Cute dolls + X’mas Decorations

Yesterday I read from newspaper that Coca Cola Company promoted their drinks with the redemption of 5 sets of funny dolls with Christmas decorations. I thought they would be best as our Christmas presents to Abby.

At the nearest Circle K shop, I bought a total of ten “500 ml” different floured Coke according to the rule. The redemption price of each doll with decoration is $15.

These are the interesting things about the dolls and decorations:

(1) We can change the face of each doll by pressing its head.

(2) Each doll is wearing a hat, a scarf and a Coca-cola badge and holding a Coca-cola bottle in the left hand. There is a bushy tail at each back(to stabilize it, I think).

(3) These dolls can be hidden inside the shells of the decorations – Bell, Santa Claus, Star, Ball, X’mas tree. They can peep out from the specially-designed holes.

(4) These X’mas decorations can be hung up on a Christmas tree by strings provided.

All the dolls and decorations have Coca-cola logos.

Harbour at Wellington and Queen’s Wharf

This is not our Victoria Harbour, but the one at Wellington. The most striking architectural feature one can see here is the collection of historic timber houses on the green hills surrounding the harbour.

Queen’s Wharf was the one Ho Keung and Yin Ping visited. The wharf looked very different from the busy Fisherman’s Wharf I saw in San Francisco. The low houses looked more or less like go-downs, used for storing goods rather.

The helicopter here, I suppose, was the sightseeing one so that tourists might hire to take the aerial view of the harbour.

On the shores Ho Keung chanced to see a lady team ready to practise rowing their long narrow swift-going boat.

A beautiful yacht had been lifted out of the water and placed on the shore for maintenance. It is interesting for me to see its spoon-like base, having two-thirds of the body of yacht under water when it actually sails.

There was a Sailing Academy nearby for teaching people to sail. The advertisement board of “Experience the thrill of Wellington’s wind” did attract this lovely couple to stop and take a photo.

May I ask Ho Keung and Yin Ping a question? Did you experience strong winds or moderate ones at the harbour which might be favorable for sailing?

Parliament Buildings in Wellington

On September 1^st, 2007, Ho Keung and Yin Ping went to see the Parliament Buildings in the Capital of New Zealand. The round building looks like a furnace for burning away garbage.

In the first small photo on the right, the square building adjacent to this round one looked much like a Parliament House.

The second small photo on the right shows the historic 1876 Old Government Buildings (more than one hundred years old, but it still stands). It is the LARGEST wooden building in the Southern Hemisphere, also the SECOND largest in the world. What a World Record! It was built to replicate an Italian stone palace.

The small photo on the left shows the Old St. Paul’s Cathedral (1866) which is not very big.

In the last small photo on the right, it is amazing to see timber arches inside supporting the roof. Well, it gives me an impression that I am inside an inverted skeleton of a large wooden boat. It was actually a Gothic architecture built in early days with native timbers. The New Zealanders should salute to those craftsmen who built this modest wooden structure.

Abby’s Four Successes

From my close observation, Abby has had 4 successes recently:

(1) Abby is able to slide down when she is helped to reach the top of a slide. At least she has the bravery of letting her hands off the support from the rims of the slide.

(2) We never know that Abby is so fast as to pluck a petal from a flower until yesterday. Luckily no officer in the park saw this, otherwise Abby would be fined.

(3) For the first time, Abby held a hear-and-speak handle of a public phone with both hands. Of course she did not know how to dial a telephone number and nobody was on the line speaking with her. She has long been interested in phones, whether cell or domestic.

(4) Abby knows how to pull her socks away from her feet when she returns home. Once she helped to pull off grandma’s socks.

Hockey on Ice

Before Tony and I went into the UA cinema at mega BOX to watch a 3D film, we watched an exciting match of hockey on ice. The two teams were composed of children of around 12 years old or more.

The players went about swiftly on ice. Once a player got the flat metal plate (black in colour) with his/her hockey stick, the other team members and those of the opponents went together to get better positions or to intercept. Both goalkeepers were well-protected like mummies and they usually laid on the floor in front of the goal to stop the plate from going into the goal of his side. There were two referees wearing T-shirts in black and white strips. They blew whistles and yelled at the same time so that the players knew what happened or what penalty they would get.

It was a just a ten-minute watch of the game because the film would be on inside the cinema. To my surprise, I saw Clarke Cheung queuing up with his wife at the Booking Office. He said he would dine with his brother somewhere near and he was going to watch a film with his wife that night. What a coincidence!

林村樹屋

林村樹屋被視為新界遊其中一個必到的景點! 當日去完天水圍濕地公園之後, 旅遊巴直奔林村. 首先它要走一條非常窄的小路, 才去到一個凹凸不平的泥地停車場.

隨著, 全部旅行團的人都下了車, 包括Abby在內.

正因為這條路實在太爛了, Abby坐在嬰兒車上猶如跑馬仔一樣, 幸好她未有半點不安, 也許她正享受著全身按摩吧.

要往村裏走, 一定要過河, 踏上一條不算驚險的小石橋, 因有足足三尺闊.

剛剛過了橋, 前面有一個紀念公園, 後面已經是車道, 兩旁的行人路只夠一人通過. 我們推著Abby走要瞻前顧後, 看看有沒有車子駛來. 有則推她上行人路暫避!

經過十幾二十間屋之後, 轉過彎很快便到了樹屋面前.

這間樹屋, 並不是一間真正的屋, 沒有門, 也沒有窗. 它只不過是由幾顆大樹的樹幹,樹根和氣根巧妙地纏在一起, 做成一個天然小室, 足以站立五六人而已.

近門口的地方, 竟然有人將幾十塊磚頭鑲在門邊, 以增加其真實感,. 其實我覺得無必要, 當一個遊客欠缺幻想力的時候, 根本看不出這是一間屋. 我唯一恐怕會發生的事是那裡的磚頭, 總有一天會掉下來, 把人弄傷了!

我匆匆忙忙替親家奶奶和太太拍一張”到此一遊”合照之後, 又連忙跑到女兒跟前, 叫她站在樹屋簡陋的門口拍一張相留念!

究竟菲臘那裡去呢? 原來他正在替教友拍照!

至於Abby又如何呢? 她一直未離開過嬰兒車, 靜靜地坐著遊車河, 實像Alison

一樣乖透了!

轉眼間, 領隊又催促我們返回遊旅車往下一個站 ---- 錦田紅磚屋跳蚤市場.

Timber-made Houses in Wellington

Two-storey houses are very common in New Zealand. Most of them are made of timber. Since these houses are built on hills, their sizes, colours and styles can be very different. Some have verandahs, bay windows and stair-cases that are made outside

the house and they often lead directly to the storeys on the second floors. Their roofs are slanting so that rain water will drain off rapidly. All these houses have one thing in common, elegant!

If the land-size allows, a timber-made house may include a garden in front and even a space for parking a car.

Higher up the hills, all possible flatter pieces of land are used for building houses. They may be one, two or even three storeys high. They scatter unevenly and are irregular in shapes. This reminds me of those wooden huts on our hills of Hong Kong in the past.

mega BOX

Interesting! mega BOX is not really a box. It is a commercial complex with an outlook of a Red Box standing at the Junction of Wang Chui Road (宏照道) and Sheung Yee Road (常怡道), Kowloon Bay. It can be easily seen from a car or bus when one is travelling on Kwun Tong Bypass (官塘繞道).

We can see the views of several floors through the large circular window at Mega Box. It is most beautiful at night time when thousands of colour-changing bulbs and the circular TV screen is broadcasting. Looking at this circular window is just like looking at a Kaleidoscope (萬花筒).

Its ground floor is just like those of hotels where tour buses, cars and taxis can unload their passengers. A large 3-dimensional wooden letter-block “mega BOX” is placed at its entrance on Lam Fung Street (臨豐街) and so one will never make mistake in reaching his/her destination.

Christmas decorations are already put up right at the entrance. There are more and more decorations for Christmas inside this shopping, entertainment, food-eating and office-based commercial complex.

It is a fifteen to twenty-minute walk from the bus-stops on Kwun Tong Road, through Telford Plaza (德福廣場), on a pedestrian flyover, across three streets or a 5-minute (free) ride on shuttle-bus to and from Kowloon Bay MTR Station (10-minute frequencies).

Abby看錦鯉

今天我們一干人等往中文大學替Tony預先影碩士畢業相.

在其中一座校舍地面層, 大家發現一個長方形魚池, 裏面養了很多條錦鯉.

最先Abby只在自己的私家車上面看, 後來我們將Abby放在魚池邊近距離看一下在水中快活暢游的錦鯉!

Abby看得津津有味, 開心到不得了!

Decorations in space

Decorating an empty space is not easy.

Successes come from

(1) good arrangement of objects

(2) colours in harmony

(3) shapes of objects displayed

(4) ideas the decorations convey

Here, in a shopping centre, I found some outstanding decorations in space.

The designer must have got his/her ideas from a chopped off star-fruit and a pumpkin.

(1) The star-fruit pieces are in one group and the sea animals and pumpkin pieces are mixed in another. They are hung in different levels.

(2) The purple colour of the star-fruit and the orange colour of the pumpkin pieces are in good harmony.

(3) Different sizes and nice shapes of fruit, vegetables and animals compose a rich and busy space.

(4) The decorations convey ideas of healthy fruit and vegetables and the sea animals enjoy swimming in the sea.

Abby’s hair-style before, during and after haircut

Here are photos showing the 3 stages:
The front part of Abby’s hair was quite long, almost touching the eyes.

Connie was cutting Abby’s hair with care.

After the hair-cut, Abby was in a New look.

The View of Wellington from High Points

After reaching Wellington, Ho Keung and Yin Ping drove to Wellington Botanic Garden, Dominion Observatory (since 1907) and later to the Cable Car Terminal which were all high above the city.

From the terminal, they could see a better view of the harbour, the belt of the tall buildings along the coast, the low private houses on the hills and the distant lands.

To me, Wellington is not as modern as Sydney. It is somewhat hilly, while Sydney is on lowland. The red cable car in the photo was old and classic, but beautiful. I guess it has an age of more than 60 years. I am pleased that it still runs well.

Kaitaki

At Picton, the northern-most port of South Island, New Zealand, the “Kaitaki” was ready to sail since its engines had been running for some time and its chimneys emitted dark smoke (see the top photo). Ho Keung and Yin Ping were already on board this ferry waiting for their sea journey to Wellington to begin. Their rented car was also inside this vehicular ferry.

It was a giant ferry, over 180 metres long and had a gross weight of 22365 tonnes. It could carry a maximum of 1600 passengers. (In the past, our 3-decker Yaumati ferry to Cheung Chau or Silver Mine Bay could carry about 1000 passengers.) It was unbelievable that this ferry could also carry a total of 600 cars. The main use of this ferry, I guess, is to deliver drivers and cars between the North and South Islands

The orange-coloured life-boats and rafts were placed at the side of the ferry for emergency use only. At the top deck, passengers could take a good view of the harbour before the ferry began its journey to Wellington. It was August 31^st, 2007.

The harbour at Picton is well-protected by hills on all sides with houses built in different levels up the hills. The sea water was blue, clear and pacific. (Ours in Hong Kong is dark green and darker near the piers owing to pollution by garbage and waste oil.) The small boats here were mainly yachts and close-shore fishing boats. Most of them anchored at the buoys of the harbour.

The view of the harbour in the bottom photo was terrific. To me, I can feel the life of the New Zealanders to be a relaxed and ease of mind one.

Wetland undisturbed

At one site of our Wetland Park at Tin Shui Wai, a two-storey house was built mainly for bird-watching.

On October 28^th this year, out of curiosity, I went into this house to find out what birds I could see there. We were supposed to be very quiet once entered this house because loud voices might scared the birds outside away. Inside the house, the floor area of each storey was about 20 feet by 20 feet. I approached a small window where I could see the birds outside with my naked eyes. Then I raised my camera to take a shot of the view outside.

It was not important whether the photo I took this time was good or not. So long as I brought home a photo of the view outside this window I would feel satisfied. The photo that came out of my camera was not bad. On it I found some White Lu (白鷺) standing in shallow water or on the muddy banks with beautiful mangroves. These birds were possibly finding food or taking some rest at this paradise. They perhaps did not know that there were hundreds of eyes watching them from the windows or slits of the house not far away from them!

玩轉地球

今次請大家猜一猜這個玩轉地球雕塑是在以下那一個地方出現呢?

A. 美國

B. 星加坡

C. 香港

D. 澳洲

Souvenir Shop of Elvis Presley

Thanks to Daisy Mak for bringing us to this souvenir shop on Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. The other photo was taken at Studio B, also at Nashville where Elvis Presley recorded lots of records there.

The heat of the songs of this famous King of Rock “n” Roll swept over America and all over the world in the 50’s. His hair-style (騎樓裝) and trumpet-based trousers (喇叭褲) did give him a trade-mark of those years.

The following was written by Daisy Mak about the souvenir shop:

“The souvenirs shop with Elvis statue outside sold postcards, posters, badges, key chains, T-shirts, ornaments, dolls etc.. There were few items about Elvis. I don't think they sold records or musical instruments there. However we could buy records and CDs at the Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Nashville is the cradle of Country Music in the US. Elvis is famous for his Rock and Roll, not Country Music. However Elvis was elected into the List of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002. I guess it was because he had a lot of fans and he did base on Country Music and Blues to create Rock and Roll, a great contribution to Music. If you are a fan of Elvis and you want to buy good Elvis souvenirs, I suggest you go to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born and grew up. (I did buy a postcard of Elvis taken when he was 3- 4 years old with his parents. He came from a very poor family.)

The souvenirs shops are at Broadway , Nashville. It is the part of downtown Nashville where tourists go to shop, dine and enjoy nightlife (drinks and listening to country music and pop music). The buildings along Broadway are historic buildings (about 100 years old).

I went in the weekdays and on off season, not school holidays, so very few customers/tourists walk on the street. Most of the tourists were retired people or those attending conference. (There is a famous Convention Center and Resort nearby. Bruce went to attend conference. I take advantage to do my sightseeing.)”

Bump!

This is a Playback of November 12^th , 2007 at about two o’clock.

There were depressions between two adjacent soft pads (in the form of tiles) at the play-site. It was this kind of depressions that tumbled Abby and she bumped into one of the steel boards of the green “sheep”(shown in two of the photos here). She cried and we hurried to see how bad her injury was. Connie took her up and comforted her. We found Abby’s mouth bleeding a little. Obviously, the first thing Connie did was to stop Abby’s mouth from bleeding by applying pressure at her lips with a tissue paper. Abby was a little bewildered and she pointed at her pram. We decided to put her down there, but she disagreed. Next we touched Connie’s bag which was hanging on the handle of the pram. Our guess was right this time. Connie put back her bag onto her shoulder and Abby calmed herself down in this way. She stopped crying. Abby’s mouth looked longer and sharper because it was a little swollen. I admired Abby because she was so strong to bear the pain. Good girl!

Before this, Abby was playing her “High and Low”. She was a bit short, but then she made herself even shorter by lowering her body. Her facial expressions showed that she was enjoying the freedom of walking about the play-site in any direction her legs carried her. Another photo here showed that she had been trying to slide, but was not successful because she had not yet learned the skill. It was then her “lying” more than “sliding”.