Elly learning to undress

It is a big step for Elly today that she demonstrates how to take off her jumper by herself. She knows exactly how to pull the jumper over her head first, then out from her arms and finally throws it away.

Elly writes a new record of undressing her jumper within 1 minute without difficulty. Under the request of her mum, she demonstrates her skill again to her dad. To record this, Abby took a short video of her little sister in doing so.

Going Crazy on such Roller coasters

If I were on such roller coasters in the photo, I would go crazy. It is not height that matters. There are so many curls that the roller coasters have to overcome. The designer of this game wants to swing, whirl and overturn people about so that the latter get excited with their hearts beating fast, faces twisted and brains go crazy by centrifugal force.

Perhaps such games suit young people with strong hearts and those who are going to be trained as pilots or astronauts.

Looking at Seattle from Space Needle

Looking at Seattle at the top of Space Needle is enjoyable.

Everything seems flat underneath when we look at it from the top of this land mark of Seattle. The following photos show the views from Space Needle.

Top left photo: Looking north-westward, we can see Puget Sound, the sea leading out to the Pacific. Near the shore where some ships lie are the Government Docks.

Top centre photo: Immediately below and moving up a low-lying hill is a residential area called Queen Anne Hill. It is notable by its three tall broadcast masts.

Top right photo: The piece of water is Lake Union. Any ship going towards Lake Washington must pass through this lake. The district surrounding and to the south of the lake is called South Lake Union.

Middle left photo: Looking eastward, we may see districts of South Lake Union and a further on to Capitol Hill and First Hill.

Central photo: To the south south-west, we can see Elliot Bay with a number of piers at the waterfront.

Middle right photo: To the south lies first Belltown, next Pike Place Market, Business Centre (skyscrapers centralized here), further on lie Pioneer Square and International District.

Bottom left photo: A closer look at the dockyards at Harbor Island.

Bottom centrel photo: It is a common sight of vehicular and passenger ferries running between Seattle and its neighbouring islands.

Bottom right photo: This is again a north-westerly view showing a large ship unloading and deep-sea piers for parking of ocean-going ships and cargo ships.

On a Hot pot

Iceland sits on a hot pot supported by several active volcanoes. A scientist says that if Iceland had not been on a hot spot, Iceland would not have exist at all. It was long created by the cooling down of hot magma which came out from the vent of a large underwater volcano. A large amount of magma jutted out of the water surface and cooled down to form Iceland.

Geographically, Iceland locates on the edge of two big plates of land in mid-Atlantic Ocean. These two land plates move apart at the speed of 2 centimetres each year. Gradually cracks appear. Magma flows into pipes that lead to these cracks and thus smoke of steam is emitted at the weak points and magma begins to ooze out to the vents of volcanoes. In less than 100, 000 square Kilometres of Iceland, there are over 15 volcanoes spreading along the cracks created by the moving plates. In each century, there is an average of 20 explosions.

Iceland ranks the most volcano activities in the world and the recent eruptions (on March 20and in April/May, 2010) of the Eyjafjallajokull (埃亞菲亞德拉火山) have upset the flight of most planes over Europe for weeks and months.

What are for sale at Pike Place Market?

Not only fruits and vegetables are major food sold here at Pike Place Market, Seattle, a large amount of fresh or chilled seafood are ready for sale.

Other attractions visitors or local people go to crafts. One of the stalls sells simple wooden toys, daggers made from horns of animals, gems, small colourful pictures, decorative pottery of bowls and dishes. Here bouquets of flowers are readily made and sold.

Lower down the markets there are shops selling religious statues and decorative masks and crafts. A toy shop sells all kinds of model cars, motor-bikes, trucks and buses.

Elly on the Screen

Through Skype, we can see Elly’s activities at home.

[1] To play "shape-recognition" each time correctly, Elly was so clever as to choose and push the easiest green cylinder into the its slot. When the cylinder drops into the box below, she finds it and take it out again for the next “sure” win slot. She never bothers those difficult shapes. What we adults concern is to which hand Elly uses to push the cylinder, left or right? Will Elly become left-handed? We puzzle……

[2] Elly easily grasps her drinking and sucking skills. She even bites the straw and play with it.

[3] We often find brothers fighting. The scene of two civilized sisters, hand in hand, dancing makes us feel warm and touched. Due to different heights, they fall down on the ground and the dancing ends.

[4] The “thinking”, “Nothing” and “Hiding” poses are perfect reflections from Elly.

[5] Elly loves riding a “springing” horse at home. Once she is on it, she rides madly and makes it gallop. The four supporting elastic bands help the horse dive its head when Elly pushes the handles forward.

[6] In the second last photo, I do not know if Elly has kindly shared her seat to the toy giraffe or not. If that is the case, she knows “sharing” and that an animal like Giraffe needs rest.

[7] Sometimes, Elly put her hands at her mouth. What does that mean? We have to guess....

Sand Pictures

These sand pictures show the skill of the artist who makes them. Not only the person he draws looks very much like the real one, the rose on the right of the pictures also grows and blossoms. How amazing it is to see this artist use only his hands and fingers to space out sand on a piece of glass! He is playing “magic”.

Notice that a sand picture can be created in a very short time. With several strokes of the hands or fingers, the picture changes. Moreover, it is eco-friendly because besides sand, no paint, water or other material is used.

The Main Theme Song of Laputa

Recently, I chanced to hear the main theme song of the cartoon film, “Laputa” (天空之城), from a video in Facebook, sung by choirs composed of 800 Japanese youngsters of different ages and music played by an orchestra. I was drunk in the music because the theme song in the original film “Laputa” was pure instrumental music with no voices.


To listen to the song sung by Japanese choirs, please click the word “Laputa” in blue.

The photos (double-click to enlarge them) show how Paza and Sheeta found Laputa and what Laputa looks like:
[1] The whole castle looks like a Tree with roots at its base.
[2] Paza and Sheeta landed on a piece of grass lawn.
[3] They met a giant robot.
[4] They explored went through forests of trees.
[5] They also went round the fortified towers the castle.
[6] They found small animals and birds except human.

Our Strongest lady cyclist in Hong Kong

Our lady cyclist, Wong Wan Yiu (黃韻瑤), won the Silver medal in Women’s points race in the Asian Games 2010 on November 16, 2010. During the race, her bike hit into the back wheel of her opponent, giving her a fall and some other athletes ran their bikes over her chest. Her team mate, 刁小娟, who should have a great chance to win, also fell and broke her shoulder. Although Wan Yiu had great pain at her chest, she climbed back to her bike and struggled on. Her eagerness to compete and determination to get a medal did bring her a Silver.

She told the press that when she was down on the ground, she felt that her ribs were run over by several bikes. She explained that she did not want to give up the race since it would be the very last time this points race appeared in Asian Games. This kind of races has been abolished in the Olympics. The fact that this was her last chance to race in such an event, she drove on in spite of her great pain at the ribs.

At the Prize-giving ceremony, it was touching to see Wan Yiu moved and shed her tears.

We, as citizens of Hong Kong, should greet her with applause. Her SUCCESS is our PRIDE.

Please Double-click to enlarge photo.

Astro Boy

Yesterday I passed the bus terminus near my home. I saw a black "182" bus on which was a large cartoon figure which I believe I have seen it somewhere, but I can’t remember where. Taking a closer look, I learn that he is called Astro Boy.

From the web, I learn that Astro Boy is the chief character of a 2009 computer-animated 3-D film called Atom (Atomu) in Japan, Astro Boy, worldwide. It is based on the long-running Japanese series of the same name by Osamu Tezuka.

A trailer of the movie was shown in the North American Home Theater of PlayStation Home from December 28, 2008 to January 8, 2009. The movie was released first in Japan on October 10, 2009, then in the USA on October 23, 2009 and finally in the UK on February 5, 2010.

Astro Boy is about a young robot in futuristic Metro City with incredible powers. A brilliant scientist secretly created him in the image of the son who died earlier. Unable to fulfill the grieving man's expectations, Astro Boy embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the father who had rejected him. He soon becomes a world famous super-hero and faces his biggest challenge when an alien race threatens Earth.

I found a trailer on the web which shows me a wonderful video clip. If you are interested in watching the trailer, please click the link at the first "Astro Boy" (in blue colour).

The Handover

Yesterday, November 20, 2010, the CCSC OSA entered an era of “Change”. The new cabinet comprises of old students of different years. Unlike in the old days, only the Form 7 CCSC graduates took over the OSA. These graduates were “Fresh”, but not “Old”.

The handover meeting of OSA, from old cabinet to new, was carried out in Needlework Room at around 3 o’clock.

Since I was a teacher of the school, I could not vote for anything. From an onlooker's point of view, I found the following interesting:

[1] The two parties of students, cabinets of new and old, sat oppositely in two lines, like two armies confronting at a land battle in the Middle Ages.

[2] Hiking, in the name of charity, was the only activity of the year 2009 – 2010. Not a single cent was donated.

[3] The past OSA cabinet (2009 -2010) could not use any money inherited because one of those students who were responsible for signing cheques had gone overseas. Although the total expenses were low, the cabinet shouldered the money by themselves.

[4] The members of the new cabinet found out that some dates and names of committee members were missing in the OSA reports.

[5] The adoptions of the reports (2009 -2010) were made quickly and votes of supporting the new cabinet were counted (some of the votes came from proxies). Some queries were made for clarification during the meeting.

[6] In the financial report, the interest from bank for the year was just 45 cents.

The seating of cabinets was "switched" vice versa after the old cabinet finished giving the reports. The members of the new cabinet introduced themselves one by one. The chairman, Benny Koo, the Vice-chairman, Kenny Lo, IT secretary, Raymond Chung and Dr. Cheung (Wai Ming) spoke for their views and new plans of organizing activities for OSA and how to contact old students. Registration of OSA students was the first thing to be done.

After all, thanks to our present principal, Mr. Yuen and our Vice-principal, Mr. Au and Mr. Mark who supervised the handover meeting.

It is a happy thing to see these ten enthusiastic old students in the new cabinet 誠閣 come together to reconstruct the network of our CCSC students. Hope that more students contribute their efforts to bring our outstanding students together in ONE family.

Earlier our advisory teachers of OSA and some of the old students in the new cabinet had tea lunch together. Raymond Chung was so kind to be the host. Thank you, Raymond.

Vitasoy speaks

I loved drinking “hot” malt Vitasoy when I was young in winter. At that time, each bottle of malt Vitasoy cost 30 cents and that of ordinary white Vitasoy 20 cents.

Nowadays, we seldom see bottles of Vitasoy. Instead Vitasoy comes in paper packs. The straw attached has changed from “straight” to “flexible”.

The most interesting thing is that now Vitasoy "speaks" with comics.

Here are three examples:

[1] Vitasoy stands by your Happy Moments
游乾水, SMS, 開扒地喇喂, 煲劇

[2] Vitasoy stands by your Studying Moments
空堂吹水, 臨急抱佛腳, 自修, 小息

[3] Vitasoy stands by your Working Moments
加班, 擦鞋, 三點三蛇王, 開會, 講是非

The idea of showing funny pictures on boxes of drinks is good, but some of the activities mentioned are inappropriate.

An Apple Study

A newspaper advertisement today wakes me up in the midst of taking breakfast at “CDC”. Wow! W-supermarket sells European apples at HK$9.9 for 5.

I cannot help buying all the three kinds of apples, two in red and one in green.

The brands of apples are namely:
[1] “Red Chief” 4015 – The apples are in a deeper red. They look beautiful because there are small white dots on a colour-changing red body. These dots look very much like stars in a red Universe. To my knowledge, they together resemble constellations.
.
[2] “Harmonie” Royal Gala 4173 – These apples are relatively smaller than the Red Chief, but in a brighter red. The yellowish “stars” distribute all over each apple surface. Near the head, light green to bright yellow patterns like lava flowing out from the crater of a volcano while a bit lower down, the yellow dots, big or small, resemble those molten rock flying in the air. What a lovely picture I can see from such a little apple.

[3] “Granny Smiths” 4017 – These light green apples looks like pieces of jade with white dots in various sizes spreading radiantly outwards.

I have never seen such cheap and lovely apples before. They can beat those apples I saw at Apple Festival in Canada last year. How enjoyable it is to look at these beautiful apples so closely!

By the way, which country do you think produces these apples?

張祝珊英文中學舊生會2010-11執行委員會選舉

The following is the news about the election of the cabinet “誠閣” of CCSC OSA 2010-2011:

Dear Friends/Alumni,

I would like to inform you that an election of the Executive Committee of “The Cheung Chuk Shan College Old Students’ Association” (“OSA”) for the session 2010-11 will be held this Saturday 20 November 2010. Though there is only one cabinet『誠閣』 running for the Executive Committee election, please extend your support to the OSA
and vote for『誠閣』.

You may find more about『誠閣』from the promotion materials posted in the OSA’s website http://osa.ccsc.edu.hk/index.htm.

You can download the a “Proxy Form” from the OSA’s website (http://osa.ccsc.edu.hk/index.htm) which is self explanatory for your attention and completion. I should be gratefully if you would appoint me (“Chung Yik Cheung, Raymond”) or another alumnus who will attend the forthcoming Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) as your proxy for voting on your behalf to elect『誠閣』 at the AGM. Please also note that the duly completed “Proxy Form” must be signed and returned by email to the OSA (osa@ccsc.edu.hk) no later than 11:59 p.m. on November 19, 2010.

Thank you for your support and participation, and I look forward to meet you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Chung Yik Cheung, Raymond
鍾奕昌, 1978 (F.7)
Alumni Manager (2010 -2012)


張祝珊英文中學舊生會
(The Cheung Chuk Shan College Old Students’ Association)

2010-2011執行委員會選舉

請支持及投 誠閣 信心一票


(自左方: 鍾奕昌, 劉錦泉, 蔡斯洋, 楊日昇, 高方毅, 羅卓基, 張慧明, 李懿律, 陳建裕, 江翠欣)


我們是來自不同屆別的張學友 (註)，基於對母校、老師及校友的感情和關心，懷着誠意改革及辦好舊生會，回饋母校和服務校友。

母校已創立超過四十年，其努力辦學、作育英才之成績得到廣泛社會人仕的認同和讚賞。 我們對母校的栽培、老師的諄諄教導，至今仍銘記心中。 作為其中受惠的一分子，為感謝母校，因此我們很想透過舊生會為母校及各校友服務。

創校初期的老師已紛紛離校，過著她們的退休生活。 但很多老師像天使般仍默默眷顧我們，關心母校的發展。 不少老師更積極參加張祝珊校友基金的工作，私下亦一直與校友保持聯絡，對校友的成長給予寶貴的意見，盡顯餘暉。

我們非常榮幸，於組織『誠閣』期間獲得不少老師支持、鼔勵，並加入舊生會，成為我們的顧問委員會之委員。 我們希望日後定期舉辦不同型式的聚會，如新年團拜、周年聚餐等，建立平台，讓各校友及老師們有機會交流共聚，也希望能安排校舍參觀和攝影活動，讓校友能透過鏡頭，捕捉母校的每一個令人懷念的角落，重溫中學時間之美好回憶。

另一方面，我們也會為學弟學妹舉行升學就業及分享經驗的講座。 歡迎更多校友加入這個團隊，為母校培育新一代校友的大計獻出一分力。

希望您給予我們『誠閣』支持、並投我們信心一票。 我們誠意邀請您的加入，回饋母校悉心的栽培，共同參與舊生會之運作和活動，為母校服務，建立以張祝珊師生一心、赤誠愛校之特色精神，並將這精神延續及傳送到世界的每一個角落。

(註) 『 張學友』是指在張祝珊英文中學求學的校友


以下校友是競選2010-2011執行委員會候選人：

候選人
Chairman Koo Fong Ngai, Benny (高方毅) 1990 (F.5)
Vice Chairman Lo Cheuk Kei, Kenny (羅卓基) 1990 (F.5)
Vice Chairman Tsoi Sze Yeung, Simon (蔡斯洋) 2002 (F.5)
General Secretary Kong Tsui Yan, Jenny (江翠欣) 2002 (F.5)
Financial Secretary Yeung Yat Sing, Michael (楊日昇) 1984 (F.5)
Publication Secretary Chan Kin Yu, Erik (陳建裕) 2008 (F.5)
Information Technology Secretary Chung Yik Cheung, Raymond (鍾奕昌) 1978 (F.7)
Executive Committee Member Lau Kam Chuen (劉錦泉) 1976 (F.5)
Executive Committee Member Cheung Wai Ming (張慧明) 1980 (F.5)
Executive Committee Member Li Yi Lut, Lawrence (李懿律) 2008 (F.5)


顧問委員會 :
張祝珊英文中學榮休老師

Tofino

Today I have the honour to display two pieces of valuable writings from my dear students, Terry and Edward, who together travelled to this small town, Tofino, last summer (2009) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Terry wrote:

「吐芬奴 Tofino 位處太平洋岸邊的一個小鎮，從溫哥華出發要乘汽車渡輪往溫哥華島的乃磨巿 Nanaimo，由那裡再向東行穿越溫哥華島，直達太平洋那邊的吐芬奴，全程大概三、四個小時，沿横跨公路經過許多人口稀少的小鎮和湖泊，也會走在兩旁有高聳大樹的原始森林公路。沿吐芬奴一帶有不少海浪沖刷形成的天然沙灘和眾多灘邊旅館，按地勢而定，有些是觀浪的理想地點，海水因潮漲沖向嶙峋大石能激起巨大浪花，潮退則露出甚至有幾十米闊的灘面，供遊人帶著寵物狗或緩步或跑步，忘記一點，這裡的旅館許多都歡迎帶同家犬一同住宿。七、八月時份，在柔和的海風吹送中，面迎向太平洋沖進來的浪花，聽著海濤，不禁令人懷緬岸那邊成長的故鄉。」

Edward wrote:

"Tofino is a fishing village facing the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Vancouver Island. There are whale watching, wave surfing, fishing, trail exploring right at the town. The Pacific Ocean is huge and the forest surrounding the area is very beautiful.

We spend three days two nights in one of the beach resorts. There is a very good restaurant in our hotel (actually it is the most high-rated restaurant in the area), and we enjoy a 6-course dinner. The atmosphere is very relaxing with beautiful music and scenery of the ocean. It is just perfect."

Note: The fir trees here are taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. The dishes of food chosen by Edward and Terry were vegetables more than meat. They were healthy. As Edward said and I agree too that the food served here was rather expensive.

I envy Edward's 6-course meal because we only have such a thing at Christmas when a Big Christmas Meal (聖誕大餐) is served.

Making of Spoons and Forks

Through the above collage photo, you can see how spoons and forks are made. They take shape through cutting, pressing, polishing and electroplating.

It is easy for us to pick up a spoon or fork or knife and use it at meals, but each is made through different processes and by the skill of workers.

Flowering Plants of the year

Here I show everybody a collection of flowering plants and trees that grow at the roadside, on a pedestrian bridge and inside our public garden throughout this year 2010.

These flowers grow fabulously, each in its favourable position for pollination and reproduction. Their colours, shapes and arrangement attract my attention and I cannot help focusing and recording them in my camera. No matter how shortly they live, their existence is important to me. They have added much fun to my views when I walk past them.

In one of the photos, a flower grows out at the tree trunk. Amazing, isn’t it? In another, a black butterfly rests on the leaves, immovable for some time. Maybe it is too tired to fly on. In a third photo, the yellow flowers cluster like ice-cream bars. In the fourth, the purplish red flowers miraculously grow old as the tiny petals at their bottoms become white.

Our pride - Our Heroine

Our Hong Kong woman cyclist, Lee Wai Sze (李慧詩), Sarah, won the first Gold medal in the 16th Asian Games to Hong Kong on Saturday, November 13, 2010 in the Women’s 500m Time Trial event.

Sarah broke a new Asian record in this event. Not only she had brought up a big morale to her team-mates in cycling, but also to the Hong Kong athletes in other events.

The 23 year-old girl was born in Hong Kong. Even though she has attained 4 world records in the past years, she was not looked upon as the winner of the Game. She was the second last athlete who sped her bike in the event. Finally she made a record of 33.945 seconds in finishing 500 metres. Whether she won or not depended wholly on the performance of her strong opponent, the Chinese athlete, Guo Shuang (郭爽). Sarah was able to snatch the Gold medal into her hands since Guo could not make a speed faster than her.

Sarah thanked her trainer and also Wong Kam Bo, a Gold medalist in the Olympics. She shed her tears when she stood on the presentation platform, hearing the Chinese national anthem and the hoisting of HKSAR flag. Sarah has shown us that Hong Kong has a big step forward in sports.

Newspapers on Sunday brought the good news to the readers and the story of this girl striving for success in the past few years.

Lighting of Asian Games’ Fire, 2010

On the eve of November 12, 2010, the 16th Asian Games Opening Ceremony (第十六屆亞洲運動會開幕禮) was held at the sandy island (海心沙島) on the Pearl River, Guangzhou. It is the very first time that an opening ceremony of “Games” steps out of a stadium.

It is difficult to construct and house a performing “stage” on such a small nameless island on which several army garrisons, a shoe-making factory and a few families of fishermen were originally located. A large spectator stand, a complicated stage, piers, roads and underground railway have been built.

Eight huge LED screens are built on four masts which together look like sails. They display beautiful background pictures during the ceremony.

The giant boat performance, dancing, drum-beating, show of various traditional costumes of nations and the assembly of athletes of participating countries were some of the highlights of the night. The show in which 180 on-wire performers were flying and swinging high above before the screens was amazing. These young performers were from Siu Lam Chee (少林寺) pulled up and down according to the screenplay by almost a thousand young men on ground.


The sight of an athlete walking over water with a torch marked the arrival of the Game fire. After several “torch-fire” passes, the young famous “diving” star, Ho Chung, together with two children, lit the big fire-cracker on the ground. The fire-cracker was raised higher up and the shooting of a small rocket upwards lit the huge fire above.


Next the declaration of the opening ceremony was made and fireworks began to light up the city.

Click to enlarge photos.

Banana produce in Ecuador

On October 31, 2009, I bought a bunch of bananas from a Chinese operated supermarket in Richmond, Vancouver, BC. I noticed that Ecuador was the producing country. At first, I was excited in trying out these strange and mysterious bananas, but after a few bites, they did not give me big surprises.

The name “Ecuador” bears in my mind firmly since then and recently TV programmes about the country impress me a lot. A certain part of the programme shows that Ecuador ranks first in growing bananas in the world. The people of the country eat bananas as often as we eat rice. Instead of cereals, they eat bananas every day. Cooking bananas is common in the country.

The banana plantations there are generally located on slopes. The hot and humid weather best suits the growth of bananas. To reach the plantations, workers have to walk on wet muddy ground. Workers first measure the thickness of the bananas by the U-shaped devices at the end of sticks to see if they have fully grown. They wrap these going-to-ripe bananas in plastic covers, cut them (still in large rings) down and carry them on large cushions. At a processing spot, some workers cut up the rings of bananas into smaller bunches, wash them and pack them in boxes. Next these boxes of bananas are carried by mules to roads that are accessible by lorries or trucks, and later to sites for distributions.

Notice that the yellow bunch of bananas was the one I bought and ate in Canada. How exciting it was to taste South American bananas for the first time!!

Fully-loaded Home

Before going home, Loretta had dim-sum lunch with us. My mother-in-law was the host after all. Soon dim-sums filled our table and we were fed up as usual.

We returned to Shatin as soon as possible because packing and weighing Loretta’s large suit-case took some time. Loretta just wondered if she could buy more if the suit-case was still under-weight. It came out that the weight of the suit-case reached somewhat 25.5 kilograms. A little bit of shifting of things to the smaller suit-case was done.

Since it was still early, Tony accompanied Loretta to the shops at City One to find for “lighter” articles. In the end, some batteries, bottles of glue and mini card games were bought.

We boarded the “3:40” A41 bus to the airport. Unexpectedly, the large suit-case only weighed 24.5 kilograms at the check-in counter. It might be that the airline company deliberately made the machine weigh less for allowance. It was wonderful that no extra charge was laid on the large suit-case.

Time was still ample for a late afternoon tea snack. Surprisingly, we could not find any Mc Donald, but a Fairwood. In the latter fast-food shop, we bought a pork-chop burger and a French toast with inadequate syrup plus a chicken wing. Besides the drinks, the most interesting was the six-dollar “Wun Chai Chee” (碗仔翅). We could imagine what was inside the soup.

Towards six in the evening, we took some photos and Loretta prepared to go in to the customs through the entrance. We hugged Loretta and said good-bye to her. She waved back as she disappeared behind the door.

This time, Loretta is fully-loaded with drinks, snacks, biscuits mostly in taste of peanut butter, two heavy-weighted moulds in making cakes, stationery, game cards, chopsticks and many other things which I did not know.

Monitoring

Early last Saturday morning, Loretta had to go to Tin Shui Wai to visit one of her friends. A thorough study of which means of transport would be the best for her was carried out the day before. A conclusion came out that taking a 269C bus would be simple and direct. Another thing I did was to choose the bus route which Loretta should take from Tin Shui Wai to Tsim Sha Tsui. It turned out that a bus 269B could fit.

Next, I had to find out and write down where to change bus (29M to 269C) and the bus stops she had to get off or get on the bus. Luckily the KMB website helps a lot. It even shows the photos of the bus-stops.

Reaching TST, Loretta had to know the way to the restaurant to meet her uncle and aunt. I wrote down the name of streets she had to walk through and told her briefly the direction she should follow.

In actual practice, Loretta phoned me at 7: 20a.m. that she was on a 269C heading for Tin Shui Wai. I told her that she would arrive at Tin Shui Wai in an hour’s time. As expected, she called me back as soon as she got off at the right bus-stop. There was no problem for her first journey. At around 10:30, I phoned Loretta to see if she was on a bus to TST. She said “yes” and that she had just boarded it not long ago. I had a big relief because she would not get lost in Tin Shui Wai. I left everything to her own when she was in TST.

Afterwards, Loretta wrote several SMS to me. In the 3 p.m. message, she told me that she had to turn off her cell-phone because the battery was low. At 8:30 p.m., she said that her friend’s wedding banquet was going to start.

No telephone came since then. After 11 p.m., we began to worry for her because banquets normally end at 11p.m. She did not call her grandparents until 11.45 p.m. She said on the other side of the phone that she had boarded a bus 26 by then. After a few moments, her dear grandparents started their way to the nearby bus-stop to escort her home. Finally Loretta was safely home.

On that day, I monitored Loretta's routes to and from Tin Shui Wai and I was ready to give any assistance to Loretta if she really lost her way. I don’t know why the wedding banquet could last so long. Perhaps the performances and games overran it.

Be Happy Hosts

My wife and I were so happy to host a dinner for Loretta last Friday night. We ordered five Chinese dishes. They included pork chops (燒汁豬扒), green pods (欖菜四季豆), balsam pear in scrambled egg (涼瓜蛋角), spongy cucumber with beef (勝瓜雲耳炒牛肉) and a Vegetarian Bowl (南乳齋煲).

Throughout the whole day’s feeding, Loretta soon felt full. I thought she had eaten a lot already. I could not spot out her favourite dish at the table. Her full stomach might have spoiled her appetite.


Thanks to my sister-in-law and in-laws who helped us clear the food.

Finally, Loretta dropped the idea of eating the "free" drink of red bean soup (dessert).

Beautiful Seats

After Loretta had bought a pack of “ ball-ball” cakes from a shop at City One, she decided to go to Yaumati to buy moulds for making such cakes under my guidance.

On a 281A bus, I discovered these beautiful seats. Not only the colour of these seats was appealing to the eyes, the cartoon figures on them were cute. The fabrics of the covering looked plastic. Each seat looks in itself like a present wrapped up in beautiful paper.

It was raining outside the bus. The roads were congested. It took longer time to reach the target shops in Shanghai Street. The first shop we went in was “I Love Cake”. Having looking around for a while, we decided to take a look at another shop near by. In this second shop, Loretta bought quite a number of things and utensils – one mould for “ball-ball” cakes (雞蛋仔), another mould for “square partition” cakes (格仔餅), a brush, a plastic word + picture-making plate for a birthday cake, small cake paper holders and an interesting teaching aid for her children, the Chinese weighing device (中國秤+錘). Loretta will soon become busy in making those funny cakes in her kitchen. Her children, husband, brother, parents and in-laws will enjoy the cakes in the near future.

Dim-sum Lunch with niece

Loretta met her grand-parents, aunties and uncles and cousin at Shatin. Dim-sum lunch is favourable to all parties.

Besides chatting, photo-taking is another important element during our “Yum cha”. Loretta’s eyes opened widely at the dish of Mango pudding. She just ate one quarter of it. I guessed she wanted others to try as well. I hope she will tell everybody at her home how nice and tasty the pudding is.

Dim sums are relatively cheaper in Hong Kong than those in Australia. I remember last time (December 2006) when we were in Sydney, the bill for dim-sum lunch with our relatives reached A$50 for 5 to 6 dim sums. Owing to inflation, the prices of dims-sums in Australia might have risen to certain high points.

Breakfast with Loretta

We get to know more about Loretta’s choice of breakfast.

There we were at Café de Coral last Friday morning. Loretta chose sausages, fried white carrot pudding, chicken burger (meat only) and macaroni.

She found the curled tube-like macaroni interesting. Perhaps the macaroni she eats in Australia is different in shape.

Finally we shared the two breakfasts among three. It was a really a good idea to taste more varieties of food and lower, at the same time, the possibility of getting much weight.

We meet again

We are so happy to see our niece, Loretta, come again to Hong Kong.

While we were waiting at our airport, I found a line of large monitors on the wall of the Arrival Hall. The information of flight arrivals were clearly shown and updated. I deeply appreciated such devices to aid those people receiving their friends or relatives. The top right monitor showed the face of a Virtual-to-Reality clock, big and clear. I wish I could have one at home.

I found our airport very efficient – passenger and luggage transfer as well as immigration operations. Loretta came out from Exit B in just half an hour since landing.

Loretta was sharp-witted. She was so fast in spotting us at the railings and waved to us.

How happy to see her in “good” shape, happy and speaks like a bird (in fluent English and sometimes Cantonese) with us.

Fruit News from Shatin

It is a big surprise to me today that I find Australian big oranges (brand: Red Earth) sold in W-Supermarket. Although they are quite expensive, around HK$4.60, I think it is worth trying. We have been thinking of Australian oranges for a long time.

We seldom see Australian oranges appear in P-supermarket or W-supermarket. P and W supermarkets normally sells Sunkist oranges, first from California, later from South Africa. The former are better in quality, especially those navels. Throughout these months, we have to bear the toughness of the coats of the flesh for long. We simply peel the coats off before we eat the flesh.

The flesh of Californian oranges is first-class and that of Australian ones are equally good to taste, being juicy and sweet. The flesh of South African oranges (at first Sunkist, now Outspan) approahes to sour. As I have said before, the inner skins are tough. We have to use force to bite when eating. To my anger, some of those small, good-looking South African Sunkist oranges sold in a nearby W-supermarket let me down for some time because they are dry at both ends. Only one third of each orange can be eaten. I am sure these oranges have been laid in the shelf without refrigeration and care for days.

Back to last September and October in Vancouver, the supply of oranges was okay. I liked those Pacific-west oranges (from California) and Australian ones. Towards November and December, oranges favourable to me disappeared

In Apple Festival at UBC, I came across a great variety of apples. They came in green, yellow, rosy and red apples. To me, the names of these apples were new and strange to me.

Recently, we prefer to eat green pears (brand: Fruit ways; picture: bee) from South Africa rather than those Chinese “Fuji” apples (becoming smaller, losing sweetness and I believe they are downgraded). The pears are sweet, soft when ripe and hard when rare. The price of each pear is reasonably low, around HK$2.2 to HK$2.5.

Ball-headed Woman

On the first day of November, as usual, we had breakfast outside. At the restaurant, suddenly my wife asked me to hand her my pocket-sized digital camera. She told me that she found something funny below, not far away from the restaurant. I shifted a little to see a ball-headed woman doing morning exercises.

It was the influence of watching AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos) in TV that makes my wife so sensitive to this kind of “funny” scenes. I am glad that she finds interesting things around her and it was the first time she picked up my camera to take the first picture by herself. I took the rest for her.

This woman was a bit short, broad faced (I can recognize her because I have seen her before) and in a black sports suit. Her skill in doing exercise was poor. In a matter of three minutes, she stopped doing her “short” exercise and walked away from her “stage” of public performance.

Our Guavas ripening

The four guavas near the gateway to our building are ripening. I love to see this these days when I come home after breakfast because they reflect my daughter, son-in-law and their two kids.

Connie ripens because she has learned a lot in mother-care, from pregnancy to delivery, breast-feeding and teaching Elly in everything with the help of Philip – to roll sideways, crawl, climb, walk, drink and eat.

Philip ripens too, in taking care of a family of four. He plays the role of driving, photo-taking, buying and cooking food, arranging various activities for friends and family in Canada. He is hard-working too. He stayed up late in writing book reports or assignments for his daily study at Regent.

Abby ripens in different fields ever since she studied at pre-school. She has great improvement in speech, singing, dancing (in Ballet), swimming, painting, a little bit of writing at home, building blocks with Philip, brushing sauce to a chicken for frying and much new experience that Hong Kong children will never get.

Elly ripens fast. She has a big leap at fourteen months old because she starts to walk, climbs stair-cases, turns herself around, tries to speak into anything that looks like a cell-phone, eats adult food, calling for help, greeting and saying good-bye to people.
She is very quick at learning and knows what the next step should be when she hears certain words said by adults.

Wearing Sunglasses

Abby wore her blue Mickey Mouse sun-glasses in front of the view-cam today. She appeared very funny and cute. We asked Connie if Elly had her own sunglasses. Connie, said “Yes”. We were eager to see how they looked in their sunglasses, so we requested Connie, Abby and Elly to come together to take a group photo.

Soon Abby, Elly and Connie joined a sun-glass fashion show before us. Their lovely look made me think of the pose of the actress, Chan Po Chu (陳寶珠) in the Cantonese film called “女殺手”.