A Perfect Combination

It is astonishing that an Octopus Card can combine with a Visa Credit Card. How extraordinary it is!

To me, an Octopus card should be an Octopus card whereas a Credit card is a Credit card alone. I can never dream of their “marriage”.

It is great news to those people who are users of both Octopus cards and Credit cards.

The advertisement says that this card can become a topic of conversation among the citizens of Hong Kong.

Well, I don’t believe this. I myself need not apply one such card because I am not a customer of the bank nor I am a big spender who relies wholly on Credit cards.

Wristwatch show

Abby likes to open his grandma’s box of wristwatches to take a look. She picks them out of the box and put them back again.

On July 8^th, as usual, her target was again at grandma’s watches. This time, I put all the five watches onto her arms. Without the long sleeves of her overcoat, these watches would all slip away because her arms were so slim and the watches were meant for adult wrists.

The watches are neither ancient nor modern. They were in the 80’s or 90’s. Some of them are automatic, run by mechanics and some by dry cells. They all stop for lack of winding or electric power. They might have become Abby’s toys these days.

Sure enough, Abby needs not read or does not know “time” at the moment, but she has experienced the existence of such interesting clockwork of two or more hands moving round and round the face of a watch.

Two Water-coloured pictures

From Ho Keung and Yin Ping’s experience, there is no need to use water and colour to paint a picture.
At most places in New Zealand, snow-clad mountains with a blurred cloudy sky plus green grasslands can form realistic, water-colour-like pictures. What they have to do is to click the "shutter" button of their digital camera. Within a second, a water-coloured picture is completed.

The Dark Knight (蝙蝠俠 - 黑夜之神)

The film “The Dark Knight” is on show recently in Hong Kong. We got free tickets from bank this Wednesday. Yesterday my wife, son and I went to see it at AMC, a cinema at Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong. Again pop corns and soft-drinks were served.

The film is about Batman, a famous star in U.S. comic books. In the film, we saw the ugly, cruel, but clever side of the villain, the Clown. The Batman looks handsome, but his voice was low and coarse.

The film started with a Bank robbery. From this incident, the Clown showed much of his cold-bloodedness because he killed everyone of his crew after he had got the money. He escaped by a school-bus.

Next gangs of bad people were caught. It followed that some men of justice and the mayor were assassinated. Of course Batman was to intervene. There was one thing that I did not understand. Since the Batman had a chance to kill the Clown. Why didn’t he wipe him off, but let him live. I think the only reason is that the two important roles of Batman and the Clown cannot die, otherwise the Batman series cannot continue.

In this film, the Batman’s car looked great, but crashed. It was strange to see that a powerful motor-bike could be detached from it and Batman used it to continue his mission.

Another thing which attracted my attention was that part of filming was made in Hong Kong. The famous “Upgoing” pedestrian escalator in Central, the IFC (International Financial Centre) and other tall buildings in Hong Kong’s busiest district were captured in the film. A cargo plane, which had got permission from HKSAR, flew over the harbour during filming. I did see it in the film. Its mission was to uplift Batman and a Chinese bad “guy” (captured by the former) from one of the tall buildings in Central.

The film lasts for 152 minutes. It is cheap ($70/ticket) when the ticket price is considered with the time of the show.

A Foggy Morning at Sydney

At the doorstep this Tuesday, Ho Keung and Yin Ping found a fog before them. The houses on the opposite side of the street, some twenty metres away, were covered with a white film of water vapour. They appeared to be pale and indistinct, but their outlines could still be seen.

My wife and I, together with Connie and Philip, were familiar with these houses because when we woke up and looked out of the windows each morning, these houses were clearly in sight. It was dated back to summer, December, 2006. This avenue was lined with elegant houses on both sides and few cars were parked at the roadside.

At seven on this particular morning, the avenue looked quiet and mysterious. It would be great fun to walk along it, but driving needed much care.

The details of closer trees were clear, but further away, the outlines of the trees looked blurred and incomplete. It was really like a scene in a fairy tale!

Building of New Prince of Wales Hospital (7)

Ever since my last report (two and a half months before) , there has been large progress at the building site.

[1] One more crane has been erected. Now the two cranes are at work carrying loads of ready-to-lay liquid cement as well as other building materials such as wooden planks and steel bars to various spots.

[2] No more heavy trucks can reach the interior of the site because blocks and structures are growing. These trucks can only unload all necessary building materials at the outskirts of the site.

[3] Vertical bars are rising like new shots of plants growing from the ground. They will be the future pillars for supporting the blocks of hospital buildings.

[4] Building of different structures becomes complicated now. Here and there different function rooms are made. Some vertical troughs look like those for elevators (lifts) have been detected. Some mysterious passageways may have been designed and made in such a way that famous patients can enter or leave the hospital secretly without being noticed.

Which is the Centre of Interest?

This foreground of this photo shows a pair of reddish pink flowers. I love this colour. The flowers behind are relatively small, but their colours are bright red, another lovable colour to me. These two kinds of flowers are completely different, in size and colour. Their leaves are also different in shapes and thickness. It is easy for me to distinguish which plant is the host and which is the guest. I love the lustre of the latter plant because the leaves look as if they have been waxed before.

The background shows Abby and Connie walking by.

Which do you think is the Centre of Interest of the photo? The pink flowers/ the small red flowers/the leaves/ Abby/ Connie.

Landing on flowers

Today, I am happy to announce that I am able to take the photos of a beautiful butterfly landing on some red flowers.

It is rare to see this kind of insects dancing among flowers in our garden. Most probably it is a fine day for butterflies to have a party after so many days of bad weather.

Can I take another batch of photos of other butterflies tomorrow? It is really a question!

Green Hills, Blue Sky and White Clouds

The weather today is great. The sky is clear and blue to my desirable degree. There are light white clouds floating above the green hills in the distance. Although some parts of the hills have been blackened by the hill-fires several months ago, it seems that recovery of vegetations is under way. I hope the hills will return to their original look after a few years’ time.

I just know two terms about clouds:

[1] cirrus (feathery cloud high in the sky, delicate in appearance)

[2] cumulus (cloud made of rounded masses on a flat base).

Should the big clouds in the photo be cumulus and those light and small ones above them be cirrus?

A Little Matching Game

These are the photos which represent three different fast-food restaurants in Hong Kong.

If I name the photos from top to bottom as [1], [2] and [3], match these three photos with the following names of restaurants:

A. Fairwood B. Maxim’s C. McDonald D. Café de Coral E. KFC

Keroro in his car

We bought this lovely toy-car, around 20 dollars, from Jusco Department Store a few months ago. At the very beginning, we aimed at giving Abby this toy to play at our home, but, to our disappointment, she did not know how to press Keroro’s “head” down. It might be that she could not master the skill or she did not have the strength of pushing down the “head” with her tiny fingers.

This plastic toy car is cheap, simple, mini and colourful. The details of a side-mirror, a front registration board with “Keroro”, a low windscreen, two big headlights, a flexible roof-top and wheel caps interest me most.

When the “head” of Keroro is pressed, the car will run forward for a distance of about 8 feet. It was last week that we found that Abby suddenly found interest in this little car. At first, she would run away when the car ran towards her. After some time, she did not run away any more, but would wait for the car to come. By now, not only she knows how to push the head down, but she never fails to move it by this pressing “mechanism”.

A Mixture of Moving Wool and Grass

The following photos may be good as wallpapers for our computers. These sheep in New Zealand that walk about the grassland form nice pictures.

There are more sheep than people in New Zealand. That is why when a photo of sheep in their grazing ground is taken, the sheep are much like our crowds of people in the streets of Causeway Bay. The sheep here have plenty of grass to eat and they enjoy life.

These sheep have fluffy wool which is of high quality for export. The shearing of wool from a sheep is interesting. I saw such shearing in Sydney, Australia. It seems as if the overcoats of the sheep are peeled off. The sheep whose wool had been sheared looked much thinner than we expected. I wonder if they would catch cold this way.

At night-time, people who cannot sleep well like to count the "number" of sheep in order to put themselves to sleep. Maybe you spend some time on counting the sheep here for pleasure. On actual ground, nobody can do the counting because the sheep may move about any time.

Study of Coins

Abby comes to her stepping-stone (our home) before she goes to Canada in early August.

On these few days she likes to pour out from a box the coins I store to pay tolls for tunnels. To her, coins are round heavy metals that can be poured out at one time and scattered round her feet. She does not know their values and that they can be used to buy toys, ice-cream and McDonald Harsh Browns.

Yesterday she learned from her Great Grandma that coins could be twisted round and round. Today when she pours out the coins, she remembers that little action of flipping or twisting of a coin, not skilful, but good enough to show that the image of a coin turning before her is still there in her mind. Good observation and memory, Abby!

Jumping Higher

The frog in the photo is beautiful. My first impression is: The more beautiful a frog is, the more poisonous it is.

A frog is an expert in jumping. The red “springs” at the feet of this frog here come in attraction to our eyes because of its “colour” and the “brand” of the camera manufacturer.

The advertisement aims to give a message to the buyers of cameras that a frog can jump very high and that with the help of the technology (mechanisms) of the cameras, better photos can be taken. The “springs” are embedded in the cameras and they help to boost up the quality of the photos.

I learn that scientists in different countries are designing better and more stream-lined swim-suits for their athletes in the Olympic Games so that the athletes can swim faster than before. In that case, the swim-suits can be the “second” skin of the athletes. It is funny, isn’t it?

Paper Cranes are Swinging

These beautiful-coloured cranes are swinging round and round. They fly in different directions to their destinations.

I like this advertisement because of its diversity of colours and the beautiful patterns on the paper cranes. They represent the planes of a famous airline company. Which is it?

[A] Garude Indonesia (印尼航空) [B] Malaysia Airline (馬航)

[C] Philippines Airline (菲航) [D] Singapore Airline (新航)

[E] Thai Airways (泰航)

心情靚

七月四日那天, 見到Abby照鏡, 她的心情簡直靚到”爆”. 在鏡的面前, Abby今次露出一個”得戚”的樣子, 好像很滿意自己的當時的衣著, 表現和狀態.

Abby的太婆也喜歡照鏡的. 她在家裏幾時照鏡不得而知, 但她總在某些升降機裏對著鏡一般的金屬牆壁查看自己的頭髮是否很亂和衣服是否整齊.

這兩位女性不約而同地有習慣對著鏡子照個”飽”呢!

Kung Fu Panda (功夫熊貓) – (3) 影評

我從未寫過影評, 因甚少看電影, 以前一直工作忙, 戲票又貴, 加上不好意思把兒女留在家中由父母照顧而自己跑去看電影.
今次嘗試寫一趟影評啦!

全套戲”功夫熊貓”給我的感覺是”無得彈”.

以下是該卡通片的優點:

[1] 阿寶的造型非常生動, 親切可愛, 肥肥的肚腩, 給人們一個”梁醒波”身形的感覺. 阿寶打功夫的姿態非常有型, 有板有眼. 聽聞夢工場(DreamWorks)的動畫人員狂看”卧虎藏龍”, “英雄”等功夫片及港產動作片作參考, 所以片中的動作全是真功夫.

[2] 片中的風景很優美, 有深山, 有樹林, 有古城, 有宮殿, 有鄉鎮, 這些都是中國的古代特色.

[3] 練武的過程很流暢, 細緻得來風趣.

[4] 眾武林高手與魔頭大豹在吊橋上的搏鬥都很刺激!

[5] 這套戲在香港上映, 特別邀請了一班歌星和明星配音 --- 他們有陳奕迅(Eason) 配阿寶, 另外有成龍, 房祖名, 何韻詩, 何超儀, 李璨琛. 估不到他們做粵語配音做得非常傳神, 對白又精彩絕倫, 又幽默, 非常好笑!

聽聞英文版有搞笑能手積伯克為主角配音, 還有德斯汀荷夫曼, 安祖蓮娜祖莉, 成龍等等. 相信在澳洲放映的版本一定是英語版.

Kung Fu Panda 功夫熊貓 – (2)

麥噹噹最近為了配合"功夫熊貓"這套卡通片放映, 特別推出一連串片中角色造型公仔給顧客換購, 每個HK$8, 不過條件是要買其所謂超值套餐一個.


今天正要自吃午餐, 於是幫襯麥噹噹, 買一個早餐當作午餐.

今次目的之一, 自然是換購那攪笑得來, 又可愛的功夫熊貓 – 阿寶啦! 原來這8元玩具還可以發聲的. 發出的聲音正是阿寶的笑聲 – “哈哈哈哈”!

其他還有另外七款的, 全部都是配角. 我自然換購主角做紀念!

Kung Fu Panda (功夫熊貓) – (1)

A Panda can play Kung Fu. Wonderful! The DreamWorks (A film-maker, I guess) brings about this film to the audience of the world, young or old. My wife and I were among them in UA Cinema, Shatin, last Saturday, June 28th.

The story of the film is simple. One day, a panda called Ah Bo (阿寶) who helped his father sell noodles each day, brought some noodles to the city to sell. He wanted to see what was going on at the meeting (舞林大會) of those animals who were good at Kung Fu, but the door was shut before him. After so many trials and failures of entering the site, he finally went in. The purpose of the meeting was to select the best Kung Fu fighter to beat the fierce cunning leopard (惡霸) called (大豹). The panda did not know any Kung Fu before, but miraculously, he was looked up to by the Kung Fu leaders. He was trained then on by the Kung Fu leader called 施福大師.

Kung Fu training was hard, but interesting to Ah Bo. The film shows the funny trainings in details. The Kung Fu leader 施福大師 used Chinese dumplings as rewards so as to train Kung Fu Panda to get them fast. In another training session, some cookies were placed at the top shelf in the kitchen. Ah Bo was able to get those cookies to feed himself because his Kung Fu had been upgraded.

On the other side, the mentioned leopard, 大豹, escaped from the prison and returned to the city. There were fierce fights between each of the five Kung Fu fighters namely, Tigress (飛虎女), Smart Monkey (靈猴), Fierce Mantis (螳螂大師), Red-crowned Crane (仙鶴大師) and Poisonous Snake (毒蛇大師) with the Leopard on a hanging bridge. The Leopard won and then Kung Fu Panda had to face him. No doubt Kung Fu Panda won finally and became the Hero of the city.

Driving on the road to Te Anau

On the way to Te Anau from Queenstown, Yin Ping and Ho Keung saw beautiful sceneries like these. One of them must be driving and the other taking photos. That was a good combination.

I like driving and photo-taking, but I cannot do them at the same time when I travel.

I recall the three travels I had after my retirement:

(1) At Los Angeles, we were driven from the Airport to Beverley Hills by a small tour-bus, then to Wyndham Hotel at Anaheim. No driving for me, but I was able to take some photos at Beverley Hills and Man’s Theatre.

(2) We took a shuttle-bus to and from Disneyland. Lots of photos were taken there.

(3) A larger bus took us (a 4-hour journey) to Las Vegas. Photos were taken at Premium outlets, Coca-cola and M & M’s World, during a night tour to see the sky-screen.

(4) We boarded a large bus operated by the local tour for the Grand Canyon. We had to change another bus to climb and run on the rocky roads. Of course, a lot of photos were taken at the Canyon, once for our life-time.

(5) Back to Los Angeles in the same bus, we were driven to Universal Studios and we went to the theme park, in and out of the theatres and watched the show at Waterworld. The “King Kong” and the car in the “Back to the Future” were the targets of my camera.

(6) After reaching San Francisco, I was picked up by my student, Roger Chan, who drove us and Mrs. Sinn in his MPV to Travelodge, a motel near the SFO Airport. After lunch with my dear colleagues, Felix Ching and Mrs. Sinn, Roger Chan drove us (my wife and I and Mrs. Sinn) to San Francisco City to have a city tour. We passed by a Concert Hall and entered the Town Hall. Next our car went to the Telegraph Hills. We could watch the harbour and later go down the Crookedest Street, to Chinatown and to the tourist spot at the bridge head of Golden Gate Bridge. I did not miss the sights of this old town in California. We met Felix somewhere near the park side of San Francisco and we headed for the Golden Gate Park. Garden and lakeside photos were taken.

(7) On the following two to three days, I sat in Felix’s car and was able to take just a few photos outside because his car was swift and my camera was not with fast shutter speeds. I was advised by Felix not to drive in U.S. because he feared that I might not be used to the driving on the right-hand side.

(8) In Sydney, Australia, Yin Ping and Ho Keung drove most of the time. This provided me chances to take good photos when the car “stopped” at sight-seeing spots. Actually on those days of stay, we took trains, buses, a “rivercat” , ferry and a launch ship. Obviously, I did not miss every chance of taking photos.

Fortunately, I was invited on December 28^th, 2006 to drive with my own hands on the driving wheel to Canberra. Although I did not drive the whole journey, it could possibly be an exciting experience of driving on Australian roads to the capital. Driving was better than photo-taking on that day.

(9) In Singapore, we did not have a car. We chiefly took buses, taxis, MRT (similar to MTR in Hong Kong) with brother and sister-in-law.

I admire Ho Keung’s couple who could in turns drive and have photo-taking in New Zealand. Each of them had his/her role in the journey. See how good the two photos were!