At Rotorua

After Taupo, Yin Ping and Ho Keung went north to a bigger town called Rotorua. It was September 3rd, 2007.

Rotorua Gondola, situated on the side of Mt. Ngongotaha, was not a steep ride, but with a panoramic view of the town and Lake Rotorua. It summit was 487 m. above sea level.

There were cable cars running up and down its slope to save people’s energy of walking. Yin Ping and Ho Keung had the leisure of sitting back in a café looking at the beautiful sceneries around the lake and sipping from their cups of coffee or tea. How relaxing they were!

After the drink, Yin Ping was able to “direct” the cable cars to go up or down the slopes with her magic hands.

Some people were taking chairlifts to the top of the hill to take the gravity ride on 3-wheel carts with braking and steering systems down the slopes – A world’s ”first” designed game in Rotorua, called the luge.

Funny Actions Abby makes (2)

(4) At the play-site inside Ma On Shan Central Park, Abby ducked down when I was taking a photo of her with my camera. Do you know why? It was simply because she found that I was bending down and so she imitated my pose (有樣學樣). She does not understand that I have to make myself shorter to take a better photo of her.

(5) At CU on the day when graduation photos were taken, Abby came to my side. She was very interested in looking at the photo I had just taken. She likes to look at the photo on the LCD screen of my camera whenever I am with her.

(6) Abby was curious to see Tony wearing the square-top hat on the day at CU. She came close to Tony who was sitting on the ground ready for a photo taken. She touched the hat gently, without taking it off. Touching the hat was better than seizing it. Good Abby!

Funny Actions Abby makes (1)

Here are examples of funny actions Abby makes:

(1) Once Abby went past the the entrance hall to Shatin KCR Station. At that time, an overhead projector was sending out images of games on the floor. We placed Abby in that area. At first she was walking about and over the image. Later she sat down and looked at the interesting pictures around her. She was so wise to sit down. I guessed she found it too troublesome to walk about and chase after the moving cartoons or figures. She marveled at the changes of the images and was totally absorbed in the “Game”.

(2) Abby likes to smell things such as leather, pre-moist paper-towel and anything that carries fragrance. When she gets hold of grandma’s leather bag of keys, she will put it near her nose and smell it. In restaurants, she loves to smell the wet paper-towel after her hands were wiped with it. I believe she will certainly buy a lot of perfume and rub it all over her body when she grows up!

(3) Abby knows the numbers “1” and “5”. When she hears people calling “one”, she will raise her fore-finger to show “1” and when people say, “Give me five”, she will show her palm in the “upright” position to show the “5”!

裕華園

裕華園 (Chinese Garden) 是在星加坡西面, 比金文泰 (Clementi)(EW23) 還要遠很多的一個中國式的公園

去這個公園絕對不難, 乘坐MRT東西線(EW)列車, 在Chinese Garden站 (EW25)下車, 走幾百碼就可以進入公園.

裏面有很多中國古代名人像, 這裡其中一張相中的名人就是令我尊敬的祖先屈原.

日規儀是這公園特色之一. 相信忘記帶手表的人士想知道什麼時候, 都沒有問題. 只要認識子時, 丑時, 寅時, 卯時….等等是什麼就可以了!

園中更有十二生肖像, 試一試找出自己的生肖吧!

Little India

North-east of Orchard Road (烏節路) is Little India (小印度) which is a community centre of Indians who live in Singapore. In other words, most Indians live together there.

Taking the NE route of MRT, one can get off the station called Little India (NE7). An India Temple comes into attraction to his/ her eyes with many statues of Indians at its roof-top. It seems that the roof of the temple is a display stage for the statues. It may take half an hour to finish looking at these statues and more to learn the stories behind. There are quite a number of tall buildings surrounding this particular temple.

At the roadside of a street, there was an interesting colourful tall box. Taking a closer look, one may find that it is a mail box. Funny enough, the Indians still write letters and send them home instead of writing e-mails through Internet.

Little Indian Arcade is packed with lots of little stores selling traditional Indian clothing, bags and accessories. In that case, we need not go to India. We can simply buy things here!

Eating Indian food in Little India may be a good choice. Some of the bread there is longer than our hands and bigger than our heads. Do you want to try some?

Paper Christmas Tree

In my childhood, I loved to buy and make Paper models (紙板模型) from book-stores. These models were interesting to make because they all came from big flat sheets of cardboard (咭紙). Later, they were turned into 3-dimensional paper planes, tanks, houses and cars which were my targets.

It was a usual practice for me to cut the pieces out with a pair of scissors, then apply a cutting blade lightly over the dotted lines which, when folded, form the creases (摺痕) and finally stick those loose pieces together with adhesive glue called OK Glue. The satisfaction came when the Paper model was completed.

As I grew up, I bought boxes of models made of plastics toy shops instead. They were quite expensive. Again, jet-fighters, bombers, warships like destroyers, even air-craft carriers were my favourite toys to assemble.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law gave me a paper Christmas tree. She said it was a free gift from a newspaper called Apple Daily. She did not bother to make it herself. She believes I could make it. I promised her to make it for her and post it up in my blog.

Here it is in the photo. The Paper Christmas tree is made from three triangular surfaces with tiny decorations inserted into their slots. It stands upright on the floor with the help of a little glue. There is a fireplace on one of its walls. More attractive are the Christmas presents and Christmas cards placed near it.

I did not really make the Paper Christmas tree because this morning my wife found much interest in doing it for me and sister-in-law. Thanks for my wife’s efforts, but I am sure I can bring the Christmas tree to life as well as she did.

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007

This Marathon was held on Sunday, December 2^nd, 2007. A record of around 40000 runners went running on some of the roads of Singapore in the morning.

The slogan of this Marathon was “Impossible is nothing”. It is quite impressive, but I think "Nothing is impossible" is better!

The categories included the Full Marathon (42.195 km), the Half Marathon and the 10km, 10 km wheelies and the Kids Dash.

The running course for the Full Marathon was flat, green, shady and beautiful. The runners started from the end of Esplanade Drive near the Merlion opposite to the Fullerton Hotel and ran round the reclaimed land in Marina South and ran back to the starting point, passed the Singapore River and further north and then eastward along East Coast Park Service Road.

Last time when I was in Singapore, I went to the Jumbo Restaurant inside this East Coast Park to have a delicious sea food dinner. After dinner, we took a walk in the long and narrow Park. There were lots of trees. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily when we were walking along its road. We had no choice but to return to the taxi-stand to hire a taxi home.

The runners then turned back the same way westward, passed the city streets the Central Business District until they reached the Finishing Point at St. Andrew’s Road near City Hall MRT Station.

This year the Men’s Open winner was Elijah Moogo, a Kenyan, who broke a record of 2:14:22.

Wedding Banquet at The Grand Stage

Wilson and Susanna invited us to their Wedding Banquet at The Grand Stage (大舞臺飯店) of Western Market (西港城) on December 21^st, 2007.

Strange enough, we were honoured to be invited to sit at the head table with the married couple, parents and grandma of Wilson. Of course Abby sat with us too.

I guessed this restaurant could hold about 20 tables of guests, some of which were placed at the balconies.

As usual, a wedding cake was cut, the couple kissed and gave speeches and videos were played.

Dinner started at about nine. There were dishes of delicious food placed in front of us. At the same time, a singer sang beautiful songs for us. I was happy to be able to recognize some of their melodies.

At one time, Philip and Connie were invited to the stage by the married couple, so two brothers and their wives met. Wilson gave a Wedding Anniversary card to Philip and Connie on congratulating them their 5^th Wedding Anniversary on the Same Day, December 21^st. That was like a presentation ceremony!

After dinner, the bride and the bridegroom plus their parents led the first dance, then other couples followed. My wife and I did not join them because we understood quite well that we were not skillful at dancing. Soon it was time (11:15 p.m.) to leave.

Change Colours

Natural Christmas trees are usually made from Pine trees with their beautiful cones. They are Green in colour. Artificial ones may appear in White, Red, Blue and other colours. Now in the photo, you can see a Purple Musical Christmas tree inside New Town Plaza at Shatin. With the stage, the Christmas tree looks like a rocket.

聖誕花 normally appears in Red colour, but I find some White ones. I do not know the reasons why. Maybe it is due to old age, or change of genes or being purified or being dyed. It is not natural at all to see such flowers become white.

Our Postal vehicles were Red when it was still under the British Rule, but now they appear in Green and Purple. Those vehicles that carry corpses were Black in the past, but now Orange-yellow.

The vehicles in Hong Kong that still keep their colours are Coca-cola trucks (Red), Fire-engines (Red) and Ambulances (White).

Merry Christmas

Abby, our Star of the Year, speaks on our behalf, to All the readers of this blog,

“Hi, everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!”

“May I and family wish you all happy and healthy all through the year!”

“I wish myself grow faster and taller!”

火滾滾的牛肉乾

昨晚就是去西港城這個地方飲宴, 在北角至維園段東區走廊塞車塞了十分鐘, 轉往北角接太太, 然後在天后一段英皇道又塞了另外十分鐘, 在銅鑼灣接Tony, 繞過跑馬地, 上堅尼地道往中環, 下了花園道. 眼見皇后大道中非常塞車, 見右面線有私家車駛往德輔道中, 於是放心跟隨其後, 以為可以行捷徑, 但當時左面排滿了巴士, 於是往右線駛. 前面有一個警察走過來, 看看我的車頭玻璃是否有許可証, 然後對我說我已經違反了規例, 告訴我只有專利巴士和特別許可證的車輛, 才可以使用由銀行街至雪廠街之間的德輔道中. 我這樣就是把車泊在路旁, 交出駕駛執照, 被抄了牌, 吃了令人火滾的牛肉乾. 再向前駛, 前路又塞滿上落客的巴士, 又修路, 簡直寸步難行! 全程由馬鞍山至北角再經銅鑼灣至上環足足走了個半鐘有餘!

心想這又是運輸署無能的做法, 若這段路塞車的話, 很簡單, 立例禁止私家車進入便大功告成. 若有司機犯規, 庫房又有進賬, 何樂而不為呢! 於是私家車便成二等車輛, 無專利, 無地位, 無尊嚴. 那幾千元的車輛牌照費只是給車輛在路上跑跑罷了!

其實運輸署在香港, 九龍及新界設有很多巴士專線, 把私家車排擠去另外一條行車線便算了. 同時全港大多數的主要道路都被畫上了黃色單和雙線, 司機想找適合的地方上落乘客是非常困難的. 這條路不准轉左, 那條路不准轉右, 往往已經可以把一個司機氣死了!

今次得到一個教訓, 往中上環, 要乘專利巴士或地鐵. 但昨晚要接送Abby及一干人等去飲宴和返家, 無法了. 無端端被罰了四百五十大元給政府, 真是不值!

奧運福娃

福娃是北京2008年第29屆奧運會吉祥物，其色彩與靈感來源於奧林匹克五環、來源於中國遼闊的山川大地、江河湖海和人們喜愛的動物形象。福娃向世界各地的孩子們傳遞友誼、和平、積極進取的精神和人與自然和諧 相處的美好願望。

　　福娃是五個可愛的親密小伙伴，他們的造型融入了魚、大熊貓、藏羚羊、燕子以及奧林匹克聖火的形象。

　　每個娃娃都有一個琅琅上口的名字:“貝貝”、“晶晶”、“歡歡”、“迎迎”和“妮妮”，在中國，疊音名字是對孩子表達喜愛的一種傳統方式。當把五個娃娃的名字連在一起，你會讀出北京對世界的盛情邀請“北京歡迎您”。

貝貝 (Beibei) – 藍色 – 北

晶晶 (Jingjing) – 黑色 – 京

歡歡 (Huanhuan) – 紅色 – 歡

迎迎 (Yingying) – 黃色 – 迎

妮妮 (Nini) – 綠色 – 你

　　福娃代表了夢想以及中國人民的渴望。他們的原型和頭飾蘊含著其與海洋、森林、火、大地和天空的聯系，其形象設計應用了中國傳統藝術的表現方式，展現了中國的燦爛文化。

　　很久以來，中國就有通過符號傳遞祝福的傳統。北京奧運會吉祥物的每個娃娃都代表著一個美好的祝願：繁榮、歡樂、激情、健康與好運。娃娃們帶著北京的盛情，將祝福帶往世界各個角落，邀請各國人民共聚北京，歡慶2008奧運盛典。

這次在沙田中央公園所拍攝回來的照片中有紅色的歡歡, 黃色的迎迎及藍色的貝貝, 心裏著實有些驚喜!

[部份資料來自人民網]

Promotion of Olympic Games 2008 at Shatin

Recently, inside Shatin Central Park, during night time, some beautiful lanterns are lit. They are displayed there for the promotion of the Olympic Games 2008, Beijing.

Hong Kong is famous for wind-surfing because our Wind-surfing Queen, Lee Lai Shan, won a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (first in board-sailing) for Hong Kong, so the large photo here shows our pride in this event.

Since Eventing and Cross-country riding on horses in the coming Olympic Games will be held in Hong Kong, it is natural for our host city to promote these games here. In the first small photo, there is a horse jumping over a fence.

In the next two small photos, you may find an athlete holding a torch of fire for the Games leading a number of horses.

In the last photo, it is funny to find a Santa Claus ready to jump from a diving-board into a swimming pool.

Some Weather Stations in Hong Kong

Meteorology is an interesting science in which people study weather, earth’s atmosphere and its changes.

Wind vanes (showing wind direction), speedometers (showing wind speed), rain gauge (instrument measuring rainfall) are some of the basic instruments. At a site of Shatin, I found these instruments.

Probably it is a station collecting data of weather at Shatin for the Hong Kong Observatory.

In the large photo, the wind vanes are pointing at different directions showing that the winds do not come from the same direction (無定向風) .

The first small photo shows that the winds come from a single direction and all the wind vanes are pointing in one direction.

The second small photo shows a wind vane and a tall bin, I guess, for collecting rain water.

The third small photo shows two dome-like structures. Probably they are the offices to collect and analyze data of local weather.

The last small photo shows a roadside weather station (路邊空氣監測站) at the centre of the road opposite Kei Wing Primary School (基榮小學) at Tai Kok Tsui. I guess it is used to study the air pollution level, say, at Mongkok and Tai Kok Tsui.