Chinese New Year Fireworks

In Hong Kong, it was on the second day of the Lunar New Year that fireworks blasted off from barges to the sky over the Victoria harbour.








The spectators on both shores of the harbour and those TV watchers could see the beautiful patterns of “金元寶” for “財源廣進“, “吉”字 for”大吉大利”, the "whiskers" for “Tigers”, “EXPO” for “世博”, "哈哈笑 " for "Happiness", flowers and silvery trees too.







To see all these needs a little imagination and a pair of quick eyes. Can you see them all from these photos?

Parade at Chinese New Year in Vancouver

The Canadian Government in Vancouver welcomes at last the idea of a parade organized by the Chinese at Chinatown on the first day of Lunar New Year.







Hundreds of people, performers, dragon-dancers, dancers from different clans and spectators from local Chinese and even Canadians poured into the streets. They were heading for the BC Place Stadium an hour earlier before the roads were blocked for the Winter Olympics. The parade added good atmosphere at New Year Day for the Chinese in Vancouver. They celebrated and warmed up the Olympics Games as well.







The parade passed the streets at Chinatown, one of which is Columbia Street. I believed we had walked on it before. I can recognize the large wall picture I captured a few months ago in one of its streets.







In some of the pictures here, the streets in this area were crowded with Chinese residents and some were in their traditional dresses. One of the spectators said that the whole world was now focusing on Vancouver.

A Peach Blossom Tree

May this peach blossom tree bring riches, health, romance and love to my CCSC students, colleagues, friends and relatives in different parts of the World in the Year of the Tiger.

It is rare to see a tree full of Chinese traditional feeling at New Year inside an American famous Café at TST. No wonder it is the idea of the managing staff in bringing Chinese New Year atmosphere to their customers at this joyous time of the year.



One interesting thing is that the hanging 常滿 ‘Fei Chun’s add some humour to its coffee products. The café hopefully earns more and the customers enjoy sitting there sipping coffee and chatting with their friends.

Will you join me at a “Starbucks” in Hong Kong?

Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, 2010, will be on at B.C. Place Stadium, Vancouver tomorrow at 10 a.m. Hong Kong time (6 p.m. at Vancouver).

The Olympics are back to Canada for the first time since 1988 when they were held in another city, Calgary. The event officially gets going with the first-ever indoor opening ceremony.



The torch has arrived after travelling 45-thousand kilometers passing through more than one thousand communities across Canada. Today (February 11th), a lady athlete running on 41st Avenue let Abby hold the Olympic cauldron for photo-taking. Elly was lucky too. Mother Connie let her gloved little hand touch the cauldron too. What an experience the two little girls had got!

Some 9-thousand cubic metres of snow has been trucked in or flown in to ensure the sports ground at Cypress Mountain has enough snow for competition.

Canada finished third 4 years ago at Turin, Italy, behind Germany and United States. This year Canada has set their sights on obtaining lots of medals on its homeland.

PUI PUI

Pui Pui (貝貝) has become the Star of Hong Kong Wetland Park (香港濕地公園明星) for three and a half years. It was caught from Shan Pui River (山貝河) in Yuen Long and it got its name from the river.

A recent report from a newspaper says that Pui Pui likes to eat and is very healthy indeed. It weighs more than twice since it was caught. This crocodile is so sharp-witted that whenever it sees the usual bucket for holding food, it crawls to the feeding area to wait for his meal.

Pui Pui resided in Wetland Park since August, 2006. Before this, it was under special care for two years at Kadoorie Farm.

It is now 10 years old. At first arrival at Wetland Park, its weighed 19.5 kg and its length was 1.5 metres. Now it is 45 kg in weight and 2.5 metres long. According to its size at the moment, it has reached the age of its adolescence.

Crocodile Pui Pui likes sunbathing at the rocks. Because of this, the park sets up a water sprinkle to spray water onto Pui Pui to lower its body temperature and grows some plants for it to take shade. May Pui Pui live happily in its 5-star home at our Wetland Park.

Foamy Coffee

Yesterday my wife and I visited a “Starbucks” shop. My wife did not like coffee, so she drank orange juice. For myself, of course, I did not miss the chance of drinking a cup of coffee at this famous café.

The cup of coffee came with a heavy porcelain cup with the trade mark of “Starbucks Coffee”, the centre of which showed a beautiful girl in curly long hair. I could only see a white foam of creamy milk at the top. I hope it was not hollow beneath. There was a green stirrer for stirring. The brown sugar came in yellow packets. I added two packets to make sure the sweetness was right for me. I sipped the coffee from the cup which gave me a strong feeling of satisfaction because I liked the soft foam of cream. It was good that the coffee taste was not so strong. I could not stand the bitterness of black coffee in a similar way to a piece of black chocolate.

Today, I must write about coffee because I remembered the cup of coffee hand-made by my dear student, Edward, in his kitchen during dinner on October 11, last year. As if magic, he could make the same high-quality creamy coffee for me and my another student, Peter .

The cup he used for holding the coffee looked beautiful because of its flower and texture. The cream was rich and thick like a stormy white sea. The first touch of cream to the mouth was good. This taste was completely different from the daily foam I make from tooth paste. I could not finish the coffee in one breath because there was so much foamy cream mixed with coffee and another reason was that I would taste every mouthful of coffee so that I could remember it. This was the best coffee I had ever drunk in Canada. Good handicraft, Edward!

Gold Tigers

I would like to say Happy Chinese New Year to every reader of this blog.

At the same time, I wish the two gold tigers here could bring each and every one of you great wealth and good health all through the Year of the Tiger.

Cups for Identity

We have collected so far three lovely cups from Park-in Supermarket through buying articles over HK$128 each time.

Today, through Skype, we tested Abby if she could identify these cups through her observation.

She got 99 marks out of 100.

Firstly, she recognized “M & M” easily because of its colourful beans. She said, “M & M”.

Secondly, she could identify “Oreo” by its brand name, not by a package of “Oreo” biscuits. Her pronunciation was perfect here.

Thirdly, when the cup of “Haagen-Dazs" was shown to her, we expected her to scratch her head and say nothing about. To our surprise, she was able to say that it was “雪糕,” (ice-cream) although she did not know how to pronounce it.

Bravo, Abby!

Totem Poles at Stanley Park

There were eight totem poles in display beside the Brockton Oval cricket pitch. Each has a story which breathes life in it.

On a plague at the park were written:

The totem was the British Columbia Indians’ “Coat of Arms”. Totem Poles are unique to the North-west coast of B.C. and lower Alaska. They were carved from Western Red Cedar and each carving tells of a real or mythical event. They were not idols nor were they worshipped. Each carving on each pole has a meaning. The eagle represents the Kingdom of the Air, the whale the Lordship of the Sea, the wolf the Genius of the Land and the frog the Transition Link between Land and Sea.



Let us study the totem pole called Kakaso’ Las

People come from far away to seek her advice

Kwakwaka’Wakw carver Ellen Neel and her uncle Mungo Martin were among the first artists to achieve wide recognition for their totem poles commissioned by museums, cities, and art collectors. Neel was also the woman to become a Northwest Coast carver. This pole was completed in 1955 for Woodward’s Department Store.

In memory of Neel’s pioneering role in reaching an international audience through her art, the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology has loaned this pole to Stanley Park.





Let us look at the Totem Pole closely:

[1] At the top of this totem pole is the thunderbird (with a yellow beak). [2] Underneath the bird is a sea bear (claws in yellow) holding
[3] a killer whale.
[4] Below is a Man clutching a blue
[5] Frog.
[6] Bak’ was: “wild man of the woods” with a yellow sharp nose.
[7] Next is Dzunukwa, a giantess (with eyes closed and tongue sticking out).

Weather Forecast for a Misty Day

Let us see the weather forecast in Hong Kong for tomorrow, February 9th, 2010. It will be misty.

It is the first time I see this cartoon from HKTVB weather forecast which shows me the presence of mist tomorrow. I am sure tomorrow the lights of approaching sailing boats and ships are only vague dots in our Victoria Harbour and the headlights of vehicles lead the ways through the mist in our city.

Abby’s Singing Concert in Hong Kong

On Christmas Eve, Abby sang at her Grand Uncle’s home with her new 4 year-old friend, Emily. They stood barefooted on the bay window platform singing their favourite songs. They enjoyed singing because there was audience of various ages at the sitting-room. At first Emily sang beside Abbywith a toy electric-guitar.












It was funny that these two girls sang different songs of their own because she came from two very different schools (a kindergarten in Hong Kong and a preschool in Canada). At one time Emily covered her ears and continued to sing because Abby was singing a song very different from hers and that Abby’s loud singing might have disturbed hers completely.

Soon Emily stepped down from the “stage” and Abby picked up the toy guitar and continued to sing her songs she learned from school. She enjoyed singing and was totally absorbed, with eyes half-closed. That was her first concert in Hong Kong and WE were her VIP audience!

Year-of-the-Tiger bus

This is a 619 KMB Tunnel-bus running from Central to Shun Lee Estate.

On February 1st, I was able to capture a few photos of the tigers on its two sides, but unfortunately it hurried away before I could take the photo of its front view.

Before each Chinese New Year, KMB designs nice pictures for one or more buses to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year. Of course, the designated animal of that year will be the centre of interest.

The coming year is the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese calendar.
The tiger that I saw on the body of the bus looks like a cartoon one, not fierce at all. It is decorated with strange patterns and stripes. I think it is just an artistic tiger. The rest of the design matches the New Year theme and its colour is mainly purplish red which suits our Chinese New Year.

Flower Composition

These orange trumpet vines crawl up the iron bars of a fence. They grow naturally as they climb and when flower, the pod-like tips of the flowers break open and curl up to form beautiful crosses. In this manner, the anthers show themselves distinctly to attract bees to come.

By taking a photo of flowers like these and selecting an area which appeals to me in good composition, I can get another beautiful picture.

A Glimpse of a Double-decker bus

In Hong Kong double-decker buses are common. During my stay in Canada, Vancouver gave me an impression that there were no double-deckers for its buses, but Victoria was different.

When Philip’s car was running on Patricia Bay Highway (Highway 17) towards Victoria on October 14, 2009, the first glimpse of a double-decker bus at a distance made me almost yell with joy.

The buses on Vancouver Island are rather new. I guess they might have been imported from England. From my observation, the windows of these buses are sealed off (cannot be opened) so they must be air-conditioned. Obviously, the doors for passengers open on the right side of the buses as the buses are left-hand drives. I saw some of these buses running along the main streets of Victoria, but never had I the chance of boarding one of them.

Spindle Whorl

A spindle whorl looks like a sundial, but there are no graduations on the circular base for telling people the time of the day as on a sundial when shadows of a pin or narrow plate fall on it.

Here is the brief description of a spindle whorl and photos from Wikipedia:

A spindle (sometimes called a drop spindle) is a wooden spike (known as the shaft) used for spinning wool, flax, hemp, cotton, and other fibers into thread. It is commonly weighted at either the bottom middle or top, most commonly by a circular or spherical object called a whorl, and may also have a hook, groove or notch, though spindles without these are also common. Spindle whorls have been found in archaeological digs around the world.

The large spindle whorl at the front of Royal British Columbia Museum represents a basic tool that was important to the lifestyle of the Lekwungen Peoples. This spindle whorl is one of seven in downtown Victoria that mark places of cultural significance.

What is this?

In front of Royal British Columbia Museum at Victoria, Canada and surrounded by a circle of seats was a pin-like thing (see the top photo).

What do you think it is? Please guess!
A. an enlarged nail
(一口放大後的釘)
B. a spindle whorl (紡錘)
C. a lightning rod (避雷針)
D. a sundial(日規)

New Zealand Cookies

Yesterday I tasted the cookies my sister-in-law and husband brought us from New Zealand.

Each year at Chinese New Year we often eat butter cookies of Denmark, but before Chinese New Year this year we can try a new taste of cookies of New Zealand.

Small chocolate chips inserted into cookies are welcoming enough to me. Kiwi fruit added inside cookies this time gave me a new stunning feeling.

The bite of such cookies was a kind of interesting feeling of “soft-hard-soft”. The first “soft” feeling went to the outer layer of shortbread, the “hard” to the chocolate bits and the second “soft” to the juicy kiwi fruit inside. The good taste of kiwi fruit, chocolate and shortbread lingered on in my mind all through the night yesterday.