Beautiful cakes

Elly likes looking at fabulous cakes. To her, their colours are attractive and the cream and fruits on the cakes and tarts are inviting.

Yesterday evening at a Maxim’s, Elly showed her cheerful face before the show-windows of many cakes. One of cakes showed the face of Hello Kitty and she recognized it right away. This cartoon figure has long deep-rooted in her mind. I remember last time when she discovered Hello Kitty products in a department store at Lok Fu, she called out “Kitty”.

Later at the restaurant we dined in, she saw in different directions two identical advertisements each showing a hand raising a thumb. What did she say? Well, she said, “ 一，二，Good ”. Notice she spoke Cantonese as well as English - bilingual!

A Lunch Gathering with old colleagues and students

On Saturday,May 28, 2011, I joined the lunch gathering at CWB with my old colleagues and students.

Before this, every time when we have lunch together, there are more teachers than old students. This time was very different. The number of students attending exceeded that of the teachers. The ratio was 12 : 9. Two students were not in the photo. I suppose they came after the photo was taken.

Many dim sums were served before us and some had been transferred to the next table which comprised mainly of students. Two we were surprised to see were Mrs. Sinn and Florence Hui.

Please double-click to see a larger photo.

Applebee revisited

These photos were taken in February, 2011 at Applebee by Tony who visited the same restaurant my wife and I had been in April, 2006.

The photos help me recall the time when my wife and I dined with Felix, Audrey, Joanna and Mrs. Sinn. Inside, it was clean, comfortable, not too dark and full of people at time of our visit. There was some American music. In the centre of the restaurant was a bar where customers drank wine. We sat around a high table on high stools. Since my wife and I did not have big appetites, we ordered a hot steak dish to share between two.

From the menu, I learn that this restaurant sells steaks, seafood. salad, noodles, spaghetti, hamburgers etc, etc. The serving plates are as big as mirrors.

I could not remember what the waiters and waiters looked like, but in my impression, most of them were young.

We did enjoy eating and chatting that very night with my old colleagues and their family. I never believed we could meet again in U.S. after so many years.

Magic

This clown is playing magic. He has fitted the faces of Abby, Elly and Grandma into the holes which are original empty.

In one of the photos, it seems as if Elly’s head has been twisted, but she does not show anything painful.

Grimsvotn volcano eruption

On May 21, 2011, Grimsvotn Volcano in Iceland began to erupt and release its huge plume of ash and steam. The huge cloud of ash created shot up 12 miles (15 km) above sea level at its peak. Near the volcano region, dense clouds of ash turned day into night, but the skies were clearer above Keflavik Airport. After briefly closing, flights resumed at the airport causing only a minor inconvenience to travellers.

The plume is made up of a roughly circular cloud. Ash has dropped down around the surrounding regions, coating the snow-covered regions to the volcano's southeast in a dark brown gloom.

Large parts of the Grimvotn volcano lie beneath the Vatnajokull Glacier, so when the recent eruption began on May 21, it originated below the glacier. Such eruptions can cause glacier outburst floods, but owing to previous experience, it is unlikely to have a large flood this time.

Recently the ash did affect the flights of planes in the British Isles and might affect those in other countries such as Norway, Demark, Holland and Germany.

Hair Combing

Early this morning, May 22, 2011, Elly has changed her clothes, ready to go to church. She was sitting on our bed. Grandma gave Elly a comb to brush her hair. I believe it was the first time that Elly was given a comb to do her hair.

Elly found great interest, smiled and held the comb with her left hand. Grandma taught her how to brush. She learned it quickly and soon mastered the simple skill of moving the comb through her hair. Then she used her right hand to brush the hair on the other side of her head.

The comb could be folded up and the teeth were soft. At one time, the comb was folded up. We wondered if Elly knew how to open it. To our surprise, she could! She first experienced the "magic" of combing her hair. There will be many many times that she brushes her hair in the future.

今日、昔日麵包款

這裏除了右下角那個西式到爆的芝士腸仔包外，其餘四種麵包都帶些經典面貌。

最令我驚喜的正是照片左下角的椰絲面奶油麵包。它的樣子仍舊可愛，正中的軟軟的白色奶油忌廉特別吸引。昔日賣一至兩毫子一個，昨日則賣六元一個。雖然它是那麼貴，我也忍痛買一個回味一下。結果是女兒和太太分享了它，太太的評語是「普通啦」。

左上角是餐包，形狀有些怪怪地。牛油餐包由來已久是餐室下午茶的主角，奶茶是配角。我記得牛油餐包也是以前常餐、全餐中餐湯的好伴侶。

右上角的菠蘿包簡直是兒時早餐經常出現的主角之一，其實它最吸引之處是上面那甜甜地、鬆軟的酥皮層。每次咬一口時，酥皮應聲破裂，同時間向四方八面掉下來。大家要儀態的話，就不要吃菠蘿包了。

右中的雞尾包形狀不像以往的好看。昔日的雞尾包是長形，頭尾圓渾，身上掃上兩條墨西哥包面的酥油層，裏面的蛋黃椰絲餡料特別美味，吃起來有滿足感。

運橙遊戲

昨天艾莉和阿比在太婆家玩運橙遊戲。

充滿活力的艾莉當然喜歡這種既是遊戲，也是手足運動。於是，艾莉和阿比把太婆家裏存倉已久以打計的新奇士橙，分十次八次從睡房搬運到客廳中央，不過她們並不是輕放在地上，而是把它們拋到地上。幸好厚厚的橙皮承受了這般衝力，像皮球一樣彈跳一兩，滾到障礙物時才停下來。曾經艾莉想用小盤去運一下子幾個橙，但它們實在太重了。我們阻止了她的妙計。

隨著所有的橙已運到廳中，下一遊戲部分自然是讓艾莉和阿比把它們運送回房中。
從面帶陽光笑容的艾莉，興奮得跑著去拾起，去拋出充滿加州陽光的橙，正令這個兩歲不到的小孩子開心到極點。家姐阿比也忙著陪妹妹一起玩，不太緊張，因為這遊戲對於她來講，實在太簡單了。

Recent Collection of Canadian Currency coins

These are the Canadian Currency coins I collect recently. The suppliers are certainly my daughter and son-in-law.

The Canadian coins are interesting because they may tell people about
[1] Winter Olympic Games (2002)
[2] Children ‘s year (September 1999)
[3] Harmony 2000 (A Maple leaf formed from 6 people hand in hand)
[4] Hilly landforms in Alberta
[5] Trees in Ontario
[6] National Legacy 2000 (Clouds, rain, salmon, fir tree)
[7] Pride 2000 (with several maple leaves)
[8] Canadian soldiers (Canadian Dollar)

A Spelling mistake

Marks are usually deducted when students make spelling mistakes in their dictation. How about spelling mistakes that are found on coins of a country?

Some people may say that mistakes in printing on stamps become valuable. What about coins? I wonder how stupid and careless indeed that a mistake can occur on current coins of a country. The best thing to do is to melt all these coins and recast them.

Sausage Bread

To Elly, sausage bread should be split up into sausage and bread separately. In Elly’s encyclopedia, sausage is for herself and bread for anyone else. Elly loves sausages or ham madly. It can be reflected from her eating ham macaroni outside and sausages at home.

Today she grips the sausage bread with her little hands. At first, we wonder how she eats it. We are sure Elly ‘s target is the sausage alone. She first bites hard at the part of sausage sticking out of the bread. Next she wants to bite further in but it is quite difficult for her to eat the rest of the sausage because it is deeply embedded inside the bread. Next, she asks for milk to go with the sausage, not the bread.

To assist Elly to get the lower half of the sausage, Mother Connie tears open the bread and let Elly snatch it. At one time, Elly uses all her might to pull out the remaining part of sausage.

At the dining table, Abby is eating a biscuit. She found no interest in the sausage bread I buy her. Later on, Elly joins her elder sister. Two sisters are eating differently at first and in the end, both together eat biscuits. At last, what we find on the ground are tiny bits of biscuits that have fallen from their hands and mouth when the biscuits break at times of bites.

King-sized Hibiscus

I found King-sized Hibiscus flowers at Ma On Shan Park today.

The flat pink petals stretched out so widely that tens of bees could land on them at the same time. The red round stigmas were tiny when compared with the petals. Below the stigmas were the yellow anthers. They grew in clusters. On the whole, both the stigmas and anthers seemed out of place because their sizes were quite small.

I never know the difference between King-sized and Queen-sized until I started my first tour with my wife to United States of America. The experience came from a Queen-sized bed and a King-sized one. The fact is that the former is bigger than the latter. Maybe American ladies are usually fatter than the gentlemen. They require larger beds.

The First Breakfast at Mc Donald’s

On May 8, 2011, a very sunny day, we went to a newly opened Mc Donald’s to have breakfast.

Since it is a new restaurant, the wall picture cheers everyone, especially our grand-daughters, Abby and Elly. Here you see how they imitated the laughing face on the wall. They really possess some or a great many “acting” cells.

Abby used forks to pick up food, but Elly merely her fingers. At one time, Abby charged her fork at her sister’s piece of minced pork. It was "pacific". Either Elly did not notice Abby’s action or she did not mind at all of losing the small piece of meat.

At another time, Abby leaned sideways at Elly as if they were twin sisters so that I could take their group photo . Both grand-daughters liked eating macaroni, but they rather chose ham first. I also noticed that Elly loved eating hash browns. Her satisfaction was reflected by her deep bite at the flat piece of potato.

We won't let Abby and Elly eat Mc Donald food every day. To them, the first breakfast at a Mc Donald was an enjoyable one after all.

Please double click to see larger photos.

Longitudinal Growth

Abby has grown taller by 0.06 metre in one and a half years. She expands lengthwise, but not breadthwise, just because she eats little. She always says, “I am slim, slim, slim”.

The left hand picture was taken on Dec 21, 2009 and the right hand one on May 8, 2011. She is over 1 metre now. No wonder she has to pay on any MTR or bus journey ever since she stepped on Hong Kong soil a week ago.

Flowers on Mother’s Day

These were the flowers our mothers at Shatin received on Mother’s Day.

I took photos of these flowers after they had been cut short and inserted inside a small blue vase. I let them dance around my camera. The flowers came as different pink, and in clusters of bluish purple and yellow.

They were not fragrant, but conveyed much love to the mothers.

Espresso and Cappuccino

Caffè espresso or simply espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

Espresso was invented in Italy as far back as 1884. It often has a thicker consistency, a higher concentration of suspended solids, and foam. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, all of the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. For this reason, espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato, mochas, and americanos.

In Italy, espresso bars providing a place for socialization. The coffee prices were controlled by local authorities, provided that the coffee was consumed standing up, encouraging the "stand at a bar" culture. If customers prefer sitting down to drink it, prices will double, say, a 2-Euro cup of coffee will cost 4-Euros (when seats are required). The size of a cup of espresso is usually smaller than that of cappuccino.

In the Anglo-speaking countries, espresso became popular particularly in the form of cappuccino, due to the tradition of drinking coffee with milk and the exotic appeal of the foam; in the United States this was more often in the form of lattes, particularly with flavored syrups added. The latte is claimed to have been invented in the 1950s by Italian American Lino Meiorin of Caffe Mediterraneum in Berkeley, California, as a long cappuccino, and was then popularized in Seattle by Starbucks in the late 1980s and 1990s.

For myself, I prefer cappuccino to expresso because the latter is too strong for me and I like the rich milky taste of cappuccino and the wonderful picture at the top of the foam.

Slide Show

It was the third day after our grand-daughters had returned to Hong Kong. We bought them to the park below. Climbing up the big steps to a slide was the first thing Elly had to learn. She was fearless and successful in reaching the top of the slide. There she showed her smile of satisfaction. I grasped those moments of her thoughts just in time to take a few snapshots of her before she started her way down. Since the slide was made of plastic and not polished, her sliding smoothly down was almost impossible.

For Abby, playing on a slide was too easy for her. This time, she climbed, walked along narrow bridges and crawled through tube-like plastic tunnels. She found a vertical pole and was bold enough to slide down as if she were a fireman descending to a fire-engine below.

Fisgard Lighthouse

On the last day of our 3-day tour on Vancouver Island in October, 2009, we passed the outskirt of Fisgard Lighthouse and just took a short glimpse of it from a long distance because he had to hurry to Swartz Bay to take a ferry back to Vancouver.

It so happened that recently Philip's and his brother’s families paid a visit to this National Historic Site in Colwood, British Columbia. The lighthouse on Fisgard Island is at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. From record, it is the first lighthouse on the west coast of Canada. The causeway from the adjacent Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site provides access to it by land.

It is so nice that the former lighthouse keeper's residence is open to the public and contains displays and exhibits about the site's history. The attached tower is not open to the public as it mainly serves as an aid to navigation.

Fisgard Lighthouse was built in 1860 to guide vessels through the entrance of Esquimalt Harbour. It was automated in 1929. It shows a white isophase light of 2-second period in a sector from 322° to 195° at 21.6 m above mean sea level. In other directions it shows red shutters. The white 14.6 m tower is floodlit below balcony level.

Fisgard Lighthouse and its sister station Race Rocks Light, were constructed in 1859-60, to ease the movement of naval ships into Esquimalt harbour and merchant ships into Victoria Harbour. The light stations were also seen as a significant political commitment on the part of the British government to the Colony of Vancouver Island.

The black-and-white photo inside the display room there shows the following:
[1] Lightkeeper’s house (red in other photos)
[2] Lighthouse Tower (white tower)
[3] Outhouse
[4] Boathouse (white one)
[5] Storehouse
[6] Weather Station (with instruments outside)

物輕情意重

聰明豆(Smarties)一直是自己童年時代摯愛的朱古力糖。當時每粒豆，大得像衣鈕。將它們放在手心是會融化的。它們七彩的糖衣或糖心的朱古力，都令我心悅。現在的聰明豆有袖珍形的，可能是專給小朋友食用的。

以前美味的聰明豆是用圓柱形狀紙筒盛載著，一端是封閉的，另一端的顏色膠蓋是可以打開的。想知道紙筒內大約有幾多聰明豆，只要搖一兩下紙筒就知曉了。

最近女兒在網上顯現過加拿大售賣的聰明豆，豆是用像擦紙膠般大小相約的長方盒(12cm x 2.5cm x 1.5cm)裝著。既然盒子是那麼小，裏面的聰明豆一定相應小。我曾經對女兒說其中一款的包裝盒特別趣緻，因為盒上有【愛】心一個，背面佈滿粉紅色的心，亦印上To 和From各一欄，相信是送給情人用的。小小的禮物，充滿著愛，又經濟，又物輕情意重！今次正是女兒送給我的父親節禮物。多謝 Connie.

Elly likes Stickers

Elly entered her Stickers' World yesterday (May 7, 2011). She stuck some of her stickers onto her nose, arms and legs. I think sticking is a really good exercise for her. It trains the motor skills and coordination of her hands, fingers, and eyes. Now if we ask Elly to stick ordinary stamps onto envelopes, she is able to help us.

The photos show that Elly enjoys the moments of her "game of creativity". Note that she puts a red sticker onto her little nose. That’s how Elly spent a quarter of an hour in this kind of play.

Back to Hong Kong

Early yesterday morning, we arrived at HK International Airport to welcome Connie, Philip, Abby and Elly back to Hong Kong.

It did not take long to see them come out from exit A. Connie and Philip each pushed a trolley of luggage while Abby her younger sister on a pram.

We rushed a little to board an airbus back to Shatin. Elly pointed and uttered “bus” when she saw it. I did not believe she could recognize one because the buses in Vancouver are single-decked instead of ours, double-decked.

Except Philip who looked after the luggage, we all sat at the front of the upper deck to get a better view outside the bus.

Abby was excited and talked to her grandma all the way. Behind sat Elly comfortably upright with her mother. I was busy taking photos along the way. It rained a little on Tsing Ma Bridge, so some of my photos showed rain drops on the window before me.

This time, they could not conquer their jet lag and felt sleepy at around five in the afternoon. Both girls did not take their dinner at all. Connie, Abby and Elly woke up at early (1:45 a.m.) in the middle of the night. They became fresh, sober and active like those nocturnal animals.