A Cathay plane was going to land on Sydney Airport

Thanks to Yin Ping who was busy taking photos of the landscape of Sydney from her small window before the plane she took landed on Sydney International Airport.

She was sitting at the port side of the plane, so she could see the shore line of Middle Harbour, North Harbour, North Head, South Head and the large Port Jackson. The modern buildings of Chatswood, in the centre of the photo, stood higher than the others in the district Willoughby. Further south-east was the district of Mosman.

Soon the plane flied over North Sydney. The Harbour Bridge, Opera House and the busiest city proper of Sydney could be seen. The most conspicuous building was the Sydney Tower, the tallest in the city.

From the bottom photos, the landscape of Sydney Harbour appeared indented and complicated like a maze. It comprised of many headlands, inlets and islands.

武直九

前天在馬鞍山竟然見到一架駐港綠色中國武裝直九直昇機在吐露港上空遊弋，大大小小轉了幾個圈。飛得最近最低的正是最先那一次，可惜我來不及拿相機，錯過了良機，但是它帶給我一個驚喜。所見，這直昇機最遠飛到八仙嶺那一邊。現考一考你的眼力：左上方那張照片應該隱約見到它的踪跡。

「武直-9」直昇機機是中國版的法國海豚式直升機。其動力和飛航系統十分先進。函道式尾槳，極大提高了貼地飛行的安全性。這對多數時間在超低空擦樹梢飛行的武裝直升机來講是很重要的。

「武直-9」机上的柔性槳葉在技術上相當先進。它還有2套獨立的液壓系統，提高了直升机 的戰斗生存力。

「武直-9」由于攜帶大量外掛，無可避免的增加機的重量，為了減輕重量，「武直-9」的机體最大限度地採用了複合材料，不但減輕了重量，也使它的最大航程非常惊人，達到1，000公里。同時自動導航儀和GPS 系統等精密飛航系統非常使得。但是「武直-9」也存在著重大缺陷，薄弱的裝甲和缺少夜戰能力使這種直升機在最近和將來都不會大量裝配部隊用。

功夫熊貓

最近早上艾莉和阿比愛看自家影院的功夫熊貓2，對片中肥胖胖的主角功夫熊貓有深刻的認識。

就在今個星期三中午阿比上學後，我們和艾莉往附近商場逛一逛。一個巨大的功夫熊貓忽然出現在艾莉的視線內，我試探式問她想不想和功夫熊貓一齊拍照，當然她立即點點頭，微笑著在不同位置給我擺甫士。她的甫士有功夫熊貓打功夫時的姿勢，有型有款，但缺乏力度。其實她平時不斷作角色扮演，模仿餐廳侍應，問客人(即是公公婆婆)叫什麼食物或飲品，或扮護士替我探熱，或扮木偶奇遇記裏面的木偶。這裏統統都是她看電影VCD的得著。

庫茲涅佐夫號航空母艦

最近走訪叙利亞是俄羅斯現役最新型的航空母艦─庫茲涅佐夫號(Kusnzov) 航空母艦。該母艦是在蘇聯時期(1983年)開工建造，為重型航空巡洋艦。在建造過程中吸收了約800個學科的專家參加，7000多家工廠提供了材料和設備，可謂集蘇聯科技發展大成之作。

該艦建造時期原名蘇聯號、克里姆林宮號、布里茲涅夫號、提比里西號，但1991年服役時易名庫茲涅佐夫號，舷號063。和其他俄制航空母艦一樣兼具巡洋艦的武裝，扣除艦載機仍有相當強大的戰鬥力量。現部署於北方艦隊，是俄羅斯唯一一艘航空母艦。

The Dying and Flowering cosmos

In this composite photo, there is a cosmos (秋英) plant at the edge of dying, the one inside a small white cup. That is Abby’s plant taken home from her kindergarten. Abby is supposed to look after it, but she is incapable to do that at her age of six.

The unfavourable conditions which lead the plant to death are:
(1) Lack of watering.
(2) Planted in too little soil (around 27 cu. cm)
(3) Receives inadequate sunshine.

The cosmos plants that grow in a secondary school near my home (see the other photos) are different. They are planted in pots, some arranged in rectangular shape and some isolated ones. It is amazing to find beautiful flowers in yellow and orange growing out of their buds.

Cosmos are herbaceous perennial plants growing 0.3–2 m tall. The leaves are simple, pinnate, or bipinnate, and arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are produced in a capitulum with a ring of broad ray florets and a center of disc florets. They attract birds and butterflies. The flower colours are white, red, yellow, pink, purple or even chocolate brown.

Cosmos is native to scrub and meadow areas in Mexico where most of the species occur, Florida and the southern United States, Arizona, Central America, and to South America in the north to Paraguay in the south.

CCSC OSA新春團拜

張祝珊英文中學舊生會「聚賢閣」將於二零一二年二月四日（正月十三，星期六）舉辦「新春團拜」是次活動將有老師出席，與歷屆舊生一起歡渡新年。活動詳情如下：

日期：二零一二年二月四日（正月十三，星期六）

時間：下午二時至四時三十分

地點： 學校禮堂

活動形式包括遊戲、表演、昔日照片放映及茶聚等

Modern Titanic

On 13 January 2012, at around 22:00 local time, Costa Concordia, after three hours of sailing, ran aground on a reef just off the shore of Isola del Giglio on the western coast of Italy. The ship began listing heavily towards the starboard side and sank partially. As a result of the impact on the rocks, a 150-metre wide hole, was made.

The ship was carrying 3,200 passengers (around 1000 Italians, 500 Spaniards, 160 French and some Chinese) and 1,000 crew; in the next few days the bodies of 11 people were found. Two South Korean passengers and an Italian crew member were rescued from the ship on 15 January, more than 24 hours after the accident. As of 16 January 2012 around 16 people had not been accounted for. By 18 January, the figures had been revised to eleven confirmed dead and 23 missing.

It was originally an 8-day cruise, starting from Civitavecchia (奇維塔韋基亞 Italy) to Savona (薩沃納 Italy) , then to Barcelona (巴塞隆納 Spain), Palma (帕爾馬 Spain), Tunis (突尼斯 Tunisia), Palermo (巴勒莫 Italy) and back to the starting port.

She was built at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente yards in Italy. The name Concordia was intended to express the wish for "continuing harmony, unity, and peace between European nations.

Elly poses

Chinese New Year is drawing near. Elly first feels its atmosphere at a shopping plaza close at home.

Recently, the public display of puppets at Sunshine City is closed and replaced by Chinese New Year decorations. Chinese costumes, embroidery crafts, necklaces, huge knitted balls and walled pictures filled the hall of display. Since the coming Chinese New Year will be the Year of the Dragon, a large beautiful dragon, knitted by high skilled craftsmanship, is displayed. The eyes of the dragon are not conspicuous.

Elly is happy to see such decorations at this time of the year and does not miss the chance of posing and have some photos taken. Here she is, holding her "Minnie" handbag, smiling and standing on both legs (she sometimes stands on one leg like a crane for poses). Whenever a photo is taken, she asks to see it.

Cartoons on Bus Advertisements

The cartoons on this bus attracted my attention this morning. The males appear fat to neck-less and the female is slim and beautiful. They are interesting and obviously make the advertisement filled with life. The theme of the advertisement is to promote tourism in Taiwan.

The cartoons here reveal the daily life of the people of Taiwan. As the advertisement says, “Enjoy the music”, “Taste good food” and “Watch fireworks”. The fireworks before the 101 building make the outstanding landmark of Taipei look radiant and show that Taiwan is a city full of attractions.

Wrinkles

Wrinkles in the sky are usually created by the jet engines of planes which leave behind tails of white gas. These tails are usually straight and continuous, sometimes thick and sometimes thin.

At peaceful sea, wrinkles are made when a boat or ship sails and cuts the water surface. The water that wrinkles creates regular parallel lines of waves to the shore.

Two Reunion Dinners with Old students

Some of my colleagues, Miss W. Wong, Miss M. Ng, Mr. Law, Mr. Fung and I attended the reunion dinner organized by Andy Ho at Wanchai on December 30, 2011 because some of our old students in the early 70's would gather to meet their classmates from Australia, Chung Hau Tim (Tim), Cheng Mei Yu (Ivy) and Ng King Por (Paul) [plus children of two families].

The students attended were, Hiu Kong Wai (Jane), Chung Yim Har (Eliza), Kwok Shuk Fan (Silina), Chan Chor Wan, Chung Yik Cheung (Raymond), Chan Chun Chung (William), Ip tak Ming, Kong Hin Kee (Henry), Leung Kwok Yuen (Stephen), Ho Yiu Ming (Andy) and Lau Kam Chuen.

During the dinner, Miss Wong shared the photos taken during her travel to India. The happy voices of Cheng Mei Yu sounded all through the night. She also called everybody for taking group photos.

Yesterday, January 9, 2011, we, past teachers, Mr. Fung, Miss M. Ng, Miss Winnie Wong, Mr. Law and his dear wife were invited to have dinner at Causeway Bay with Yeung Bud Kuen (Max) and Li Yim Wan (Judith) from Toronto and their classmates in the 70's, namely, Chan Chun Chung (William), Chan Ka Sing, Cheng Sau Kuen (Ada), Chung Yim Ha (Eliza), Chung Yik Cheung (Raymond), Ho Yiu Ming (Andy), Ip Tak Ming, Kwan Kit Man (Kitty), Kwok Shuk Fan (Silina), Kwong Po Keung (Patrick), Lau Kam Chuen, Leung Kwok Yuen (Stephen), Leung Wai Ming, Ling Yiu Keung (Richard), Tsang Po Wan (Paula) and Yip Sai Hung.

Sitting next to me were Kwan Kit Man, Kitty and Tsang Po Wan, Paula. I have not seen Paula for a long time and I was happy to see her again. We talked for some time during dinner.

Yeung Bud Kuen made a short speech, mostly in English, before the start of dinner. He looked plumper than before. He was accompanied with his wife, Judith Li.

Doctor Kwong gave each teacher a small calendar of 2012, inside which he placed an album of beautiful professional-class photos he took in China.

Californian oranges return

Starting from today, Californian oranges come back to Hong Kong.

Early in the morning, we had breakfast at Super Super (一粥麵). Before the close-by supermarket began service, I passed by, peeped through the transparent gate and saw some familiar oranges. The labels looked like those of Sunkists, but I was not so sure since I was still ten feet away from where they were displayed.

After breakfast, the supermarket had opened. There laid my favourite Sunkist oranges. I always consider them as sources of “Californian Sunshine”. These “3107” oranges looked new and fresh. They cost $9.9 for three. I chose 30 of them. My head kept saying, " If you don't them now, the better ones will be bought and taken away by other people."

Later in the morning, my wife and I turned to another supermarket and found the same kind of oranges but at a cheaper price, $7.9 for three. My heart sank a little because if I went to this supermarket first instead of the previous one, I would have saved twenty dollars.

The lesson I learned today is similar to “ Look before we leap”. It is “Compare prices before we buy.”

A Happy Lunch

Grandma announced that she forgot to bring food to cook for lunch at MOS on January 4. Instead we would have a meal at a Mc Donald’s. Our two grand-daughters cheered at the news.

As usual, it took five to ten minutes to reach the nearest Mc Donald's.

We ordered a big Mac with chips and coke, two double cheese burgers and a box of Mc Chicken nuggets (9 pieces).

We supposed Elly liked the nuggets because she loves eating meat especially sausages and ham. To our amazement, she ate only one.

My wife and I fed one grand-daughter each a double cheese burger and let them eat the chips afterwards. The result was that they ate only haif a burger.

Abby and Elly took turns in drinking the cup of coke and they were eager to eat the chips. Abby and Elly dipped the chips into the sweet sauce provided before they ate them. We, grand-parents, ate the unfinished burgers and carried away the big Mac home for afternoon tea. It seemed that we had small appetites, not the girls.

It was a happy lunch for our grand-daughters after all.

M & M Birthday Cakes

Mother Connie baked two birthday cakes for Abby since the latter will be six in a few days’ time. There is news that she will bake the third in the coming days. Three cakes are used in different parties.

The cake is made from powder cookies or biscuits and water. This ingredient is bought and brought from Canada. The hard blue crust at the top should be rich in sugar content. The eyes of the cute M & M face are white marshmallows covered by eyelids. The face is further decorated with eyebrows, pupils for the eyes and a smiling mouth, a number “6” for the age of six and the usual signature of “m” which stands for M & M.

These M & M birthday cakes are filled with love and it must be very sweet to taste.

Cirrocumulus stratiformis

Looking up at the sky is rewarding because clouds appear in various forms. On my birthday, I found these thin clouds in the sky over Ma On Shan. It is not difficult to find their names from the Internet.

Well, this kind of clouds is a type of cirrocumulus cloud, called Cirrocumulus stratiformis. The name cirrocumulus stratiformis is derived from Latin, meaning "stretched out".

Cirrocumulus stratiformus occurs as very small cirrocumulus clouds that cover a large part of the sky. This type of cloud always occurs in thin layers. There can be spaces or rifts between the individual cloudlets in the layer.

It is quite interesting to know that clouds are abbreviated and even have symbols. Let us study the following precious information from Wikipedia:

Abbreviation: Cc str
Symbol:

Genus: Cirro- (curl of hair) -cumulus: (heaped)
Species: Stratiformis (layered) Altitude Above 6,000 m (Above 20,000 ft)
Classification: Family A (High-level) Appearance horizontal layers
No Precipitation cloud

The bottom-right photo shows a plane that flied in to Hong Kong from the east and, I guessed, was heading for inland China.

Children’s camera targets

Abby took my camera while she was waiting for the school bus. I noticed that she pressed the shutter button several times, but I did not know what snapshots she had taken. Later I found that her target was this motor-bike from Towngas.

She did not take only one photo, but a series of five. The Chinese and English characters of “Towngas” were not clear in the photos showing that she could have shaky hands when pressing the shutter button.

In my opinion, it is a good idea to give a light camera to a child like Abby who may find interesting targets for photography in her surroundings. We definitely need to give freedom to a child to explore more things around him/her. We shall marvel at their "masterpieces".

News about the new Cabinet of CCSCOSA 2011 - 12

A new cabinet 聚賢閣 for the year 2011- 12 replaced 誠閣 (2010-11) last September, 2011.
The posts are listed as follows:

Chairman: Tsoi Sze Yeung, Simon (蔡斯洋) 2002 (F.5)
Vice Chairman: Fong Wai Mun, Helen (方惠敏) 1974 (F.5)
Vice Chairman: Ang Wai Ming, Wilson (洪偉鳴) 1993 (F.5)
General Secretary: Kong Tsui Yan, Jenny (江翠欣) 2002 (F.5)
Financial Secretary: Lam Yan Ki, Adrienne (林欣琪) 2009 (F.5)
Publication Secretary: Chan Kin Yu, Erik (陳建裕) 2008 (F.5)
Information Technology Secretary: Mok Chi Hong, John (莫子匡) 1992 (F.5)
Executive Committee Member: Lau Kam Chuen (劉錦泉) 1976 (F.5)
Executive Committee Member: Li Yi Lut, Lawrence (李懿律) 2008 (F.5)
Executive Committee Member: Li Chiu Lok, Clara (李昭樂) 2009 (F.5)

Coming up will be two activities organized by the new CCSCOSA cabinet in 2012:

(1) On 4th Feb 2012 (Saturday), there would be the Chinese New Year Gathering (龍年新年團拜) in the CCSC school hall. This is an event for retired teachers and alumni to gather in this special festival for Chinese.

(2) On 23rd Mar 2012 (Friday), OSA Annual Dinner will be held. Details will be announced shortly.

OSA members have been and will continue joining regular lunch gatherings for alumni and retired teachers on the second Saturday of every month in Choi Fook Restaurant in Fortress Hill (炮台山彩福海鮮酒家).

For contact, please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7212514292

Suggestions or enquiries may be made at osa@ccsc.edu.hk or simonsytsoi@gmail.com. (please address to Simon Tsoi,Chairman of CCSC OSA, year 2011-2012)

My Collection of Metal bottles

So far this is my collection of Metal bottles. Yesterday evening I got the fifth bottle from Philip and Connie. It was going to be my birthday present today.

I love this new member to my group because its lovely “green” colour sprinkles my heart with delight. The moment I saw the bottle, I blinked my eyes a little and my heart jumped a little too.

To collect these metal bottles is better than postage stamps because they are long lasting unless they are scratched. The painful experience of collecting stamps is that they turn yellow and mould in warm wet weather.

The merits of these bottles go to the mysterious change of colours, the design and the slim shape. The surprising taste of coffee mixed with coke comes from the “Czech” brown-to-black bottle which is full of a language (most probably in Czech) that I never know. The souvenir bottles of the Winter Olympics in 2010 become my favourite twins. Last year I got the red bottle of Coke from Philip and yesterday, the Sprite. I have not decided yet when to taste the so called “Lemon-lime Soda, 100% Natural Flavors”, maybe on a day which I need some sweet taste.

阿比高了

阿比最近給我的印象是高了，牙齒卻少了幾隻，繪的圖畫開始有規律，形象，完全沒有胡亂落筆的感覺。一個好現象是阿比放學回家時都有餓的感覺，嚷著要吃東西﹝其實她在學校已經吃過了茶點﹞，只希望她可以吃多些，令自己沒有這麼瘦就好了。

上星期二在旺角新世紀廣場和孫女們見見面。她們和母親及嫲嫲有下一個約會，但時間尚早，大家往五樓兒童遊樂場一走，打發下時間。兩位孫女見到有得玩，當然不會拒絕啦。走在孫女後面，見到她們的頭髮是給母親結了短短趣緻的馬尾辮子。

艾莉專攻滑梯和吊橋，由母親照顧。而阿比較喜歡盪鞦韆，她選了我幫助她推高。艾莉也有單獨騎搖擺鐵馬。看見她騎著一隻有睡意的馬那種肉緊的表情，尤其覺得她特別可愛。

阿比打了一陣子鞦韆之後，轉到一個小得可憐的兒童氹氹轉，給我機會照了幾張相。她不到三分鐘，就跳到地面。一轉身又跑回去盪鞦韆。

曾有一段時間阿比和艾莉好有默契地擠在一起玩滑梯。那時候，一對好姊妹一齊滑下來，非常溫馨。

Countdown to 2012

On New Year Eve, I waited to see on TV the countdown to 2012 at the waterfront of our Victoria Harbour.

As usual, HKTVB arranged some singing, dancing and other performances to raise the new year atmosphere for viewers at home, on buildings or along the shores of the harbour.

The chief executive of SAR, Donald Tsang and his wife together with some high officials witnessed the arrival of the New Year at Tsimshatsui waterfront.

One special guest from America was invited to join the VIP New Year Witness team was Miss Nancy Ryan, the 40 millionth visitor to Hong Kong.

The large countdown was on the wall of IFC and the numbers were large enough to be seen from greater parts of the harbour.

The countdown then began and it went, “15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 " and then fire and smoke blast off from IFC and various buildings along the harbour. This signified the beginning of a new year.

Hope that the newly-arrived year will bring prosperity and good health to everyone in Hong Kong and worldwide! Happy New Year to you all!