郭大同's music

 

 Simple Life, Simply Kept

 

  (A)                (B)                 (C)                 (D)

A. A natural   lake 3 km away from my home

B.  The exquisite landscapes and coastlines of eastern Taiwan

C.  My sons and their cousins on holiday in Kenting

D.  My wife and our niece in Kenting             

 Tony Kuo                             

     A man leading his simple and easy life kept in the form of a diary

     Simplification and purification in lieu of sophistication and complication while rural life in place of urban life as a result or inner peace, not the living place

      Easy life, easily kept and simple life, simply kept

      More worries, less healthy; fewer desires, more wholesome

      Mother Nature, a never-ending generator to supplement your weakening mental power

 

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March 13, 2010, Saturday

 

In the early evening, I went to a market for shopping some fruits. This open-air market is located in the neighborhood locally called Jiang-tsuoh-diang. There are no public facilities or modern amenities to make the market comfortable or sanitary but it is really traditional and what’s more, it is just at the roadside where the traffic was especially crowded during the rush hour. That’s the reason why the peddlers were nimble-minded in business when many people will go along the road after work in the early evening. It is very convenient for them to buy some ingredients home for supper and what they should do is just stop the engines of their cars or scooters and pick out what they need. On the other hand, these activities really make the road with hurly-burly besides the unavoidable hustle and bustle. If a stranger or passerby accidentally goes into the road for the first time, he or she will be troubled by the higgledy-piggledy traffic. However, most intruders are on the purpose to buy something home at their convenience or they should know to avoid this road home. After all, there are several alternative roads to go home. 

In general, farm produce can be available at much lower prices because the farmers will carry what they grow here to make a deal. Hence, pickup trucks can be in sight easily and the fresh fruits or vegetables are on the trucks with a sign hung on them which reads the prices. As what is used on the island, the produce is sold by the catty, which is tantamount to 600 grams. Almost all the seasonal produce can be seen here and you can not miss it except for the rainy or stormy days.
  Be sure to come here for shopping between 3 o’clock and six or seven o’clock in the evening, seven days a week. Besides, sea food and meats also can be available, surely including such daily necessities as wines, salt, sugar, clothing and the like. Anyway, the vendors will provide you with as many kinds of food and necessities as they can. This will make them bring in some incomes and hence, this is their business to support their families and it is also their ways of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March, 14, 2010, Sunday

 

My wife and I were invited to a farmhouse located to Baihe Township. Several years ago, the small and restful town made a splash by holding a lotus festival; from then on, the annual lotus festival put the obscure rural town on the map and people around the island came here to enjoy the local produce—lotus seeds and its roots besides some other snacks made from parts of the lotus plants. What’s more, a famous lotus-seed meal can be available to the visitors with ten or twelve dishes cooked with lotus seeds and other food materials to arouse the eaters’ appetite. Anyway, the farmers grow lotus not only for its graceful and fragrant flowers but also for its benefits from the produce made from other parts of the plants.
  If you are a photographer professional or amateur, you surely have the idea to go there and make the more fabulous pictures under your belt. Some artists may come here to catch the natural beauty by means of their brushes and paints or some writers make their imagination run wild under the influence of the poetic and picturesque lotus fields. From ancient to present, lotus has been appreciated by men of letters and the fad, I believe, never fades away. Even the tourists will take some pictures for reliving their memories some time later. All in all, lotus seems never to fall into obscurity and has its position in the field of art or literature. And by all accounts, lotus vegetates in a muddy pond but always keeps pure and clean. That’s part of the reasons why water lily is really worthy of its fame. In modern technological world, lotus stands on its feet to be harmonious in our lives. None can despise it.

The hostess was a retired physical exercise teacher who showed her enthusiasm and amiability to all the 30-strong guests. Her natural garden was big enough for one hundred and a wood-made pavilion was built in the east and in the west, it was connected with a pond across which a wooden and curved bridge was set up. The pavilion was under a big mango tree which provided us a good shelter from the sun. It was very hot today and the temperatures seemed to be over thirty at noon. Sometimes, it is very common in spring time in southern Taiwan.

Some of us make tea under a tree just opposite to the pavilion and some are seated or standing to have a chat. My wife and I have a free talk with others and some time later, I played the guitar and harmonicas which had been asked to bring with us in order to amuse the guests and the hostess and her brother. A good classical guitar player was also invited here so I gave him my guitar and his techniques on the wooden musical instrument left nothing to be desired. However, this kind of guitar music was hard to be enjoyed unless one who has the ears for classical music. The player also showed his hard-to-be-read sighs. I was certainly sympathetic with his moods. When it was my turn to amuse, I put up a supporter for the harmonica and my fingers plucked the guitar to accompany it. The happy and familiar melodies did arouse the merry atmosphere around here. Hence, they clapped their hands after my performance. The other player told me that he had stopped playing the guitar for less than 20 years and recently, he reopened his guitar box and plucked the guitar. Surprisingly, there were some hard-to-express feelings different from what he felt when playing 20 years ago. We both agreed that life experience contributed to deeper feelings on the six-stringed musical instrument. Mellower is the music which is thickened with life happy or sorrow. Anyhow, music is always the loyal friend who always shows its true and deep emotions.
  When it was time to say good bye, I sent the hostess a book by Father called “The Peaceful Gunfire” in Chinese version together with my two CDs. I had some left in my harmonica bag so I also sent to some of the guetst. I hoped this could bring happiness to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 15, 2010, Monday

 

A sign reading, “Don’t make your lovely dogs shit here in order to make the community sanitary.” was put up by the next neighbor in their garden. Some people like to keep a pet and they just enjoy its cuteness and loyalty. As to its shit, they seem to forget the existence of sanitation which may be related to moral problems or public conscience. If the pet keep shitting here and there, soon, the local habitants will show their aversion to the dog’s feces and condemned the dog’s master for the lack of moral conscience. Simply put, the master’s irresponsibility really influences public hygiene.

The owner of the house was Mr. Lin who is a principal in a junior high school in Da-lin. His family moved to Da-lin more than 9 years ago. When my family moved here, his had moved away so his garden was covered with weeds and other unknown flowers. About two months ago, here came a new family in our community. A middle-aged woman, a little chubby, often walked her dog which developed its habit to shit in the garden. Maybe the woman regarded the house was empty and she had the reason to let her pet shit at her and its convenience. If there was only one dog to put down its shit in the garden, the green plants may absorb it as part of nutrition to vegetate. The natural recycling would deal with the problem of feces although the sanitation often existed. However, other new comers also did the same thing, which made the garden a public toilet for the dogs and their shit could be seen in the garden. If you took a close look, you could see some flies and other little insects land on the shits. What one could think of should be the problems of public hygiene and moral conscience. I once saw the woman walk her dog through the window and she let her pet shit in the garden, just as what I had mentioned that she had helped her dog to cultivate its habit of shitting in the garden.  

This early evening the Lins came here to take a look at their house after a 5-magnitude earthquake happening last week. When I was just talking with him and his wife, the woman suddenly appeared around the corner together with her dog. Surprisingly, she made a sudden turn and disappeared in front of us. We all saw the smoking gun of the shit and its female master. This proved that I had told Mr. Lin and his wife about the feces. Surely, they both also complained about the lack of moral conscience of the master who just wanted to keep the pet and cared nothing about its shit. Mr. Lin soon wrote the sign and put it on the garden light. It was very clear to read and I thought this was a good idea and next time if the woman kept on the unsanitary event happening, I had good reasons to stop her. After all, she also had her own garden just beside her house.
  Why didn’t she let her lovely pet shit around her own garden? Animals’ manure can be good natural fertilizers. If that was a good way to make her garden in prosperity, what didn’t she do the right thing at her right place? You bet! The question lies in human’s selfishness and irresponsibility.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 16, 2010, Tuesday

 

When it was high time for my wife to come home, I was always present to open the door for her. It seemed natural and reasonable and worthy of nothing to be mentioned. However, to many husbands, it seemed hard because most of them were breadwinners who were unlikely to appear before the nightfall. Since I had retired, I could be as free as a bird hovering high in the skies. However, what I liked most so far was something about music and English which was really my two targets in my lifetime and the years I had left after retirement would be spent on them. Maybe there were many ways to broaden my horizon, such as going out to make friends to expand my relations with others. Some people suggested me to find a job for extra money. Due to the fact that I emphasized the importance of acquiring more knowledge and techniques in music and English, I preferred staying at home to read or to play guitar, harmonica or violin to going out. Opening a book I liked to read could be satisfying to me, which could give me deep equilibrium to result in my spiritual tranquility. According to this, so far I had very reason to stay home and my wife would be greeted to come home almost every weekday.

After her rest, I would suggest where to eat dinner. At home? Or eating out? Frankly speaking, we both were not gourmets. To us, meals were, at best, just food to keep our subsistence; hence, we didn’t waste time preparing a scrumptious dinner. Maybe I could cook a meal for my wife but cooking is not my cup of tea. Several years ago when my sons still lived with us, their mother should make an effort to cook a good super for them because their nutrition should be well considered and this would be a common sense for every mother all over the world. Now they both are out and I didn’t want my wife to bother in cooking just for me and her. Hence, we often ate out not at a fancy restaurant but at a simple eatery. Sometimes, a noodle eatery situated near Chong-cheng University was one of our favorite places to enjoy dinner. The eatery appealed to the students at the university and we both could enjoy the delicious beef noodles and feel the young ambience spread from the students. The unexpected enjoyment only could be available at this area. After dinner, we both took a stroll around the streets and lanes crowded with students, which seemed to make us feel younger because we were submerged in the traffic mainly composed of youngsters whose temperaments and energy and youth could be felt. So a light meal could meet our demand in physical need and why did we need to worry about where to eat or what to eat? One day when I was informed that Master Jeng-yan spent less than ten minutes finishing her each meal, I several times mentioned this to my wife. Perhaps her idea in food was like what I had cultivated in my thought that food is the only function to support our lives.
  Thanks to this, there was no difference between tastefulness and tastelessness as far as food was concerned. A fact could be a warning to those who liked to taste as many delicacies as possible in the world: the more one ate up to the degree of over nutrition, the more he or she would suffer illness such as hypertensions, diabetes, heart diseases and so on. Therefore, light meals could be beneficial to our health.

 

 

 

 

 

March 17, 2010, Wednesday

 

Mr. Gao and his wife are enjoying their retired lives. He retired as a staff in Tai-power Company; his wife, as a public servant in Mingshong Township Public Office. They both had showed their interest in growing vegetables in their garden and other empty land on the riverside. To grow vegetables was not a problem to them. What counted was that their tilled the land for vegetables just for themselves or their relatives and friends instead of a means to earn extra money. Every morning, Mrs. Gao rode her bike passing by my house and I could hear the sounds of her bicycle when I was reading indoors. Sometimes, I could meet her on the lane and said good morning to her who was always traditionally-appareled as a farm woman in a broad-brimmed hat made of bamboo leaves, called a “Dou-li”. As to her husband, he only wore a baseball cap, sometimes together with a pair of black sunglass. They both were not farmers by occupation but they have several pieces of farmland in their ancestral hometown. In the past, they should spare part time to work on the farmland. That was the reason why they knew many things about farming.

After their retirement, they kept on their interest and know-how in agriculture: growing vegetables. Maybe they could buy them at a nearby market. However, what was sold at the market couldn’t be avoidable of chemical pollution. By all accounts, there were few vegetables looking good in appearance but were under the care of chemical fertilizers and to be worse, pesticides. Chemical fertilizers could make better vegetation but they weakened the good taste and flavor of the vegetables. As to the pesticides or herbicides, they really posed a great threat to our health. However, many farmers cared less about the consumers’ health than their benefits or incomes. It was said that some farmers even spared a piece of land to grow the vegetables only for their families. They applied no poisonous chemicals on them. I hoped this was only a rumor, not a reality. Reasonably, without good harvests of their crops, the farmers’ livelihood would be greatly influenced. It seemed to be a common sense or common place that to date, no vegetables could be grown in boom without the application of pesticides. Otherwise, the insects or pests would wipe out the vegetables. As to the other part left was pest-eaten and they looked awful. Most consumers took no interest in them unless they really knew what was ugly-looking was really safe to eat.

Mr. Gao and his wife knew the right time to grow the right kind of vegetables, which was meant that their vegetables were in season. In general, the seasonal vegetables or fruits tasted most delicious. For example, some kinds of vegetables could vegetate flourishingly in winter season. They needed little or no pesticide. Mr. and Mrs. Gao knew this in farming. So this might reduce the damage from pests because it was very unlikely for them to spread pesticides on their vegetables. What’s better, they only used organic fertilizers to make the vegetables grow better and taste better.
  Each time when I received their carefully-grown green and organic vegetables from their hands, I was always full of gratitude and many thanks to them all the time. Sometimes, I gave them some snacks made of agar-agar in return. They both were, certainly, aware of the importance of regimen which could be accessible through not only spirituality but physicality as well. To their spouse, we owed them a lot of debt in gratitude. Therefore, we couldn’t be thankful to them more. (Yesterday evening, they again gave us greenery vegetables, sweet potatoes, fried peanuts and several seedlings of Chiou-kwei.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, March 18, 2010

 

My wife accompanied me to see a dentist whose wife was my wife’s colleague. Recently, I had found my teeth seemed to have some problems. When I chewed food, I could feel a little sour on my teeth. Maybe some tooth began to decay or other damage to my teeth. Anyhow, I needed to have my teeth checked in order to keep the teeth in good shape. To be frank, I didn’t develop good habits to keep the teeth clean. When I brushed my teeth, I seemed to do that with unnecessary strength, which did some damage to my gums or enamels, the glossy coating of the teeth. Mr. Woo, a dentist, had warned me to brush the teeth gently because some of my enamels had slightly shrunk as a result of my incorrect way in tooth brushing after a period of time. I found a fact that from my childhood, I had found my father brush his teeth in this jerky way and I was deeply influenced because I imitated his way unconsciously. Surprisingly, David and Mike also brushed their teeth with the same way. That was what they both usually did in the jerky way in the morning. I had told them many times, but it seemed hard to change a person’s habits. I knew they would do some damage to their teeth some years later. However, I had done what I could do to change their brushing habits. Now they both live in other places. Of course, it is not necessary to warn them every morning with a cell phone.

The dentist checked my teeth and he used the drill to grind flat the surface of a tooth. I just open my mouth and heard the cacophonous sounds from the drill and the tooth. As to my wife, she was out with the dentist’s wife. They both went out to do something. I thought that before we came here, they both must have appointed to do some shopping. Thirty minutes later, they went back and soon, my treatment was completed. Mr. Woo told me that there was no big problem on my teeth but I need to have a gentler way to brush my teeth. I thanked him for his advice. I knew each time when I began to brush back and forth or to and fro, I suddenly remembered what the dentist had warned me to brush more gently, and then I slowed down the toothbrush and gently brushed the teeth. I hoped that my teeth could accompany me to chew food in good condition. So far I had only two decayed teeth. That was really not bad. Sometimes, I was proud of my teeth because I didn’t pay more attention to take care of them. For example, I seldom brush them before sleep. What’s more, I never had the thought of brushing them after eating food or sweet snacks. What’s worse, I went to bed without brushing teeth even though that I had just eaten something.
  God bless my teeth! I needed to do more care on my teeth if I needed them to serve me all my life with good function in chewing. After all, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, I needed to save some money for the rainy days. That was to say, I needed to brush my teeth in a correct way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, March 19, 2010

 

More than two weeks ago, there was a big earthquake happening at 8:20 in the morning measuring about 6 degrees on the Richet scale. This quake caused some damage in southern Taiwan. Luckily, it claimed no life at the epicenter around Jia-sheng in Kaoshiung County. However, some houses collapsed or half-collapsed. Believe it or not, my family was also one of the damaged households: one of the enclosing walls even fell down. When it happened, I was busy putting the fallen items into its original places indoors. One of my neighbors shouted outdoors, “Mr. Kwo, your fence collapsed.” I went outside and found the demolished brick walls fall into pieces of debris on the lane side. I walked out and gathered them on the foundation of the wall in order to keep the traffic unblocked. Several of the neighbors suffered some damages of the water tanks placed on the rooftops and some water pipes broke, which caused the flowing of water out of the gates. As to the enclosing wall, it belonged to the community and my family was just located at the first of the terraced houses. Logically and lawfully, the brick fence was the public property. However, my garden was just beside the wall so it seemed the wall belonged to our private property. When the officials of the city government came along to take a look, they both told me that we needed to fix it on our own. What they wanted to fix was just the property belonging to the city government.

Hearing this, I knew I needed to spend my own money making the brick wall return to its original shape. I asked one of the neighbors to recommend me a bricklayer. He and the other worker made the brick wall stand there again and it really returned to its function to tell inside from outside. This afternoon, they came along to do their job and laid the bricks in grey and light red colors. The bricks were plied up one by one in good trim. In the twilight, they completed the whole wall and tomorrow they would need to come again to do some odds left. What counted most was that I needed to pay the bill—NT$13,000. Seeing the newly-built enclosing wall, I only hoped that it was out of question to resist another strong earthquake.
  Due to the fact that Taiwan had gone into the period of regular quake circle and I had the bricklayers add more bricks to form a bigger supporter in the middle of the whole wall which would be greater help to be added to the strength of the wall to have better earthquake resistance. Next strong quakes will be the test of the new enclosing wall. Let’s wait and see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, March 20, 2010

 

When Mike became a freshman, he seemed to have his personal life in his school. I remember it was his two or three weeks in the university that he invited four of his classmates to live it up on a weekend. When they appeared in the front gate, it was almost midnight but they kept on their enjoyment in letting off the fireworks in the riverbank. Originally, I had the idea to teach a lesson about the public conscience. However, I eschewed because it was during the period of Moon Festival and fireworks could be seen or heard far and wide. Maybe it was not right time to enjoy themselves at midnight but I didn’t need to pour cold water on them for a little crazy idea. “More distant from the residential areas of the neighborhoods” was what I needed to warn them.
  When they came back home, it was about 1:30 a.m.. My wife and I unloaded the worries and went to the bedroom. However, the five guys seemed energetic to have their follow-up: they had a chat and the sounds seemed noisy and apparently cacophonous in the deep night. I thought my family very seldom made a noise to disturb the neighbors and this time I dared to take sides. Hence, I lay on the bed and let the hubble-bubble broke the silence of the night. At last, I could not bear anymore and I had my way to stop them who showed no respect of others’ rights in sleep and calm. I made a call to Mike. No sooner had his cell phone rung than I hung up my phone. Really, he could read between the lines and soon the top fourth and fifth floors returned to normal. Silence went back to its right place and cacophonies at last caved in to the black nightfall when it was, believe it or not, 3:30 a.m.. I was wondering if my great patience was used in the right place at the right time. Were these youngsters were worthy of my patience or did I needed to teach them directly a lesson about respecting others’ rights? Or Should I need to yell at them to avoid roughhousing especially at night? I gave them freedom and rights to enjoy themselves and on the other hand, they forgot to consider others’ rights to sleep without disturbance. The prerequisite was that my family seldom  annoyed other neighbors. Hence, I had the courage to sacrifice our image in order to let my son and his classmates have a happy night. In short, their happiness was gained at the cost of our image. Anyhow, I didn’t need to apologize at each family around the community. However, I needed to strike a balance and didn’t allow the noisy night took place again.
  If that happened once a year, I thought what was OK. If once a month, it was against my personal principle to live up in my life. I swore that I would stand up to crack down before any of the neighbors complained or protested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, March 21, 2010

 

  In the morning my wife and I were free. Suddenly, an idea flashed into our minds that we could pay a visit to Baihe Dam which was part of our old memories. When David and Mike were children, we went there several times. It was not far from here and what’s more, the second freeway seemed to make the tourist spot route shorter than before. Hence, we loaded something on the trunk, including two folding chairs, a tea pot, a kettle, a mini stove and even fresh water. Surely, we had the thought of making tea in the open air. My wife prepared some snacks and I wanted to make sure that what we needed in making tea was in the car. Besides what had mentioned above, I checked if I also carried tea leaves and gas with us. When all was ready, I started the engine and about thirty minutes drive, the familiar beautiful dam was in sight. However, it seemed to lose its attraction. Only four sedans parked at the parking lot and the whole surroundings looked desolate. My wife and I walked around and soon we reached the road on the embankment, what appeared was not what was preserved in our memories. The whole water area shrank greatly and a great deal of land (maybe caused by the mudslides) occupied the reservoir. Unknown weeds were growing rampantly. When we kept on strolling, the beautiful scenes of the landscapes were changed into land and weeds. Old memories could not match the new scenery. 

Several thrushes made beautiful songs on the twigs and I rushed to the car to take out the binoculars. At least four were shot with the help of the telescopes. The beautiful songbirds with their nice calls facilitated to make up the sighs from the loss of picturesque scenery in the lakes. Other birds also contributed to the natural concert. Not bad!

At noon, we found a good and clean place under the shade of trees to make tea. We put up the equipment to boil water and the two chairs were put just before two stones, not big and not small, just suitable to put our feet on them. That was what we chose to sit comfortably to enjoy the tea. When the water was boiling, I began the familiar procedures to make tea. My wife sat and read over tea. Few tourists appeared. Less than 20 visitors were in sight. Was the reservoir deserted? I doubted.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, March 22, 2010

 

I went to my hometown because tomorrow there was a ritual to worship our forefathers at our ancestral temple. Reasonably, I could go there tomorrow morning. However, I had appointed with one of my junior high school teachers, Mr. Lu, who also retired in 2006, one year earlier than me. We were in agreement to meet at 7:00 p.m. at my old house. When I made my way to Chishan, I found the blur scenes on both sides of the freeway. It was said that a sandstorm would hit Taiwan and this was causing the poor visibility even in the nearby mountains.

When I arrived at Chishan, I didn’t feel hunger. Originally, I had the idea to eat at a small eatery. However, I didn’t think that I could eat a lot. So I ate one meat ball together with a bowl of pig blood soup. The food store was located near the old train station

Entering the old house, I needed to wipe down the table and chairs in the living room. Part of the floor was covered with the sand and dirt and paint falling from the decayed wall, so I also needed to sweep the floor. Soon, punctual to arrive was Mr. Lu who looked naturally older than what he looked like more than ten years ago in front of my old house when I also returned here. Tonight we had many things to talk. For example, he told me that he needed to retired earlier to take care of his twin grandchildren. I was confused by his reason of retirement. I needed his detailed explanation. Alas, fate was always unpredictable. His elder daughter got divorced and the twins were in the custody of their mother. Before, her divorce, she also got married with her first husband. God seemed to treat her cruelly: she became widowed after two month of their marriage when one day they took a trip to Hualian, a big falling rock hit their sedan. I noticed that Mr. Lu recognized he was old enough to resist the setbacks or frustrations. However, his daughter was hit back to her corner or cocoon without the courage to step out of the shadow of the miseries.

On the other hand, he began to learn to play the guitar and also had the thought of learning harmonica. Hearing what he said, I thought it was high time for me to play some tunes for him so I took out my guitar and harmonicas to play some songs to amuse him. At last, he needed to go home and I gave him five copies of my late father’s work—the Peaceful Gunfire. They all were Chinese version but I also brought with me a copy of English version which was given to him in order that he could have the chance to meet someone foreign or Chinese who could read English. I saw him off until his car moved away. Frankly speaking, time and tide wait for no man. The vicissitude of life is waiting for us ahead of time. Laughing? Crying? Do we need to compare with others in this aspect? Life is unpredictable and full of more sorrow than happiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

 

As usual, I woke up in the early morning and read an article in TIME instead of taking some morning constitutional. When it was about eight o’clock, I rode the scooter to Chishan to buy some offerings for worship. 
  Traditionally, our kinsmen were asked to prepare four dishes of food, together with some cooked rice, as offerings to worship the ancestors. The tradition was handed down from generation to generation. When the population of the kinsmen living here was on the rise, the ancestral temple seemed too small to be added more tables used as altars to meet the demand because all the offerings needed to be put on the tables. One of the reverend seniors advocated that each family prepared two dishes, rather than four, to make sure of the enough space four the offerings as a whole. I was in agreement with his opinions. However, no other kinsmen followed what he had said. So far, I also prepared four dishes of food; however, the utensils were replaced with smaller ones in hopes to spare some space for others. If everyone could do the same, the space would be enough. There were several ways to deal with the problem. Among them, the two-dish policy was the best one. However, the clansmen considered tradition couldn’t be altered and the custom should be kept all the time.

There was still one more thing to be mentioned. Most Chinese used burning incenses as the way to communicate the dead or gods. With three incenses in one’s hand, he or she could say the prayers or told some words to the unseen spirits or gods in the hell or in the heaven. Anyway, the incenses were used as the antenna for communication with the esoteric world. In order to get blessings from the ancestors or gods, our clansmen were not exclusive of the custom to burn paper money or so-called ghost money to the dead (Gold money was for gods; silver one, for the dead.) in order to make sure that the dead could lead a better life in the afterlife world. That was religious and the idea of respecting the forefathers was a traditional virtue worth bequeathing. As to the quantities of the paper money, how much did one need to buy to make sure of his confidence in showing her respect for the ancestors? The more, the better? Or the more did mean the more blessings from the ancestry? Not any ancestor had even told a little about it. When the paper money burst into fames, did the ancestors receive them in the heaven? Or was it another way to contribute to the pollution of the air and more trees to be felled? When I needed to buy some of the paper money, I went to the local store and the boss, one of our kinsmen, asked me how much I needed. I just told him the average amount. What counted was that I needed to go with the local custom. The more one burned, the more CO2 was emitted into the air. More than fifty years ago, when I was a little child, the problem was out of question because there was less population in the world.

To date, air pollution and global warming have greatly threatened the earth. Could we change the concept to save the earth for next generations? I remember there was a temple in Shan-shar Township where no paper money was allowed to set ablaze. So far, it was the only one in my memories to have the good concept for the worshippers to meet their soul need without adding more CO2 to the air. Could our clansmen have the thoughts of stopping the custom? By all accounts, it needed courage to renovate a custom. As I knew, most of my kinsmen were stuck-in-the-mud because the young and middle-aged were out to earn their living in a big city like Kaohsiung or Tainan where they could provide more opportunities in education for their children and in employment for themselves. Those who still lived here were old and they were resistant to advances or renovations and what’s more, some were stick-up, hard to accept others’ opinions. I was not a pioneer in this aspect. What I could do now was just cut down on the amount of offerings and the paper money. However, my piety was good enough to show my respect for the ancestors because I was the farthest one to attend the regular ritual annually. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

 

Uncle Shinkai was a person worth mentioning. He retired as a primary teacher less than thirty years ago. Now he was ninety- two, living in the farm village with his son who had six sisters. Uncle Shinkai was my late father’s second cousin; however, they had developed good brotherly relationships in their childhood. Someone might think that a nonagenarian only could lead a sedentary life because he only needed more care in living.
  That was very common to think that the elderly whose ages were over eighty or ninety needed more care and help. However, my uncle was exclusive. When Uncle Shinkai was an octogenarian, he was strong and healthy enough to be a tutor and some parents sent their kids to learn calligraphy or math under the tutelage of the legendary person in his eighties. His calligraphy in Chinese characters was recognized in our village and that was the reason some kids learned this traditional art from him. His brain was clear enough to be a math teacher even at the age of 85. Several years ago, when I returned to the hometown to visit him, his small living room was always full of the pupils to learn math from him. Only a petty tuition was needed. What counted was that the children had another function to accompany him when his son at the time still lived in Kaohsiung instead of living with the octogenarian here. A lonely old man really needed others to accompany him in spirit. As to his living, there was no problem. He could cook, wash clothes, clean the house, and do some easy farming chores. Surely, he was healthy and energetic enough to deal with anything in daily life. Sometimes, his six daughters would come along to visit him individually.

Uncle Shinkai was always in good shape. That was part of the reasons for his living alone without worrying his living. To be frank, he was really physically and mentally healthy all the time. Every day he woke up at about four o’clock in the morning and then he did a kind or regimen called “shaking hands”, which meant that he stood at the square in font of his house with the stance of half crouch. Then he began to shank his hands back and forth together with his stance in crouch and standing alternatively. When dark night was merged into day light, he rode his bike to his farm fields to plow the land. What he did was something about the farming, especially about rooting out the weeds with hoes instead of using herbicides. He hoed up weeds on purpose in order to have the same function as playing sport. One hour later, he returned home to clean his body and made his breakfast. At that time, he made grass juice to drink, which was said to be part of the regimens. Now he ate breakfast cooked by him or his son. (Now his son lives with him.)

My uncle especially paid attention to his meals. He often told me that the key to stay in shape was to eat more vegetables and less meat and besides, less salt and sugar was good for our health. What’s more, he seemed to grow vegetables and fruits in his own fields. There was empty land next to his house where he planted some vegetables to eat. No pesticides were used on them. Besides, he enjoyed the simple food without much grease and heavy seasoning on it. “Food should be avoided being deep fried and the best way to cook food is to boil it”, he said. If possible, he would like to eat at home rather than eating out. 
  Generally speaking, leading a regular life resulted partially to his wholesome appearance. After his breakfast, he read a newspaper and then watched TV or sang songs to the accompaniment of a KTV. After lunch, he had the habit of taking a nap and about three o’clock, he rose to do other things. As I knew, he had been keeping a diary for more than twenty years. His perseverance and constancy could be praiseworthy. One more thing to be mentioned was that he always kept early hours. So when I needed to call him, it was not appropriate after 21:00.

What mentioned above was part of my uncle’s regimens which kept the nonagenarian in good health. He kept the common diseases happening to the aged such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and so on at bay. Medicines seemed to be kept away from him. Besides his ways to keep his physical health, he seemed to be gentle- and kind-hearted. His clear conscience and square character contributed to his high self-esteem and hence his good recognition and praise were rewarded around the hometown, Shijou. I never heard his month uttered ill words of others. Even his criticism of some politicians was gentle without harsh or boisterous remarks. This proved that his brain was clear enough to care about the society and nation instead of those in their sedentary or vegetable lives. So far, he had good hearing and good eyesight. All in all, Uncle Shinkai was really a legend in our hometown and he was a nonagenarian living with his sexagenarian son whose sons and grandchildren living in Kaohsiung. A nonagenarian now is living his meaningful, busy and healthy life worth reporting and studying. However, I hope these do not happen or his peaceful life will be bothered.

 

 

 

 

 Thursday, March 25, 2010

 

Dear Sir,

 

  Here I screw up my courage to write you a recommendation of myself.

Living in the countryside full of idyllic scenery, my great and natural teacher, I was always enthralled by the requisite landscapes which contributed to my inner reverberation with the natural resplendence. Blessed with good ears for music that was my most attraction in my childhood, I learned to play the old harmonica by myself when I was seven. How excited I was to play any tune or pop music familiar to me from the radio after imitating them. Taciturn was my father who fell victim to political persecution, sentenced three and half years behind bars and there were few words uttered out from his mouth after his discharge. Surely, a kid was too naïve to be aware of the complication of the adult’s world. I was no exception, especially when my mother was illiterate. However, happiness could be easily available when the harmonica was on my mouth to resonate with the green fields, verdant mountains and the gently-running brook. Hence, the harmonica became my good friend to see me deep into my mind and it resonant sounds facilitated to keep my sorrow and solitude at bay. That’s why what I played was hidden in the depth of my soul. What I played was really the overflow of emotions to express the wordless songs.

  There are three CDs enclosed with the letter. The recording and sound effects are not good because they were recorded in the living room. CD1 and CD2 were recorded two and one years ago respectively. As to CD3, it was recorded just earlier this month. What counts is that I play the music on the guitar and harmonicas instead of the violin or the piano. Part of the music was composed by me and part of it was impromptu. If the music was worth playing or my techniques were good enough to go to the stage, would it be possible to give me a chance to stand on the platform showing the audience worldwide another way of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance?” (So far, I have 24 harmonicas, including 12 majors and 12 minors)

I am a retired English teacher in senior high. Not surprisingly, I am in my early fifties and because I am doomed to devote my time left in my life to music, I retired as soon as I reached the age for retirement in order to fulfill my dream to play music for the world. So far, I am certificated as a busker in Chiayi City and Tainan County. Last December, I competed with other competitors islandwide and gained third place in the art contest held by the Tainan government.

My Chinese name is Tatung Kuo; my English, Tony Kuo. My e-mail is tony38833883@yahoo.com.tw. What follows are the titles of my three CDs.

 

My composition and my playing on the guitar

CD1 : Track 1-3. 

CD2 : Track 9-16

CD3 : Track 1(my playing, not my composition). 9-11.

 

My improvisation on the harmonica(s)

CD2 : 1-8

CD3 : 8

 

My playing on the harmonica(s)

CD1 : 8-9

 

My playing on the guitar and harmonica at the same time

CD3 : 2-4

 

My playing on the harmonica by the accompaniment of a guitar teacher

CD1 : 4-7

 

Thanks for your reading.

 

Yours Sincerely

                      (Monday, March 25, 2010)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, March 26, 2010

 

Jeng-chia and Hong-shin were our guests tonight. When they appeared at the gate of the garage, my wife and I made them welcome. Surprisingly, Hong-shin’s wife also came with them and this gave rise to our surprise. Surely, we greeted her warmly, too. In the past, we had invited her to come with her husband several times but in vain. After their marriage, they both seldom visited my home together, only Hong-shin came alone.

Usually, we had a happy chatting over tea or sometimes red wine to enjoy ourselves. Tonight we had chicken soup cooked with some Chinese herbs or medicines, such as ginseng, jujube(red date) and wolfberry(lyciun fruit), all of which contributed to the cuisine as tonic to our bodies. I was in doubt to the function of its tonicity to our bodies. However, one thing to be sure was that it really tasted delicious. What I needed to mention was that I went to an evening market in the neighborhood in hopes that the chicken was fresh in its meat. Certainly! It was what I needed because I chose one male chicken that was kept alive in the cage. Soon, it became a bag of food ingredients after I paid the bill and got it from the butcher. 

More often than not, snacks were a must because when we chatted over tea. It was a common sense that some snacks were necessary to serve when sipping tea. Among the wide varieties of snacks, sweet ones were best avoided or they would ruin the flavor of tea. On the basis of our experiences, the best one might be peanuts which didn’t mitigate the flavor or aroma of tea. As to fruits, they lost their role to please the guests. But sometimes seasonal ones could be dished up if they were good enough as a result of their tastefulness.

Music was inevitable to amuse the guests and there were several ways to enjoy it. For example, I could play the CD on the CD players or watched TV. Among them, playing a DVD might be part of them to enjoy music for we could have sounds and visions at the same time. Sometimes, I played the guitar or harmonicas, which did catalyze the ambience as a result of the live performance. At least, they would give me a big hand after my playing. Usually, I stopped music in order to add more silence and peacefulness to the tranquil community when it was after 10:00 p.m. Some nightly birds were calling outside and we were inside to break the silence.

Not surprisingly, chatting topics were always changeable all the time. Anyone could take the lead of a topic and it would go its way around until someone else changed the topic. It was only a small talk, political or apolitical, domestic or international, philosophical or scientific, and so on. Anyway, the topics were free and of great varieties. Among them, I showed my aversion to the topics about the school. When the topic ran its way, I always tried to alter it. Sometimes, I made it and very often I was drawn to the downward spiral. If we found no ways to change the fact, what we complained was just part of emotional outlets. That was like what we saw or read concerning politics every day on TV or newspapers. There was nothing to change until the next time to elect someone who might be the same as the previous one. The fact could not be changed but we could change out mind to face the music. Sometimes, a good leader did happen to make a sea change and we all hoped the time to come.

Hong-shin’s wife had visited our house two or three times only when she came along with him. Tonight she seemed to have good moods to join us in the merry atmosphere. After their marriage, this was her first time to be one of our guests. And I was really appreciative of her ways in talking, freely and naturally. Like anyone of us, she could easily emerge into our topics and contributed to the swaths of words comprising the small talk.

When it was time to say goodbye, it was almost midnight and the engines of the cars and scooters broke the silence in the depth of night again. My wife and I waved them goodbye at the gate. We hoped they all had a sound sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, March 27, 2010

 

Less than one year ago, there was a natural park in Minshiung Township began to open for the public. Maybe there was nothing new to speak of a park in countryside. However, it was converted from an army camp to a park, especially used as an ammunition depot.
  The park was situated at the roadside of Provincial Highway 1, just between Woo-fong Technicial College and Minshiung. After the opening ceremony, the park was officially called Minhsiung Forest Park. It was said that the open part of the park was just one-fourth or one-fifth of the whole army camp. That was to say, if the whole park was completely cultivated, maybe it was much larger than Chiayi Park. Several months ago, my wife and I accidentally saw the sign of the park and decided to go there to take a look. One morning of a holiday, we went there to promenade and surprisingly found the place fabulous enough to be introduced to others. The pathways were paved with cement or blacktop, both sides of which were planted with trees, such as cherry, maples, pines and so on. What the concerned authorities planted was a little superfluous because there were old and big naturally-vegetating trees widely spreading the plain and small hills. The slight slopes causing the up-and-down trails did facilitate perspirations and rapid breath, which was good to our health. When doing exercise, too much or too little was not appropriate. Moderate exercise was like those who take a round stroll at the natural park at a faster speed.

The whole park was full of big and tall trees which gave off oxygen for the strollers there. Some platforms were built at some certain distances to provide the promenaders with a place to rest. However, they all were roofless so they could not give the strollers a shelter from the sun or sudden rains. The roof was not necessary because the natural canopies were far and wide, which were the best shelter from the sun. As to the rain, if it came suddenly, nowhere else could give the strollers a shelter from it. Likewise, some old-fashioned man-powered pumps were set up to draw underground water for washing hand only. Children might find them strange to play with for they should push the handler up and down in order to draw water. Our generation should be familiar to the device which was an important daily facility to draw water for daily use. When children came along to use the device, there should be the combination of playing a game together with curiosity. When drawing water by using it more than forty years ago, we thought it as a tool to help household chores. Naturally, it was a job, unlikely to think of fun or playing. Seeing some kids playing with the pump pouring water, their laughs reminded me of the old days when my siblings with me to do the chores in tandem to supply the needed amount of water poured into the big round pottery water tank in the kitchen. To us, it was not a hard job, but a daily one needed to be done every early evening, or our family would have no water to use.

Water for games to play was a really ingenious idea for the strollers. However, there was only one toilet to answer nature’s call. What’s worse, the washroom was shoddily built and it seemed to be a custom-made and plastic- made one set up under a big tree in the south area. I hoped it was only a temporary washroom and at the next stage, several toilets could be built to meet the demands.

Some cherry trees were built on both sides of the passages. My wife seemed to have good impression of the poetic cherry blossoms, some of which were in bloom, but not too splendid for words. They were just planted less than one year, and this was their first year to contribute to the natural carnival belonging to the flora in springtime. Several years later, the place might go into the headlines if all of them were in full blossoms in spring. Let’s wait and see.   

When we finished one round of walk in the park, we returned to the parking lot about thirty minutes later. After wiping the sweats, we went northward to Mingshiung where there was a breakfast shop at the roadside serving several tasteful traditional foods for breakfast besides soy bean milk, rice milk and black tea. We both should restrain our desires when faced with the delicate food. That was to say, we needed to order what we actually needed or it would be possible to overeat and thus what we did in the woods this morning would be watered down.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, March 28, 2010

 

  The news hit the headlines less than two months ago that Shen Yun Performance Arts came again to make its annual circuit of performance islandwide and worldwide as well. It was said they had three dance companies so their tour around the world was possible.

Last year my family had gone to the show held at the performing hall of Chong-cheng University. I was persuaded to be one of the audiences by my cousin, Mei-chi, who was a pious follower of Falung Gong (Falung Dafa). Her description of the dance company was too fabulous for words and some data she sent me explained how beautiful its performance was to move the audiences to tears. The beautiful imagination of the performance arts seemed to picture into my mind. However, I was of the opinion that their choreography should not tell me so much as their music. They stressed the techniques of traditional Chinese dancing together with the legends, fairy tales or histories to make each program have its story to tell by using the form of choreography instead of letters. Among their performance, I especially appreciated the fabulous sounds from the vocalists male or female. What they sang was some lessons or admonishment about Falung Dafa, from which we should discipline us to reach virtues and cultivate our Buddhist heart and demeanors.
  Surprisingly, two programs were apparently suggestive of the political persecution by the Communists in mainland China. They took advantage of the chances to make plight of the disciples falling prey to the Communist Party. The news of their followers persecuted by the Communist Party sometimes hit the headlines in the newspapers or in TIME. Several years ago, I read some articles concerning their political persecution. In China, there were not much freedom and religion was not exceptional. People might wonder why the Communists forbid them to practice Falung Dafa. Were the Communists afraid of the members of Falung Gong? What were they afraid of? It was said that Falung Gong was composed of more than one hundred million followers in the Middle Kingdom while the Communist Party had only less than 80 million members. That’s was part of the reasons to make the authorities of mainland China persecute Falung Gong in order to stop its expansion. Otherwise, one day it would be too big to be under control.

Tonight my wife and I went to the performance held at Minghsiung Performing Art Center, not far away from my home. The seats seemed to be fully occupied and what’s more, it was the fourth show of the performance. Tonight was the last one in the Yun-chia area. Had their believers mobilized their friends or relatives to come? Or had the followers launched a campaign of ads to make the hall full to its capacity? Anyway, it was a great success. When I rode to Mingshiung to buy the tickets in advance, the first two or three shows were almost full and no tickets were available at the prices lower than NT$3,000. I bought the last shows and not many tickets were left, either. What’ more, I shelled out 3,200 for two tickets. During the economic recession, the prices seemed to keep away those who were interested in arts performance, especially in  a town or countryside. Mei-chi once told me that her friends in Kaohsiung had complained the prices were generally too high.

Tonight the performance was accompanied by a light or simple orchestra which was against the formal one with some 60 or 120 members in formation. There were about twenty members of the orchestra to accompany the dance company. It was under the baton of a female conductor looking like coming from mainland China. To my astonishment, their sound effects were too good to be criticized. The concert hall was not a big one, only 8-9 hundred seats for the audiences. The engineers should make an effort to make the hall audible effectively around every corner.
  Last year, the performance of dancing was in the accompaniment of a piece of CD to play the music for the audiences, but most of them also seemed to get lost in the movements or graceful gestures of the dancers. Actually, live performance of an orchestra was completely different from a thin piece of CD. The orchestra present today was called a light one by me because only four violinists. As to the number of other players of the musical instruments, you could imagine. At least, they made some improvement after the criticism so they placed an ad on TV that they had an orchestra to be the accompaniment of the performance instead of a thin CD this year. When choreography tells me not so much as music, I will think more about if their annual performance worthy of my visit again. After all, everyone has his or her cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, March 29, 2010

 

Mr. Huang retired as a staff of the Taipower Company several years ago. He had his schedule to lead his life every week. One of it was that he made a regular visit to his colleague, Mr. Kao, one of my neighbors, also leading his retired life. Mr. Huang had his farm land in his hometown at Shueiling Township. However, he rented it to his brother. So, he just lived in Chiayi together with his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren when his son worked and lived alone in Kaohsiung.
  Believe it or not, I was told there was generation gap between Mr. Huang, living on the second floor and his daughter-in-law, living on the third floor of their house. He was told not to go upstairs without permission in order to avoid gossips on the air. This did surprise me. Traditionally, filial piety had been stressed of all ages. When a son did not live with his parents, his wife had the responsibility to care her parents-in-law. As to playing with his grandchildren, I doubted if Mr. Huang could be allowed to do this in order to please him. On the basis of this, Mr. Huang had no other choice but to have his schedule to go around by bus on the basis of the privilege for the old whose ages were over 65: taking a bus free of charge within Chiayi County. Hence, Baihe, Peikang, Yenshuei, and so on were his regular places to visit and he could take the bus alone to where he liked or planned to go. Sometimes, when his routine was scheduled to pay a visit to Mr. Kao’s family, I was called to go there to contribute to the small talk over tea. Sometimes, I invited them to my house. Besides tea, I also played music for them on the guitar or harmonicas. He seemed to have some plans to kill time or he would feel alone or lonely. Hence, Mr. Huang needed to visit his friends in order to fill in the blank of his time.
  Unlike Mr. and Mrs. Kao, he did not cultivate his habit or interest in farming or gardening. Mr. Kao and his wife (also retired) were busy taking care of the vegetables they grew. Besides, they sometimes needed to go to Tainan to help his son who ran a construction company. Building houses was beyond their abilities. However, they could do other things, such as family chores.
  Comparing to Mr. Kao, Mr. Huang did not find something he needed to do in his retired life. Therefore, what he wanted to do was just call on friends or call at some places. Maybe he was now healthy enough to go around. One day, if he was too old to go here and there, I thought his son should have his way to deal with the problem. If his son could transfer to a company nearby his home, Mr. Huang should live in his house with his family members without the problems of embarrassment.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

 

I went to a store to buy some bottles of hydrochloric acid to wipe out trees instead of cleaning dirty substances on the surface of toilet bowls. I did not intend to do the thing to shock the neighbors but I really had the thoughts to root out the tree whose roots were the complicity in the collapse of the fence wall earlier this month when an earthquake happened.
  Three or four years ago, I had the tree cut down because it grew as tall as a three-story house. I was appreciative of its prosperity but I was afraid of its roots which might cause the damage of the house: the roots were very likely to reach the foundations of the house. When the workers felled the tree, its roots were kept intact under the ground and I thought time would make them rotten sooner or later. The quake shook down the wall and when the brick layers came and found the thick roots pushed against the foundations of the wall, which might be part of the causes to the collapse of the brick fence and surely, the quake was more than 5 magnitudes. If it was less than four or three, I thought the fence wall could go through the natural disasters. On the other hand, If it had been 6-magnitude earthquake, the wall also could stand firm because no other walls in the community collapsed. Hence, the living roots should be the complicity and I needed to make them rotten. Someone suggested me to have a bulldozer to excavate the roots and soon the problem was settled. 
  However, I had another idea to deal with the problem. Mr. Kao had a hand-operated drill. I borrowed it to drill three holes on the roots and then I poured hydrochloric acid to the holes. Later, the acid was absorbed and I downpoured the acid again. There were three trees left their roots under the ground. The third was cut down by me about three months ago and part of its trunk was left to the height about two hundred centimeters. I also drill three holes on its body and poured acid to kill it. Each tree was poured into about three bottles of hydrochloric acid. It was beyond my comprehension to the needed amount to kill a tree and made it roots rotten to the core. Time will give me the evidence to the effect of the acid. Mr. Kao had suggested me to poured herbicides but I thought the acid should have the same function to make a tree come to ruin.
  The new wall was completed and I didn’t hope it would fall victim to the quake again with the complicity of the thick roots under the ground. So far, I came to know a fact that a big tree was inappropriate to be planted in a small garden or its roots would cause damage to the house or the fence wall. Hence, I had learned a lesson from the real experiences.
  However, I was at a loss why the building company originally planted the trees in the garden of each family. They should be experienced in this aspect. Simply put, didn’t they know the trees would grow taller than the five-story terraced houses? So there were no big tree was kept in each garden because each family had cut down on the safe side. Maybe the trees were low-cost so they choose them as part of the layout of the garden affiliated to each family. The kind of tree has a local name called “the blackboard tree.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

 

Mr. He who lives in our neighborhood is a traditional herbalist whose special skills or techniques are in spine modulation. According to him, most or almost all of us have the problems in our spinal cords which are probably transformed seriously or not seriously as a result of our incorrect postures in working, walking, sitting, reading and so on. When we don’t stand or sit in correct postures or gestures, our spines will be slightly deformed day in and day out. Gradually, we are doomed to get into the deformation in our spinal cords. At first, the little change on our spines is not palpable until we don’t feel good on our back. Then the balance of our right and left of our body has been derailed. This is the time to go to a doctor for rehabilitation.
  Like a rehabilitation center in Western medication, Chinese traditional medication also has its long record and recognition in treatment of the deformation. Many people believe Chinese doctors have their special theories to treat the deformation. When people suffer sports injuries, they would go to a rehabilitation center or herbalist clinic for treatment. Mr. He runs a clinic belonging to the latter and there is a certification on the wall to tell the patients his legality. He has practiced this physical medication for many years. It is said that his father is also a herbalist or a Chinese medicine doctor. Really, we can see this kind of traditional clinic easily. His clinic is always full of patients waitingfor his treatment. If you want to be treated at his clinic, you should make an appointment in advance. Otherwise, you should wait there until the next patient who is absent when his turn is to come.

The clinic is not a large one but at his living room. A small single bed was put there to let the patients lie down for treatment. Then he uses his hand or elbow to push or pull the patient’s torso or limbs, like what we had seen in the process of message. Some gadgets are used to help his treatments. David and Mike have been cured of their feet as a result of sports injuries. The devices seem to facilitate his treatments. At last, an ointment patch is put on the injuries and the herbal medicine of the patch will help to cure the injuries. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 1. 2010

 

Tonight I had made an appointment with Mr. Liou, a guitar player and teacher in Tainan, who had accompanied me to record two CDs sent to others including my friends or relatives. He is up date a teacher of several colleges or high schools on guitar in southern Taiwan. So every Wednesday and Thursday, he needed to drive to Chiayi to give guitar lessons for the students in Chiayi University and Chong-cheng University respectively. There was no guitar major in the two universities so Mr. Liou was just to instruct the students in the guitar class. In general, the students selected the guitar course as part of their extracurricular so the instruction time was always scheduled at night. When Mr. Liou finished his teaching, it was often after ten 10:00 p.m. and it was also high time for him to drive back home with his tired body. If he was not too exhausted, I would like to invite him to my home and we could chat or play over tea and some snacks. The happy gathering would last until midnight or over it.

When his car appeared at the front of the garage, my wife and I had stood there to greet him together with his two disciples as his assistants in teaching his students. His disciples seemed to be young couples who showed their great interest in music, especially in guitar and singing. Welcoming them to my home, we both dished up the chicken soup cooked with Chinese tonic medicines. I thought it would be delicious to taste and good to their health. Besides, we wife also took out some snacks and I was busy making tea while the water was boiling. There were several topics interspersed in our remarks, most of which were concered with music in general and guitar playing and singing in particular. Mr. Liou had a plan to make a performance in Tainan and almost all the programs should be created or composed in order to make sure of the intellectual rights. A good idea flashed into my mind that I could play my works concerning my father’s book, “The Peaceful Gunfire” and this was part of the reasons for Mr. Liou’s coming tonight. As to the details, we needed to plan them with circumspection. So far, I tried every possible chance to make the book known. That was meant I was more positive to make public the book. If Mr. Liou had any form to perform, I would like to give it a try.

Sometimes, we played CD to listen to and made some explanations or criticism. The comments were focused on the merits or demerits and the opinions could be exchanged among us. I also played my recent work on the guitar to them and asked Mr. Liou for some advice. It was in the depth of night and the Taiwan nighthawks were crying loud in the dark skies outside. Needless to say, we were not the only noise makers in the dark night. What’s more, the birds made much louder noises outdoors than what we did indoors.

We all seemed to have good moods in the topics. When it was high time for them to leave, believe it or not, it was almost two o’clock in the morning. I waved them goodbye and immediately I closed the garage door. Actually, I was too tired that I went upstairs to fall asleep. As to the mess left on the table, I thought I wouldn’t clean it until next morning in order to avoid more noises in the calm night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 2, 2010

 

Recently, the community, like many other places in the countryside or even in a city, had been bombarded by loud sounds with high decibels from dusk to dawn. The high-decibel sounds were caused by a nightly bird of prey called Taiwan nighthawks (Allied Nightjar). When twilight merged into dark, they flew in the skies with loud warbling which was resonating in the woods and neighborhood. Even at midnight or in the deep night, the nighthawks warbled too loud that some were left sleepless. Maybe the intensity was more than eighty decibels. Once a person was beyond his pale to stand the high-decibel sounds, he called the fire department to shoot down the noise makers for he was almost crazy as a result of the continuous insomnia by the loud noises. Could you imagine how terrible it was when the flying birds made the loud sounds above your house and you just could not fall asleep for several days or weeks? However, if a fire fighter brought along a rifle, how could he shoot the bird at the dark night? He just heard the bird warbling here and there but no target could be in sight for him to zero in on.

Seven years ago, my family moved here and the first year seemed calm and peaceful at nightfall. However, the second year when it was near spring time, the strange sounds attracted me to go out just for taking a look at the makers of the loud and cacophonous warbles. I was aware of the sounds certainly made by a kind of bird whose shape or sounds were completely unfamiliar to me and I observed a fact that the birds only hovered above the grove, just in the opposite of my house and to the north of our community. They had never flown to the skies over our community. Our of curiosity, I stood outside and open my eyes in hopes that their flying shapes could be in sight, only to see nothing except the dark shapes of the trees standing tall to laugh me, a silly guy. I even had the idea to borrow an infrared binocular to make the invisible birds come to light but in vain. Once, I recorded the crying of the birds and made it heard by one of the experienced bird watchers in the school where I previously taught. The colleague was not in a position to identify what it was. Then one of my colleagues visited me and brought the pictures on a book to let me see the real shape of the Allied Nightjar with its ugly figures and grey color. It was said that the nighthawks made their nests on the ground so they should have in-born nature to camouflage in order to merge into the surroundings nearby. That was a good way to keep their safety in the broad daylight, especially for the fledglings. So there was a fat chance to see them at daytime and it was very difficult to watch them clearly at night unless one had special equipment. Due to these factors, the Allied Nightjar was so far a mystery which was worth exploring.
  About three or four years ago, the birds began to expand its flying territories to the skies over the communities and some news hit the headlines that the allied Nightjars had invaded the towns or cities. Some experts came to the conclusion that there should be some changes in our environment or ecosystem which made the birds even nested in the rooftops of the houses in a city. One year ago, I saw the young birds beside the door of the garage of the next neighbor. I was so excited to see this and returned home to take out my digital camera. When I came to the scene again, my appearance shocked it which flew away before my action to take the precious pictures. It was really a pity because I personally saw the real face of the bird but could not make its pictures on my belt. 

This early evening, the chance came again and I went indoors to grasp my camera, a common one without the peripheral device for the professional or experts. When I was standing in the garden, I saw a young nighthawk fly away in front of me. It was almost hit by a car because it was just on the lane. The neighbor came to tell me about a close shave of the bird which always made a loud noise at night. I agreed with him and I followed its flying route to find it on the pathway of our raw of terraced houses. About four or five meters away, I stood firm to take the photo of the nightly bird for the first time. However, it was beyond distinction where the bird was on the picture and hence, I moved closer, but alas, it flapped its wings to fly away to the east of the pathway and landed on the ground at the distance of 50 meters or so. Naturally, I aimed at his landing location and moved lightly to the possible site but I found nothing except some weeds and the bricks to pave the pathway. I focused on attention and I told myself that I couldn’t miss it. Suddenly, I found a heap of grey feathers or something just near the corner of the stairs. Surprisingly, I crouched to extend my hands to control the functions of the camera which should serve me to shoot the precious photos, more than twenty. Believe it or not, the distance between me and the bird was less than thirty centimeters. The short distance didn’t scare the bird away partly because it was a nightly bird and partly because it was hungry of sick. When my wife returned home at 5:15, I ushered her to the place and it still crouched there. My wife could not recognize it because the perfect camouflage until I pointed it out by using the words—a heap of grey feathers like shit or dead leaves there. At last, she really saw the real face of the bird and smiles were on her face together with surprise.
  When it was completely dark outside, the other Allied Nightjars made their regular warbling in the skies. I stepped out to take a look again but found nothing there with the help of a flashlight. I thought the young bird returned to its mother and was fed. It needed to learn more before its independence from its parent or parents. God bless it!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, April 3, 2010

 

The Tomb Sweeping Day fell on April 5, but my brothers and cousins agreed to clean the forefathers’ tombs tomorrow so my family needed to go to Shijou tonight. David and Mike had already left their schools to home so we drove back to the hometown as scheduled.

When we reached Ahliang, Mike had the thought of eating mutton as the supper. The other three members, including me, were in agreement with the idea and we went to the old eatery where the mutton fried with rice noodles was always our favorite dish. Since David and Mike were kids, we often went there for supper on our way to the hometown. At that time, the boss and wife together with their three kids were busy serving the eaters. Now their sons and daughters were absent from the store and as I knew, one of her daughters began to work at a medicine school. The girl was their elder daughter. What impressed me most was that one day the girl was scolded by her mother under the nose of every customer. She was just a junior high school girl at that time and this action came suddenly and I was in embarrassment and maybe the other eaters had the same feeling.

We ordered four helpings of mutton fried with rice noodles and a big bowl of mutton soup. More soup could be added free of charge and the mutton, of course, could be added more on the condition of more pay. Each time we always ate to our heart’s content and the tasteful mutton fried with rice noodles really became part of my family’s nostalgias which frequently reminded us of the special flavor or delicacy in our hometown. David also said that there were some cook shops in Danshuei to sell the same food as mutton but the taste and quality were inferior. What’s more, it was more expensive than what we ate here. Besides, it was probably the nostalgia that grasped David’s heart to develop his preference to the same dish served here. The couple of the store owners welcome us with their warm greetings and smiles together with some chatting. We were part of their old regular customers whose coming was just to recall the old memories. To make matters better, they served the same taste of mutton because of their familiar cuisines or cookery. As to my family, we had visited the cook store for less than fifteen years. The frequency of visiting the store would be naturally on the decrease as a result of our paying a visit to the hometown becaming fewer and fewer. Without our sons’ suggestion, my wife and I had a fat chance to enjoy the delicious food here.
  Time and tide wait for no man. All will change over time and it is as natural as what we have seen in the world. Just as what the store owners had said that we become older when the children grow up, we are part of the roles to play in the life journey. We come to the world without our own free will (acceptance or decline). And for most people, the life journey comes to a period with the curtain call at the funeral. As to reincarnation, it belongs to religion.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 4, 2010

 

The Tomb Sweeping Day falls on April 5 this year but we are in agreement to visit our ancestors’ tombs today. Due to the fact that Tomb Sweeping Day is officially a national holiday, most people would like to visit the tombs on that day. We have three-day holiday this year, including Saturday and Sunday. Hence, it was a good idea to finish the annual activity to clean the forefathers’ tombs today and tomorrow we could have a day left for taking a rest or a trip.

My elder brother’s family returned before eight o’clock in the morning and later, my second cousin’s family and the other nephews’ family members also arrived. The earlier, the better because we had experienced the traffic jams on the road near the public graveyard. About ten minutes drive, we got to the destination and to our surprise, there was not much traffic on the mountain road to the graveyard. Maybe there were three days to visit the tombs and maybe some did the annual activity last week.

Parking the cars, we walked up to the public pagoda for storing ancestors’ urns where my sister-in-law put up the necessary offerings on the altars. The place was always crowded on Tomb Sweeping Day and today was no exception. After the process of rituals, we entered the pagoda to worship late Father, and my grandparents. I told my late father that his book, THE PEACEFUL GUNFIRE, had been reported in the newspaper and his story would make more people aware of the fact about the war and peace besides what happened in the South Seas during World War II. This was the main reason for Father to write the book.

Afterwards, we walked up the slope to the pubic graveyard and tried to seek the other ancestors’ tombs which sparsely spread on the slope. Some businessmen began to open up a business to manage the tombs which were in good trim because they applied herbicides on the tombs several times each year to kill the weeds from vegetating. Before Tomb Sweeping Day, they cleaned up the tombs in advance. That was why we didn’t do the hard job to weed the tombs. Each tomb needed NT$1,500 for annual management. If grass was asked to grow on the tomb, the fee was 2,500 each year.

Five tombs were easily found out and the paper money was put on each of them. It was tradition handed down from generation to generation. Besides, some firecrackers were set off at the natural graveyard. We all knew it was not our custom but some Hakka’s tradition. This gave the hint that the public graveyard also attracted some Hakka to bury their ancestors here. People said that Hakka held geomancy (Fengshuei) in high esteem. They did their best to find a good place to bury the dead in hopes that good luck and blessings fell on them and their offspring.   

At last we finished today’s job before ten o’clock a.m. Arriving at home, I boiled water to make tea and the old house was full of laughing and chatting. That was one of the merits to have the annual traditional activity. The relatives or family members could get together once a year. In modern technological age, getting together seemed to become harder and harder. Hence, we cherished the annual festival to put together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 5, 2010

 

Globalization seems to stand firm on the world stage. Many years ago, we were familiar with a term called “internationalization” which should be, I believe, tantamount to the trend now called globalization. There are many reasons to advocate the conception, one of which is that we can share the global natural or human resources with other nations. This is meant that we can export or import the resources or other man-made products with other nations. If we have abundant food to produce, then we can export it to the countries in need. On the other hand, we can buy some natural resources, such as oil, iron ore, or timber from other ones. It stands good reasons to have this notion of exchange or trades among nations all over the world and it has been a fact that the abundance of the natural resources are here and there for human to use. However, international trades really contributes to the over-exploitation as a result of the human nature—greed.
  When oil was found to be in good use in industry, there is no notion to keep some for the next generations until the wells dry out. Surely, it is not appropriate to think that the earth has endless resources to serve human and what we can do is just exploit them. The benefits are too great to be tempted and hence it is good idea to export them to other countries. When the oil in my country is too abundant, we sell it to other countries for bonus. The process of refining and transportation needs to consume energy, especially the latter when it is transported to other countries at a great distance. Oil seems to be produced in some countries, and the countries which produce no oil have to import the important substance. However, some agricultural products are locally produced. Why do we need to import them from other countries? For example, we have high-quality oranges which taste delicious in season. Nevertheless, exported ones also could be available in the market. What’s worse, the imported oranges taste much worse than those local ones. Consider the fare spent and wasted on the transportation by means of ships and cars. It is another way to waste our natural resources. American has its consumers to buy oranges like what we have our customers to consume the locally-produced oranges. If each country has over-abundant oranges, then it is reasonable to export them to other countries where no oranges are available. If both countries have oranges in season, why do they need to export or import the similar fruits at the cost of fuel and transportation?
  Globalization seems to take off in modern times and many successful enterprisers have the thoughts to keep abreast of times. In prehistory times, the conception seems chimerical as a result of the lack of transportation. Now, we have jets, ships and cars or trains, so globalization will run its course on the world stage. If a plowman leads his life in the backcountry, how can he broaden his horizon if he also rejects to be connected with the world? The evolving of the world can not be stopped and we can not live the way like what a caveman did. When the world is being globalized, are we conscious of the merits and its demerits at the same time? When we are told to be adapted to the world, what are the lessons we learn from the unavoidable globalization or the far-sighted prospect in the world?
  The long and short of it is that globalization has been on the way. Surely, it is a double-edged sward and mixed blessing. Watch out!

 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

 

I called the journalist in the Free News if she had the idea to take a picture of an Allied Nightjar( a kind of nighthawk) that was dead at the corner of the fence wall. It was a minor bird with mature feathers to fly but its tail still didn’t take shape. Mr. Kao, one of the neighbors, told me about the dead bird with its heap of feathers on the corner of the outside wall of my fence. I went out to see the poor little critter with its flat body and half-spreading wings on the ground. There were some clues to infer the possibilities of its death caused by some careless driver or scooter riders. First, its body was flat and its face was down on the ground. Second, its two wings spread. Maybe it struggled to flap its wings to the corner of the fence wall where its life came to an end before it reached to its maturity to enjoy its short-lived bird life. Several days ago, two of the neighbors said to me that there was a bird, looking like the culprit to make loud noises at night, staying on the lane. They were worried the little critter would be killed by the passing cars or scooters. What they saw happened in the broad daylight and this was meant the little bird would be probable to be killed as a result of its clumsy and short-distance flying. I cared more because the bird was a nightly bird which should act at night. As to its activity at the day time, the bird lost its power in action or eye-sight. When the sun rose, it ceased to act in searching for food or something, just stayed at its nest to sleep. Due to the fact that it flew clumsily before the sun set, I guessed the little critter might be sick or it got hungry because its parent or parents had been dead and he was too weak to lead a normal life.

The journalist answered my call but she was too busy to come soon. I told him that I had shot some pictures which were asked to e-mail her some. Sad to say, I was not familiar with the process to mail someone pictures. Hence, I told her to come along some days later if convenient and I would give her the pictures to copy with her camera. The idea seemed to be another way to add some information or news to her news agent, through which, the daily news happening at night could hit the headlines. Instructive should be the pictures which taught the inhabitants something about the loud noise maker at night and its real face should come to light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

 

My wife returned home earlier than usual because every Wednesday, all classes are dismissed at midday in primary schools. Seeing her, I asked where she wanted to go for dinner. Thinking a moment, she suggested Peikang where we could enjoy duck rice, famous local food especially in the front lane of Matsu Temple.

I drove along the provincial highway to Minhsiung and then turned left to Shingkang where we had experienced to taste some food. However, what we ate lost its attraction to provoke our appetites. Hence, no idea flashed into our minds to eat supper here. Nevertheless, we both also went around the stores and eateries standing on both sides of the street in front of the famous temple also called Matsu Temple. If there were some food famous or well-known there, we would like to have a test but no confidence pushed us to have a try. Maybe there were other cook shops providing tasty food somewhere around there. I thought we could spend some time in searching some other day.

Arriving at Peikang, we moved along the lane pointing to the temple. There was a cook shop serving duck rice just at the left side of the terraced stores in the midway of the lane. The duck meat there tasted juicy and delicious with its tasteful flavor and sauce. However, to our disappointment, the store was close today. “How lucky we are” I cried out. Nevertheless, there was another one at the right side of the terraced stores. I parked the car and walked down the lane with my wife. Soon, the food store was in sight. Good business could be seen as a result of the crowded customers inside and outside. The outdoor buyers were ready to take away the food they ordered but they needed to wait for the boss and his clerks to pack well what they needed. As to the eaters inside the store, some had already enjoyed their tasteful duck rice and other food. The others, like my wife and me, were waiting for the ordered to dish up. The customers went in and out and soon what we ordered was carried out. Surely, it was our time to enjoy the food, just duck rice together with duck soup and pig-blood cakes. Usually, we would like to order a helping of vegetables. However, we didn’t have faith to order one safe to eat. That was, we were worried about the residual pesticides. Finishing our super, we left the food store and walked along the terraced stores to browse. When we strolled to the end of the street, what appeared in front of us was the prosperous temple with the never-ending burning incenses in the big censers. We wife suggested to worship with our close hands only. I thought it was not bad and we went into the temple and reached the place in front of the figurine of Matsu to worship with our piety. Then, we went to a snack stand where to-far(much softer than to-fu) was available. It was a sweet snack and I was too full to eat more. Reasonably, I was waiting beside my wife until she finished eating.
  Before going home, we went shopping along the store street where some famous native products could be accessible, such as peanuts, lotus-root powder, dried longen, pineapple cakes and alike. We bought some peanuts home for the coming guests when sipping tea.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 8, 2010

 

A German concert pianist uprooted his family to the U. S. not for political persecution but for the homeschooling of his kids instead. He sold his Steinway to help pay for the move. Before their immigration, they were fined $10,000 for illegal homeschooling for their four children. The police appeared at their house to escort the kids to school; they were so frightened that they cried. At last, their family made their way to Morristown, Tennessee, where their kids were illegally homeschooled. Did we need in significant thinking about the reasons for the family to flee to other countries for the persecution from homeschooling? The musician had lost his confidence in the schooling in Germany. There must be something wrong in the educational system which caused the pianist to teach his kids under the tutelage of him or his wife (or his friends or relatives) instead of the teachers in school.

Homeschooling also comes to existence in Taiwan. So far, it is reported that more than sixteen thousand homeschoolers are being educated at the kids’ home on this island. The same educational system has been acceptable in some other foreign countries, such as the U.S., Spain, Netherland, Sweden, Australia, France, and Britain. However, some conditions should be attached to those homeschooling families if they want their children homeschooled. For example, in Spain and Netherland, unless a child is extremely ill, homeschooling is not allowed. In Germany, parents can be fined and lose custody of their kids if their kids were educated at home. In Sweden, children can be taught by their parents with the permission from the authorities. In Australia, children should take annual tests if they are homeschooled. As to France and Britain, a new monitoring system is implemented to ensure homeschooled kids get a suitable education. If a school educational system runs its course to make the parents have confidence in schooling, why do we need another way to replace it with homeschooling? After all, almost all of us are not homeschoolers when we are kids.

Anyway, no others could be in lieu of the experienced teachers. What’s more, education should be in full function to advocate the cooperation with other learners on the one hand and the competition on the other hand to make the peers to develop in all aspects. In short, education should be emphasized on both competition and cooperation as well. In theory, it should not put the stress only on grades or scores; those who are educated should have many things to learn. Take the homeschooling for example. Without more peers to learn in a group or school, the homeschoolers may become insular or they may be chimerical from the real society after they finish homeschooling even if they have good grades in learning at home.

Like what we had in a Forest Elementary School illegally built more than decades ago, the name of the school now falls into obscurity and the graduates seem to have nothing in persuasion to tell the other parents to follow. Where are they now? Anyway, a rat race was, is and will be keen all the times. “The fittest are the survival.” Besides, there is always another way for the young generations to succeed or survive in the world. Rather, we don’t know the main purpose for the pianist to make their kids homeschooled. Is this the only way for his kids to succeed in the future? What’s more, what is the definition of success? A successful musician, enterpriser, or scientist? Or just a happy and fulfilled man? We all like the bright side of life and hope to be a man of success with power and wealth together with happiness and fulfillment and recognition. Our dream is to become a man with a happy ending. Do good things always happen to a person at the same time? Or do misfortunes never come single?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 9, 2010

 

Last week when we came back from Chishan, my hometown, I drove my family to a toy store to buy a model helicopter which is remote-controlled with its rechargeable device to connect the computer. When David still stayed at home for his spring break, I thought he would be interested in playing the model helicopter which had about twenty centimeters long and its blades had 18 cm in length. Simply put, it was a small one to play indoors; otherwise, the wind outdoor would blow it away and the remote controller would lose its functions.

When David needed to return to his school, I told him to bring the toy with him if he liked it. However, he didn’t have the thought so I put it on the shelf. Several days ago, I began to make it charged to the capacity and tried to push and pull the control sticks. The right stick was used to control its two blades. When pushed forward, the mini motors was accelerated to make the blades rotate faster and faster and it would ascent. When the stick was stopped being pushed gradually, the helicopter would ascend step by step. If the stick was released suddenly, the toy helicopter, or course, would lose its power and precipitated with a noise. I was afraid it would break; however, it was still under the control to ascend and descend with the move of the control stick. As to the right stick, it was used to manipulate the right or left direction of the helicopter. Hence, it was certainly used to control the rudder which had its natural functions to make the flying toy right or left. Besides, the right stick was also used to make the model helicopter fly forwards or forwards. At first, it was often out of control and hit something in the living room. Then I changed the place to the garage where the odds and ends were fewer.
  After the practice of several days, now I could take a good command at the small model helicopter which was heavy-duty or it would be motionless on the corner because several smashes to the ground, wall or something. Surprisingly, it still followed my order to fly in the air of the garage. According to my data, the majorities of toys all over the world were made in China. I knew the fact and this model helicopter was no exception. To my surprise, it was firmly made to bear several collisions, and I knew the small flying toy needed to be equipped with precise gadgets or computer programming. What’s more, there were three tiny motors to power the blades and rudder to rotate. Among them, the one to make the rudder rotate was no larger than a green bean. So far, it was the smallest motor I had even seen.
  This little toy seemed to change my impression on the toys made in China. However, I was still worried their products in general and food in particular, made with toxin or other poisonous chemicals. How about others’ reaction toward their food?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, April 10, 2010

 

Mr. Kao had some guests at his home this afternoon, and he called to go over, together with my wife. I thought it was a good chance to tell the story about the Taiwan nighthawk so I brought with me the pictures of the minor bird and the dead one.

Two guests came from Kaohsiung County and they both were also retired public servants in Taipower Company. They were septuagenarians leading their retired lives and they sometimes paid a visit to their friend, Mr. Huang, who had been Mr. Kao’s colleague when they worked at the state-run company. Today, Mr. Kao’s house was full of sounds of chatting and laughing. The coming of my wife and me should add more topics to the small talk, which played an important role among the retired persons. Human beings are gregarious or sociable creatures who can not isolate from others to lead a solitary life. Keeping company with others seems essential to a person living a normal life, especially for those who have retired. Some old people have the tendency to seek others just for talking in order to keep away loneliness. If they lived with their sons or grandchildren, the feeling of loneliness does not seem to bother them. If they live alone, they should have several ways to kill the time, including the chatting with others, which is superior to gambling that can be seen on the corner of a park.

After the greeting words, my wife and I were seated together and we chattered freely and happily. Some moments later, my pictures attracted their attention and one of them asked what they were. Then it was my role to draw the topic to the nightly bird. When I asked them if they had been bothered by the loud noises at night? One of them was excited to describe the loud sounds making him hard to have a sound sleep. However, he had never seen the critter when he was told the name of the nightly bird. Surely, it was high time to take out the pictures for them to see clearly. He took a good look at the minor bird and the dead body on the corner. Surprise and excitement fell on his face for he in person watched the real face of the noise maker at night. As to the other two, they had never heard the loud sounds at night and hence they were lukewarm about the pictures. All in all, what I showed should be instructional in our daily lives. One day, the other two may encounter the nightly birds crying loud at a peaceful night. Then they would remember the pictures they had seen at the house of his friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 11, 2010

 

A nongovernmental organization held a public hearing in the neighborhood to make plight the air and water pollutions in the neighboring community. Local inhabitants more than 70 in number rounded up at the temporarily-set booth at the roadside. Some officials concerned were invited to know and handle the problems caused by the factories in the nearby industrial park. It was said that the fish in Nieuchour River were found dead in the mass several days ago. The rotten dead fish gave off smelly odors which drew the attention of the dwellers and the news hit the headlines in the newspapers and on TV. Strange to say, the news should have been noticed by the head of the subdivision of the district. He was elected by the local citizens to serve the people in the areas. However, he seemed lukewarm and had done little to serve the locals, which caused many complaints. People here had nagged that what he did was take the monthly salary from the government. Believe it or not, he was a septuagenarian who had lost his stamina and enthusiasm to serve the community. How could a person like him have the thought of running for the head with the other three candidates four years ago? Ages were not to blame but the indifference to the public. More ridiculously, how could an old man win the victory in the election? Why didn’t he take the lead to hold the public hearing today? Not surprisingly, he was absent from today’s public hearing.

Due to the fact that we lived near the industrial park and pollution was one of the problems to be concerned about. So far, it was no air pollution to draw my attention. Maybe the other communities were closer to the factories which would illegally emit exhaust gas to the air or discharge waste water into the river. The factories should know the poisons would do harm to the residents but they did the illegal emissions and discharges at night, especially on a rainy night. The officials came up with some measures to take, two of which was to ask the residents to gather evidence by taking pictures and put the suspected waste water with a bottle. They asked us to make a phone and the phone numbers of the concerned authorities were made public on a paper. Truly, this was like a common sense or a cliché. However, the factories should be warned that the locals and officials had paid attention to the wrongdoings they had done. What counted was that the community as a whole should be active to curb in tandem the problems in water and air polluted by the factories. Reporting it to the concerned authorities was one of the ways to stop them from doing the illegal things harmful to our health. If the culprit was arrested at the spot, the factory owner should be severely punished enough to stop the wrongdoings. If the locals could stand firm to help the officials, the efficiency should be better.
  Before the results came out, I still had my confidence in the officials and the nongovernmental organization called “The Development Association of Nieuchour River.” We all hoped the chairman of the association could be the new leader of the several communities after his successful election in June.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

 

I was invited by Mr. Shiao, a retired teacher in science (the physics subject in a junior high), who live in Meishang. Before driving on the freeway, I needed to pick up one of his friends, Mr. Huang, who had invented four-stringed urhu with its patent in Taiwan and mainland China as well.

When we reached Mr. Shiao house, it was ten minutes later than what we had been due to arrive at ten o’clock. I needed to explain the reasons to delay the appointed time for I took a nap in the living room until Mr. Huang called me. It was embarrassing because it was, in my memories, the second time that I didn’t arrive on time as a result of the overtime doze in twenty years. Surely, our appointment was made to sing and chat; nothing was important to study or to discuss. Maybe I didn’t need to make an excuse for being late. However, I thought it polite to do so. I remembered about twenty years ago, I was late to stand on the platform for the instructions at the first period in the afternoon. The school authorities called me and I jumped up from the bed where I took a nap. From then on, I never lay on the bed to take a nap if necessary. On the contrary, I just sat on the sofa for a short siesta.

Mr. Shiao was a fan in Taiwan’s popular songs old-fashioned or in fashion. He even learned the songs with the accompaniment of a KTV at home. The lyrics gracefully describing romances or natural beauty did capture his mind and he was really lost in the attraction of the music. Besides, he also buried himself in physics, Buddhism and Chinese chess as well. All of these contributed to his life hustling and bustling. I made a conclusion that he was too busy to forget his age and what he was doing was something about spiritual research or pursuit. The older we grew, the more we needed to fulfill ourselves in mind and soul instead of material or worldly things.

When the KTV was turned on, they both sang the songs by burns. As to me, I was asked but I just played the guitar to be part of the accompaniment. On the one hand, I was lukewarm about singing. Besides, there were few songs that I could sing with the KTV. On the other hand, I would like to play the guitar and they both seemed to take more interest in singing. Seeing the happy atmosphere around the house, I thought I had better let the microphone in their hands instead of mine. I was satisfied with the guitar to accompany them. They sang and I plucked the guitar. Each one got what he needed and the sounds of music filled the room together with laughing and clapping. Sometimes, Mr. Huang stopped singing and he took out his four-stringed urhu to play and I accompanied him. It seemed to go well with each other. Happy time flew away fast. Soon it was after midday. When we went out to eat lunch, it was over one o’clock in the afternoon. While we submerged ourselves in the ocean of music, we forgot the hunger. At least, I had the thoughts in my mind. Maybe they both were too hungry to stand.

An eatery was available in the street of Meishang downtown area. We three ordered a light meal respectively. Today, we were guests of Mr. Shiao so he treated us to a meal. I knew it was our custom to do this. Next time, I will be the host to pay the bill if they visit me in Chiayi. When it was time to say goodbye, I sent each of them two CDs of my playing on the guitar and harmonicas. Several songs were played with the two musical instruments at the same time. They both suggested me to play publicly on TV station in order to make the techniques hit the headlines. I answered them that I didn’t prepare well in my mind, not in performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

 

I attended computer class in Cheng Huang Temple located at the downtown Chiayi city. People might wonder why a traditional temple became a cram school for citizens to learn something. Actually, many private-run institutions opened up their business in order to have extra educational functions for the citizens besides incomes. Hence, the originally religious temples or monasteries converted some rooms into classrooms where several classes could be attended. That was part of the constituents of our prevalently popular community schools or colleges. The learners are of wide ranges of ages from the young to the aged. To the youngsters, they came here to sharpen their skills for the future in their seeking a job. For the aged or middle-aged, they attended some classes for fun or the extension of their friendships and knowledge as well. Anyway, the latter could come here to learn something new to them. What’s better, the tuition was low compared it with some other computer cram schools.

The computer class began last Thursday and the classroom was full to its capacity. I looked around and found that most of the learners were middle-aged or elderly. Two of us were professional school students. Our main courses were focused on the use of blog, which were not familiar to me and I hoped that I could use it in order to make my music and writing online for the Net guys to share. People told me that blog was easy to learn and the worldwide device was boundless and borderless. It was possible for me to make my work shared with others all over the world. How super powerful it was?

The instructor was patient enough to answer the questions raised by the students, particularly the edlers who didn’t seem to have used the computer online. He gave us the most basic knowledge in using the computer, even the turning on and off the computer. I didn’t seem single-minded in his instructions and changed the screen to the game. In fact, I was no less than a computer idiot. Knowing the fact that computer played a vital part in modern times and I didn’t have the idea of learning it well when I just retired three years ago. At the time, I was buried in translating my late father’s work and getting online was out of question to me. Hence, there was no great motivation for me to learn it well. Sometime, using the computer too much was of little use. It might take a lot of time to exchange for some data probably useless. If I spent two hours studying, I could learn more than what I spent online. But computer really facilitate to have access to magnitudes of information. A small screen provided us with all information and reference. That was why it was called a super powerful data reservoir.

I just thought of how to handle my time when the instructions were basic. It took two months to finish the whole courses. After the basic courses, there should be something about blog I needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 16, 2010

 

People believe that crying seems a good way for emotional outlets as far as mental health is concerned. However, it is inappropriate at work. Males are traditionally not allowed to cry even thought they are overwhelmed with pressure from work. Therefore, there is a wrong concept that females are allowed to cry when they take up the challenge from their work beyond their burden. So it is said that women are made from tears. However, tears in the workforce are of no use and to be worse, have adverse effects on girls’ professional image, proving that they are inept, overemotional and incompetent. Rather, there is only a minority of women having a top position at the workforce. When a rat race runs its natural course in a company, how can they gain support from the peers, most of whom are males? Is it real that tears are another weapon of women’s? In addition, women are always faced with such problems happening in the office, as wage discrimination, sexual harassment and cunning penalties for pregnancy and family leave for children.
  If women need to take the challenge with the male co-workers, they need more effort to take their emotions in check. No matter how much stress is loaded, they should avoid tears rolling down in the public. Work is work and there is not much emotion to influence what is needed in the office. Try to think logically, speak articulately and act intelligently.
  When they should stand among a group of men, they speak with the aura of authority and confidence. A bossy CEO is hard to gain the popularity but this does mean that women should be as prissy as possible. However, they should be good-mannered in order to get good impression among the peers. Besides, they should be well-appareled because fine feathers make fine birds. Most women have the idea of how to dress well especially in the office.

Women have traditionally been regarded as inferior to men in the workforce. However, they try to turn the unbalance as a result of the Women’s Liberation. So far, there are few ladies elected as presidents in the world compared to the male ones. Even the high-ranking officials or CEOs, women are at much lower rate. When women have more and more social status and their capacities are proved as good as their counterparts, women should be aware of their inborn weakness. Going over the obstruction will help them to compete with males at the rat race. All in all, male and female should be equal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, April 17, 2010

 

Early in the morning, I drove my wife to Chiayi Park. Like many earlier risers there, we took a walk along the trails in the park. There might be scores of ways to keep in good health, such as jogging, swimming, hiking, playing badminton, dancing and the like. However, we both didn’t show great interest in sports which are regarded as the best way to keep good health. As to me, I was on the right side of fifty and my wife was on the wrong side of forty, junior to me by four years. We both needed to do more exercise to be in shape. However, in our daily lives, what activities we did were not much about physical exercise. For example, my wife practiced calligraphy or playing the piano and I played the guitar or harmonica. Besides, we also had the habits of reading. What mentioned above seemed to be little with physical exercise. Due to the fact that we had reached the ages needed to pay more attention to health. Besides balanced nutrition and good habits of living, doing some enough exercise was essential to physical health. Hence, I always had the thoughts to drive my wife out for hiking in a park or somewhere else where green trees or grass could provide us fresh air and some substances proved beneficial to our mental and physical health.

In the past few months, we both were in agreement to go hiking in the park five-minute drive from our house. Perhaps it was newly-built and not many inhabitants knew it. Besides, it stood in the suburbs and the local citizens seemed so busy earning their living that they didn’t spare part of time to take a walk there. Speaking of Chiayi Park, it was built in or before Japan’s colonization. The trees there were big and tall and a Japanese-built shrine could be in sight in the park. The shades of the trees gave the people great comfort. As to the fresh air here, it left nothing to be desired. What’s better, a botanical garden was just next to the park and the space seemed to be extended for the citizens to do some activities beneficial to health and friendships as well. Maybe some lovers chose the park as a romantic and comfortable place to have a date or some appointments made in the peaceful site full of greenery.

Still, there were some drawbacks needed to be mentioned. At the gate of the botanical garden or the side gates of the park, more and more vendors gathered there to hawk their goods, most of which were such agricultural produce as seasonal fruits and vegetables. Some even sold fish and meat or hand-made handcrafts. They caused the traffic jam particularly in the morning when early risers rounded up. Police sometimes took the measures to chase them away. However, some days later, they returned again to tout for business on the lanes pointing to the gate of the park. They should play the game of seek-and-hide with the police in order to earn the income for the subsistence of their families. When the hubble-bubble was beyond endurance of the local dwellers on both sides of the lane or the higgledy-piggledy traffic was caused, the police should be asked to implement the laws on the outlaws. Anyway, the vendors came and went while the police went and came. The seek-and-hike game was surely endless.

  My wife and I walked along the trail or pathway at the pace we needed, not too fast and not too slow. Almost every path was trampled by the fast-walking earlier risers. They all hoped to gather speed in order to have the efficiency for wholesomeness. The park in Minhsiung was spacious with few people. Here the park was overcrowded, especially in the morning. Less than an hour later, we finished the familiar route we usually took. Perspirations were on the forehead. Before going back home, we went to a good food store to buy some delicious traditional food as our breakfast.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 18, 2010

 

My son buried his head to enjoy the food his mother had prepared for him in the car parked on the lane of his school. Surprisingly? No surprise! It was his mother’s consideration to cook a meal for him because Mike needed to study for the coming midterm exam in the following week. I didn’t know if I knew him like a book. However, when a youngster grows old enough to be independent from his family that he or she needs to cut off the umbilical cord. When Mike was in a position to lead his busy school life, I couldn’t agree more that he needn’t go home on weekends. When I was young, I was also seldom to go home. This old memories reminded me to tell my wife that our son had grown up and we couldn’t hope that he would come back home very often. However, a mother always thought that her son was always as young and cute as before all the time. Her affection for him was never-ending. Hence, she would miss him and hoped her son to come home for holidays. In order to get rid of her missing of the son, I instilled the concept into her mind that if our son always went home for holidays more often than not, then we needed to worry about his social lives in school. What was the matter with him? Didn’t he get along with other classmates? Didn’t he develop good interpersonal relationships among his groups? I wonder if my suggestion work. Maybe! However, the missing of her sons was inborn as far as a mother was concerned.

Like what we did in the past, we stopped the car beside the gate of the school dorm. Soon, Mike appeared in front of the dorm. His slim figure couldn’t be mistaken together with his personal style in walking. A greeting was our tradition but no hugs or other warm gestures or postures. Anyway, that was good enough to show family warmth and it was too great for me to change the stereotype of a traditional family. Soon, Mike’s mother opened the stainless lunch boxes where her affection for her son could be palpable. As to Mike, he focused on the delicious food, familiar flavor and taste, I was sure. I asked him some trivialities, maybe meaningless but showing my concern. In order to make him enjoy the food, I sealed my mouth. I went out to walk along the lane lined with trees where some birds were chirping. About a quarter later, my son finished the dinner. It was time to say goodbye and we waved hands to end the short family reunion under the trees at the school campus. Did we really give Mike complete independence? To me, it was out of the problem. To my wife, she, like other mothers in the world, needed time to prove. Sure, it was a common sense that fathers and mothers were different in some aspects. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 19, 2010

 

Mr. Lou was just on the right side of forty. He was one of my friends and Mike’s tutor when my son was a high school student. For many people, ages seemed natural to run their courses in the life journey when their sons or daughters were in their teens as they reached the same ages as Mr. Lou did. For Mr. Lou, ages played a joke on him who just upgraded from a father-to-be to his fatherhood one month ago as result of his newborn baby.
  Surely, some people gained their fatherhood when they were in their fifties or even older. As far as Mr. Lou was concerned, his late marriage was nothing to blame. However, several times of miscarriages of his wife postponed his fatherhood to come. This really worried the spouse. Hence, they tried many ways to have a child, including the carefully-chose food or Chinese medicines which were believed to facilitate his wife’s pregnancy. It was said that a husband who went veggie would help to make his wife impregnated. What’s more, this would contribute to the birth of a baby boy instead of a baby girl. Hence, Mr. Lou practiced the way in his meals. It was deep-rooted concept that a baby boy was sure to make the posterity never-endless because a girl should be married out. Did Mr. Lou also have the stereotype instilled into his mind? I didn’t know but the preference should be apparent in his parents who were traditionally farmers living in the countryside. The newborn baby was one of their grandchildren and they should be very happy, I believe.

Today the baby was just one month old and there was part of our customs to celebrate the addition to their family. In Chinese culture, the baby’s family needed to prepare oil gluttony rice for the relatives and friends in return for their congratulations and blessings on the birth of the baby. Our way to give the newborn baby blessings was giving the baby a red envelop enclosed money inside. This was our custom handed down from generation to generation. Maybe gifts or daily goods for the baby were also acceptable. However, most people didn’t know what was really needed for the baby so money was the easy tool to share the happiness of the parents who could use the given money to buy what the baby needed, such as baby formula, diapers, and other nutrition. Anyway, more extra expenditures should be added to the new addition, particularly the fare of babysitting.  

In general, a baby was born when its parents were at the ages of twenties or thirties. However, the industrialized society had changed the condition. Late marriages resulted in late parenthood. Rather, the novice spouse would be worried more if the baby didn’t come as they had expected. Once the baby came to the earth, you could be perceptible of the great happiness of the parents. Anyway, it was good news and I sent my best blessings to the newborn baby boy and congratulations on the new parents whose wish came true in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

 

After practicing yoga, I had the idea of driving to Daping which was a mountainous area about 1,000 meters above the sea level. When going to Meishan, I saw a sign read “Shunsheng Chinese Medicine Botanical Garden”. This really caught my attention and I could picture that the botanical garden could be a place where Chinese herb should be planted for the owner to cure his patients of their illnesses. Hence, I made a sudden change of the direction From Daping to the botanical garden according to the sign reading. It was behind Meishan Park.

Arriving at the garden adjacent to the slopes of the park, I found the gate was still close but on the air was music played from the speakers hidden in the leaves of the trees. Originally, I felt like giving up the idea to take a look. However, I persuaded myself to explore what was inside and the gate should have been open for the guests because of the music on the speakers. I carefully climbed the gate, walking along the path pointing to the three-story building. When walking, I found three guys in working clothes doing their job in the garden. I said hello to them and they answered me with smiling. They didn’t seem to care who I was and what I was going to do. I was, needless to say, perceptible of the possibility that I could be laid-back to go around in the botanical garden. So I just looked around here and there. The herb inclusive of the grass on the ground or the leaves in the bushes or trees used as Chinese medicines had been attached to a mental sign to make me acquainted with the characteristics of each in medical efficacy. Roots, stems, and leaves could be used as herb in Chinese midicnes.
  When the browsing of the plants came to an end, I walked to the door of the building. It seemed the door was open. Without permission, I walked inside and none was in the lobby. There were some products of Chinese medicines on the shelf with the price tags on them. The right side was a room used for the doctor to feel the impulses for the patients. I suddenly thought that this botanical garden included a Chinese medicine clinic where a herb doctor practiced medicine for the patients. I returned to the lobby and then moved forward to another bigger room where I saw a girl in a pink uniform to clean the room. I said hello to her, apologizing that I broke in because none was at the information desk to answer me in the lobby. She smiled and answered some of my questions politely and patiently. Her warm attitude toward me really melted my uneasiness. What’s more, she showed me the thousand-year-old relic of a camphor tree by drawing the curtain in the upper part of the room. To my surprise, the big camphor tree was only part of the relic, lying flat on the wooden supporters. It was about 18-meter long and 4.5-meter wide with its central part being hallow. “It is in the hallow part that a precious fungus grow”, the girl said. Many people knew the kind of fungus is supposed to possess supernatural powers for the incurable disease called cancer. I smelled it and touched it and I knew this big dried trunk was the largest one so far I had even seen. 

Then I walked back to the lobby where some samples of herb were displayed in the small shopping windows. I also browsed them, some of which were familiar to me but most of them were Greek to me. After the glance, the clerk treated me to tea made of several kinds of herb, including the precious fungus. It was made into tea bags easy for the customers to use.

Before I left the botanical garden, there were some people came for a visit. The visitors were also welcome as what I had been from the girl whose warm ways to treat the visitors could be left nothing to be desired. The owner had hired a good clerk who began her job here about two months ago. That’s why there were few patients or customers to come. Besides, she told me that her boss had two other clinics in Taipei and Kaohsiung respectively. Every Monday, the boss, also the herb doctor, was present here to practice medicine for the patients. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

 

Miss Wu was the only clerk at the Chinese medicine botanical garden in Meishan. She was in her early thirties, majoring in mass communication when studying in a university. When she hospitably treated me to the herb tea, I thought she was really open-minded and generous to the guests who came to visit. Out of curiosity, I asked her something about the business of the Chinese medicine clinic in the herb garden which was also part of my interests. So far, I also kept my curiosity in plants. According to the theory in herbal, there were no vegetations but had their efficacies in medication. However, an experienced herbalist should have the enough knowledge to know how to use the plants efficaciously or the herb might counter the efficacy. This did result in damages or fatalities. As we know, poison is surely deadly. However, some herbs had their toxicity in nature and it could be used to cure some diseases. Basically, experience played an important part in this aspect.

Our topics were changed from this to that and sometimes, I asked something about her interests or hobbies. She told me that she had begun to learn the urhu, also called a Chinese violin. The soft and weeping sounds could reach her mind and she made up her mind to learn it. Then an idea flashed into my mind that I had a friend who invented four-stringed urhu which was under the protection of the patent in Taiwan and mainland China as well in order to ensure the inventor’s intelligence property. Miss Wu seemed interested in music in general and soft or New Age music in particular. She played the CD to soothe the soul and I also agreed on her concept that some music could lift our mind and soul. Generally speaking, some music was saddled with the function to cure some mental problems and its efficacies had been proved in scientific evidence. Sometimes, our inspiration was aroused and it ran wild incredibly. As to some people, the peaceful and tranquil music did facilitate to keep their worries and troubles at bay. Anyway, music was one of the greatest arts created to make our lives colorful and meaningful. It was always loyal to the master if he or she could contact it with mind and soul. Submerged in the music they loved best, the discophiles could feel the deep meaning in life, which was hard to explain to others who knew little or nothing about music. For the latter, they just regarded music as sounds or even noises to roughhouse because it facilitated to break the silence they showed an aversion to.
  The clerk was a local inhabitant who won the chance to be employed at the clinic and I thought the boss did have some good reasons to pick her name out of a hat. She was generous and quick to answer what I asked. The whole herb garden and clinic was just at the inception of its business. I guessed there should have more patients or visitors on Monday when the herb doctor came here to practice medicine. Then she could also be a good helper to handle something. Now what she did was just a housekeeper to keep the house in trim. As to the herb garden, there was another local aged about sixties or more to be in charge.
  Miss Wu, originally majoring in mass communication, chose the herb clinic as her workplace. She took up the glove to begin another career. There were always opportunities if one had confidence to develop the potentialities like the herb garden hidden in the backcountry. She was a special clerk with her confidence to possess and knowledge to extend.   

 

 

Thursday, April 22, 2010

 

When I was playing the guitar and harmonica, the phone rang. I couldn’t help stopping the practice and moved forward to answer the phone which was made by a salesgirl who worked for the Mazda car company. Several days ago, I went to one of its branches, not far from my house, to take a look at some types of their cars in order to supplant the 20-year-old VW. My wife and I seemed preferable to the products from VW, but a type of car called Mazda 5 or 7 also drew our attention. Hence, the idea flashed into my mind after my wife told me that she had seen a Mazda 7 displayed at the roadside of the car branch on Zhongshiao Road. When I went there, the desk clerk was also called Miss Wu who came forward to greet me and we both moved to a Mazda 5. No Mazda 7 was in sight and she said that Mazda 7 was displayed at another store of her company and she could make a schedule for me to take a try in driving. 

The type of car, Mazda 5, was designed for business and trip as well. Inside the car, the chairs were collapsible for more space to be loaded or for sleep. If one lay, the space seemed long enough to provide comfort if he or she needed to sleep in the car. As to the other car I had mentioned, the salesgirl said that its inside space was not as large as the one displayed here. However, Mazda 5 was only half the prices of Mazda 7 because the latter was made in Japan; the former was assembled in Taiwan.

Miss Wu said on the phone that she wanted to call on me if convenient. It was a common rule that all salespersons were quick and fast in their actions and they always launched a warm commercial attack on the target they had zero in on. I should be part of her targets, I thought. Soon, the young and pretty girl appeared at the gate. Like what I get used to treat other guests hospitably, I made tea for her and played some music on the CD player. It was the warm up of the business-oriented visit and she showed her admiration of my playing on the guitar and harmonica after I played a tune for her. Suddenly, I thought that I needed to have some snacks for sipping tea and then I put out some on the table. A moment later, the “entrée” was dished out and she began her way to persuade the attractions and advantages of her car on the catalogue. However, her inexperience didn’t seem to convince me to the products of her company. When it was midday, she didn’t have the thought of leaving. If she was a friend of mine, I would drive her out for lunch. What’s more, taking the young and nice girl to eat out could be another burden if there were some guys I was acquainted with at the same eatery in the neighborhood. Besides, she could decline my treatment to her a meal because it was only the second time to see each other. Several considerations arose in my mind. Anyway, what she thought was at a loss to me. Did you know what happened next? On the desk were some snacks, including cakes. I asked her to eat more if she was hungry. As she put it, “I eat less each meal but more than three meals a day.” Then I came to the conclusion that she didn’t need to go out for lunch today because the snacks I prepared were enough to make her full in her stomach. So far, I was not on the conscience for I at least kept her sense of hunger at bay before she returned to her office. Wait! Wait! She was a salesclerk to tout for business and I was the customer. Reasonably, she should treat me to a meal but I never had the thought.

When it was over one o’clock in the afternoon, she still didn’t have the action of standing up for moving out. And she also told me that I had my own films of playing on the guitar and harmonica on the Net. I was not aware of this which did surprise me a little. When it was at one thirty, I told her that I had computer class at two o’clock so I needed go out soon. Then surprisingly, she told me that she also had another guest to visit at 14:00. Anyway, the business came to futility. At least, she made off with a CD played and partly composed by me. That could be worth of the visit she paid to me today. How did she think? Beyond my comprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 23, 2010

 

My younger brother called me that he felt like going to Chiayi for some treatment of his wounds on his face, neck, hand and leg. Last weekend, he suffered the wounds when he rode his bike in Taipei. The accident happened when running over a pile of cement on the road of a slope. The most serious part was on his face between the nose and the upper lip where a wound was 3-cm long and 1-cm wide according to him. A minor surgery was undergone to seal the wound because it was on the face. Besides, there were still some hurts on his right hand and right knee. He stayed at his house in Taipei for three days and returned to Kaohsiung for recovery. According to him, he stayed at home for furlough instead of the sick leave because the former was his regular and legal holidays. As to the latter, this could leave some bad records. It sounded really ridiculous. Originally, I had the idea of going to see him on Saturday because I needed to return to Chishan for performance at my community. Now he asked me to take him to a Chinese medication rehabilitation center for fixing his relocated bond on his back neck. In Chinese medication, this was ancient rehabilitation to treat the patient’s hurt by message. 

I drove to the station of the HSR in Taipao. Picking him off, I inquired his condition of the wounds. The one on his face was covered with a mask and he pulled down the mask. That was not as serious as I had pictured. His upper lip was still swollen. On the way to the rehabilitation clinic, he depicted the details of the accident on that day. 

The rehabilitator seemed experienced enough to notice the wound on my brother’s back neck. After some message, he seemed to feel much better. There was sudden relief on his face. Originally, he rejected other hurts on his hand and knee for treatment. But he seemed to have better confidence in the rehabilitator so he extended his right fist and then his right knee in turn. After the message to fit the dislocation, some pitches of ointment were, as a rule, put on the hurts. This was a must in the process of the treatment in the rehab center. After leaving, my brother suggested that he wanted to come again tomorrow before he returned to Kaohshiung. Needless to say, I was in agreement for the second treatment in order to make sure of the dislocated tendons return to their original positions.  

At night, David returned home from Danshuei. We all sit in the living room to watched TV and chatted at the same time. As a rule, I made tea and its aroma was full of the house. We talked little about my brother’s bike accident in northern Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 24, 2010

 

I took my younger brother to the rehab center for his treatment again and then I drove him to the Chiayi Train Station. He had an appointment this afternoon and I also needed to go back to my hometown for the musical performance at the Nanjou Community Activity Center. I came up with the idea that I could give him a ride at my convenience this afternoon. However, he didn’t seem to have enough time to wait until the afternoon.

After a short period of siesta, my wife woke me to rise and it was high time for us to make our way to Shijou, my old hometown. When we reached Chishan, I turned to my sister’s house for picking her up. She wanted to see my playing at the community activity center. When we passed the activity center, a stage was set up in the open air in front of the square of the activity center with some music was on air from the CD player. After driving my wife and sister to the old house, I immediately returned with my musical instruments to the center. Before my performance, I needed to test if the sound effects were appropriate when the music ran out from the speakers. I told the staff that I needed to turn down the high frequency and up the low one in order to make the music from harmonicas mild to the ears. Besides, some degrees of echo effects were necessary to be added. Then I made a test on the guitar and harmonicas in order to make sure of the balance between these two musical instruments because tonight I had a piece of music played with both at the same time. There were about fifteen programs tonight, including the folk dance by the elderly of the community and other performance on different musical instruments. After the sound test, I returned home for a rest. 

Mr. Leu, my math teacher in my junior high, also came with his daughter for just seeing my performance. Before 19:00, he called me that he had arrived. I answered that I would come along soon. When reaching the square again, I met some of my kinsmen and classmates in the junior high. That was really like to have a reunion of classmates or kinsmen.

The show began as scheduled. The audience clapped their hands after each performance. The players on the stage were mainly local inhabitants. I also came to know that the show was held by some of the organizers of the development of the community. This provides the locals a chance to upgrade their living and add more colors and meanings in their daily lives. Tonight the stage was a good place to show their talents and efforts in the past months or years. As to the levels or qualities, I thought they played the second fiddle to other aspects. When I saw the playing on the urhu, or Chinese flute, I was conscious that the players’ techniques told us not so much as their ages, courage and efforts. Furthermore, a retired teacher played the urhu with his clumsy skills, which caused me to think that he must have begun to learn it after his retirement. His learning process was worth of our appreciation instead of the comparison with other professional players in their transcendental techniques.

When it was my turn to play, I stepped up the stage and made some remarks to the local audiences. Then I played two songs on the harmonicas. The first needed two harmonicas; the other, three. Then I heard someone yelled “Encore” from the audiences. Surely, I had the third song played with the solo on the harmonica and accompanied by the guitar. There was no other accompanist on the stage and I myself was the one to accompany the harmonica. After the playing, I heard the loud sounds of clapping hands. Walking down the stage, some came forward to praise me, asking my phone numbers. A guy asked me to have a class for them to learn the harmonica. I thought the music should move them to the core.   
  Before the end of the programs, I needed to return to Chiayi. So I said goodbye to those I was acquainted with, including my kinsmen and classmates or friends. One of the organizers of the community development asked me to make another performance. I promised if it was convenient for me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 25, 2010

 

After my tour guide class, I returned home and asked my wife and my elder son where they wanted to eat. My wife was also tired after her jazz piano lesson so I didn’t want her to cook in the kitchen. Then to eat out was a good idea. We chose a restaurant near the train station. After the dinner, my wife made a phone to her brother to make sure that his family were at home. So we could pay a visit.

My nephew and niece were very happy to greet us at the door. They especially liked to see the coming of their cousin, my elder son. My brother-in-law and his wife treated us to some snacks and fruits besides tea. Some moments later, David and his cousins disappeared into a room where they three played the games on the cards which were always their favorite game each time they got together. Mike was absent or the merry atmosphere would be thickened. The four cousins had developed good relationships from their childhood and we took a trip to southern and eastern Taiwan together each summer. So far, we have been there for five times in summer or winter. That was good to cultivate their good brotherhood and sisterhood which should be beneficial to their development of harmonious relations with their classmates or friends. However, it was a pity that David was older than both of his cousins by more than ten years or they could have had more chatting, which would help to understand each other more. Twelve years must be a gap between children and youngsters but it could be bridged among the middle-aged or the old. Life experience could easily jump the limit of ages when more and more mental power or intelligence stood firm. You could imagine how a twelve-year-old kid could play with a seven-year-old. But a fifty-something and a forty-something could be close friends as a result of their mutual attraction or the match of spirituality in their deep soul giving the same frequency which transcend the restraints of ages. Hence, what happened to the children could not happen to the aged or middle-aged.

Picturing the three youth and kids playing in the room, I thought it might be less or more than ten years later that the gap could be bridged. I meant my son and his cousins can talk more instead of playing the cards just only for fun some day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 26, 2010

 

Several years ago, I bought eight bamboo trees to plant in the garden. In ancient China, bamboo was symbolic of noble character and incorruptible principle, like what was described in lotus. Hollow was most of its trunk which could support the whole tree, especially when hit by the winds. It would sway all directions with the blowing winds to the extent to break. However, when the winds stopped, it remained as firm as its original shape to stand tall against the skies. Once a great and outstanding man of letters put it, “No meats make people thin; no bamboo, hackneyed.” Besides, bamboo’s characteristics were personified as a man of virtue, so it was lifted to its firm position in the fields of literature and arts. It might be used as a way to keep the vulgarity at bay if some bamboo trees were planted in one’s garden. Like other trees, bamboo was also part of the roles to beautify a garden. There was no difference among bamboo, cypress, or even mango as far as vegetation was concerned. Farmers grew bamboo because of its rapid growth to be mature enough for harvest in one or two years. The trunk was great use in daily life, such work as bamboo baskets, carrying poles, chairs, tables and the like. It also could be used materials to make a house or a bridge, especially in the past.
  In ancient times, people were smart enough to cook up as many household appliances as possible by using the locally grew materials—bamboo. Booboo shoots could be made into a delicious soup and what’s more, they could be mixed with other food ingredients to become some tasteful cuisines. It was said that bamboo sprouts were abundant of fibers good to our health and almost all year around they were on the market. Of course, there were several kinds of bamboo shoots for the customers to pick. In addition, dried bamboo shoots and pork was a traditional dish in a wedding banquet. So far, it was still part of the memories when the happy atmosphere was around. As to canned dried bamboo sprouts, they could be easily available at a convenience store twenty-four hours, a day. You couldn’t miss them if your appetite was aroused at midnight.        

What I had grown in the garden was locally called “Tang bamboo.” When I planted them about five years ago, I made sure the right position just beside the fence wall and they were in a raw to beautify the garden. However, I didn’t know this kind of bamboo had its nature to extend its roots in all directions. When its roots stretched to some extent, it began to spring up from the ground and a new bamboo shoot could be seen. Several weeks later, the shoot became mature to be a tall tree with its leaves swaying in the winds. I cut down some in order to keep the garden in trim or they would grow naturally and wildly to the degree to be rampant. About more than one month ago, one of my friends came here and he noticed the beauty of the bamboos in my garden which grew in prosperity. He asked me to keep four or five for him. Surely, this was out of question and I preserved those he needed and cut down the others in order to keep them in check. On the other hand, I was also worried if the foundation of house was influenced or damaged by the roots of the bamboo. According to my experience, this kind of bamboo was about one or two centimeters in diameter and its root was as big as our index finger so I thought it was safe for the house to stand firm.
  Nevertheless, I also worried they would go on the rampage in the garden. Hence, I bought a shovel for cutting down the unneeded roots, which would keep them from stretching here and there. Rather, I would wait until my friend, Mr. Jang, came here to claim what he needed. So far, the bamboos Mr. Jang needed were ripe enough to be transplanted. I needed to call him to come for the bamboos and then I could dig out the roots under the ground to keep them from grow rampant.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

 

Tuesday’s afternoon was my computer class at the Chenghuang Temple located on Woofeng NR. When I went there, it was late for the class but it didn’t cause any retard in learning today’s curricula. The other learners were busy playing the chess online under the guide of the teacher who might seem to make sure of the presence of the learners, and playing some game on the computer was a good way to kill time and wait as well. I didn’t mean to be late for class but I felt bored here.
  Today’s class was how to e-email. Last week, we were taught how to apply for an e-mail box, which took us three hours. Don’t laugh! It was what I said. Some of the elders were not as nimble as the youngsters mentally and physically. They were not quick to make what they heard into action on their fingers because their physical reaction was slow and their fingers were clumsy. When they used the mouse to focus on the target, they needed some seconds to put the arrow on the right aim and then another some seconds to tick the mouse. Sometimes the computer had no response to the directive. Often, there were some mistakes to cause the failure of the computer carrying out the directives. One reason was that their arrows pointed to the wrong target. The other was that they didn’t press the mouse enough to tick. Still another reason was that they ticked the wrong side of the mouse or one tick instead of two ticks. How lucky it was for the learners under the tutelage of a patient teacher who always wore smile on his face to answer their questions. Sometimes, he was humorous to make us laugh and some old female learners made a joke to be in response to his humor.
  When he wrote down his e-mail address on the blackboard, he asked each of us to write him a letter. I soon finished the assignment and successfully e-mailed to his box. Surely, I was the first to make my e-mail received. He called out my English name and everyone stopped to pay attention. Then, I kept on surfing the Net and browsed some websites. The whole afternoon was spent to write a letter to e-mail to the teacher. It was only a practice for the new learners who would know how to receive and send an e-mail. The elders walked out to learn the new technologies in order to keep abreast of times rather than to stay at home doing nothing. Learning kept one as young as before. When they finally succeeded in sending out the e-mail, they felt happy and satisfied.   

When it was time to dismiss the class, I considered, “What is on earth my purpose to attend the class with the new learners, most of whom were slow learners due to their ages?” They came here to know how to get online. For me, I could use the computer online and type in English. However, a computer had plenty of functions. Using the blog was just one of its numerous functions. Still, it was beyond my ability. That was why I came here to attend the class in hopes that I was in a position to use a blog to make public my music and writing. My wife had advised me that I could send a computer tutor to teach me how to use a blog. It might be a good idea but I thought if I attended computer class I could learn what I needed on the one hand and got acquainted with the learners on the other hand. The real situation seemed to be against my original thoughts. Hence, it stood to reason that I needed to talk with the teacher next time and asked him for some help.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

 

I had an appointment with two girls at Hungjei restaurant affixed to its hotel at the first floor. It was lunch time and we could have a chat over the delicious food. Due to the fact that I was invited to make a performance on the guitar and harmonica next Wednesday at a vocational commerce high school in Chiayi, we needed to meet for some details. “Princess” was the one who invited me to have the performance. She was the foster daughter of an owner of a tea factory and home stay at Dinghoo in the midway of Alishan alpine highway. As to the other lady, she was the instructor of the guitar club of a vocational school.

After ordering the entrée we were fond of respectively, we began the topics besides the programs of my playing next Wednesday. It was nothing for me to worry about on that day because what I played was some of my familiar tunes or songs and the audiences were just part of the high school students. Miss Hua, the teacher of the guitar club, told me that she had learned to play the piano in her childhood. I forgot to ask her when she began to learn her second musical instrument—guitar. In school, a guitar club was only part of the extracurricular activities and students were allowed to attend it on the basis of their interest. Most of them didn’t have much time to practice. At best, the club provided them with a chance to know something about guitar or to learn some basic skills or chords. Besides, a club was a good place to extend their relationships with others. They could learn how to develop good interaction with other schoolmates.

Miss Hua now lives in Chiayi alone and she was hired as a guitar teacher by a music store. She mentioned the store she worked for and asked me if I would like her to introduce me to her boss. I thought now I paid more attention to English than to making friends. If I could not spare more time for the friends I was just acquainted with, I’d better decline her goodwill. So I told her what I was engaged now. 

Time flew fast and it was almost 1:00 p.m. and I needed to return home for the following schedule to practice yoga with some teachers in Chiayi High School. Before the lunch time, I had told “Princess” that it was my turn to treat. She agreed to the suggestion on condition that she paid the bill next time. Not bad! Maybe this was my plot to have more chances to dine out with “good ladies.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 29, 2010

 

At night, my younger brother called me and I came forward to answer the phone. He made the phone from his company which had been privatized for more than five years. There was not much work to do when it was still state-run. Now he was as busy as a humming bee in working time. More often than not, he was asked to work overtime on Saturday, which stopped him from going to Taipei to get together with her family members. It was a commonplace that most government-run companies were lethargic in their management, which contributed to the ill efficiency and poor images. When they were converted into privatization, the “good old days” were existent no more. A good way of administration was carried out to make sure of the efficiency at working hours. That was part of the reasons for him to complain about the never-ending jobs needed to be completed at the office. One job after another waited ahead.  Every night he felt tired after returning home.   

There was one thing to be mentioned. After the privatization, he and other staff would face the uncertainty of their employment. If the company needed to downsize, they might meet the threat of layoff. Work pressure came with the worries and the stress really became part of his burdens. Now he was on the right side of fifty and he needed to make sure of his employment or he would worry more. Like other staff in the company, they even staged a protest to ensure of their rights to work. As I knew, there were more than fifteen hundred staffs hired by the state-run company more than thirty years ago. At that time, it was a guarantee for them to study in a vocational school where they were trained for the company and their employment was ensured with a handsome salary after graduation. At that time, they were free from the worries of seeking a job. Many students sat for the entrance exam in order to get the “iron bowl” job after graduation in the company. The system changed over time and they launched a demonstration to kick out the uncertainty of joblessness temporarily.

I was not sure of his employment but at least he was very busy working at the company. Fortunately, his wife was also one of the staffers in a state-run institution. Unemployment was one of the most serious problems in society. He and his wife should have insight into the problems and took action in advance before the rain.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 30, 2010

 

It has been less than one month since I last invited my previous colleagues to my home. Hence, I called Hong-shin and Chen-jia to come along for a small talk. Luckily, they both were free and they agreed to come tonight.

If the weather was not to so hot, I would prepare chicken soup for them besides oolong tea and some snacks. Usually, I get used to buying chicken at the market locally called “Peishih.” The poultry could be cooked with some Chinese tonic medicines, which tasted not only delicious but also was good for our health. What’s better, it was very easy to make the cuisine because I had a pressure cooker to facilitate to cook the dish on the stove. When it was time for me to call the two colleagues, it was in the afternoon. The butcher only sold his chicken in the morning. It was apparent that I had missed the time to buy poultry. Nevertheless, there were several ways to get chicken. One of the most convenient ways was that I rode to a supermarket for the food ingredients I needed. However, what was provided there was frozen chicken. In order to make the poultry as fresh as possible, I needed to buy the chicken killed on the spot. That was the reason why I chose the butcher’s store at Peishih where the chicken was kept in the cages and I picked a name out of the hat. Chickens were reasonably and naturally considered food for man who saw the butcher kill them relentlessly. 

When I went to another market at Jiang-tsuoh-diang in the late afternoon, there were crowds of customers contributed to the traffic jams. I rode my scooter carefully and at last reached the chicken stand. I told the butcher to picked one alive in the cage. About ten minutes later, it became stiff and featherless and lifeless chicken which was soon chopped into pieces of meat packed into a plastic bag. Other customers stopped by the stall and it seemed there was good business at this butcher’s store. Besides, there were three females doing the process to turn the living chickens into meats showed for the customers to choose from. Or the customers could be the one like me to picked one alive for better qualities. The chicken flesh on the board might be left yesterday or other reasons to worsen its freshness. Anyway, to see is to believe. What I bought should be the freshest.
  Some of my colleagues or friends praised the chicken soup I cooked and I knew one of the reasons was that I bought the chicken killed in the presence of me. In addition, more tonic Chinese medicines, such as wolfberry, red date, and ginseng were added than what was used on average in order to thicken the flavor and aroma. They were tips, easy to learn. So far, I was familiar with the appropriate amounts of Chinese medicines needed to go with one chicken or two chickens in order to cook the scrumptiously tonic chicken soup really causing one’s mouth to water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 1, 2010

 

A sudden idea flashed into our minds that my wife and I could go to southern Taiwan on holiday. When we began to set off, it was almost eight o’clock in the morning. The road to Kenting was clogged with traffic and I believed that most people in the car or on the tour bus were making their way to the famous tourist attraction in southern Taiwan. 

When reaching Fangshan, we stopped on the roadside to take a rest and enjoyed the beautiful ocean which connected Taiwan and mainland China. Some anglers could be seen on the rocks with fishing poles in their hands. Blue seawater always greeted the viewers all the time, and the graceful landscapes together with its seascapes caused some road vendors to begin their business by touting for coffee or other iced drinks. Beautiful seafront scenes catalyzed one’s hidden endorphin which gave rise to so-called relaxation or comfort. It was worth of the customers’ pay. Sure, you didn’t need to order anything because you just stood on the coastline instead sitting on the plastic chairs and tables the hawks put under the ugly booths in the thin woods between the road and the seawater.

We didn’t have much time spent on the coastline. Instead, we moved forward to Checheng where we stopped by a store famous for its snack called “Lu-dow-shun, some food ingredients cooked with green beans. After the tasteful refreshments, I turned left to the road directing to Shihmen and Shiuhhai under my wife’s suggestion. More than ten years ago, we went there on vacation with my siblings’ families. Today, my wife and I were laid-back to enjoy the nice landscapes on both sides of the road. Soon, we saw a sign reading “Tomb of 54 Okinawans(Okinawa’s people).” I reversed the car and stopped to ask an old local inhabitant about the anecdotes. She seemed too old to articulate and then I asked another one in another house. What I got was just some obscure segments of the history. Anyway, I needed to have a clear answer to the whole story of the “Okinawa Event.” When we went forward, we seemed to see the old battlefield at Shihmen. There was a sign to tell the story which happened in February in 1871.

Less than 150 years ago, 69 Okinawa’s people were hit by a typhoon when they sailed to the sea off Hengchun Towhship. Three of them got drowned and they sailed land forward until they landed at the place called “Ba-yaw-wan.” The clash with the aborigines happened when they moved to the aboriginal territory. 54 of the Japanese were killed and the other left were saved by the dwellers in Hengchun who escorted them to the government and those survivors were safely sent back to Okinawa.  To our shock, Japanese authorities sent troops to launch an attack on the aboriginal areas near Shihmen in April, 1874. They were well-trained soldiers armed to the teeth coupled with modern weapons such as rifles and cannons. Compared to the Japan’s modern troops and advanced weaponry, the aborigines fought with the primitive weapons, such as arrows, bows and swords. It seemed that Japan’s army shot a mosquito with a cannon. Japan’s landslide victories over the original people caused the latter died on a large scale. However, Japan’s soldiers were left sick later on, which resulted in 651 deaths though there were 12 dead in the battle.

History was a mirror to reflect what was right or what was wrong. As to the aborigines, why did they kill the intruders coming from other country? Why did the Okinawa people intrude into the inland belonging to other country instead of staying at the place nearby the seashores? Besides, the Ching dynasty was humane enough to send back the other 12 Okinawans. If they all were killed by the aborigines, they would be regarded as the victims to the unpredictable typhoon and Japan was unlikely to wage the revengeful war.

Ridiculously, after the event, Japan and the Ching dynasty signed an agreement in which the latter should pay a great deal amount of gold to the former as a compensation for the Japan’s loss in lives and arms. One idiot should be sensitive to sense the injustice falling on the numerous deaths of the aborigines killed by the well-armed Japanese soldiers. They only could ask the compensation from the heaven just because they killed the intruders, and just because Japan was much more powerful than the weakened dynasty. History was like a mirror to reflect a fact without any judgments or comments unless they were judged and commented by God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 2, 2010

 

Shiuhhai was a nice place worth visiting. The whole village was surrounded by mountains so it was really a mountain village. However, the road diverged into south and north in front of the beach, or it would direct to the Pacific Ocean. One hour ago, we moved on the road along the coastline of the Taiwan Straits and now what we saw was the Pacific Ocean. That meant several thousand miles away should be the U.S.

The peaceful village was the residential site of the aborigines. About thirteen years ago, my family had been to this place to go camping together with my elder brother’s families. There was a hot spring just outside the fence wall of a primary school and a simple house was built to tell inside from outside. Strictly speaking, the hot spring was natural water to flow upward with its appropriate temperatures to be soaked in. When I stepped in, one middle-aged and the other in his sixties were naked to sit at the bank of the pool. A little embarrassed was I who said sorry and went out. Many scenes were beyond memories. However, the hot pool was left impressive because we also came here for soaking. Like what was left in the memories, there were two public pools with hot water flowing from the underground. The hot spring kept overflowing the pools so it should be qualified for the standard of sanitation. Before reaching the village, there were many hotels or restaurants to run the business of hot springs which were previously famous. Now it fell into obscurity due to the qualities and quantities of the hot springs, I guessed.
  There was a café called Pandora and the hostess cooked light meals or noodles for the customers. The walls were full of words written by the visitors and the scribble became part of the unique decoration of the eatery. The food here was nothing worthy of note. However, the host played some musical instruments seen in South America, such as pipe flutes. He looked like a Sino-South American who could speak English well so I came forward to talk with him before another piece of music was played. Most of what he played sounded pentatonic and I came along to asked the question of the relationships between the local music and the South America’s music. The player also sensed it but he couldn’t give me a good answer. Maybe it was just a coincidence because the primate music was just to express the emotions of the local inhabitants who led their lives in the beautiful mountains. The unknown musicians created the fabulous music with the inspirations from the nature, great and splendid. Their simple and natural styles were the reflection of the natural surroundings. Simplicity and peacefulness were in harmony with the nature, such clouds, rain, flowers, grass, and forests besides the dwellers’ love, passion or romance.  

I took a name card of the café before leaving. The music and its player were unique here. As to the meals, there was nothing worthy of praise but you couldn’t seek one better than this in the area.

No sooner had we left the small aboriginal village than we were faced with the blue seawater. It was the Pacific Ocean. Blue water looked hard to be tempted and some visitors were strolling on the seashores. I stopped the car and walked to the beach where small pebbles were far and wide. The round and flat stones came in different sides but were not as large as rocks seen in the mudslides. Most of them were no less than the fists or smaller. Some spots or stripes decorated them to make your imagination run wild. Still, there were numberless logs spread widely along the coastlines. Last year, a typhoon hit southern Taiwan to cause a great deal of damage. The logs large or small were carried down by the mudslides. Now they lay down at the beach. The logs or wood should be good materials to be used in art or daily life. At worst, they could be used as firewood, if they could be carried away legally by the concerned authorities.

  In the twilight, we reached a small fishing port near the Third Nuclear Power Plant. Every seafood cook shop was crowded with eaters. Some were standing to wait for a table available. My wife suggested that we took away what we ordered and found some place outside to enjoy the dinner. So we both enjoyed the supper in the open air near the parking lot. When we returned home, it was 10:00 p.m. Needless to say, physical fatigue was inevitable but mental happiness was available. Soon, I fell asleep on the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 3, 2010

 

A common vegetable vendor has hit the headlines for her uncommon charity in her hometown, Tatung County recently. She was one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME this year. So far, very few people in Taiwan had received the honor. Among them, a choreographer from Shinkong called Lin Hwai-min also got the same honor several years ago for his achievement in choreography. Today the sixty-year-old woman, Chen Shu-chu, had flown to New York to be awarded the prize together with other world-famous celebrities. She was such a modest and traditional woman that she originally didn’t have the thought of taking a flight to The U.S. to receive the prize in person because she thought what she had done was nothing worth prizing. What’s more, she was really a country cousin who had never been to a foreign country for she only lived her mechanical and rotary life in selling vegetables in an apron when she touted for business in Tatung Central Market day in and day out.
  As a vegetable seller, she led her obscure and frugal life all the time and it was said that she spent about one hundred new Taiwan dollars on her meals each day. Each coin she earned was saved for the greater purposes to help those in need. Several years ago, she donated what she had earned to build a library for her alma mater. So far, what she had donated amounted to the sum of more than NT$ ten million, including the building of the library at her alma mater, the donation for a children’s fund and a local orphanage. By all accounts, donations mostly came from the enterprisers who were men of means and kind enough to do the charities for those living below the poverty line. Surely, many wealthy people were not necessarily those who would donate willingly. As far as a humble vegetable vendor, he or she was reasonably exclusive of the list of donators especially when the sum of donation was more than NT$ ten million.

Compared to other humble people who were at pains to earn their living by saving each coin for the coming of a rainy day, Chen Shu-chu was generous and kind enough to donate what she had earned from the morning to the night in order to help those in need. Like what she had said that money should be used on the right purpose for those who needed it. Less than fifty years ago, when she graduated from a primary school, she was forced to stop her education because her mother died in labor. Misfortunes never come single. Her brother also passed away. In order to support the other five siblings to study, her father needed her to substitute her mother for the job of earning money for the family. Even her marriage was missed as a result of the same reason to support the family.
  Charity begins at home. What Chen Shu-chu did really set a good example for us. Her unselfishness and generosity should be the bright side of humanity. That was the reason TIME gave him the reputation which really showed her greatness in simple things. However, the worldwide news embarrassed her because what she really liked to live was the simple and obscure life in the market and her house. When she was bombarded with the questions from the journalists with their microphones almost sinking her, one could imagine what the modest vendor could respond.
  When the list of the 100 most influential people in the world was mainly composed of such celebrities as movie stars, politicians, enterprisers, artists, scientists and so on in the world, Miss Chen was very special in her kindness born not only with her but also with all of us. The simplest thing could be done at home and that was why the news became a hot topic islandwide. Her simple greatness was really our pride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

 

The news of Chen Shu-chu kept on striking the headlines in the newspaper or on TV. The journalists made public her simple and economical lifestyle in the backcountry of eastern Taiwan and her clear conscience to do her humble job as a vegetable vendor in a traditional market, which was really time-proven. A selfless woman could make her great compassion known to the world was not her original thoughts. She did the good deeds without thinking of the results of making a splash; on the contrary, she tried to keep obscure of what she had done.
  The market where she worked every day became a hot place for the journalists to shoot for the newspapers of TV. Where did she live in Tatung? It was hard to meet her in her home because as a vendor, she worked harder than others. It was said that she rose to begin her job at two or three o’clock every morning and she called it a day sometimes in the very late evening (about at 22:00 or even later). So her home seemed to be a short stay for her to sleep in order to regain her energy after about five hours. She even earned more money by delaying her working hours and what she earned was saved to help those in desperate need. Due to the longer time to work, she seemed to suffer from the deformation on her fingers and the illness on her leg. When she was asked to be seen in the presidential office, her suffering on the leg came to light as a result of her   little toddling when she was walking. An official immediately called her friend, a famous doctor, to make an emergent treatment of her illness because she needed to fly to New York for the prize. 

Chen Shu-chu’s deeds were worth making public in order to give the society a lesson. Her charity was simple and easy and her lifestyle was also simple and easy. When she went to the presidential house, she wore a pair of sneakers together with one of her only two dresses bought about five years ago. She spent about NT$ 100 each day on her three meals. Strange to say, she also led her healthy life. Did she suffer from malnutrition? From the pictures of her in the mass media, she seemed in good shape. Her regular work might be tantamount to our regular exercise. What’s better, her charity contributed to her happiness in spirit. Like what she had said that there was nothing happier than helping others, Miss Chen gained the mental health together with her physical labor in the market. So she was worthy of the list on TIME to influence the world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

 

As scheduled, I went to Chiayi Commerce Vocational School to make a performance on the guitar and harmonica. The audiences were not the whole students and staff but only the members of its guitar club, which really facilitated my composure in mind instead of the nervousness or worries before a performance.

The instructor of the club came to greet me in the appointed time and place and I was ushered to the right classroom where the club members had already practiced for fifty minutes. The following section was my turn to play. When the microphones were tuned to the good sound affects, I open my mouth to make some necessary speech about guitar and music. As to music, I couldn’t avoid the words on harmonicas which were part of the wide variety of musical instruments. When the instruments were used to express our deep emotions, there were different ways to dig out our feelings hidden in our minds. A guitar was a wonderful tool to transport the emotions and so did a harmonica. A short remark ended and what followed was my playing on one harmonica first and the next was two and three ones to give them new musical sound to their ears. The loud sounds of clapping hands proved their appreciation of the playing. When it only twenty minutes left for my performance, I changed the programs to play the harmonica on the supporter and the guitar in my hands. This should give them deep impression. When the music was in progress, a boy student who needed to leave earlier for taking a bus or train home, walked to the front door, bowing to me suddenly with some unclear words uttered out from his mouth. I felt his admiration but I kept on playing the two musical instruments. There was no time to stop for asking his reaction to the performance.

Later on, the club told me that students were almost preoccupied on the performance, which showed what I had played drew their attention. When it was time to end the share of music, I presented the club two of my CDs. Then I packed the musical instruments back into the case and bag, saying goodbye to the youngsters interested in guitar music. Today, I showed another way to play music, which might be another food for thought in music. Maybe some of them regarded what I played as nothing worthy of note. Anyway, what counted was that I did my level best today in the campus for the youths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 6, 2010

 

Mr. Liou was going to my home tonight after his instruction of guitar in Chong-cheng University. There was nothing new for his visiting my home. If he liked, he could make a regular visit to my home every Thursday night before he rode on the freeway to his home in Tainan on condition that he didn’t feel exhausted.

Tonight my wife and I prepared him some food and snacks besides tea which was also part of his interests and hobbies. Several times he had praised the good flavor and aroma of the tea at my home. I always told him that good things should be shared with good friends and there was no good-quality tea but was dished out to serve my good guests and good friends. It seemed that I have distinguished good guests from bad ones. Actually not! This was against my nature to treat those who came to my house. However, a bosom friend was really different from an acquaintance. As to the process to make a friend from an acquaintance to a close one, it needed time to prove. When a good friend or good guest called on me, good tea was ready to treat him or her. To be frank, the tea I kept had its good reasons to serve my families and other friends and guests. Each winter, I carefully picked the good-quality tea for the other three seasons because winter tea had its potentiality in flavor and armor. Wait! It didn’t mean that all winter tea was good in all tea shops along the Alishan alpine road. It needed experience and time to tell the good from the bad. That was why I went to the tea shops in person to pick out the best quality of the tea I needed.

Mr. Liou had tasted alpine tea at my home for less than ten years. Sometimes, I sent him some tea leaves to enjoy at his home. Step by step, he also had enough experience to make a distinction of good tea from bad tea. Ten years was a long time to know something in detail if he paid attention to the tea he tasted not only at my home but also at his friends’. As a guitar teacher, he had many chances to enjoy good tea so learning from real experience gave rise to his good sense of good tea, which was just like his good ears for good music. More than thirty years of experience in teaching guitar had developed his being sensitive to the good sounds in music, particularly in guitar.

When the tea making and enjoyment was on the process, some music from the guitar was played alive or on the CD player. Mostly, we focused on the topics of music. Time spent on music was a worthwhile topic in the deep night with Mr. Liou under the influence of tea. However, it was a pity that time flew fast. When I waved goodbye to him, it was almost one o’clock in the morning. Plus, he took away one of my two guitars for some minor modulation of the board and bridge in hopes of easier playing, which could make better sounds. And I believed what he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 7, 2010

 

The organizer, Mr. Shaw, sent the SMS (short messages) to the other classmates to have a reunion at a KTV parlor. He was so gung-ho about the monthly reunion of the class for training the show host/hostess under the tutelage of Mr. Wang in Jiou-Kuo-Twan.( The title seemed puzzling as far as its meanings were concerned because it was meant to save the country from being ruined when it happened more than half a century ago.) Last month, less than ten our classmates got together to sing songs in the accompaniment of a KTV, including our teacher, Mr. Wang.

The class was only a short term to know the necessary things in hosting a show for the audiences on some occasions, such as weddings, birthday parties, company’s banquets and so on. I screwed up my courage to attend the class because each time I made a performance on guitar or harmonica, I always failed to control the ambience of the playing not because of my music but because of my poor eloquences which should play an important part in upgrading the musical performance. Strange to say, music was music and why did I need to share part of my attention belonging to a show host? Maybe the audience needed some words to make them high to the skies besides good performance. Hence, I encouraged myself to go to the class in hopes of some experience preciously beneficial to my performance. This might instill deep impression on the audiences.
  The two-month curricula ended in March. Mr. Wang was really a good teacher in Chinese literature besides his personal experience in hosting some shows in the past. He seemed energetic and humorous to stir up the happy atmosphere of any show he hosted. That was what a host must have. A wide range of knowledge was necessary to become a successful host. Besides, he should be able to play some kinds of musical instruments or sing songs. When he stood on the stage, there were some unexpected things to happen, which could be under the control of the quick-witty host in order to make the show or party in progress. He should be smart enough to make some quick changes if something unexpected happened. For example, if a next program was delayed suddenly, what would he do to calm the impatient audiences? If an earthquake happened, what would he do?

Mr. Wang retired as a Chinese teacher in a vocational high school so he was at home in Chinese literature. In addition, he had won plenty of champions in teachers’ speech contest. His calligraphy was full of his style and sometimes, he taught others. As a retired teacher, he was just at his sixties but he looked much younger than his biological ages. Judging Form his outer appearances, you could feel the guy full of energy just because of his abundant mental and spiritual fulfillment. Always full of curiosity to learn something new, Mr. Wang showed us his busy life on the full schedules of his journal.
  All in all, Mr. Wang was a teacher worth befriending. His life experience was a good example for the young to struggle with the world in hopes of standing tall in society in the future. When he was a boy from a backcountry, he did his level best to study and work to become a Chinese teacher. He ever told us that no pains, no gains. Bad surroundings contributed to the full development of his potentialities with the help of his perseverance blessed with him. That was part of his lessons for us to learn. 

 

 

Saturday, May 8, 2010

 

Next day will be Mother’s Day and today there was a show held at our community in celebration of a mother’s greatness and hardships. Actually, it was a day to call back those who worked outside home in hopes of another chance for family reunion. A gift was presented to a mother or gradually a feast was a good chance to put together the family members, which should be part of happiness for a mother besides a gift.

The performance show was held at our community for the first time. A temporary booth was set up at the roadside where plastic chairs was put in trim for the audiences mainly composed of local inhabitants. A good idea was come up with in advance to have a potluck lunch. I was one of the invited guests to bring one dish to share with the locals. Besides, I was invited to make a performance on the guitar and harmonica(s). When it was time to start up the mini variety show at the roadside, my wife and I drove to the destination with the musical instruments and the dish for the potluck lunch in the trunk. It was only three hundred meters away from my home but a car was more convenient to carry the things to the destination. 40-strong local citizens went to the variety show to celebrate Mother’s Day. A young and experienced student held a microphone; he was the host of the show. I put down my musical instruments and greeted with the organizer of the show. Some young students were invited to dance as the beginning of the show and then, they also played a short soap opera. No microphone was used because the number of the audiences was not great. At best, it was not called a variety show but a game played by the students to make the audiences laugh.
  When it was my role to play, I took out my guitar and harmonicas. I had sensed what the audiences wanted to hear. So I played the two and three harmonicas and then what followed were my unique techniques to play the two musical instruments at the same time. The organizer took over the microphone to introduce me to the locals on the spot. Then I concentrated on my playing with my wife standing beside me to hold the microphone as stand. There was no microphone stand to support it; hence, my wife was another makeshift. I bowed when they applauded at the end of my playing. Next program was the audiences’ singing with KTV. At first the machine was out of order. Fifteen minutes, it returned to normal and I felt it was not what I liked to sing with the machines. I went home to rest. The organizer said nothing when I said goodbye to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 9, 2010

 

Chen Shu-chu had returned to Taitung to lead her normal life. She rose at two o’clock every morning in order to buy the vegetables wholesale at a vegetable and fruit market. When she was very busy separating the vegetables on the shelves for the customers to pick out, the crowds came forward to chat with her or bombard her with questions. She was too busy to be in response and she looked upset. Some visitors even came from Chiayi to take pictures with the sensational vegetable vendor whose good deeds made a splash at home and abroad.

Like what Miss Chen had said, she originally didn’t have the idea of going abroad for the prize. When she was in New York, what obsessed her most was her business as a vendor in the market. Many things looked unfamiliar to her in the cosmopolitan city compared to her lifestyles at the traditional market. Now she regained her regular life but it needed several days later when the media and visitors faded to take interest in her with the passage of time. Her greatness lay in her simplicity and purity which made her from obscurity to sensation. She even asked the journalists not to follow her all day long, which really made her embarrassed.

What made us more respect and admire her was that she had another charity in progress, in which another ten million new Taiwan dollars was piled up in hopes of a fund raised to help those in need. That was meant that she always made a plan to do good deeds. Some enterprisers felt like sharing the part to donate the sum left unfinished. However, she answered directly that this was her own business. If other people had the thoughts of charity, they could do what they wanted on their own. Her logic was so simple and pure and her philosophy was so great. What’s more, some businessmen came up with the idea to make her stories into screens. Likewise, she declined with a bang. To many businessmen, her story should be a good business in publishing or on TV and movies. However, she was firm to know what she was going to do in her life. Charity begins at home. In short, she was not an enterpriser or she could take advantage of the chance to pile up a fortune. For many entrepreneurs, ten million seemed not a great amount of money. If they really wanted to give a helping hand, it was only a piece of cake. 

If Chen Shu-chu became a famous businesswoman by manipulating her story into hot businesses, then she was not the vendor we were familiar with at the market. She couldn’t lose herself at fame and wealth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 10, 2010

 

  Before David returned to his school, he successfully applied for a blog for me to use on the Pixnet. When I saw what I had played on the guitar and harmonica could be seen on the blog, I was so excited to thank him. Besides, my diary was also logged on the blog in order to share my life with others at home and abroad.

Last month, I went to a computer class for learning the use of a blog in hopes that I could share my writing and music with others. However, the class was opened for the aged and I was neither old nor young. However, I didn’t seem to bear the slow curricula. For example, it took three hours to teach the learners how to mail before another three hours to apply for a mail box. I was not proud but I really felt bored. Last week, the class ended and I didn’t learn what I needed.

David was quick to key in the data needed to apply for a blog on the Pixnet. He didn’t have one but he could follow the instructions to make the process go smoothly. Soon, a blog of mine showed successfully up on the screen. Deep in my heart, I said thank to him, which was, in my memories, very rare. I didn’t know why the word and other complimentary ones important to him in his childhood were hard to be uttered out from my mouth. I knew it was my traditional concept or stereotype to lead my life, which was handed down from generation to generation. In my clear memories, I was never rewarded any compliments from my father.

Return to the topic. Before putting my video files on the blog, I needed to have my performance shot on the digital camera. In the living room, I took out the musical instruments to play on a chair. In the beginning, I didn’t wear a shirt. My wife stopped me and I put it on with the view of politeness of the net viewers. After all, fine feathers make fine birds. By the way, the digital camera was not professional so the definition was not high and sound effects were poor, I believed. However, what counted was that I at last had my own blog to use on the Net, through which I could pay more attention to play good music for the Net pals or those to surf on the network.

Let me say again that I was really very thankful to my son who could have been better if more compliments had been used to encourage him in his childhood. I was a teacher who was blind and deaf to the theory of education until he found what had happened to his sons. Sad! Alas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

 

As far as the Internet is concerned, I seem to fail to keep abreast of times. It is said that in modern times, those who can not use the Internet should become underdogs. For the computer programmers, they jobs are writing the software for the computer and they do their level best to write the perfect software for the users from youngsters to elders and from students to enterprisers. For most of the users, they just need to spend much less time learning how to use a computer rather than to write the programming. The latter is surely a very complicated process needed much efforts and brain power to finish it, I believe. As to how to use a computer in dealing with our problems in daily life, it is much easier but it still needs to take some time to learn how to use the modern gadget.  

Many years ago, I was told that using a computer was very easy. However, I was very clumsy to make a computer under control. There were several reasons to keep me from learning how to use a computer. One of them was that I didn’t take advantage of a computer to help me in teaching. Using a computer is much easier than writing a programming. However, when my teaching still went on wheels, I lost a sense of insecurity in learning a computer for the coming of rainy days. Maybe some of other colleagues were at home in using it while I was still lukewarm about the necessity of using a computer in order to keep up with times. I was not kicked out of the workforce market. Luckily, I retired as scheduled and led a laid-back life mostly at home. Surely, I was also busy studying English and practicing music. Now, I am conscious of the importance of using a computer on which, I can not only input but also output. If we just download data, it is really a way of input. If we upload our data online, then it is output. The latter needed more time to learn. Don’t be afraid! A good and great computer programming engineer always know the problems in advance so he or she write software easier and easier while a programming becomes more and more complicated. Wiring software is wheels within wheels and we are so luck to use the excellent tool to finish many things on the screen.

Information age has entered our world and there is no way to avoid it unless we caved in to the lifestyle as a caveman in mountains. Even the people in the alpine areas also keep connected with the world by means of a computer. So learn to use a computer right now. No complaints! No alas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

 

In order to make the customers have the chance to use their computer to surf the Net, many stores or restaurants have wireless Internet for them to get online. The Three Royal Three Family restaurant is one of the restaurants which have several branches in Chiayi. There is a wireless station equipped at the store to provide the wireless waves for the computer users at the store and the basic requirement is that one should have a computer with the gadget to receive the unseen electrical waves inside the computer. So far the device seems a must installed inside a computer. Of course, the boss should be nimble-minded in business to have the machine for attracting the customers to have a meal and use their computer online as well.

 Today a guitar teacher called Miss Hua who was asked to teach me how to use a blog online at the Three Royal Three Family located on Shinming Road. When it was right time to meet there, I appeared at the restaurant on time. She also showed up the moment I just arrived. When ushered to a right table, we ordered some drink to meet the minimal requirement of the restaurant. Apparently, it appealed to more young people than the aged. Their food or drink also has the tendency of youngsters-oriented. Miss Hua is now a guitar teacher who has invited me to play for her students in a commerce vocational school. When I complained that I didn’t have a blog of mine to show the world my work both in music and writing, she was willing to teach me the tips of using a blog. This restaurant was her suggestion because of the wireless equipment to have access to the Internet.

As soon as she made sure that the computer was online, she taught me the first step to apply for a blog. I told her that I had one my son made the application for me several days ago. Surely, I ticked to the website of the blog. So far, I was also kept watching the blog only. If I needed to add some pictures or words to the blog, it was beyond my ability. Then Miss Hua patiently told me the necessary steps one be one and I took notes in order to review afterwards. I followed what she taught to use the blog and I knew that practice made perfect.

When it was time to say goodbye, I was also thankful to her for her patience to teach me how to use a blog instead of applying for one. I was not as quick and nimble as the young to key in on the computer but I could review after going home under the steps I had written down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 13, 2010

 

Like air and water, food is also bread-and-butter need to keep us alive. Many people live an abundant and luxury life in peaceful time and they have no problems in pursuit of delicious food and what’s more, some world-famous delicacies at home and abroad can be under their belt if they are gourmets. To them, food is not defined to the basic substances to support their living. Furthermore, they consider it as part of their targets easily available because of their wealth. When a fancy restaurant serves what they are covetous of, they are sure to go at any cost. As to the prices, they play second fiddle to the appetite or desire. Some even fly to other countries to enjoy the exotic cuisine surrounded by the unique and genuine ambience. Besides, the long-haul flight to travel to enjoy exotic foods seems to be part of the gourmets’ trophies each time they show off to the counterparts.

As far as most people are concerned, they only consider food as a must to live in the world. When an area falls victim to the famine and draught, the mass deaths caused the catastrophe unavoidable, many charities and institutions launched some campaigns to donate food and daily necessities to the famine-stricken area in order to save as many lives as possible. To the victims, food becomes the essential materials to distinct the line between life and death. As a rule, people seek not only the basic food but also those cuisines or delicacies as well. What they choose is not just the substances to support their lives but those to please themselves. When the needed staples are out of question to meet the demand, people need more delicacies if they consider food can make them satisfied physically. Once, a friend of mine told me that the two formidable enemies for the male to conquer are sex drive and food appetite. We can live without sex but we cannot live without food. A monk or nun has no problem in sex because he or she is strongly will-powered to go through the hindrance to their way of eternity or nirvana. However, food is hard to neglect. Hence, he or she regards it as a basic need to support the body to go to the road of harsh and severe disciplines before reaching nirvana. A famous Buddhist master only spent ten minutes or so finishing each meal and I think the food she eats should be very simple. Like her, many monks or nuns don’t spend much time on food. Instead, they concentrate on the road to seek spiritual fulfillment.

Rice can feed on all walks of life and there is no standard to be applied for everyone. However, you are what you eat. When some people advocate going veggie in order to save the earth from global warming, we believe it is not religious propaganda but a fact that meat customers consume more energy than those going veggie to produce what they eat. However, if a man who goes veggie pays more attention to the delicacies, then he waters down the environmentally friendly actions as a vegetarian. Let me say again that you are what you eat. The question lies not in right or wrong but in personal philosophy in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 14, 2010

 

People believe that a gifted man should have his outstanding achievements left in the world to make his name. However, some are doomed to live in obscurity because of nothing to go with his talents when kicking the bucket.
  Soon ripe, soon rotten. Something must have happen to the geniuses when they are young, which cause them to accomplish nothing to be later success afterwards. Don’t be proud first when you are proved a high IQ because there is a man called Christopher Langan blessed with the IQ of 192, winding up working on a horse farm in rural Missouri. There is nothing happening to him in order to catalyze his talent to the full development. It is also the environment in which he grows up that results in his obscurity. In short, there is no one in Langen’s life and nothing in his background that could help him capitalize on his exceptional gifts. A genius makes his name in certain field should go with family, culture, friendship, childhood, and social backgrounds. Once studies suggest that the key to success in any field has nothing to do with talent but with endless practices. That is, he or she should practice 10,000 hours of what is engaged in until the success comes to light. In spite of the importance of practices, I still wonder if an idiot can reach success in science or arts if he or she practices one million. Talent is a must before the hard and endless practices together with other factors such as, friendships, social backgrounds or something unpredictable. Wow! Too complex! 

Still, there are many exceptional in the world. For example, Claude Monet made the splash in artistic history of his impressionism. If anything great happens to him to cause his name in history, I believe it is his only practices in the poetic forests to draw the pictures onto his canvas day in and day out. No teachers can guide him to the new field of painting called “impressionism.” Another example is Paganini. He creates many transcendental skills or techniques on the violin to conquer completely the audiences. Before his success, he practices on his violin eight or night hours per day. I believe that both Monet and Paganini are gifted but no great success could be available to them if hard practices hadn’t been made.

Anyway, there are ways to reach success or obscurity. In modern times, the definitions of success can be more complicated. Successfully or unsuccessfully, however, practices should be inevitable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 15, 2010

 

Together with my wife, I drove to Hsingang for a performance at a park near the historical rail converted to a culture park. About ten days ago, one of the staff of the Hsingang Foundation of Culture and Education called me if I would like to play some music for the audiences in the open, I agreed.

There was no platform for the performers but only a small square covered with grass just beside the abandoned rail. Originally, the rail was used to carry sugar canes and passengers as well. It was narrower than the rail we had seen from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Besides, a booth was set up to provide shade from the sun. When I arrived, it was before the scheduled time to play. A previous program was in progress, in which the audiences and keepers of pets concentrated on the show played by the dogs. Right! It was a dog show contest and each master of the pet did the best to make his or her pets to run, jump or catch a Frisbee in the air. I was shocked to know that I needed to play in front of the dogs and their masters. There were only few real audiences sitting beside the rail. That was why the authorities called me yesterday afternoon to put off until the afternoon. I replied that it was too late to change.

Since my performance overlapped with the dog show contest, I insisted on my playing on the scheduled time. Thirty minutes was left for me to modulate the sound effect on the amplifier and speakers. When all was ready to play, it was fifteen minutes left to take a rest. What I heard was the noises from the speakers to cheer. Soon, it was my turn to show on the harmonica and guitar. Only some audiences really enjoyed what I played and they danced with the melodies and rhythms. Most of the masters of the pets only paid attention to their dogs because there was a contest with some prizes for the winners.

Thirty minutes passed fast and I ended my performance and received a small pay. I donated half of it to the fund when passing by a fund-raising stall. Besides the dog show contest, there were stalls to sell some handcrafts and other goodies or books. Some stray dogs were kept on cages for the people to bring home to keep. The scenes looked like a traditional market in medieval times. As to me, I was really like a minstrel. However, I didn’t sing songs to inform some messages. Instead, I just played music to amuse few of the people at the market.
  For me, I didn’t care the pay of the performance. However, the sound effect of the electrical equipment was really too poor to give me the emotional sounds I needed. Basically, the amplifier and speakers were not good-quality and I asked the staff in charge but he was a novice who seemed to fail in modulating what I needed. What’s more, I didn’t have the moods to lose myself in the emotions from the music because of the noises from the dog show. Although I played hard, I didn’t have the good feelings to arouse as a result of the higgledy-piggledy surroundings. In short, no ambience was meant no good music. And it was hard to find good ambience in a hot sunny day. However, I didn’t decline the performance because I considered it was another experience of mine to face the audiences on a different occasion in a different place.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 16, 2010

 

A sudden idea flashed into our minds that my wife and I could go to southern Taiwan for a visit. When we went to Tongkang, it was only ten thirty in the morning. However, there had been some eaters at the fish market to enjoy the famous tuna sashimi which was in season annually.
  It was said that the annual sashimi festival was held at a fish market called Huachiao Fish Market. According to the traffic signs, we had no problem arriving at the market and some gourmets had been searching for the delicacies they liked. The stalls were lined the other side of the mini fishing port and they sold tuna sashimi only. When the caught tuna was carried to the port, it soon became sashimi in the shopping windows for the eaters to choose from. Different parts of the raw fish meats had different prices. My wife and I chose some at middle prices, not too high or too low, to enjoy. Actually, we both didn’t show great interest in sashimi but tasting the well-known tuna sashimi seemed part of our experience in hopes that we also had it in the seasonal seafood at the famous fishing port.

The sellers of the lined sashimi stalls had no other meats to sell exception for tuna sashimi. The customers could choose to eat at the stalls or bring it home. We chose to eat there and ordered some fish soup besides the sashimi. 600 grams of the raw fish meat was ordered to serve us and really it was too much for our stomachs. We ate to our heart’s content. At last, tuna’s tastefulness was not existent but a burden to finish what was left in the plate. Four or five mouthfuls of sashimi were the right quantity if one had the idea of enjoying the delicious cuisine. As to the prices, they varied according to the different part of the tuna.
  One might choose a cheaper part of a tuna with 600 grams worth six hundred new Taiwan dollars or more than two thousand for another part. As to the highest prices of it, I didn’t pay more attention to them. Sashimi here could be available to the customers with good quality and freshness. Otherwise, almost every restaurant islandwide could serve the eaters sashimi. Besides, some famous restaurants in any city or township featured its tuna sashimi for its good quality and freshness too. As to the prices, there didn’t seem to have an apparent difference between the one here and that one there. Anyway, the tuna raw meat here didn’t give us deep impression because we both were not gourmets in sashimi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 17, 2010

 

I went to Alishan for hiking at Teh-fu-yeh historical trail, together with other four previous colleagues at a high school. The ancient trail was well-known and the highest of it was more than 2,200 meters above the sea level until it descended to less than 1,500 meters. Today, we hiked upside down, from the highest side at Zihzong downward to the lowest Teh-fu-yeh.
  After the 88 Flood caused by a typhoon last August, the Alishan alpine road had been severely damaged and some repair work was still under way. Some of the barren mountain slopes beside the road were a real threat to the visitors when passing by it. It was a common sense that a downpour would cause another landslides or mudslides. By all accounts, an overexploitation resulted in the counterattacks of the nature and human was never the conqueror of the great nature. When we destroyed the forests for tea or other produce, the imbalance of ecosystem was sure to make a counterattack which human should fall victim to.
  It was not a holiday so we didn’t meet any other visitors or hikers on the trail. What’s more, after the downpour of last August, there were no tour buses to be allowed to run on the damaged road. Hence, the tourists were on the decrease to its one-third in number compared to the same period last year. The whole forest seemed to belong to us walking on the ancient trail. The other four moved at fast pace which seemed to make me lag behind especially on the return route when we walked upward on the slope. It seemed to make me out of breath. The whole trail was 6.5 kilometers and a to-and-fro trip needed more than four hours for the 13 km of hiking. On the return, I almost stumbled to the ground when my left foot was missed on the wooden step. When I stood firm on the ground, there was a sudden convulsion on my left calf. I took off my left footwear and sat down on the ground. One of my colleagues told me to put the foot pointing upward with the help of my hands. Soon, it returned to normal and I began to walk on the trail. This helped me to take a short rest and I was wondered if the convulsion would hit again. However, it never relapsed.
  When we all returned to the entrance, it was one thirty in the afternoon. Really, we spent four hours finishing the 13-km route. Before returning to Chiayi, we stopped at a tea shop for tasting the newly-made spring tea. It tasted good with its flavor and aroma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

 

I invited Mr. and Miss Kao to my home for enjoying tea together with their friend, Mr. Huang. All of them were retired public servants. Mr. Kao and Mr. Huang worked at Taipower Company before their retirement. Today, when Mr. Haung rode his scooter and appeared at the door, I found he brought with him some sweet potatoes in a bag. His hometown was Shueiling where sweet potatoes were famous agricultural products and now they were in season. As we knew, some vendors had a stall at a roadside to tout for the business in raw sweet potatoes or grilled ones. The latter gave off sweet and fragrant smell to attract the passengers.
  In those old days, sweet potatoes belonged to the main staples of the people who lived below the impoverished line. For them, it was very difficult to have white and sweet-smelling rice for a meal which was sometimes mixed with a large part of sweet potatoes to serve because the latter were much cheaper. Very often, sweet potatoes were their food instead of white rice. When the economy got better after World War II, people gradually had the chance to enjoy rice and sweet potatoes lost their position at the table. However, they were still used to feed pigs together with their leaves which were still called “pig vegetables” by some aged people. At that time, sweet potatoes and their leaves were commonly used to raise pigs, which was one of the main part-time jobs for the farmers to have extra money to support their families.

When the economy was in boom, people on the island had no problem in seeking what they liked to eat, such as seafood, mountain wild animal’s meats besides chickens, ducks or pigs. It was said that we now lived in luxury and hence most people were over nutritional, which really caused the diseases happening in the coronal artery where too much fats could be found. Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and the like resulted from the overeating of nutritional food.
  Compared to those people in the past few decades, we are leading a life of over consumption and over nutrition. What came next were the so-called civilized diseases. Ridiculously, people rediscovered the functions of the pig food to balance our staples in nutrition. And one of the easy ways to keep our health was to eat the food previously used to raise pigs. Their roots, stems and leaves were all good for our health. In short, sweet potatoes again stood the strong position in basic and daily food in modern world. Interesting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

 

I had a blog of mine on the Pixnet since May 10. When I got online on the blog, I listened to the music on the four different audio-visual files. Sometimes, I looked at the surfers who bumped into the website to notice what the blog showed differently. There were many guitar players uploading their playing on the blog so there should be some reasons to attract as many Net pals or surfers as possible. One of them was the uniqueness or transcendental techniques on the guitar. If what they played was not out of the common, the Net users should pay little or no attention. On the basis of this concept, I needed to make more efforts to have a dog and pony show on my blog, including the layouts and contents of it.

As to the layouts of the blog, I thought I needed someone who had experience to help me. So far, my elder son gave me a helping hand to apply for a blog of mine and Miss. Hua, a guitar teacher in a vocational school also taught me some about the edition of a blog. It was said that using a blog was not difficult but the users should know the way to use it.

To date, I paid my attention to the practice of the guitar and harmonica. Besides, I also had the thought of uploading the performance on the violin and accordion as well. Maybe playing on the piano also had the possibility on my blog. If the techniques were not good enough to make a sensation, at least, they should be left good impression on the surfers. Surely, it was a hard and big job. Success was composed of 1% of gift and 99% of perspiration. I took up the gauntlet to keep abreast of times and I never gave up doing what I was determined to do.

Two months ago, I went to a computer cram school affiliated to a temple for more knowledge on a blog. It didn’t seem to give me tips because the learners were old people. What they learned was the basic to get online. Believe it or not, it took three hours to learn how to apply for a mail box and another three hours to send am e-mail out. More time was spent to listen to the songs on YouTube.

When the class ended, my elder son came home for a holiday one day. It was at that time that I asked him to apply for a blog for me on May 10. So far, they were about 80 surfers coming to my blog. It gave me confidence that I could make it much better and more surfers might pay a visit. I decided that next time my elder son comes home again, I can make my blog much better under his guidance. Wait and see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 20, 2010

 

As scheduled to take a one-day trip to Kenting, we set off in the morning, including me and the other retired friends in the neighborhood and other places. I came up with the idea to travel again in southern Taiwan when we got together to chat over tea at my home two weeks again. Several months ago, we also made a tour to the famous tourist attraction on the island. It seemed that all of us had a good impression of the one-day trip to Kenting and other places around southern Taiwan. Perhaps, we could have a plan to tour Alisha or other places in the mountains. However, the floods happening in last August did cause serious damage to the road and the slopes in the mountains. Unless the safety was really assured, we’d better avoid the trip to a mountain, especially Alishan.

After passing Fengliau, the peaceful ocean and fabulous coastlines reappeared again at the right side of the road. We were a lucky group to have free time during weekdays to visit the popular places. Most people came here on holidays. This meant that we didn’t need to contribute to the traffic jam on weekends. The empty coastlines beside the road were peaceful except for the natural sounds of the waves and artificial ones from the vehicles. We were high-spirited to enjoy the far-flung ocean (The Taiwan Straits) until the end of our eyesight at the distant line to distinguish the sea and the sky. Some fishing boats or cargo ships could be seen in the distance. What surprised us most was a flock of egrets flying northwards just above the surface of the sea. They were flying too near the surface and we were worried that they would fell on the ocean. On course, they had no problem flying beautifully above the surface of the sea, which left a question for us to answer. We all were at a loss.

Looking at the seascapes and landscapes, we chatted over tea. The gate-legged table and folding chairs made our tea time more comfortable except for the shades changing over time, and we needed to move to shelter from the sunshine. Soft sea winds gently caressed our faces, which provided us with comfort to the degree of intoxication.
  When we hit the road again to next destination, we found it was eleven o’clock. We turned left at Chechen to Shihmen where I introduced the ancient battlefields and the war between Japanese and the aborigines happening in 1871. Before we arrived at the historical relic, I had told them the story and its backgrounds. Then we reached the Mudan Dam. When they went to a washroom to answer nature’s call, I sought a good place beside the gate to put up the stove to boil water for making tea. It was our second time to make tea. For us five who had retired, there was no drink better than tea in the hot day in May. Each time we made tea, we also had a happy chat over snacks. Now it was after midday and we began to eat the food we brought from Chiayi, which was glutinous rice dumplings, simple and easy to make our stomachs full.

The next place to visit was the southernmost tip point of the island which was famous for its lighthouse. However, we didn’t go into it although we all were free of charge for the reason that we had the card to prove retired as the public servants or teachers. Time left was not enough to take a round trip of the park around the lighthouse. Furthermore, there was a place more attractive to us and we decided to go there. It was called Longpan located at the east coastlines to face the Pacific Ocean. When we reached the destination, the winds were blowing from the ocean but they were not too strong. The vast ocean gave us free imagination and endless view until the sea level in the distance. Five white dots spread on the ocean and we all counted to make sure that we still had good eyesight. They were fishing boats.

When it was in the twilight, we made our way to Howpihu Fishing Pier where we ordered several seafood and vegetables to taste the delicious food. The eateries were lined at the fish market and all of them featured their low prices and freshness. We chose one to order sashimi, shark eggs, shark stomach, seaweed and other two dishes of vegetables. Besides, a big wok of fresh fish soup was also ordered. Really, fresh and tasteful was the fish soup which charged us 150 new Taiwan dollars. In addition, we also ordered a plate of fried noodles and four bowls of rice. Believe it or not, the delicious dinner cost us less than one thousand new Taiwan dollars. On leaving the eatery, we had the thought to go home as soon as possible. One funny thing to keep us from entering the car: we all were too full to sit or to shake. Hence, we walked around the fish pier to watch the fishermen to unload the flying fish from the fishing boats.

With happiness and satisfaction, all of us returned home at ten thirty in the afternoon. With thanksgiving thoughts in mind, I knew I should cherish what I had now. It was part of my lifestyle after my retirement. My life left should not be spent on playing and eating only. I needed to find more significance in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 21, 2010

 

The highway beyond Meishan was a mountain road which directed to Daping, an old mountain community built in 1740, according to the data I got from the local spiritual center—Shan Yen Temple. There was nothing new as far as a village or community built in a mountain where the inhabitants earned their living by such local produce as bamboo, timber, bamboo shoots, and plums. Recently, a cash crop had sprung up to make the mountain dwellers lead a much better life. That was tea which was sold at handsome prices to bring in good incomes to the locals who had converted their arable land into tea plantations. Tea trees replaced bamboo, cypresses and pines to grow in the mountain slopes which made up an apparent distinction between the tea plantations and bamboo groves or cedar woods in color and shape. Tea bushes were much shorter than the other trees. 

Daping Community seemed to be frozen by time. The stores and residences were lined on both sides of the old small street. There was only one street going through the old village. However, really ancient houses made of wood or bamboo were out of sight; instead, most houses were concrete or brick-built. Among them, some historical houses were left to be against the modern buildings. If the old village was more than two hundred years old, a wooded or bamboo-built house should be in sight but they couldn’t stand the gradual erosions from winds and rains for ages. At least, few old houses were left to made a contrast to the modern concrete ones and this told us new from old. Nevertheless, the locals led their lives at a slow pace. The laid-back lifestyle went with the peaceful village from morning to evening. Noises and fast paces were kept at bay. When you asked them questions, they always answered with sincerity and warmth. This was what I called a village frozen by time. As to the scenes of the village more than two hundred years ago, there was nothing to be found or felt again except for the fresh air, rocks and soil. Even the landscapes of the mountains changed because of the tea plantations here and there.

There was a wooden booth just opposite to Taiping Primary School. Behind the booth was a forest trail for the trekkers or hikers. The wooden booth was built to give the visitors a place to rest. Bamboo groves were just beside the booth to contribute to a nice environment. The altitude here was about 1,000 meters above the sea level. The comfortable temperatures and fresh air helped to catalyze intoxication if one sat there for a rest. Due to this, there were always visitors sitting on the chairs at the booth to chat, rest or even make tea. To me, I like to sip tea and enjoy the inner peace in the bamboo grove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 22, 2010

 

This afternoon, my wife and I went to Fenshan to visit a distant relative. The hostess was my second cousin and hence her husband, the host, should be my brother-in-law according to our traditional custom. Arriving there, I got to know some friends of my brother-in-law’s were also part of the guests, males or females.

We got together on the top floor to chat before the dinner. The top floor was a flat concrete ground which was above the fourth floor. It was a good idea to make the top floor into a mini garden where some flowers and vegetables, coupled with a singing bird warbling at a cage. I was told that the main caretaker of the garden was the host’s mother, an octogenarian, who watered the green plants on the pots to grow in prosperity. It needed carefulness to keep the vegetation in good condition. Too much or too little water would decide the death or bloom of the flowers or vegetables, all of which were kept in pots on the concrete ground. There was no mess could be found on the ground, even the dead leaves were out of sight. Standing on the small garden, I could feel the bucolic scenes hidden in the city, which provided a nice place to keep the mental disturbance at bay. When staring at the rampant vegetation in the pots, I naturally thought of the caretakers, including the family members, especially the host’s mother who introduced us the kinds of flowers or vegetables she kept in pots. Some flowers gave off the sweet and fragrant aroma, which attracted us to walk around to target on where they came from. At least three kinds of flowers were in bloom, two of which contributed to the good fragrance for us. One of them was only good colors and shapes to be appreciative of, but they brought out no odors. Several kinds of vegetables were grown there. Last time when we came here, a kind of small tomato was ripe enough to harvest and we tasted the sweet and tasteful tomatoes. What’s better, there were no chemicals used on the vegetables. If fertilizers were necessary to make sure of good growth, they used only organic ones instead of chemical fertilizers.  

The flowers grown there were functional to be appreciative of and the vegetables there were used as natural food which was good for health. Besides, the host’s mother was in the pink. I thought one of the reasons was that she made daily exercise by taking care of the green plants on the top floor. It was a good idea to be advocated in the win-win situation of health and beautifying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 23, 2010

 

When I browsed the Internet, I bumped into a website where a guitar player (or a guitar teacher) played the guitar and harmonica at the same time. His techniques were familiar to me and I couldn’t help but click the key to listen to what he was playing. He could be one of my counterparts in this aspect. What surprised me most was that he was a young guy living in mainland China and his name is Saiping.

The background was a musical instrument stores with many guitars hanged in the air. After the policy of openness and renovation, China had phased in new policies to stand firm on the world stage in many aspects, especially in economy. When people led better lives, they were sure to seek more worldly things to please them. Entertainment was one of the ways to seek happiness in life both in mentality or physicality. The show business (showbiz) had been in full bloom in recent years. Many Taiwan’s entertainers went to China for developing their business because there were more than 1.3 billion people to contribute to the good chances for the singers’ success on the stage or the CD markets. Even the manufacture of musical instruments such as guitars, violins and the like had sprung up to become part of the factors of the world factory. What threatened us most was that most youngsters there were full of ambition and aggression to struggle forward. The competition should be keen as a result of the population to cause a rat race in all fields. By all accounts, all the artists or entertainers had awesome skills or techniques in order to keep their positions as firm as a rock.

Saiping was Greek to me and his playing on the guitar and harmonica on the supporter was not so-called transcendental. However, he also sang the song called “Blowing in the Wind” which was an old American song to describe antiwar sensations. It was a country music where the singer sang the song with the guitar accompanying his singing by himself. In the intermezzo, he played the harmonica to be accompanied by the guitar. No hard skills could be heard on the harmonica which gave off the single melody without the tongue to beat the complicated rhythms.
  Though his playing was not so-called “Bravo”, I also enjoyed the harmonious playing among the guitar, the harmonica and the vocal singing. This was only one of his demonstrations. As to other playing, I was rejected to enter because of the membership limit. Anyway, there was another counterpart of mine in China. Remember his name “Saiping.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 24, 2010

 

So far, I have two guitars made from different countries at different prices. Like individual persons who have their unique personalities or characteristics, my two guitars also have their individual characteristics not only in their colors but also in their timbre. One of them was locally hand-crafted in Taiwan by a guitar craftsman called Lin Ping-kang.
  About twenty years ago, I went to a music store in Tali (Taichung County) to pick out the one I liked at the prices of less than ten thousand new Taiwan dollars. Basically, what I needed was not the outer  appearances of its colors or shape but its timbre instead. From the guitars stored away at the store, I spent almost half a day to select the best after I tried all the other guitars and at last, I returned home with the one handpicked. More than thirteen years ago, I went to a music instrument store in Chiayi to buy another guitar home. It was imported from Spain and with an electric devise affiliated to it to amplify its sounds when it was plugged into an amplifier. There was a gadget on the guitar to control the volume and its timbre as well. Without using the device, it also could make nice sound when plucked. I also introduced one of my friends in Chishan to buy one like what I possessed. The guitar player fell in love with the sounds from the guitar I bought in Chiayi at the time when I played at Chishan old home. The Spain-made guitar was worth four times as much money as the one hand-crafted in Taiwan. One might think that the imported guitar was better than the locally-made one. However, two of the guitar had their individual timbre and characteristics. 

The locally-made guitar could made the sounds louder and masculine while the other, softer and feminine. If Liszt was compared to the former, then Chopin was the latter. Both had their individual style to stand a strong position in the music world forever and endlessly. Sometimes, I liked to pluck the Taiwan-made guitar for its masculine stamina and vitality, which really penetrate my mind to vibrate and resonate in the depth of soul. At times, the Spain-made one conquered my heart with its soft sounds to soothe my spirit. Its sounds were penetrated with invisible tranquility and equilibrium to iron the wrinkled mind.
  For me, musical instruments were the tools to communicate what I felt deep in the mind. I liked both of my guitars and I also had the thoughts that I also could have a steel-stringed guitar to explore my feelings and emotions. It might be worth a try to break a cliché with a novelty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

 

It was six days left away to the expiration of reporting tax returns. In order to avoid the congestion of the taxpayers on the last few days, I decided to end the annual troubling thing every May.

Preparing the necessary documents and receipts, I rode my scooter to the national tax bureau and asked where to report the tax returns. It was on the eighth floor and there were not as many taxpayers as what I had expected. On the information desk, I drew a number on a strip of paper to wait for my turn to be served. The omnipotent computer printed out what I had earned in the past year together with my wife’s and Mike’s. Although Mike was only a student, what he earned from his saving account was unavoidably showed on the list of the earning. In the past few decades, I knew little about the way the government to levy the tax on me and other fellow people. I remembered before my retirement, I should ask one of the staff in Chiayi High School to write the needed data on the report for taxing. Years in and years out, I lost my knowledge in reporting the tax. Every year, I needed to felt embarrassed to ask her help to complete the tax reporting partly because my wife and I were in those days in a primary school and we were allowed to be free of tax reporting. Hence I lose the motivation to know what happened to the way of reporting the tax. Some people were reportedly at home in tax evasion. Hence they should be the expert in this aspect.

When I became a high school teacher, the privilege stopped and I needed to report the tax returns annually, which was really part of my troubles. When something was artistic, I would rise to pay attention. When something was of numbers, I would become lukewarm. Sometimes, I was really admirable of those in accounting and numbers which were always perplexing to me.  

The servants sitting at the computer were mainly composed of students to help the taxpayers to deal with necessary process in tax reporting. When I was my turn, I walked forward, and said short greetings to him. Then he keyed in some data to the computer, in seconds my data showed up on the screen.
  Due to the fact that I was a retired teacher and my wife was free of taxation, it was no need to pay more money to the government. In five minutes, my upsetting thing was completed and my burden was released. I was happy to walk out of the office. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

 

In season are pineapples now which can be available at the roadside. Most people should have good experience to buy the delicious and juicy fruits from a hawker instead of getting them from a fruit store. Those may charge the buyers less money because they do business just by putting the pineapples on their pickup trucks or on the roadside stalls.

Minhsiung is also famous for its agricultural products, such as golden dates and pineapples. The latter seem to have gained more popularity than the former. When the pineapples are seasonal from May to August or September, local residents take advantage of the annual chance to enjoy the tasteful and sweet fruits. It is said that pineapples are good for our health because of its vitamins and minerals together with special enzymes and abundant fibers. In my childhood, pineapples were mostly sour to taste and the aged always told us that they were harmful to our stomachs if one ate too many. Gradually, I get to know that pineapple is one of the best fruits to do some clean work in our stomachs and intestines. They work as scavengers to drain away the solid wastes piled up in our intestines. With the new thoughts instilled into my mind, I always go to the roadside stalls to buy some pineapples home and most hawkers have the thoughtful action to peel the fruits, which makes the enjoyment of the fruits more convenient. The consumers also can pick out the pineapples home without being peeled or cut into pieces. As far as I am concerned, I like to take home one plastic bag of processed pineapples and the other one or two not being peeled. The latter can be preserved for more than one week. 

The processed pineapples are generally put in a small and transparent plastic bag. The central part of the fresh is hard with more enzymes and fibers. Some hawkers pick out the central part because it tastes hard and less juicy or less sweet. However, it is the best part of the fruits and one of hawkers selling her pineapples at the roadside besides the second freeway, not far away from the Nantang Tunnel. I like to buy the fruits there because the harder and less juicy central stems are free of charge and I spend fifty dollars to buy a bag of pineapples together with the other bag of the harder part for free. These are good for our health and the hawker generously put them into my bag until I say “enough.”
  How nice it is to buy the wholesome fruits with little money bringing too much health and happiness and satisfaction. Thanks, “Obasan!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 27, 2010

 

Sweet potatoes seem regarded as part of native agricultural products which were served as the main staples in the past when there were no abundant food to supply. The old generation always told us that they had no tasteful and fragrant rice to eat and the only substitute was sweet potatoes in their childhood. They were tired of eating them and longed for the white rice which were in lack and available at much higher prices.
  Today, there is a change for sweet potatoes previously regarded as the humble staples for the poor. Sweet potatoes are one of the best wholesome food and their prices are not the same as before. They can be attainable at the roadside or at a vegetable store. Some hawkers begin to do business by grilling the food good to our health. It is said that sweet potatoes have the functions to drain out the poisonous wastes inside our bodies. How do they work? I am at a loss. However, they are really full of fibers and one of the regimens is to eat the whole sweet potato together with its peels. In general, more and more people pay attention to regimen, sweet potatoes jump to the firm position to keep us in the pink, one of which is to eat them as part of the breakfast. Believe it or not, this is considered to be the healthy cuisines. Sometimes I wonder if sweet potatoes are nutritious enough to provide us with good vitamins for our health. However, it was a common sense that over nutrition is one of the factors contributing to the diseased of so-called modern illness, which resulted from better food and less exercise. Sweet potatoes facilitate to strike the balance because they only have abundant fibers inside to make our bowl movement go on smoothly. Compared to potatoes easily available at fast-food stores, sweet potatoes seem more popular islandwide. 

Recently, some hawkers have begun to sell the grilled sweet potatoes which are really a convenient way to serve the customers who can enjoy the wholesome and sweet food after paying the bill. They hawk at the roadside with a big porcelain contain to grill the sweet potatoes. They don’t use gas but charcoal instead. The latter can make the grilled sweet potatoes sweeter and more fragrant and they cost good prices: 600 grams worth sixty new Taiwan dollars. The prices have been kept inflexible in the past few years even though the raw sweet potatoes have fluctuated in their prices.
  All in all, it is sensible to taste more the wholesome food boiled or grilled. However, deep fried sweet potatoes are better avoided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 4, 2010

 

This afternoon, I drove to Tainan for the practice of guitar and harmonica with Mr. Liu and his disciple at his music store which is located on Tungzong Street. I have been to his store several times so I couldn’t miss it. About one hour later, I arrived earlier than the appointed time 13:30. I stepped down the car and took around the area in hopes that Mr. Liu could appear as soon as possible. Traditionally, it was our lunch break time and I guessed he must have taken a break at another home of his instead of the store here.

Just at the appointed time, his son showed up to ask me some questions in English composition. Less than one month later, he would sit for the entrance exam of universities. English composition was a necessity in English subject. He had mailed me one of his writings so I printed it down on the paper in order to give him some advice. The instruction was in progress while Mr. and Mrs. Liu arrived soon.

Entering the store, I found a table to continue the instructions and then all the questions his son raised were answered. Immediately, his son returned to a reading center to bury himself in the textbooks. What came next was the program of our practice on the guitar and harmonica. Mr. Liu will hold a music concert in Kaohsiung early in the next month. I was also invited to play some music with Mr. Liu’s accompaniment and his disciple’s. Before our practice, Mr. Liu took out five of his precious and favorite guitars for me to enjoy. Plucking the guitars with good timbre and easy playing, I almost had the thought of buying one home but what he took out was also part of his collection, most of which were hand-crafted in Taiwan. One of them was imported from Spain.

Then one of his top disciples played a song called THE IMPRESSION ON THE LEFT RIVERSIDE which needed part of the performance on the harmonica. It was a terrific sound match between a steel guitar and the harmonica. Sounding like impressionism from Paris was the song composed by native composer famous in pop music field. After several times of practice, we both had the basic idea and feeling of the song. Practice makes perfect. The novelty of dual between a guitar and harmonicas might be a sensation to the audience, and I liked the spiritual exploration on sounds. When a cliché was like a walking corpse, a novelty would be a pioneer. Like old pop songs with familiar melodies and harmonies to provoke nostalgia, they couldn’t be called masterpieces, but sometimes they sounded like a cliché because of their simplicity and naivety in their musical composition or creation. As to their ingenuity or creativity, only small part of them could resist on the challenge of time. At last, they fell into obscurity. It goes without saying that some of them had been prevalent all the time, which had their reasons to stand on the inclement test of years and years. Like the old Taiwanese pop called “Longing for Spring Wind”, it had its social background to keep popular in our modern society. However, very few of those could share the fame and popularity. Was the song great or a tour de force? Not yet.
  Anyway, sometimes popularity played a more important role than a masterpiece out of favor. When a perfect work was too hard for the common people to appreciate, it would be buried under the ground though it had its value in art. Too great to be known was the work which should be preserved for the studies in academic field. As to the common people, most of them only enjoy the pop art or entertainment. One didn’t need to beat his brain to tell art from entertainment—just to enjoy what you liked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June 5, 2010

 

Early in the morning, I drove my wife to the Tsyrji Hospital where my mother-in-law was hospitalized. Last night I was informed that she fainted at her home and fell on the ground.

Checking the right numbers of her warden from the screen with the help of a volunteer recipient at the gate, my wife and I were directed to the right lifter which carried us to the eighth floor. My wife’s brother has been one of the doctors in the hospital but he transferred to a hospital located in Huwei at the beginning of the month. The director now is one of his classmates, who asked my brother-in-law to transfer there as one of the staff.

My mother-in-law lost her consciousness and the main course might be her heart irregularity. However, as I knew, she needed to take regular medicine to make her hypertension under control. She had experienced several times of dizziness but soon she returned to normal. No serious conditions happened so she was negligent of the problems and always regarded her dizziness as the cause of high blood pressure. When it was time for the doctors to see their individual patients, the duty doctor told us that my wife’s mother needed to be undergone an operation to embed a gadget which helped her to make the heart beat regularly. Due to the fact that her heart was getting into degradation as a result of her ages, she had the symptom of heart irregularity which could be improved by medicine if taken regularly. However, her condition needed to be observed and rechecked in order to make sure if the worse conditions would happen again. Then, he did need a gadget to help the heart to beat in regular rhythms. It seemed reasonable to accept what the doctor had suggested but I thought the surgery should be discussed with my brother-in-law who should have enough knowledge and experience to make the decision with his parents.
  One of my wife’s sisters also left from Sinjuang to the hospital for taking care. Now my mother-in-law was in normal condition. By the way, my brother-in-law also told me that there were probably other reasons to make his mother fainted. It needed a careful observation and diagnosis to make sure of the cause of her faintness. Otherwise, the surgery could be a wrong step to be undergone on her. If medicine could work, why did she need the operation? Or maybe her dizziness resulted from other causes. Anyway, it needed the right diagnosis before the surgery on her. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sunday, June 6, 2010

 

Time-worn was the Yuhshan Inn situated across from Peimen Train Station. When Japanese built the alpine rail to carry down the precious timbre in the mountain, Permen Train Station was the first station of the Alishan Alpine Raid. Later, the train was also used to be the main transportation to Alishan and visitors could take the alpine train for sightseeing.
  The train station was built about in 1910 and there would be good business to do if an inn was open for the travelers to stay one night and then next morning, they could take the train to Alishan. Then Alishan Highway was completed in 1985, which replaced the alpine rail as the main way to Alishan. Local residents and tourists took the highway to Alishan, which was much more convenient than the alpine railroad. Needless to say, the alpine rail played second fiddle to the Alishan Highway. Fewer and fewer visitors took the train as a result of the prices and time. It was said that the revenues of the alpine rail lagged behind the costs to run the company affiliated to the Forestry Bureau which has been suffering a regular deficit almost every year. But for the landmark as one of the world three alpine rails, the Alishan Alpine Rail should have put an end to its business.
  Poor businesses resulted in the closure of the inn but two or three years ago, the boss of Hongya Bookstore rented it and renovated it for the reopen up the business by selling coffee and other drinks. Besides, it also provided a home stay for the backpackers or other visitors. It charged only three hundred new Taiwan dollars one night. So far, its business was posted on the Net to make the small and moth-eaten inn on the map again. Some visitors came from Illan to have the recollections of old days in Japanese colonizing period. Inside the inn, the renovation was done under the condition to preserve its original shape and structures. The wooden hostel was not big but returned to its function as an inn. What’s more, the boss played some old discs instead of CDs to draw the listeners back to the past time. Suddenly, the nostalgia arose. When the past memories faded away in modern times, the old and familiar music was so nostalgic and sentimental that some guests got lost in the recollections together with a cup of coffee.

There were few old wooden inn existent on the island to be able to keep the pot boiling. As to its business, the manager told me that they should strive for the better business. So they had hard time to before going on wheels and they should screw up the courage to go through thick and thin. I hope that more customers came here to make the old inn open forever and we could listen to some old tunes from the long-playing record (LP), which could go with the old wooden building.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 7, 2010

 

The weeds grew rampant in the garden which was crying out for weeding. This morning I decided to weed out the wild grass. Besides, there were more than thirty bamboo shoots began to spring up on the soil and most of them were cut off before they grew into bamboo trees. Only some of them were preserved to keep vegetating. Among them, six of the bamboos were kept to be transplanted to another house owned by Mr. Zhang, one of my previous colleagues in a high school.
  After my wife left the house, I went to the garden and used the tools to root out six of the bamboos. I trimmed six of the bamboos to keep each at the height of about 120 centimeters. Then I dug them out of the ground together with the soil around the roots of each bamboo. My experience instructed me to keep the necessary roots and soil in hopes that they all had better chances to keep growing after being transplanted. After each one was rooted out from the ground, I put it in a plastic bag coupled with some soil attached to it. I even added some water to the bag in order to keep the roots wet. Water was a necessity to keep the plants alive. After the job, I began another task to weed out the unneeded wild and unknown grass. I didn’t just use a knife to cut off the weeds from their stems; instead, I used a hoe to root them out from the ground. If their roots were kept under the ground, they would relive some time later. Hence, I had the thought to keep the garden look tidy and clean, I used the hoe to weed out the grass. What’s more, after the weeding by a hoe, the ground would be in trim and I was confident of the task I did on the ground. During the process of weeding, it needed more energy to plow the ground by using a hoe, which really made me in full perspiration. Half an hour later, my upper body got soaked with sweat. I needed to take a rest and considered how to beautify the garden. A Taiwan native plant had grown more than 18 years beside the wall. Recently it had been infected with pests, which caused all the leaves in black color. This made the tree looked lack of vitality but full of lethargy or lassitude. When I found the pests landed on the leaves, I had bought insecticides at a convenience store to spread on them. To my surprise, the chemical also dried tips of the leaves and I stopped using it on the tree. Finally, the entire tree fell victim to the pests. Seeing the black and dirty-looking tree, I made up my mind to cut off all the leaves from the stems and twigs. Sooner or later, the green leaves will be in sight again.
  As to the other bamboos, I rooted out some small ones and trimmed the others kept for beautifying the garden. When the weeds grew around the vegetables, I used my hands to weed them out in order to protect the vegetables from being harmed. It was like a surgical raid to destroy what was unwanted but to preserve what was needed. Two hours later, I almost lost all my energy and fell into exhaustion after I piled up all the weeds at the center of the garden. I went into home to drink water and then took a shower. It was nine thirty. After taking a break in the sofa, Mr. Zhang’s sedan arrived. I made tea to treat him and chatted in the living room. Then he came off with six of the bamboos which could be part of natural beauty to modify his garden. He had a passion for bamboo which reminded us of poetry and paintings in Chinese literature. Sure, as a man of letters in ancient China put it, “No bamboo made one unrefined.”     

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

 

Getting online to chat with others in English, I found most of them were in northern Taiwan. Maybe it was not true to come to a conclusion that most English chatters were from Taipei, but I had just got to know the fact when I asked the question accidentally.

Recalling what happened in 1996 on the Internet, I had the chance to chat at an English chat room called “The Happy Chat Room”, where I was almost lost in the cyberspace to communicate with other Net pals in English words. Believe it or not, we had a gathering in Taichung to meet from the virtual world to the real one, which really embarrassed me a lot because I was the oldest among the group of cyber friends. Males and females put together at the restaurant to chat over the lunch. After returning home, I was left lukewarm to chat again at the same chat room with the same cyber pals. Hence, it was better to keep unseen in the virtual world than seeing the real persons face to face. For me, I just liked to talk with others who were strangers and we could share life experience by keying in the words and then the feelings or emotions could be felt. There were no further purposes to befriend those from the virtual world. If I had had a wrong idea to have extramarital affair, I should have been able to make it come true. However, it was not my cup of tea and nothing happened to stir up my family life. One of the reasons was that I belonged to a stereotype of conservation in this aspect. Was it good or bad? I didn’t know.

It was more then thirteen years since I last chatted in English in the cyberspace. Now the chat room became much more complicated than what I was familiar with in the past. More expressions or functions could be used and even the private talk could be available. Besides, the chatters could use music to showed their like or dislike. In short, there were many new things happening at the chat room, which were Greek to me. I didn’t keep abreast of times and the generation gaps happened naturally.

In spite of this, I also had the thought that chatting with others online was not equal to read a book. Time spent on the Net was less efficient that time spent on a book. To chat with the common chatters couldn’t give one deep thoughts or profound thinking. What’s more, most chat friends used corrupt words or expressions and this would derail one’s way to good knowledge. So to chat at a chat room was only a game to play, not a classroom to learn something worthwhile to broaden our horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

 

After the practice of yoga with other teachers in Chiayi High School, I was on my way home. When reaching Konghe Road, I turned right to the Yuhshan Inn in passing. I recalled that a gift was kept for me because of my performance for the visitors from my hometown last Sunday.

No sooner had I entered the inn than I had smelled a pleasant aroma spreading in the air. It was the fragrance of coffee made by the innkeeper who was just giving it a try in hopes that the coffee could be more pleasant to the customers. The previous hostess ended her agreement to run the inn and the new innkeeper should take charge next month. Now she should make some change in the way of cooking coffee in order to make it better in quality. I was wondering if the tips of cooking coffee should be got from someone who was at home in making coffee or just from trial and error. Maybe both were good factors to contribute to a tasteful cup of coffee. Like what happened to making tea, besides good-quality of tea leaves and water, the tips of making a good cup of tea was constant trial and error and experience from the experts. Sometimes, it was hard to have a wonderful pot of tea to taste as long as any factor failed to comply with the rules of excellent tea—tea leaves, water and its temperature, and time.
  The new innkeeper asked me to be the target of the trial and I accepted it. She gave me a cup of coffee with about one-fourth of the coffee in it. I sipped it after smelling the coffee and then clean boiled water was asked to clean my mouth. What came next was the other cup of coffee with the same quantity inside. I did the same steps of enjoying the coffee. The second was my preference. However, there was another friend of her testing the same coffee but his preference just opposed to mine. Due to the fact that I was not a good taster in coffee, I told the innkeeper that what I had sensed was not a criterion to what she had cooked. If I was asked as a tea taster, then I was confident of what I had tasted. It seemed that I prefer to the big grains when the coffee was ground into powder, which tasted less strong that that ground into tiny grains. So I was fed with espresso, too strong to feel comfortable in my mouth.
  In short, coffee was not part of my hobbies or interests. There are many good things under the sun to add more colors in our lives. You choose yours and I picked mine. There is no clash between yours and mines. What counts is that we should respect each other and then harmony and peace is ubiquitous. Like soybean milk coming in two different tastes, sweet and salty, each one has its lovers. Some like coffee and some like tea. Some have a passion for guitar music and some, for piano one. Don’t count which one comes in first and which one comes in second. Can you judge the water of the Pacific Ocean is better than that of the Atlantic Ocean? Or visa versa?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, June 10, 2010

 

I got the cell phone and answered it, informed of the news that an old accordion was carried to the Yuhshan Inn. The owner of it was Miss Lou, the former innkeeper, asked me if I was interested in taking a look and playing some music on it.

Arriving at the inn, I saw the incumbent innkeeper, Mrs. Kuo and her husband were also on the scene. Miss Lou took out the moth-eaten accordion from a paper box and I adjusted the belt to suit my body and hands. The brand was not familiar to me so I didn’t know where it was made but from the chord buttons on the left hand, I knew it was a basic one for the beginners: only 12 chords could be used, including six major chords and six minor ones, coupled with six root tones. After adjusting the shoulder belts, I began to play some familiar music which seemed to recall me of the past time when I was a student about 37 years ago. After playing, the three listeners clapped their hands to show their enjoyment of the playing. Then I stopped in order to tell them the story happening in less than forty years ago when I was a student who learned how to play an accordion. At the time, I was a freshman in Pingtung Normal Junior College. One day, I found an accordion was left on the shelf of the general affair department of the school, I asked the lady in charge if I could borrow it. To my surprise, I was allowed to borrow it for practice, which made me in ecstasy. Three days later, I was able to play fluently some beautiful tunes together with the right chords and nice rhythms made from the left hand. The right hand should control the main melodies and some accidental chords. Believe it or not, I learned to play the music on the graceful box under the tutelage of myself, which really surprised my classmates and the other schoolmates after listening to my playing. One day, I was playing at the old wooden dorm, a fifth grader (about the age of 21 or 22) came across. Hearing my playing, he turned back, walking into the dorm to listen. After the end of the music, he asked that I must have played the accordion for many years in junior high school. I replied that I had just learned to play it for three days. The senior lost his temper and scolded me that a freshman should learn to be honest. I was shocked to be speechless, standing at thee center saying nothing to see him leave the dorm. Did I tell a lie? Actually not! But he just didn’t believe what I had said. What counted was that I didn’t tell a lie. My classmates could prove what I had said. What shocked me most was his reaction to my answer to his question. What’s more, he didn’t stand for a moment to get the evidence from my classmates at the dorm because he had a sudden departure from the old dorm. The senior was called Mu Zonjen, a well-known one in the whole school because of his talents in music. However, I was at a loss of his hot temper. What I had said really made his hackle up.
  After the story, I also played more music for them. The accordion seemed to have some problems in some tones. What’s worse, it suffered a little air leakage. This caused the malfunction of playing fluent music,and a sudden stop would happen because the end of the pull or push of the air box as a result of the leakage of the air. Miss Lou asked me to keep it for my playing at home. I was thankful for her generosity but I declined because it had some problems in it and it was hard to repair. Besides, I didn’t like accordion music very much, or I must have bought one to play. Later, I thought if my direct decline of her goodwill could hurt her and made her embarrassed. However, I had explained my reasons to her and the other two listeners.
  Like a guitar, violin, or piano, an accordion also needed time to master it. Before nice music giving off from it, one should take pains to make an accordion as attractive as any other musical instrument. I was able to play it thirty seven years ago but no more graceful and greater music was played from my hands. This proved that I didn’t spend time on it. Let the nature run its course. That was what I wanted to say. Maybe some day I have to spend more time on it for some occasions or situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 11, 2010

 

The regular maintenance of my car seemed to have expired as far as its mileage was concerned, but I was aware of this and tried to neglect it on purpose in order to make sure of the expiration of the maintenance being far beyond what the repair store had claimed. Generally speaking, five thousand kilometers was the duration for each maintenance. The mechanics always told the clients to come for maintenance in order to make the cars in good conditions. However, I had noticed the wrong information manipulated by the mechanics whose concept was that the shorter mileages to come for the maintenance, the better incomes they could earn. That I got the limit of the maintenance was at the interval of 15,000 km on the manual of the cars. When I disputed over the question with a repairman, he claimed that Taiwan’s air pollution and weather conditions were different from those in Germany. If I persisted on the data on the manual in English, I should be responsible for what happened to the car. Twenty years had passed and my car was in good conditions and I seldom made my car maintained in five thousand kilometers.
  Today my car was at the interval of almost ten thousand kilometers, among which I once added one litter of oil into the engine chamber to supplement what had lost in the past few months. The car went on smoothly while running on the road. To be frank, I was sensitive to the subtle differences when driving the car and it still ran well on the road when it was beyond six or nine thousand kilometers after the last maintenance. More and more people and mechanics accepted that the necessary interval of the car of being maintained should be more than 10,000 km instead of 5,000. The latter would waste money and natural resources as well. Each time I needed to spend about two thousands on the new oil to replace the used one in the engine chamber. The other older Volkswagen had gone through almost twenty years, and it still served my family well. Furthermore, what I had come up with was not a wild goose chase but on the basis of the manual published by the car company in Germany. Why didn’t the owners of the car repair stores make the truth clear to the customers? Guessing it was a piece of cake. 

The customers were easily blind and deaf to the real information on purpose and we should be smart to know more about what was covered under the table; otherwise, money was wasted to make the car owners act like an idiot on the market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June 12, 2010

 

In the early evening, the sky lost part of its gloomy grey to light blue, which was not absolutely clear to predict fine weather to come in the evening. Today it rained on and off all day long, which kept my wife and I from going out for a change. Since it stopped raining, we had the idea of driving out aimlessly, but I came up with the idea of getting soaked in a hot spring at Chongluen. That was a good way to get rid of boredom.

About forty-minute drive, we reached the destination located in the mountainous area of Chongpu County. The wet ground didn’t stop the visitors from coming for a hot spring bath. Private-run was the hot spring located at the hillside, divergent from the main road after going through the Chongluen Tunnel. The sign was not big enough to be apparently seen but read, “Chongluen Hot Spring.” If one didn’t notice it, he or she could be very likely to drive forward and saw the other hot spring at the roadside, which was said to be a joint venture by a businessman and the county government. Two years ago, I came across the hot spring at the roadside and entered it for consumption. Then once a local farmer told me that there was another one located on the hillside with much better quality of water at lower prices, and I went there to enjoy the hot spring, which was really like what the farmer had told. From them on, my family had soaked in the hot spring for several times on the hillside. 

The boss charged us six hundred dollars on weekend for each hot spring parlor. What made it different from other hot spring was that the water could make the skin more slick or smooth. I had experienced some other hot spring in Taiwan, but none of them could be compared to the water quality here. When the pool was filled with hot water from the faucet flowing hot spring water, I also needed to turn on the cold faucet in order to make sure of the right temperatures suitable for us. When the little stone-made bathtub was full to its capacity, I turned off both of the faucets and we got soaked in the hot spring except for the body above the chest. Feeling relaxed and comfortable from the water and music, we kept silent and sometimes chatted. The water tasted salty, which was much saltier than what I had tasted in other hot spring with the same type of water quality and peculiarity. So far, it was the best quality of hot spring in Taiwan as I knew.   

Leaving the hot spring parlor, my wife and I went out for drying the hair by using a hair dryer hung on the outside wall. Taking a rest on the steel-made chairs, we both fell absolutely relaxed to take a look at the scenes around the hot spring store, which also provided the visitors with home stay if they needed. The eyesight met the hills, not far from here and the nightscapes were not clear, only the dark outlines of the hills. Simply put, there was nothing worthy of longer stay for enjoyment except for the hot spring, so we soon made out way home to watch TV, coupled with making tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 13, 2010

 

Last night when my wife and I were enjoying tea in the living room, the corded telephone rang. My brother-in-law’s family wanted to come along. Since there were no snacks left at home, my wife went to a convenience store nearby to by some for the two kids of her brother’s. In the meantime, I needed to have more boiling water and a bigger teapot to meet the demand. They appeared at about nine forty in the evening and believe it or not, we all sat up all night talking and sipping tea until the daybreak. When they said goodbye, it was 5:08 a.m. next morning. It really broke the record to chat all night without sleep.

At first, we had a small talk over tea and snacks. When it was at midnight, an idea flashed into my mind that I had a bottle Taiwan-made brandy on the cupboard. Hence, I walked up to take out the brandy to sip with my brother in law. As to his wife and his sister, they both showed no interest in it. Frankly speaking, wine and tea were not the main purpose to get together, which should be a common sense. Truly, there was another main topic to talk about my wife’s younger sister who lived in Taipei County but she still rented a house in Chiayi because she sometimes went there to live alone if she had a quarrel with her husband. Her family always had some problems needed to deal with and they seemed to fall victim to malfunction of a family. My wife’s sister sometimes suffered family violence and it was likely that the beating kept happening once in a while. Even their two daughters sometimes got into trouble. All in all, a family’s problems were hard to handle. Take a look at all families. All the problems happened all the time. At last, a divorce came out to end the problems temporarily. Things would get better? Not always!

There were always troubles taking place in many families. So a happy family life should be the blessing from the heaven. This was the sadness or bitterness of our lives. Everyone seemed to have some sins to be born with and it needed great wisdom to go through the troubles. So happy ending in our practical lives seemed ideal and fantastical.
  Our existence in the world had some certain reasons and our awareness and acceptance of life should be available through some personal experience or disciplines. So far, it was beyond my ability to see through life. What I could do was face the music with frankness, honesty, and compassion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 14, 2010

 

It is in the annual rainy season and the weather seems to rain on and off day and night. Some damage caused by downpour hit the headlines. Luckily, the damage was not as severe as what we had heard or seen in last August. In the meantime, some areas did need enough rains for the growth of agricultural products in general and the rice in particular. Several weeks ago, some southern county governments announced the policy to keep the rice field fallow as result of the water shortages. Now they lifted the policy because of the recent downpours which made some reservoirs full enough to provide the needed water for the growth of rice seedlings.
  In southern Taiwan, farmers longed for rains to keep the vegetation of produce and worried about the downpours to cause floods. Last August, a flood had brought down astronomical amounts of mud and rock from mountainous areas, which clogged most rivers to upraise the riverbeds. That was reasonable for people to worry about the downpours. When heavy rains were forecast, all of them living in the low-lying areas would be butterflies in their stomachs. The flood-savaged places would fall victim to the downpours since last August.

This morning, I felt like making a morning constitution in the park nearby. Hence, I drove there when the raining seemed to stop and I took an umbrella with me in case of the rain. There were only few of morning risers came along. Parking my car, I began to walk as fast as possible. All the ground was wet but the blacktop did facilitate to walk even if it got really wet. The verdant grass and leaves seemed to give off more fresh air and I walked on the familiar course at the right pace. When I reached the end of the course, I was in perspiration coupled with speedy heart beats and breathing. Originally, I had the thought of practicing yoga on a concrete-made bench big enough to do some easy yoga. However, it got wet and I just stood there to make the breathing return to normal before driving back home.
  A rainy day did stop the morning risers from coming along. On my course of walking, I only met about six people. Although, there was a break time of raining in the morning, none could make sure of the duration away from raining. When it rained, the outdoor activity should be stopped instead of taking an umbrella walking in the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

 

I needed to print some copies of “The Peaceful Gunfire”. Hence, I drove to the store near Chongchen University where the charge of the fee was much lower. Before driving out, I suddenly thought that I could drop in Mr. Zhang who sometimes came to my home for chatting over tea. In order to make sure of his staying at home, I called him first and ensured that the line was busy, which hinted that he was at home so I made my way to his home.

A sudden appearance did surprise him and I was one of his guests. The other one was one of his local friends. Was he also Mr. Zhang’s unexpected guests? I didn’t know.
  They both had made a pot of tea, and after the tea was not too strong enough to taste, Mr. Zhong remade another pot of tea which was claimed spring tea of this year. What’s more, he told us that it was organic tea grown by a monk disciplining Buddhism in the high mountainous area of Nantow. I also bought some of his tea but so far, I needed to put an end to the other tea left for making tea. The duration of the fragrance was not a long time when the tea bags were opened for enjoyment.
  Mr. Zhong took out the boiling water, pouring some into the tea pot for raising the temperatures inside. This was the necessary steps to make a good pot of tea. Then the appropriate amount of tea leaves was put into the pot, not too little or too much. And then, high-temperature water was poured into the pot again. About one minute later, the hot tea was put into each small porcelain cup. It was full of good smooth and flavor coupled with aroma. Before sipping the high-mountain tea, we could take a look at the tea which is in light yellow or the color similar to amber. In short, this tea was good quality which was smooth to drink and fragrant to smell.
  When it was the end of the pot of tea, I stood up to say goodbye because I needed to go to a copying store for the main purpose to going out. Mr. Zhong’s house was not far away from the store and I was asked to taste another pot of tea. This seemed common in our custom of hospitality if more time was allowed, another pot of tea would serve the guests. Since what I needed to copy was not many, so I stayed for another pot of tea. When it was eleven thirty, I left his house for the store.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

 

It was Dragon Festival today and according our tradition and custom, we needed to worship the ancestry with tzongtzyy, a kind of glutinous rice dumpling. My wife was also in the sedan to return the old hometown.
  Before entering the house, we both first paid a visit to Ucle Shinkai, at the age of 92 and his brother, Uncle Shinyen, 89. As usual, we stayed longer talking with Uncle Shinkai because he still had a clear brain to chat and almost got informed of the news happening at home and abroad. I bought some fruit for him and took the other to his brother whose health seemed inferior to his older brother, but still not bad. A short period of chatting ended and my wife took the offerings to the alter at the ancestral temple. We were not second to none; there was another kinsman coming here for worship. It still had one hour before the beginning of ritual so we both returned to the house for making tea. Soon my elder brother and his wife also arrived. They also had the thought of worshiping the ancestors. Before the ritual of worship, we had a good time to chat over tea. Traditionally, Dragon Festival was one of the three most important festivals, during which people needed to worship their forefathers as the best respect and thanksgiving for them. Without them, we were no chance to come to existence in the world. When figurines were put on the higher alter coupled with the names of the ancestry, they meant nothing superstitious but religious and pietistic to them. Man should be aware of being humble before an alter because the forefathers really had been existent in the world. That was their past like what we are in the world now. In the future we should be out of sight and only names left.
  I once counted what had passed away in the kinsman’s ancestry temple. More than one hundred kinsmen I was familiar with had been dead since my childhood. Even some of them younger than me had died. Even my father passed away five years ago. Birth and death always runs its course and our existence in the world had its reasons. Life is a kind of responsibility, not enjoyment. However, in order to mitigate the burden of responsibility, we should seek some ways to make life not only full of responsibility but some enjoyment in it. In the past, my villagers only felt the bitterness of life because their life comprised work only, not entertainment, like a buffalo to work for its master until its last breath ended. Sometimes I considered this and I found there was something needed to be changed for better life—in search of more happiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, June 17, 2010

 

I went to Daniao Primary School to play music for the students and the staff. One of the teachers there was devoted to teaching the students to play their traditional music on the simple and easy-to-learn musical instrument—harmonica. Most of the students were aborigines of Paiwan tribe. Actually, I was asked to play harmonica music at Mr. Liou’s invitation about two weeks ago. Hearing the invitation from Mr. Liou, I had no reason to decline because my playing on the harmonica needed his accompaniment of a guitar. So far, what surprised me most was that I was aware of my inner craving for playing music for the audience rather than just going sightseeing. In short, visiting some tourist attractions had played second fiddle to playing music if I needed to go out.

  The concert was hosted by Daniao Primary School which was located at the backcountry of Taitung County. Opposite the Pacific Ocean stood the school situated near Provincial Highway 9. Its name “Daniao” was funny and naïve, meaning a big bird. The drivers could not miss it when they drove into the village. The seafront school was at the left side of the highway. The right side was the beautiful ocean. When we arrived, we saw the performers and the audience on the lawn. No stage was built for the concert except the stereo set equipment. Seeing the crowds, Mr. Liou told me to drive forward without stopping because we were asked to arrive at four o’clock. It was only 3:00 p.m. A good idea flashed into my mind that we could go to a famous village called Ginlung for visiting the hot spring there. Seeing the road sign, I drove left. We both visited a newly-built restaurant to take a look and decided to return for a relaxing spa.  

  Driving back to the scene of the concert in the open, we both were ushered to be seated. Shaking hands with the female schoolmaster, we exchanged some greetings. Frankly speaking, I was confused of what kind of occasions to host the concert. For the graduating ceremony? Or for the publication of a CD played by the local students? Anyway, it didn’t matter. What counts was that the students song, danced and played with high spirits. The audiences were composed of the students, their parents and the visitors from the tour buses in the parking lot nearby. As to the performers, most of them were the school students. Only two groups were from other organization outside the school. One was the harmonica band from Ilan Community College; the other was Mr. Liou and I. The school also trained a band of recorders and a band of harmonicas. When the harmonica band went out to play, the performance was at the accompaniment of a CD and the 15-strong students played the same melody. If they needed to have better performance, they needed to be trained some basic skills with the use of their tongues.
  When it was our turn to play in front of the audience, Mr. Liou and I stood before the microphones to make a test of the sound effects. We played three songs and then the audiences gave us a big hand. Surprisingly, encore sounds were heard and we both added one more song to answer the audiences’ passion and appreciation. After the playing, the schoolmaster came forward to give us some words of admiration, together with the teacher who trained the students to play the harmonica. Maybe what I played gave them a new impression on the small gadget.
  Waving goodbye to the teacher who learned to play the guitar under the tutelage of Mr. Liou, we both made our way to Ginlung for spa. Going to the new restaurant, we chatted with the boss and haggled over the charge and he gave us 20 % discount generously. Happily, we both went upstairs to a big room to enjoy the full relaxation from the hot spring, together with happy small talks. When it was nine o’clock at night, we set off to return home. All fatigue was wiped off and we regained our energy on the way home. It seemed that we both had a nice day: sunshine, winds, clouds, blue sea water, graceful music, passionate audiences and the hot spring to let us feel laid-back, coupled with the delicious beef noodles at the roadside of Provincial Highway 9.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 18, 2010

 

Jengjia called me that he intended to visit my home tonight. I knew this visit was very different from the former visits he paid to my family. I agreed once and for all. I was aware that he shouldn’t come alone but with a girl my wife and I had never seen before in tow.
  It was said that Jengjia had befriended a girl recently and their firm friendship had been upgraded to the possibility of marriage. Otherwise, it was impossible for him to bring a girl to my home unless he ensured the girl would be his wife-would-be. This was a good thing because Jengjia was on the right side of forty, and in the past ten yeas, his relatives, friends and colleagues had cudgeled their brains to introduce him to many girls but were in vain to kick him away from a bachelor. Even my wife and I were at our level best to get him acquainted with several female teachers but also failed to end his single life. We and his colleagues hoped that this girl was able to put an end to his singleness.
  About 21:00 p.m., the couple appeared at the gate and my wife and I welcomed their coming. The girl was slim with long hair, looking pretty with good temperaments. She was a teacher at a kindergarten affiliated to a primary school. Ushering them both to sit down, I had a simple and easy greeting words to make the girl herself at home. Miss Wu--her family name--seemed generous and natural to chat with us; no embarrassment or bondage could be found in her action or remarks. My wife accepted her flowers and immediately put them in the vase to change the ambience of the living room. Jengjia was considerate enough to deal with many occasions and I didn’t know if the flowers were his ingenuity or Miss Wu’s originality. Anyway, it did not matter compared to Jengjia’s coming with his girlfriend, which was the first time to be seen in the past more than ten years.  

  As usual, I made tea to treat them and some snacks were served to go with sipping tea. Miss Wu told that her father also had a habit of drinking tea, which made me to ease the worries of her sleeplessness. Some components of tea could make one lucid all night. During the happy chat over tea, Jengjia also spoke of my abilities in music, which made me have the desire to play for Miss Wu. This also showed my sincerity and warmth to welcome their visit. Hence, I stopped making tea for a moment and played some music instead.
  Before their departure, I sent her a CD of my playing on the guitar and harmonica. Hope the couple in romance could end their individual singleness soon and then a new family was finally composed and their new life stage could begin, like what my wife and I did 25 years ago. God bless them and the wedding would come as soon as possible.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June19, 2010

 

In the early evening, my wife and I went to Minhsiung Forest Park for hiking, which should be good for our health. Thirty minutes later, we finished the course. On our way home, we went to the twilight market to buy some fruits. Now pineapples and watermelons were in season and it was a good idea to enjoy the seasonal fruits full of juice and sweetness besides their lower prices.

  The twilight market began the business in the afternoon and ended in the twilight when dusk merged into dark. Because we set off to hike at almost six o’clock in the evening, the thin darkness could be seen and some vendors were ready to go home. However, the roadside market was still in its hustle and bustle. Parking the car at the roadside, we both walked into the traditional market in hopes that juicy fruits could be our targets. For me, I has been used to zeroing in on the prices signs big enough to draw my attention and stopped to take a look. There was no need to haggle with the vendors because the prices were really much lower than what we had seen in a supermarket or other traditional markets. For example, the prices of watermelon charged you only 5-10 new Taiwan dollars each 600 grams. Pineapples were worth eight or nine dollars each catty. But the prices different from each fruit stall and you should ask more vendors to know which one charged you the least money. It was unnecessary to haggle over the prices because they are really low, which made you sympathize with them and worried how they could earn their living with the low-price produce they grew besides the cost. Each vendor hung the price sign on the pickup truck and the buyers could see them easily and clearly. As to their qualities, it depended on your experience mostly and chances partly. But most of them were as good as what we had bought on a market because the farmers directly carried them from their fields. 

  We bought two pineapples with different prices at different stalls. They were similar in size but one was double the prices of the other. As to their taste and sweetness, we needed taste them after going home. Due to the fact that we had only two persons to consume what we bought, we didn’t need to buy many in order to keep what we bought as fresh as possible. The market was in the neighborhood and we could come every day if necessary. As to the watermelon, half of a big one was our need and this cost us one hundred and sixty dollars. It weighed sixteen catties, which was really beyond what we needed but it looked delicious and sweet and I decided to buy half of it instead of one-fourth of the whole watermelon.

  Fruits in season were tasteful and good-quality. Most customers should be aware of the common sense and hoped to purchase what they needed on the traditional market. What’s more, they were at lower prices for the reason that the farmers carried them to the roadside market with their pickup trucks. No brokers could exploit the benefits of the farmers’ and this was the main reason of the lower prices of the fruits. What’s better, the farmers also needed to play the role as vendors. Not only did they grow produce but they also needed to hawk them. Hence, the twilight market could be the miniature of the farm village in the past. Coming here could feel what had happened decades ago. What had lost in the rural regions could be regained at the roadside market.

 

 

 

Sunday, June 20, 2010

 

Listening to the CD published by Diniao Primary School located in Dawu Township, Taitung County, I couldn’t recall what I had played on the lawn near the school for the audiences composed of the tourists, local residents and the school students last Thursday.
  The CD was composed of six songs only and the duration of the playing was seventeen minutes. At the beginning of each song, some remarks were uttered by a female aborigine, which were Greek to me. What followed was the drum set the beat to start the music and then the melody played by the harmonicas interpreted the song from the beginning to the end. The other five songs were composed with the same form and style. Reading the title of the CD called, “The Poet of Harmonica,” I could imagine what the narrator said about the story full of the simple living of the tribe and the explanations of each song let me be aware of their poetic and idyllic living in worship, funeral, farewell, drinking and romance after reading the introduction. Simple and happy life was merged into the picturesque landscapes of the mountains and ocean. What counted was that each song was handed down from generation to generation. They were orally bequeathed and preserved for the offspring in order to keep the acculturation. The lyrics should be poetic and aboriginal, only to describe the daily living of local people. Take the first song called “The Rite of the Abundant Harvest” for example. It was only sung every five years to celebrate the good harvest of crops. But now it was sung at the annual rite as a result of the establishment of a church becoming the religious center there. When the rite was held, pastry and locally-made wine were served at the rite coupled with dancing for the celebration to make the people high-spirited.

  The narrator explained the simple and easy living of the aborigines. That was their culture without being good or bad. However, the harmonica players could be trained to be much better in their skills in order to make their music more touching. It needed time to improve the musicality. They blew the songs in unison and no more techniques or changes could be heard on the CD. Besides, the accompanying music could be more complicated even though the original music was really simple and naïve. My opinion was that the CD could attract more buyers if the players could have been more skilled at playing the harmonicas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 21, 2010

 

  I met Pohann and his father, Mr. Wu, who were taking a walk on the lane outside my fence wall. They seemed to have good father-son relationships, chatting with each other happily. I came forwards and greeted them by starting up the conversation of the shining star in the western skies. That was the Venus, also called the morning star or evening star. One couldn’t miss it in the early evening or in the morning because it was too big and bright as well compared to other numerous nameless stars. Mr. Wu said that today was the annual summer solstice. Right! I was also keeping in mind that the summer solstice would come soon recently. Hence, I asked Pohann, a primary school pupil, if he knew where the sun set. He pointed to the west around the building of the Chiayi Wine Distillery. That was the right answer and I praised him for his good observation. By all accounts, specific location of the sunset in summertime is different from that in wintertime. Everybody knows it falls in the west but some don’t know the detailed location in summer and in winter. From today on, the daytime will be shorter and shorter and the nighttime is, of course, getting longer and longer. The next changing day falls on the winter solstice which is regularly on December 22 this year. When I told the natural phenomena to Pohann, he seemed at a loss what I had told. I knew he was too young to know the astronomical phenomena and his father also agreed. However, it was a common sense in the change of the daytime and nighttime, like what we had in the change of the four seasons. One day the kid will know the natural alternations.
  Actually, I just wanted to show my warmth to the neighbors. Conversation was a good way to show our mutual human warmth which seemed to be in lack in our community. Due to this, we could launch any topics to have the emotional communication. Some of the locals could exchange greetings, which showed the least good will or friendship. That was the basic personal relationships needed to solidify a community or village. Some of the inhabitants paid no attention to the polite greetings and it was greetings or smiles that bridged the indifference or apathy, which may be called “emotional gaps.”

  Mr. Wu begot only one son and they both sometimes strolled on the lane of the community. Once, Mr. Wu and his son got to my home with a minor bird of Taiwan night hawk in Mr. Wu’s hands. This bird was found on the corner of his house. They were very excited and I took out the camera to take some pictures before setting it free into the skies. It was a normal relation to develop between us that he was willing to show me the bird. I thought a happy community should be solidified with the good development of friendships and caring among the local residents. Needless to way, a normal community was composed of not only the lifeless buildings but the warm friendships as well. That was why a house is not equal to a home. What were the differences?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

 

The magnolia tree began to have flowers on the twigs for the first time. To my wife’s surprise and excitement, she picked three of the mature flowers and put them on the table. Soon, the whole living room was full of sweet scents to make us pleased. So far, it grew to the height of roughly 150 centimeters. About one year ago, one of my friends sent me the magnolia seedling in a pot which was its constraint to the boundary of the soil, not big enough to its full and prosperous vegetation. It needed careful consideration of the right position for its being planted on the ground. I didn’t want to transplant it if one day I found the location of the tree was inappropriate. Besides, the magnolia tree was a tall tree, not a bush, which could grow as tall as a five-story building. Naturally, people didn’t regard it as a good plant for the garden, especially a small one.
  By all accounts, a tall tree should have a wild extension of its roots to support its trunks and branches in the air in order to resist on the blow of winds or storms. It was the “intellectual and instincts” to survive the inclement surroundings or it would have been ruined from the world. Despite the magnolia with its pleasant fragrance, people didn’t show great interest in planting one in the garden in case of its rampant roots to extend to the degree of threatening the safety of a house. If its roots penetrated into the foundations of the house, the house owner should worry about the damage caused by its roots. Hence, I chose a right place away from the house to keep the damage from the roots and planted the magnolia. When it grew on the ground, it vegetated in prosperity. Three months later, it began to have white and fragrant flowers on its twigs. One of the neighbors told me to pay attention to the height. I was aware of the point. If it grew to some certain height, I needed to cut off its tops in order to make the tree grow in certain height. As to the job of trimming it, I thought it was only a piece of cake. Maybe I could use a ladder to climb for trimming or I could climb to the tree and directly sawed the unnecessary parts of the trees. I would never succumb to its rampant vegetation and I vowed to keep its damage of the roots at bay.  

  A magnolia tree was good enough to be planted in a garden. It would grow sweet scents of white flowers. In addition, I was personally appreciative of its verdant and clean leaves full of natural vitality and stamina. Pay attention to its height and nothing will be worth worrying about. Simply put, its banes were far below its boons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

 

  Like what happened to a musician who should practice on the musical instrument in order to keep his or her fluent techniques from being weakened, a yoga practitioner also needed to do the constant practice in hopes that he or she could sustain his or her skills and then making progress could be possible. If the practitioner only did it once a week, he or she couldn’t move to more advanced level in his or her skills.
  More than six years ago, I practiced yoga almost every weekday in the morning after I went to the school. At the time I was not a homeroom teacher but also arrived at the school at seven thirty in the morning. Then I walked to a balcony where few people would go there and I put up a plastic paper on the hard ground where I practiced yoga rain or shine. Even a cold front couldn’t prevent me from my daily practice of yoga, not to mention of a hot summer day. For me, it was my daily work which made me feel better in my health. Gradually, I had cultivated my habit of yoga practice in the morning. Roughly five years ago, I was asked to demonstrate for the colleagues who were willing to practice it. The beginners went to a spacious room with wooden floor inside. That was an ideal place to practice yoga. From then on, I had another job as a yoga demonstrator for the colleagues who were aware of the boons in practicing the five-thousand-year-old regimen originating in India. So far, we tried to keep the pot boiling and the weekly practice became a constant job for those to learn the basic skills. Surely, they had better practice at home constantly. As I knew, they all were too busy to live up to the principle. As far as I was concerned, I was not a daily practitioner, but I kept practice constantly in order to keep my skills from falling into degeneracy. If I vowed to be a good yoga teacher, I would be likely to make my dream come true. However, yoga was only a wonderful regimen to keep me in the pink, which made me realize another dream in music and English. In short, yoga played second to music or English and daily practice was replaced by constant practice at home.

  Strange to say, I could spend less time to learn some basic techniques in yoga than the other learners when I began to practice it with other colleagues under the tutelage of Miss Tsai, a retired English teacher in our school. Five years ago, I was asked to begin another class like what Miss Tsai had done for the staff to learn yoga at the school. It was said that she had still kept learning from a master to make her skills in advance. This was different from my concept. Five years ago, I learned yoga from three yoga teachers and other senior practitioners. From then on, I practiced mostly by myself. In my opinion, yoga needed self meditation to pay attention to the breath. The teachers could only give you hints. Most important, one needed to practice all the time because practice makes perfect. 

  Seeing the colleagues practice with my oral hints and bodily demonstration, I often told them the tips of yoga was practice, attention, relaxation and breath. The problem lay in the fact that they didn’t have much time left for practice after returning home. Then it was really a far cry before they were able to do more advanced yoga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

 

  More than ten years ago, we citizens were asked to separate garbage before taking out to the garbage truck. Some fines were imposed on those who broke the regulation. By all accounts, trash separation had several advantages to our environment. In this way, some substances could be saved for reuse in hopes that the recyclable materials from being wasted. Besides, it was a good way to lengthen the year expiry of a refuse incinerator because some recyclable substances, like glass, metals and plastics, could be picked out before poured into the incinerator. As to such recyclable materials as metals, paper, pet bottles and so on, they always became the targets of some old people who earned their living by gathered up those materials for a petty amount of money. In our community, an aged man went around to take away the recyclable resources several times a week. What we should do was put the useful resources in front of the door and he would come forward to take them away.    

  Were leftover another kind of garbage? Nope! It was another kind of recyclable resources. If it was poured into the incinerator, it would influence its expiry year. Hence, each garbage truck had a big plastic tub fixed at the end of the truck for the people to put their leftovers into. My family seldom did this because we had a small garden for dealing with the leftovers. When the container for the leftovers in the kitchen was full to its capacity or the odors were smelled, I took the container to the garden and chose a right place to bury them under the ground. Several days later, the tiny critters and other bacteria would eat and decompose them and the leftovers could be converted into something good to the vegetation of the plants and vegetables above the soil. Sometime the leftovers were buried with other withered vegetables and fruit peels. If they all were put in the air, they could be rotten and decomposed at last but they needed more days than those being buried. Besides, the former way would make the rotten leftovers give off bad odors and some tiny critters would swarm about in droves, which could result in some problem of sanitation.
  What’s better, the buried leftovers could be converted into organic fertilizers beneficial to the growth of plants and vegetables. When I buried them, each time I should change the location in hopes that each corner of the garden could be fertilized this way. Early this spring, I planted several kinds of vegetables and one of them was still in rampant vegetation. The others were mainly ruined by pests because I didn’t use pesticides on them and they all fell prey to the pests and other caterpillars. What was left there was a kind of vegetable with its saw-shaped leaves. The natural growth proved that this kind of vegetable was pest-resistant and now it grew to the height of more than 100 cm. When necessary, I went down the garden and picked the leaves for cooking. It was so easy to taste the organic and fresh vegetables. Step by step, the lower part of the stem was leafless or barren. Next spring, I decided to plant more at the specific location above the buried leftovers. Hence, I could harvest organic vegetables and do something which is called environmentally-friendly. As we knew, this should be good to the earth.  

  Digging a hole for burying the leftovers, I chose different location each time. Seeing the saw-shaped vegetables vegetate in prosperity, I was aware of the appropriate steps of garbage separation. What benefited my family most was the way to bury the organic leftovers in the garden which would facilitate the good vegetation of vegetables I planted above the buried location.
  When the leftovers were carried away by the garbage truck, I didn’t know how they were handled but they sure became organic fertilizers in our garden to grow beautiful and wholesome vegetables for my family.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 25, 2010

 

  My younger brother called me that he had invited my elder son, David and nephew, Jengkuo, to eat out in Taipei. Eating out was not a sensational thing but only part of our daily lives. However, this was different from what happened in the past: David will be enlisted to fulfill his obligation of military service. According to the constitution, every male in his early adulthood should be conscripted to the barracks for the yearlong military service. Just having graduated from his university, he was informed to begin his military life. Hence, his uncle had the thought of a feast as a way to mark a new life of David’s in the army camp. This date for him to enter the army falls on July 5.

  David’s other uncles also told me in advance that they wanted to have a farewell dinner for him. This custom had been formed for the boys to join in military under the conscription system. Eating something told us not so much as the remarks at the feast. And this was the common way for the seniors to show their concerns for those juniors to meet the obligatory military service. All the male citizens had completed the obligation when they reached the ages of 20 unless some reasons happened to them. For example, those who had bodily or mental defection serious enough to be free from becoming soldiers. The constitution ordered that every normal boy should enlist in the armed forces.
  Thinking of the days in the military service of mine, I couldn’t help recalling what happened to me when I was a Marine Corp officer 32 years ago. I passed the screen exam as an officer in the Marine Corp which was well-known for its inclement disciplines. The soldiers should be trained to fight not only on land but also on the seashore. What’s more, part of them also needed to parachute. Luckily, I was an officer in charge of political work instead of the military training in the barracks.

  Time flew and my elder son had reached his age of military service. In my opinion, most young guys didn’t show the military days as a process to become mature or as precursor or preparation for their future social lives in the workplace. Right or wrong? Looking at the sons of many high-ranking officers or officials, you would be conscious of the ridicules and contradictions.
  Time spent in the military should be less than one year and soon David would return to his living to strife with others in the workplace. There are many things to learn before he is called a man. That is part of his life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June 26, 2010

 

Mike’s final exam ended this week, which meant that his freshman’s days came to an end. Sure, he needed to return home for his long summer vacation. This morning, he called to carry back his personal belongings. Together with his mother, I drove to Peikang.
  Arriving at the campus, the traffic was a little crowded as a result of the parents drove there to carry back the belongings of their sons’ or daughters’. A student was in charge of the order for the cars to go on wheels in front of the dorm where some volunteer students help to load the trunks. I was asked to park my car near a basketball court. Parking the car, I walked up the ladder and my wife called Mike. Reaching his room, he was inside and each of his belongings was in package. We carried them down to the dorm and put them at the corridor of the first floor. Three bouts were necessary to finish the job and I went to drive back the car, loading the items into the car with the help of the volunteer students. Soon, all the items was loaded and I drove back home. As to Mike, he needed to ride his scooter home.

  Before going home, I went to the famous cook shop for its duck rice together with duck soup. The shop seemed to have a good business because all the tables were occupied with eaters. Three helpings were asked to meet the demand but I was told to be in line for my turn. Yes, there were four other customers standing in line for the duck rice to take home. I also needed to wait for my turn to come. I took a look at the eaters enjoying their delicious food and tried to infer the reasons of the boom of business at the shop. One of them should be that the duck tasted more scrumptious than that at other shops. Surprisingly, the cook shop was not equipped with air conditioners, which didn’t make the eaters comfortable while eating the duck rice or soup. However, they didn’t seem to care the heat. For them the unease of heat played second fiddle to the tastefulness of the duck.
  Returning home, we together carried Mike’s belongings upstairs and then we sat at the table at the kitchen to enjoy the tasteful duck rice and soup. Like what I had mentioned above, the cook shop had its good reasons to be successful. Decades of business had been kept in boom with its simple duck meats because of its tastefulness. There were several cook shops in front of the famous temple at Peikang but this shop served more delicious food for the eaters. Success had its very reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 27, 2010

 

  Recently, I have been to get online for surfing my blog and chatting in an English chat room as well. To me, I was not a tech junkie who relied too much on the computer. This might, as known to everyone, be the criteria of judging if one kept abreast of times or not. With some obstruction in using the computer to download or unload, I was lukewarm about the modern technology but still had some necessary and basic knowledge when getting online. For example, I had no problem in chatting with others online but was not in a position to send out a file of video-and-audio. However, this could not part of my hindrance to chat freely.

  To chat in an English chat room was much easier than in a Chinese one because I typed Chinese very slowly. However, there were always cheesy or impolite words seen in both rooms. Take an English chat room for example. Some guys here always typed corrupt words or poorly grammatical. They typed “u r the ppl b4 me” instead of “You are the people before me.” OIC was the equivalent of “Oh, I see.” While 88 was bye bye. When I got to know a guy having visited a chat room for learning English from others, I was very worried about what he or she have spent there should be only a waste of time. What’s worse, the guy should have lost the right way to learn authentic English because what I saw there was mostly composed of corrupt English. The wrong way should lead one to the wrong aim. That was all. If one went there to kill time, this was no problem. At least, he or she could learn to type fast if actively engaged in the chatting. But I was still worried that the guy would fall victim to the corrupt English. Hence, I gave him/her some advice to learn English correctly. He or she could read some good articles or buy some good magazines to read and study. At last, the guy admitted that she had chatted this way for more than two years and sometimes she typed in Chinese because some Net pals there talked in Chinese. Once, I was orally attacked by cheesy words. They were four-letter words and I had never exchanged any line of words on the screen with the virtual pal. It was beyond my comprehension to realize what happened to him. I only guessed that I used the authentic too well to be part of its target of his cheesy words. Maybe what I typed was mostly Greek to him/her. 

  In short, a chat room couldn’t be a good place to learn English except for the place to kill time and learn typing fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 28, 2010

 

  I drove to Tainan to practice more for the concert this Saturday in Kaohsiung. Really, practice makes perfect and what I needed to play on the harmonica was with the accompaniment of Mr. Liu and one of his disciples called In-ming as well. Mr. Liu and I had performed together on the stage many times so there was no problem. As to In-ming, he was a novice to accompany a harmonica player and I thought this needed more practice to ensure the performance in good balance between the two musical instruments.
  When I arrived at the music store, they both had waited there and I seemed to be late for eight minutes this morning. With no more hesitation, I took up my harmonicas from the bag. What I played with In-ming was a newly-composed song with the need of three harmonicas. So this piece of music could be called a duet of the guitar and harmonica. Actually, we replaced the flute with the harmonicas because the original part of the solo was played on the flute. There were three keys of harmonicas necessary to meet the demand: D, D# and E. For my part, there was nothing to worry about so was In-ming’s part in his guitar. But the problem was the specific time to start of my part. The work was avant-garde. Sometimes the guitar should occupy 32 bars of solo playing; others were eight or sixteen bars respectively. I needed to wait for the precision of time to begin my turn. Then the synchronization didn’t happen if we both didn’t go well with each other. Sometimes, when I was waiting for my part, I couldn’t help but do some improvisation to modify the guitar solo in order to enrich the guitar playing. Then I lost myself in the melodies of my improvisation and forgot to begin my part in precise time. Unless we both had more time to practice our time precision, we couldn’t play well. So we practiced and practiced then it was lunch time and the practice stopped. As to Mr. Liu, he didn’t accompany my playing because what we planned to play on the stage was two familiar songs and they should be a piece of cake for us. 
  At a restaurant near Mr. Liu’s store, we enjoyed our meals and chatted happily. Mostly, we touched on the topics about music. After all, we all were fond of music and they both were professional and I was only amateur. Frankly speaking, I was not aware of the pressure from the job as a music teacher to bring in the incomes. I never asked Mr. Liu how much he earned each month. As to In-ming, he was only a disciple, graduating from a national university. He made up his mind to become a professional music teacher in the future. It was good for him to have his firm resolution. After all, practicality would be inclement to everyone who didn’t overcome difficulties to succeed in pop music field. I didn’t know if it was a right life career or not. However, if music was his part-time job, it would be the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

 

  Today was the D-day for me to carry out the plan of a two-day trip to eastern Taiwan. There were five vacationists in the car, including my wife and me and I was surely the driver. The others were retired public servants. Hence, we had time to enjoy ourselves in the beautiful eastern Taiwan famous for its graceful coastlines.

  When reaching the fabulous coastlines at Fangshan, we stopped to take a rest at the verdant windbreak just beside the highway. The long strip of forest shelter belt commanded a good view of the seafront seascapes, separating the long coastlines and the highway. The eyeshot ended in the distance where the cloudy skies met the blue seawater.

  In the course of sipping sea, a sedan of BMW stopped by our car. Out came a four-member family. The parents walked forward, exchanging greetings with us. We treated them to a cup of hot tea and they joined us to chat. They were from Taichung for holidays. We all chatted in good moods. Roughly half an hour later, they continuously made their way to Kenting and we began to eat Jongtze(glutinous rice dumplings) as our lunch. When we ended the simple lunch under the tree, we set off to go on our trip. Next destination was Kimlun where hot springs could be easily available. We moved on the south U-shaped highway also called Provincial Highway 9. It was also a curved mountainous road so I slowed down the car to alleviate the discomfort from the nonstop turn of right and left. When the curve ended, we had reached Daren Township. At the right side was the vast Pacific Ocean, welcoming us with its graceful seascapes and varied shapes of clouds. Stopping at a good place to rest for enjoyment of the nice natural resplendence, I took some pictures of them for future recollections.    

  About at three o’clock in the afternoon, we checked in at the Kimlun Castle Hot Spring Resort, the most newly-built one at the small idyllic village. We five holiday makers borrowed bikes to ride east on the lane pointing to the mountain. This peaceful country road made us laid-back to enjoy the pastoral views. In the midway, we found a column of stream in the street, which was the evidence of hot springs. The calm village could run the business of sightseeing as a result of hot springs. But for them, there should not have been many visitors to come along. Hence, the village featured its spas beneficial to health. At least, they provided comfort to the holiday makers.

  After the dinner, we rode back to the hotel to enjoy the spa equipped at the bathroom. I turned on the faucets to fill up the marble-made bathtub and made sure of the right temperatures, not too high or too low. Then my wife and I sat and lay inside to be relaxed. At first, I had the thought of making tea as another comforter but I was too tired and fell asleep soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

 

  Earlier in the morning, I woke up my wife and drove on the highway for a good location for enjoying the splendid views of sunrise. However, the clouds were too thick to make the splendor in sight. When the sun shone too brightly for our naked eyes above the clouds over the sea level, we returned with a little disappointment. It was only 5:25. On our way back to the hotel, we found another hotel located in the mountains so I drove my wife to take a look. It was much older than the hotel we stayed at. Nothing was worth mentioning except for the higher position to command better views of the seascapes and landscapes.

After the breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and went on our trip to Taitung. Next destination was Chulu Ranch. Less than one hour later, we arrived at the gate and tickets were asked for the permission of entering it.

The ranch was full of hustle and bustle on some areas where the pupils went for an outing and they were roughhousing to make the ranch energetic and noisy as well. Some of them played with water at a pool which was equipped with artificial springs. We first took around and strolled at the woods. Then we went to a shop to enjoy ice cream made of the local product—milk. Afterwards, we kept walking here and there. Seeing a beautiful location, we took some pictures and the backdrops was composed of green lawn with some concrete-made cows on it and the distant green mountains against the blue skies and ocean. Finishing the route on the ranch, we found a good place in the woods to make tea. Concrete chairs and tables could be available under the tall trees and there was a tiny brook nearby where we found a flight of birds stayed on the twigs. Suddenly, they landed on the surface of the water and flapped their wings against the water. We were surprised to see the critters take a bath this way. My wife took out the camera to shoot the precious films of bird bathing in the pool. They flapped their wings and dropped on the water. Soon they flew back to the twigs. The actions were repeated several times. We thought they should feel very comfortable and cool after the bath in the boiling hot weather. We chatted over tea and snacks together with the natural scenes of the flight of birds flying up and down for taking a bath. Soft winds caressed us to the extent of intoxication. Two hours later, we were satisfied with the relaxation in the woods of the ranch. When we waved goodbye to the ranch, it was one and a quarter in the afternoon.

  On our way home, I drove into Daniao Elementary School to visit a teacher and the schoolmaster. I chatted with Mr. Chen about the techniques on the harmonica. Ten minutes later, we went on the way back home and stopped at a branch office of Taipower Company where Mr. Huang, one of our trip members, paid a visit to his friend working there. Because we didn’t have much time left if we wanted to return home earlier. About at four o’clock, our trip ended and there was no destination left unfinished. The car ran at the permitted speed on Provincial Highway 9. nonstop except for the time to urinate.
  It was 8:10 p.m. that we returned to our community and the two-day trip of eastern Taiwan came to a period. All was under the control and followed the scheduled itinerary. What was left should be the unforgettable recollections.

 

 

 

Thursday, July 1, 2010

 

  David will begin his military service next Monday and his uncle (his mother’s brother) wanted to have a farewell dinner for him. Tonight we got together at a small restaurant for this activity.
  Traditionally, all the male youths should be enlisted for the obligation on the basis of the constitutions. When we were young, we were instilled the idea into the brain that a normal boy should have his military service, which was the family’s glory. What made us weird was that most boys of the high-ranking officers or officials did their best to escape the obligation. But for the news coming to light, we could have regarded the obligation as really the family’s honor without doubt. Gradually, the unification on both sides of Taiwan Straits seemed to be in the ascendant. The military of our nation played second fiddle to the politics. Unlike our generation in military service decades ago, we were disciplined to kill the only enemies on the opposite of Taiwan Straits. Now the enemies had become friends. That was not a bad thing to bury the hatchet if we were treated as a nation to negotiate with each other. Apparently, it was the annexation that made possible the burial of the hatchet instead of the equal treatment of us as a nation. It was said that several years later, a volunteer military service system will be implemented instead of the conscription system used up-to-date. It was apparent that politics was much more powerful than military and there was invisible or visible tendency to make Taiwan lose its sovereignty by means of weakening its armed forces and demilitarizing the country. Actually, none of the citizens were militant unless the war was not avoided concerning the existence or destruction of a nation. When surrender is also another way to gain peace at the cost of freedom and sovereignty, we were in doubt about the temporary survival, only leading to the road of final ruins. What shocked us most was that there was only part of politicians in power to collude with a coterie of vested interests to take the helm of the nation. What will happen to the nation? Will the benefits fall onto the common people whose welfare will be cared? Or the conglomerates will join with the politicians to share the most benefits despite the loss of sovereignty or people’s welfare. This is a country of democracy and freedom as what we are informed in the mass media but something seems to return to the system of disguised democracy and the rambunctious freedom, no better than an autocracy which is, by all accounts, the best political system to carry out in the Chinese people. The new definition of democracy among the Chinese is that you should comply with what I say and I don’t need to abide by what you say.
  In the process of dinner, we chatted and sometimes made fun to add merrier ambience to the scene. Kuenhuei, my niece was always the target of jokes. She always brought us fun and happiness as result of her actions or words. Her brother will become a junior high school student and seemed more speechless than before. Before the end of the simple farewell dinner, we raised the cups to say good words for David: the sooner to go, the earlier to come. After all, there was nothing to congratulate on. Eleven months will fly fast.
  Before going home, Kuenhuei suggested that we all went to her home to drink tea and their four cousins could play cards. When it was time to return home, it was one hour left to the midnight. 

 

 

Friday, July 2, 2010

 

  The global warming seemed to run wild in this summertime. Today, the temperatures were as high as 38 degrees Celsius in Taipei. It was nearly boiling hot to scorch the earth. Though I didn’t have a thermometer hung in the living room, I still felt the terrible heat radiating from outside. My family was lucky because there were a garden and a small woods just opposite to our house. What’s better, ours was the first of the terraced houses and three sides of the house had windows to make the winds blow in an out. In short, our house commanded a good view together with good ventilation, and air convection was good enough to lower the temperatures indoor. However, when it was just after midday, the winds seemed to be heated by the sun and the blowing winds were not cool but a little hot.  

  I was not a man frugal enough to the degree of being stingy but considered the possibility of some steps eco-friendly when doing my job in the living room. Believe it or not, I so far didn’t make the living room equipped with air conditioners. The other sleeping rooms did, but my wife and I seldom turn the air conditioner on. As to my two sons, I didn’t care if they both needed to make the electrical facilities humming or not. That was their choices. I just felt uncomfortable to be submerged in the artificial coolness. What’s worse, when I needed to leave the air-conditioning room, the sudden heat would hit, which was almost like the hot waves to enlarge the power of summer heat. Hence, I indeed liked to merge into the natural temperatures outside and let the electric fan to keep the terrible heat away. Some friends of mine visiting my house sensed that the temperatures here should be lower than that in the downtown city by two or three degrees. Sure, the groves here should facilitate to lower the temperatures coupled with the big windows of three sides on the walls. 

  There were about thirty bamboo trees and two cypress planted in the garden on the western side to shadow the windows when the sun was shining in the west with still burning heat. Two months ago, there was a tall tree to provide the better shadow for the house but it always fell victim to pests every year and I decided to cut it down. I replaced it with the other bamboo trees and the cypress to shadow the western wall. One or two years later, the tress should be tall enough to meet the demand and I would keep the necessary tress and cut down what was unnecessary. This way, an air conditioner should be always kept at bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 3, 2010

 

  As scheduled to have a concert at Chen Chichuan Memorial Hall this afternoon, I drove to Tainan and picked up two of Mr. Liou’s disciples and then made our way to Kaohsiung.

  The concert was originally held by the classical guitar club of Kaohsiung Medical University. But at last, the main organizer was Mr. Liou without rhythm and reason. Among the roughly 10 performers, I was one of them to play on the harmonica with the accompaniment of the guitar. Besides, there were other musical instruments such as, the mandolin, hand bells and the egg-shaped pottery musical instruments, all of which were accompanied by the guitar. I, at last, got the central idea of the salon concert which was concerned with guitar. When I was invited to play in the concert three weeks ago, I knew little about the attribute or title of the concert. However, it was none of my business and what I should do was just practice well to go with the guitar player who was a young guitar teacher at Mr. Liou’s music classroom.  

  Chen Chichuan Memorial Hall was located on the 12^th floor in a tall building on Hoping Road. Below the memorial hall were apartments or offices, I guessed. It was wise to design the memorial hall on the 12^th~15^th floors as the memorial hall which also can be functioned as a concert hall. Hallow was the hall which was supported with big pillars and the floor was covered with high-quality marbles. The platform was in the east and there were some old pictures and prizes or medals put in the shopping windows in the west. All of these were about the Fifth mayor of Kaohsiung, Mr. Chen, whose father was said to be the richest businessman in Kaohsiung in Japanese occupation times. A big vintage sedan, LINCONE, was seated beside the shopping windows with its back doors open. This should be very rare at that time and I guessed it was Mr. Chen’s or his father’s.  

  At 2:30 a.m., the concert began and the players took turns playing on the stage according to the order of the programs. When it was my turn together with Mr. Liou, I played the familiar melodies to amuse the audiences and was surprised to feel the best sound effects in my life so far. The audiences applauded as what happened to the end of other players. Soon, my second turn came and I needed the accompaniment of In-ming, a young guitar teacher. I knew I didn’t go well with the guitar in timing but the audiences also gave us a big hand. The last four songs were played on the egg-shaped pottery musical instrument with the accompaniment of Mr. Liou. The graceful sounds resonated in the concert hall and the listeners were intoxicated. At last, we had a curtain call to answer the audiences’ appreciation of the performance. They shouted encores and I was asked to play on the magic harmonicas. Hence, I played again and then encores were heard repeatedly so I did what they wanted until the lady in charge of the hall came forward to end the warmth of the audiences. The concert finally came to a period.

  When reaching Tainan, I left two of the performers at the music store. Mr. Liou warmly invited me to have a dinner with them, but I needed to go home because David will go into the army the day after tomorrow. Besides, I was too exhausted to have the appetite for food. Then I waved goodbye to Mr. Liou and the other players and the emcee who was Miss Wang, a just retired dean from a famous girl’s high school. She did a very good job to make the concert more colorful this afternoon.

 

Sunday, July 4, 2010

 

  I had a headache and at first I thought I had a cold. The headache was the only symptom of the illness and no other symptoms appeared in my body. Suddenly, an idea flashed into my mind that I might have a heat stroke resulting from the shortage of water I drank instead of doing a job in the boiling sun.
  The temperature reached a record-breaking 38 degrees at midday in Taipei. Most people would logically refer it to the global warming which could indeed be the cause of the earth’s catastrophe. Some of the calamities were afoot, such as floods and storms. The temperature at record high hit the headlines not only in Taipei but also in other parts of the world. Even China had 40 degrees in several places, which caused some deaths. In Taiwan, an octogenarian died when she worked in the vegetable fields and it later proved that she died of sunstroke without any help on the farmland. What surprised us was that the weather experts warned us that Taiwan will have 40 degrees this summer or next summer, which will break the record. Several years ago, we got to know the highest temperature in Taipei was 34 degrees or so and four more degrees were soon added to the outdoor temperature in several years. A person of prescience could be aware of the great threat on the all citizens. When the ice of the North Pole begins to melt, what will happen to the low-lying countries? When the seawater vaporizes more rampantly, what will happen to the storms or typhoons? Hence, from now on, there are no typhoons to occur over the Pacific Ocean but are catastrophically violent to cause severe damage to any country along their routes, especially the terrible amounts of rainfalls after they leave. The natural calamities would be unavoidable.

  Compared to the warning sign of the record high of temperature, my illness was worth of nothing to be mentioned. But my wife still cooked lotus powder for me to drink, which was said to be good efficacy of curing a heat stroke on the basis of traditional folkway. According to the definition of sunstroke, the illness is referred to the medical condition caused by doing too much physical activity in hot weather. I didn’t do any physical activity under the scorching sun but I drank too little water yesterday afternoon when I went to Kaohsiung for performance because I had little water available in the mini concert hall. When returning home, I went to a chat room online where I concentrated on the typing and forgot to go downstairs for more water even though I felt thirsty.

  After drinking more water and the lotus-powder-cooked cure, I felt much better and the headache alleviated a lot. That was why we got the news from the TV that eating more fruits, especially watermelons full of water inside and drinking more water if hit by sunstroke were two of the good ways to get rid of heat stroke. Surely, to avoid being exposed to the sun without any protective measures is essential to keep sunstroke away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, July 5, 2010

 

  It was David’s date to begin his military service and he was appointed to report to the authorities concerned at the gate of the city stadium where he and the other 79 guys were taken to the training center called Chen Kung Lin for three-week basic disciplines as a soldier. This morning his mother and I saw him off and drove him to the city stadium where the others also gathered for the roll call. Afterwards, two tour buses were ready to take them to Chen Kung Lin.  

  David had cut down his hair last night and at present he was bareheaded like what a monk should be required and this was the basic requirement of a military training. The hair was cut down to the head skin and I thought it was his first time to become artificially bareheaded. Some of them still kept the hair on their heads but I thought all of them should be the same as soon as they arrived at the army camp. Like David, some of them also paid for cutting their hair down in advance in order not to be cut after entering the barracks where the barbers should use the electric hair cutter to wipe down the visible hair carelessly and quickly. That was David’s reason to cut his hair in advance. Seeing his barren head, I felt weird and his face looked larger and round without the modification of the hair. However, he seemed to keep as natural as before or he could keep hairy until the last moment to come for the hair to fall down on the ground. At the training center, sanitation was essential and it was necessary for the new soldiers to wear no hair because perspiration was surely unavoidable when they were doing physical activities in the boiling hot summer. The smelly odors from the hair should be disgusting and washing hair became daily need. Surely, a bare head made it easy to do. That was why being bareheaded was a must when a soldier was at a training center.    

  In the past, a knife was used to cut down the hair but it was replaced by an electric hair cutter. The former would make the head more smoothly while the latter would make the work easier done; hence, this kind of old and traditional knife had been out of sight at a barber shop where only the electric cutter humming on the head.

  Being bareheaded to a new soldier told him not as much as his training courses to face some challenges at a barracks ahead of him. I was confident that David would go on wheels at the training center for the three-week long military basic disciplines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

 

  I had suggested Mike to take the driving course in order to pass the test for the driving permit but he seemed lukewarm about the suggestion. This winter vacation he and I went to a driving cram school for registering as a member to learn the driving lessons but in vain because the duration of winter vacation had less coverage than the required duration if he needed to take the driving test. We both returned home and hoped the summer vacation was long enough to cover the six-week long training. 

  When the summer vacation just began, I told Mike to register for the training courses but he told me that he was too busy to take the courses because he had many things to do during the vacation. I thought he had his plan during the summer vacation and I respected what he had planned. He was one of the members in charge of the activity for welcoming the freshmen in August but there were some scheduled programs for the members to be trained in advance and hence he was trapped by the programs which prevented him from attend the driving courses.

  The two brothers differed from each other and this was very common among all other brothers or sisters. Interested in driving was his brother who liked to sit beside the driver and hold his left hand on a glass bottle which was his imaginary gear bar to make the car move on the road. His eyes looked at the road with his left hand to control his gear bar. When he reached the age of legal driving learner, he immediately registered to be one of the learners at a driving school where he completed the required courses on the weekdays.

  Mike showed little interest in machines and I thought every one had his or her individual personality and interest and I didn’t have the thought to force my son to do what he didn’t want to do. But if he could make the driving license under his belt, he could drive on the road. Driving had become a must in modern times and the sooner he passed the test, the better it would be. If one day he needed to drive but he didn’t have a license, the trouble would trap him.
  Illegal driving always came with the upset for worrying about the police to come for a check. It was also wise to get the license for a rainy day. That was my reason to suggest him to do during this summer vacation. But since he had planned for the summer, I thought maybe next summer vacation could be possible. After all, the action should be taken by him instead of me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

 

  In the evening when my wife and I were watching TV, someone knocked the door. I walked forward and opened it. It was Mr. Wu, one of our neighbors, who gave us some frozen fish in two plastic bags which were part of his angling with his friends when they were fishing off the coastlines of Taishi Township. They all hired a boat to sail to some certain waters off the coastlines where they angled during the whole night. I was thankful for him and received the trophies of his fishing happily.

  At first, I was in doubt if the fish were safe for eating because I needed to know where he fished. Then it was out of question that the fish were angled in the sea instead of a polluted lake or river. What surprised me most was that Mr. Wu showed his great interest in fishing and he spent the whole night together with the others angling. To them, angling became their hobby at their leisure time. It was unlikely for them to angle on conditions that they could earn some extra money in return for the time and money spent in the sea, just like some people fond of singing, hiking or motorcycle riding. To me, I was at a loss to understand what happiness angling could bring. If Mr. Wu didn’t like music, he was surely not conscious of the happiness that music could come with. They stayed up all night just for fun in fishing with a rod in their hands. I suddenly thought that a famous dictionary had the definition of a fishing rod in it: a fishing rod is a long and slim pole with the bait at the one end and a fool at the other. The definition seemed fun because the angler was described as a fool at the end to hold the fishing rod, staring at the float on the surface of water. So far, I have angled at a pond in the hometown in my childhood when I was about ten years old. I made the rod with a slim bamboo and I tied a tiny hook on the string to pierce an earthworm on it. The earthworm was the best bait to fish and there was a float also tied on the string. When I threw the bait into the water, I just watched carefully the float. The shakes of the float showed the fish coming to eat the bait. I still remember that I fished several tiny fish and the scenes so far were kept clear in my mind.

  Seeing the angled fish by Mr. Wu, I couldn’t help but recall the scenes in my childhood. At that time, I angled just for fun because they were other playmates to fish at the pond and it had been reclaimed to form a farmland. Each time when I passed the farmland, I couldn’t help thinking of the original pond with a big tree at the pond side. All original scenery disappeared but the old memories were kept in my mind.
  The angled fish given were connected with my old recollections but I still showed no impulse to fish. Even as a child, I just made the fishing rod on my own to angle with others and I was only a ten-year-old child. Today, all the fishing rods are made of carbon fiber, lighter and more heavy-duty. Making a angling rod with one’s own hands is out of sight at present and it was another fun to have the activity of fishing in the past. As to the trophies of my angling, I didn’t have the impression of how to deal with them. At least, they were not carried home for cooking, I bet because they were too small in size and in amount as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 8, 2010

 

  After taking a morning constitutional at Chiayi Park, my wife and I walked to the gate on Minchyuan Road where I park my car at the roadside. A pickup truck just parked in front of the rotary gate and my wife was attracted by the goods on the truck. The vendor touted for her business in the produce of lotus, including its seeds, roots, root powder and even its fresh flowers. She naturally showed her interest in the lotus flowers coming in pink and white colors. Each charged only ten dollars and frankly speaking, it was really cheap. However, I tried to change my wife’s mind and dissuade her from buying any. Money played a small role in the words I uttered but the possibility of the graceful flowers in buds which might be kept only in buds without the bloom for our appreciation of its elegance.
  One or two years ago, I once bought four or five the similar water lilies at a dusk market just in our neighborhood. The vendor gave me one more for nothing and I thought the prices were very low and they all could upgrade the ambience of my living room. Returning home, my wife put them into the vase in the hope of their bloom but one of two days passed, they all were not in blossom. Instead, the buds withered and curved downwards. I was at a loss what happened to them. The vase had water inside and there was no reason to make them wither. Hence, they cost me only about fifty dollars and I didn’t have the thought to dispute with the vendor. By the way, the vendor only touted for the business at the roadside and I was not sure to find the same vender at the same place. However, the experience was kept in my mind.
  Recalling the unpleasant memories, I had my reasons to discourage my wife from buying the water lilies. However, the vendor told me that I must have bought the frozen water lilies which could not be in full bloom. Hearing the news, I would rather believe what she said than to stop my wife from buying. The vendor provided me another chance to have a try. After all, money spent on the water lilies was only petty. Out of curiosity, I was eager for the evidence of the withered water lilies in the vase without in full bloom. The vendor ensured that three of the flowers will be in blossom tomorrow. I replied, “Wait and see!”  
  With the three water lilies in buds, I needed time to prove that the vendor was right on conditions that they all will be in full bloom in the vase one or two days later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, July 9, 2010

 

  Mike will be a sophomore at the beginning of next semester. He needed to move to his school’s main campus in Taichung. Therefore, he and other two classmates had rented an apartment near their school to begin their sophomores’ lives. I personally respected what he liked to spend during the summer vacation. If Taichung was his planned place to spend his summer vacation, he could move there earlier than the coming of his new semester. If he wanted to live at home, his mother and I would welcome his long stay. Anyway, he had to learn to be independent from the family and began to stand on his own feet outside his family. He was out of question in his independent livelihood in a big city. What embarrassed me was that his mother was in the hope that he could stay home to go on his summer vacation. When a child reached the stage of cutting off his or her umbilical cord for independence, he or she should be encouraged instead of dissuasion.  

  He decided to move today and I came up with the idea to move in the very early morning. His personal belongings and luggage was loaded in the sedan. What troubled us was his scooter which should have been carried by a cargo truck. However, last night I put forward the idea that he rode it to Taichung and his mother and I were in the sedan. We three could move forward on the Provincial Highway 1 which surely led to Taichung. The easy plan was carried out at 4:45 in the morning. When the world was still in sleep, we had made our way to Taichung. An hour later, we reached Yenlin and then Janghua when the dawn appeared. When we arrived at his school on Ingtsair Road, it was only about seven o’clock. There is a Macdonald’s nearby where we finished our breakfast and was waiting for one of his roommates to bring him the contract of the rent.
  The apartment was on the third floor and the whole community, seeming to stay in trim, was under good arrangement because of the guards were on duty 24 hours a day. There were three bedrooms comprised the flat together with a living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a balcony. The bedrooms were equipped with air conditioners. In addition, the needed household electric appliances were at hand for them to use. In general, what they rented was in satisfaction inside and outside.

  Helping to take upstairs Mike’s belongings and baggage, my wife and I said goodbye to him. What was left should be finished on this own. The landlord came along for taking a look, willing to give a helping hand if necessary. Mike’s room was not large so we carried back a computer chair because there was a wood-made chair in the room. When something was useless or redundant, it would occupy the space of the room. The three bedrooms came in different size and it was their three guys to negotiate. That was their own business.
  Driving on the freeway, I felt relaxed, wondering if Mike’s mother would desperately miss her son who should have spent his long summer vacation at his home instead of living outside. De facto, parents should learn to let go of and hence, children would be more independent, which were good for both sides, especially in modern society where independence and social life were essential. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 10, 2010

 

  Early in the morning, David made a call that he would go home on furlough. Roughly eight thirty, he called again that he got off the freeway and I immediately started the engine to the train station for picking him up home.

  It was only five days away since he reported to the army camp in Taichung for his basic military disciplines. The duration of the basic disciplines was only three weeks and I was wondering if the short period was long enough to make him a real soldier. As a soldier, his only duty was to protect his country from being invaded or to kill the enemies who invaded the country. Embarrassment and contradiction were always happened to the armed forces here because they were at a loss who were their enemies and what they should do. When we were in our military service, it was very clear that we should kill the enemy soldiers in the opposite of the strait. “You should kill the communist soldiers because your kindness to treat them is just your fatal cruelty to yourselves.” The unforgettable lesson was deeply instilled into our mind, together with other numerous political proverbs; it seemed contradictory to the policies toward the mainland China at the present time. Hence, I was conscious that many things needn’t be taken seriously on the basis of politics. The changeable policies would be different from what was right or what was wrong. For example, a prison could become a president and vice versa.

  When David entered the living room, his mother also came downstairs. We had a short period of talking to know more about his five-day military life. There was nothing special to be mentioned but just our concern or affection to show on him. I made a fun to him that he should watch his weight. Most males gained weight after joining the military. David should be over eighty kilograms and now he keeps the good shape with his muscles. If he kept on gaining weight, he would be called “overweight.” As to his physical power or stamina, he should be good enough to take up the glove in the basic disciplines. Due to this, I had told his mother not to prepare a big meal for supplement his nutrition or he would gain weight to the degree of a little overweight. 

  After the lunch, he disappeared from the house until the depth of the night. He was on furlough to get rid of the boredom and tension from the first week of his military life. To a soldier, he should make the level best of his carefree furlough on weekends: play, play and play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 11, 2010

 

  My younger brother came to Chiayi for dropping in on one of his friends working at the Chunghua Telecommunications. After the dinner, his friend was still on his duty to work overtime at his company. Then we moved to the appointed place at a coffee shop called 85 degrees C. as soon as his friend, Mr. Chen, was off the duty. We all had fun to touch on some interesting topics, sitting on the corridor of the shop where the gentle night winds caressed use to the extent of comfort or even intoxication. Indoors, the customers occupied almost every table available.
  No wonder, the coffee shop was well-known with its prosperous business on every corner of cities or towns in Taiwan. How many branches are there to spread on the whole island? It was a question beyond my comprehension. Even at my hometown, there was still a branch located on the road just beside the riverbank where many people took a walk in the morning or in the twilight. However, my brother also told me that branch ended its business because of the great damage caused by the floodwater twice in the past three years. The most serious one happened on last August when the floodwater overflowed to the riverbank and the shop was completely in the water.   

  We chatted over ice drink, instead of the famous coffee, iced or hot because we all seemed to have the problem of sleeplessness if coffee was served before the sleeping time. Anyway, drink played second fiddle to talk. What counted was our chat rather than our drink. The coffee shop also had a bakery to make delicious bread or cakes for the guests to choose from. It was also a pity that we showed no appetite for the snacks which should be the favorite for the young or children. Sure, they didn’t need to watch weight and the snacks they ate were only part of the nutrition to contribute to their growth in weight or in height. As to the middle-aged like us, we didn’t have the thoughts of eating more sweet snacks to add more burdens to our bodies. It stood to reason that being young was always too good for words. The lost youth could not be returned and the lost health sometimes also couldn’t be regained. Maybe one could stay in good shape by a regular exercise and living together with the food he or she ate.

  Seeing the snacks on the counter, we three only enjoyed them with eyes instead of mouths. Still, there were some consumers sitting at the table and chatting over drink or coffee instead of sweet snacks. The business of the shop had a wide range of customers who came here to have their sociable life or to enjoy the laid-back lives. Anyway, people visited the coffee shop for many different reasons but the money spent here should result in the prosperity of the shop to extend its branches as many as possible. One of the main reasons was that it served wonderful cakes and coffee. As to the prices, reasonable or unreasonable, I would take a look next time if I visited again. My younger brother needed to take the HSR to his other home in Taipei before ten o’clock. Hence, we ended the gathering and agreed to meet next month because Mr. Chen had a tense schedule one by one in this month. So far, I felt how lucky I was to lead my life. However, I also spurred myself to make more efforts in English and music or I was almost like a good-for-nothing to waste food and time.

 

 

 

 

Monday, July 12, 2010

 

  Recently I have often got online in an English chatroom for a small talk with the guys around the globe. Time spent there was not tantamount to time spent on books in efficiency. For example, if I took two hours to chat with other chatters on the screen, I gained much less than what I spent on reading. What’s worse, the corrupt words or expressions were usually used and the worst of all, the wrong usages of English and grammatical mistakes were easy to see among the colloquists in the written form, like a conversation textbook to read rather than a spoken environment to practice.

  Sometimes, those guys visited the chatroom for evil purpose, on which they used four-letter words to reprimand each other. If that is only one-way chat, no response from the other side, the sex embarrassment of the low-class words easily appeared there. So four-letter words could not crop out if one typed on the keyboard as a result of the system to filter the vulgar and crude expressions before they showed up on the screen. However, the chatters were clever to cheat the computer. For example, fxxk or f---k, or f~~~k also evaded the filtering system. What made me curious most was what on earth the guys went there for. A cyber pal told me that most males went there to chase a fair lady. I laughed because it was unwise to find a Mr. Right or Miss Right there although it was possible to encounter an ideal partner as one’s spouse. Some maybe visited the place for love affairs or extramarital partners. However, I was wondering how many cases could be successful in the real world? If successful, it was not a good success because sex always told us the evil unless it was legal or normal among a family or true lovers. In modern society, the more exciting, the better and sex finally ran its natural course at the present time. In short, the stimulation of illegal sex could be launched on the stage where sex gender and ages were under the table. Hence, being young or old was meant nothing. It was always hidden even together with the gender. Some are homosexual; some, heterosexual. Still some were bisexual or sexually perverted. If a novel was compared to another window for us to have more realization of the world, the virtual world of the chatroom provided me with another kaleidoscope to see the abnormality of the world. After all, the world was composed of bright side and dark one as well. You could not hope only sunny days all year round or the full moon all month round. When the rude or obscene words came, it was my attitude toward the attacker. I had different attitude which varied all the time according to the moods or improvisation. That was very funny and creative.
  Getting online too long was a threat to our health but the Net addicts paid little attention to it. It was the mental addiction that warned the Net pals to notice another new mental illness in the information age.

  To me, count me out as one of the Net addicts. Besides, I was not the one to be polite and gentle all the time. I had learned to get adapted to the surroundings and environment. Got it? The Network is like a knife. Grasp the handle and the knife will be of good use. Grasp the sharp edge and it would surely hurt you to breed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

 

  My wife and I make our way to Kenting again in the morning resulting from the sudden thoughts of carefree summertime spent in the hot summer tourist attraction in spite of the scorching weather. Simply preparing something for making tea, I had imagined the gorgeous natural beauty composed of blue seawater against skies and the verdant mountains.

  As scheduled, our first destination appeared in less than two hours. The same location in the windbreak has been our favorite to make tea in the needle-leave trees. Putting up the portable stove and gate-legged table, we both just sat on the chairs to merge into the relaxation from the sea winds, soft and gentle, no more so-called hot and no more cold. They were generous to the leaves, seashore and our bodies while the intoxicating massages were given by these invisible natural masseuses. No wonder, there were other tourists who also stopped their cars and sat on their portable chairs or lay on their benches.  

  After the tea time in the trees, we moved to Erlanbee, the southernmost tiptop of the island where a white lighthouse was established to give the directions of the ships or boats in the ocean. As a retired teacher, I was free of charge to enter the famous tourist attraction and the charge for admission to each adult was forty dollars. There were many tourists from mainland China, which was very different from what we had seen one or two years ago. Like the trip I took to China last year, the famous tourist attractions there were also composed some of the visitors from Taiwan. However, I was shocked by the Taiwan tour guide who wore a pair of slippers with a cigarette in his hand and betel nuts on his mouth. Underdressed was the tour guide with no enthusiasm showed on his facial expression or body gestures. His description and introduction of the scenes was nothing more than perfunctory because I only heard he said, “Over there is the landmark of Hengchun.” There were no more words from his mouth even the group of tourists left. Compared to the tour guide to serve us when we took a trip to Kwueilin in China ten years ago, there was a great difference. The latter was decently-clad with her eloquence and wide knowledge in history and geography of the local scenes. Apparently, she was well-disciplined as a tour guide, graduating from Guangshi Normal University.    

  Leaving the lighthouse, we also continued our next destination to Shehding Natural Eco Park. In the midway, we encounter more than ten teams of children and youngsters who attended the summer camp in Kenting. Now it was their program to be acquainted with the natural fauna and flora there. Each team had a guide to make an explanation of the plants and some visible insects just beside the trail. It should be worthwhile for them to attend the summer camp. 

  When we reached the end of the trail, a peaceful and vast ocean came into sight in the east. Standing on the lawn, we laid our eyesight to the distance where the sea and the sky seemed to touch in a horizon line. Part of the eastern skies was patched with white and light grey clouds coming in different shapes. Walking back to the parking lot, we chose another trail which seemed longer than the other trail we walked on one hour ago. The longer we walked, the better we were in our health.
  The southernmost place was almost 240 kilometers away from Chiayi. Therefore, walking more was worthy of our expenditure besides the comfort and ease of our moods. Or we could take a stroll at the nearby park for the same benefits to our health but the moods were different when we went to a place distant from our home. A good mood was also part of the reasons to contribute to our health and that was why many people like to travel for a change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

 

  Mrs. Gao brought me a bag of sweet potatoes together with a big bunch of their leaves. The long vines were composed of tender leaves and old ones as well. My wife picked out the tender ones and the others left were old leaves and their vines. I cut them into two or three parts which were about 20 centimeters long and I walked into the garden to plant them on the soil.
  Last time Mrs. Gao also gave me some of the vines and I had dug some shallow holes to plant them in hopes that the sweet potatoes could reach to maturity for harvests. There are several kinds of sweet potato here and some are grown for leaves only and some are for the roots under the ground. If the types of sweet potato were just for the leaves, then their roots would not grow big enough for harvests but their leaves should be good to taste. Likewise, the types were harvested for their roots, they would vegetate and their roots would grow big and sweet enough for harvest. Too me, I preferred to the type for its leaves because the garden was not so-called big and hence, what we needed should be the leaves to pick out for the food on the table. Soon, the other part of the vines could grow new leaves used as the vegetables. If there were no green vegetables to cook, we could immediately go to the garden and picked some of the leaves to go with other dishes.

  It is said that sweet potatoes were used as a substitute feed for the pigs in the past. At the time, many people in the farm village raised pigs as part-time job to earn more extra money to sustain the family. Hence, the villagers planted sweet potatoes for the pigs after cooking them with other stuff. Hence, the pigs should be “vegetarians.” Sweet potatoes were cooked with their leaves to feed the pigs together with other feed made of soybeans which was round in shape. Those villagers didn’t have much money to feed the pigs with enough soybean-made feed. Hence, sweet potatoes and their leaves were common in use to save money and to make the pigs grow fat. That was the reason we nowadays call the leaves of the sweet potatoes—pig vegetable. This was also suggestive of humbleness.
  Seeing the growth of the previously-planted sweet potatoes, I only thought of their leaves to be good for our health as a result of their abundant fibers and vitamins. Their humbleness has faded into obscurity but their popularity was on the increase. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 15, 2010

 

  Ayi, a middle-age person on the right side of forty, was the boss of a car repair store located on Provincial Highway 1, not far away from our community. Each time when my car had some problem, I asked help from him who seemed to be in a position to handle the problems. He and the repairman he hired focused on the electric engineering so they didn’t deal with the problems of engines. So I was aware if my car needed to be under repair at his garage when it was out of order on the air condition system or electric system.
  There were always cars crowded in front of his store waiting for the repair. Between the highway and his store was the space not big enough to park the repair cars. Hence, several cars occupied the roadside and sometimes my car also parked at the roadside; he and his assistant came along to repair a small problem, such as changing a broken bulb or adding more coolant. His charge was much smaller or very reasonable. If no component was necessary, free of charge was asked in spite of the time he spent on the car. I was wondering if the police would come forward to ask him of the traffic orders or the traffic tickets were written on him for the violation of the traffic rules. However, nothing happened because the road still went on smoothly. Frankly speaking, it was the good service and crowded cars that I was confident of the store near the community in the neighborhood.

  Last summer, the six-year-old Passat was on the fritz on the air conditioning system. It failed to lower the temperature inside the car on the boiling hot weather. The boss made a check and ensured that there was a leakage of the aluminum case. The same condition also happened to the old Jetta and I spent about NT$9,000 to make it returned to normal more than 13 years ago at another repair store. So far, the Taiwan-made gadget still worded very well.
  Ayi came up with three different prices of the cases made in Germany, Japan and Taiwan respectively. The Germany-made was so-called original but it worked only six years in its duration. Therefore, I decided to neglect it. Besides, it cost thirty thousand dollars. The Japan-made one charged me only nine thousand dollars. Hence, I had the thought of replacing the original one with the Japan-made aluminum case needed in the cooling system. Two days later, I went to claim the car and it returned to normal on its air conditioning system and so far, it worked very well. How long will the new gadget work on the Passat? It needed time to prove the duration and the trust I have on the store.

  A repair store nearby was more useful and convenient than the one in the distance, coupled with the good relationship and friendship with the boss. If what I needed was timely help, the store could meet the demand with its reasonable charges. When the Jetta or Passat was out of order at home, I called him and soon he or his repairman appeared at the gate, taking a look and making the necessary steps of suggestions. Once, his wife even rode a scooter to bring in the charger for the dead engine of the old Jetta. I was very thankful to her for the service for nothing. I was wondering if the boss treated me as a client or more than this. Or did he treat all his clients the same way?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, July 16, 2010

 

  When I took out the guitar from the case to practice, I made a scrape on the surface of the guitar. Oh! Damn it! How could I make the f---king mistake when the rim of the case hit the guitar, which resulted in the scar on the guitar. I didn’t know if it was bleeding but I did in my mind.
  My intention to practice faded into nothing and I just had the brainstorms about what I could do on the guitar. I asked my wife if she had transparent nail polish even though I knew she had never used it before. She answered me negatively but suggested to buy at the convenience store nearby. I soon returned with no nail polish in hand. Still, I thought of the car wax in the garage which might be of some certain use. I put some on the scrape, two centimeters long and one millimeter wide. The long-shape scar did sadden my heart and I knew it was of no use to cry over the spilt milk. However, I tried my best to make it return to the original appearance. I carefully polished the wax on the scrape but in vain. The scar was still large. An idea flashed into my mind that I could applied the instant glue on the scar but feared the chemical could cause more damage to the guitar. The thought was discarded before being put into action. I even used the back of a scissor in hopes to get rid of the scar but the white scrape was still very apparent on the lower part of the guitar. Although the sound effect was impossible to be influenced, I would not bear the damage on the beautiful surface of the guitar. It seemed to be beyond my ability to recover its original appearance, no defects being found on the front side of the guitar.

  Twenty two years ago, I spent a whole afternoon to pick out this guitar from a guitar factory at Talee in Taichung County. Although it cost me not much money, I gradually loved its sound effect and timber. I had a second guitar which was imported from Spain and cost much more money than this one. Still, I had a liking for the hand-crafted guitar made in Taiwan. In the past 22 years, it had accompanied me to practice or play for myself or for the audiences as well. Seeing the scrape, I just forced myself to face the music because the broken pieces of a vase couldn’t be recovered.

  What was done can not be undone. Pitifully, I still put away the guitar back to its case. Taking a glance, I was empathetic of the bleeding of the guitar. Never say die! I never gave up before I found some friends to give advice and the way to be undone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 17, 2010

 

  I believed, “Early birds eat early worms.” We human beings should be the birds and could not be those poor worms. So the regular risers should get some benefits from their good habits. Reasonably, they had cultivated the habits of keeping good hours hence they were sure to be stay in shape.
  Early in the morning, I rose from the bed to read or just lay on the bed to read. Sometimes, I kept the diary on the computer. At times, I just woke my wife up to go out for the hiking in a park.
  Time spent on the bed would be the butt of joke of the bright and shinny sun and it was also the thing in the morning for which I felt remorse. Good time in the early morning should be spent on something meaningful. However, some guys regarded that sleeping was the most significant in their life in the morning. No more words! I would take my head off to them. Maybe they got adapted to the nightlife and what they did was just stay up until the depth of night or even the dawn, from which they began to hit the sack. What was so good to put the cart before the horse?
  Most of the morning constitutional we took in the park nearby but sometimes I took my wife to Chiayi Park, roughly twenty minutes drive from my home. Chiayi was always full of early risers who were mainly composed the aged or the retired, male or female. It was a rare scene to see the youngsters or children walking along the trail inside the park. Besides, it was very likely to meet the acquaintances or friends. Some people sarcastically said that the park was the place to a new lease on life from God, especially for the elderly who moved their time-worn bodies and sagged faces to do more exercise in hope of the expansion of their life span. The young did not fear the threat on their longevity; hence, their walking in the park was most just for fun or for accompanying their old family members.

  At times, I would encounter a group of my previous colleagues comprising 6-8 members, sometimes only three or four. Often, I would stop to greet them warmly and took a look at the figures and faces. All of them were getting older and older as a result of the grey hair or the more wrinkles visible and apparent on their heads. Time and tide wait for no man. This was very natural to accept the phenomena at the life stages. What counted was that those who could stroll on the trail should be those in good health. Probably, some were too weak to walk there to elongate the life span from God.
  “Sleep early and rise early” is always heard here and there. This is so-called keeping early hours. The action could be taken only for one thing—good health in the lifetime. And the most important thing for the aged to do is to keep in good health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 18, 2010

 

  I took my wife back to the hometown. My younger brother’s longan, a kind of summer fruit, was ripe enough for harvest. To pick the longans didn’t arouse our impulse to go back to the hometown but we both had the thought of calling at the old place.
  In the early evening, Tacheng appeared at the door with a big bough of longans in both of his hands. He directly went to his farmland to pick some samples home and found the longans were not really ripe enough to pick but we all tasted what he had picked in the living room. We agreed to have the harvest one or two weeks later. When it was dinner time, I suggested having dinner with our sister and her husband together at a café just next to their home.

  My sister just bought a house in Cishan downtown area which was famous for its historical relic of the so-called old store street. The stores lining the street was built in baroque style more than one hundred years ago. Her house was just on a lane, less than 100 meters away from the old store street. After my brother-in-law, her husband, retired as a public servant this April, they had another house to stay in besides their flat in Kaohsiung. Compared to the apartment in Kaohsiung, the house here was much better to provide amenities for the convenient and comfortable living at the township. The natural mountain park called Cishan Park was nearby where my brother-in-law made new friends with his tennis players. He played tennis every morning, which became his regular constitutional beneficial to his health under the fresh air in the foothill. At first, he thought there should be no good players in the small town but to his surprise, the players here were much better than those in Kaohsiung. Hence, he stayed here longer than he stayed in Kaohsiung. The town was peaceful with much better air quality while that big city was full of polluted air and hubbub of the traffic.

  Seeing my sister’s better health on the basis on my observation on her face and feeling the good moods from her husband’s satisfaction based on his happy chatting, I was aware that they both had made the right decision to buy the second-hand house in the old township which was really suitable for those to lead their retired lives.

  We happily enjoyed the hot pots and chatted at the café. The boss gave us 20% discount because my brother-in-law was his neighbor who sometimes ordered one helping of food and the waitress would take the meal to his house if the café was crowded on holidays.
  Several months ago, when I heard the news from my sister that her family felt like buying another house in Cishan, I agreed on her wise choice. The housing prices were much lower here and what counted was that the small town had good conditions to suit for the living for those who preferred to have a peaceful and pleasant lifestyle in the town rather than in a big city. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, July 19, 2010

 

  Last night, my wife and I stayed at the old house of Shijou instead of returning to Chiayi. I was confused with where my real home was: the home in Chiyi or the one here? Both or neither? The old house was empty. Indoors, parts of the walls were in decay. The rough walls lost its original smooth as a result of the erosion of ages and poor quality of the concrete to make the walls.
  Two brothers of mine had come up with the idea to renovate the house. I also agreed but there was none of us living here so the renovation was procrastinated. After the 88 Flood last August, more than 130-cm high of floodwaters made the house more decadent and only few pieces of furniture and something were left and few visits were paid by our four siblings’ family members. I recalled the mantra to teach us that anitya(caprice) is the norm in our life journey. Nothing is in perpetuity. Everything should fall into decadence and disappears finally. It is only part of the natural courses to run with other critters through the globe from ancient times to the present.

  In the morning, I came to visit one of my relatives called Aunt Yehzhi who lived alone in her house. Her husband passed away about two years ago and his two sons lived in Tainan and Kaohsiung respectively. Aunt Yehzhi was still in good health, earning some extra money by making some changes on the clothes or dresses under the requirements of her clients. She had been a good dressmaker when she was young and middle-aged. Believe it or not, she was eighty years old, an octogenarian living on her own in her home just on Zhongjou Road. Surprisingly, her eyesight was good enough to make a dress for females but there were few to ask the dress to be hand-crafted because the ready-made ones were easily available far and wide at lower prices. What she could do was make some changes on the dresses or suits for the clients and she only charged fifty dollars for each dress or clothes, the sleeves of which needed cutting shorter. Seldom did a client come forward to have their dresses hand-crafted. 
  Aunt Yehzhi also had some farmland to grow bananas and hence I didn’t know if she was a farmer by occupation or a dressmaker by profession. In short, I was at a loss which one was her full-time job. What counted was that she was still healthy and had a clear brain to stay lucid. No clumsy moves could be seen on her walking. Magic!

  It was out of question for her to take care of herself as a result of her physical and mental health. She optimistically lived her life in the countryside instead of living with either of her son in a city. Once, she told me that she declined once for all to live with her sons because she couldn’t get adapted to the way of life in a city. For example, she showed an aversion to eating out but one of her daughter-in-law always ate three meals at an eatery or a restaurant. The whole village became a region for the aged. However, this was her real world to find her old friends to chat in order to keep the loneliness at bay in the twilight of her life. In this way, my aunt could find her inner peace and spiritual composure in the peaceful village.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

 

  Recently I have been hooked on a chat room where the cyber pals used Chinese or English to have a small talk for varied purposes. When the guys came to visit the chat room, they were asked to use a created name or nom de guerre together with their gender for identification. They always called the names nicknames but I think this was part of the language corruption.
  Because the chat room was only part of the virtual world, and the identical names or genders were only the permission to enter the virtual world, the Net pals there used weird names both in Chinese or English, such as Bustopless, Vi2, iiiii. 1112, Seafood, tweety, 醉竹彈風,ㄚ唬爛仙, and

so on. Apparently, some identification names were meaningless; some were symbolic. Still, some were neither Chinese nor English but only letters or numbers. We also could see the mixture of Taiwanese, Mandarin, numbers and English letters in names. In short, kaleidoscopic were the identification names to be identified or not identified. It depended on the guys whose intention to have a small talk or talk big.
  What were the purposes to visit there? Many people believed that the Net was a pitfall where a lot of users fell victim to the Net scams. Some went to the chat room just for a glance and some went there to kill time. Even a regular chatterer told that he (or she) went there to observe another side of human livelihood and living in hopes to know more about human nature. He (she) regarded this place as a simple and easy place to study humanity because the colloquial words could be like another form of novels to show up the human nature.
  Quite a few guys used the chat room to get acquainted with a friend or to seek the romance and love affairs. I was wondering if true love or friendship could be found in the virtual world. Besides, I believed that many wore masks to catch the naïve pals as their trophies. Even the users’ real genders or ages were beyond identification. Therefore, how could the chatterers recognize the fact or truth which was always hidden under the table?
  Still, some guys paid a visit to the chat room because they wanted to learn English there. I laughed at them because what was used there was mainly corrupt English. The authentic English words and expressions were seldom seen as a result of the users’ academic degrees. The more often one came to the chat room, the poorer his or her English would became. For example, “u r a fxxking color wolf” (You are a lecher.) was a typical corrupt English with obscene meaning and rude words. The wrong usages could worsen one’s English levels. As to the verbal attack with low-class expressions and ungrammatical English, it was not very uncommon to be seen in the chat room.  

  The virtual world could not replace the real one and at best, it was like a place for games to play. Don’t take it too seriously. In addition, could we learn something from the chat room? It needed time to prove. So far, my answer was negative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

 

  Chiayi Distillery was moved to the Minhsiung Industrial Park, not far away from Provincial Highway 1. When it was in the downtown Chiayi City, the campus seemed not big enough to expand its business for modern demand. The new campus was very spacious and a road divided it into the south zone and the north one. The south zone was mainly to churn out a kind of spirit called Yuhshan Kaoliang and the north zone had a shopping center for the customers to buy dozens of alcoholic products and some other merchandise, full of wide range of products for the visitors to choose from.
  I was neither an oenophile nor a dipsomaniac. However, I sometimes had the thought to treat my friends who visited my family to a glass of wine or spirit. In order to meet the timely demand, I had cultivated the habits of keeping some wine at home. When my friends came, I would open the bottle to have a drink with them. Recently, I had kept red wine available at the distillery because most of my friends showed their liking for the grape wine which was said to be good to our health. In general, red wine was served at lower temperature, which could taste much better. Hence, I put the needed bottles of red wine in the fridge for the guests who always preferred to ice wine. However, the drunken driving was fined severely so I seldom pushed the guests to drink to their heart’s content. If they were tested positive in the alcoholic test, I should share part of the responsibilities. What’s worse, if they caused a traffic accident on their way home, my remorse would be never left. So far, they all returned home safe and sound, and I kept the promise to make them drink coupled with tea to serve at the same time to dilute the wine. Often, they came to my home at nine o’clock at night and returned at midnight or much later. Before their leaving, I served them more tea and wine ceased to serve. None of them got drunk because they all didn’t come to my home for being as drunk as a fish but we had happy chat over tea, music and other simple food or snacks. None of them was a drunkard.
  Physical gratification tells us not so much as spiritual satisfaction. Recalling what happened in my youth, I still remember that I had no drink but overwhelmed me to the degree of hang-over. The beer made me under the influence, which lasted to the next morning. Once I asked a sick leave for the drunkenness: the dizzy brain could not make me stand firm. Terrible! It was an inappropriate way to drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 22, 2010

 

       Deep peace of the running wave to you

       Deep peace of the flowing air to you
  Deep peace of the shining stars to you
  Deep peace of the gentle night to you
  Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
  Deep peace to you
               --a Gaelic Blessing

 

  Each time I played the CD I bought around more than 15 years ago, I could feel the deep peace in the depth of my mind. Naturally, tranquility came with the graceful music coupled with the beautiful lyrics, which comprised a fabulous poem. I got no information about this poem but believed it was prevailed among the Celt or those living in the uplands of Scotland. No powerful emotions or sensation could be felt on the song but Bill Douglas upgrades the Gaelic blessing to touch our mind. It was not a masterpiece composed by a virtuoso who formed the blockbuster on the world stage of classic music. However, a great music meant nothing if it could not reach one’s mind and he or she was wooden to the so-called great music. What counted was that one should be transported with joy when he or she listened to the music resonant with his or her soul.
  Sarcastically, many people had the concept that great music should be played on the violin or piano. A guitar or saxophone could not interpret good music. Hence, they just regarded a concert of a symphony orchestra as the highest- level performance in music. For those who really had an ear for music, they were in a position to read between the lines in music despite of the musical instruments or vocal music. After all, musical instruments were only the means to express the feelings or emotions of the composers or the performers. Music was only part of artistry, which was so profound and bottomless. No matter what kind of music they heard, music lovers should be able to get submerged. Then they could sense the composure or equilibrium in the depth of mind.   

  Deep peace is another way of mental composure or tranquility. The world moved at a speedy pace so did the people. Rapid paces caused some problems in mentality and we needed to slow down the pace. Was mental peace easily available? “Listen to this music.” I said and you could enjoy the peaceful mind this way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, July 23, 2010

 

  David ended his first stage of basic training in the army camp and this afternoon I called him what time he would arrive in Chiayi. I was in doubt if thee-week training could make a soldier well-disciplined.
  Several months ago, he was informed to do his supersession military service as a result of his hematin being lower than the standards. On average, a common adult had the hematin from 13 to 18 while he was 12.7.

  There were several reasons to do the supersession military service, including health deficiencies and family factors. A single parent could make his or her son apply for the supersession military service if the family was below the poor line or the single parent was too sick to lead an independent life. The coverage also included those who were overweight or serious near-sightedness. In the past, some guys who were close to the enlistment ages tried to overeat in order to reach the standard of free of military service. All in all, the military service should be done but some male citizens tried to evade the compulsory obligation.
  It was a medical term that the average hematin of a male was from 13 to 18. David was a little below the standard, which made him have the right to do the supersession military service. When he was young, he liked to play basketball. Even in his adolescence, basketball was also his favorite sport. At that time, I didn’t encourage him to play more sports and he was in good condition as a healthy child or youth. For my part, I went into the army as one of the basic officers in the Marine Corps. More physical training was asked and I went through the thick and thin. So far, I kept the happy memories of my military service in my mind. Sometimes, I told my sons the stories in order to instill the good impression of the army camp into their minds. As to David, he should be luckier than me because his hard disciplines were avoided. Compared to his short-term training as a soldier, we were trained for the basic skills and knowledge as a soldier for around six months. Among the training courses, the combatant training in the field was hard because it would make us get soaking wet in the inclement summertime.

   Picking him up at the train station, I talked with him over the impression of the basic training. “Nothing new!” he said. Nothing was hard enough to get them to be soaking wet and no physical training let them exhausted. In the information age, I should change my concept toward the army camp. What counted was the brain, not the muscle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 24, 2010

 

  Three families went for a holiday in Nantou County, including the family members of my wife’s siblings’ and my parents-in-law. Three cars ran on the serpentine road and my brother-in-law took the lead to the destination where he booked four rooms for our home stay.
  The hostess warmly welcomed us at the gate of the home stay and we were surprised to see the other guests to enjoy their holiday at the same place. Most of them went camping on the lawn and the parking pot had more than 40 cars at it. Even a camping vehicle could be in sight. Some Children were playing in merriment on the lawn. The newly-built building for home stay was three-story and each floor had ten rooms for the guests to house so it could be called a large-scale home stay. It was faced with the parking lot and a lawn. Part of the green land was barren, which could be used for camping fire. On the right side was also a lawn on which around twenty tents was put up. On the camping round, the colorful tents skirted the lawn to make a contrast in color and this told us what was artificial and what was natural. Simply put, the man-made colors of blue, yellow, and orange on the tents were in harmony with the natural green of grass, trees and mountains. Children were playing Frisbee and with the balls while the adults were busy preparing the dinner in the open air.
  After checking in, 12 members of us took a stroll along the trail of the mountain just behind the home stay building. There was a slope on which Taiwan incense-cedar trees were planted after the 911 Earthquake. (The epicenter of the quake was in Nantou.) Now each tree had around twenty centimeters in diameter. The upright trunk coupled with the umbrella-shaped needle leaves gave off their attraction and phytoncide.
  We strolled slowly and Mike and his cousins sometimes stopped to make an observation for the flora and the tiny insects beside the pathway. We adults walked and talked to immerse ourselves in the forests. Two dogs of the host’s followed us to the end. In the midway, they both rushed to the left slope with barking; they seemed to find some critter under the thick bushes. The barking continued for about five minutes and then they reappeared on the path with nothing on their mouths. We all guessed that they both rushed to chase a birds or something but in vain. In fact, that was only our guess.

  After dinner, we made tea to have a family happy time together with the host and hostess and other guests. Tea time was always a good way to extend social activities. A small bowl of tea showed something more than tea and water but friendship and warmth instead. In short, we all shared the small talk over tea which seemed to make the chatting go on smoothly. Among the guests to sip tea, a young doctor with his father had bought a piece of land here and their family came here for a holiday at times. They lived in Kaohsiung, needing to drive for three hours one way. To them, time spent here should be worthwhile as a result of the good mountains and good water in the central Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 25, 2010

 

  We all got up in the early morning to take a walk in the woods. Actually, the altitude here was roughly 600 meters above the sea level. Last night, a little rain got the pathway wet so we took umbrellas with us in case of the sudden rainfall. One of my sisters-in-law had a three-year-old kid who was cute enough to make us laugh. Her funny action or words functioned as the lubricant to make our chatting more interesting. Sometimes, we all burst into laughs resulting from her sudden crying or utterance.
  When we reached a forest where eighty-year-old Taiwan incense-cedar trees stood tall on both sides of the slopes, we raised our heads to look upwards at the tip of the trees. They were good trees for the logs could be made into incenses for worshipping among some of the religions in Chinese society or some other countries in Asia. It was believed that the incense-cedar trees were lucrative together with their beautiful shapes of the trees. I personally appreciate their needle leaves to form the shape like umbrellas. Therefore, I also planted two trees in our garden more than 12 years ago. However, they didn’t grow to the beautiful shapes and one of them got curved when a typhoon hit last August. I couldn’t make it upright so I cut down the curved part on the top. Hence, it lost its fabulous outer appearance.    

Putting an end to the morning walk, we returned to the home stay for breakfast which was free of charge. There were no shops nearby to buy food or goods. After the meal, we waved goodbye to the host and hostess, both of whom were farmers before. After 921 Earthquake, they sought another way to survive in the mountains and home stay seemed a good idea to find another way to earn their living. The business seemed to boost because of the good forests to keep the urban noises and pollution at bay. Most vacationers came here for camping and part of them, like us stayed one night here to pay higher for home stay. Both ways were good to be on vacation.

  We drove to another destination where a paper church was built by Japanese. Lotus was in full bloom in the pond when walking the lane. It needed fare to visit the paper church but we also could see it on the road. In addition, it was almost lunch time so we saved the fare.

  After lunch, we made our way to Wusheh at the altitude of 1,200 meters. However, it began to rain cats and dogs. We sheltered at an aboriginal cultural exhibition center until it rained not too heavily. Then it was time to return home. Unexpectedly, a traffic jam began and we slowly went downwards with the line of cars on the serpentine road. 

  On the way home, all of us were caught in the downpours. I also needed to take Mike back to his rented flat in Taichung. Luckily, it didn’t rain cats and dogs there. Following him to enter the flat, I also encountered the other two roommates of his. I want to a washroom to answer the call of nature. Afterwards, I said some words to them, such as “Have a good summer vacation.” Ouch! It was a cliché but much better than a moral lesson. Hahahaha.^-^.