What languages are these?

Recently on the wrapping paper of a burger for breakfast in a Hong Kong Mc Donald, I find some strange languages of different countries.

Interesting indeed! Since Hong Kong is a multi-cultural country, it is not strange at all to find people of different nationalities visit Mc Donald every day, especially in Central and other commercial districts in Hong Kong. It is a nice thing to educate people like me who only know Chinese and English, but no other languages

It is obvious that the message “I’m loving it” is written in different languages.

If any reader of my blogs knows the languages used on the wrapping paper, please let me know by clicking at the “comment” and writing to me about it!

Where have ten of the potted plants gone?

On August 10^th, there were altogether 18 beautiful potted flowering plants on the footbridge, 9 on each side.

Today, August 30^th, 10 of them disappeared (within one night).

Throughout these 20 days, the flowers dropped off a lot when Typhoon Pabuk visited us twice and heavy rain fell for a few days. Later, the plants began to dry up and turned brown because nobody waters them. Now, few flowers can survive.

There may be three possible reasons for the disappearance of the potted plants:

(1) They are taken away to have new plants replaced and perhaps they will come back some time later.

(2) There may be too many potted plants on the footbridge which may overload it.

(3) They have been transferred to another place.

I learn from a newspaper several days ago that there was a similar case:

It so happened that in Tseung Kwan O, the District Board decided to make the district green with 90 potted trees (木蘭樹). They used half a million Hong Kong dollars for this. Owing to poor management, the plants died in three months’ time. The trees were replaced by a new kind of trees.

What a waste of SAR's money when the plants are neglected – without watering or adding nutrients to the soil!

Queen Mary 2 once parked Here

Queen Mary 2, a giant passenger ship, visited Sydney this year and parked at this very Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney Harbour.

The larger photo shows the modern terminal with several floors on which are restaurants and comfortable rooms for passengers to stay and relax.

The smaller photo shows the bridges which could be extended for passengers to board a ocean liner or go on shore. These bridges are supported by strong steel bars as if they were spider legs (I mentioned them in my previous blog).

After Sydney, Queen Mary 2 headed for Hong Kong. It could not park at our Ocean Terminal in Tsimshatsui because it was too big. It could only park at the one of the container piers at Kwai Chung. As a result, passengers from Hong Kong, most of which were rich people, had to go among containers and cranes before they could go on board Queen Mary.

What Hong Kong needs is a big Deep-sea Ocean Terminal for huge passenger ships. It is expected that one such terminal will be built at the side of the Old Kai Tak Airport, but it takes years to build.

Huge Spider legs

In the photo, it looks as if there are 4 huge legs of a Robot Spider standing at the side of an Ocean Terminal in Sydney.

Robots are widely used nowadays. They can be used to deal with dangerous missions by the Police such as treating suspicious bomb or explosives. Some can be used in wars for detection or attack purposes.

In Hong Kong, I learn that there are restaurants having robots serving the customers. They come with menus, receive orders for food and even deliver dishes of food to the customers’ tables.

In recent years, teachers in Hong Kong are receiving endless orders from EMB to carry out new policies. They become robots, teaching tools, report and evaluation writing machines. To enhance professionalism, teachers are forced to spend at least 150 hours on attending courses, seminars, lectures, sharing of experience and services of any kind within 3 years. EMB also lays down bench marks for teachers teaching Languages, gives external reviews to each school and changes the structures of the school boards.

The following are some of the elements added to my school:

1. A certain percentage of IT (Information Technology) Teaching should be applied to the subject taught. This involves a lot of preparation in making PowerPoints or whatever materials useful.

2. Projects should be assigned to the students to do and complete within a certain period of time.

3. Teachers should ask students questions during lessons. They should not ask just a few of them, but everyone so that there is a great involvement in the students. To fulfill this, the teachers have to prepare a lot of questions to ask in each lesson!

4. Students should be praised and encouraged rather than be scolded or punished.

5. Stickers should be given to those students who do their homework well.

6. Online exercises should be given to the students regularly.

7. Continuous Assessment should be given to the students, so teachers have to keep a detailed records of what and how good or bad their students do in their homework and projects.

8. Moral Education should be introduced to the students through the class-teacher of each class. Class teachers are encouraged to meet each and every student and talk with him/her. Some teachers choose the idea of eating lunch with their students.

A380

Recently, Singapore Airlines proudly announced that the first flight of its new fleet of Airbuses A380 will be on October 25^th. The new plane will fly from Singapore to Sydney and back to Singapore on the next day.

The booking of the tickets of these two first flights for the 3 classes, Economy, Business and VIP, will be carried out through e-bay. The tickets will go into the hands of those passengers who bid for higher prices and most of the money earned from ticket sales will be for charity. The money will go to Singapore Community Chest and two Children hospitals in Sydney.

It is really nice to see those passengers enjoy the first flights as well as donate money to organizations that both citizens of Singapore and Sydney benefit. What a nice thought!

There were test flights of such a huge whale-like plane from Europe to Asia. Hong Kong was one of its stopping cities. At that time, the plane was like a new star in the sky and at famous airports in the world. This plane was found to be very comfortable and could carry 471 passengers at a time.These flights were very successful.

I hope, in the near future, that my wife and I can board such kind of plane to Singapore or Sydney.

Can Cats play Music?

Some of these porcelain cats bought from Japan can.

In the hind row on the left, the white cat is playing a saxophone while its neighbour playing a violin.

In the front row on the left, two small, cute and energetic kittens are playing, one on a shallow bath and the other underneath it.

Their neighbouring cat is fat with one of his fore limbs raised in the air. People know that this cat is one that brings fortune (money) to them. They often call it, 招財貓.

Three of these decorative cats can play music. With the base turned several times, the cat at the top can move and at the same time, a short piece of music is played. It is really funny and musical!

A Cartoon Kitten for Abby

This kitten among flowers is to be given to Abby

It has triangular ears and nose, small round eyes, thin but straight whiskers. There are some white spots against its black furry body. Strange enough, colour reverses at its tail, white with black spots.

It stands on legs of equal length among gas-fume-like flowers that will vanish in a moment.

Mini Bottles of soft drinks

The photo shows my treasure of two dozens of soft-drinks in miniature. They are made of glass with metallic corks at their tops, but without a single drop of soft-drink inside. They have been in my possession for many years, probably 10 to 20 years. Taking a closer look, one will find that they look quite old because the paint that were cast on them fell off some time in the past and the corks do not look shiny any more.

To speak the truth, I am not a hot collector of real coke bottles, but I have kept two bottles of real ones at home with special designs for Christmas. I swear I will not open it and drink the coke inside for fear that the coke inside may have changed its flavour or become toxic. They are merely for keepsake and admiration. I am proud of keeping these bottles because they may be rare to some extent.

Train in a New Dress

Yesterday, August 23rd, 2007, when I stepped on the platform of East Rail trains heading for Sheung Shui, I was attracted by the beautiful decorations on the train which stopped at the opposite platform.

I stopped gazing at the train, quickly took out my digital camera and was able to take several photos before it started off for its next station.

Before this, I learned from TV that the KCRC company invited students of some secondary schools to take part in designing pictures for the outer walls as well as the internal walls and benches of the carriages of one of its trains.

I like this idea of adding elements of colour, creativity and life to those cold metallic carriages. They are really beautiful to be seen running on the rail all day long. I predict that if this kind of train decoration is well-accepted by the people of Hong Kong, more trains in other new dresses will appear in the future. Why not turn a train into one with pictures that brings out the spirits of the Olympic Games!

Breakfast at 4 a.m.

Mc Donald, Hong Kong, recently announces that their breakfast will be served as early as 4 o’clock in the morning. Hong Kong is a night city. Many shops will not be closed until early morning. Still awake are some people working through the night. They may go to a Mc Donald to take breakfasts before they go home to bed. People who like to spend the night better than the day can stay for some time at such an air-conditioned Mc Dong Dong to chat or play their electronic games.

The photo shows the usual breakfast served. It contains some egg, a piece of pork, double muffins, a hash brown and a cup of milk tea or coffee. There is another breakfast with three pan-cakes, a piece of pork and a drink.

In the old days, I drove alone to the Mc Donald near the round-about in Kowloon City. I parked my car in one of the parking spaces at the roadside. At that time, people did not have to feed the meters before 8 a.m.

The breakfast I bought home was exactly the same as shown in the photo. It has not been changed for many years. Of course its price (around $15) was much lower than the one now ($19.8).

Look at Abby’s facial expression

It was the third time that Abby tasted lemon inside restaurants. With her little hands, Abby gripped a slice of lemon and pushed it near her mouth to have a new stimulation to her taste buds. By then, we believed she had already got used to the sourness and began to like it.

At that moment, she showed her tongue to Connie to show her satisfaction and next went on licking the piece of lemon. We were glad that lemon could bring her fun and make her busy while we were taking lunch.

Lemon is great. It wins Abby’s affection and touch as she grows.

VOID

This was the first wall picture I saw when I arrived at San Francisco International Airport last April. It appeared to me very rich in colour and shapes. I liked its lay-out and complication. I quickly took a photo of it, hopefully, I could find out what it was all about when I returned to Hong Kong.

At the bottom of the picture, it was written like this:

ONE MIGHT SEE..ALL HAVE A LOT..IN COMMON WHEN THE DUST SETTLES.. THe.GLITTERING – REMAINS

I can see, in the picture, land and sea, rocks and trees, buildings and people.

The painter of this picture may mean:

"People can own and see a lot when they live, but when they die, they are all empty-handed. What remains in the sky is the glittering of stars!"

How do you interpret the picture?

Classic Coca-Cola Delivery Truck

Last Saturday, I went to the Caltex Petrol Station opposite to the Old Kai Tak Airport to have petrol refill to my car.

I noticed from a pamphlet there that two kinds of classic Coca-Cola Delivery Trucks models could be redeemed (換購) for $35 each providing that the customer bought two packets of 8-can Coca-Cola ($41.8 /two packets) as well. I chose the one above.

I remember that in the 60’s, bottles of Coca-Cola were delivered to various shops in similar trucks. Dozens of Coca-Cola were neatly arranged in wooden partition racks. They were stacked up like those shown in the photo.

The retailer shops usually kept the bottles of Coca-Cola and other soft-drinks for sale in ice-cold water inside a very large metal box as container. The metal corks of the bottles of soft-drinks could be opened at the side of the container. People liked to collect those metal corks (people at that time called them as 荷蘭水蓋) of different soft-drinks for fun.

Mc Mug and Mc Dull Skating on ice

Mc Mug and Mc Dull are Hong Kong-made comic figures. They earn their fame in comic books and in cartoon films. I have seen these films on TV. The songs and story in the films are nice to hear and interesting to see.

It was Saturday yesterday. We had lunch at Festival Walk. During lunch, McMug, McDull and their friends greeted the big audience round the skating ground. Next they skated elegantly on the ice surface. Although the show was a bit short, just ten minutes or so, they attracted the attention of many children, youngsters and even some of the photographers among whom I was one.

In the top photo, Mc Dull was standing on ice. The background banner showed the face of Mc Mug. It is easy to distinguish between them because Mc Dull is the pig with a dark patch round the right eye, but Mc Mug has a face without patches.

In the bottom left photo, Mc Mug, Mc Dull and their mates formed a nice-looking “cross” at the centre of the skating ground.

In the bottom right photo, Mc Mug, Mc Dull and their friends gathered.

PVRM(自訂車牌)

Since September 16, 2006, the scheme, Personalised Vehicle Registration Mark (PVRM), was introduced to Hong Kong to allow CREATION of numbers up to 8 characters including letters and/or numbers to appear on car number plates.

Letters “I” “O” and “Q’ cannot be used. The one who applies for such creative PVRM should deposit $5000 first. It does not mean the one who design the PVRM can get it right away. He/She has to take part in the next auction to bid. In the auction, only if if the designer bids the highest price, otherwise the PVRM will go to the person who bids the top price.

I seldom see cars with PVRM on the roads. Even if they are running on the roads, I cannot take their photos because I am driving. I remember I saw a car with registration mark as “SALAD”. I love this name because I never resist such kind of nice food at restaurants.

In the photos, the two cars have each a PVRM. The first one carries a mark “CUHK3712” which means Chinese University of Hong Kong and the second one “TUNG1202”, a Chinese surname.

I want to see $5000 on my bank pass book rather than a PVRM I like. If it were free of charge, I would certainly use “SSWAT”. Later on, if you see a car with such PVRM, see if I am driving it!

Singapore River Boats

Tourists to the Lion City can catch the old bumboats shown in the photo from either Raffles Place or Clarke Quay to have a Scenic tour along the Singapore River.

These narrow and low-built boats are driven forward by engines, not by rowing. Since they are small, they can go under several bridges for pedestrians and cars along the river.

They pass the new Opera House in Singapore, Esplanade, which is similar in nature to the Opera House in Sydney and reach the famous Merlion, guiding the mouth of the Singapore River. The fare for such a ride is S$12.

Throwing of a Boomerang

Discus Throw is an event in the Olympic Games. I wonder why Boomerang Throw cannot be. This sort of throwing art was invented by Australian Aborigines in hunting.

A boomerang can be thrown so that, if it fails to hit anything, it will return to the thrower. It was true! When the assistant at Tobruk Sheep Station demonstrated the throwing of a boomerang to us, his boomerang did come back to him after it swirled itself round a big circle in the air. One by one he taught us how to play a boomerang and we tried.

We all made unsuccessful throws, either our boomerangs dropped quickly down with not enough force or the angle that the boomerangs flied out was wrong. Philip was the best thrower, next Ho Keung and next me. In the ladies’ group, Connie was the best, next Yin Ping and the last was YS.

The left photo shows the starting position of the throw. The right photo shows the throwing out of the boomerang. Mine was “Good pose, but not practical” (有姿勢,無實際).

In the past, Hong Kong newspapers were rolled up and thrown up skilfully to the verandas of low-built houses by some newspaper hawkers. This was air-delivery! Nowadays, this kind of scenes cannot be seen because the newspapers are inches thick. They are too heavy to be thrown. Another thing is our buildings are too high and few of them have verandas.

Similar things happened when someone wanted to eat those preserved olives (和順欖), he/she will throw money down to the street so that the hawker below threw the olives back to him/her. We called these flying olives in Chinese as (飛機欖). To attract attention, this hawker blew a Chinese trumpet called Souna (嗩吶) along the street and carried a wooden box shaped like an olive so that people knew right away what he was selling!

Boomerangs

At first sight, the arrangement of these boomerangs (回力標) looks like our ribs inside our chests. They were displayed inside a shop at Manly Beach of Sydney in Australia. They ranged from small ones to large ones and priced at around A$20. They were so beautifully painted that I believed the buyers would not throw them in the open, but keep them as souvenirs.

At Tobruk Sheep Station in Sydney, the assistant said that they made their boomerangs themselves and sold them at A$20 each too. In comparison to those at Manly Beach, these boomerangs were mainly for throwing and did not look attractive at all.

Before leaving Australia, Philip bought home a small boomerang from a market in Sydney Proper. It was just A$3 to A$4, far cheaper than those at Manly Beach and Tobruk Sheep Station.

Volley-ball Matches in Hong Kong

Four Volley-ball teams, Italy, Poland, China and Dominica, competed in Hong Kong in the past few days. Yesterday they played the final matches.

Poland came first, Italy second, China third and Dominica fourth.

I watched two matches – China Vs Poland and China Vs Italy.

In both matches, China was on the upper hand in the first stage, but lost in the end.

The matches were very tough and exciting. I suggest the China team to polish up themselves before it can get to the top.

More photos on Eventing

These photos were taken today on TV. They showed horses on cross-country strides, jumping over fences and obstacles, running up and down hills and dipping their hooves into trenches of water.

Olympic Equestrian Events

Before the actual horse competitions in the Olympic Games 2008 began, our Hong Kong Jockey Club held rehearsals for Eventing - Show Jumping, Dressage and Cross-country.at Shatin and Sheung Shui in these few days.

Photo 1 – Show jumping

Photo 2 – Dressage

Photo 3 – Cross-country

Our Trees are Numbered

Today when I passed a small lawn underneath the Ma On Shan Rail, I discovered some green trees newly planted. Not only these trees are young, but also numbered. They are planted in such a way that they surround the lawn on all sides. They together form a unique green belt. Although this lawn is relatively small, the trees really give fresh air to the public.

The reasons for their being numbered, I guess, may be these:

(1) For Counting

(2) For Record

(3) For Field Study whether they are suitable to be grown there or not

(4) For Experiments

What other reasons can you suggest?

The Return of Typhoon Pabuk

From the newspapers this morning, I learned that Typhoon Wutip, after passing Taiwan, had died down and become a very loose tropical depression while Typhoon Pabuk did not disperse itself. Instead, after passing the south of Hong Kong, it intensified again and travelling in a loop-shape track pointing its way towards Hong Kong again. During breakfast this morning, someone in our often-visit Fast-food restaurant said that Typhoon Signal No. 1 was on. I did not ask him for the truth, but I wondered why. Yesterday, all typhoon signals had been cancelled.

Returning home, I learned from TV that the man was right. The news startled me. Pabu was still alive. It would affect Hong Kong again. Owing to his movement and intensity, the Hong Kong Observatory put up Typhoon Signal No. 3 at 12:40 p.m.

At half past two, our observatory changed the signal to 8. From that time on, we experienced strong winds and heavier rain.

At this moment, people are rushing home from all corners of Hong Kong. Telephones lines jam and the traffic becomes very busy. The scene of taking the last ferries back to the Outlying Islands appears again. It is the first time Typhoon Signal No. 8 being hoisted this year. At 4 p.m. the typhoon is 30 km WNW of Hong Kong and moves north-eastward at 8 km per hour.

The arms of the cranes at the building site of New Prince of Wales Hospital have been lowered to ground level to avoid destruction by strong winds.

It is strange enough that Pabuk changes course from a NE direction to West again within a few hours and it is travelling away from Hong Kong towards Macau at 8 p.m.

Life Added to a Footbridge

The day before yesterday, August 8^th, our eyes and mouths became wide open when we first saw beautiful potted plants placed at the two sides of the footbridge that we often use to cross the road to a Ma On Shan Railway Station.

We don’t know where they came from, but we guess that it was the work of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It is really a good thing to see such lovely flowers enjoying sunshine and rain on a footbridge like this on different days of a week.

One problem comes to my mind. How often are these plants watered and given nutrients? I never know. I do hope these flowering plants live healthily there and please our eyes all the time.

Long live the beautiful flowers!

A Dramatic Approach of Pabuk

This is my weather report yesterday: (August 8^th)

It was surprising that typhoon signal No.1 was hoisted this morning and the spokesman from the Hong Kong Observatory said that signal No.3 would be hoisted soon. According to the weather chart, Typhoon Pabuk will move westward towards Hong Kong from South Taiwan. The expected movement of the typhoon indicated that it would pass Hong Kong.

At this moment, the sky looks grey and dull. The air smells stuffy and at the same time, the temperature is as high as 34 degrees. Since Shatin was a valley which looks like a wok for cooking, we are now like the meat inside being heated up. Very soon when weather turns bad, strong winds and rain will sweep the wok and stir everything up!

This is my weather report today: (August 9^th)

I expect to hear the sound of gusty winds, the splashing of rain on the windows during the night. In fact, the night passed peacefully and I slept soundly. I never believe that the typhoon Pabuk was weakening overnight and became just a puff of air from one of our mouths.

“What a direct hit to Hong Kong!” came to my mind when I looked at the expected route of this typhoon of a chart from the Hong Kong Observatory yesterday afternoon. Typhoon Signal No.3 was hoisted after midnight. The typhoon was very near, just 30 km away but it gave no harm to our SAR.

The truth is: Pabuk weakens because there is another typhoon, Wutip, following it from behind. The big typhoon drives the small one away.

Soya Beans?

The dark objects look like soya beans. Taking a closer look, you will find that they are flies. Where are they? In Canberra!

On December 28^th, 2006, we arrived at the lakeside, opposite to which was the New Parliament House of Australia in its Capital City. Luckily, we found large empty tables and benches where we could have our picnic lunch. Water, noodles and vegetables were dropped into two cooking pots and everything was heated by two portable gas stoves.

Pouring of water, cutting of vegetables and stirring of noodles were done at quick speed because flies began to arrive. Eating should be quick too and at times we turned our bodies around, otherwise the flies would land on our food.

Next corn ears were cut down by a chopper and added to the soup. As the work was done, a large number of flies landed on the chopping board to enjoy the remains of corn left on the board.

To us, what a scary scene to see! To the flies, what an enjoyable lunch to have!

A Taste of Lemon

It was also July 2^nd, 2007 at a Pizza Hut. To our amazement, Abby was brave enough to taste lemon by herself. The expression on her face showed that she had already accepted this kind of sour fruit.Since the sourness did not scare her any more, she might have begun loving it. I believe later on as she grows, she will order lemon tea or lemon drinks in restaurants.

I remember that Abby’s first experience of lemons was at a restaurant which sold Japanese Food. Philip picked up a piece of lemon from his lemon drink and put inside his mouth to show to Abby that it was edible. Then he took another piece and put it near Abby’s mouth. Abby dared to taste it with her tongue. Her face twisted and she shook her face to show that she did not want it. This proved that her taste buds were normal. If I were she, I could not stand the sourness too!