We Did the Weeding This Morning (志工除草)

#2013-0422

Jintian Lao Zhan (老詹), A-Chang Ge (阿昌哥), han wo sange ren qianwang Riyuetan Qingnian Huodong Zhongxin zuo zhigong (做志工) -- bangmang chucao (除草), qingli le Zhongxin ban'gong-ji-zhusu dalou han xiao-muwu zhijian de shanpo-shang de zacao.

Chule women san ren, hai you ling yidui zhongnian fufu (賴爸和賴媽) cong Zhanghua ganlai bangmang. Tamen gen A-Chang Ge yiyang, duiyu Jiuguotuan de lishi ji xiankuang xiangdang liaojie, gen Jiuguotuan de fuwu renyuan ye dou xiangdang shouxi.

Zhengge zaoshang, Riyuetan Huodong Zhongxin de Yang fuzong (副總幹事 楊國楨) dou peizhe women yi-kuar gongzuo. Er zongganshi Zhuo Jinquan (總幹事 卓進權) paocha qing women he; daole zhongwu, ta hai zhaodai dajia yongcan -- Zhongxin de canting liaoli hen he zhongren de kouwei! Dajia bianchi-biantan, gege xinman-yizu, meikai-yanxiao!

附記：卓總送給我四張《少年 Pi 的奇幻旅行》電影招待券，我甚歡喜；下圖為午餐後參訪附設「蝴蝶園」研議如何進一步整理時所拍攝之照片，我也喜歡。

A Combined Birthday Party at Da Han Cha Yu (大漢茶語)

#2013-0421

Notes: 
(1) Da Han Cha Yu (大漢茶語) is located at 34, Mingxian Street, Cautun, Nantou County, Taiwan. 
(2) The Chinese word sui (歲) is usually translated as "years old" in English, and vice versa; for example, when a boy is 13 sui, we would say that he is 13 years old. This translation is not very accurate or acceptable to Westerners, though.

= = =

My parents hosted a special birthday party today for my brother-in-law Changgeng, for my second brother Jincan, and for me. Both Changgeng and I were born in the same year, 1954. Jincan was born ten years later, in 1964. By the Chinese standard, Changgeng and I are both 60 sui (years old) and Jincan is 50 sui (years old) this year. My parents suggested that it be important to celebrate one's 50th, 60th, and 70th birthdays!

During this combined birthday party, my grandson Little Bee made his great grandparents so happy that they burst into laughter again and again. Look at the pictures below, and you'll see what my grandson did to be interesting to each of us. Oh, yes, ALL of us were very excited about his on-the-spot performance: he sang Happy Birthday to You in Chinese and in English!

A Film: 可愛的小蜜蜂

#2013-0420

Many thanks to Ms. Xie for her making this YouTube film, in which you can see chosen photos of my grandson and hear my wife sing a popular Taiwanese song, 心肝寶貝.

[If you click on the link, you'll see lots of pictures of Little Bee.]

[ 點選此歌，可欣賞小蜜蜂小時候的照片]

Car-Washing (洗車)

#2013-0418

I am resting in a small room while my car is being washed outside the window of that room. Through the window I can see my RAV-4, by which Jean and I have just returned home from Dajia, a town near the sea.

"Look! The windshield is dirty with birds' droppings," said Jean on our way home, "and our Little Bee is coming home soon. Won't you have the car washed before he is back?" I fully understood what she meant, so I am now at the car wash.

I would have washed my car myself (or just left it unwashed) if my wife didn't mention the "potential danger" that birds' droppings might cause to a very little boy. "Our Little Bee should be well protected," Jean stressed the adverb "well" when she and I talked about the bad situation that the H7N9 avian influenza (bird flu) had been spreading in several places in Mainland China in the past weeks. Obviously, Jean wanted me to clean my car thoroughly, and to make sure that our dwelling place is free from anything like birds' droppings! -- Was she worried too much about the spread of H7N9? Am I not worried about that kind of thing at all?

Anyway, instead of washing my car in the front yard by myself, I am now having it washed in a well-equipped car-washing workshop. But this "car-washing center" has been quite busy today. I see a middle-aged woman and two young men working hard to clean my RAV-4 and several other automobiles. I am doing nothing but a sort of "free association": Oh, Goodness, just as a polluted automobile should be cleaned, our mind and our heart should be renewed (or purified) every now and then . . . .

貴賓 Peter Ng 和 Lori Ionnitu 來訪

#2013-0410

Lai zi Meiguo Shenggonghui de liang wei guibin -- Peter Ng han Lori Ionnitu -- you ben jiaoqu Lai Rongxin zhujiao jiedai/peitong, jintian shangwu lai Sheng Yage Tang canfang. Tamen shi weile mingnian (2014) yao zai Taiwan zhaokai de "zhujiao huiyi" yuzuo zhunbei, jinxing xiangguande "luxian tankan".