The Clown and the Lemon eater

Yesterday evening Abby became a clown after she finished drinking the cup of hot chocolate at a restaurant at Ma On Shan . The brownish marks left on her face resembled that of the painted lips of a clown.

Elly, the lemon eater, drank a cup of lemon water. She likes to bite slices of lemon and never feels them sour or bitter. The central photo shows her biting at a piece of lemon in another occasion and the right-hand-most one shows her satisfaction after the drink yesterday.

A Night view of San Francisco

The photos taken by Tony on the Cathay plane shortly after it took off from SFO International Airport on the night of March 12, 2011 give me a valuable chance to trace out the areas the plane was flying over.

From my observation, the plane took off and flied north-westward out to the Pacific Ocean. Once it was out to the Ocean edge, it flied along the straight shore.

The bright continuous lines in top-left photo are the main-road systems of San Francisco. Please double-click the collage photo to enlarge it.

The roads in San Francisco on the Pacific side are very straight and parallel to one another. The system is like a Cartesian Plane. The dots are the single houses built orderly along the roads.

The bottom-left photo shows Lake Merced, San Francisco Zoological Gardens and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (in dark patches) near Fort Funston at the Pacific shore.

The photo at the bottom right shows the area around the Golden Gate Park (in darkness). The park itself is rectangular in shape.

The maps attached support my analysis.

South-east meets North-west

It was the first time yesterday that two cousins met at lunch at JC. Hayley and Elly were born in two different continents, the former in S.E. Asia and the latter in North America. Luckily, they both spoke in Cantonese.

Hayley is one year older than Elly. They look very much like each other. Recently Hayley has her hair cut short, while Elly’s remains a little long. To my knowledge, Hayley likes chocolate very much and Elly ice-cream. Soon Hayley will attend lessons in a kindergarten, but Elly will not because she is still too young.

Since it was the first time that Hayley and Elly met and that they had not seen each other before, they did not exchange conversations. Probably they did not know what to talk about. They fed themselves with small bits of food with fingers or spoon or toothpicks, mostly from salad bar or from plates of the adults.

Towards the end of the lunch, they were both taken to the playroom to play. I heard they had a wonderful time inside. It was hard to believe that Elly could take up more challenges than Hayley. Maybe Elly is fearless of anything.

As Hayley and Elly have more chances to meet in Hong Kong from now on, I hope they will talk in the future and share with each other their classroom experiences.

I want to say about the food at this lunch: Apart from the appetizers, we, adults, took three streams of food, long macaronis for Daisy, fish for my wife, LH, Connie and beef (section of meat from the face) for Philip, KS and me. It was an astonishing sight of the yellow stuff that went with the fish. The cakes for desserts did not suit me this time, especially those of coffee and strawberry tastes.

Habitat and Threats to the monarch butterflies

This is an extract from “Miraculous Migration”, written by Carol Crupper.

Monarchs that survive the winter in the fir forests of Mexico fly north to Texas, seeking mates and milkweed plants on which to lay eggs.

More generations follow, breeding through spring and summer and living just two to five weeks before the butterflies reach Canada. In the fall, the fourth generation completes the cycle, flying south at a pace of 25 to 30 miles per day. Some third-generation butterflies join the migration, too, and these long-distance travelers live for up to nine months.

The phenomenon involves masses of butterflies, each behaving individually, confronting the vagaries of weather and ever-changing landscape without parents and leaders to guide them, and processing only rudimentary brains. How they manage this journey remains a mystery to mankind, but anyone who witnesses the mass migration is thankful for a glimpse at the nature’s sustaining rhythms.

In mid-October, monarchs converge in south-central Texas and follow the river bottoms between Eagle Pass and Del Rio. Taylor, a professor of insects ecology at University of Kansas says, “It’s like a river of butterflies as far as you can see, coming right at you. It is the most spectacular phenomenon in the planet.”

The phenomenon is in danger, however.

To survive, the monarchs need milkweed, a native plant that is disappearing from farmland and along highways at the rate of 6000 acres per day. Taylor cites herbicides, rampant development and roadside management policies that destroy food and shelter. “We have lost 147 million acres of habitat since I started in 1992, more than 3 times the size of the state of Illinois,“ he says.
In addition, Taylor attributes the loss of wintering habitat in Mexico to deforestation and changing weather patterns. Severe storms two winters ago claimed at least 50% of the insects, although this year’s mild weather helped the monarch population to begin to rebound.

As a species, the monarch does not face extinction. Populations are healthy west of the Rocky Mountains and on other parts of the planet. Losing this unique North American migration would leave a global void, however. Not only is the cycle breathtakingly beautiful, “ it all feeds into this complex web of life, ” Taylor says.

While efforts are underway to implement a government-supported conservation plan among North American nations to restore milkweed and nectar plants for monarchs, people who value the migration have initiated their own preservation efforts.

Since its founding, Monarch Watch has developed a vast network of volunteers and spread awareness of the monarch’s migration and plight. The organization sponsors butterfly tagging programmes in 37 states and 5 Canadian provinces. Participants also plant milkweed and nectar plants in 4500 habitats in 44 states.

The Amazing monarch flight across America

Here is a modified extract from “Miraculous Migration”, written by Carol Crupper.

Each spring, newly-emerged monarchs join several generations of butterflies that advance northward across the central and eastern United States towards Canada, setting the stage for a mass migration of hundreds of millions of monarchs southward each August across the Great Lakes and 37 states. During their full flight, fourth-generation monarchs travel up to 2000 miles in two months, seeking refuge from winter’s cold beneath the canopy of umbrella-like forests of Central Mexico.

The extraordinary journey of the beautiful, but fragile creatures is one of the nature’s most phenomenal cycles. Thousands of people are working to preserve the migration.

Scientists have studied monarchs for more than a century, but didn’t discover until 1975 that the southbound butterflies were destined for winter grounds in Mexico.

Monarch Watch was launched in 1992 by volunteers from Canada to Mexico. From scientists to schoolchildren and from rural residents to city dwellers, they share a love for nature and appreciation for the miraculous migration of monarch butterflies.

Inside – Outside

This photo recorded the moment of two sisters meeting each other separated by a glass door. They wanted to converse, but the thick glass had absorbed part of the intensity of the voices.
At this moment, shouting and gestures would be better for communication. From Elly’s facial expression, it seemed that she wanted to find out why her sister Abby was there and what the next step she had to take.

We instructed Elly to call grandma to take her out of the playroom and join us at the mini-park for children driving.

Through that glass door, we could see how Elly played and on the other hand Elly could see us outside.

楊桃樹與大樹菠蘿

馬鐵第一城車站背面一段花圃幾年來被種下多棵不同的樹，我家的觀樹專家告訴我其中一棵樹最近長出楊桃。今日去看，熟透的楊桃已經早跌到地上，開始腐爛了，我可說是來遲了幾天，否則那時的心情一定會比今天靚。

值得安慰的是旁邊的大樹菠蘿也不約而同的長出又大又硬、像榴槤般的果。它們的味道沒有榴槤那麼強烈，懸掛高度正是垂手可得。不過，這些公眾地方種的果實是摘不得，尤其是我經過這組樹木時都偶而見到牌子寫上「這裡已噴了殺蟲劑，請勿觸摸。」

這裏大圖是楊桃樹，正中橙黃色的是還未掉下來的楊桃一個。
右邊兩幅小圖是大樹菠蘿。

New wave of Advertisements

The new wave of advertisements of Vitasoy is again cartoons. This self-advertised method is rare. Not a single cent is spent on other media such as TV, radios or newspapers, so it is money-saving. Attractions come from the cartoons. People may take a few seconds in seeing what the cartoons are about.

The idea of advertising the products of a company in this way is good, but the messages conveyed or the language used may down-grade the products.

Here I find the language used not appropriate:
[1] 開趴地=開party
[2] 喇喂
[3] 游乾水=打麻雀

The so-called “happy moments” or “studying moments” are not convincing at all.

I believe the designers of these advertisements are not professional. Vitasoy company should employ better designers to advertise its products.

Monarch Butterflies

My old friend, Daisy Mak, deliberately grows a number of Butterfly Weeds in her yard to attract butterflies . Some beautiful Monarch butterflies do come during their N-S migration within North America .

Daisy is so patient as to observe and record the metamorphosis of this kind of butterflies. Like all insects, the Monarch has six legs, however it uses only four of its legs as it carries its two front legs against its body.

Daisy said, “Since the Monarch butterflies pass through Texas, I planted the Butterfly Weed (a kind of milk weed that their caterpillars love to eat) to attract them to my yard. I succeeded. This year, I found 10 caterpillars that turned to pupae. I managed to witness a caterpillar climb up my window and attached itself to the window top beam. It turned into a chrysalis (pupa). I also witnessed 3 pupae metamorphosed into adults and flew away.”

The top-left photo shows a Monarch caterpillar banded with yellow, black, and white stripes. The head is also striped with yellow and black. There are two pairs of black filaments, one pair on each end of the body.

The chrysalis (pupa) in the top-right photo is blue-green with a band of black and gold on the end of the abdomen. There are other gold spots on the thorax, the wing bases, and the eyes.

The bottom-left photo shows two adult Monarchs hatching out of the pupae.

The bottom-right photo shows the Monarch ready to fly away from Daisy’s garden.

Let us look at the Monarch closely. The upper side of their wings is tawny-orange. The veins and margins are black, and in the margins are two series of small white spots. The fore wings also have a few orange spots near the tip. The male has black veins on its wing narrower than the female’s. The male is also slightly larger than the female. The one here is female.

3-D Look

I like the 3-dimensional look of this advertisement on the side of one of our modern buses in Hong Kong.

It seems that a young man is carrying two bags, stepping down from a side of the bus. We may see the depth of the room which is actually the bus compartment. Such a design of an advertisement is terrific. I expect to see furthermore other outstanding advertisements on our Hong Kong buses.

An Ice-cream Day

Today, I had to stay home in taking care of Elly for at least four hours because all her family members except me went out for different businesses.

There was no problem for Elly and me for the first two hours because she engaged herself wholly watching videos of her favourite film, “Annie”, her video collection of family life in Canada as well as in Hong Kong and, after lunch, videos of Sesame Street.

I gave Elly her lunch earlier than usual (at eleven fifteen). It was screw-like macaroni with ham in salad dressing. She ate not all the macaroni, but shredded ham. Before this, she had already eaten a lump of bread, some milk and rice rolls as breakfast.

Elly is non-resistant to food, so we never worry about her appetite.

For once, she walked to the front door and shouted to find her mother there. Certainly it was impossible for Connie to appear at that time. To distract her attention and stop her cry, I decided to give her a little ice-cream from the fridge. Probably ice-cream was the best “pacifier” for Elly.

Since she enjoyed eating her macaroni and ice-cream, I took a few snapshots of her eating postures.

Elly used both fingers and spoon at macaroni and ham, and later her left hand to spoon up and jut ice-cream into her mouth. Her “lion” bite at her spoonful of ice-cream was funny. Her look of pink ice-cream marks at her lips were wonderfully lovely. Elly uttered “more ice-cream” not only once because she really loved it. Totally I gave her three times of ice-cream which I estimated, half cupful.

Today was an ice-cream day to Elly.

Misty Hills

Mist creates mystery. These misty hills create perfect mysterious pictures suitable for horrid films.

It is true that photography is a nice and interesting branch of life study to human and nature. I love it. To get a good picture is not easy. It depends wholly on time, site, weather, light source and chance.

Take these pictures as examples.
[1] They require a misty day.
[2] Timing is important because the picture composition varies every second when the mist disperses or accumulates.
[3] Site is also important. You have to wait where the scene appears for some time.
[4] Light source and intensity will change the colour tones and effects of the pictures.
[5] The click of the shutter will freeze the best composition of pictures which satisfy the photographer who takes the pictures.

Do you like to take pictures? Please carry your camera(s) along wherever you go and take good pictures of your own.

Shatin Sky

To me, watching Shatin Sky is always rewarding.

This evening when I was washing my dishes, plates, bowls, chop-sticks and spoons, through the thin curtain in the kitchen, I could see a beautiful sky outside. I hurried to finish washing and quickly grabbed my large camera to take the tele-view of the sky.

I liked the sky at that moment because it was lined with clouds that reflected the light of the setting sun. The sky turned yellow, then to deep red. The hills lost colours and soon turned dark leaving behind just their outlines.

Planes were flying in one by one every two minutes via Sai Kung, over Ma On Shan, Chinese University of Hong Kong, all the way parallel to the Shing Mun River, to Tsuen Wan and landing south-westerly onto our airport. There were hundreds of passengers flying up above us at Shatin most of the time, so the sky was never lonely.

Watching tendrils

This hot June afternoon, I was able to sit down on a bench while supervising Abby riding a four-wheeled bicycle (two small ones are for support). Above me, I found some creepers extending their new territories.

The creepers grow well with green leaves and they send out threadlike tendrils in the air like fingers. Once these tendrils find whatever support and attachment, they twin around them and climb. One strange thing is that tendrils do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize. They can be formed from modified shoots, modified leaves, or auxiliary branches. They are “magic hands” in botany.For myself, I like those "spring-like", but "not elastic" curls.

Please double-click the collage photo for closer details.

啤梨迷

艾莉除了橙之外，特別喜歡啤梨。記得以前她在加拿大與我們 Skype 時，我們只要拿著一個啤梨給她看看，她一聲不響便轉了身往廚房找。若是她無氣力開冰箱的話，她會嚷著叫爸爸或媽媽幫忙拿到手裏，然後跑回電腦面前給我們看。她的表現像告訴我們她家也有這麼樣子的生果，我們一致認為艾莉觀察力及反應很強及快，將來她讀書時一定勝過很多同學仔。

這輯照片正好見到艾莉在香港與心愛的啤梨重逢，可幸她手中的啤梨未熟，否則以她的指力，是可以替啤梨開幾個洞。單單看她對這「老朋友」愛不釋手，著了迷似的，就知道她是那麼愛吃啤梨了。

在我們家裏，艾莉也找到了玩具叮噹。以前她只可以在電腦顯示器上面見到，但現在她可以親手拿著玩，比起以前影像式的叮噹，相差很遠呢！

Eating ice-cream in the cold

It was March 4, 2011. The photos were taken by Tony at Fisherman’s Wharf, Vancouver. Tony had just stepped down from a plane that arrived earlier at Vancouver and Philip drove him there as the first stop.

That day was quite cold for Cheng’s family, but it did not spoil their joy of eating an ice-cream cone. Philip bought Abby an ice-cream cone. I guess it was again low-fat Italian “Gelato”.

When Elly saw her sister holding ice-cream cone, she was eager to have a bite. Abby was willing to spoon-feed her little sister with only a hundredth of her share. Mother Connie had to save the spilling of ice-cream from Elly’s mouth several times, so Connie might have tasted one thousandth of the ice-cream when she licked the drops of ice-cream on her fingers.

It comes to a conclusion here: Children eating ice-cream in the cold is great fun.

Artistic Cats in Display

These cats are displayed at one of our Ma On Shan Rail stations.

Let us look at them carefully:
[1] They are of different sizes, one big, one small.
[2] Their genders are unknown.
[3] They are both white.
[4] They look like those Japanese cats with hands raised for money (招財貓)
[5] On their white bodies, realistic animals are drawn. One of them shows a fierce eagle that cuddles to a dragon.
[6] These cats do not have claws.

Postscript:

A pamphlet reveals the following about the artwork at City One Station:
Please read and see how much I am correct from my perception.

Cast aluminium dogs bring good fortune to City One Station

Two friendly neighbourhood guardians have been positioned in the concourse of City One Station since 4 March. "Inu Hariko - Carp & Dragon", made up of two cast aluminium dogs, takes its name from Inu Hariko, a character in the form of a dog which, according to Japanese folklore, acts as a protector and loyal friend of children. Painted in elaborate detail on the bodies of the dogs are images of an eagle, carp, crane and dragon, symbolising bravery, strength, longevity and benevolence. Created by Japanese artist Akira Yoshida, this is the 39th original artwork installed under the MTR Corporation"s "art in station architecture" (AiSA) programme.

A small hill-fire

The nose and eyes of my wife detected the outbreak of a hill-fire on the hill opposite our windows at 19:05 on June 7, 2011.

I remember the widespread of hill-fires on nearby hills several years ago, but this time the scale of the fire was small.

From my estimation, only a small number of trees were burning along the spur of a slope. The fire seemed to extend a little with two stronger “burning-heads”, but it was soon put out by incoming firemen.

Human Swings

Recently, Abby and Elly swing themselves on a cross-bar of a low slide for children at a public park below.

It is too easy to Abby because she is five years old already. It is the first time that Elly plays at this slide. I wonder if Elly can hold on to the bar and swings herself about.

It ccomes out that Elly does swing well. I suppose she has strong muscles at her arms and is filled with confidence in herself. She enjoys such a playful trick with big smiles. Satisfaction comes first to Elly during play.

Flame of the Forest

I came across this name of a tree in Biology lessons during my old days of schooling. I knew very little about it at that time except its compound leaves that impressed me most. In this very June, the red blossoms of flowers of this kind of trees in Shatin and Kwun Tong attract my eyes most of the time.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree, growing to 15 m tall in tropical and sub-tropical regions around India and Southeast Asia.

It is a slow growing tree. Their young trees have a growth rate of only a few feet a year. The leaves are pinnate, with an 8–16 cm petiole and three leaflets, each leaflet 10–20 cm long. The bright orange-red flowers are 2.5 cm long, and produced in racemes up to 15 cm long. The fruit is a 15–20 cm long and 4–5 cm wide pod.

It is a very useful tree, good for timber, resin, fodder, medicine, and dye.

Please note:

[1] The gum from the tree is used in certain food dishes and also valuable by druggists because of its astringent qualities, and by leather workers because of its tannin.

[2] The wood is dirty white and soft and, being durable under water, is used for well-curbs and water scoops.

[3] Good charcoal can be made from it. The leaves are usually very leathery and not eaten by cattle.

[4] The flowers are used to prepare traditional Holi colour.

水中花

今天中午和小學老友記在尖東茶敍，大家寒暄一番，聽聽最近各自有趣的故事，家庭狀況，苦事樂事一一相告。吃罷點心後，女同學提議食甜品。女侍應建議我們嘗試酒樓曾經得獎的「水中花」糖水。該糖水有兩種味道，一是桂花，二是薑汁。我們毫不猶豫，決定兩款都要。

當兩碗糖水出現時，眼見兩花都是白色的；深黃色的糖水帶薑味，有些微辣；淺黃色的則是淡淡的桂花味。這些花其實是軟體豆腐細切成花，刀功像將牛丸切出花紋相約。心想這正是好賣相的豆腐花吧！

熱遊九龍寨城公園

菲臘提議昨日下午到九龍寨城公園一遊，於是大家約定在九龍城廣場裏面會合，原因那裡可以過一下「冷河」，把身上的熱氣消一消。廣場內中空最底層有包糉活動，參加者不算踴躍。可能是害怕被四周上上下下各樓層幾十對眼睛望著去獻醜吧！

我們一行七人未去公園前，冒著攝氏三十二度高溫在九龍城街市周圍幾條舊街逛一逛。侯王道大多是食材、生果、茶莊及調味品的店舖。獅子石道仍然是滿街賣平價至中價成衣的舖頭，就昨日公眾假期而言，逛街的人很少，生意相信很差。福老村道很特別，甚麼類型的店舖都有：高級西餅、豆漿、豆腐花、生果、魚蛋牛腩粉麵、中西美食、甚至棺材都找得到。

忽然見到豆腐花店附近有無線電視人員及演員在拍劇集片段，我們肯定沒有入鏡頭，只靜悄悄繞過他們想著去吃碗豆腐花或飲豆漿，但令大家失望的是豆腐店坐滿了人。我想起很多年沒有幫襯的那間麵包店，決定去看看‧買了葡撻、蛋撻各三個、懷舊的豆沙包及紙包蛋糕各兩個。令我心裡嚇了一跳的是總共要付五十三元。在家中，女兒說以前那滿口豆沙的感覺完全消失得無影無踪，現在那個豆沙包縮了很多水，錢卻收多了。

我們的歷史文物遊終於展開。從九龍城廣場後門一出正是休憩公園，阿比嚷著要找兒童遊樂場去玩，但她撲了空。轉右見到一組人造石山，菲臘一家四口跑上去，我替他們拍了兩三張相。向下走，不消幾十步已經踏入一道圍牆背後的城寨公園。這裡有長廊，涼亭，池塘，少許花草樹木。長廊壁上有畫有字，極其風雅。

近門口的地方卻見兩三「拍友」找來模特兒拍沙龍照。城寨衙府門前有兩尊大炮、一台巨型木轎。裏面有幾間民房，其實是公園辦事處。正廳左右各有兩張雕花木椅，艾莉及夫人老實不客氣地坐了上去休息一下。女兒抱著阿比給菲臘影了一張相作留念。

此時艾莉不作他想，竟然來一個「自由行」，忘記了背後的父母、姐姐和外婆，不顧一切地踏出衙府，下了幾級石板梯級。公公的我當然要像艾莉的影子在後隨著她走。艾莉好像裝上了衛星導航系統，知道那裡是公園出口似的，一鼓作氣地頭也不回的向前走。我曾經兩三次叫她回頭走，但她只說「NO」，令我為之氣結。終於艾莉走出了公園，向左轉走在賈炳達道上。這時我若果不抱起她回去的話，那怕她越走越遠。回程時，艾莉一直都不肯，我也攪不清那時候艾莉把自己的鞋踢到地上，及後離遠見菲臘及女兒等人，由他們口中才知道艾莉掉了一對鞋子。回頭去找鞋時，得到好心的街坊指引方向，我們才輕易找得到。我們帶著又熱又倦的身軀返回九龍城廣場去和東尼會合。這場小小鬧劇終於下幕了！

Black and White Milk tea cups

Recently I learn from an advertisement that Black and White Milk has a series of cups for promotion in which customers can redeem such cups from restaurants using the milk. To me, the problem is that I do not know which restaurant to go because I seldom visit cafes or restaurants for milk tea drinks or coffee.

A few days ago, it so happened that my family took lunch at a fast-food restaurant at Shatin and I saw a beautiful cup like this holding milk tea. The milk cow on the side of the cup was attractive and interesting and when I finished the drink, the cartoon face of “Shum Fei Fei” at the bottom of the cup was even more interesting.

I know that there are other figures or patterns at the bottom sides of the cups. Sure enough, I shall investigate further more when I visit this restaurant again.

Electric Torch

Elly considers this electric torch as her toy looking glass. How does she play it? Well, she put it at her forehead in such a way that she can still see things in front or thrusts it at her body or swings it about. Up to this moment, Elly does not know that the torch can emit light.

This electric torch does not need batteries of any kind because the electricity is generated by shaking a magnet forward and backward through a coil of wire, that is, by magnetic induction. As it says, it serves as environmental protection.

I believe when Elly grows up, she would rather use it as a torch than a toy.

What was Elly looking closely at?

Here comes an interesting photo I took yesterday morning.

What was Elly looking closely at in the photo? You may guess!

Hint: It is transparent and made of plastic. It gives out light, but does not contain any battery.

Ornaments

The lady in eyeglasses is an ornament designer, a Chinese who lived in Italy with her husband.

Her designs on ladies’ ornaments are reptiles(e.g. lizards), insects(e.g. spiders) and faces of primitive tribes. She has taken up ideas from nature as well as primitive culture and cast out rings, earrings, necklaces for ladies to wear.

Abby on a tricycle

May 30, 2011 was the day Abby drove a tricycle by herself in our park below. My role was just an onlooker.

It was a hot afternoon. At first, she could only find a four-wheeled toy car, but it was too small for her. There was no pedal for driving.

Later she found a blue tricycle which fitted her height and size. She was able to tread on the pedals for forward movements. She decided to drive the tricycle along the corridors and cycling tracks for children’s cars.

I asked her to follow the arrows that were painted on the floor. She soon got used to the driving manner. In the case that the road is ascending, she found a little hard to pedal up the gentle slope. At times when the road was sloping down, I warned her to be careful and not to drive too fast, otherwise she would bang into a kerb or a plant.

After all she was very satisfied with her cycling skill (only on a tricycle) and enjoyed that hour of play in spite of the great heat from the sun above

Beautiful cakes

Elly likes looking at fabulous cakes. To her, their colours are attractive and the cream and fruits on the cakes and tarts are inviting.

Yesterday evening at a Maxim’s, Elly showed her cheerful face before the show-windows of many cakes. One of cakes showed the face of Hello Kitty and she recognized it right away. This cartoon figure has long deep-rooted in her mind. I remember last time when she discovered Hello Kitty products in a department store at Lok Fu, she called out “Kitty”.

Later at the restaurant we dined in, she saw in different directions two identical advertisements each showing a hand raising a thumb. What did she say? Well, she said, “ 一，二，Good ”. Notice she spoke Cantonese as well as English - bilingual!

A Lunch Gathering with old colleagues and students

On Saturday,May 28, 2011, I joined the lunch gathering at CWB with my old colleagues and students.

Before this, every time when we have lunch together, there are more teachers than old students. This time was very different. The number of students attending exceeded that of the teachers. The ratio was 12 : 9. Two students were not in the photo. I suppose they came after the photo was taken.

Many dim sums were served before us and some had been transferred to the next table which comprised mainly of students. Two we were surprised to see were Mrs. Sinn and Florence Hui.

Please double-click to see a larger photo.

Applebee revisited

These photos were taken in February, 2011 at Applebee by Tony who visited the same restaurant my wife and I had been in April, 2006.

The photos help me recall the time when my wife and I dined with Felix, Audrey, Joanna and Mrs. Sinn. Inside, it was clean, comfortable, not too dark and full of people at time of our visit. There was some American music. In the centre of the restaurant was a bar where customers drank wine. We sat around a high table on high stools. Since my wife and I did not have big appetites, we ordered a hot steak dish to share between two.

From the menu, I learn that this restaurant sells steaks, seafood. salad, noodles, spaghetti, hamburgers etc, etc. The serving plates are as big as mirrors.

I could not remember what the waiters and waiters looked like, but in my impression, most of them were young.

We did enjoy eating and chatting that very night with my old colleagues and their family. I never believed we could meet again in U.S. after so many years.

Magic

This clown is playing magic. He has fitted the faces of Abby, Elly and Grandma into the holes which are original empty.

In one of the photos, it seems as if Elly’s head has been twisted, but she does not show anything painful.

Grimsvotn volcano eruption

On May 21, 2011, Grimsvotn Volcano in Iceland began to erupt and release its huge plume of ash and steam. The huge cloud of ash created shot up 12 miles (15 km) above sea level at its peak. Near the volcano region, dense clouds of ash turned day into night, but the skies were clearer above Keflavik Airport. After briefly closing, flights resumed at the airport causing only a minor inconvenience to travellers.

The plume is made up of a roughly circular cloud. Ash has dropped down around the surrounding regions, coating the snow-covered regions to the volcano's southeast in a dark brown gloom.

Large parts of the Grimvotn volcano lie beneath the Vatnajokull Glacier, so when the recent eruption began on May 21, it originated below the glacier. Such eruptions can cause glacier outburst floods, but owing to previous experience, it is unlikely to have a large flood this time.

Recently the ash did affect the flights of planes in the British Isles and might affect those in other countries such as Norway, Demark, Holland and Germany.

Hair Combing

Early this morning, May 22, 2011, Elly has changed her clothes, ready to go to church. She was sitting on our bed. Grandma gave Elly a comb to brush her hair. I believe it was the first time that Elly was given a comb to do her hair.

Elly found great interest, smiled and held the comb with her left hand. Grandma taught her how to brush. She learned it quickly and soon mastered the simple skill of moving the comb through her hair. Then she used her right hand to brush the hair on the other side of her head.

The comb could be folded up and the teeth were soft. At one time, the comb was folded up. We wondered if Elly knew how to open it. To our surprise, she could! She first experienced the "magic" of combing her hair. There will be many many times that she brushes her hair in the future.

今日、昔日麵包款

這裏除了右下角那個西式到爆的芝士腸仔包外，其餘四種麵包都帶些經典面貌。

最令我驚喜的正是照片左下角的椰絲面奶油麵包。它的樣子仍舊可愛，正中的軟軟的白色奶油忌廉特別吸引。昔日賣一至兩毫子一個，昨日則賣六元一個。雖然它是那麼貴，我也忍痛買一個回味一下。結果是女兒和太太分享了它，太太的評語是「普通啦」。

左上角是餐包，形狀有些怪怪地。牛油餐包由來已久是餐室下午茶的主角，奶茶是配角。我記得牛油餐包也是以前常餐、全餐中餐湯的好伴侶。

右上角的菠蘿包簡直是兒時早餐經常出現的主角之一，其實它最吸引之處是上面那甜甜地、鬆軟的酥皮層。每次咬一口時，酥皮應聲破裂，同時間向四方八面掉下來。大家要儀態的話，就不要吃菠蘿包了。

右中的雞尾包形狀不像以往的好看。昔日的雞尾包是長形，頭尾圓渾，身上掃上兩條墨西哥包面的酥油層，裏面的蛋黃椰絲餡料特別美味，吃起來有滿足感。

運橙遊戲

昨天艾莉和阿比在太婆家玩運橙遊戲。

充滿活力的艾莉當然喜歡這種既是遊戲，也是手足運動。於是，艾莉和阿比把太婆家裏存倉已久以打計的新奇士橙，分十次八次從睡房搬運到客廳中央，不過她們並不是輕放在地上，而是把它們拋到地上。幸好厚厚的橙皮承受了這般衝力，像皮球一樣彈跳一兩，滾到障礙物時才停下來。曾經艾莉想用小盤去運一下子幾個橙，但它們實在太重了。我們阻止了她的妙計。

隨著所有的橙已運到廳中，下一遊戲部分自然是讓艾莉和阿比把它們運送回房中。
從面帶陽光笑容的艾莉，興奮得跑著去拾起，去拋出充滿加州陽光的橙，正令這個兩歲不到的小孩子開心到極點。家姐阿比也忙著陪妹妹一起玩，不太緊張，因為這遊戲對於她來講，實在太簡單了。

Recent Collection of Canadian Currency coins

These are the Canadian Currency coins I collect recently. The suppliers are certainly my daughter and son-in-law.

The Canadian coins are interesting because they may tell people about
[1] Winter Olympic Games (2002)
[2] Children ‘s year (September 1999)
[3] Harmony 2000 (A Maple leaf formed from 6 people hand in hand)
[4] Hilly landforms in Alberta
[5] Trees in Ontario
[6] National Legacy 2000 (Clouds, rain, salmon, fir tree)
[7] Pride 2000 (with several maple leaves)
[8] Canadian soldiers (Canadian Dollar)

A Spelling mistake

Marks are usually deducted when students make spelling mistakes in their dictation. How about spelling mistakes that are found on coins of a country?

Some people may say that mistakes in printing on stamps become valuable. What about coins? I wonder how stupid and careless indeed that a mistake can occur on current coins of a country. The best thing to do is to melt all these coins and recast them.

Sausage Bread

To Elly, sausage bread should be split up into sausage and bread separately. In Elly’s encyclopedia, sausage is for herself and bread for anyone else. Elly loves sausages or ham madly. It can be reflected from her eating ham macaroni outside and sausages at home.

Today she grips the sausage bread with her little hands. At first, we wonder how she eats it. We are sure Elly ‘s target is the sausage alone. She first bites hard at the part of sausage sticking out of the bread. Next she wants to bite further in but it is quite difficult for her to eat the rest of the sausage because it is deeply embedded inside the bread. Next, she asks for milk to go with the sausage, not the bread.

To assist Elly to get the lower half of the sausage, Mother Connie tears open the bread and let Elly snatch it. At one time, Elly uses all her might to pull out the remaining part of sausage.

At the dining table, Abby is eating a biscuit. She found no interest in the sausage bread I buy her. Later on, Elly joins her elder sister. Two sisters are eating differently at first and in the end, both together eat biscuits. At last, what we find on the ground are tiny bits of biscuits that have fallen from their hands and mouth when the biscuits break at times of bites.

King-sized Hibiscus

I found King-sized Hibiscus flowers at Ma On Shan Park today.

The flat pink petals stretched out so widely that tens of bees could land on them at the same time. The red round stigmas were tiny when compared with the petals. Below the stigmas were the yellow anthers. They grew in clusters. On the whole, both the stigmas and anthers seemed out of place because their sizes were quite small.

I never know the difference between King-sized and Queen-sized until I started my first tour with my wife to United States of America. The experience came from a Queen-sized bed and a King-sized one. The fact is that the former is bigger than the latter. Maybe American ladies are usually fatter than the gentlemen. They require larger beds.

The First Breakfast at Mc Donald’s

On May 8, 2011, a very sunny day, we went to a newly opened Mc Donald’s to have breakfast.

Since it is a new restaurant, the wall picture cheers everyone, especially our grand-daughters, Abby and Elly. Here you see how they imitated the laughing face on the wall. They really possess some or a great many “acting” cells.

Abby used forks to pick up food, but Elly merely her fingers. At one time, Abby charged her fork at her sister’s piece of minced pork. It was "pacific". Either Elly did not notice Abby’s action or she did not mind at all of losing the small piece of meat.

At another time, Abby leaned sideways at Elly as if they were twin sisters so that I could take their group photo . Both grand-daughters liked eating macaroni, but they rather chose ham first. I also noticed that Elly loved eating hash browns. Her satisfaction was reflected by her deep bite at the flat piece of potato.

We won't let Abby and Elly eat Mc Donald food every day. To them, the first breakfast at a Mc Donald was an enjoyable one after all.

Please double click to see larger photos.

Longitudinal Growth

Abby has grown taller by 0.06 metre in one and a half years. She expands lengthwise, but not breadthwise, just because she eats little. She always says, “I am slim, slim, slim”.

The left hand picture was taken on Dec 21, 2009 and the right hand one on May 8, 2011. She is over 1 metre now. No wonder she has to pay on any MTR or bus journey ever since she stepped on Hong Kong soil a week ago.

Flowers on Mother’s Day

These were the flowers our mothers at Shatin received on Mother’s Day.

I took photos of these flowers after they had been cut short and inserted inside a small blue vase. I let them dance around my camera. The flowers came as different pink, and in clusters of bluish purple and yellow.

They were not fragrant, but conveyed much love to the mothers.

Espresso and Cappuccino

Caffè espresso or simply espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

Espresso was invented in Italy as far back as 1884. It often has a thicker consistency, a higher concentration of suspended solids, and foam. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, all of the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. For this reason, espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato, mochas, and americanos.

In Italy, espresso bars providing a place for socialization. The coffee prices were controlled by local authorities, provided that the coffee was consumed standing up, encouraging the "stand at a bar" culture. If customers prefer sitting down to drink it, prices will double, say, a 2-Euro cup of coffee will cost 4-Euros (when seats are required). The size of a cup of espresso is usually smaller than that of cappuccino.

In the Anglo-speaking countries, espresso became popular particularly in the form of cappuccino, due to the tradition of drinking coffee with milk and the exotic appeal of the foam; in the United States this was more often in the form of lattes, particularly with flavored syrups added. The latte is claimed to have been invented in the 1950s by Italian American Lino Meiorin of Caffe Mediterraneum in Berkeley, California, as a long cappuccino, and was then popularized in Seattle by Starbucks in the late 1980s and 1990s.

For myself, I prefer cappuccino to expresso because the latter is too strong for me and I like the rich milky taste of cappuccino and the wonderful picture at the top of the foam.

Slide Show

It was the third day after our grand-daughters had returned to Hong Kong. We bought them to the park below. Climbing up the big steps to a slide was the first thing Elly had to learn. She was fearless and successful in reaching the top of the slide. There she showed her smile of satisfaction. I grasped those moments of her thoughts just in time to take a few snapshots of her before she started her way down. Since the slide was made of plastic and not polished, her sliding smoothly down was almost impossible.

For Abby, playing on a slide was too easy for her. This time, she climbed, walked along narrow bridges and crawled through tube-like plastic tunnels. She found a vertical pole and was bold enough to slide down as if she were a fireman descending to a fire-engine below.

Fisgard Lighthouse

On the last day of our 3-day tour on Vancouver Island in October, 2009, we passed the outskirt of Fisgard Lighthouse and just took a short glimpse of it from a long distance because he had to hurry to Swartz Bay to take a ferry back to Vancouver.

It so happened that recently Philip's and his brother’s families paid a visit to this National Historic Site in Colwood, British Columbia. The lighthouse on Fisgard Island is at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. From record, it is the first lighthouse on the west coast of Canada. The causeway from the adjacent Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site provides access to it by land.

It is so nice that the former lighthouse keeper's residence is open to the public and contains displays and exhibits about the site's history. The attached tower is not open to the public as it mainly serves as an aid to navigation.

Fisgard Lighthouse was built in 1860 to guide vessels through the entrance of Esquimalt Harbour. It was automated in 1929. It shows a white isophase light of 2-second period in a sector from 322° to 195° at 21.6 m above mean sea level. In other directions it shows red shutters. The white 14.6 m tower is floodlit below balcony level.

Fisgard Lighthouse and its sister station Race Rocks Light, were constructed in 1859-60, to ease the movement of naval ships into Esquimalt harbour and merchant ships into Victoria Harbour. The light stations were also seen as a significant political commitment on the part of the British government to the Colony of Vancouver Island.

The black-and-white photo inside the display room there shows the following:
[1] Lightkeeper’s house (red in other photos)
[2] Lighthouse Tower (white tower)
[3] Outhouse
[4] Boathouse (white one)
[5] Storehouse
[6] Weather Station (with instruments outside)

物輕情意重

聰明豆(Smarties)一直是自己童年時代摯愛的朱古力糖。當時每粒豆，大得像衣鈕。將它們放在手心是會融化的。它們七彩的糖衣或糖心的朱古力，都令我心悅。現在的聰明豆有袖珍形的，可能是專給小朋友食用的。

以前美味的聰明豆是用圓柱形狀紙筒盛載著，一端是封閉的，另一端的顏色膠蓋是可以打開的。想知道紙筒內大約有幾多聰明豆，只要搖一兩下紙筒就知曉了。

最近女兒在網上顯現過加拿大售賣的聰明豆，豆是用像擦紙膠般大小相約的長方盒(12cm x 2.5cm x 1.5cm)裝著。既然盒子是那麼小，裏面的聰明豆一定相應小。我曾經對女兒說其中一款的包裝盒特別趣緻，因為盒上有【愛】心一個，背面佈滿粉紅色的心，亦印上To 和From各一欄，相信是送給情人用的。小小的禮物，充滿著愛，又經濟，又物輕情意重！今次正是女兒送給我的父親節禮物。多謝 Connie.

Elly likes Stickers

Elly entered her Stickers' World yesterday (May 7, 2011). She stuck some of her stickers onto her nose, arms and legs. I think sticking is a really good exercise for her. It trains the motor skills and coordination of her hands, fingers, and eyes. Now if we ask Elly to stick ordinary stamps onto envelopes, she is able to help us.

The photos show that Elly enjoys the moments of her "game of creativity". Note that she puts a red sticker onto her little nose. That’s how Elly spent a quarter of an hour in this kind of play.

Back to Hong Kong

Early yesterday morning, we arrived at HK International Airport to welcome Connie, Philip, Abby and Elly back to Hong Kong.

It did not take long to see them come out from exit A. Connie and Philip each pushed a trolley of luggage while Abby her younger sister on a pram.

We rushed a little to board an airbus back to Shatin. Elly pointed and uttered “bus” when she saw it. I did not believe she could recognize one because the buses in Vancouver are single-decked instead of ours, double-decked.

Except Philip who looked after the luggage, we all sat at the front of the upper deck to get a better view outside the bus.

Abby was excited and talked to her grandma all the way. Behind sat Elly comfortably upright with her mother. I was busy taking photos along the way. It rained a little on Tsing Ma Bridge, so some of my photos showed rain drops on the window before me.

This time, they could not conquer their jet lag and felt sleepy at around five in the afternoon. Both girls did not take their dinner at all. Connie, Abby and Elly woke up at early (1:45 a.m.) in the middle of the night. They became fresh, sober and active like those nocturnal animals.