Flags of Countries in South Pacific

It was these national flags that arouse me with great interest in finding out what countries they belong to. They were hoisted by the Pacific Building Solutions, the sponsor of the Miss South Pacific Pageant Contest in 2009, at Fiji Islands.

After mapping the flags with those in the above photos from the web, here are what they represent:Top-left: Niue (紐埃) Top-centre: Tonga (湯加) Top-right: Fiji (斐濟)

Centre-left: American Samoa (美屬薩摩亞群島) Centre: Solomon Islands (所羅門群島) Centre-right: Samoa (薩摩亞)

Bottom-left: Tuvalu (圖瓦盧) Bottom-centre: Kiribati (基利巴地)
Bottom-right: Cook Islands (庫克群島)

Taveuni Island

Taveuni Island is the most beautiful and diverse of Fiji's 300+ islands, known as Fiji's Garden Isle for its lush vegetation. It ranks third in size in Fiji Islands after Vanua Levu and Viti Levu . Taveuni is the first to see the sunrise because it is one of the two land masses in the world that the International Date line (180。W or 180。E) runs through.

The cigar-shaped island with a total land area of 435 square kilometers (169 Square Miles) is a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It is situated 6.5 kilometers to the east of Vanua Levu, across the Somosomo Strait.

The top-left and top-right photos show respectively that Fiji Islands lie ENE of Australia and Taveuni Island NE of Viti Levu.

The centre-left photo shows the first shop to open in the world.

The top-centre photo shows the board indicating that the International Date line has sliced the island into two parts, one west of it and the other east of it.

The bottom few photos show the twilight before and at the moment of sunrise.

Butterfly Corner

This is a wall painting created by Mrs. Tong, our current CCSC Art teacher. She has been my colleague for many years. Not only she contributes much effort in teaching her students to create new ideas in Art, she herself loves drawing very much.

The wall painting is not solely for decoration, but it also tells people that they can find butterflies somewhere near it. Mr. Tong, our Biology teacher as well as a famous magician at school, has planned to attract butterflies to stay and make homes there (by his knowledge, not by magic this time).

Later on, we hope that butterflies will fly about to welcome you all when you step inside CCSC.

Where is this wall painting? Well, it is the just the wall leading to Staircase B. Everybody in CCSC knows that potted plants are placed further out from this wall and back to the far end of the open platform.

CCCS OSA Annual Dinner 2011

This is the announcement made by CCSC OSA. Please read the details. If you are interested, please join and ask your classmates to come too.

張祝珊英文中學舊生會 2010/11 週年晚宴

各位張祝珊學友，一年一度的週年晚宴將於本年三月十八日(星期五)舉行，場地為銅鑼灣皇室堡五樓的迎囍大酒樓，地點適中，希望大家會喜歡這樣的安排。

畢業後的學友們可能很久不見了，工作及生活又特別忙碌，難得一載難逢的週年晚宴，也就讓我們重拾一份熟悉的感覺，跟一眾昔日好友及老師共聚言歡; 即使來個簡單的合照，已增添許多個歡笑面孔！你是否正等待同屆活躍份子的來電召集？或許你也可以是這位重要人物作一次召集人！我們需要你的參與支持，讓晚宴多一份熱鬧氣氛。

有感剛畢業不久的年輕學友可能需要一點溫馨支援，我們設立了優惠價給剛畢業五年內的師弟妹們，希望你們也能參與其中，一同分享喜悅。

以下是週年晚宴詳情及報名程序，期望到時能見到你們每一位！

日期：二零一一年三月十八日(星期五)
時間：下午六時三十分恭候，八時入席
地點：迎囍大酒樓 (銅鑼灣皇室堡五樓)
每位費用：
1) 剛畢業生優惠價 : HK$ 150
(適用於2006至2010年間的中五畢業生優惠價名額六十位、先到先得)
2) 早報名優惠價 : HK$ 270 (於三月四日（星期五）或以前報名)
3) 正價 : HK$ 300

張祝珊英文中學舊生會 - 「誠閣」上
查詢電話：
1. 羅卓基 Mr. Kenny Lo (Tel: 9128 8828 )
2. 高方毅 Mr. Benny Koo (Tel: 9367 1892 )
Email : osa@ccsc.edu.hk

============================================
報名及付款方法：
1. 銀行 ATM 櫃員機過數至舊生會戶口
銀行帳戶： 004-3-124882 (HSBC)
並請將報名資料連同銀行入帳收據電郵回 osa@ccsc.edu.hk
或
郵寄劃線支票連同報名資料到：
MISS J. KONG
CHEUNG CHUK SHAN COLLEGE OLD STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION
C/O CHEUNG CHUK SHAN COLLEGE,
11 CLOUD VIEW ROAD,
NORTH POINT,
HONG KONG

支票抬頭：Cheung Chuk Shan College Old Students’ Association

2. 報名資料包括：
* 個人姓名 * 聯絡電話及電郵帳戶 * 出席人數、姓名及中五時畢業年份

收到款項後，我們會以電郵回覆作確認完成報名登記程序。如有任何疑問，可聯絡舊生會財務秘書 Mr. Michael Yeung (Tel : 6206 7137 )

由於人數眾多且核對帳務過程冗長繁複，敬請合作。
===========================================

Meeting my old students

It was so nice last Saturday that I could meet some of my dear old students who used to sit and listen to me in different classrooms.

These familiar faces, one by one, came back to my memory. I saw their happy faces when they greeted me and I felt so warm in chatting with them.

Most of them have started to work in society. Just a few are still studying. They do not change much in their faces. Some have become mothers and fathers. They brought their children along too. Some have gained weight and some are beginning to lose hair. Some were in their administrative clothes. Perhaps they have just rushed to school from their offices.

I could not recall all the names of my students, but to some extent, I still got some in mind.
Here they were:
[1] Alice Chang, Kestal Wong, Justin Chan, Kenny Chan, Becky Choi… (2001-2002 5C)
[2] Tse Wang Ki.
[3] Ng Tai Kee
[4] Sabrina Wong, Rhoda Liu, Wong Po Yuk.
[5] Dorothy Kwok
[6] Carmen To Ka Man, Carol Hon So Ying
[7] Lam Sin Wai (Jeff) and Lam Ah Chit (Angie) (2004-2005 3B)
[8] Yu Jing Jing (Annie), Celia Wong Sze Nga, Winnie Po Hoi Man, Orange Liu Kam Sau (2003-2004 5C)
[9] Samson Chui, Stephanie Wong, Stephanie Tsui.
[10] Andy Ho Yiu Ming, Chan Chun Chung
[11] Chan Hau Wing, Yeung Yat Sing
[12] Lisa Leung, Benny Koo, …..
[13] Chan Yuen

I shall try my best to find out the names of those students who have chatted with me during the gathering. I do hope the list may expand further.

To see better, double-click the collage photo to enlarge it.

CCSC OSA New Year Gathering

Saturday, February 12, 2011 was the day some of the old students and teachers, current and retired might gather at school.

Raymond Chung, one of our active and faithful old students, organized a tea lunch with Principal Yuen, school supervisor, Chan Kam Toi, future supervisor, Raymond Cheung, some teachers who have retired, some OSA committee members of current year and old students .

The gathering was held in the school hall at 2 p.m. Old students gradually came and a simple ceremony started with Principal’s speech at around three o'clock. Next Raymond Chung introduced the chief committee members, Benny Koo, Choi Sze Yeung and Yeung Yat Sing. Then there was a presentation of souvenirs (a CCSC bag and an air-inflated “Rabbit” basket) to retired teachers. Our School Chinese orchestra played two pieces of music to entertain us.

Next, old students chatted with teachers and they took photos together before the wall-drop specially designed and prepared by our faithful old student, Lau Kam Chuen.

There ought to be an fund-raising auction for OSA of five photos, two taken by me at Vancouver and Seattle, another two taken by Miss M. Ng during her tour at Estonia (愛沙尼亞) and one taken by Mrs. Tsang (Cheung Wai Ming) at Scandinavia. The fact that the old students were eager to find teachers to chat with, they did not listen to what the MC was going to say. In this way, the auction had not been mentioned and carried out. OSA might have to carry out the auction later, say, during the OSA annual dinner to be held on March 18, Friday at 迎喜酒樓 in Causeway Bay.

Our team of retired teachers who attended the gathering comprised of:
Miss M Ng, Miss Su, Mrs. Helen Lo, Miss D. Chan, Miss Winnie Wong, Miss Fok, Mr. Fung, Mr. Michael Law, Mrs. Ko, Mrs. Hui and me.

Back to Original

Last time, three cakes were cut into three parts each. Today, they are assembled back to their original look.

See what they looked like before they were split up into jig-saw puzzles.

Cake Puzzles

Three cakes with different flavours have been cut into three parts each and the flavours are shared more or less equally among my wife, Tony and me.

Can you imagine how the cakes look like originally?

The answers can be seen some time later.

This is Clarke Quay

Whenever you see this line of low colourful low houses, you have arrived at Clarke Quay (克拉碼頭) along Singapore River.

If my children saw these photos (some time when they were still kids), they would ask me this question, “Have you been there before?” I would say to them, “No, but I will be there some time in the future.” This was one of the familiar questions they asked me. The most usual question they asked was, “Have you tried this?”

It was January, 2007 when my wife and I with my brother and sister-in-law stepped on one of the shores here. At this section of the river, the small lovely houses were painted in strikingly bright colours. I supposed they had been preserved and turned into a collection of old styled houses where the local people long lived there in the past. They had been turned into various bars and restaurants where tourists could eat, drink and chat here. At the time of our arrival, it was in the morning, few shops had opened. I was sure that the shops, bars and eateries would be crowded with people towards evening. The boats that sailed on the river were mainly for sightseeing. They were long and narrow, propelled by engines. Now, they have been replaced by colourful broad-sized fast ferries which can each carry at least 50 passengers at a time.

Patriotism

I found this car registration plate on a Honda MPV on February 4, 2011. What interests me is that the plate does not convey any personal message to the public. The owner of the car does not want to publicize his/her name, birthday or wedding anniversary, but his/her love to be a “Yankee”, that is an “American”. I guess this owner must be deep in patriotism and proud to be a citizen of America.

What would you like to put onto the registration plate of your car if you are allowed to or afford to do so?

You may enlarge the above photo by double-click it.

Watching the Night View of Singapore

From a HKTVB programme, I was able to watch the night view of Singapore at Marina Bay from the Singapore Flyer (which looks very much like the London Eye). Each cylindrical compartment of the Flyer can house around 16 people.

The view from the flyer shows a number of hotels, the Esplanade (the Arts Centre), the Fullerton Hotel (formerly the General Post Office), the Merlion Park (round platform seaward from Fullerton Hotel), Science Museum (the flower-like structure, still under construction) and the Convention & Exhibition Centre (roof with yellow and blue lights).

Happy Chinese New Year

Elly says to everybody here, “I am a Rabbit. I shall bring you all Good Luck and Good Health! Happy Chinese New Year!”

百福圖

前兩天喜獲親戚送上一卷百福圖，上面大大的「福」字是人人都可以辨認出來的，而下面的小小的九十九個「福」字，十個之中有八個我是不認識的。我覺得它們其中有很多「福」字類似符號或圖畫，但是它們像合唱團團員聚在唱同一首「百福」歌!

在這裡謹祝大家年年「福星高照」！

年花(二)

這是我最喜愛年花之一:
清逸的單托水仙花

年花(一)

芍藥花的優點在花瓣多，型態大，成球狀。紫紅色花的頂部像沾上雪，尤似貴婦披上白色的皮草，產生了顏色的變化，這正是此花種其中一個特色。

舊曆新年快來臨

今個星期四是舊曆年初一，附近商場的新年佈置簡單，但富有中國色彩。一個可愛的小孩穿著民族服裝，雙手提著笙吹出歌曲突顯新年氣氛，身旁的兔子正代表兔年的來臨。

商場所送出的利是封套一共有四款，是由畫家阿虫所畫和設計:
(1) 如意吉祥
(2) 花開富貴
(3) 笑口常開
(4) 豐衣足食

我就將這四句好意頭的祝賀詞送給大家，並祝願各位身體健康，事事如意！

Memories through Old Photos (2)

Vehicular ferries are historic products. In the 60’s, when vehicles in Hong Kong were increasing and the need of transporting them across the Victoria Harbour, vehicular ferries were built. Yaumati Ferry Company first operated such businesses of carrying vehicles, heavy as lorries, large vans, light as private cars and motor-cycles to and from Yaumati and Central. At the very begining, the ferries were double-deckers with passengers on the upper deck and vehicles on the lower. Further expansion went to a second route of single or double-deckered ferries which carried vehicles (with drivers of course) parallel to the first route between Central and Yaumati.

Later on, there were two other routes for vehicular ferries, one between Kowloon City and North Point and the other between Kwun Tong and North Point. At that time, the fare for each single journey for a private car was just a few dollars.

The sea journeys were usually relaxing and cool because breezes usually blew. To some car owners, when their cars were at the front of the lower deck, they might face the risk of their cars being washed by salty sea water when waves struck at the ferry on a rough sea.

The ferry service still operated well even when Cross Harbour Tunnel started to operate in 1972. As the Eastern Harbour Tunnel (started operations in 1986) and the launching of Mass Transit Railway (started operations in 1979 linking Central to Kwun Tong), the demand of vehicular ferry service became smaller and finally suspended towards the end of 80’s.

The top-left photo shows a passenger-vehicular ferry.
The top-right photo shows a single-decked vehicular ferry.
The two bottom photos show a double-decked vehicular ferry.

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.