Featuring the once-in-a-lifetime Home Gathering with a Slumber Party

In friendship's fragrant garden

There are flowers of every hue.

Each with its own fair beauty and its gift of joy for you.

- Friendship's Garden

We just had a home gathering not for reading, just for chatting and fun! It was a decision made on a spur of the moment. Thinking that I might not be able to see my goldies friends for a month and my home is all mine, I proposed this home gathering. After e-mailing back and forth and several phone calls the night before, seven goldies; Gina, Irene, Kate, Lydia, Pamela, Sherry plus a mutual friend from the China T/Ms Club Jo Shih; made it. It was truly not an easy job in such a short notice. Linda and Michelle had important appointments that can’t be cancelled.

To my surprise, the gathering turned out unexpectedly wild and crazy. The gathering was divided into four parts. Ladies came in three groups at a different time. Jo, Irene and Pamela took a morning train and arrived at 11:20pm. Kate and Gina came by car and arrived at 12:00 noon. Lydia and Sherry took afternoon train and arrived at 15:30 pm. Jo left 1st without meeting Sherry and Lydia. Gina, Kate and Pamela left before dinner for another dinner appointment and missed the venture at the night market. Except Gina, Kate and Pamela managed to come back after dinner for the slumber party. Lydia joint the venture at the night market yet couldn’t stay overnight and left alone by bus. Kate, Irene, Pamela & Sherry stayed overnight for the slumber party and half day outing on the 2nd day.
Irene and Sherry were the two who stayed from the beginning to the end. Unbelievably complicate! What mattered was that we all stove to stick to the gathering. Besides chatting, we had shooting time that triggered the wildest nature hidden and suppressed deep down in our heart, venture tour in the night market with sexy dresses on; slumber party with cocktails, more snacks and poker games; and half day outing at Lovers Lake in Keelung, etc. Finally eating Ice Shavings with a lot of flavorings on it in a snack bar drew the period of our two days gathering. Though we were all exhausted by the time we said goodbye to each other, It was the one-and-only gathering as there will definitely be no 2nd one like this.

The details are too exotic to describe. Let me put Irene, Kate and Pamela’s comments here under for more details.

Irene: We are duplicating happiness, stealing innocence from angels, and living to the fullest! We are the most energetic Golden Girls! Moses was wondering what we golden girls were doing and fooling around, here it is! My husband said to me before I left home on Saturday morning, "how could you not wear like a mother of 55 and grandma to be!? Jesus Christ!!!"
I am sure he will pass out if he sees the photos. Without Trini’s proposal and opening her big house "once in a lifetime" for us to visit, golden girls will not be able to write another colorful leaf in our lives.

I was very much impressed by Trini's enthusiasm & hospitality that made her stayed up until 4:00 am to do the cooking, and broke her antique porcelain clock during cleaning. She was so much depressed over the clock. Fortunately her broken heart was patched up and healed immediately with our happiness and friendship.

A good film needs an outstanding director. Sherry, the creative girl couldn't stop gearing our actions and motions one after another. Of course, we were wonderful actresses!

Eating, photographing, gossiping, recipe discussing, strolling at the market around the temple, playing cards, sightseeing, so many activities happened in less than 30 hours. Isn't it amazing, although exhausting! Let's open the photo album after 20 years...... Thanks girls, we are the best!

Kate: Girls, everything is perfect - company, food, drink, Sherry's crazy ideas, Trini's hospitality, Moses' offering of a ride back to Trini's place. Another wonderful memory. I am still recovering from the fatigue of staying late on Sat. Trini, thanks for giving me a big "KISS". It is a lovely picture.

Pamela: Trini, I am almost too full, too exciting, too happy to write. But I have to let you know how much we appreciate all the delicious meals you cooked, beautiful dress you let us try on and the cute "party accessories" you prepared. Everything you prepared was just fantastic. In addition, I can't thank you enough for bringing us together and providing us with the opportunities to take adventure doing something that we don't normally do.
Dear Sherry, Kate, Irene, Lydia, Gina, Thank you for giving me such a wonderful and exciting weekend. It was definitely the best ever. Don't forget we will have the next party in the end of November. Please leave the date open for me.

To conclude, it was an awesome gathering. Without goldie friends, our lives couldn’t have been so colorful, enjoyable and fulfilling.

Trini
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July reading seasoned with home-cook dishes

A reading gathering enriched with incentives of China Trip sharing sequence two and home-cook dishes was the general picture of our July gathering. William Ellery Channing said, “Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge; and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance." I bless the enlightenment and delight every our gathering brings me.

After our June reading at Lydia’s place, we held another homely reading today at Sherry’s place. Sherry’s brother Jimmy is an excellent and hospitable cook. I tried his scrumptious dishes more than three years ago. Though we seven would bring a lot of trouble and inconvenience to him, simply couldn’t resist the warm invitation.














Pamela and I made our way there smoothly. As early arrivals, we got the extra moment to talk a little bit about “The Reader”. This is Sherry, never leaves a moment blank. We always use our gathering to swap books and DVDs, too. When I handed her the book “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” for “The Reader”, she reacted that instant asking us about our reflections on the novel. I saw the movie about two months ago, and couldn’t get the movie out of my head for many days due to its impact on me and disputable issues brought up by the story.

After we finished sharing on “The Reader”, I took the time to take out the Painting Albums published by Debby Ho, a talented T/Ms of my club. Debby is a remarkable and artistic girl, I must say. Her passion and talents in many fields make her fully occupied and cannot possibly join our activities. She kindly gives out her painting albums to goldies in addition to the club members to share her joy and affection with us. While we were browsing the painting albums, Michelle arrived. Then our topic switched to Debby’s paintings, which one we like most and why. Irene, Linda, Lydia had to come a little bit late due to their other engagements. When they finally arrived. the gathering reached its climax, the atmosphere became warmer and hilarious.

Linda took out the photo album of our China Trip she made for us to enjoy. How touching and Incredible it is for her to take her precious time to make such a special and meaningful Journal for all of us. It refreshed our sweet memory of the wonderful time we had there. Then the poetic and sentimental letter Gary and Jim wrote us and the photo CD Gary made were laid on the table. We simply felt so overwhelming meeting these two sincere, thoughful and romantic young men. Linda, Lydia and Sherry decided to pay them a visit in Kaohsiung while taking care of their business there tomorrow. Definitely if they have the chance to come to Taipei, we must show our hospitality and receive them warmly to express our thankfulness for being such joyful companies.

It came to Pamela and I that we needed to give a hand to Jimmy in the kitchen, simply couldn’t let him sweat all over there. Pamela learned how to make the Chinese Taco/spring rolls, I had a hand-on practice of the dish I used to make often when I still enjoyed cooking. Irene full of curiosity came in later to learned how to make Jimmy’s famous dish. Though we missed a part of the chatting with goldies, we were happy to be able to offer help.

When Sherry’s dear husband arrived and made everyone’s acquaintance, dinner started to serve. My appetite grew when seeing all the dishes and tried out every dish. My stomach popped out after the big meal I had. We couldn’t stop praising Jimmy’s cooking skills throughout the feast. Hope he didn’t get tired of hearing it. A lot of topics were raised at the dinner table. No room here to list all of them, just imagine roars of laughter one overlapped another, laughing tears in our eyes and the drumming noise we made on the table. What a joy, what a night!

Time flies fast especially when we are enjoying it. We better not overstayed our welcome if we wish to be invited again, and had to give tranquility back to Jimmy. After last group photos, we called it a day. On my way home, I kept pondering on the most enlightening phrase in the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” said by Soren Kierkegaard. Tonight was another sweet memory and intellectual delight. How exactly “Life can only be understood backwards” is!
http://picasaweb.google.com/taipeitmtrini/JulyReadingSeasonedWithHomeCookDishes

Trini
0711

A Day of Nature Art “YieLiu” and Modern Art

Trini

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Going on the Saisiyat Culture Hunt

Goldies had hiked a few times with YMS volunteers before because of Virginia’s coordination. Her enthusiasm in sharing good activities with us enriched our lives a lot. Yet, we have never gone in such a big group. We for the first time witnessed the strong manpower of YMS volunteers. We; Ten T/Ms in total including Seven goldies Amy, Kate, Irene, Lydia, Pamela, Sherry, I, Harry, Moses and Kate’s daughter Angela; plus YMS volunteers made a number of around 85 people for the Saisiyat Culture Hunt. The special feature of this outing attracted me immed. when seeing Virginia’s mail. Then after several mail more and more goldies signed up and brought in their spouses and daughter. It took two big buses to move such a big group from the early morning to the late evening.

Virginia couldn’t make it this time. In stead Sherry became in charge of bridging T/Ms and YMS volunteers. Through her, T/Ms was again effectively promoted to the big association, and we became the center of attention unexpectedly.

Must say this is indeed a very intellectual outing. I learned a great deal about Saisiyat tribe like:

- The pigmy ceremony
- The legend of XiangTien Lake
- Saisiyat dance
- Saisiyat’s handicrafts
- It’s location and living styles
- The museum
- Their agricultural product, etc.

When watching Saisiyat people dance, I wondered if it’s the bell bag on their back make Saisiyat people shorter than others. With all the well planned programs and two meals of different styles, entertainment program on the bus, a delightful hike and a lot more, We were all back to Taipei fully contented and expected the next outing to come!

Trini
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