Sherry’s Penthouse

I used to be obsessed with space. Having bigger room to move around in. I even managed to live with all of the extra housework. After I moved into my current small apartment closer to my school, it took me quite a while to adjust myself to the limited space. Gradually I even grow into it. I realized that small is good, too. The time saved on housework is comforting. Less spending on everything makes us trim down our desire. Furthermore the area I live in not only has better living function, but also much better traffic.

Today after seeing Sherry invested apartment in downtown, I was further convinced that small can be an advantage. The apartment is practically a penthouse. With A professional’s touch, it looks cozy and classic. We unanimously agreed that it was a wise investment, and congratulated Sherry on her smart decision. Her penthouse is located in the central downtown, yet quiet and modern with a wonderful view.

Michelle, Kate, Lydia, Pamela and I were the five who made it to Sherry’s Penthouse. Sherry has a cabinet full of beers. We played a new kind of chess, cards while chatting. It was different from our usual gatherings, except that we had fun as always. We had quite some refreshments besides dinner. The special kind of refreshment was made and brought by Pamela, homemade cookies and brownie. They won over everyone’s stomach.

How time flew? Before we realized it, it was over midnight. Since most of the ladies had to go home, the slumber party originally proposed didn’t happen. Well, maybe next time when we have a right timing and more energy to do it.

I must thank Sherry for creating such an unexpected surprise and fun.

Trini

A Lion King's Birthday

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. - Jean Paul Richter

Harry, a T/M, a great leader, a powerful man, and most importantly Lydia’s husband; celebrated his 60- year-old birthday last night. It was a very touching and successful birthday party. All the T/Ms from the Legacy T/Ms club, some special guests from the Galaxy T/Ms club, family friends, and Golden Ladies were all there to give their best wishes to Harry and bring excitement to the party.

Lydia, the dearest wife, spared no efforts in planning, organizing an unforgettable and superb Birthday for Harry. Sherry, our idea queen, offered input from time to time till the party was finally on. All the other goldies arrived a few hours in advance to help decorate and with displays. Even Kate’s daughter Angela and her friend came to help. But most importantly I believe was Lydia and Harry’s son and daughter-in-law, a handsome couple, were there to help and greet all the guests. I felt sorry that I couldn’t be there earlier due to my family gathering for my son’s new job.

Virginia our most admirable photographer made herself available especially to take wonderful pictures for Harry’s birthday. Goldies ad some extra special shots again. Can’t say thanks enough to her.

Before all the guests from T/Ms arrived, the refreshments were well set, the hall was well decorated and beautiful hostess Lydia was beautifully dressed and looked stunning. All the refreshments look so luring, yet I could only try a few due to my already-full stomach.

James from Legacy T/Ms Club was the mater/emcee for the party. His unique style and humor created an exciting and interactive atmosphere at the party. The sentimental PPT Lydia made touched everyone especially Harry. Goldies’ best wishes from the bottom of our heart were also shown by PPT. We performed a clogging dance that we had practiced for about a month to cheer Harry and all the guests. We slipped a few steps probably because of the limited and slippery dancing floor which told us more practice together was necessary.

Time flies especially when we are having fun. It was getting really late. We gave our best wishes one last time and said good night to the happy birthday couple. Next big event of the year will be Lydia’s birthday party. Harry said he is going to throw a big surprising party for Lydia. How surprising? Let’s wait and see.

Party pictures taken by Virginia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/vlee1009/110805Harry60#
Here are some words from goldies afterwards:
You made Harry a proud father and husband this evening! I really like the take away gifts (two big auspicious buns). It is very Chinese! It is very thoughtful! - Sherry, Lady LaLa

Dear Lady Cha Cha, Your honey praised you a lot when you were not with us. He loves the PowerPoint clips that you made by yourself. To be a hostess, it is really tough job making so much arrangement. It was a wonderful and enjoyable party that I ever attended. Thanks for the opportunity to enable to show to dance and to wild. Did you give your honey a special gift last night? Cha-Cha or Cha? Ha-Ha- – Irene, Lady HuaHua

昨晚妳真是讓Harry很感動哦!因為他說在你11月生日時也要給妳一個大驚喜的Party. 我們都玩得很盡興很開心.雙喜壽桃,白裡透紅,粉嫩粉嫩,更是讓人愛不釋手. 再次謝謝你與Harry. 祝福你們全家 喜樂! 平安! - Linda, Lady HaHa

August Birthday Star – Michelle, my belle

Among all the goldies, Michelle is the first one who celebrates birthday every year. It’s coincident and interesting to think that all the goldies were born in the second half of the year.

Michelle chose the restaurant “NASSAS” for her birthday gathering. The food they serve is just my kind of food. On that night, there was also a band to perform beginning at 9:30 p.m. Chatting plus a band, it must be great fun. I brought all the wigs that we are going to use at Harry’s birthday for every lady to try on and to add variety and more fun for the gathering.. Harry is Lydia’s husband and the past District 67Governor. Indeed the wigs created a fun session for photo purpose. As usual, Sherry posed at every possible corner to take exotic pictures. The rest of us were ignited to follow suit though not that wild. I guess we were the most noisy and exciting table in the restaurant.

The band stepped on the stage at 9:30 and about time to sing a birthday song, blow out the candles and cut the cake. I asked the band to sing the song “Michelle”. It was a pity that they didn’t know the song, but luckily they had the music notes and played it for us. What do you know! From that instant, the atmosphere further heated up and went wild. We got the privilege to pick songs for the band to sing for us, they even invited us to sing along. The gathering turned into a party! Most of the customers left, the front area was completely for us. We danced, too, of course.

Seeing Michelle so happy, I hoped it was the happiest birthday she has ever had. I’d like to give my best wishes here again to Michelle:

“Wish you all the best in life, and may all your dreams come true!”

Trini

Shall We Dance?

I like dancing, and I enjoy dancing. It's one of my favorite things. Then why after all these years I’m still in level one? There’s a good explanation. Learning all the dance steps and flowing grace requires time, and a compatible dancing partner is too hard to find. These make it more difficult for a woman like me who has a busy job and a family to attend to. Every time after a few lessons, I was forced to stop because of other obligations.

Why dance intrigues me? I love music, I love beautiful songs. When beautiful music is on, my heart and my body fly, they want to feel the rhythm. When I dance, my heart sings and I’m happy. Worries or pressure seem so far away. That’s why Whenever I saw people dance beautifully and gracefully, my heart is intrigued and my legs want to prance or shiver with excitement.

Can you imagine that I was awkward at dancing especially with ballet when I was small? My mom sent my sister and me to a dance class even though we could only live from hand to mouth. I don’t know if it was because my muscles developed slowly or because my sister was an excellent dancer that I felt frustrated compared with her. I disappointed my mom and quit the lessons.

Many years later after I entered the college, I found it was easy for me to pick up steps that students danced at that time. Dancing soothed me and helped me liberate myself. Yet I stopped going to parties later because I didn’t like the atmosphere very much and also because I met my boy friend who had two left legs.

Numerous years passed. Just when I was about to give up the hope of dancing, I met my lady friends who also like to dance. We motivate each other to explore the dance world. With Sherry and Linda’s coaching I even tried Japanese dance, the dance that I never even dreamed of doing. Among all of us Lydia is the best ball room dancer. Irene focuses on line- dance. Now it becomes routine for her to show us some new steps whenever we get together. Pamela arranged a few Jitterbug classes for us to learn from her husband. After all these pleasant experiences, I found it almost impossible for me to give up dancing.

But what about all the obstacles? In order to have more options, I began to practice the male part of leading the dance. Everybody says dancing lead is much more difficult than female part and I have to learn all over again. That is not entire true and I believe I can handle it. By dancing the male part, I can always find a partner because male dancers are welcome everywhere. After a few months practice I finally made a difference. At the housewarming party I, as the male dancer, tried my awkward steps with my lady friends.

Surprisingly my lady friends put up with me nicely, they even enjoyed my lead.
It built up my confidence. I shall keep pursuing my dancing dream. I take Lydia my role model. One day I can proudly say “Shall we dance? Or “May I have the next dance?”

Trini

My Housewarming Party

It’s hard to believe that I just had my housewarming party. I’ve moved several times in my life, never once felt excited about it. They were all for practical reasons and I moved with little notice. This time I couldn’t keep a low profile. My ladies friends were happy for me because I’m finally moving back close to town. Everyone was curious about my new apartment and new environment, so I held a housewarming party. It took me almost three months to finally get everything settled down. Three months of non-stop packing, planning, moving and unpacking. Finally it was time for me to relax a little bit.

We set the date more than a month head so that all the goldies can make it. Still, there was no guarantee everything would go our way. Michelle couldn’t fly back on the scheduled day from her business trip as she planned, She was going to miss the gathering. You see? Murphy’s Law! We felt very sorry when receiving her e-mail. Yet, my instinct told me that things might change at the last moment, it’s Murphy’s Law! What do you know? Michelle did work every possible way to fly home on Saturday to join us for the evening program. She missed the exciting Karaoke part, still we were all deeply touched and welcomed her with wide open arms.

Sherry, Irene, and Pamela arrived first. Lydia and Linda came second. When Kate, Gina and her friend from afar Vita arrived, we had finished lunch and moved to the Karaoke room. Everyone bought something good to eat though I reminded them not to. With good snacks, drinks and numerous songs, we almost blew the roof off.

Linda and Sherry had to leave before Michelle arrived for a wedding banquet. Sherry would return for the slumber party and see Michelle. Michelle arrived before six. We had another exciting chat with some new topics while having dinner. It’s about 10:30 p.m., nobody wanted to leave before Sherry returned from the banquet. When Sherry finally showed up, we had another blast laughing and taking photos.

Only Pamela and Sherry can stay overnight. Michelle having been away on business trip needed to be with her husband. Others had programs early next morning. So we called it a day.

Pamela and I walked Gina, Irene, Kate, Lydia, Michelle and Vita out. To our big surprise, we couldn’t find Lydia’s car. What happened? It was towed! How could that happen? It was a narrow alley next to our reception area. This had never happened before. It was my fault and I hoped my negligence didn’t make their husbands worry. It took us quite a long driving back and force to the tow station to finally had the car released. Luckily we had each other’s company to deal with it together. We even joked and laughed about it.

Sherry was home alone. Well, I knew it was perfectly alright with her as long as she has a book in hand.

When Pamela and I arrived home, it was midnight. We were still wild awake. After taking a shower we continued our chat and took some more photos before we hit the sack. Women!

I don’t know when we fell asleep. It doesn’t matter. We had a wonderful time. Pamela left shortly after we got up the next morning. Moses came to pick her up. Sherry and I kept spending our day together having breakfast, watching movies, taking a stroll on the oldest street of the town, enjoying the snacks sold by the street vendors and eateries until it was 5:00 p.m. Wow, how did all the time pass?

After sending Sherry off, I sighed, “I made it, I finally made it!’ It was an enjoyable party. Everybody seemed happy and excited. As for me? I’m going to have my new life at the new place. Hope my family loves it, too.

T/Ms meetings - Murphy's Law Is Everywhere

This blog hasn't been managed for some time. So why not put the meeting minutes I wrote for my club here.

............
Tonight was a night full of surprises, wonders and flexibility. Murphy’s law played tricks on our meeting. Yet, team work and T/Ms spirit prevailed, and we had another enjoyable meeting like always.

Surprises? Robert brought six or seven of his colleagues to the meeting. They really helped warm up the atmosphere. For the first time in many months we had four speakers and they all showed up and fulfilled their assignments.

Wonders? Quite a few meeting roles were open. Before the meeting, we had two assignments untaken. When the meeting started, GE hadn’t showed up because of her job. The attendance rate was a bit low. The club President Randolph went to get the agenda and meeting material from his office realizing that VPE Grace couldn’t come. It took him only seventeen Minutes, almost impossible during traffic hours, to get to the venue just in time to take over the opening given by acting President in time. Murphy tried.

Flexibility? Shortly before the meeting, all the meeting roles were finally filled up. Some members had to take two meeting roles. Debbie was asked to host the Table Topics Session besides being the Variety Session Master. Ray was both the Ah counter and the Vote counter. I myself, the GE took kind of three meeting roles, too, acting President, Language and General Evaluation. Murphy did it again.

The other important factors that made tonight’s meeting successful were:

1. A romantic theme “Romantic” generated interest and sharing from the audience. Carl and Randolph’s sharings were beautiful and touching. The 1st love was too good to forget; to be real romantic one has to do double what the beloved one expects.
2. Besides setting the beautiful theme of the meeting, TME Carl did a good preparation to ensure interesting introduction and smooth transition.
3. Variety session and Table topics masters Debby Ho did a wonderful job in creating laughter and
Threw questions related to daily lives to get both members and guests to comment on the topics.
4. Four manual speeches given by Marc Liang, Jamie Liu, Jo Shih and Larry Lee made tonight’s meeting truly educational and informative.
5. For senior members John Wen, Randolph Chiang, Mike yang and Choi Chang, give truly practical and helpful evaluations.

At last, I must say together we tied the bolts and nuts precisely to make the fruitful and enjoyable meeting possible no matter how hard Murphy had tried. By Trini Ding, DTM

The Royal Wedding

"Fairy tales are experienced by their hearers and readers, not as realistic, but as symbolic poetry." ~Max Luthi
The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine/Kate Middleton was broadcast live around the world. Still probably over a million people gathered at Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace to witness the wedding of the century in person. Even I by myself watched the live and video coverage over and over again.

Picture source: news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//110429/481/urn_publi...d49dbba2f/

Because of the time difference, the wedding ceremony took place our evening time and it was perfect for me to watch it on TV at home. The day before the wedding, I took it simply as a world event, nothing special. After the news clips were played repeatedly, it successfully aroused my curiosity and attention to the point that I left my TV on soon after I arrived home. After the live broadcast of the wedding, I continued surfing from one channel to another to watch the repeated news. I was addicted to it. Was I manipulated by the media?

I started to ponder on it. Why it made such impact on people around the world? What does it mean? How did it successfully draw the world's attention from other events? My interpretation on this Century Wedding is given from three perspectives; dream, fantasy and fairy tale.

It's like a beautiful dream or a fantasy comes true. All girls have their dream of meeting the love of their life who is both rich and handsome, and having a beautiful wedding, wearing the most beautiful gown. Boys dream of a beautiful and sweet girl. right? In reality, it happens to a very few people that possess just one or two of these elements. But it happens! So hold your dreams or whatever fantasy you have, it may be realized one day. Have hope, your dreams may come true.

Fairy tale - Among all those limited countries that still have their royal families to signify the glory of history, The Great Britain is the strongest, most powerful and most significant one. All the members of the royal family still receive a great attention from the world. Their weddings look sacred, holy and grandiose that there's no any other wedding no matter how luxurious can compare. The tear-jerking love stories of princes and princess exist in all fairy tales. The love story between Prince William and Kate was full of dramatic effect, too. In addition Prince William has shown the world his strength and softness besides his charisma, Kate Middleton represents confident and charming modern women. They are like match in heaven.

All in all, the Royal Wedding seems the most exciting and stimulating event at this time of trouble. My best wishes to the royal couple. Wish they live happily and peacefully ever after.

Trini