Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Art Gallery at Ma Wan Park (2)












I give the titles to the two pictures that I posted up last time as:

(1) Angry Face (火紅火綠的臉兒)

(2) Walking in the Garden at Roman Times (羅馬帝國時代的園中遊)

This time, I shall give these titles to the two pictures as:

(3) A Helping Hand (向世界伸出援手)

(4) Hide away from the Red-hot sun (樹蔭下避暑)

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

A Little Actress of a Horrid Film

At one time at the Wedding Banquet of Abby’s uncle, the lights were turned dim because the Master of Ceremony spoke again. Everybody was looking at the stage, except Abby.

All of a sudden, Abby pulled her face long with her fingers such that her face was distorted into one with curved eyes and an inverted U-mouth. The blue light on her face came from a small electric magic wand, a gift given to each guest. The face and the light produced a very scary effect. We could not imagine how a beautiful face could be changed into a horrible one like this.

Not a single word of the M.C. came into my ears. What I supposed to do at that time was to raise my camera to take such an interesting shot. My wife and I laughed at Abby until she put her hands off her face and her beauty returned.

Monday, January 07, 2008

“荃”港興旺利是封

好運連連, 一路暢旺, 送你港興旺利是封 正是港鐵友禮會積分獎勵計劃的廣告口號!

Tony是其會員. 我不是, 因自己近年來甚少搭地鐵(現叫港鐵). Tony很有心, 代父購買地鐵紀念票.

根據宣傳, 會員於今年17日至31日搭港鐵, 機場快綫, 輕鐵及港鐵巴士, $1就有1. 100分即可換領該上述利是封, 我相信Tony替我們換上兩包利是封絕對不成問題的.

這次廣告, 又採用填字遊戲方式, 既慳水又慳力!

Art Gallery at Ma Wan Park (1)














Big wall pictures are difficult to draw. Multi-sided big wall pictures are extremely difficult to draw.

I was astonished to find several beautiful wall pictures before me when I came to Ma Wan Park.

The artist(s) who painted these wall pictures are talented. They are like magicians. What they bring us are views in their mind? I leave you interpret what the pictures convey to you.

You see. Different people will have different perceptions. See what you perceive and write about it.

This is only the first twin-picture. One may find two pictures on the same wall. He/She may see a picture first and by walking a distance further, he/she may find another picture before them (looking from a new angle).

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Ma Wan Park (2) - 大人國



Behind the rock which bore the name “Ma Wan Park” was a slope of colourful shrubs, carefully cut. At that moment, I got the feeling of reaching a Wonderland because the arrangement of the shrubs forms beautiful sunflowers, big enough to be the flowers of a Giant Kingdom (大人國). Around these flowers were some big bees which added much life to this slope-picture.







Beside the path, on each piece of big rock, we found a word of wisdom to remind people to be gentle or good or have self-control …….

On the ground, we saw a beautiful carving of a flower of chrysanthemum. I dared not step on it cause I feared that the weight on my feet would destroy it. I recorded it into my camera and see if it would be still there next time.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Ma Wan Park (1) - 馬灣公園門景


January 1st, 2008 was a fine day for outings. After lunch, we took a bus to Shing Mun Tunnel and changed another bus to Tsuen Wan at the Interchange Bus Station outside its mouth.

To go to Ma Wan Park, people should board special buses – NR330 (from Tsing Yi MTR Station) or NR331 (from Tsuen Wan MTR Station) or NR332 (from Metro Plaza near Kwai Fong MTR Station). These buses are large single-decked. The waiting time (20-30 minutes) is more than the traveling time (just 10 minutes). The bus fares are several dollars from 6 to 8. The residents with their cards (also Octopus) can have cheaper prices

Since Ma Wan is restricted to cars of outsiders, it can only be reached either by these special buses or ferries.

On reaching the Park, our two teams (1) Philip and his parents (2) Connie and her parents (plus Abby) decided to take a group photo in front of the Name of the Park. A kind passer-by helped us to.

It was clear enough the First Day of the Year because at the entrance, the clever design of the “portable trays of letter and number plants” told us so. I guessed some of the trays of these plants would be removed and replaced to make up the exact date each day.

I took the first photo of Philip’s family in front of a huge shell.

Is it the photo of a Sun-Eclipse?


Of course not! I do not have a telescopic camera nor I am crazy at Astronomy.

What you can see here is the dark brown Chocolate Birthday Cake Connie baked for me yesterday. Connie decorated the cake with those worm-like sugar-lets.


It looked like a Christmas Cake more than a Birthday Cake because there were no cream, no fruit nor candles. Philip took a photo of me cutting the cake with Abby and Connie next to me. Where were Tony and my wife? Well, they were occupied in their activities.

The third photo shows how thick the cake was. Abby was given about one hundredth of the cake to eat, which was equivalent to two to three lumps of the cake. The reason was simple enough. Dinner was ready at that time and Abby had to leave room for her vegetables, fish and rice.

The taste of the cake is similar to those “Garden” bar-like chocolate cakes (嘉頓朱古力雪芳蛋糕) sold in supermarkets, a thousand times less sweet than those American-style chocolate cakes.

The cake is not sweet to taste, but, in my heart, it is really very sweet. It is because it was made by my daughter on my birthday.

Imitations

Scientists take the shape of a whale to be the shape of a submarine because of its stream-line. Aircraft designers make their planes look like birds with wings stretching out and bats for “invisible” planes.

Men find the virtue of camouflage from animals and insects as a protection for themselves in warfare. As a result, uniforms of soldiers, tanks, planes or weapons are in colours similar to the surrounding environment so that they are well-protected.

Babies learn by imitating the actions of the adults. They imitate sounds too. That’s how they learn to speak.

I find this advertisement very comfortable to look at. The chair seems to be very comfortable, but, sure enough it is expensive. The poses of the ladies and the man are elegant. I don’t know if they are performing Yoga or not.

One thing that I can find here is the harmony between the chair + stool and the poses of the people behind. They match so well here.

Which imitates which? The design of the chairs and stool imitates the poses of those people behind or the other way round. I guess the chance of the latter case is higher.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Sha-la-la-la-la, Sha-la-la-in the morning,……..

This is a beautiful toy, “My Melody”, given to Abby by her Great Uncle and Aunt

When we press the red mark on the left arm of the “My Melody”, it will walk like Abby and sing a beautiful song at the same time. The song goes like this: Sha-la-la-la-la, Sha-la-la-in the morning, Woo, Woo, Woo, Sha-la-la-la-la, Sha-la-la- in the sunshine………”

If I make a mistake here, please tell me! I am not that good at songs.



The gifts “My Melody” is holding will glow when it walks and sings. How cute it is!

On January 1st, we saw Abby holding this wonderful toy in her arms to show to her Great Uncle and Aunt that she loved it so much and would like to say, “Thank you, Great Uncle and Aunt!” To her, it was the best New Year Gift!

Interesting photos of Abby


The top photo shows Abby’s round face against two round vase-like pillars for a low fence in Ma On Shan Central Park. I like this photo because I can compare the roundness of Abby’s face with those ball-like parts of the pillars.


The left photo shows that Abby is facing many things that are right or wrong. Teaching her which are right and which are wrong is most important at this stage.



The right photo is also a good photo. I like it too. This photo shows that Abby was happy at the moment when she walked into an open play-house in which she could look out and see us from the curved windows (holes rather). That house was her paradise at that moment.

Iran (2)


By a Domestic flight, my eldest brother and sister-in-law went south of Tehran (closer to Caspian Sea –裏海) to another city called Shiraz (設拉子). Shiraz is a city closer to Persian Gulf. The hotels there were equally good as those in the capital.

They visited the remains of a Ruined City (now well-preserved). This city was established many years ago by the Persians (波斯人). At that time, Persia (波斯) was a strong country with elite armies.

The tall and strong pillars reflect to us that the ancestors there were once great builders. The statues of armoured horses and the carvings of soldiers on walls show to us that the Persians fought many battles.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Iran (1)





















My eldest brother and sister-in-law had a tour in Iran (伊朗) in November, 2007. They first took a plane to Doha (多哈), Qatar (卡塔爾) and changed a plane to Tehran(黑蘭), the capital of Iran. The weather there was sunny and dry.

Before the plane landed, all the lady passengers and air-hostesses had to wrap themselves up with long sleeves, long trousers or cloths of any kind over the body and hair, except the face. The males were better, but they could not wear shorts.

Iran is a rich country, so its hotels are first–class.

My brother and sister-in-law visited mosques with towers, a summer palace where they found beautiful mosaic walls and ceilings, baths with hot springs. The people of Iran love Persian Cats, so inside the palace there were statues of these lovely cats.

新填字遊戲廣告


最近在港鐵車站見到以填字遊戲形式作為新廣告.

(1) 東南西北

(2) 沙河粉

(3) 車水馬龍

製造這個廣告的人一定對填字遊戲特別有興趣, 所以把部份車站名稱串連起來.

請問大家那一個車站在這些廣告中出現了兩次呢?

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Fireworks on Sydney Harbour Bridge 2008


I got this photo from a newspaper. It shows the coming of New Year 2008 in Sydney. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is famous for its firework display every year.

Last year, we left Sydney in the afternoon of December 31st. Surely we missed the firework that night.

I missed it too this year. I could not catch the glorious sight of the fireworks on television.

The Film We saw on the Last day of 2007

On this day - December 31st, we decided to go to MCL Cinema at Tseng Kwan O to see the film called National Treasure Book of Secrets (驚天奪寶世紀秘冊).

Tony got two complimentary tickets for us and we found the most appropriate date to spend two hours in a cinema watching a film free of charge.

In the morning we had had breakfast. We guessed if we saw the 12:20 film, the chance of a “full-house” would be less. By trains, we arrived at Po Lam Station at about 10: 40 a.m. We walked round to find the cinema because we had never been to it before. When we reached the ticket office, we learned that we were the third and fourth persons watching the film. The fear of a “full-house” never existed.

Our next move was to take the second breakfast from “一粥麵”. If we did not eat anything, we would be hungry after two o’clock. It was a record in our History of eating two breakfasts on the same morning.

Let’s go back to the film. Since I am not a good story-teller, I will not tell the story from the beginning to end. What I suppose to write here are the parts of the film that I enjoyed most.

The story is about a book of secrets kept by the President of United States which the actor wanted to get.

Here I pinpoint at the following parts in the film:

(1) The film began with the scenes of the assassination of President Lincoln and the decoding of some ciphers on a piece of paper.

(2) When the actor met his wife and called her "Abigail", my wife and I looked at each other in the dark and laughed. What! Our grand-daughter is also called "Abigail". What a coincidence!

(3) The chief actor wanted to find out the secrets behind the assassination and another actor aimed at a treasure in a hidden city.

(4) It was amazing to me that the actors and actress accessed the Buckingham Palace and the White House to get the pieces of wood with some ancient writings from both the resolution desks without difficulties. I was interested in how they escaped from the scenes.

(5) The most exciting part of the film was the car chase in the narrow streets with many pedestrians. The Mercedes Benz the actor and actress were using was invincible.

(6) Finally, the treasure hunt was like the film called “Into the Centre of the Earth” (地心探險記).

On the whole, the film was worth seeing. I am sure I can remember this film because my wife and I saw it on the Last Day of 2007.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

The Count-down to New Year 2008 in Hong Kong











This article was simply the work of Tony who captured the moments of count-down in Victoria Harbour and a few minutes after midnight.





TheTVB Camera was focusing at our IFC (International Financial Centre) which was the first time in its history of sending out fireworks from its outer walls and top.




I was too tired to wait, so I went to sleep, hoping that I would get up before the countdown. When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock, it was already 12:10 a.m. I missed the important moment of changing from the year 2007 into 2008.




It was today that my son told me that he captured thirty-one photos from his computer the scenes presented by HKTVB. Thanks to Tony and TVB.




Please begin looking at the photos from the bottom to the top.




There is no description to each photo because I knew nothing about it.



The bottom-most photo was taken at 23: 56.


The 5 photos above it were taken at 23:59.


The next 5 photos upwards were taken at 00:00.


The top-most photo was taken at 00:01.