1881 Heritage

I was on a bus home this Tuesday afternoon, December 29th. At the end of Canton Road , Tsim Sha Tsui, I discovered several grand shops. I managed to take two photos of this newly developed site, called 1881 Heritage.

The original site of 1881 Heritage was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from the 1880's to 1996. In recent years, under a redeveloped scheme, the Former Marine Police Headquarters Main Building (a Victorian architectural building) was preserved and changed to a heritage hotel. The Former Stable Block, Time Ball Tower and Former Fire Station were also kept at the site.

Now 1881 Heritage occupies an area of 130,000 square feet. It features a shopping mall, a hotel of around 30 rooms of sizes 800 to 1000 sq feet and an exhibition hall. It was first opened on October 15th this year.

Of all the 182 trees before the site was redeveloped, now only 18 trees remained. Visitors are free to take photos in the open, but they are not allowed to walk freely nor they are allowed to take photos in the area of the hotel unless they are the registered residents.

Looking at my photos closely, I learned that its fountain is of a mini-class and the Christmas tree is protected by a glass structure marked with “1881” all the way up.

To me, 1881 Heritage is just a “strange” place where only rich people will go shopping or stay in its hotel.

Meeting My Dear Students in Vancouver

Before I went to Canada, I learned from Facebook that Peter Au whom I was once his class-teacher, lived in Vancouver. Peter Au writes e-mails regularly to me, sending me photos of him and wife and children. He really loves his school and respects his teachers very much.

He told me his telephone number before I started my flight. After settling down for a few days in Vancouver, I intended to call him to see if I could meet him someday within my three months of stay. When I got through the line using my daughter’s cell-phone, Peter told me that he was at his office at that moment.

He said he lived at Abbotsford, an-hour drive from Vancouver. To my surprise, he said two other students, Edward Li and Terry Lo (they are actually a married couple), would like to meet me too.

A dinner was arranged by Edward and Terry at their home first, so our family of six became their guests on October 11th. Edward’s house is comfortable and grand. Of the drinks that night, I liked the sparkling apple juice and Edward’s self-made coffee. Of course, the turkey on the dining table was the centre of interest. Edward and Terry told me that it was a thanksgiving dinner to us all. Peter and Rodensa came with their daughter. We cheered and talked all the night.

Since Peter was busy at church affairs, he could only arrange a dinner at his house in Abbotsford on November 22nd. To me, it was a long journey to Abbotsford. To Philip, my son-in-law, would be different because he loves driving. My wife and I sat at the back seat. I took some photos on the way to record the scenery outside. Our grand-children were quiet in the car, sleeping. My daughter,Connie, sat beside Philip. Finally, we arrived at Peter’s house. Rodensa told us a bad news that the heater in their house was out of order, so the dinner that night might be a cold one. Since it was still bright at around three something in the afternoon, Peter drove us around to see the luxurious houses in the area, to take a bird’s eye view of Abbotsford on a hill, to look at his office and visit one of the malls where he first operated his photo-processing shop.

Back to his house, we met Edward and Terry, later Agnes (Peter’s elder sister) and his husband, Wayne, arrived.

Photos were taken to commemorate this reunion of teacher and students after forty years. Rodensa was a capable cook at the house. She prepared most of the dishes. What we felt that night was warmth with hot food and I was delighted to see my students again and they are so good to me.

In the top photo, the left-hand-most is Edward; next to him is Terry, then, Agnes and his brother, Peter. The bottom photo is our "Pairing Game".

If Peter had written “Abbotsford” in Facebook, I would never have met him. Agnes, Terry and Edward.

St. Paul’s Hospital

St. Paul’s Hospital is the hospital where Elly was born. It is a notable red-bricked building in Downtown Vancouver.

We went inside on September 26th to take a look at its gift shop to see if Connie and Philip wanted to buy Elly a souvenir for her birth. It turned out that we did not buy anything, but instead Philip took a photo of Elly with a T-shirt taken down from a rack and placed on Elly’s body. The T-shirt bears the name of the hospital, but it is not a birth certificate.


A big surprise came to us when we passed this hospital on November 15th. Decoration work for Christmas started.



When we went there again on the eve before we flied back to Hong Kong, we marvelled at the night-view of the hospital with its beautiful decoration of stars and fireworks. New “stars” have been born in the hospital. Elly was among them.

Menu behind the Mask

Masks of a diver are given to small children at Ivars’ Acres of Clams at Pier 54, Seattle, Washington State. Abby got one from the waitress serving us at our table on the evening of November 28th.

Behind the mask was the menu for children. Let us look at it:

Diver Dan Sandwich – A swimmingly tasty tuna sandwich US$4.5

Kid Size Salad – US$1.95

Chowder Slammer – A cup of Ivar’s Award Winning Clam Chowder US$3.50

Junior Pasta – Pasta tossed with butter and Parmesan Cheese US$4.95

Small Fry Special – A smaller serving of Ivar’s world-famous Fish ’n’ Chips for your small fry US$5.25

Atlantic Bandit – Melted cheese between slices of warm and toasty bread US$4.50

Wild Salmon of the Sea – Salmon simply grilled US$7.25

Chicken of the Sound – Crunchy chicken struts with tangy BBQ sauce US$5.25

Davy Jones’ Burger – The all-time favourite hamburger with or without cheese
US$5.25

All orders served with cookies and your choice of French fries. potato chips or fruit cup, as well as milk, fruit juice or soft drink

The Airco DH.5 fighter aircrafts

I saw these Airco DH.5 fighter aircrafts in the Miniature World at Victoria, British Columbia. They were in display in front of their tent-like hangars.

The Airco DH.5 was a British First World War single-seat fighter aircraft. It was one of the first British fighter so designed as to allow a forward-firing machine gun to fire through the propeller arc more effectively than the older mechanical gears. Although developed rapidly, by the time of its operational introduction, other superior aircraft were available and its service life was short. These DH.5 served as combat planes at that time.

It is interesting to know that before this, aeroplanes were used to find out where the front-line of a battle was. Late in 1914 the lines between the Germans invading France and the Allies stretched from the North Sea to the Alps. The initial “war of movement” largely ceased, and the front became static.

Three main functions of short range reconnaissance squadrons had emerged by March 1915.

[1] The first was photographic reconnaissance – building up a complete mosaic map of the enemy trench system. The first air cameras used glass plates, but did not have sufficient resolution.

[2] Artillery “spotting” enabled the ranging of artillery on targets invisible to the gunners. Radio telephony had not been invented, so communication was a problem. By March 1915, a two-seater plane on “artillery observation” duties was equipped with a primitive radio transmitter transmitting the clicks of a Morse key, but had no receiver. The artillery battery signalled to the aircraft by laying strips of white cloth on the ground in prearranged patterns. These duties were shared with the observation balloon, tethered to the ground. Balloonists could communicate directly with their batteries by field telephone, but were obviously far less flexible in locating targets and reporting the fall of shot.

[3]“Contact patrol” work attempted to follow the course of a battle by communicating with advancing infantry while flying over the battlefield. The technology of the period did not permit radio contact, and methods of signalling were necessarily crude, and included dropping messages from the aircraft. Soldiers were naturally reluctant to reveal their positions to aircraft, as it was difficult for them to distinguish between friend and foe.

Christmas Decorations

These Christmas outlined decorations are simple, but beautiful.

I came across them tonight when my wife and I walked past City One.

This reflects to me that simple designs like these can well convey the atmosphere at Christmas. I am quite interested in the cartoons of reindeers and Santa Claus on a sleigh. The one with a Santa Claus clinging on a Christmas tree is funny.

Lovely Animal Doctors

Some dog-owners gathered at City One to wait for the function “動物醫生愛心慈善 BOXING DAY” to begin at 2:30 p.m. They lined up their lovely dogs before the advertisement board to have a “group” photo taken.

I was able to catch this interesting moment and took a few shots of the lovely dogs. The dogs were so well-disciplined that they looked at their owners without moving. The latter ordered them to stay where they were to take photos.

In recent years, some dogs in Hong Kong are trained and sent to hospitals to cheer the patients there. These dogs are so called “Animal Doctors” because they can heal the patients’ anxiety and worries about their ill health. The latter will feel happy and warm when they see the dogs. What a good thing these dogs do to our patients in this way.

Bear Display at Sunshine City Plaza

Each Christmas, Sunshine City Plaza, Ma On Shan, decorates its mall beautifully. There is no exception this year.

I handed my camera to Philip to take a picture of Abby with the huge teddy bear inside the plaza because Philip is a better photographer than me. I felt happy that Abby was willing to take a picture with the bear. Sometimes a child’s behavior is like weather. There are some moments that Abby refuses to take photos and turns away from the camera lens.


Besides this big bear, there were other smaller bears in display. They were dressed in costumes that fit their themes of display. Here I select the one which looks like Michael Jackson and three Hong Kong bear-astronauts.

KFC Breakfast

Abby has played the KFC game on computer in Canada for some time. It was she who served the customers in the game, but yesterday morning, she took a breakfast at a KFC in Shatin.

She ate macaroni, some egg, meat from burger and sausage, all in small mouthfuls. Elly sat quietly in her pram. She has not eaten any solid food yet, so she is only a KFC-food watcher. Perhaps a year later she can taste the same kind of KFC breakfast Abby ate yesterday.

Abbotsford

Peter Au and Rodensa had long invited my family, Edward, Terry, Agnes and Wayne to their house at Abbotsford. It took a long time to wait until this day, November 22nd, a Sunday.

It was an hour’s driving journey from Richmond to Abbotsford . Thanks to GPS that guided us towards this developing town, east of Vancouver.








On the way I could see the Fraser River on my right, piers, railroads, sky trains running on the Millennium Line and their Skytrain Bridge. Our car crossed the Pattullo Bridge, then onto King George Highway before it ran onto Trans Canada Highway.








Soon after we took the correct exit from the highway, we saw the name and beautiful sign of the town at the roadside which told us we had finally arrived at the right place.

It took us just a few minutes to reach Peter’s house. Having chatted for a while, Peter drove me, my wife and Philip around the town to look at the streets, houses, shopping malls and his office. He also drove us to a nearby hill to take better views of the town before it was getting dark.

What a Star Wall!

It was on the eve before we flied back to Hong Kong on December 10th. After dinner at a restaurant in Cambie Street, Philip drove us to Downtown Vancouver.

We found this beautiful “Star Wall” particularly decorated for Christmas. There were so many colourful stars hanging there as if they had just fallen from the sky. We marvelled at these lovely stars and praised the designer who could bring about such a galaxy before the eyes of tourists and people at Vancouver at time of Christmas.

What do you think the location of these stars is?
[1] A shopping centre
[2] A car-park
[3] A residential building
[4] A hospital
[5] A superstore

Merry Christmas

It is time to say "Merry Christmas" to my relatives, colleagues, classmates, friends and students. May I wish everyone good health and a successful and prosperous year to come.

From Polar Bear Family: Mr. Wat, Mrs. Wat, Tony, Connie, Philip, Abby and Elly.

First Landing

It was the first time yesterday that Elly landed on Hong Kong ever since she was born.
My wife and I welcomed home our Canadian-by-birth grand-daughter, Elly, last night. In the past three months we took care of Elly in different ways – teasing, calming and holding her, talking and singing to her.

We wondered if she could still recognize us although we had just left her a week before. It was not a big surprise to us that she remained calm when she was in our arms.
Towards half past ten, Elly began to cry, a non-stop one. We just wanted to find out why. At last, we learned the reason. She was too sleepy that she cried for a nice sleep. The fear of Elly being ill was over after all.

Land!

“Land!” seamen in the past exclaimed when they first saw land after a long voyage across an ocean.


Although I am not a seaman, the same principle applies to me. After eight hours of flight home across the Pacific Ocean, I learned that the plane I was flying in had reached Japan. According to the route, the plane would fly over land several times. I was so delighted to exchange seat by that time with my wife who was at first sitting next to a window. The chance of seeing land depended on whether there was a clear sky. If the plane change course, what I could see below was just sea.


Luckily enough I was able to catch a few photos of land when the plane flied inland from the sea. The coastline was clear and houses below were visible. The winding courses of rivers marked parts of the land features. Besides the meals, these sights of land could be big rewards to me.

Happy Abby came home

Yesterday Abby, Elly and family returned to Hong Kong to stay for a few days with us. They were terribly tired after the long flight home. This morning, we had breakfast together and after that we took Abby to our Children’s Playground.

Abby loved the facilities there, played about and touched almost everything. She climbed and swung with my assistance, slid, walked and drove at the playground. She seemed tireless within that hour of play. I believed she had left many finger-prints and foot marks behind.

Skyscrapers in Downtown Vancouver

After crossing the Burrard Bridge to Downtown Vancouver, I found high-rise commercial buildings around me. Some of them were modern and full of life. I like particularly those which were made of walls of glass. When I looked at them, they were in their own beautiful shapes and reflected others as well with their mirror-like glasses.









Here are two photos of the buildings in Downtown. The images of other buildings being reflected looked very interesting. Some buildings became slimmer in look after reflection and others rugged.

My Toy Car at Seattle

It was a big surprise to me that when I looked out of the big window facing a side street at Travelodge (we are staying in a room on the ground floor). It was there my toy car, a red Volkswagon. It came as if the Santa Claus had driven and stopped it in front of where I lived. Well, at that moment, I considered it as a virtual gift to me alone.

The car has no number plate at its front. It could be a brand-new car, freshly made from its manufacturer. Unfortunately, Santa had not left any key behind for me, otherwise I could have driven it along the streets of Seattle. Don’t worry. I had an International Driving License with me.

A Large Wall Painting

This was the large almost-finished wall painting which I found today (December 15th, 2009) when I returned to CCSC. Mr. Yuen, present principal of school, told me that it was a painting painted by the students. I was deeply impressed by the animals the students had drawn and their skill of painting and the freedom of allowing students to draw pictures on a school wall by Mr. Yuen.

When I saw this painting, I admired and was proud of the talent of our students and their passion they conveyed through the picture.

To our present or past students or teachers of CCSC, what do you interpret from this wall-painting? Tell me when you have in mind. Can you guess where this wall of painting is located?

Camera kid

It was on the second day of our visit to Victoria. After breakfast, we left our Bed and Breakfast Inn, Fisher House, walking for several minutes to the harbour front.

Hotel Grand Pacific was grand as its name. At first sight, I loved the outlook of the building especially the white slanting roofs. The roofs look as if snow has laid there for a while.
The whole structure of the hotel seems to be assembled from “lego” plastic pieces.

At the side of this hotel near a pond, we found Abby holding her digital camera, taking photos of the beautiful ducks which were swimming or playing about.










Abby enjoyed taking photos with her own hands. Without hesitation, she pressed the shutter button down. I hoped she could become a photographer one day. Whether or not her photos taken this time were good or not, they were her “masterpieces”.

Burrard Bridge

On September 26th, leaving Granville Island, Philip drove us on to Downtown Vancouver by way of the Burrrard Bridge.

The Burrard Bridge (also called the Burrard Street Bridge) is a steel truss bridge constructed in 1930-1932 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It crosses False Creek at its western end, connecting Downtown Vancouver with Kitsilano. The other two bridges crossing False Creek are the Granville Bridge, in its southeast, and the Cambie Street Bridge, to the east. In addition to the vehicle deck, the Burrard Bridge has sidewalks on both sides, shared by pedestrians and cyclists.

The concrete towers, connected by overhead galleries, which are embellished with architectural and sculptural details that create a torch-like entrance of pylons.

The pierced handrails were so designed as to create the stroboscopic effect, so that at a speed of 50 km/h motorists would see through them with an uninterrupted view of the harbour. The effect still works at speeds from about 40 to 64 km/h.

At the end of the Burrard Bridge, St. Paul’s Hospital, with a red roof and a big cross on one of its walls, could be seen in a distance. This was where Elly was born.