Common Plants at UBC

Inside the Botanic Garden of UBC were small fields planting some common vegetables and apple trees.
















Here they were:

Top left photo: Tomato plants --------------Top right photo: Leaves of Broccoli

















Middle left photo: egg plants ------------------Middle right: maize plants










Bottom left: Leaves of Cauliflowers------------Bottom right: apple trees

In the past, I just looked at the end products of the vegetables or fruits at home or markets without knowing how they grew and what they looked when they were young.

It is really wonderful this time in Canada to know more about the growth, changes and development of some vegetables .

Touching pumpkins

Small children like touching new things with their little hands.

In the top photo, a toddler of about one year old bent forward and touched the ball-like pumpkin with his fingers. He was peaceful to the touch because the pumpkin did not move and the skin was smooth. If the pumpkin really jerked or rolled about, he would scream and ran to his parents.

Abby is also curious at new things. She dares to try touching things she has never seen before.

Here came the chance at UBC Apple Festival of touching living pumpkins on the ground with her left hand. Her right hand was still holding the bag of dried apples Philip had bought from a stall. “Fresh” and “Dried”. What a big contrast!

UBC Apple Festival

UBC Apple Festival was held on October 17th at UBC Botanical Garden. We arrived at about 2 p.m. and was directed to a open car park on uneven sandy ground. The parking fee was C$5. The entry fee to the Festival was C$2 each. After walking some paths, we reached an open ground with stalls promoting different kinds of apples. Different varieties of apples were introduced on posters. There were apple-tasting sessions and the tickets for tasting were C$3 each. We did not join the queue because it was quite long. We did try to taste apple slices which were free at a stall, very delicious indeed.













Philip bought Abby a bag of dried apples. I myself bought a slice of apple pie which was sold at C$4 to share among us. The pie was not bad to taste, but it was a little expensive. There was a small beautiful cart selling snacks and drinks.

It began to rain after we had studied the common vegetable plants at their breeding ground. We rushed back to where apples were selling. We bought a bag of Honey Crisp apples (C$6) and a bag of cheaper yellow apples (C$3). Off we ran for our cars because heavy rain fell over our heads. By the time we reached the car park, we found many puddles of water and the ground turned muddy. Our clothes were all wet with rain water. What a “Wet” Apple Festival!

Chinatown, Victoria

On our second night at Victoria, we drove to Chinatown to have a look and dinner. Although it was raining, we walked around with our grand-children in their cart and pram. This Chinatown was quite small and there were few people walking in the only street called Fisgard Street. On the two sides of the street were mostly restaurants, green groceries and stores.

There was a large gate called the Gates of Harmonious Interest (同濟門). I saw similar kind of gates in Sydney and Los Angeles.

We decided to dine in the restaurant called Sea Garden Restaurant (海園酒家) at the corner of Fisgard Street and Government Street. It was interesting to see several tables of Canadians eating Chinese food inside. This suggested to us that even the local people loved the food here.

We sat a large table because we had six people in all. Because of some reason, Abby cried and Elly too, so the two sisters formed a “mini-choir”. It took us some time to calm them down first.

We ordered three dishes of food, orange pork chop (香橙豬扒), sesame chicken balls (芝麻雞球), Lor Hon Vegetables (羅漢上素) and a large bowl of rice to share. The three dishes satisfied us all because they were appetizing and cheap, just around C$10 each. At other restaurants in the same street, dishes of food were normally sold at around C$12 or well over.

Mc Donald’s at 41st Avenue

It was lunch time, October 20th. We intended to have burgers as lunch, so we stepped into a Canadian Mc Donald’s. There was a small maple leaf at the centre of the big “M”. The cheapest burger of the day was a cheese burger which was sold at about C$1.6, slightly dearer than a drink of coke, C$1.5.










Here the potato fries were much better than those of Hong Kong because they were softer and more delicious. Ketchup could be pumped out from a big vessel into small paper containers.
On the cups of drinks served here were written some of the customers’ voices about Mc Donald’s food.











A picture of old Kerrisdale Grocery on W 49th Avenue was hung on one of its walls. The old Coca-cola Trade Marks, the wooden benches, waste paper bin, the wooden structures, the pots on a wooden box and the show-windows revealed the old days along the avenue. An old yellow Volkswagon in the 60’s was parked at the side of the grocery.

What surprised me here was a wall television set showing a European football match in this 24 hour-served Mc Donald’s. This certainly attracted many football fans to come.

Petrol prices in Canada

Over the past seven weeks, each time when our car passed a petrol station in Vancouver, Canada. I looked at the price of petrol. There were ups and downs of the prices. The lowest one was about C$98 something for each 100 litres. Yesterday the price rose to C$108.4 for 100 litres (equivalent to HK$7.8 per litre).

The latest prices of petrol in Hog Kong are HK$14.03 per litre (shell unleaded) and HK$14.88 per litre (shell V Power).

I wonder what the prices of petrol in Australia or United States or Japan are recently?

Steveston Museum

While Abby was licking her Italian “Gelato “ ice-cream cone at Mary’s at Steveston (old fishing port), I walked around the area to find targets for my camera.


I found this small house (built in 1905) called Steveston Museum ( look at the photos). I wonder why it was so small. It was just like an ordinary house.

This house had been used for two purposes in the past.
Look and guess what they are.
A. bank B. shop C. doctor’s office D. bar E. café










Nowadays, besides being a small museum, it serves as a
F. souvenir shop G. post office H. photo processing shop
I. police station J. information centre

Our Sea journey to Victoria

Going south from Vancouver on October 14th, we reached the ferry pier at Tsawwassen to catch the eleven o’clock BC Ferry to Victoria. The total fare for single journey (4 adults + car) was around C$100.











Cars and trucks began to board the large ferry at around ten forty. There were two decks for carrying vehicles. Our car was among the last lot of cars that went into lower deck. After we had entered the deck, we took a lift to one of the upper decks for passengers.

There were different cabins on the ferry. We found one with comfortable sofas, all facing the sea.











We went out to the walkways around the ferry to take some photos. It was interesting that some seagulls were following our ferry. I wondered if they wanted to find a “companion” on the sea or they wanted to eat the food the passengers threw at them. Once I saw two seagulls land on the walkway. It was cold and windy outside, so it was not long before we returned to the cabin we were staying.












Soon we ate our home-made hot-dogs at our seats and drank some water. Next my wife and I went to the gift shop. There I bought three ball-pens marked with “Vancouver”, “Canada” and “BC Ferries” as souvenirs.

The sea journey took about one and a half hours to Swartz Bay. The ferry was called Spirit of Vancouver Island, built in Victoria, 1994. It could accommodate a maximum of 410 cars and 2100 passengers.

The memories of taking the Yaumati vehicular ferries in early years across our Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong all flied back to me.

Wheels from old trains

What have some of the wheels from old trains in Canada become? The photos explain to us that they have been turned into supports to benches.

These old heavy wheels have added very strong elements of history (as early as 1911 and 1928) to the benches. In the past, they ran on rails, but now they become static.

I notice that pieces of wood have been scraped and so fixed to the wheels that they together become comfortable benches for people to sit and relax.


Why are these pieces of old & modern art placed at the pavements of 41st Avenue. Well, an abandoned old railway lies a few feet away from these benches. This certainly reminds the citizens of Vancouver that there were once trains running past their houses.

Another arrangement of wheels in the bottom photo reveals the side-look of wheels that we normally see from an old train.

Text Reading

Elly likes reading text from a cushion at home. She sounds “Ur, Ur…” whenever she sees the cushion. We all hope that she likes reading books in the future.

Let us see how she looks at the cushion of words in the top photo.
Well, she is surrounded by the twin cushions of words in the bottom photo.

花面貓

At preschool yesterday, Abby and her classmates had a Halloween Party. They dressed differently. Some appeared as princesses, one as superwoman, another as batman and Abby as a fairy.

Connie and Philip were the only parents who stayed behind at the classroom to join the party among small children of three. The school provided some paint for face make-up. Connie did not miss the chance of painting Abby’s face with colours. She had drawn a heart, a flower and a butterfly. Abby, on the other hand, accepted such make-up on her face. So there Abby was painted vividly like a “cat” (花面貓) or a ”tiger” if you really think she was.

How was the skill the painter? Do you like the “new” look of Abby?

Halloween Decorations in Vancouver

On one December night, 2006 when my wife and I were in Sydney, my brother-in-law and wife drove us to a few houses in their neighbourhood. What we could see there were beautiful Christmas decorations. These houses shone with twinkling colourful light bulbs, all arranged in artistic ways. The owners of these houses won the first three prizes in that area.

















This time in Vancouver, I saw several houses which were decorated by funny things about Halloween such as pumpkin lamps, witches and their cloaks, spiders, skulls, skeletons, tombstones and……

Here you can see them.

An Unbeatable lunch

We have not gone to Yum Cha ever since we arrived at Vancouver.

It was good news yesterday that Terry suggested to have a morning Dim sum gathering with us today. My eyes widened with joy at her e-mail. I was unable to reply her instantly by phone because I needed Connie’s mobile phone and she was out at that time. It was until nine fifteen at night to confirm with Edward the time and restaurant.

At first I supposed morning tea would be taken around eight to ten, but Edward suggested eleven. It was of course okay for us. we might consider it as lunch instead.

We ordered some buns with barbecued pork (义燒飽)and lotus seed paste (蓮蓉飽) inside, egg tarts, some vegetables (灼菜) and radish pudding (蘿蔔糕). Terry and Edward ordered their favourite congee (粥) and meat rolls (腸粉).

The quality and sizes of the dim sums were good and large respectively. It was really a delightful and enjoyable lunch for us all. Edward asked me if I had visited BC Museum at Victoria. I told him that I had and remarked that I had taken quite a lot of photos inside. I will definitely post them up in my blog gradually. Possibly it will take me plenty of time to organize the materials to write and photos to post.

Heavy snow fell on Vancouver last winter. I wonder if we shall see any this year before we return to Hong Kong. It will be amazing to touch the snow (if there is any) with bare hands. I have never experienced snow fall before because Hong Kong is ice-free all the year round. In these few days, the temperature keeps dropping and it rains most of the time in Vancouver. Yesterday I walked with a running nose against bleak cold winds and rain with my wife in its streets. How terrible if I really reside here!

I want to express my gratitude to Terry and Edward in inviting me and my family to have such an enjoyable lunch and they were the hosts.