On Wednesday, my family members from Hamilton came down to have a visit with us and a small birthday party for my Aunt Elsie. They couldn't make it to the Christening because of the bad weather, and we were very disappointed, but in the end things worked out very well as we had a smaller party with them alone. Pictured here is my Aunt Marion (my mother's younger sister), who came with my Uncle Tom, my grandmother, and my Aunt Elise (my grandmother's sister). 
A beautiful picture of my grandmother, Dorothy Ollerton, a wonderful lady of 95 who has been a big part of my life since I was little. Although now she is old and not as spry as she used to be, she still has her quick wit and her sense of humour. With a twinkle in her eye, she's always ready to make a comment or tease her grandson every chance she gets. Apple Pie!
My family had saved Christmas Presents for both Connie and myself until we got there, so this was not just a birthday party, but also a Christmas party! Here's Connie opening a card from my relatives.
My Aunt Elsie, who by the time you read this will be officially 97 years old! She's been a Great Great Aunt in every sense of the word, and each birthday we celebrate with her is one I cherish a lot. A wonderful lady who always puts others first, I can't say enough about her so I will just say Happy Birthday Auntie! ^__^
On Thursday, Connie and I hopped onto a train and sped off to Toronto to go and stay with my sister's family for a few days. We had quite the misadventure in Toronto Union Station, managing to miss not one, but two city trains before we finally got one which would take us to my sister's home. Eventually we got there and got to spend a lot of time visiting with the Jacklin family, including her two golden retrievers Megan and Eden. We had a great Swiss Chalet dinner and had a quiet night at home after a long trip.
My sister has two cats, Stu, and this little cutie, Zoe. (Pronounced Zo-ee) Zoe is the young curious cat who gets into everything and loves to snuggle with people as well as keep them company no matter where they are in the house. (Especially the bathroom.)
This is Stu (short for "Stu-pid Cat!") my sister's other feline master. He saunters around the house as if he owns the place, which I suppose in a way he does. I had to kick him off the bed a few times because he likes to sleep with people when he can get away with it.
Connie and Anthea. In the background you can see the All-You-Can-Eat Japanese restaurant Anthea took us to called Syogun, which I assume is an odd transliteration of the word usually written "Shogun". As usual for Canada, it was completely run and staffed by Chinese, as there are very few Japanese restaurants run by actual Japanese people -my favorite Sushi Chef in Vancouver was Vietnamese, in fact. There aren't very many Japanese living abroad, for some reason they seems to like Japan a lot and don't leave very often. I only know of one Japanese restaurant run and owned by real Japanese offhand. Still, the food was pretty good, and we had a great time. Thanks Anthea!
So, on a chilly Saturday morning we tossed our luggage into the car and bundled up for the trip to Toronto's Pearson Internation Airport. Here's one last shot of Connie standing in front of Ellyssa and Kirk's home as we're packing the car. You can see there was a lot of snow during the two days we were in Toronto, especially considering there was none when we got there!
Ellyssa and Kirk liked Connie so much they decided to keep her as their new Nanny for Charlotte, so this is my last picture of her....Sniff....What can you do when your family steals your girlfriend? I guess I will just have to tell her boss she's not coming back....
A final very quick shot of myself with Ellyssa, Kirk and Connie before I handed them my winter coat and headed into the airport to return to Taiwan. It was a great trip home, and it reminded me how lucky I am to have such good friends and family in Canada, I do miss all of them, but I will return to stay someday.
It's tradition in Taiwan for companies to have a year-end party to celebrate the past year and to look forward to the next one. (Very similar to our own Christmas Office Parties in Canada, and with no less drinking.) This year I was invited to the one for Rotary Taiwan, a medical equipment company I have been teaching at on Saturday mornings. Having never been to one of these parties, I was more than enthusiastic to go, although the knowledge that I'd be the only one speaking English there (my students at the company are very low level) was a tiny bit inimidating. So, last Saturday night with Connie in tow we were picked up by the Assistant Manager and taken to the downtown Holiday Inn for the party.
It's customary at Taiwanese year-end/new year company parties to have contests and draws for prizes for the company employees as a way of thanking them for their hard work. The really big prizes were drawn for (Rob wasn't in the draw since I'm just an honorary employee) and then we played Bingo for small prizes (which I was included in). As you can see, I was one of the winners at the first round of Bingo! (It was a box of potato chips.) Later in the evening (once they'd gotten everyone liquored up) they played a game where randomly chosen people had a balloon on their lap and their partner had to sit down and break it for a prize. They also had a game where the men carried women on their back and jousted, but I was too busy eating to pay much attention to that one. Taiwanese love their party games!
This very kind gentleman is Nike (his chosen English name), the Assistant Manager at Rotary and also my neighbour who gives me a ride to the company each Saturday morning. He has been extremely kind to me, not only inviting us to this party (and letting Connie come when it was a staff-only party), but also inviting Connie and I to take a sightseeing trip with himself and his wife. Due to outside factors, the trip had to be delayed until after Lunar New Year, but I was very touched by his offers of help. He's a very straight-shooter and does everything in life with a lot of gusto, I admire him a lot.
Rob and Connie enjoy a quiet moment between the seven or so courses of food. Every 10 minutes or so, for 2 hours, they would bring another large plate of food for the table to share, which was just enough for each of us to have a sampling. At first we though we might need to eat out afterwards, but by the end of the party we were both quite full!
Ours was one of perhaps six or seven party rooms on the second floor which are primarily rented out to wedding parties. The staff were very professional, and everything was done so smoothly you barely noticed them flitting around. There were about 9 tables at the party, each filled with mostly engineers and salesmen from across Taiwan. Connie and I ended up sitting with a group of people mostly from TaiZhong (in the middle of Taiwan) who were very nice, but didn't talk much. I didn't even know that they understood English until later in the evening when enough wine had been flowing to make them relax enough to talk to me. Of course, by that point Rob had been drinking toasts to everyone, and was quite toasty himself too!
Here's the cool looking glass elevators which adorn the inside of the Holiday Inn atrium.
I snapped this on our way out from the balcony; there is a lot of good food down there! Almost all the major hotels here have buffets like this, and they're really expensive in most cases.
After our lovely evening, Connie and I walked home in the rain to try to work off the large meal we'd just had. It was a fun time, and I thank our host Rotary for inviting us, although we weren't really part of the company, and there was a language barrier (for me anyways) they did their best to make us feel welcome! I look forward to teaching them again in the New Year!
At the beginning of December I was asked to teach a writing class at the ShiLin branch of KoJen on Friday Nights from 7-9. The class consisted primarily of teenagers with a few lovely "big sisters" coming to the class as well in order to improve their writing skills. This class was a lot of fun, and I have enjoyed teaching them very much. Each of them was a creative person with their own unique styles, and it was fun to read what they wrote each week because it always made me smile. From left to right they are John, David, Elaine, Jenny, Sally (in red), Ivy and Vivian. Missing from the picture is David Huang, Paggie, and Benson. I wish each and every one of them good luck in the future, and hope they keep writing and practicing!
