At Super Super

It was the first time Connie, Abby and Elly took their breakfast with us at Super Super on 7th of April.

There were congee, noodles, rice rolls, fish, egg, radish cake, macaroni with ham and a cup of Horlicks on the table.

The girls first chose noodles to eat for they did not like congee at all. Abby ate rice rolls while Elly macaroni with ham. They finally shared the cup of Horlicks. We three adults shared the rest of the food among ourselves.

It was a morning lesson from which the girls learned to share food among family members.

太陽風

美國太空總署最近公開新一批由太陽動力學天文台拍攝的太陽風照片。從這些照片來看， 太陽是一個熾熱的火球， 有類似火焰不斷的吹出而形成太陽風。

以下是從維基百科全書節錄下來的資料:

在太陽的日冕層的高溫下，氫、氦等原子已經被電離成帶正電的質子、氦原子核和帶負電的自由電子等。這些帶電粒子運動速度極快，以致不斷有帶電的粒子掙脫太陽的引力束縛，射向太陽的外圍，形成太陽風。 太陽風的速度一般在200-800km/s。從太陽的磁場極地附近吹出的是高速太陽風，從太陽的磁場赤道附近吹出的則是低速太陽風。太陽的磁場的活動性是會變化的，週期大約為11年。

太陽風到1960年代才被證實存在。長期觀測發現，當太陽存在冕洞時，地球附近就能觀測到高速的太陽風。因此天文學家認為高速太陽風的產生與冕洞有密切的關係。太陽表面的磁場及等離子體活動對地球有很重要的影響。當太陽發生強烈的活動時，大量的帶電粒子隨着太陽風吹向地球的兩極，就會在兩極的電離層引發美麗的極光。

More teachers joined OSA monthly lunches

It is good sign to see more teachers join the OSA monthly lunches. This month, Miss M. Ng, Miss Su, Mrs. Sinn, Mr. Fung, Miss Winnie Wong and I joined the routine lunch (on the second Saturday each month). Occasionally, Miss Ng, Miss Su and Mr. Fung come to lunch. For myself, I always attend the lunches except once because I was too late informed.

What a big surprise to see Mrs. Sinn appear at the lunch this time. She told me that she would stay in Hong Kong for a longer period of time instead of in America.

Miss Wong arrived a little late after her shopping at supermarket. We were able to catch a photo with her. A few days before, she had invited Derek Law, the youngest son of our first Principal of school, Mr. C.H. Law, to join the lunch. Derek Law looked far more strongly built when compared with his small size in his early years at CCSC. I was astonished to hear him call me by name although I had not taught him before. He said he observed the CCSC teachers during launch picnics (for teaching staff) held each summer in the early 70’s. What surprised me most was that he had accessed to my blog-site and read about my grand-daughters. My guess is that Derek finds out the blog-site from Mr. Ching’s CCSC overseas web-site. Thanks to Mr. Ching’s “ thread and needle”.

Countdown to 100 days

London Olympics has a count-down machine stationed at Trafalgar Square, Central London. On April 18th, 2012, the count-down has reached 100 days before the Olympic Games actually begin in England.

Many people take the opportunity of taking photos with this countdown machine when they pass the Square.

There are about three months to go when elite athletes from around the world meet at London to compete and break records in all kinds of games. I do like the atmosphere and sportsmanship in the Games. May the Games be held smoothly and peacefully in England.

Bunny and kids

Different people had different aims in this photo. My granddaughters aimed at the sweets in the basket placed on the floor. The big bunny aimed at giving kids sweets at Easter. I aimed at taking a photo of my granddaughters.

Elly and Abby had taken altogether seven to eight sweets because they met this bunny twice at the shopping centre. Were they greedy?

After all, the shopping centre had successful created a warm atmosphere to shoppers and small children at Easter.

Roadside flowers

I found these beautiful roadside flowers at a certain section of Des Voeux Road Central last Wednesday. They were planted on rectangular pots and hung at the railings. These potted plants could have added life and beauty to the busy streets and the concrete forests in Central. I loved to see them there all the year round.

May I wish more potted plants be placed in different parts of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories.

Statues at Las Vegas

Statues are common at Las Vegas Hotels. Here before your eyes are those at MGM and the Egyptian theme Luxor Hotel and Casino. An outstanding one is the Statue of Liberty. One may think for a second if he is at New York instead of at Las Vegas. It is very impressive to someone who comes for the first time to this city of casinos.

Las Vegas in 2011

My dear old student, Peter Ng, drove to Las Vegas with his family more than once in 2011. Here is a brief description of what he experienced there.

"Bellagio is my favorite hotel in Vegas for its elegant Italian theme and the buffet restaurant which is among the best in the strip. Due to the sagging US economy, there were many hotel sales to attract business to Las Vegas last year especially during the non-busy months. Lesser hotels like Luxor and Monte Carlos, dropped their price to around US$50 a night even after including the resort fee (a way to make the price seems lower). The price was so good that we went more than once last year. And in November, we were able to stay in Bellagio for our trip. It was quite an experience."

The photo at bottom-right shows Bellagio with a music fountain before it.

A Stunning photo

It is so nice to have my old student, Peter Ng, sent me a photo of the view of California Street in Downtown, San Francisco. We can also see one of the tower heads of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge at the far side.

The photo is thrilling to me because the look of this street seems like the impending tsunami (in grey colour) that pushes forward cars, cable cars, houses or whatever on its way . The street itself is steeper and longer than those I saw in my visit to Seattle, 2009.

If the image of the arrival of tsunami here is wiped off, still it is a stunning trial of driving down such a street much like a roller-coaster on its rails.

I like this photo very much. Last time when I was at San Francisco, I missed the experience of riding a car down this street from its top to somewhat level ground below.

Steps-like roads

It is common to see these steps-declining roads at hilly Seattle. The fun is that a driver on this kind of roads feels his car descending for a certain distance, next running a short distance horizontally and then diving down again. This motion repeats several times before the car actually runs on level grounds. We may also find this kind of roads in Western and Central Districts on Hong Kong Island. It is not fun if the brake of one’s car fails.

This matter of descending also applies to a passenger plane which is going to land. The plane usually dropped its head a little downward for a certain distance and next descends the second time and third until it reaches a reasonable height for flying over the residential or commercial areas (a good example may be found when a plane is landing from Northwest towards Sydney International Airport).

In the past, there were a few sections of Tai Po Road (in the section of the New territories) of up-and-down roads. They take up V-shapes when they were viewed from the side. When there was no car following mine, I would like to speed up my car from the top of "V" down to the bottom of the "V", waited until the car head upwards for a certain distance and let the gears off and the car still moved up the slope with the remaining force. I just wanted to see if my car could reach to the top of the road on the other side of the "V".

Antennarius

Antennarius (躄魚) is a large genus of frogfishes found worldwide in tropical and subtropical oceans. It contains 25 species. They look ugly, but are in beautiful colours.

They are nearly all very greedy carnivores which sit quietly waiting for smaller fishes to pass by. During this time, they wriggle their "lure" to entice nearby prey to come and then snap up the fish into their mouths.

Here you can see some of them in the sea at Lembeh Strait (藍碧海峽) off the north-east coast of Sulawesi (Celebes 蘇拉威西島).

Easter Elly

Elly has a lot of free time visiting shopping centres in the afternoon since she has not attended school yet.

She was at Sunshine Plaza on March 19, 2012. We told her to stand near these simple Easter decorations and she stood willingly near them and made poses of her “winning signal” or her “fingers” as a pair of “scissors” to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

The colours of her T-shirt fitted well with the decorations. If she stood beside the “bunnies”, “eggs” and “butterflies”, I was sure people would believe that Elly were a decorative “doll” at the display.

CCSC OSA Annual Dinner 2012

On the 23rd day of March, this year, the annual dinner of CCSC OSA was held at Paramount Banquet Hall (百樂門宴會廳) at Elizabeth House, Causeway Bay. Dinner began at around half past eight.

There were altogether 22 tables. There were two VIP tables, Table 1 and Table 2. Teachers, mostly retired or left earlier, sat at Table 3. Some current teachers sat with their students and some who were formerly CCSC students, now teachers of the school, sat with their classmates.
Principal Yuen first made a speech and Miss Winnie Wong, Mr. Yuen and the 2 M.C.s led the guests and students to sing the school song.

The dinner was served soon after the ceremony. In the midst of the dinner, we cheered as the VIPs (members of the school board) drank a toast with us.

There was a lucky draw. Miss Ng, Miss Winnie Wong, Miss Fok and I had the honour to be invited to draw lots, then followed by some of the VIPs of our school. The prizes comprised of mostly the products for sale at the New Year Fairs in the past two years and some red packets with money inside.

Towards the end of the dinner, students of different years came to the front stage to have group photos taken. Before this, some of the teachers had been invited to take photos with their students.

The dinner finished at about half past ten.

Parachuting at Antarctica (2)

Arrangements had been made before the actual parachuting took place. A helicopter took a number of men to the designed landing area for the jump and these men had to make a visible red “sign” on the ground which could be visible to the parachutists and they were supposed to stay until the parachutists landed safely at the right spot.

The plane that carried the parachutists took 2 hours to reach L. Cerro Nevado Glazier, the target landing site, but 30 seconds before the jump, weather reports from the ground said that the weather turned worse and an ice storm had formed. The temperature dropped to - 58 degrees. The speed of winds was around 35 knots and the visibility had become zero. The jump should be suspended immediately. It was great that the men at the land was able to withstand the cold and stay calm for rescue on the next morning.
A successful jump was finally made by the three parachutists at the height of 13500 feet in good weather conditions ( -4 degrees and a suitable wind speed).

Parachuting at Antarctica (1)

Three parachutists planned to parachute at Antarctica. They got permission from Argentina and arrived at the Marambio Base (馬蘭比奧海軍准將站) on Isla Marambio (馬蘭比奧島), off the coast of Palmer Peninsula at Antarctica.

They first practised skydiving somewhere near the base to study the weather conditions, the wind speeds, the safety and rescue measures.

The dangers of parachuting they might face would be sudden wind storms at such a cold place and the falling into the bleak cold icy sea water could be hazardous.
The parachutists found the trial jump, which lasted for only one and a half minute, a perfect and enjoyable one. However, for the case of parachuting deeper inland might not be funny and be filled with dangers.

A two-week holiday

Abby has a two-week holiday during Easter. To Elly, every day is a holiday. They are going to stay almost the whole holiday with us at Shatin.

Today, they were so lucky to find two tricycles at our park below. Abby had long legs so she had no problem in driving. Elly was different. She was too young to steer one. It would mean I was her driver at her back.

Several times they pretended to stop at the traffic lights. Sometimes they went abreast. At one time, they met face to face and held each other’s handles.

From my observation, Elly still needs some driving lessons before she can drive by herself. Hopefully, she will drive alone in a few months’ time.

Arrival of Cara Cara Oranges

I was delighted to see my favourite oranges, Cara Cara, arrive at one of our supermarkets. Not only these red-flesh oranges are relatively cheaper than those ordinary orange-flesh ones, they have a slightly different, unspeakably sweet flavour which I love most.

My target of the day was to buy 32 such oranges in the early morning (cause I could select better ones as soon as the supermarket opened at eight) to supply two families of a total of 7 members for a week.

My bags were then filled with a heavy mass of orange stuff and a small quantity of apples and mandarins. A disappointment came to me that those green pears from U.S. totally disappeared except those from South Africa, otherwise one of my shoulders would lean on one side. To me, last Saturday was a day of fruit-hunt.

The New Year Gathering at School

CCSCOSA organized a New Year Gathering at CCSC school hall on February 4, 2012. It was a function that old students and teachers met.

The gathering began with a ceremony of marking the eyes of a Chinese lion head by the school manager and followed by a lion dance and the presence of “Choi Sun” (財神) who give everybody a red pocket, inside which there were a gold coin of chocolate and a small card reminding every one, the date, time and venue of the OSA annual dinner. Presents (those neck-pad vibrators sold by students at the New Year Fair, Victoria Park during Chinese New Year) were given to the teachers attending the gathering.

Managers of the school board, teachers and old students did not miss the chance of taking photos together. Of course, I was glad to see some of my students come back to chat and take photos with me.

驕小的蘭花

我們的屋苑經常以花圃作舞台展覽一些獨特的花卉。今天的主角正是這些驕小的白色蘭花。驟眼望過去，它們有點似白蘭樹的花。但看其修長的葉，枝和接近底部的球莖，已經肯定這是一棵蘭花植物。對我來說，其名稱仍然是個謎。要找尋它的真正名字的話，相信都要花一段時間才可以。

Two water-worlds

Here you can see two water-worlds, one on Tolo Harbour and the other at a swimming pool.

The fun outside was water-skiing. A speed boat is towing a man on skiing-boards on the surface of the sea. Clear enough the speed boat needs fuel and the skier skill.

The fun at the swimming pool on land comes from the twisting slides that bring the swimmers at a certain height down to the pool below. The swimmers slide down smoothly with the help of some running water as accelerator and the force of gravity.

A Message from a car owner

“ My baby is happy,” says the owner of this car. It is a message the owner wants to tell the public that his/her baby son/daughter is happy. We hope it is true to the baby.

See if I find other interesting messages of this kind at other times.

乍暖還寒的日子走了

先前乍暖還寒的日子，似乎過去了。大部份在香港的植物都趕緊在最近暖和的幾天爭著開花的開花，結果的結果。

這幾張相正好給大家知道其實春天巳經到了。近幾天有霧，試過濕度接近百分百，洗淨的衣服整天都濕漉漉，我家要出動新買的抽濕機才有效地把濕氣趕走。周圍的植物倒喜歡又暖又濕的日子，開始活躍起來。相信馬鞍山那邊的杜鵑花正合時長出應本年度的馬鞍山杜鵑花節。

後記：廿一日早晨時分往買早餐時，天色灰暗，微風吹過，有點涼意。迎面而來的途人穿的大多是長袖衫，而自己則短袖，忽然有點今天的我把昨天的我推翻的感覺。不過，我知道我和周圍的花草樹木都可以抵擋一下這般溫差的改變，繼續挺著身子向前走。

Stacking up

Stacking up wooden blocks makes Elly feel proud of herself in constructions. Her careful hands and patience have given her successes. Her delight and satisfaction all come from the structures she builds by herself alone.

Every time she has finished the building, she will ask us to see her “masterpiece”. There are times that her blocks fall and the building shatters because of instability. She then just grunts a little to express her disappointment. I do like this because she must learn to face failures in daily life.

Andes’ New Dress

The new packing of Andes chocolate (see the one in the above photo) at a supermarket reminds me of the approaching of Easter. In western countries, it is a custom of hiding Easter eggs by adults in one’s garden and children are asked to find them.

In Hong Kong, we only see Andes’s Creme De Menthe Thins (奶油薄荷夾心黑巧克力). One such thin cannot satisfy either of my grand-daughters. Very often they request for a double.

Unbelievably there are other varieties of chocolate produced by Andes which I cannot find on the racks of supermarkets.

Peppermint Crunch Thins (胡椒薄荷巧克力),
Mint Parfait Thins (薄荷巧克力),
Toffee Crunch Thins (咖啡巧克力),
Milk Chocolatey Thins (牛奶巧克力),
Chocolatey Orange Thins (香橙夾心巧克力).

兩個小驚喜

區區一個奇異果和一個蘋果今天竟然帶給我兩個小驚喜。

第一個驚喜是首次在超市可以買到意大利出產的奇異果。這款奇異果和紐西蘭出產的在外貌上沒有分別，前者果肉特別硬淨，横切面的圖案精彩細緻，適合做蛋糕、雪糕或飲品的配搭，我相信原因在奇異果果肉的綠色特別有美麗吸引力。

第二個驚喜是不明國籍的「紅粉佳人」蘋果(Pink Lady)。這種蘋果給我的印象是明艷照人，果味特別甜美幽香，我個人特別鍾意。

The bread digger

Elly is certainly a bread digger. What does she dig out of bread? The answer is grapes or sausages, her favourite fruit or food.

From my point of view, she like the tastes of grapes and sausages whenever she sees them embedded in buns or bread rather than they are something which makes her not hungry again.

For the case of grapes, Elly makes holes on or in the bread leaving a surface of bread like that of our Moon. For a sausage bun, her skill is to drill a hole into it. She simply eats the sausage as she bites her way in. The last few bites involve her pulling hard at the remaining sausage. The last sight of the bun is like one with a tunnel drilled in.

See her winning sign of fingers this time. She has dug the bun similar to the holes of the Moon.

When these tomatoes ripen,…..

When these tomatoes ripened a few days ago, I took out my slim camera from my pocket to record their beauty. Hopefully, I shall bring them before my readers’ eyes.

Coldness and drizzle these days cannot harm the delicate small tomatoes. They stand firmly as they are and may survive for a few days more. See the bottom collage photo.

兩歲半玩的魔術

艾莉最近在電視看Tricky TV裏面的小型魔術，受感染，創作魔術自娛。

艾莉將一張A4紙慢慢用手撕開。她把手中已撕開的紙碎放在嘴巴前鼓起一口氣大力唱一唱，然後隨手把紙碎拋開，那麼樣她感覺上紙碎巳經被變走了，心裏自然開心，也很陶醉，連旁觀的我也很欣賞她的魔術演繹。

Abby’s Art Gallery (2)

原來在阿比眼中的美女是這樣子的─高低眼，特厚唇，面腫脹。美女的衣著特別艷麗，有幾許似韓國服飾。左前方的桌子上放著的是幾杯果汁似的飲品。背景的布幕正好表示這位姑娘是一位粉墨登場的演員。

另一幅畫中的丫環ｏ著嘴，有點驚慌模樣。她旁邊的植物，只見葉，不見花。畫的兩旁有黃色的「大吉大利」揮春和高掛的紅色炮竹對當時農曆新年十分應景。紅、綠、黃和橙色的雀鳥在屋簷上和地上盤據著。

阿比右上角那幅畫是廚房的景象，有大鑊火爐配備鑊鏟煎魚。最重要的當然是那些不可缺少裝著大批食材的巨型籃子呢！

Abby’s Art Gallery (1)

Abby has very great improvement in drawings after she has attended art lessons from a learning centre near by her home.

Here you can see her draw sharks, one of which looks like “Jaws” and the other, a hammerhead shark. Abby must have copied the sharks from pictures in a magazine and painted them in the right colour. She has made the sharks look vivid, but scary.

In another picture, her hens are colourful and beautiful indeed. The distant huts make the picture in good perspectives.

In the third picture, she draws interesting big-beaked birds. The birds are very nicely posed on branches.

A dog with walking shoes

What a strange sight to me that a dog wore shoes at San Po Kong! Today this lady was walking with her dog along the pavement opposite to the bus I was riding.

The dog walked alongside the lady in tiny white shoes. It seemed to me that the dog was walking with ease. It might be that it had long got used to the “idea” of wearing “fashionable" shoes. It was really amazing to see a fashion show for dogs in the 21st century!

Reflections from children’s pictures

Let children draw and tell you their stories through pictures.
Here you can see a four-year-old girl called, Jenitha, from India drawing what she sees every day in her neighbourhood.

What we can learn from her picture are the following:
(1) The great number of figures in Jenitha’s picture reflects that she lives in a crowded region in India.
(2) Every figure she draws carries a smile. Jenitha feels that her friends are as happy as she is.
(3) We can see the big earrings hanging from the ear-lobes of the children.
(4) Jenitha shows the third eye, “tilaka” or “tika”, the red dot on the forehead of a figure.
(5) Jenitha is bold and filled with confidence in drawing free-hand figures. Her drawings are very lovely. Just look at the black-and-white pictures.

Light source from the front

This is my first experiment of taking the portrait of Elly using the light that comes towards the camera. To take a better photo, I intend to place my camera nearer to Elly so that Elly’s face will not become dark when compared with the strong light source.

I like this photo because the profile of Elly’s face is lined with light and the light that floods on her left hand, the piece of bread and clothes creates good contrasts. Elly stops eating because she is watching a cartoon on television. Her cup of milk on the table reflects that Elly’s demand for milk is not strong nowadays.

Small pieces of Art

Beautiful cakes can become pieces of art. Here, you can see a decoration of different fruits such as a raspberry, a strawberry, a blueberry and a thin sheet of white chocolate on top of a small heart-shaped prismatic cake. It is a wonderful dessert after lunch or dinner.

Pao de Acucar

Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain 糖麵包山) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay (瓜納巴拉灣) on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, it shapes like concentrated refined loaf sugar.

The mountain is only one of several hills of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-walled cable car (teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Morro da Urca every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car leaves a ground station located at the base of the Babilônia hill, to the Urca hill and then to the Pão de Açúcar.

Passengers must take two cable cars to reach the summit. The first ascends to the shorter Morro da Urca, 220 meters high while the second ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. The climb takes three minutes from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the adult fare is 44 Reals ( for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar.

Inside a plastic tube

Only Abby and Elly in their small sizes can climb into such a plastic tube at a playground and sit comfortably inside. For us, we can squeeze in it, but cannot sit up straight. For some time at play, this tube-like structure becomes the temporary home of our grand-daughters. It is waterproof and colourfully red. It opens at two ends, so it is well- ventilated.

What were they doing?

In the top left photo, Abby and Elly seemed worshipping.
Below it, Abby was sitting with legs crossed.
In the centre photo, Elly was happy to see me taking photographs.
In the right-hand-most photo, Abby closed her eyes to show her short nap of “a few seconds”.

Recent fruit diet

After Chinese New year, lovable pomelos (沙田柚)and mandarins（柑）from China begin to fade out of the market. We turn back to Sunkist oranges（新奇士橙）, Chinese “Fuji” apples(中國富士蘋果), green USA pears（啤梨）, Chinese pears (貢梨), Gala apples (加拿蘋果).

Pomelos are rich in fibres, a little sweet and in sizes much bigger than oranges. We never know the actual size of edible core until they are cut open. This is simply because the outer skins are often very thick. To separate the segments of a pomelo is a difficult job. It is often the case that the remaining lump of flesh we get after cutting are full of “wounds”. Another thing is that we have to extract the pips, big and small, before we can eat. Both Abby and Elly love eating pomelos, but the fruit appears at CNY or Mid-autumn Festival.

Ever since this Chinese New Year, Abby and Elly begin to love the taste of juicy mandarins which appear sweeter than those of Sunkist oranges. The girls usually seize the cut-up pieces from the dish with both hands and they swallow them as fast as they can.

The green D’ Anjou pears from U.S.A. (美國安琪啤梨) have become a must for our two grand-children after dinner. Comparatively speaking, the demand from Abby from this fruit is a little stronger than Elly. I think they love the sweet and soft nature of the flesh.

Our faith in Sunkist oranges from California never fails because the texture is good and they are always filled with juice. Those Sunkist oranges from South Africa are inferior in taste and texture. Maybe the soils from the two different continents are different in fertility.

The Chinese “Fuji” apples look all right in outlook, but some lack of taste. It seems to me that their sweetness has all gone. I always believe that the fragrance from Gala apples beats those of other apples. They are the "winners" in my heart.

The Chinese pears (貢梨) are coarse in texture, but very sweet. I accept both specialities because fibres and taste are important in our fruit diet.

Lovely chocolate

We cannot resist the temptation of chocolate in our daily life. The chocolate chips on the surface of cakes and biscuits, inside ice-cream and buns are inviting.

Cadbury (吉百利朱古力) chocolate mastered for some time in the past because their brick-like look always filled the mouths with satisfaction.

Chocolate beans such as those from Smarties have cheered small children to adults like me. Later on, M & M joined in to the market with lovely cartoon figures and plastic toys. Kinder Surprise chocolate wins the hearts of many children because of the mysterious toys under the thin egg-like shells of chocolate.

Toblerone (三角朱古力) specializes in its triangular shape and Maltesers (麥提莎) in its malt honeycomb centres.

High-class chocolate from Europe such as Ferrero Rocher (金莎朱古力 Italian made), Lindt (瑞士蓮 Swiss made) and Godiva (歌帝梵朱古力 Belgium made) come into Hong Kong.

Here you can glimpse the making of Lindt chocolate wrapped up by beautifully coloured paper-dress. Anyone who is in favour of chocolate sandwich biscuits, Arnott's (from Australia) Tim Tam is a good choice.

Jackie Evancho

“America ‘s Got Talent” on TV has entertained me every Saturday for months in 2011. I stuck to this contest and enjoy watching the performances of the contestants, some may be very stupid, some thrilling and some very talented. I pretend myself a judge at home and predict who is going to leave the contest after each screening. My prediction reaches almost 100%.

One contestant on the fifth season of the America's Got Talent TV show who impresses me is Jackie Evancho. She is only 10 years old. Her sweet voice beat most of the contestants and entered the final 4. It was so unlucky for me to have missed watching the last programme when announcement of the winners of the contest was made. It was then like a blank page to me to whom the winner of the contest was. Would it be Jackie Evancho? The answer is “No”. Jackie only got the second place. This totally upset me for a while.

Let us see how Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho (born April 9, 2000) become an American child singer in the following scripts from Wikipedia:

Evancho's dedicated singing began just before her 8th birthday, after she saw the film version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. Her mother bought the DVD, and Evancho began to sing the songs around the family home. Her parents have said that they did not recognize that her voice was unusual until her first talent competition. In April 2008, her parents allowed her to enter the Kean Idol, a local talent contest. She finished as first runner-up. She began taking vocal lessons after her success in the contest, and her parents began receiving requests for her to sing at various events. She also started a YouTube channel and was a member of the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh during its 2008–09 season.

In January 2009, Evancho competed in Las Vegas in the 15th annual U.S.A. World Showcase Talent Competition, where she also finished in second place. She entered the 2009 Kean Idol contest and was again runner-up to an adult. She entered other talent contests, winning the Golden Ribby Award – Wonderworld TV in April 2009 and the Talent Quest TV Show in June 2009 (both in Massachusetts). Also in 2009, she sang "Ave Maria" in composer and conductor Tim Janis's PBS television special "Celebrate America” and performed in other concerts and TV shows with Janis, who sought her out after seeing her on YouTube. She also made various singing appearances around Pennsylvania in 2009 and 2010.

Jackie is described as a classical crossover artist. After entering some talent competitions, issuing an independent album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracting interest on YouTube, she gained wider popularity in 2010 with her performances in the fifth season of the America's Got Talent competition, at the age of 10, finishing in second place. With the subsequent release of her O Holy Night EP, she became the best-selling debut artist of 2010 and the youngest top-10 debut artist in U.S. history. In June 2011, her first full-length major-label album, Dream With Me, debuted at #2 on American album charts, and she became the youngest top-5 debut artist in UK history. Billboard ranked Evancho the top Classical Albums Artist for 2011.

Evancho was accepted as a contestant on the fifth season of the America's Got Talent TV show (AGT) by placing first in a YouTube competition sponsored by the television show. On August 10, 2010, Evancho performed "O mio babbino caro" by Giacomo Puccini. She received a standing ovation after her performance and was awarded a trip to Universal Studios Florida for receiving the most fan votes of all the YouTube submissions to the show. Judge Howie Mandel said in his critique that the show sought to "find that one moment, that one gem, that one star from a place we've never looked before ... This is the moment. You're the star. After Evancho's performance, astonished commentators queried whether her performance had been lip-synched. On the next evening's live show, Mandel, requested that Evancho sing an impromptu voice exercise as proof that the broadcast heard by the audience was Evancho's live voice.

Her semifinal performance was "Time To Say Goodbye". She advanced to the Top 10, where on September 7, 2010, she performed "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and was voted into the Final 4. Her final competition performance was her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria" on September 14. The following evening at the AGT season finale, Evancho performed "Time To Say Goodbye" together with guest artist Sarah Brightman; then Evancho was announced as the runner-up, finishing second to singer Michael Grimm. Many viewers and commentators felt that Evancho should have won, and even Grimm expressed surprise. Evancho performed in 10 of the 25 cities in the America's Got Talent national tour from October 1 to November 5, 2010. During the AGT competition and for some months thereafter, Evancho coached with voice teacher Yvie Burnett, a mezzo-soprano from Scotland, who has worked with many of Simon Cowell's acts

I must say here that, sooner nor later, this little girl would become a world famous soprano singer and I forever love her singing.

風車草

某次，舊同學見到這種多年生莎草，立即指給我看是風車草。

圓柱形桿從地下莖抽出，葉片軸射狀排列，形似風車，但其實它是不會轉動的。最吸引我的是那些輻射狀分枝的細小花序，我認為風車草作為賞葉植物是值得的！

Photos taken with S100

To test and find out whether S100 brings me good photos, I intend to use it to take some photos of my two grand-daughters at play. Here, both Elly and Abby are playing the swing; Elly is driving a tricycle and drinking of Vitasoy; Elly has her first touch of abacus.

The night scenes of Shatin

Canon says that S100 is better in shooting night views in its advertisement.

Yesterday night I used both cameras, S100 and 860 IS to take the night views of Shatin. The results come out that in the two sets of photos are more or less the same. The top two photos are from 860 IS while the bottom two S100.

The performance of 860 IS using Macro

The camera 860 IS is able to catch the details of the fabrics of the same stool by Macro. This disproves what I earlier said that S100 is better than 860 IS in taking close-up pictures.

Performances of two Canon Digital Cameras compared (2)

Details of object recorded by S100 is better than 860 IS because the former has a higher resolution.

The bottom two photos show the close-up view of the fabrics of a round stool. The S100 camera does a better job than 860 IS because the former shows detailed textures while the latter a blurred piece of cloth.