sherry and I visited HsinDien Nursing Home for the New Year Party. Lydia borrowed a Chinese Style jacket, a shinning golden one, from her mom for me. During chat, she mentioned her mom always wore a ChiPao and had a good variety of beautiful ChiPaos. I told her I had never worn ChiPaos and didn't think ChiPao was suitable for me. Upon hearing it, she said enthusiastically that her mom was about my size, she can borrow one or two from her for me to try on. I was touched by her sweet move. Though I did't think I was slendar enough to wear her mon's ChiPaos, couldn't deny that Lydia's proposal really lured me. On that day Sherry wore a ChiPao. I have seen her wearing ChiPaos in many occassions. It occured to me that all the goldies, except me, seem to have ChiPaos, or ChiPao-like dresses, or jackets. Why not asking all goldies to wear a ChiPao or a ChiPao like dress? That must be very interesting and exciting! Getting Sherry and Lydia's consent, I passed the idea to other goldies. Everyone would do her best to put on something like ChiPao.

Traffic: Nine ladies, four cars coming from different directions certainly made communication and time control challenging. MRT station was also not an ideal place for cars to pull over. When we finally arrived at the restaurant, it was way past 11:30 am. Everyone was surely hungry after the hustle and bustle. But wait! Change clothes to have ChiPao on for photo shooting!

Modeling & photo shooting: The ladies room became our exclusive dressing room and back stage. Fortunately it was still early and there weren't many customers. We spent another half an hour putting on make-up anew, dressing, undressing for changing, posing, teasing and taking photos. As I guessed, Lydia mom's ChiPaos were smaller or little too tight for me. I had to hold my breath in order not to burst myself out of it. Lydia and I were glad to find that one of them, the golden one, suited both us. I must say, they were truly awesome and I really loved them; the colors, the styles and the workmanship. We flaunted at each other. What a chaos and craziness we generated! Yet what fun we all created for each other!

House Specialties: Finally time to gulp! Linda ordered all the dishes that were the house specialties. They tasted like heaven to me as I was hungry and I am not picky about food at all. I felt embarrassed to say that I ate most again. It's my parents' fault giving me such a hard-to-satisfy stomach.

Book Reading: After spending more than another hour photo shooting and shatting, we finally got to discuss the articles in the T/Ms magazine we read. We shared thoughts with each other in the most efficient way. What we read and remembered was all that mattered. Will add details here later.

2nd photo Shooting: When we finished eating, Lydia took out some fashionable blouses and dresses made by her better half Harry's company for goldies to choose from. Another crazy moment! Some were eager to try them on; some gave compliments or opinions. We were
excited to move on to the 2nd photo shooting session. I could tell right there that those clothes were not suitable for me, I was still fighting others to try them on for shooting purpose. I was sad to find out again when looking at Sherry and Kate wearing the green dress that tall girls have the best advantage of looking stunning in fashion. Again, the clothes are for model figures. Nevertheless, I was firm to grab one, light purple, even it's one size bigger than I should wear. I just couldn't stand seeing others so happy with their trophies.

Coffee Hour: Time to calm ourselves down and find a quiet place to do goldies' talk. We headed for 名流水岸, the ideal place for having coffee, to try our luck. Couldn't say that we were disappointed to be told they were fully booked even in the coffee area. It was predicable. The 2nd choice was "More Cafe." A good place, too, for us except the annoying mosquitos. Most of us got a lot of mosquito bites. This time we shared some light topics to enjoy the quiet moment and soothing atmosphere. We were all ears to Leslie's topics and sharing.

Final Group Photo to Wave Goodbye: It's getting late, we all had to go home to attend to our responsibilities. After Linda left, we hung around for another minute and decided to take some more group photos.

Every our gathering was fruiful, enjoyable and exciting especially this one, as we have more beauties, a ChiPao and fashion show, a remote area far away in WuLai and more photos were taken. Next gathering? We shall wait for Pamela to come back and we resolved that we should get a table at 名流水岸 to realize our dream of dining there.

Trini