Back dated for Jan. 1 2004
Happy New Year, as my wide guess, I do receive a few SMS from those I know and those I don't familiar with; most of them do send out by themselves, one or two of them, I guest was send out by there PR staff, as the seasons greeting card, you can easily receive the Christmas card from celebrities with they name printed on the card, for me, the card itself mean nothing, the sending even don't know the person they send, not to mention the greeting from their heart; I don't do this, If I really want to greet someone, I will write it down by myself with the word coming form my heart, paper work can only be exercised on administrative part such as mailing, posted, print out the envelope and seal it. if you wish to leave the correct impression, do something yourself, sometimes, the touch coming from the quality you delivered, not how efficiency you can distribute your " model of greeting " to as many people as possible.
I sleep the year over and wake up at 10:30, bringing my family to the " Fresh Fish " restaurant for lunch as our New Year celebration, the restaurant owner is as kind as before, I will visit the shop twice next week, but can't wait to taste the fresh from off-shore island PenHu, CTBY Yogurt is the perfect sweet after a heavy meal, we drove to the shop at Taipei zOO, 4 of us enjoy the desert after
Jan. 23 . 2004
this is the fourth day of Chinese New Year, 2 more days left before working, long holidays will lazy people, I mean people like me, need the clock and calendar to displace me, need deadline to be my driver; although I set a few projects to be completed by Chinese New Year, it seems my New Years' resolution is in vain; I woke up a little bit earlier than the pass 4 days, actually, it's 8:30 am already and walked up to my pent house -- the study room and do my homework for Fruit, print out photos which we took in Kenting to finish her winter holidays' home school assignment.
for the pass few days, only a few remarks, yesterday, we took kids to 2 movies, this is kids day so to speak, we pick the cinema which dub the Mandarin to accommodate Sound -- who hardly read sub-titles, first movie we went is " Brother Bear " another family entertainment animation by Disney, quality as before, excellent storyline, compelling drawing and metaphor for family value, harmony between wildlife and human; the other one we went is " witch cat ", a funny but well designed film for kids, my finding is, very kid in the family hope for a crazy day / event to turn everything upside down and fix all the problem before parent return; this fill feed this idea to both parent and children; so kid's dream is simply, do whatever told by parent -- don't do it;
the day before yesterday is the New Years day, we woke up late and wife drove all the family to a northern pacific coast highway trip, we get on this mini-sedan and drive to the sea, it's cold outside, we traveling along the Pacific Ocean and see the tide and strong waves, accidentally, we arrived at one of the holly religious mountain -- Far Kou Shen near Chin-shen ( Golden mountain ), this is the place where I took my ZEN Mediation study 3 years ago, I recall the place where I worship the Buddha and saw the younger master who's praying for all the believers for the good year, I am happy to bring all family here and cherish the good spirit, it's like the shower of love and peace, on our way home, we do nothing, wife went to bed very early, and I watch the recorded table tennis campaign ship for about 2 hours.
on the new year eve, wife prepare the dinner for the family, she stayed in the kitchen for almost 6 hours, my parent brought kid out to keep a quiet enviroment for us for the feast, it's tired to prepare the New Year Supper and we do it almost every year except last year -- we went to China for Chinese New Year, that's really fun, next year, I promise my wife to find a place for New Year, otherwise, it's boring and you got nothing to do , this will wary you out.
Present red-envelop to your family is a major activity after the New Year Eve meal, this is the happiness hour for children, for them who can't earn for living can receive money from the elder and buy what they wish to have during the New Year, I remember when I was young -- in junior high, on one New Year, when receive the red envelope, I went for gambling, I don't recall I won or loose, but I did go to gambling, this is strange, when glow up, I don't gamble anymore, even in the Chinese New Year , almost all the family will provide " home entertainment -- Marjon ", but we don't play, none of our family members gamble at home or outside -- a nu-tradition we set in our family.
The family trip to Kengtin is the major activity for us during the Chinese New Year's holiday, as I try the new airport -- Henchung airport which located in the southeast part of Taiwan and it only take 15 - 30 minutes to any beach resort in Kengting; this new airport open for business on Jan. 10, I take the chance for the Jan. 16 flight and bought entire family enough insurance for the trip. one day before the flight, we receive the notice that there will be only one flight to Henchung on the 16th and the departure time is 11:40 am, as I think we can save 2 more hours to the hotel, so, it balance us a little bit,. but it happened -- the Murphy’s law; it's around 12:30 and the captain announced that due to the heavy frog, we are not sure if we can landing at Henchung airport, in another 20 minutes, the captain confirmed that we will landing at Kaochung international airport -- the traditional routine to Kengting,, yes, the airline staff experienced this for 4 executive days, so, they fully understand the SOP, we received the bus tickets before walk out the plane, jump on the bus and take another 2 and half hours drive to hotel, the pick up staff from traveling agency aware of this also, we arrive at the pick up point at 4:30 pm, got on his car and heading for the final destination -- Yoho resort, the first day of trip is wasted, checking in, kids are happy to see lot of water faclility and this is a "Club med ' Taiwan version, they call the employee here " Buddy " instead of xxxx, we did 2 thing at first night, eat at the cafeteria for a not very good meal, then went for the heated water SPA , after my wife went back to the room, I bring 2 kids for a fun trip, we stroll around the resort, buy some candy and cookie, play some arcade game. Following morning, I woke up very early and bring Fruit for breakfast by 7:10, after the meal. we decided to go for a discovery adventure and move ourselves to the carol beach, this is a great adventure, we found the nature scene which we never experienced before, during the ill carol, we found stat fish, ell, sea cucumber -- a lot of them, shell with crab, and tropical fish, as the tide is coming up little by little, we take our time enjoy this wonderful nature trip, after Sound had his breakfast, I bought them back to the beach and enjoy it again, Sound is a smart kid, he can easily reflect what he learnt from the class or tape and map with what he found in reality, when seeing star fish, he asked me how many eyes the star fish have and why they always stick to the rocks -- he learn it all from the encyclopedia tapes.
in the afternoon, as I guess, the flight didn't take off from HeChung airport, we need to move by the bus again, at the airport, ( Henchung ), I learn that the HenChung city is on a promotion to encourage visitor, the incentive is if you arrive by airplane with boarding pass, you can get Wax apple, Onion and Wind chin for free, we had 4 board pass, and hardly can carry all the gift back home. on the bus to Kaochung airport again -- when get on the bus, a familiar but not so familiar film is showing on the VCR system, my goodness , the bus driver ( a public bus driver ) playing the " The last Samurai " to the bus audience, this movie just showing in theater on Friday and we are seeing the piracy copy on the bus, this is amazing, he -- the driver is a very root man -- talking with his walkie talkie all the way, chewing Beatle nut, and driving like a hell, he might think he is doing the best service for the bus passenger -- update box office movie and send you to your destination as fast as possible.
on the plane back to Taipei, when reading the evening news, the headline is " gay ESP " GAY ECSTATCY SEX PARTY, 93 naked man who wear nothing but the under pane dancing, having drug and have sex with other man in one tiny apartment, I didn't read it through until my wife shake ma and point me to the second page, where the line is showing the alleged suspect and the company he worked for, my goodness, he is my employee, this is a real shock to me, I can't make any phone call as we are up in the air, when landing, I called the COO and having him check the information, it turn out to be : Yes, this is our employee who we recruited a month ago, a sad story to tell.
Sunday, I accompany 2 kids for the ' lord of the ring " trilogy, we watch the first chapter -- " fellowship of the ring " as SOUND can't read all the Chinese character, so the subtitle means little to him, so I explain it to him as he is a boy full of imagination, this is why I wish him to watch this great film but with my accompany.
Monday, we go to Yingger for proclaim pieces , originally I want to buy some as gift for important friend, but most of the prestige shops in on the year end cleaning, so, we didn't buy anything, on the way home, we drop by my mother in law's apparent and obtain tons of vegetarian gourmet for the coming Chinese New Year.
