The December 31st weekend, 2011, for me, it was busy. On Saturday during the day, my family continued to execute spring cleaning. We eventually finished our work on schedule.
During the evening, I went to a wedding reception at Da Ba Restaurant on Boai Road. The host was Captain Fu忠士. He is a retired naval officer. He served as the Chief of Staff of Naval First District on the Tsoying Naval Base. He was my colleague in the Navy. He was very happy that his son finally got married. In Taiwan, more young people are getting married over 30 years old. This situation was unusual 20 years ago, but now it is normal. I was very glad to witness the love story and great moment. I saw many good friends and colleagues from the navy. More than 400 people attended the wonderful reception.
The food was rich. We all enjoyed the variety of good food, such as beef, pork, fish, crab, traditional fried rice, salad, shrimp, etc. It was local food. I am not a picky eater. Every course was suitable to me.
The bridegroom and bride are colleagues. They serve in the same computer company. One is responsible for software. The other is responsible for hardware. On an occasion, they got together to research the use of computer programs. They lit the spark of love. They fell in love very quickly. After 5 years of a long-distance run of love, they already understand each other very much. They decided to have a family and live together. The bridegroom was handsome and the bride was beautiful. They are both talented. When people find true love, their friends find true joy. May happiness and joy be with them always.
In Taiwan, there is a proverb as follows:
No matter whether you are rich or not, to take a woman in marriage, you would have a good year.Until Chinese Lunar New Year, on almost every weekend, I have been invited to take part in a wedding reception for one of my friend’s daughters or sons. Therefore, to me, every weekend will be busy. In additional to this activity, before lunar New Year, according custom, every company or government unit will have an ending year feast. I am also invited to take part in some ending year feasts. I would like to go there.
After the wedding reception, I went back to home at 10 PM. I rested for a while, and took shower. My wife and I watched the Taipei 101 fireworks show at midnight on TV. Like most people, we were both happy to welcome 2012. The New Year’s Eve fireworks show this year lasted 202 seconds — making it the second longest in the event’s history. According to Taipei 101, the previous New Year fireworks show usually only lasted about 188 seconds. The longest show was last year’s, which was 288 seconds long. That was a special occasion as it marked the start of the 100th year of the Republic of China.
On January 1st, I got up at 5:30 AM. It was very early for me. Usually, I get up at 7:30. But this day was a special day for all people. It was the beginning of 2012. In Kaohsiung, thousands of people went to national stadium for taking part in the flag raising ceremony in the early morning. The weather was very cold, only 15 Centigrade. The road was very dark before the sun rised. I passed through the road of the Naval District. It was a shorter way to go. I could save much time. I drove there. It took me 20 minutes from my home to the destination. The speaker of Kaohsiung City Council presided over the ceremony at 6:36. We all sang the national anthem loudly and saluted to our national flag. We used this action to express our patriotism. After the ceremony, there was a walking activity around the stadium. We all used the morning to exercise. The following program was a social group show, such as light music, painting and dancing, etc. We all had a good time.