Royal British Columbia Museum

The outlook of this famous museum did not give a big surprise to me because its doorway was not grand and their big windows are much like those in commercial buildings.

Behind the main doors was a hall with several counters selling tickets. The tickets were in the form of paper rings. We were supposed to wear them round our wrists.

We were to spend the whole afternoon there. Since we had a little baby, Elly, in her pram with us, we were arranged to take its huge lift (like one in a factory building) instead of the one next to the main doors (out of order that day) to see the exhibits floor by floor.

We first arrived at the Natural History Gallery on the second floor. The bottom photo shows the molar, I saw, of a woolly mammoth (猛獁), a prehistoric animal which looked like an elephant.

Vancouver Chinatown

How do we know that we have arrived at Vancouver, Chinatown?

The answer may be one of the following ones:

[1] Around the area are low houses of different heights and designs, usually two to four storeys high.










[2] Shops of various kinds are mixed up. A shop selling poultry can be next to a shop of kitchenware and restaurant cutlery supplies and a restaurant can be above it.

[3] One never knows there is a hotel above their heads when they are shopping at some local shops selling clothes and Chinese luxurious healthy food.

[4] The lamp-posts are all painted red and some have dragons on top of the lamps.











[5] The shop and street names are in Chinese characters.

[6] The pedestrians are mostly Chinese.

[7] Here in Chinatown Vancouver, the salesmen and salesladies of shops are Chinese and they speak both Chinese and English.

[8] Some shop-keepers use those Chinese names we often see in Hong Kong for their shops, but their names in English do not match with the ones we see in Hong Kong.

The example here is 大班餐廳餅店 (The Boss Bakery & Restaurant) in Vancouver and 大班麵包西餅 (Taipan Bakery) in Hong Kong.

The Europe Hotel at Gastown

At Gastown, I found a narrow triangular prism-like building between Alexander Street and Powell Street, right opposite to the statue of Gassy Jack Deighton. It was called The Europe Hotel.

Below is the history of this building:

Angelo Colari, born in Italy in 1861, came from Victoria to Vancouver in 1886. He built the first Hotel Europe at 14, Alexander Street soon after the great fire of June 13, 1886.

In 1908, Colari commissioned the architectural firm of J.E. Parr & T.A. Fee to design a wedge-shaped building to be built right beside the original hotel. The architects copied the design from New York’s Flatiron building. The earlier Hotel Europe was converted into an annex of the new building.

This was the earliest reinforced concrete structure in Vancouver and said to be the first fireproof hotel in Western Canada. It is noted for its well-proportioned brick façade, sweeping classical cornice and crystal-cut glass windows. The Europe Hotel was one of Vancouver’s finest hotels. The basement housed one of the city’s most popular bars and it was here that much of the business of early Vancouver was conducted. In 1983, the building was converted into low-income housing units. The lobby retains its original tile, marble and brass fittings.

The Netherlands Carillon

In front of the Royal BC Museum at Victoria, British Columbia, is a tower in the shape of a rectangular block with a staircase leading to its top.

I did not know what it was until I looked at the board with this introduction:

The carillon was a gift from British Columbia’s Dutch community to honour Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967 Her Majesty Queen Juliana of the Netherlands unveiled the cornerstone of this tower on May 23, 1967; it now sits in the garden below.

The board further explains:

A carillon is a musical instrument with a set of 23 or more bronze bells. It is housed at the top of this tower, which stands 27 metres (89 feet) tall. The largest bell in this carillon weighs 1500 kilograms.

To play the Netherlands Carillon, a musician climbs the 75 steps of the spiral staircase and then a 10-step ladder. There, the carillonneur depresses the keys and pedals of a clavier to play a song on the bells. Carillon bells do not swing like church bells; they ring when struck by clappers connected with wires to the clavier.

At the bottom of the board are written:

de zingende toren

the singing tower

What a nice name given to this tower! The Singing Tower

Look

At Lynn Valley, North Vancouver, right on the road before the Cafeteria, there is a word “LOOK”. Obviously it is to alarm anyone who wants to cross the road there to watch out for cars that run on both directions.

My wife asked me to take a photo of this word because she found the “eyes” in the word interesting.

The word “LOOK” is in English and the eyes from the two “OO’s are symbolic. The latter are internationally accepted. Even if one does not know what the word “LOOK” means, he can still understand the "picture" of eyes.

One absurd thing in Hong Kong is that some of our road signs with restrictions are full of words. A driver cannot read so much when they are driving on the road. How foolish are those people who design such road signs! Why don’t these designers use simple pictures (symbols) as an international language.

Special Coins from Canada

These are the special coins I collected during my stay in Canada last year.

Top left: 25 cents; Year 2005
The coin shows two soldiers. The younger one looks smart while the elder one wears a pair of spectacles.

Top centre: 25 cents; 1905 Saskatchewan 2005
The coin shows a bird standing on a piece of wood with wheat, railway, a barn, distant land and clouds.

Top right: 25 cents; Year 2000
The coin shows 6 people hand in hand forming a Maple leaf. This conveys the idea of harmony among people in Canada.

Centre left: 25 cents; September, 1999
The coin shows 3 interesting figures drawn by children.

Centre: 10 cents; Year 2001
The coin shows three ladies arose as volunteers from the sun below. It celebrates the Year of Volunteers.

Centre right: 25 cents; Year 2000
The coin is about Creativity. Some natives of Canada are rowing a canoe searching for “Creativity”.

Bottom left: 25 cents; Year 2008
This is the front face of a 25-cent coin showing the Logo of Winter Olympics at Vancouver.

Bottom centre: 25 cents; Vancouver 2010
This is the hind face of the previous coin showing the Snowboard event in Winter Olympics, 2010.

Bottom right: 25 cents; Year 2006
This special coin reflects the care on AIDS patients. I love this coin because of its red ribbon at the centre.

Two Successes

It is good news that Elly succeeded in eating solid food today. It was some rice cereal for the first time in her life. She liked it as Connie said.

Before this in Hong Kong, Connie attempted to give Elly a piece of apple to taste. Elly did not refuse it. Instead she pulled Connie’s hands so that she could lick or suck the juicy apple at her mouth.

I believe Elly will soon eat puddings of cereals or fruit and drink milk and water as well.

Elly is able to sit in recent days. We admired her stability because she sits still for some time without any support.

In addition to these two successes, Elly likes to smile at herself in the mirror. We wonder if she can recognize herself. Anyway, she likes her own look.

Sights of 3 Mountains at Queen Elizabeth Park

At a northern lookout of Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, there were three metal plates with names of three mountains. At time of taking the photos of these mountains, I knew nothing of their names and shapes. To record each of these mountains, I first took a photo of the plate and then, following the direction of the arrow, raised my camera to take a photo of the mountain. I believed it was the cleverest way to do so. Today, with the help of my 3-D map at home. I was able to distinguish the three mountains.










Firstly, The Lions is noticeable by their twin summits in the middle left of the top photo. The summits look like the humps of a camel. The heights of the two summits are 5401 and 5245 feet.









Secondly, Grouse Mountain reaches a height of 3974 feet. It is easily recognizable by its lodge (station structure at top; white dot in right photo) on its ridge.

Lastly, Mount Seymour, 4766 feet high, has a wavy-look top.

A Stroke in the sky

Daisy Mak who lives in Texas sent me this photo (taken on February 23rd, 2009) . Against the beautiful sky at sunset, there was a straight mysterious white stroke. The vegetation (trees and shrubs) and the lamp-posts outlined the landscape of the land Daisy was standing.

What do you think about this white stroke in the sky?
A. A painter drew it with a big paintbrush.
B. A ray sent out from the ground that made the stroke.
C. A mark left by a plane.
D. The boundary line of Texas with its neighbouring state.

A Twisted Spring on Earth

Today I read from “The Standard” about a new apartment building to be built called Baltimore Wharf in London. It will soon add a vibrant look to the skyline of London’s Docklands after its completion.

To me, this building looks like a twisted spring placed on the ground.

Let us see the particulars and photos of this building from skyscrapernews.com:

The latest step in the evolution of Ballymore's Cross-harbour development in London's docklands has come to light. Designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, who worked on the previous three submitted planning applications for the same scheme, the latest proposals tear up some of the established design principles they went for before. The new planning application refers to buildings 1, 8 and 9 in the phase two of the masterplan. In doing so, they are firmly rejecting the strong angular modernist approach that SOM had previously taken, opting instead for something more organic whilst remodeling the base areas around the buildings to improve pedestrian access, and expanding public space all around the tower by rejecting the former fortress-like blocks. Building 1, the tower known as Baltimore Wharf, has been increased in height from about 131 metres to 149.9 metres making it Ballymore's tallest residential project yet. The height is limited by the London City Airport safe limits which are set at 154.8 metres AOD which the tip of the tower precisely reaches. It has 45 storeys and will contain 330 apartments. Ground floor retail is included whilst the top two floors will have noticeably extending roof terraces overlapping the levels below giving dinners sheer views all the way down. The shape of the tower takes on that of an ellipse that curves as it rises as if distorted by the motion from a propeller although it is essentially orientated on an east-west axis giving it a slim-line profile from the opposite side of the dock. It's a clever illusion as the tower itself doesn't actually twist. Instead protruding balconies are employed by the architect that expand and contract around the regularly shaped structure. By rotating the orientation of these as they move up the building the impression is given of the tower torquing. These balustrades will be all glass, partly to maximize for occupants from the view inside, and also to allow the optimum level of passive solar gain. Set behind cladding the structure of the tower proper will be glass and stainless steel giving it a pristine look.

Outer Walls of PWH

From my close observation, the inner structure of PWH is made of concrete and steel, but the outer walls look as if they were assembled in a way like jigsaw puzzles or tiles.

Up to the present, the fitting of these boards are done disorderly. As a result, the look of this new hospital building before me is temporarily like that after the hit from a severe typhoon or an explosion.





The half-hanging and loosen look of some of the boards make me feel that they are most likely fastened to the hooks at the concrete walls by screws only and hung there. Will these boards fall off during a real typhoon?

Horse-drawn tours at Stanley Park

At Stanley Park there are horse-drawn tours which are operated from March to October (except winter months). Two horses are to draw an old-fashioned vehicle which can accommodate a maximum of 20 passengers round the park. The fare for an adult per tour is 26.99 Canadian dollars.

During the ride, a professional guide narrates the tour as the vehicle reaches the Deadman’s Island, Vancouver Harbour, Lion’s Gate Bridge, a coastal red cedar forest, Totem Poles, the girl in wet-suit statue, the S.S. Empress of Japan Figurehead and the Rose Garden.

Clouds change colours

White clouds gathered over the sky on August 18th, 2009. The lower ones turned purplish grey because sunlight could not reach them. Those clouds higher up the sky reflected sunlight which turned them a beautiful light orange.

Shatin below lost colour and became dim. I loved this kind of scene because the contrast of colours of clouds had created another beautiful view for Shatin.

At Brockton Point

Philip stopped his car at Brockton point, the north-eastern end of Stanley Park where the road began to turn west. I went down to take a few photos of the North shore of the Burrard Inlet. The white house with a red stripe (the top photo shows part of it) was the Lighthouse guiding ships in and out of the Inlet.

From my photos, I discover that the north shore of the Burrard Inlet is lined with dockyards where ships are built or repaired, parking piers for yachts and launches and storage sites for building materials such as sand and clay. At the foothills of the northern mountains are the residential areas.

The vivid 3-D map shows Stanley Park on the left, Burrard Inlet, Downtown Vancouver and the North shoreline of the Inlet.

Violence in an advertisement

I don’t know why advertisements should involve violence nowadays. It is astonishing to find wording of “Hijack” appear on an advertisement on a wall of a bus (see top photo).

Raising a knife in one hand and riding a bicycle in the wrong direction are threats to the pedestrians as well as dangerous driving.

What is wrong with the head of the person who designs such an advertisement?

PWH emerges

The extension block of PWH (Prince of Wales Hospital) is now like a butterfly emerging from its green cocoon. Outsiders never know what it looks like until it reveals itself recently without its nets and scaffolding.

The foundation work first began in June, 2007. Holes were drilled into the ground and thus quite a number of piles were made for almost half a year. The central ground was dug down to make the basements, which, on the whole, looked like an inverted frustum. Floor by floor, the buildings grew rapidly in 2008 and 2009. Its growth could be easily seen with the elongation of its three tower cranes.

Today it is interesting to see that its outer walls are not painted. Instead they are covered up by pieces of boards. It is like being dressed up by scales of a fish. Perhaps it is the newest way to coat a building nowadays. Now the outlook is half-done and its name has been fixed near the top of the building with two red logos (the left one is for Hospital Authority and the right for the hospital itself). I believe it will begin its earliest operations by the end of year 2010.

Annular Solar Eclipse

Yesterday, January 15, 2010, some people along a belt of our Earth could see an annular solar eclipse (日環蝕). Such an eclipse occurs when the moon and sun align exactly, but the moon does not completely cover the full disk of the sun because its apparent size is not as large as the apparent size of the sun.








This time the eclipse was first seen by people in Kenya(肯尼亞), East Africa, next by those living in India, Burma and some south Asia countries, then by people in Yunnan (雲南), Sichuan (四川), Guizhou (貴州), Hunan (湖南), Anhui (安徽) and Shangdong (山東).

Elly at play

On January 6th, 2010, we brought Elly and Abby to the playroom at our Clubhouse.

We placed a toy in front of her. For the first time we saw Elly at play. Elly was crouching. She eyed on the standing bear, but her left hand was clutching on the purple plate-like cymbals.

Elly was then lifted up and placed upright at a corner with sides supporting her. There she sat for a while playing her first toy. At one time she tried to open the purple plates, but failed. She smiled with satisfaction and we, too.

The Gastown Steam Clock

The most famous landmark at Gastown, near the Waterfront of Vancouver Downtown, is its steam clock, located at the corner of Cambie and Water Street.

The clock was built to harness the steam and to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather. Its original design was not good and it had to be powered by electricity after a breakdown. The steam mechanism was completely restored with the financial support of local businesses as it had become a major tourist attraction, and is promoted as a feature of heritage.

The steam used is low pressure downtown-wide steam heating network that powers a miniature steam engine in its base, in turn driving a chain lift. The chain lift moves steel balls upward, where they are unloaded and roll to a descending chain. The weight of the balls on the descending chain drives a conventional pendulum clock escapement, geared to the hands on the four faces. The steam also powers the clock's sound production as whistles are used instead of bells to produce the Westminster "chime" and to signal the time.

This faux-heritage steam clock entertains tourists like me.