打小人

今天是一年一度的驚蟄，預料灣仔的鵝橋頸行車天橋底非常熱鬧，用鞋打小人之「撲撲」聲此起彼落，相信被人打的「小人」會眼眉「跳」，整日心神不安。

聽說在鵝橋頸橋底部分檔口今年加價約兩成至一倍多，即是說由二十至四十元加至五十元。

其實驚蟄屬農曆廿四個氣節之一，傳說以前蛇蟲鼠蟻為患，農民以祭白虎方法鎮壓，其後演變成「打小人」，寓意趕走衰氣，帶來好運。

幫襯打小人的顧客大致有以下幾種：
[1]特意前來祈求家宅平安、工作順利的人
[2]希望覓得工作的失業人士
[3]祈求孫兒學業進步的長者
[4]因丈夫有外遇前來「打走二奶」的婦女

正是今日在馬鞍山其中一條馬路底部行人隧道內給我見到「打小人」的奇景，自然地拿出相機偷偷地拍下這兩幅照片給大家開一下眼界。

「打小人」用的東西自然有鞋子、大家都看不懂的符咒、香燭、生果如梨子或橙(其實它們是作為香燭座用途多一些)、一隻一隻的黃色紙老虎；最特別的是有切成方小塊的生豬肉被放在紙老虎身上。

今次所見「打小人」的人，有男也有女，大多數是年長的婦人。至於他們為什麼「打小人」，就不得而知了！

A Guessing Game

My sister-in-law ordered a plate of 4 rabbit–like dim sums the day before yesterday during a tea-lunch. Please guess what they actually were.
[1] ice-cream (雪糕)
[2] icing sugar (糖霜)
[3] bun (包)
[4] marsh-mallow (棉花糖)
[5] fresh cream cake (鮮忌簾餅)

最後兩輪烹飪初賽

尾二那次烹飪比賽有8號Shirley及夫婦檔的18號Michelle和19號Chris參加，製作西多士。

阿蘇眼見18號和19號雞手鴨腳地造西多士，取笑他們為迷惘夫婦。

結果是三位所做的西多士遠離水準:
Michelle的西多士上面的牛油塗得胡塗，中間部分受壓凹陷。
Chris的西多士全無美麗的金黃色，像麵包剛剛沾上蛋醬一樣。Shirley的西多士則貌似咖啡磚頭模樣，要大口人士才可以吃得下。


最後的烹飪初賽有5號阿昌、9號小霞、13號Becky及15號紅姐，炒的是豉油王炒河。

阿蘇讚四位賽員學精了，把鑊燒熱了，才下油。但他們炒材料次序有別，有人先炒蔥，有人炒芽菜，有人則先炒蛋，亦有人先炒粉。


阿蘇認為那四碟豉油王炒河當中，顏色最像樣的是阿昌那一碟，Becky的賣相最好，用心去炒的是小霞那一碟。

湯丸妹妹

Abby有時當妹妹Elly是湯丸.

以下是她們在去年12月回港時在第一城麥當當裏面的情景:

當時婆婆是抱著Elly， 而Abby是坐在椅子上， 在Elly的右下方。Abby心血來潮，突然間伸出雙手去拉低Elly的頭，相信是Abby想接近Elly去錫她一下。不知Elly是否太細，不懂反應，沒有哭訴給父母聽.

以前我們在加拿大時, 曾經見到Abby用手指去推Elly的臉.當時Elly都沒有哭，這顯示出Elly太純良，太好脾氣了, 像湯丸可被搓圓”禁”扁，甚麼都無所謂。 我當時想：如果Abby每天都用手指 ”督” Elly的面，不難遲早Elly的面孔多了幾個人工梨渦呢！

滋味蝦堡

去年(2009)十二月上旬從溫哥華回港後幾日下午茶時分， 我和夫人經過沙田中心麥當當，見到其新產品──滋味蝦堡。當時我眼前一亮，心裡突然有衝動去嘗試一下這種蝦堡。於是我不加思索單買了一個，試一試是否如其所說滋味無窮呢。

到手的滋味蝦堡是被紙包著的。 把包裝紙打開後，出現在眼前的蝦堡和廣告上明星似的那個有截然不同的樣貌。相裏面的蝦堡是厚厚的，但手中的是被壓扁的一個。一向低要求的我認為有心愛的蝦在口已經好滿足了，其味道尚可。當然它的味道與我們平時吃海鮮時白灼蝦的來比較當然有一大段距離。

約兩美元的滋味蝦堡和中式酒樓一籠特點(價錢特貴是也)蝦餃比較，我寧願選擇一個蝦堡充飢就算了。前兩天我們在旺角某酒樓發現侍應端出來的一籠兩隻蝦餃，賣十四港元(接近兩美元)。我個人覺得這般的蝦實在太貴了，不吃也罷！

Natural painting on water surface

The effect of ripples on a clear water surface can create beautiful paintings.

Here is an example.

[1] At the opposite bank of Shing Mun River, the white tent, the light green trees and the blue roof of Yuen Wo Road Sports Centre are reflected by the calm water surface.

[2] The white, green and blue colours blend together in a different way with the effect created by ripples.

[3] It seems to me as if the water on Shing Mun River were the drawing paper and paints of white, green and blue had been poured onto it. These colours had splashed out when touching the paper.

Row, Row, Row canoes

On the first day of March this year, I returned home by bus. As the bus was crossing Banyan Bridge (翠榕橋), one of the three large bridges in Shatin, I noticed several young athletes rowing their canoes on Shing Mun River towards Tolo Harbour.

It was rare to see such a number of canoes going at a time. I noticed that the athletes were practising and their gentle rowing movements told that they were relaxing and enjoying, nothing of competition.

The narrow streamlined bodies with the spear-heads made the canoes go swiftly through the water when the long oars were rowed. The ripples that these canoes made had knitted a nice picture behind them.

新加坡薑蔥蟹炒米粉

[1] 阿蘇示範炒這種米粉時，用了很多蔥、中芹和薑片。
[2] 蟹方面，則用上兩隻膏蟹，一隻肉蟹。








[3] 將蟹膏刮出來之後，要加一點胡椒粉，再拌勻。
[4] 米粉要汆水，煮好令米粉到炒時有吸汁能力。








[5] 當蟹洗好後，要把蟹件抺至完全乾透、沾上少許豆粉，當做醬汁時，蟹可以吸收味道。
[6] 用一個小鍋子將蟹件泡油，但不要太熟。








[7] 炒香薑片(分開放下去)至透明色。
[8] 再放下洋蔥炒幾下，從鑊邊加一點油。開始炒香蔥和中芹至有焦香的氣味，才放下蟹件去炒，灑酒，加雞湯，落一點鹽，一點糖，再加一點雞湯，然後等它煮開，把蟹件夾起來。








[9] 倒起一些醬汁，留待稍後炒蟹用。
[10] 放下米粉於醬汁中，炒至變乾身(火一定要夠猛)。








[11] 再用另外一隻鑊去炒一些蔥和中芹，放下蟹件，灑酒，加一點生粉水和蠔油去煮香蟹件。
[12] 將煮好的米粉放在碟上，再舖上剛煮香的蟹件便完成了。








若看阿蘇的竅門，請看最後一幅相便可。

Chasing Ducks

Date: September 26th, 2009
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: Stanley Park










On the grassland neighbouring the totem poles, Abby saw a number of fat ducks. She was so excited seeing these short animals that she chased them from behind. The ducks spread out and fled when they learned that a little girl was yelling and running towards them.

Although the legs of the ducks are thinner than those of Abby, they sped away very quickly. Abby was sad to find that she could not approach any duck at all. Finally she dropped the idea of chasing and reported to us.

Seaplanes at Downtown Vancouver

Passengers can board seaplanes at the Float plane Terminal near Harbour Green Park, a little distance to the west of Canada Place at Downtown Vancouver. These planes are carrying passengers to and from Vancouver Island.

It was Saturday when we went to Stanley Park which meant that the demand for flights shot up sharply. Loud throbbing sounds of noisy engines could be heard almost every fifteen minutes at Stanley Park. Obviously, these planes used the peaceful water to the west of Canada Place to fly up to the sky.

The flight, if I estimate, will be around half an hour or so from Downtown Vancouver to Victoria. If one drives from Downtown southward to the B.C Ferries terminal at Tsawwassen, it will take about 45 minutes and a ferry-trip of 90 minutes, excluding the waiting time at the pier. After landing at Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to drive to Victoria. In this manner, it can take up to 3 - 4 hours for a car-ferry-car trip.

I had seen seaplanes landing on the waters of the inner harbour of Victoria when I was dining at a restaurant at its waterfront. When I heard it fly overhead, it was too late for me to go outside to take snapshots of the landing plane.

另兩次烹飪對壘

新一輪 So Good 烹飪比賽由三位女士對壘，煮的菜色是：咸魚粒炒芽菜。
賽員是2號小瓊、11號Mimosa和17號阿如。
三位賽員各施各法，煮法不一樣。

[1] 小瓊煮出來的芽菜太咸，因為她炒咸魚也加鹽，正是咸上加咸。
[2] 阿如的芽菜失色的地方是沒有青蔥的襯托和味道，註定失敗了。
[3] Mimosa煮的芽菜比較好，賣相及味道俱佳，贏得阿蘇讚賞，自然勝出了。

另一組的三位比賽的賽員有兩女一男。菜色是：蛋炒飯。

賽員有3號珍姐、7號文姐及16號文仔。


[1] 珍姐將飯、蛋及蔥同時間全部倒入鑊中一起炒，阿蘇認為不正確。
[2] 文仔倒入了大量的油，於是炒出來的是油浸炒飯，阿蘇笑言叫文仔將全碟飯吃下去。
[3] 文姐將配料分開處理，先爆香了蔥、繼而炒蛋，然後才一併炒飯，炒出來的飯自然最香啦，都是文姐煮得最好！

Closing-down of a hotel, shopping centre, department store ...

Renaissance Kowloon Hotel Hong Kong (香港九龍萬麗酒店) will be closed down today, March 1st, 2010 because the New World Centre (新世界中心) is going to be pulled down and rebuilt. Usual customers of the shops at the shopping centre and those of the hotel rushed to these places in recent days to shop and buy, lunch, dine and take photos to record some of their memories.

Miss Ng and I were invited by our old student, Jenny Sy and her husband, Kenneth to a dim-sum lunch at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel. The reason was simple. The happy couple married and had wedding banquet inside this hotel. They would like to get back and share with us some of the happy memories at their wedding. Although the lunch on that day was quite expensive, it could provide a precious gathering of two teachers, a student and her husband. We took some photos at the restaurant and I myself took the photos of two classic motor-cars in display in New World Centre.

After 18 years of service, Jusco Department Store at Lok Fu (吉之島樂富店) is closed down today. Probably it is due to the high-rise of rent by the Link. It says that Jusco will open a new store at Mega Box in East Kowloon in the middle of this year.

I used to go to this department store when my family lived in Kowloon Tong a long time ago. The prices of articles of this store were reasonable. We often visited its supermarket and had meals at its food court. The residents at Lok Fu and nearby regions such as Kowloon Tong would miss such a famous department store from now on.

Another sad sight came to me today. I discovered that the biggest 7-eleven shop at City One had been closed. I often bought newspapers from this store and with its closing down, I have to buy newspapers from other stores in the neighbourhood instead.