The installation Ceremony and the 25th Anniversary Celebration

The China T/Ms is twenty-five years old. Time flies like an arrow and it’s been 15 years since I joined the club! The club has always been one of the best in town and for many years membership soared with over 60 members.
In the past few years the China T/Ms has lost many members including 15 young
members; some pursued their study abroad, some got married, and had children. At the same time new T/Ms clubs have been established one after another. Since the day it was chartered, the club has maintained its trademarks of warmth, friendliness, passion, enthusiasm, and energy, making it the vital and successful organization it is today. After 25 years the China T/Ms is still among the finest in town.

Speaking of the history of T/Ms International in Taiwan, the 1st T/Ms club, Taipei T/Ms Club, was founded in 1958 by Dr. Bernie Bough. We are the 8th T/Ms club established in 1985 after Taipei, Tainan, Taichung, Touyan, Grand 1975, PECL1982, and CECI 1982

The club President Jamie approached me more than a month ago explaining his idea of celebrating the club’s installation and 25th anniversary ceremony together. It was a big day of the club. He invited me to be the master of the ceremony. Hosting the most important annual event of the club is a great honor of mine. I appreciate our President Jamie for giving me this opportunity. Being a T/M for about fifteen years, conducting a regular club meeting is just like fulfilling a member’s duty by taking turns. The audience is small, the program is formatted and the speakers are familiar. The club’s 25th anniversary is extra especial. We’d invite as many guest T/Ms from other clubs as possible, especially those very popular ones.

I anticipated the challenge. Firstly the program must be attractive which means versatile. My past experience told me that an Installation Ceremony often ends up tedious and boring. Thus, when Jamie asked for my advice, I was more than pleased to offer some ideas. We reached a consensus to make the program both educational and fun. Since the club didn’t ask any member to give a speech to meet the educational purpose, I invited Moses Mo, Pamela’s better half, to do a humorous speech demo. I heard her club members say it was hilarious and enjoyable. Then we must have an evaluation demo to be done by a very experienced and popular T/Ms. Harry Fong, DTM; Lydia’s better half; Council Governor from 1999-2000 was the perfect choice. To our relief, he confirmed without hesitation. The rest sessions except one were assigned to club members to host. I planned to invite goldies to give a show dancing, or leading a dance or an exercise involving all the audience in. To my disappointment, they were either on their trips abroad, had other programs or business to attend to. Only Pamela was able to accept the invitation. Pamela is from Galaxy TMC, I know a lot of its members. When I saw them in the D67 Installation Party, I successfully talked their President elect Viola and EVP elect Jack Chen into gathering at least ten members from their club for support. Wow! How exciting! I thought it was great as Pamela could help me run the session with all the beautiful and handsome Galaxiers. As the ceremony master, I better concentrate on hosting the ceremony and not involve myself in performing. Yet, Pamela couldn’t spare more time to prepare for conducting the session by herself. So, it was decided we together do it and lead the audience to dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwLPd94TACc
The program was settled.

The Best Wishes Session to be conducted by Bing Bing Lin: He’s a T/Ms Guru, a magician, the sponsor of the club. He alone sponsored 15 T/Ms clubs, I think he’s eligible to be listed in the T/Ms International record.

The Variety Session to be conducted by Victor Tsui, CC. He’s a newly happily wed member. He’s a person in depth never loosing temper or control. He’s still in his honeymoon though he has married for over a year, always putting EVE, his wife, before the club activity. We must thank his wife for giving him to us for the ceremony.

Humorous Speech Demo to be given by Moses Mo, ACB, CL. He’s a spiritual leader of Galaxy T/Ms club, A hero behind the scene. He is one of the parachute team from Legacy T/Ms club. He looks very clam, or a little bit serious, the truth is? The audience will find it out after hearing his speech.

Discharging Ceremony to be conducted by Larry Lee, ACS, AL. He was the club president from 1993 – 1994, area C2 governor then the immed. Past Division C governor. He speaks in a very composed manner. He teaches in the college.

Installing Ceremony to be conducted by no one else but Mike Yang, DTM, District 67 Governor elect. He was the club president from 2000 to 2001, then area C2 Governor,
Div. C Governor, District LGM, District LGE and soon in a few days he will lead all T/Ms in Taiwan to soar into a new height.

Evaluation Demo to be given by Harry Fong, DTM. He’s a very popular and distinguished T/M. His membership is as old as the China T/Ms club which means he is one of the charter members when the club was split away from Taipei T/Ms club. He was the club’s president in year 1990 and Counsel Governor from1999-2000, the year I took the club’s presidency office.

Cake Cutting Session to be conducted by Choi Chang, ACS, CL. He’s a treasure of the club. He’s observant, logical, and wise. In addition, he has a very good analytical quality to make complicate things easy. That’s why our officers or members count on him very much for advice.

The Sing and Act Session to be conducted by Carl Wang. He’s the immed. Past Pres. He’s a very smart and responsible young man good at cooking and numbers, and specializes in stock market and investment.

The night before the Ceremony, I invited Viola and her club members to Pamela’s home to practice the dance for more than an hour until we were familiar with the dancing steps. Though only Viola and Pamela made it, it was OK as the purpose of the session is to exercise and have fun.

In the evening of Celebration, things went very smoothly even better than I expected. We had more than 50 participants. Twelve past Presidents of the club showed up. Every session was proceeded smoothly and achieved its best effect. The Exercise Session led by Galaxiers was exceptionally satisfactory. Every Galaxier demonstrated youth, vitality and dynamic strength. Can’t thank them enough.

The only room for improvement was time control. Time control has been the biggest challenge for all T/Ms activities. Every speaker and session master wanted to make their points or message across. It really gave our timer a big headache.

At last, I like to give my best wishes to the China T/Ms Club again. May the China T/Ms Club keep booming and prospering, and best wish to the Club for continuous prosperity and success.

Trini
http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/taipeitmtrini/InstallationAndThe25thAnniversaryOfTheChinaTMsClub#

Refreshing the happy moment at Lydia's Home

Mother's Recipe Mothers of my mother’s generation are very capable and cook excellent dishes. It’s like a nature gift to them. Every mom has some special recipes to bind their family together that even they have eaten in numerous restaurants, yet still their mother’s dishes always occupy an untouchable corner of their mind.

Linda’s mom is an excellent cook. We had heard Linda say it many times and we had had the pleasure of tasting her excellent dishes two years ago.

On Dragon Boat Festival, we went to Lydia’s home to reward ourselves for our accomplished job at D67 Installation Ceremony. Linda brought different flavors of Zhongzi and a big pot of chicken soup made by her mother. It was couriered to Linda the day before the festival and Linda generously shared it with us all. With so much food on the table, the soup received the best compliments and was the only dish completely eaten up. Everyone kept saying how lucky Linda was that she could enjoy her mother’s cooking from time to time even she lives way down in ZhangHua.

This reminds me of my mother’s cooking. To me, Her best dishes were meat balls, Sausages and ZhongZi. We got to eat her meat balls once a week, but sausages and ZhongZi only once a year. I don’t know if it was because of the rareness of the serving of them that we four children loved them so much.

It has been more than twenty five years since my mom stopped cooking because of her falling health. Every year I missed her sausages and ZhongZi very much. There are no any other sausages and ZhongZi can compare with hers. I have not learned the tricks to cooking the same delicious meals. I guess I will leave no any special dishes for my children to remember by.

I should tell my mom how I loved her meat balls, sausages and ZhongZi, and that she’s a much better mom than I am while she can still understand me. Yes, tell her, today!
Trini

Goldies Debut as Geisha at District 67 Installation Ceremony

Geisha (芸者?) are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.

What a relief, we made it! Six goldies dressed like Geisha gave their debut at District 67 Installation Ceremony! When Sherry suggested that we did a Japanese dance at the District 67 Installation Ceremony, I questioned myself. Do I have the grace or composure for Japanese dance? What I know about Japan most was their food, after all we have so many Japanese restaurants here. I’d rather explore western culture if I had time and energy. Japanese dance? Are you kidding? I can only say two or three Japanese phrases. Not like Sherry and Linda, they have affection for Japanese things. I’ve seen Sherry wearing Kimonos and doing Japanese dance many times. Sherry even speaks Japanese fluently as well as she speaks English, and visits Japan at least once a year. Linda must be able to say some Japanese, too. Both of them have been learning Japanese dance for some time.

Well, if they had faith in goldies doing Japanese dance all together, why worry? I just left the headache to them. Linda chose two songs for the Japanese dance and made DVDs for all of us.
One requires grace, one requires nimbleness and liveliness. She borrowed some accessories from her friends for goldies like fans, Obis, strings, and tabis. Sherry provided us with all the kimonos, and some more obis, strings and tabis. Unbelievable! Sherry has such a big collection of KIMONOS and accessories!

Irene, Linda, Lydia, Michelle, Sherry and I made it this time. Kate and Pamela had to miss it. It’s simply too much a challenge for all the goldies to join every event. There was always one or two at least absent every time. Unexpectedly Pamela was finally able to show up at the Ceremony to cheer us up. Her presence excited all of us. We couldn’t chat long because of the dance to think about and to do. But she was there with us all along in the dressing room bringing us water, juice and yummy food from the feast table! She deserved a big hug!

We managed to rehearse, practice strictly speaking, three times. We did the final rehearsal on the stage shortly before the Installation Ceremony took place. I had been calm and playful before then. When the day finally came, I started to feel the stress and get nervous. Our dance was the opening show to curtain up the party hours. While waiting for the time to get on the stage after the final rehearsal, I feel butterflies in my stomach. I hungered for food to sooth myself. Linda helped us all put on kimonos. I was so touched and grateful wishing I had a handkerchief in my hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead. I was the first to get dressed, to calm my nerves, I distracted myself with cameras taking photos of every Geisha as they were dressing and when they were fully dressed.

Outside the dressing room, the ceremony was proceeding. We couldn’t poke our head out to take a look, just prick out our ears to catch a few words. District 67 Installation Ceremony is one of the big occasions every year. Before a T/M to be elected as the District Governor, he or she must have devoted a lot in terms of time, energy and knowledge. They made sacrifice in order to contribute and benefit others. Mike Yang, DTM, is from the same club that I belong to, the China T/Ms club. I had every reason to give my congratulations to him. We all are happy for him. There were around 10 members from the club to support and cheer him up.

Finally the party time and we were all ready. The Ceremony master was presenting us. No more nervousness or butterflies, we just enjoyed ourselves doing the dance. When we finished the 1st dance “NADASOUSOU”, cheers and applauses encouraged us. The 2nd dance ‘SeishunJidai’ became much easier. We saw a lot of cameras gathering down the stage. It really felt good standing in front of the flash lights and posing. We conquered the stage again!

Nadasousou http://www.youtube.com/user/azenng#p/a/u/1/9htVoEOqT6A
Seishunjidai http://www.youtube.com/user/azenng#p/a/u/0/h9o6aSbtFUo

We were far from professionals of course, but once again goldies had great fun throughout the process. Every day, being professional women performing our duties and doing our job, we still strive to explore different delights. We are happy because we want to be happy!

Trini
http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/taipeitmtrini/GeishaGaveTheirDebutAtDistrict67InstallationCeremony#

Rehearsal Chapter 2 for D67 Installation Party

Linda warmly offered her place again for the 2nd rehearsal of Japanese dance that we are going to perform at District 67 Installation Ceremony.

It’s was Sherry’s suggestion to have our 2nd rehearsal on that day as the choir she joined was going to perform in WuGu Labors’ Recreation Center near Linda’s home. After the rehearsal we could all go to the Center to cheer Sherry and her choir up. When goldies are together no matter for what purpose, the room is always full of laughter and excitement, and the atmosphere is always hilarious.

After tasting the big juicy and sweet lichees Linda prepared, we began with the slow dance ‘Nadasousou’ as grace and composure are very important to interpret this dance. We spent most of the time practicing the dance until we memorize all the moves. The we practiced the 2nd dance ‘Seishunjidai’ for which we need to explore joy and nimbleness. With the colorful, shining and beautiful sticks wrapped with tinsels Irene bought for us, we were much into the feelings.

Unexpectedly yet not surprisingly Sherry only showed up to practice a while, then left to join her choir. It did come to my mind that Sherry would be tied up with her choir. We spent longer then we planned when it was over, I had to go for my family activity and couldn’t go with Linda, Irene and Michelle for Sherry’s performance.

It was a beautiful and happy Saturday. I had a few happy hours with goldies and a good sweat to refresh myself and rid the tiredness from a week’s work.

Trini
http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/taipeitmtrini/2ndRehearsalForD67InstallationParty#

2010 Taipei 101 Run Up

"Tough times don't last but tough people do." - A.C. GreenMr.
There are a lot of things I wish I could do better, or simply can’t do like swimming, skiing, ice skating, surfing, snorkeling, scuba-diving, etc. No words can describe my envy for those who can do all these exciting and nerve-challenging sports and how much I admire them. Now I have to add one more in my admiring list, marathon and climbathon running. These runners impress me with their passion, strength and persistence.

On May 30th I went to Taipei 101 not for shopping, but to help with 2010 Taipei 101 Run Up. I got up before dawn so that I could arrive by six a.m. and join the other T/Ms volunteers for the briefing. There were forty of us from the non-profit organization ‘Toastmasters International District 67.’ The T/Ms volunteer team was very well organized. Thank Victoria, District 67 Public Relations, for successfully coordinating such a big event. It turned out to be a wonderful gathering of forty T/Ms from different T/M Clubs in Taipei.

The climbathon held by Taipei 101 first started in 2005 with 1008 runners (maybe not a exact but definitely a close number.) This year there were around 2008 runners. I was told that the number of runners was limited, to the most qualified participants.
There were several reasons for me to join the volunteer group. For one, I had been thinking of witnessing how the program proceeded and how it was look like; the other reason for me to finally take action was because of Mr. Rory Vaden’s visit to Taipei again and participation in the climbathon.


Rory was the 1st Runner up of Toastmasters 2007 World Champion of Public Speaking, and was the keynote speaker for Toastmaster International District 67 Spring Convention that Dr. Yap and I co-hosted in 2008. Because of the special event, I had the privilege of receiving him for the whole time during his stay in Taiwan. He’s a disciplined and goal-oriented young man. His achievement and inspiring speeches are a reflection of his "walking the talk". On top of all this, he’s amiable, friendly, humorous, tall and unbelievably handsome that captures everyone’s attention the moment he makes his presence. He expressed his plan and goal to climb 10 of the world’s tallest buildings and his desire to come back to climb Taipei 101 at his 2nd visit. So, when I found out the exact date and told him about 2010 Taipei 101 Run Up, he took action and made it happen. As a professional speaker, he also took the opportunity to present workshops for T/Ms in Taiwan. Different from the last time, he brought his bride Amanda along; tall, slim and charming. They made such a compatible and handsome couple I must say.

The climbathon actually started at 8:00 a.m. with the world level runners in the first group. There were ten or eleven of them. I was stationed on the ground floor at the record receiving area next to the START point. I saw how every second was important to these runners. They were all thin and medium tall. I guess height has nothing to do with the speed, or even may be a disadvantage. The male runner from Italy won the championship. There were only two female runners in this team, Mellissa from New Zealand, and one runner from Taiwan. I took a moment to take a photo with Mellissa and the male runner with the registration No. 007 of this group from Taiwan, how excited I was! Pity that I couldn’t gear up my courage to ask for a photo together with the champion as he stayed all the time with his team and was busy in chatting and moving around. I helped some runners take pictures. Their excitement and happiness moved me.

For those who cared for the speed and performance, the time they used mattered a lot. For others who did for self-challenge and participation were just happy when they finished the running. The champion Marco De Gasperi from Italy took only 11 min. and 9 sec.

Can you guess what interested me most during the whole six hours standing there at the record receiving counter? It was all the runners’ legs. They were so different in shapes and sizes; strong legs vs skinny legs; long legs vs short legs; muscle legs vs thin legs; tanned legs vs pale legs; hairy legs vs hairless legs; straight legs vs curved legs; well built legs vs plain legs. I enjoy watching especially those fit and beautiful legs most. Sorry, couldn’t help it because almost all the runners wore shorts. I had a great time checking out all the different legs.

Mr. Rory and his bride were among the late runners. The activity was about over when they came down to receive their record certificate. We were happy to see each other and chatted a while at the Starbucks inside the building.

What an experience! I don’t know if I will be there for the Taipei 101 "Run Up" next year, as a volunteer or a cheer leader. The six hours of standing is quite a challenge for a goldie. Let me conclude my reflection on this event with “Congratulations to all the runners on your success in finishing running 2046 stairs!”

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." – Confucius

Trini
http://picasaweb.google.com/taipeitmtrini/2ndRehearsalForD67InstallationParty#