So Good returns

全新一輯的阿蘇的電視烹飪節目終於在昨晚出現在眼前。








我欣賞這一輯的構思及編排：話說今次有小型烹飪比賽供業餘人士參加。

[1]首先，有兩組，每組三人，煮同一款簡單的菜：
第一組是煎午餐肉(12號勝出)，而第二組則韭菜滑蛋(14號勝出)。








[2]阿蘇逐一碟煮好的菜作批評，雖然她說話苛刻了些少，令參賽者有些難堪，但我覺得如果參賽者的廚藝真是那麼差勁，就應該接受批評，從而改進。








[3]阿蘇則在事後示範一次怎樣煮先前比賽的菜色才是最正確呢，我已經學懂了一些秘訣。

[4]在節目的下半部，阿蘇煮了一道酒味甚濃的星加坡生蝦米粉，其實我都想品嘗它的味道！

Abby’s Art Gallery

Abby’s Art Gallery is in the sitting-room at her home in Canada. The recent pictures she has painted are displayed on the walls.

To access these pictures, Abby climbs on the long soft sofa and onto the white mattress which is folded up and stored there.

She is proud enough to sit on the mattress and shows us through Skype her master pieces. I don’t know what tools she used at time of painting. Most probably she used paint-brushes.

Here are my comments on her paintings:
[1] Her lines of drawing are bold and smooth, without any hesitation.
[2] She does not like straight lines. Instead she uses curved or zig-zag lines.
[3] There is always a centre of interest in each picture.
[4] To me, the figures she draws are like crabs, corals, sea plants, with many legs or tentacles or tendrils.
[5] The colours used are mainly purple, blue and black. Maybe Abby’s teachers do not provide their pupils with many colours.

It is really nice to see the mind of a child like Abby’s through her paintings. I am eager to see if Abby changes her style in painting as she grows.

Sawed, Sawed, Sawed........

The sawing of a tree can be a piece of news in Hong Kong. This tree is not a local one. It is a kind of trees called 南洋杉 which was imported and planted many many years ago inside the premises of Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon.

Many past students of this school witnessed the presence of this tree ever since they were school-children. They saw it every day from primary to secondary. When they left school, the tree still stood there. On the other hand, the tree has witnessed the growth of thousands of students in uniforms of light blue or orange.










The tall tree is beginning to lean at an angle. It is liable to fall if the situation worsens. The damage to its roots during the sewage work done nearby recently has further increased the possibility of falling to the tree. As a result, the tree has to be cut down by the government.







Early on the morning of February 6, the cutting of the tree began. The tip of the tree was tied with wires and sawed first. This part of the trunk was removed by the arm of a crane. Bits by bits the tree was lowered.

On the ground were a number of MCS past and current students watching their friend being chopped down. Reporters also arrived at the scene to give news reports. The students were sad, but they could do nothing about it. Some of them hoped that the wood of this tree could be made into souvenirs for them to keep.

Sky Ride at Grouse Mountain

Edward and Terry were so kind to invite my wife and me to a sky-ride at Grouse Mountain to look at snow on December 1, 2009. It was sunny and warm on that day. After approximately half an hour, we reached the Station at the base of Grouse Mountain. Edward parked his car and got a parking ticket from a machine near by.

Terry bought a yearly pass from the main office of the Sky-ride. With her pass, she was able to bring two guests to the top of the mountain. Terry needed to buy another ticket for Edward.



Off we went to take a Red cable-car. I supposed the car could carry at most 50 passengers each time. Most of the passengers had to stand. Only a few could sit at the long benches at its two ends (front and back). I noticed that I could not take good pictures from the cable-car either because the windows had not been cleaned or that they were too old to be clear.

What a pity that the passengers could not take the beautiful views of Vancouver at a high level! Edward told me that Capilano Lake (the green piece of water at the far side behind the cable-car tower) below served as a reservoir which provided drinking water to the citizens of Vancouver.

The cable car swung as it changed its course to a horizontal position towards the station at the top. The ride took about 5 minutes. Edward suggested us to take lunch first at the lodge by the side of the station.

The lunch included soup, chicken drumsticks, a mini-salad and some vegetables wrapped by white bread. It was much warmer inside the restaurant than outside. The view outside the window was blurred because sunshine was coming towards the lodge, so Vancouver downtown and further south was in shadow. I dropped the idea of taking pictures from the table where we were sitting.

The Voice

In Hong Kong, I watched the singing contest “The Voice” (超級巨聲) on HKTVB ever since July, 2009. This kind of singing contest first started in Taiwan. Hong Kong follows more or less the same way.

What interests me in the programme is that I put myself into the contest by imaging that I were one of the judges. I would give marks to each contestant after his/her performance and see if the marks I gave matched with those of the judges. I did not know how to comment on the performances, but the marks often came very close to the actual ones. That was the fun I could get from the contest.It was mid-September that I arrived at Vancouver. I saw once again the programmes of the contest on Channel 181 or 182, but they were seven weeks behind. It was disappointing to see that we could not watch this contest through Internet because people living in countries outside Hong Kong could not watch the video clips provided by HKTVB. My feeling for the first few weeks in Vancouver was like that I were in a backward country, watching programmes that were old, torn or out of date.
Since I was in Vancouver for 3 months, I was able to watch several programmes of the contest which I had not seen before in Hong Kong. Some new faces of contestants astonished me because I had not seen them at the very beginning of the contest. Later I learned that they came from mainland China. I guessed the outstanding singers (not professional) from different provinces joined in the contest. From my observation, these new contestants sang really well and I believed they might beat the contestants in Hong Kong.
The contest finally ended on February 7. The results were that 王雯 (from mainland China) came first, 何紫慧 (a 14 year-old HK contestant) second and 趙文 (another contestant from mainland China) third.


On the whole, the Hong Kong contestants sing quite well, but not so well as王雯 because 王雯 's range of voice is very wide and her singing is filled with feelings. Not only she has good skills in handling songs of different kinds, but also a beautiful voice.She is well deserved such an honour to be the winner of “The Voice”.

A Message to the outside world

Here is the message the students of PLHKS (Pentecostal Lam Hon Kwong School) want to tell the outside world through their potted flowers.

The potted flowers I mentioned in my previous post are arranged by the students like these. Can you get the message completely?

Potted Flowers

On February 5, I passed a famous secondary school in Shatin. In between the fence and the school building were placed many small potted flowers. My wife told me that the flowers are called, 石竹花 , in Chinese. They were put together for easy irrigation.

On February 13 when I passed this school again, I was surprised to find a big change to these potted flowers.

What is the change? Can you guess?

小雲和小吉

舊製作，新發現。IQ博士卡通片集重現電視螢光幕。今次要下午六時轉台至J2.

為甚麼今次要帶出這兩位卡通人物呢?

原因是:

[1] 最近可能是Elly快要出牙關係，什麼東西都咬，例如：碗、枱……
情況極像IQ博士卡通片集片中小吉什麼都咬， 甚至吃掉它們。


[2] 對於Abby來講，我覺得她像小雲那般可愛、聰明和有趣。

那麼現時Connie家中出現了卡通小雲和小吉了。

恭喜！恭喜！

Below 10 degrees Celcius

The cartoon weather forecast here reveals the cold weather in Hong Kong in these few days. The temperature drops below 10 degrees Celcius.








Our home in Hong Kong is not equipped with heaters so the best place to hide is our bed. Thick coats are worn to keep the body heat, otherwise our jaws will shake and shoulders shrug.

Back to one day in late November when I was walking homeward, carrying a load of fruit, in Vancouver, the North Wind was blowing and rain drizzling. The coldness of six degrees had already made my nose water. The only thing I could do was to quicken my foot-steps to walk home as fast as possible.








On those December days at temperature around zero degree (Celcius) without my gloves on, the coldness pierced my hands and the latter soon became stiff. I had to bear the pain while escorting Abby to school. You may imagine how we (three adults, two children) struggled our way against the cold in the streets of Vancouver.

Art of displaying food at Ladies Purse

Displaying food is an art. Let us see how food is placed on a plate.

[1] Green and purple vegetables as salad base are placed like hay at the bottom layer. Smoked fish pieces are folded like waves on top. Two rings of onion added elements of Mathematics to this dish of fish.

[2] The piece of beef is the chief character of the dish. That is why it is placed at the centre. Sauce is poured over it and some overflows to one side and on the other side of the dish, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and thick potato pieces are laid to add colour to the meat dish.

[3] Slices of fresh white turkey meat, whiter than chicken are piled up over some egg plants. The brown bean sauce adds a special flavour to the meat. Tiny green vegetables and potatoes are co-stars which surround a small piece of turkey liver. The spot of tomato sauce is a surplus.

上頭炷香

每年踏入農曆初一子時，香港有很多善男信女往黃大仙祠上頭炷香，今年也不例外。當電視鏡頭向著前排人群移動的時候，八卦的我要金睛火眼地找尋我們城中一位名人。

很快這位名人真真的出現在眼前，究竟她有沒有在你心中留下一席位呢?