Lady Elites Gathered at Elite Riverside for April Reading

Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends - Euripedes
My best friend is the one that brings out the best in me - Henry Ford

I like these quotes! Friends add colors to our lives and comfort us when needed like the bridge over troubled water. I love to watch TV series, "Friends" is one of my favorites. People of different characters, backgrounds or even different job fields may create a wonderful and incredible bond. Thanks to all my goldie friends for the variety and diversity they keep creating. There will be no the word "boring" in my dictionary.

Where should I begin for our monthly reading gathering in April? After over a month's waiting, this day finally came. Ten ladies; three from downtown, seven from the skirts of Taipei, arrived at the Elite Riverside Restaurant in three cars. After last almost-chaos experience on the road, It was amazingly smooth this time. Pamela and I were the first to arrive. Can't help feeling proud of my perfect time control.

When we sat down ready to read the T/Ms magazine after taking a couple of photos, Linda arrived bringing Sherry and Amy. Michelle with her riders, Irene, Kate, Gina & Lydia followed in right away. After boisterous greetings and ordering, the programs hit start. We talked a lot, ate a lot, read a lot and laughed a lot. Of course, photo taking couldn't be done without.

For this April’s monthly reading, we broke many records.
1. It was over a month’s planning, the longest time ever.
2. We had most ladies joined, ten! also signifying perfect.
3. We chose the most luxurious restaurant, meaning the most expensive one for sure.
4. It was the longest gathering hours from 11:00 am to 4:45 pm, almost six hours.
5. The gathering suited various purposes; Pamela's coming home, Michelle's glorious achievement in passing CCIM test and receiving her Certificate.
6. Every lady wrapped around their shoulders with a sweet gift, scarf, given and brought back all the way from ShangHai by Pamela.
7. The most exciting & luring topics ever were covered.
8. Free diverse dressing code was applied.
9. With the Blog Master's encouragement, four ladies brought cameras with them to capture every worth-recording moment.

To be continued

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0412

A Day of Drumming and Reading

Life is not always pleasant. While having joy and fun most of the time, tears and stress can creep in unexpectedly to spoil the happy moment. The sadest of all is the pain of seeing our beloved ones suffer from illness.

I should have gone to Tainan to see my mom this week as it has been a month already that I haven’t made the trip. I felt extremely guilty. Yet goldies set tomorrow April 12th to have our monthly gathering, I simply don’t want to miss it. So I stay in Taipei against my conscience. Since I’m here, I accept Sherry’s invitation to experience a drum class in HsinDian. It’s a Chinese Drum lesson. I’d been longing for learning jazz drum for over twenty years. It’s easy said than done. I hadn’t been’t able to overcome the obstacles. Thus experiencing Chinese drum might be a good idea to begin with.

Pamela and I went together. Both of us sacrificed our beauty sleep on Saturday morning. It took us a while to find the place, a very spacious room under the bridge. To my surprise, there were about twenty women there learning how to play the Chinese drum. It was a basic lesson, we did it alright. It amazed me to find so many women so passionate about Chinese Drum. Drumming is definitely interesting and fascinating. I’d take some time to study my schedule carefully before making up my mind whether to take the lesson or not. After the class Pamela and I went to the “Golden Pond” book store when we both had no urgent things to attend to.

We chatted and read there. I browsed five or six books and even finished reading one, The Twelfth Angel. I’ll find time to finish others. Pamela bought some cookbooks. She has a thing for western food now and are seriously considering to procure some new kitchenware.

It was 5:00 pm when we had to end the chatting and reading. A day well spent is a day gained! Couldn’t be happier to enjoy a relaxing day like this.

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0411

An Interlude of the Day

"The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them..." -Michel de Montaigne
I heard a similar “quote” a few times in a slightly different version. I can’t recall its exact wording, the point is we should judge the value of our life by its quality, not by its length. . Abraham Lincoln also said, “ And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” It has been my long wish - live a diverse and fulfilling life in stead of a tedious unpleasant one. That’s why I answered Sherry and Pamela’s call for a lunch rendezvous today. I was tempted to enjoy a potentially crazy chitchat and scrumptious food though I had to beg another teacher to swap class with me to make it happen. Pamela will soon leave for ShangHai after a short stay in Taipei. The Monthly gathering on 4/12 is still not good enough to quench our thirst for more gossiping.

The students were especially noisy today and rushed out my classroom leaving all the desks and chairs scattered in a mess. It took me a while to tidy the room. I rushed out for the lunch rendezvous at "Milano" , an Italy restaurant near Pamela’s office. Originally I planned to take MRT worrying about the parking problem. Now I had no way but drive. To my surprise I got a parking place easily. What a luck!

I stepped in at 12:00 noon. There they were, Sherry, Pamela Sophia and Cecilia. Lydia said she would catch up at 12:30 pm. I wasted no time in ordering, and fetching myself a good dish of salad after exchanging exciting greetings. Whatever Pamela introduced tasted all finger-licking to me. When I was about to finish my lunch, Lydia walked in and brought up new topics. She still had enough time to enjoy the great food.

After covering various topics, Sherry placed the book “美麗的小故事Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel" by Heather McElhatton, before me and forced me to go over it following its instructions to see my fictional fate. She and her ideas, I was puzzled. Was it a kind of mind reading or personality analyzing? Well, since all the other girls at the table did it, I followed suit without questioning. Actually I was curious and interested in finding out what it was about, too. Two would live over 90 years before they go to see God, the book told them. Me? I got burnt to death at my early thirties after suffering from twelve years of miserable life. Fortunately it was just a game. Before I started to do it, I commented, “Ninety years? Who wants to live that long?” Yet I didn’t expect I would die so young. Actually I was trying to make choices that I wouldn’t do in my real life. Is it why I got the unthinkable conclusion from the book?

Sherry's bold topics aroused quite a controversial arguments which somehow drove us to touch on personality issue. Sophia surprised us by analyzing the essence of color in each one of us with her peculiar observation. She did like a Psychic or psychologist. Where and how did she learn that? I had to admit it was very interesting and educational indeed!

Ah, I forgot to mention the “Goldies’ traveling diary”. Don’t know how Sherry got this idea. I bet her voracious reading habit certainly certainly had something to do with it. The traveling diary, an artiscally made diary, was passed on to my hand. It’s Sophia’s another talent. Though it means that I have to rack my brain again to squeeze some words to write in the diary, just by looking at the bright floral pattern is a very mind-soothing thing.

What a perfect lunch rendezvous! The place was cozy and exotic, the food was yummy, the price was unbelievably attractive and we were all in an exceptionally cheerful mood. The only annoying thing was that time always flies. Pamela and I had to get back to work, and must call it a day. Whatever we left uncovered today will definitely be picked up on April 11th.

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