Our CCSC Sales at New Year Fair

ATV was so nice as to report our CCSC Sales of dolls at New Year Fair in Victoria Park at 6 p.m. news today, January 21, 2011. The business of selling dolls flourishes each year with accumulated experience and wise thought of design.

This year is the Year of the Rabbit. The pink rabbit is attractive. With the dark glasses, the rabbit looks proud and confident. In addition, the yellow eye brows give the rabbit a funny look. The basket in front is multi-purpose. People may use it as a waste-paper basket or children play ball games with it or even store their red-packets or candies during Chinese New Year.

Memories through Old Photos (1)

A photographer took out one photo of a boat taken many years ago off the shore of Shatin. He found more or less the same location along the riverside of Shatin where his photo was taken. He told a HKTVB reporter that there was a big change over these long years.

The opposite bank of the Shing Mun River which was quiet and uninhabited in early years had been turned into public or private residential areas.

Shatin itself has been developed into a satellite town. Nowadays the shopping centres near Shatin MTR Station are usually crowded with people. They shop, eat and join different activities in these centres. The Shatin Central Park, Museum of Arts, City Hall and its library (public), JC Race course are hot places for visits. Canoeing and dragon boat races often take place on Shing Mun River.

Making of Pencil sharpeners

The soul of a pencil sharpener comes from the knife blades. They are cleaned up first and one side of each blade is next sharpened. On one side, a machine is preparing the bodies of the sharpeners. The blades are arranged neatly by hands into a column. The blades and bodies of the sharpeners reunite in a third machine where each blade is fixed firmly onto the body of a sharpener with a small screw through the hole of the blade.

These pencil sharpeners are simple, light and easy to carry. They are best companions of artists, designers, office-workers, students and people in different fields when they make drafts, calculate, or record anything that may need corrections with their pencils.

Four Pieces of Cakes at JC

These slices of delicious cakes go with the set lunches at JC as desserts. Each only costs ten dollars. Today, let me introduce four kinds of cakes that are served in the restaurant.

Left top corner: It is a chestnut cream cake. The brown pastes of chestnuts are laid on the soft white cream like worms. A blueberry, half a slice of a kiwifruit and a bit of a yellow pear decorate the piece of cake beautifully. The cake is soft, tender and never too sweet.

Right top corner: It is a strawberry cheese cake. The main characters here are the two halves of a large red strawberry. They are outstandingly decorated with a triangular piece of white chocolate with patterns of red hamburgers. The white cheese layer is a few centimetres thick with a hard-crusted base. To me, it is “heavy-weighted”.

Left bottom corner: It is obviously a piece of a chocolate cream cake which satisfies chocolate lovers. The red cherries at the top add a little sweet-to-sour taste to the cake. Next to the cherries are some chocolate pieces. This mass of chocolate look very much like those wood and graphite lead pieces being scraped out of a pencil-sharpener.

Right bottom corner: It is a five-layered cheese cake decorated with three red berries and a piece of white chocolate. This piece of cake is a prism with a cross-section of a right-angled triangle. I think it is a good model for teaching Mathematics.

The Arctic Circle

At a small land mark on Dalton Highway, Alaska, this lady showed her pride of having reached the Arctic Circle. A large board showed the Arctic Circle (in yellow dotted line), the land and ocean at the Polar region. The “star” indicated the location of the board.

There the lady was issued a certificate (I don’t know if she had to pay for it) by Northern Alaska Tour Company to commemorate that she had crossed the Arctic Circle.

Let us read a brief note of this imaginary line on Earth:

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It is the parallel of latitude that runs 66° 33’ 44” (or 66.5622°) north of the Equator. The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone. The equivalent polar circle in the Southern Hemisphere is called the Antarctic Circle.

The Arctic Circle passes through the Arctic Ocean, the Scandinavian Peninsula, North Asia, Northern America and Greenland. The land on the Arctic Circle is divided among eight countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the United States (i.e. Alaska), Canada, Denmark (i.e. Greenland), and Iceland (where it passes through the small offshore island of Grímsey).

Besides the Arctic Circle, can you name the other 4 major circles of latitude?

Elly does Matching overseas

Yesterday we showed our green and red D’ Anjou pears to Connie and asked if she had such pears at home. Unexpectedly, Philip brought one in from the refrigerator and showed it to us. Little Elly observed this act closely.

When Philip had shown us the pear and put it back, Elly went out of the room and we could figure out Elly asking for a similar pear from Philip through the voices of the father and daughter.

Through Skype, we could see Elly walk back with a D’ Anjou pear. She wanted to show us the pear herself. This reflects clearly to us that she understands what adults say and she wants to take an active part in everything at home. She is so lovely to match her pear with ours in Hong Kong, isn’t she?

New products from MD

Recently MD produces two new products of fish fillet:

[1] Golden Fish Deluxe (黃金蜜蜂糖芥末魚堡) – I name it as GFD

Let us see what MD says:

“HERE’S ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE THE NEW YEAR.
Introducing the exquisite Golden Fish Deluxe. We’ve drizzled luscious honey mustard sauce on a juicy fish filet, and then layered pepper jack cheese, fresh tomato slices and crunchy lettuce, Take a bite and the celebrations begin.”

[2] Sakara Supreme (日和特盛魚堡) – I name it as SS

This time, MD says:

“BEGIN THE YEAR WITH A BURST OF FLAVOR.
Dive into a long filet of deep-sea fish in a fancy cornmeal bun. Drizzled with the tangy aroma of sesame mayo with crispy iceberg lettuce and melty cheese for good measure.”

Our conclusions are:
(1) SS is tastier than GFD.
(2) The buns are nice because they are comfortably soft.
(3) The fish filet is good.
(4) When biting GFD, I have to be very careful because the tomato may fall off. One of my palms acts as a safety net to hold back any food particle that is likely to fall from the bun.

Red D’ Anjou

Last Friday when I turned to a page of advertisement on articles sold in W Supermarket, I was startled to find Red D’ Anjou pears which I want to investigate. They were sold at around HK$2.67 each, much cheaper than those at P supermarket.

On the next day, we shopped at the nearest W branch. At first sight, the Red D’ Anjou looked deep red. A closer look at these pears brought me a lot of fun. The patches or dots of yellow and green spread beautifully across the skin making the pears look like pieces of art. I liked them and selected the pears according to different patterns of colours and here I display them in the collage photo above.

D’ Anjou

From my recent observation, the Fuji apples grown in China look like apples, but they do not carry any fragrance or sweetness at all. To replace them in our fruit list, we choose the green D'Anjou pears from U.S.A. The pears cost HK$3.3 each. I love the little orange-to-red colour against the major green on its skin.

First I find the descriptions of the pears from Natural Hills Nursery which say:

(1) The D'Anjou Pear (安琪梨) is a large pear.
(2) The flesh is white with abundant juice and a sweet brisk flavor.
(3) It is a naturally sweet pear, light green in color with a yellow tinge when ripe.
(4) Anjou pears have exceptional keeping qualities.
(5) The best flavor is realized when stored 1-2 months.

The tree is very hardy, large and highly productive. The D'Anjou does not change color as it ripens. It requires cross pollination with Bartlett or any other pear with the same bloom date.

Next from Wikipedia, I find:

The D'Anjou pear (Beurré d'Anjou) or simply Anjou, is a short-necked cultivar of European Pear. The variety was originally named Nec Plus Meuris in Europe and the name Anjou or d'Anjou was erroneously applied to the variety when introduced to America and England. It is thought to have originated in the early to mid-19th century, in Belgium or France.

The pears are in two colours.
[1] The Green Anjou has a pale green skin that doesn't change color as the pear ripens. Some other varieties of green pears turn yellow as they ripen.

[2] The Red Anjou originated as naturally occurring bud sport found on Green Anjou trees. Red Anjou pears are very similar to the original Anjou other than color.

The d'Anjou is considered a medium to large pear, typically around 270–285 grams, 85 mm in height, and 80 mm in diameter. It has a wide, globular base, short stem, and thin skin with many notable lenticels, or pores, which allow the exchange of gases with the atmosphere. The flesh is described as "creamy white, aromatic, juicy, sweet, slightly acidic, with buttery and slightly gritty texture.

D'Anjou pears are often used in crafting various dishes. D'Anjou purée is used for Jelly Belly's Juicy Pear flavor of jelly bean.

In the United States, the variety was recommended for general cultivation by the American Pomological Congress in 1852, and as of 2004 represented 34% of reported U.S. pear production, with Oregon being the primary pear producing state.

The Magic Power

Once again we met Hayley at lunch at Shatin. Last time her father HD was unable to come, but this time he joined us.

Mother Daisy ordered a bowl of food for Hayley and collected a dish of corn, prunes and red beans from the salad bar as supplement. I saw Hayley use her cartoon chopsticks to pick up beans and cut-up prunes to eat. She also ate the food inside the bowl with her yellow twisted spoon. To me, the spoon looked like a yellow bone, flattened a little at one end. Throughout the lunch she was not very keen at eating.

An excitement came to Hayley when her uncle HL took out a small bag of candies. At first sight, the candies were like stamp-chops with the faces of Hello Kitty. Hayley saw them. She raised her hands, waved like a Miss Hong Kong when making the Victory Parade, smiled broadly, shouted a little and moved her body from side to side. I believed Hayley must have seen this kind of candies before. Her father helped her tear open the wrapping paper. In a moment, she bit at the small white chocolate at each head of the three tiny plastic handles. In a short while, the chocolate was all gone.

This reflects to everybody at lunch that chocolate possesses some Magic Power.

十三點

When we say that a girl is”十三點”, we mean that she is open, bold and easy-going, giving people the feeling “a little crazy” (喪喪地).

In 1966, a lady comic writer, 李惠珍, created a magazine in Hong Kong called 《十三點 》to reflect the life of young girls in the society at that time.

In the stories, 十三點 is a rich girl living at 13, Fife Street (快富街). She is kind, young, beautiful and clever. Optimistic as she is, she often helps to solve problems for her good friends, 羅素珍 (fat) and 遲珊珊 (thin), but likes to make jokes on the boys around her.

In the early years, 十三點 wears colourful mini-skirts. Her hair style and clothes are forever changing and fashionable. She looks simply like an early Barbie.

In the 2008 version, 十三點 wears silky tops and hot pants. At museums in Paris, she even wears beautiful gowns worn by French ladies in the upper class.

Old Master Q

Yesterday I found this colourful figure of Old Master Q (老夫子) inside Telford Cinema at Telford Gardens, Kowloon Bay.

His pose looks as if he were playing Kung Fu with fingers curled up like claws of a cat.

He always wears his old Chinese cap and very short black 3 white-dot overcoat. Underneath the overcoat is an attractive stylish yellow T-shirt. His chequer light blue trousers is in old European style. He still wears white socks and those light black Chinese shoes.

The wrinkles on the forehead, two-stroke beard, 倒轉八字眉, his small 老花眼鏡 over his 鬥雞眼 together stand out the features of Old Master Q.

Nam Sang Wai

I have not been to Nam Sang Wai for decades. It is so nice to have my good friend, Fred, who supplies me with photos of recent Nam Sang Wai taken on January 3, 2011.

These photos can bring me some memories of my first visit to it when I was young.

Nam Sang Wai (南生圍) is the swampy area south of the junction of Shan Pui River (山貝河) and Kam Tin River (錦田河) and north of Yuen Long MTR Station. It is a hot place for photographers, hikers, cyclists and picnickers. Shan Pui River became famous when our crocodile star "Pui Pui" (貝貝) was caught somewhere near Nam Sang Wai.

There were many fish ponds in the past, but they were long abandoned. Pond by bond is accessible by narrow paths or man-made wooden walkways or by boats or rafts. Huts built over water like those in Tai O can still be found here. Weeds as tall as men, floating leaves of lotus and water plants still grow in some parts of Nam Sang Wai. The mangroves here attracted long legged birds to rest and find for food.

What a pity that a recent fire, maybe a man-made one, burnt some of the beautiful trees and vegetation away( see the photo in the left corner - a tree has been built leaving a hole which looks like a heart). The fire has destroyed the beauty of this area and worst of all, a developer has bought this piece of land and will turn it into a residential area. A big change of Nam Sang Wai will soon come!

CCSC 兔年師生團拜活動

各位張祝珊學友，係咪好耐沒有機會跟昔日好友老師聚首一堂？若然一次過跟多位本想重聚已久的老師們拜年祝好你又想唔想呢？快D記起日子連隨通知埋同學仔一齊番黎過番個喜氣洋洋的師生團拜日啦！

活動形式包括遊戲、表演、昔日照片放映及茶聚等，並已邀請大部份榮休老師出席。希望大家踴躍參加，與老師及其他「張學友」聚舊！

日期：二零一一年二月十二日（年初十，星期六）
時間：下午二時至四時三十分
地點：學校禮堂 (香港北角雲景道11號)
費用：全免 - 茶點招待 (歡迎攜眷及子女出席)

張祝珊英文中學舊生會 - 「誠閣」上

請電以下聯絡人：
Benny Koo 高方毅 9367 1892
Kenny Lo 羅卓基 9128 8828 報名預人數，同時誠徵自告奮勇義工幫手!

Mosaic walls in MTR Stations

There are mosaic walls in some of our MTR stations in Hong Kong.
Which MTR Station can you find this Mosaic wall?

Three Glasses of Water

Three glasses of water
make me think of my daughter,
my grand-daughters
and their father.

Soon in Hong Kong we jolly gather
where Philip fries his favourite chicken in a cooker,
Connie bakes her cakes with butter,
Abby meets her friends in a new social sector
and Elly eats her chicken drumsticks in a baby-seater.

Street Performers

These are some of the street performers in Seattle. They play music with their guitars, clarinet, bass violin and piano. Their performances at Pike Place Market and before the First Starbucks in the world create the culture and spirits of America. As tourists, we welcome the country music in the American way. How nice it is to hear such kind of music imagining cowboys chasing cows they rear.

When my wife and I were at Circular Quay in Sydney, in December, 2006, we saw a performer dressed up like a donkey standing motionlessly on a box. I wondered if "it" was employed by the Australian Government to entertain the tourists. I did not walk near “it” because I was afraid “it” would lean or fall head-long on me. I pitied “it” because the brown coat could have made “it” sweat through under the red hot sun.

Another experience came from the performances of an acrobat on Granville Island, Vancouver, in 2009. Throughout, Abby, our grand-daughter, watched the tricks with big smiles. The performer was so frank to say that he needed some money. Some of us, as spectators at the square, gave him some coins or notes after he had finished the performances. Philip asked Abby to give him a coin and I did too. We saw our grand-daughter running twice forward to place a coin into the hat of the acrobat and back.

Getting to know us

Hayley, my nephew’s daughter, is getting to know me and my wife.

Hayley was born overseas and has lived in two famous cities in Asia outside Hong Kong until she returns to Hong Kong with her family to reside.

My wife and I saw Hayley when she was just a few months old and brought back to Hong Kong to have a dinner with her relatives in Hong Kong.

Last summer was the second time we saw her in a restaurant at “The Arch”. Her family paid a very short visit to Hong Kong. At that time, we were still strangers to Hayley. Besides my son, I acted as another photographer that day chasing her and her cousin, Jasmine, to take a few pictures at the restaurant as well as at my brother’s home.

The whole family of Hayley re-stationed in Hong Kong last November and we met Hayley at Christmas. That night, Hayley engaged in playing with Jasmine and two other girls.

It was this Monday afternoon that we met in a car to JC, Shatin. My brother drove and I sat in front beside him. Hayley was asked to call us 三叔公 and 三叔婆. From her facial expressions she could not recognize us. My wife kept talking with her in the car.

We had lunch together at JC. There I took a few photos of Hayley to record some of her activities:

The central big photo shows that Hayley is good at balancing herself. It was actually her "catwalk".
The top left photo shows her “Shake, shake” skills of letting the crayons drop out.
The bottom left photo shows that she successfully pulled out a blue crayon from the box.
The top right photo shows that she was ready to colour the pictures of wild, but funny animals.
The centre and bottom photos show her stability on the stairs. It seemed that she was looking for something herself.

A big impression might have given to Hayley when she found me, her三叔公, driving in the return journey instead of her grandpa. She puzzled and with explanation, she understood that her 三叔公 could drive too. This time, she did not say good-bye to us when we left the car because she had log fallen asleep well before she reached home. Hayley is getting to know me/us from now on.

5C Class Gathering

Some time ago, Kestal Wong first contacted me through Facebook that she had been keeping the souvenir, “miniature figure”, which CCSC OSA gave me at annual dinner in 2005. After the presentation, immediately I found that the spectacles on the cartoon doll were broken, so I asked Cafrany Chow, the Chairlady of OSA in that year, to take it back to the manufacturer for repair. It was Cafrany who handed the doll to Kestal before she went to China to work.

Recently, Justin Chan organized a 5C (2001-2002) gathering. Kestal was so kind to invite me to join and perhaps she found such a chance to return the doll to me on behalf of Cafrany.

Last Sunday evening we met at Times Square and later went to an upstairs café at CWB to have dinner. The food consisted of salad, thin pizzas, small chicken wings (middle sections), rice with chicken in white-cream sauce, marshed potato and spaghetti.

Twelve students attended. They were Justin Chan, Kenny Chan, Windham Ko, Wendy Cheung, Becky Choi, Amy Chow, Kitty Ho, Ruby Liu, Angel Pong, Kestal Wong, Chris Wong and Mandy Yim.

We chatted and shared our working experience and, of course, my students were quite concerned with my retired life. Kenny, the funniest of all, spoke the most and we all laughed at his humour. We shared our stories until ten o’clock.

Street Pictures

When I stepped out of Kwun Tong MTR Station this Tuesday, January 4, 2011, I found two long wall pictures high above the roads going underground.

These pictures are not only colourful, but they also record the look of Kwun Tong at one time. They might be historic or going to be historic because Kwun Tong changes its look every day. The factories fade away and they are, one by one, replaced by commercial buildings and those old residential buildings will be soon pulled down and replaced by modern ones.

What interests me most in one of the photos is the vehicular ferry rocking on the rough waves off the coast of Kwun Tong.

If you want to see bigger photos, please double-click the above Collage photo.

Chinese Calligraphy at MTR stations

Beautiful Chinese calligraphy first impressed me many years ago when I found them on the metal walls of some of our MTR stations on Hong Kong Island. I could feel the strokes of Chinese characters across the walls of the platforms at the following stations – 天后, 炮台山, 北角, 鰂魚涌, 太古, 西灣河, 筲箕灣…….

Today a big shock comes to me when I look at the photos provided by MTR Company, some of those lovely Chinese calligraphy of Station names had gone. They are replaced by very low-graded writings. How depressing it is to me.

Yesterday I came across the Chinese calligraphy displayed for about eight years at stations 調景嶺 and 將軍澳. The brush to write these station names must be big and the strength of each stroke of the characters can be seen.

Fashion Show on IFC

Please look at the Fashion Show at our IFC.

The Marvellous Show of IFC

Let us use our imagination to interpret the look of IFC together with the Fire and Smoke created in the countdown to New Year 2011.

Below are my interpretations of the figures in the photos.

Top left to Top right:

[1] Milk bottle brush (奶瓶刷)
[2] Cactus (仙人掌)
[3] Old water-pump (古老抽水機)
[4] Traffic Policeman raising one hand to stop the in-coming cars (交通警正在指揮交通)

Bottom left to Bottom right:

[5] Totem pole (圖騰柱)
[6] Windmill with turning sails (風車)
[7] Mushroom (草菇)
[8] Cactus (仙人掌)
[9] Robot (合金機械人)

New Year Eve, 2010

On New Year Eve, I was longing to see the “count-down to 2011” on the shore-line of Hong Kong Island.

The scene of several commercial buildings consecutively blew smoke and fire into the air was absent because the lens of TVB camera were pointing at the VIPs at the Count-down Ceremony at Tsim Sha Tsui. The hands of the VIPs were on the handle of signifying the arrival of New Year 2011 ready to lower it down.

This year show of count-down again consisted of singing and dancing. Crowds of people gathered at the long corridor at Tsim Sha Tsui watching or taking photographs of the fire and smoke that sends out from our main character building, IFC.

Please double-click to enlarge the photos.

Sydney Welcoming 2011

This happened in Sydney, Australia, on December 31, 2010 when the clock struck NINE:and at MID-NIGHT, right into January 1, 2011:

"Sydney's skyline has exploded as New Year's Eve fireworks illuminated the city and dazzled spectators, ahead of the midnight extravaganza that will bring in 2011.

About 1.5 million revellers crammed into viewpoints on the foreshore, joining the people on board luxury yachts and tinnies in a celebratory roar as the party got into full swing.

The familiar rumble-and-bang of fireworks sounded shortly after 9 pm (AEDT) tonight as streams of incandescent colour shot into the heavens - a teaser for the much-hyped show-stopper set to wow the world at midnight.

An X on the Harbour Bridge reflected the Make Your Mark theme of the the family-friendly display, which coincided with a lit parade of vessels on the waters below.

All eyes were on Sydney, one of the first major cities to ring in the new year, with an estimated billion people tuning in to watch the party billed as the best since the 2000 Olympics."

Star of Beans

Recently some of the stars in the Universe are named after some young scientists or famous people in Hong Kong.

Today I name Elly as a Star of Beans (“畢”豆星) simply because she finds interests in transferring white beans with her little spoon from her cap-like eating bowl to an ordinary plastic one and vice versa. No wonder this primitive game exercises the motor muscles of her hands and fingers and builds up her patience and concentration in finishing her "task". At one time, she tries to put a bean to her lips. We shout out through the microphone, thousands of kilometres away, to stop her from eating it.

Soon sister Abby comes to join in the game. Instead of transferring beans, she picks some beans up and let them drop like rain back to the bowl. In this manner, the two sisters enjoy their playing beans for a while. All these reminds me of the old days when children played simple games such as striking marbles, making guns from wooden strips (handles for ice-bars), throwing tiny bags of sand, jumping over ropes made from elastic rubber bands and kicking plastic balls or shuttle corks.

Christmas Light Decorations

This Christmas, the glass walls of hotels and commercial centres at Tsim Sha Tsui East are fully decorated with beautiful lights.

The themes are mainly pictures of Santa Claus and rabbits around a Christmas tree.

The most interesting ones are:

[1] Reindeers pulling a sleigh on which Santa Claus is sitting with Christmas presents.
(See Centre Right Photo)

[2] Santa Claus flies by plane over a town giving gifts to the people below.
(See Centre Left Photo)

[3] Santa Claus comes by the “Flying Dragon of Hong Kong”.
(See Centre Photo)

Helen Lo

Mrs. Helen Lo invited some of us to her new flat on October 28, 2010. To me, her home is much larger than mine.

The white sitting room is quite big with a large television set, a potted plant without flowers and an L-shaped white sofa on which five to six people can sit.

There are nice souvenirs bought from overseas, one of which is a crystal flower. At the ceiling we find an interesting intestine-like electric light with six bulbs inside.

There is an open kitchen. The long bench separating the sitting room from the kitchen can be used as a dining table. What we notice on this bench-table are the coffee-maker, glasses, a plate of fruits, a cold water-bottle, a hot-water heater and a rice-cooker. Helen put her lap-top computer on the same bench which means that it is also her working table.

Helen served us with radish, a drink of 羅漢果 and some potato chips.

From my observation, Helen or her daughter likes Maruko (小丸子) because there is a clock with this lovely doll on the kitchen bench. Helen loves eating bananas, green pears and dragon fruit (火龍果).

We could not see Helen’s cooking skill that day because she invited us to Yum Cha at a nearby restaurant where we were joined by other colleagues.

A Bus ride to TST

Today, I took a bus ride to Tsim Sha Tsui. The bus I boarded was a 2010 double-decker model. The new seats bore some red-helmeted funny figures. I found the same figures on the information panels of the modern bus-stops at TST when I got off the bus.

The Park Lane was filled with shops, but not people at half past eleven in the morning. The shining sun gave people warmth on the Lane.

After taken lunch with my old friends at a restaurant at TST, It so happened that the bus I took home was exactly a new bus similar to the bus I took earlier. The attractive yellow handles, the new seats, the big TV screens, the straight staircase and even the new logo of KMB all gave me a feeling of comfort and freshness. I felt good during my ride to and from TST today It was really rewarding to me after all. If I had taken MTR instead, I would have changed “chairs”, better say, “carriages” 3 times and might not have found a seat for myself on the rides.

Christmas Party for Children

To us, December 24 night was a Christmas Party for Children and a birthday party for adults.

Jasmine and Hayley met Dr. Lau’s two daughters, Emily and Elka. At the garden, they played glowing balls, a mini-slide, crawling into a tent, throwing balls into mid-air and bouncing on a soft mattress. Hayley, in her Santa Claus dress even rolled herself down to the mattress or even laid herself on the grass. Parents of Jasmine and Hayley together with Tony took photos of the children while others kept watching the four girls play.

Inside the house the girls’ team sat together with their mothers to take some cute photos.

借東西的小矮人 亞莉亞蒂

我前天經過旺角新世紀廣場，發現其中庭舉辦一個名叫日本宮崎駿新作《借東西的小矮人 亞莉亞蒂》“放大”聖誕派對展覽。

細心看展覽，感覺自己走進大人國，身邊的毛毛龍貓大得驚人，周圍都是奇花異草，花朵大得像小雨傘，葉子很像熱帶的芭蕉葉。縮小的屋子模型正是卡通片故事發生的地方，其佈置極度細緻，有趣，很像大家愛看的玩具屋。

穿上紅色裙子的大女孩就是亞莉亞蒂，頭上結了大大的蝴蝶結，面露笑容，甚可愛。

Doraemon at Lok Fu

This Tuesday at Lok Fu, all of a sudden, the cartoon figures of “Doraemon” characters on the stage at the multi-purpose courtyard caught my eyes. They all look vivid. The sizes of these figures look more or less like ours.

What I could find here on the stage were:
[1] Doraemon (叮噹/多啦A夢)
[2] Nobita Nobi (大雄)
[3] Shizuka Minamoto (靜香)
[4] Takeshi Goda (胖虎), nickname “Gian”
[5] Suneo Honekawa (小夫)

Let us see these characters closely:

Doraemon, a robotic cat, was always in my mind when I was young. He is a very kind, true, friendly, intelligent and interesting character. He possesses a 4D pocket from which he can get various kinds of futuristic tools, gadgets, and playthings from a future department store. Doraemon originally had ears, but they were bitten off by a robotic mouse in the 22nd century. As a result, he developed the fear of mice despite being a robotic cat.

Nobita Nobi wears glasses, a red or yellow polo shirt with a white collar, and blue shorts. Nobita is lazy, uncoordinated, dim-witted, frail, plain-looking, unlucky, and bad at sports. Nobita is used to arriving late on classes, scoring zeros in his tests, getting lectured by his teacher, being bullied by his classmates Gian and Suneo, falling into curbside rain gutters, being chased by dogs, and getting scolded by his mom for his sloth and poor academic results.

Shizuka is the smart, kind, and pretty girl next door to Nobita. Nobita is fond of her. She takes baths several times a day. Nobita often disrupts her in the bath due to some misuse of Doraemon's gadgets, resulting in Nobita's head getting dunked. She does not like piano lessons but they are used as excuses for declining to hang out with Nobita. Her true passions are sweet potatoes, which she'd rather keep to herself out of the knowledge of others, and the violin, in which her playing is as bad as Gian's singing. Owing to Doraemon's intervention, Shizuka will become Nobita's wife in the future timeline, and the mother of his son.

Takeshi is the big, strong, and quick-tempered local bully. He is known for his confidence in his terrible singing voice, though he considers himself a great singer. He frequently steals other children's toys and books under the pretext of "borrowing" them, unless the toy is damaged. However, he does not hesitate to help Nobita and his friends when they are in real trouble.

Suneo is the fox-faced (inherited from his mother) rich kid who loves to show off his material wealth before everyone. He is often seen with Gian, serving as Gian's lackey while they bully Nobita together, though he fears and despises him as much as everyone else. He has an good knowledge of science, and is a talented artist and designer. He has the habit to invite Gian and Shizuka to something or somewhere, but always leave Nobita out with one excuse or another.

December Snow in Europe

Recently snow falls in Europe. England, France and Germany are affected. The snow has upset the operations of the international airports in these countries such as London Heathrow Airport (England), Charles De Gaulle Paris International Airport (France) and Frankfurt am Main Airport (Germany). Tons of snow on the runways and on planes should be cleared before flights. Many flights are cancelled and only a fraction of the planes can take off or land.

The airports are in chaos. Passengers are stranded. Some have to sleep on the floor, having no bath and they have to find for food themselves. The airports are really like refugee camps.

Recent news says that Heathrow Airport lacks of ice-melting chemicals to remove the snow on the planes. The British army can help removing the snow on the runways, but the Spanish-managing authority at the airport refuses the idea. If the weather turns better, the runways cleared and the planes defrosted, the flights of planes will soon resume.

The traffic on land is equally bad. The “Eurostar” has reduced its service because they cannot travel at high speed on slippery rails. The roads are congested and drivers need to drive cautiously for safety.

Sunset Trains on the rails

I seldom take photos of trains, but today it is different. I wake up to find the setting sun still high up. The orange to red reflections of sunlight on this part of MOS rails attract my attention. I cannot help finding my cameras to take photos of the rails and the trains that run soundlessly to and from the nearby City One Station.

What interests me here is the glamour of red lights shining on the railway lines. I trust it is just a narrow chance to see such a scene on the rails. The temporary “clear” sky, the angle of rays of the setting sun and the time of discovery all match together to form photos like these.

Please double-click to see larger photos.

First Breakfast at new Fairwood, City One

Today we rushed to Fairwood early in the morning, just in time to find an empty table for us. My wife sat down first while I turned to buy a breakfast. I chose scrambled egg, fish fillet, white radish pudding with milk tea. It cost 22 dollars. I added an extra bowl of macaroni with shredded ham (another 3 dollars). The same kind of breakfast cost more or less the same in the brotherhood Café de Coral.

The breakfast came with food lying close together like neighbouring countries on a map of Europe. The crust on the fish fillet here is softer and thinner than that of Café de Coral. The latter is usually as hard as a shell. We find the paste of mayonnaise at a corner while that of CDC comes in a tiny plastic round cup. There is no big difference in the scrambled egg and radish pudding in both fast food restaurants when compared. The only big surprise came from the slice of lemon that went with the fish fillet. This told us that Fairwood really “cares” about the customer's need.

I could see hot steam coming up from the bowl of macaroni. My wife added that the soup base of the macaroni was not transparent, but milky in some way.

The last thing I have to mention here is that the fish fillet provided by KFC has a spicy taste which I like most.

In the photo, my wife was like playing magic with her hands to make the dish of food appear before her.

A Glimpse at Fairwood at City One

Let us take a look at the new branch of “Fairwood” Fastfood Restaurant at City One.

The orange colour used by the restaurant is attractive and striking to the eye. I love its modern-look. I hope it serves delicious food to the customers, among which are my family members.

I also hope that the food is sold at a fair price so that everyone can afford.

What can you see from these pictures?

I can tell you that it is a figure side-somersaulting. The figure looks like the letter “大” rolling round and round. Such rolling letters create “movement” and movement of our bodies means doing physical exercises.

After doing physical exercises, we need to refill ourselves with food. Behind these wall pictures is the kitchen which provides food for us. This is the new “Fairwood” branch due to open tomorrow, December 19, Sunday, 2010 in Ngan Shing Shopping Centre at City One.

Recent M & M

To buy M & M clothes from Bossini shops, customers have to surrender their empty packet bags of M & M Chocolate beans. A new discovery comes that the beans become bigger, thicker and richer in taste. To me, the chocolate taste lasts longer in the mouth. The packet of chocolate we chose contain peanut butter which my family likes.


I totally agree that such improvement will make the chocolate lovers like M & M more. Recently, I notice that the M & M dolls look very lovely at our supermarkets, but they are too expensive for me to collect. I simply look, smile and go.

Merry Christmas

Many new shops have been recently opened after renovation in Ngan Shing Shopping Centre at City One.

It is the first time to see Christmas decorations in this centre. At its central square Christmas trees and “sleepy” dolls are placed. My wife tells me that these dolls are called MashiMaro (賤兔). According to history, they were born in May 8, 1999 in Korea, created by ”金在仁”先生. It is quite interesting to learn that the name comes from “marshmallow”.

May I say Merry Christmas to you all, my blog readers, and wish you all the best to come in the coming year 2011.

I have to announce a happy piece of news today: As from September 9, 2007 up to yesterday, December 13 , 2010, the total number of unique readers of my blog has reached 2001, just over 2000. I never expect to have such a large number of visitors here. Thanks to everyone who peeps in and reads my articles.

亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽

以上是亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽精彩照片集

亞洲星光大道3決賽

經過大半年不斷的參賽者比試,亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽終於在昨晚播出.

在首兩輪唱歌過後,最後六強中, 攪笑氣氛相當好的日本三人組合JAC名列第六,而被大會評判之一Walter Ma看好的李麗珊(嬌滴滴穿紅衣的那一位)則獲得第五名.

留下來的四位比賽者是兩男兩女:分別是譚焌釗(Leslie), 盧思穎(Nicole), 楊麗珊(Gretchell)和鄭昆洪.經過一輪比賽,大家所得的分數非常接近,高大威猛的譚焌釗以0.1分失敗了.
接下來的是最後三強比賽, 楊麗珊把握其首本高水準的英文歌從後居上把自己的分數推向最高,而盧思穎只獲得第三名.

最後, 鄭昆洪和楊麗珊各人要唱多一首歌,由評判決定誰是冠軍.
楊麗珊唱得特別出色, 以一曲我是一隻小小鳥贏得冠軍

現在讓我從上面照片介紹一下這六個參賽賽員/單位:

左上角是JAC主歌手,他的兩位拍檔分別是結他手和鼓手;三位是出色的樂隊組合.
右上角那位英俊斯文的是譚焌釗,適合唱柔情的歌.
左下二是鄭昆洪,唱功不俗
右下二是盧思穎,唱出的歌很悅耳
左下角楊麗珊是今次冠軍,樣子甜美,唱英文歌特別出色,音域廣闊,可以和無線電視超級巨聲2的冠軍林欣彤可相比.這兩位未來歌手前途一定無可限量.
右下角是李麗珊, 唱歌算幾好

Huge Waves at Sea

Man Kin, one of primary school classmates, sent us a video of ships rocking through rough seas. His good friends, Man Fai and Fred Chak, soon responded. Below are their experiences at sea. Although they worked in different ships, their jobs were to communicate with the outside world. Their ships sailed in different oceans. Except Man Fai, Man Kin and Fred Chak both thought of their families and Life & Death when huge waves struck hard at their ships.

REMEMBER to DOUBLE-CLICK the collage photo to see larger pictures.

Man Kin: I had experienced huge waves several times, once in the Indian Ocean just off the coast of South Africa, and couple of times in the South China Sea.

Man Fai: I have personally experienced 50-knot wind and 40-foot wave in the Mediterranean off the southern coast of France. Fortunately, I was safely on a 82000-ton cruise liner (950 ft long with stabilizers) and not on my first ship, which was only 3000 tons. I had two other rough ones in the south Atlantic, and both were worse than the weather in the video.

Fred Chak: The ships I worked 30 years ago were mostly around 5000 tons. During the worst case, everyone on board had to wear life jackets and securely pocketed our passports preparing for the capsize of the ship at any moment. I felt deeply sick and could only lie on bed, stabilizing myself by pressing my arms and feet against the wall and the bed railings. Things in my cabin were thrown everywhere. My cabin was next to the bridge and the captain's cabin which was the highest cabin on the ship. However, some of the waves hit the ship over the funnel and the seawater broke open the outside doors and rushed through the corridor! The chef couldn't cook and my steward brought to me meals which were just sandwiches and tin food. I felt extremely guilty to see him (aged almost 50) struggling painfully up the stairs to bring the food to me. However I could not eat and drink. I just worried for my family folks who needed my support. I prayed for myself and everyone's safety. It was hell then and life was not easy. That was how we seamen earned a living!

Man Kin: “No fear” was not the feeling. While I encountered rough seas like that, I tried to comfort myself by leaving it to fate, and my thinking was along the line: “if my time is up, my time is up; there is not much I can do”, though I tried to keep faith with the crew and the ship too. Luckily, I was a born sailor as I did not suffer seasickness. When I was not on duty in the radio room, I usually stayed up in the bridge with the captain, the duty officer and the quarter-master. They tend to appreciate my presence. I pitied the engineers and the engine room crew, as they usually suffered seasickness worse than those above deck (probably due to the smell of oil and enclosed space which made it more difficult to sense the ship’s pitching, rolling and gyrating).

Like Ah Chak, my family folks would need my financial support, but my wishful thinking was that if I perished with the ship, there should be a huge insurance payout to my family as compensation. How silly and immature was I in those days? Lucky for me, my seafaring days were mostly sunny and calm, rough seas might be about 10% of the time. The best ship I sailed on was an ex-passenger ship so I spent most afternoons around the swimming pool and evenings in the bar. At that time, we spent a fair bit of time anchoring in the Persian Gulf waiting for berthing (the Arabs had money to buy from all over the world but their harbours were not that well advanced to handle the volume), so we sometimes invited crew members from other waiting ships to ours to have BBQ parties, drinks, movies… and this poor RO would have to handle the projector (changed films a few times per movie) !!! In general, I had a good life during those few years at sea; where else would you have a steward serving me and keeping me well fed (3 meals a day, couple of tea breaks and supper), tidying up my room, washing/ironing my clothes, shining my shoes, and taking care of odd jobs for me (only a small tip every now and then)?
Those were the days…

Man Fai: I enjoyed immensely my days as a seaman. Like my fellow sailor classmates, I had to support my family, which I undertook cheerfully. And very much like Ah Kin, I fortunately did not and still do not suffer from seasick, and spent many off-duty hours on the bridge too. Otherwise I read and listened to music from radio; my favorite stations included Radio HK, Radio Luxembourg and Lourenco Marques Radio (now Maputo, Mozambique).

When encountering rough weather, I never experience fear or even concern, and did not think of death nor had to pray. Right, Wai-Han, indeed it was good to be young. 初生之犢, so fearless and ignorant! I had my fair share of bad weather: for example my ship the 3000-ton Norwegian M/V Tarva, was battered by a typhoon from the Taiwan Strait all the way into the middle of the South China Sea. For three days we had no sightings and steered by dead reckoning only. On the fourth day, we found we were almost a hundred miles off course. Another time I was on a 20000-ton Greek tanker, M/T Antares, sailing from Mombasa to Montevideo. The normal course after rounding the Cape of Good Hope is to sail straight west. However, my new, 33 years old captain (I thought he was “mature” as I was only 23 then), on his first ever command; decided to take the great circle route (GCR) since it was fair summer. Though shorter, the GCR would bring us much further south and deep into the Roaring Forties. Half way through the crossing in the middle of the South Atlantic, a storm hit. The chief officer actually took me to mid-ship to feel the vibrations caused by long wavelength swells, which could break the ship in half. My captain stayed on the bridge after dinner, we chatted and he explained how he was steering the ship across the swells. Then I went on watch (duty), checked and found the nearest ship was over 300 miles away, and would take over a day to come to our rescue. With the frigid sea in the area, we would only last minutes in the water. Anyway before I went to bed, I scoured my closet nonchalantly, found the life jacket, and placed it for the first time ever beside my bed. I then promptly fell sound asleep. When I woke up next morning, the storm had subsided. My chief officer told me our captain stayed up all night till early morning. He probably would never venture into the Roaring Forties for the rest of his career.

Their sea adventures are exciting. aren't they?

Dolls crowned Kings and Queens

We often see "Kings" and "Queens" on pokers or in historic films about kingdoms.

Today I came across these kings and queens at Sunshine City. They looked rather like dolls because they were all baby-faced and big-eyed. Some had moustaches which might mean they were kings. Those without could be queens.

I saw mothers ask their children to stand near the dolls to have pictures taken. This might be a playhouse for children instead of a doll display.

A sports car raced with a 747

On September 6, 2009, there was an interesting race between a sports car and a Cargo 747 plane at Singapore Changi Airport. The race was broadcast to the public.

The pilot of the plane (in white shirt) and the car driver took a photo before the game was played.

This heavy cargo plane had to power up before it could start. It must be a long-distance run for both to make the race exciting. The plane started off first and the race car started next. No wonder the sports car could accelerate fast and chase past the giant Hercules 747 on the ground. The sports car won.

A New Advertisement

This Chinese Pill advertisement is comfortable to look at. The designer of the advertisement connects “the luggage delivery belt at an airport” with “the intestine of the human body”. The left-hand side of the belt displays the disorder and discomfort inside the intestine while the right-hand one shows the neat and fluent flow of our food/waste. This advertisement shows clearly to people two situations in our intestine, normal and abnormal. Of course, with the effect of the pills if taken will turn the situation from bad to good.

The slogan of the manufacturer is always like this:

常備XX丸，有病唔駛怕

Do you know what XX are?

What can you say about how the luggage lays on the delivery belt at the airport of your country? Does the luggage lay neatly like the right-hand side of the belt as in the above photo or in the way like the left-hand side?

Leaves shape differently

Leaves are beautiful when we look at their colours, patterns and shapes. They grow wisely and spread their solar-panel-like surfaces to receive sunshine for Photosynthesis.

The shapes of leaves are interesting. Some are in shapes of fans, hearts, teeth, saws and....... There are interesting simple and compound leaves which fascinate people like me who love Nature.

In the photo, the green leaves and red flowers of 紅掌 look very much like brothers and sisters. I like, particularly, the large leaves of a plant in the top right photo because they are dented like the coastline of Norway.

The variations in shapes and colours of leaves are mixed to form seas of green foliage in the countryside or fields or woods or forests.