An Interesting film-clip, cast by James Bond and the Queen

Before the Opening Ceremony of Summer Olympics started, a short film called Happy and Glorious was broadcast, featuring James Bond (played by current Bond actor Daniel Craig) entering Buckingham Palace. Bond escorted Queen Elizabeth II (who played herself) out of the building and into a waiting helicopter, which flew across London to the stadium. At the end of the film, Bond and Her Majesty jump from the helicopter and this was interspersed with live footage of actors playing the pair who parachuted out of a helicopter over the stadium (using Union Jack parachutes).

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh (as well as Count Rogge, President of the IOC) were then introduced in the stadium. The Union Flag was then raised by members of the British Armed Forces, with the national anthem performed a cappella by the Kaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children

Flying over River Thames

Flying over River Thames towards Olympic Stadium on a helicopter, the cameraman brought me a feeling of flying over this famous river in Great Britain.

The journey well began from London Eye (the large wheel on the right-hand side of the first photo near Jubilee Gardens. There are quite a number of bridges here such as Golden Jubilee, Charing Cross, Westminster, Waterloo and BlackFriars (railway) Bridges.

The dome-shaped building is St. Paul’s Cathedral and the most attractive bridge of all is the Tower Bridge on which Olympic Rings are hung at the moment.

River Thames meanders and many ships, big and small are at anchor and recently warships even station along it to give protection to this vibrant city of the world.

The helicopter suddenly flied across a bend, turned left and dashed its way towards the Olympic Stadium, dressed in white, at London Olympic Park.

Penguins full of love

The penguins in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SkY03n0_sD8&vq=medium are sunbathing. The adults, full of love, are taking good care of their young ones, feeding, teaching them to walk, brushing their furs and guiding them for a hike. 

螞蟻可變色

通常人們頭腦中螞蟻的形象是黑色身體，不過最近一位英國科學家拍出一組彩色螞蟻的照片，其中的秘密源自螞蟻所吃的食物顏色。 這組照片是由53歲的科學家穆罕默德‧巴布博士拍攝的。他的靈感來自妻子哈梅埃姆，她發現螞蟻的肚子在喝了牛奶後變成了白色，並把這一發現告訴了巴布。

巴布博士由此大受啟發。他將糖和紅、綠、藍、黃等顏色的食用色素混合在一起，做成膠狀的彩色糖槳，放在花園裡吸引螞蟻。螞蟻吃了顏色各異的糖後，半透明的胃的顏色就變成了他們所吃的糖的顏色。這正應驗了英語中那句老話 “食如其人You are what you eat.”。正如這些照片顯示，螞蟻腹部的顏色會根據所吃糖水的顏色而變化。有一些螞蟻還能從一個顏色變成另一個顏色。

這組照片看起來新奇有趣，可是拍攝的過程並不容易。巴布說：“儘管在短短幾分鐘就可以吸引到很多螞蟻，但還是需要重拍很多次才能達到我想要的效果。拍一張照片也是很辛苦的，因為在短短幾分鐘之內，前來的螞蟻就已經非常多，這時我就要右手操作我的照相機，左手忙於趕走多餘的螞蟻。

Mc Flurry and Typhoon Vicente

Yesterday inside a Mc Donald’s, Elly and Abby enjoyed eating McFlurry (麥旋風). Elly chose Oreo (曲奇麥旋風) and Abby Smarties McFlurry (聰明豆麥旋風). Grandma suggested them to share the two different ice-cream flavours between them.

The Smartied and Oreo in the Mcflurries had been crushed to small pieces and mixed with soft ice-cream. What clever is to create such “duets” in ice-cream!

Outside the McDonald's, strong winds were blowing. At that moment, typhoon signal number 3 had been hoisted and Typhoon “Vicente” was taking a northward course towards Hong Kong. It was expected that typhoon signal number 8 would be hoisted at around 6 o’ clock in the evening. Soon our two grand-daughters experienced strong winds and rain drops beating on their faces on their way to the nearby MTR Station. Their parents were coming to take them home.

Fortunately they could still walk with ease on their way though their hair had been flying with the winds all the time.

It was dramatic enough to find typhoon signals changing so rapidly through the night, number 8 being hoisted at 5:40 p.m., 9 at 11:20 p.m., 10 at 00:45 a.m. and 8 again at 03:35 a.m. Strong winds were blowing and heavy rain falling continuously, but it was a "fast" show.

歐國盃決賽最溫馨的時刻

歐洲國家盃決賽最溫馨的時刻落在西班牙球隊勝出後, 球員返回場邊從觀眾席把自己的子女抱在懷裡時開始. 這些小孩天真可愛,見到慈祥父親的笑臉,尤其開心.

最特別的地方是那些父親球員為子女穿上和自己用一號數的球衣,也不忘把他們的名字印在其上. 喜見其中有些小朋友還跑出球場,甚至在龍門口玩耍一番.

今次西班牙球員在決賽上除了球技出類拔萃之外,也顯現出濃烈的父愛情懷.

Children watches

This afternoon at a Mc Donald’s, our grandchildren showed us their new watches given by Auntie Pal. To our surprise, they displayed them in ways similar to those of models.

At a close look, each watch has an hour-hand and a minute-hand with numbers round the face. Elly’s watch has a red to purple face while Abby’s a white one. It seemed to me that Abby was able to read the time from her watch, but Elly could not. Anyway, it was a good practice for the children to know about time and be punctual in the future.

Coffee hurts

This is a joke which my student, Edward, sent me. See if you can guess the reason why "coffee hurts".

In the week leading up to Canada Day, I was eating lunch with a friend and her 6-year-old granddaughter. She was pretty animated as she talked about school and friends and teachers.

As I sipped my coffee, I asked her, "What special day is coming soon on July 1st?"

She said "Canada Day". She's a smart kid. So, I asked....

"What does Canada Day mean?"

Waiting for her reply with something about the flag, confederation etc. She Replied......."Canada Day is when the Prime Minister steps out of the Parliament Building , and if he sees his own shadow we'll have one more year of high unemployment."........

You know, - it hurts when hot coffee spurts out your nose.

黃蝶採蜜記

今早熱浪逼人，吃過早餐，去過超級市場，歸家巳是九時左右。路過彎曲的花槽，忽見一隻色彩不甚繽紛的淺黃色蝴蝶在花叢間飛舞。我以最快的速度掏出隨身相機，像影迷追「星」的姿態去追著這隻小小蝴蝶。它忽左忽右飄渺的飛行路線，弄我至汗流浹背。可幸它每每用上幾秒鐘停留在鮮紅的龍船花上，慢條斯理去採花蜜─那麼樣，我才有足夠時間去捕捉這隻忙碌而不怕人的蝴蝶採蜜這組鏡頭呢。

A Bed of beautiful flowers at Hong Kong Park

For a few minutes near the entrance of Hong Kong Park last Saturday, I gazed at these beautiful flowers in a flower bed. The flowers were mixed so well that they were worth looking at for a whole afternoon.

How can different flowering plants be “blended” in such a good combination? The gardener must have spent a lot of time in designing in his/her head how to imbed the flowering plants into the soil so that they can grow harmoniously together.

The Statue of Liberty at Mid-levels

Last Saturday, July 14, Elly was given a red flower with a green stalk twisted from narrow balloons at her cousin’s birthday party in a restaurant at Mid-levels, Central. An idea blinked at my head. I made a gesture to her to raise her flower as she was kneeling on a chair close to me.

She followed my instruction and raised her flower high for a photo taken. At that moment, I imagine her to be the "Statue of Liberty" at New York. Her smile, full of sunlight, was completely different from the stern look of the cold Statue in the United States. Elly was holding her “torch of fire” by her left hand, instead of the right hand by the Statue. Another obvious difference is that Elly did not hold a book in her other hand.

At that moment, Elly suddenly reflected the image of the famous Statue in New York to me, which was indeed a very interesting flash across my mind.

Parrot Flowers

It is rare to see this kind of flowers that grows in Thailand. The flowers look like parrots and they belong to a protected species. Is there any relationship between the flowers with real parrots? I don’t know.

Euro2012歐洲國家盃決賽

Euro2012歐洲國家盃決賽終於在昨晚(七月一日)來臨。西班牙國家足球隊擁著2008年歐洲國家盃冠軍及2010年世界盃冠軍榮譽而來跟意大利隊硬拼。

開賽初期雙方互有攻勢，西班牙眾球員的精準短傳真了不起，進攻時有很大作用。西班牙的守門員卡斯拿斯亦很出色，為己方救出兩三個險球。

在14分鐘，21號球員大衛施華走位迅速刁鑽，在中路得到10號球員法比加斯在底線回傳，一腳把足球踢進龍門裏面成一比零。

在41分鐘，18希號球員艾巴接應從後傳球單刀直入把球送入網內。賽果變成二比零。


下半場，意大利3號球員基亞連尼扭傷了腿而退出陣線，意大利隊要十人應戰(因為球員已換盡)，全隊即時雪上加霜。

被換入的9號費蘭度托利斯在84分鐘為西班牙射入第三球。這時意大利隊大勢已去，冠軍希望幻滅了。

西班牙的13號球員馬達得很到費蘭度托利斯傳中擊球入網。賽果頓成四比零。

最後西班牙國家隊以無敵姿態取勝及蟬聯歐洲國家盃冠軍！

Euro2012歐洲國家盃決賽前之列隊儀式

Euro2012歐洲國家盃決賽前，千人操之後， 西班牙和意大利球員牽著一班小朋友的手魚貫進場. 兩隊在國旗旁邊列隊，意大利的國歌隨即奏出。

鏡頭開始捕捉每一位意大利球員唱國歌的表情。這裡唱得最投入的是隊長(即守門員)保方。鏡頭一轉，忽見球隊後方近中場位置有一班歌手正在伴唱意大利國歌，當然他們唱起歌來比球員們的更悅耳更動聽啦。

隨後奏出的是西班牙的國歌。令我覺得奇怪的是所有球員都合攏了嘴巴，好像人人不識唱自己國歌一樣。原來從電視台評述員口中得悉西班牙國歌是沒有歌詞的！

兩隊的守門員保方及卡斯尼拿斯(同是隊長)互相交換錦旗，又和球証一一握手。主球証以擲毫方式由勝方決定選場。

Euro2012歐洲國家盃決賽前奏

Euro2012歐洲國家盃(即歐洲足球錦標賽)決賽於七月一日在基輔可容納60000人的奧林匹克球場舉行。

球賽前奏是千人操。分別穿上奪目的橙和綠色彩衣的表演者砌出穿著足球鞋的「大腳」不斷踢球，也見「人頭」在頂頭鎚。從一鏡頭，我捕捉到巨球入了直正龍門裏面。其間有一位美女歌手在巨型銀色國家盃前面跳舞唱歌。最後表演人員砌出一個人人皆有的一個美麗的心來結束表演。