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.

Which photo is taken by Canon S100?

Here are, side by side, two photos of "city walk" (荃新天地) .

If I name the left photo as Photo 1 and the right one as Photo 2, which do you think is taken by S100?

Performances of two Canon Digital Cameras compared (1)

In taking photos of at normal distances (not too close nor too far), the difference in quality is fairly undetectable in both Canon S100 and 860 IS, except that the colour tone of the S100 leans to more blue while that of 860 IS to more yellow.

Photo taken by S100Photos taken by 860 IS

S100

Canon Power Shot S100 is a new model of handy digital cameras. It was a big surprise the day before yesterday that Tony gave one to me as a gift.

The resolution of the photos reaches 12.1 mega pixels. My original Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS is just 8.0. The new camera looks like a “Black Knight” while my old one “Silver armour”. The lenses of both cameras are hidden after they are turned off.

The zoom power of the new camera is 5x, but that of the old one is just 3.6x.

Yesterday, it so happened that a bus with the advertisement of this new camera passed by and stopped before the traffic lights. I managed to take only two photos of the "ad". The advertisement emphasized its special capability of taking good shots at night-time by the slogan, “in love with the night”.

Hopefully, from now on, I am able to take better photos with this light camera wherever I go.

Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg

In 2000, two German twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, aged 41, began to work on the ‘Miniatur Wunderland' which is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, Germany and the largest of this kind in the world.

In January, 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres of track in HO scale, divided into 7 sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, Everglades, Grand-Canyon etc and Mount Rushmore.The Swiss section has a mini-Matterhorn.
The Scandinavian part has a 1.23-metre long passenger ship floating in a 'fjord'.

The Wonderland is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set would cover more than 1,800 square meters and feature almost 21 kilometres of track, by which time detailed models of parts of France, Italy and the UK would have been added. It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons. The longest train is 14 metres long. The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights... ...and 160,000 individually designed figures.

Thousands of kilograms of steel and wood were used to construct the scenery... The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system that mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off.

The whole system is controlled from a massive high-tech nerve centre. In total the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than 8 million euro to put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales.

By 2020, the exhibits expected to have reached its final construction phase, including at least a total of 10 sections in a model area of over 2,300 square metres. The section of an airport, named Hamburg International Airport, has been opened in May 2011. The exhibits includes 890 trains made up of over 11,000 carriages, 300,000 lights, 215,000 trees and 200,000 human figures. The creators will work on models of Italy and France. Soon a new airport called Knuffingen International Airport will be completed. Possible future additions include Africa, England or even a futuristic landscape.


Please visit the website at http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exhibit/video/4-minutes-wunderland/

Helsinki

Helsinki (赫爾辛基) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city reaches 588,941 in January 2011, making it the most populous city in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.

Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre as well as one of northern Europe's major cities. Approximately 70% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region.

Helsinki has a humid continental climate. With the regulating effects of the Baltic Sea and Gulf Stream, temperatures in winter are much higher than those in the far northern location, with the average in January and February around −5 °C. Temperatures below −20 °C occur normally a week or two in a year.

Because of the latitude, days last less than six hours around the winter solstice with really low Sun rays, and the very cloudy weather at this time of year amplifies the darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer, close to nineteen hours around the summer solstice.

The average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 21 °C. Owing to the marine effect, especially in the summer daily temperatures are cooler and night temperatures are higher than further away in the mainland. As near as Vantaa, the climate is surprisingly much more continental, with warmer summers and colder winters. The highest temperature ever recorded at city centre was around 34.0 °C in July and the lowest was −34.3 °C in January.

A mixed Chinese Shar-pei

Here is a female thirteen-year-old Chinese Shar-pei mixed with Rhodesian Ridgeback. She is quite protective and guards a house and backyard very well. When a stranger or car is near the house, she produces scary low-pitch growls from her abdomen. When she goes out, she often sniffs the ground and things more than other dogs.

Please note these:

A Chinese Shar-pei (沙皮狗) has typical wrinkled skin and is raised by Chinese for dog fight -- supposedly the loose skin makes it difficult for another dog to establish a firm bite on the body so she can easily escape being held down by another dog.

A Rhodesian Ridgeback is often used as a hunting dog and has very sharp sense of smell.

像水墨畫的相片

原來在煙雨濛濛下照出來的相是那麼有詩意，像水墨畫，有山巒層次，亦有夢幻水城感。

相中的摩登水警輪把恬靜的吐露港海水破開了，留下來的是漂過的痕跡。若果把這艘水警輪換成一艘孤舟配一個船伕搖曳著櫓向前進的話，是另外一番味道！

Lemon tree

It was the first time I saw lemons growing on a living tree in the garden of my old classmate, Fred. They reminded me of an old song sung by Everly Brothers:

When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
'Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree.'
'Don't put your faith in love, my boy,' my father said to me,
'I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree.'

Chorus:
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat.

One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie,
A girl so sweet that when she smiled, the stars rose in the sky.

We passed that summer lost in love, beneath the lemon tree,
The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me.

Chorus

One day she left without a word, she took away the sun.
And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done.
She left me for another, it's a common tale but true,
A sadder man, but wiser now, I sing these words to you.

Chorus

吃喝玩樂

親家老爺奶奶在我生日前一日非常客氣地請我飲中午茶，為我做生日，當然開心不已，這裡要說聲多謝。我們也帶同兩位孫女一齊前往附近酒樓吃個飽。

桌上擺滿蒸飯，腸粉，粥及點心。這邊廂艾莉辦完「大事」後吃得特別開胃，喝著粥也是挺開心的，表情趣怪。那邊廂阿比吃少少是循例公事。正因為距離上學的時刻尚早，要打發時間，她向我借部手提電話玩遊戲，總算得到些微樂趣！

祝大家龍年行好運

明天是農曆新年年初一，也是龍年的新開始，我在這裡借用以上幾張相謹祝大家
財星拱照，龍精虎猛，財源(像繡球)滾滾來！

鴨腳木果實

今天有大發現，一早經過火車站附近往第一城的通道。幾串紅、橙、黃的袖珍果實從路旁的鴨腳木鑽了出來，它們足以吸引我和太太駐足一看。可愛、細粒、圓渾得像小波子的果實實在吸引雀鳥來啄食。

從網上資料得知鴨腳木的花也是很小。白色的星狀花特別精緻，有天線似的五柱雄蕊向外伸展，簡直是鬼斧神工的植物設計。下面相中的果實是綠色或紫色和我所見果實顏色有很大分別。究竟差異原因為何，我尚未觀察到，或許諸君可指教一下。

可愛的芍藥

今年出現在屋苑的年花有芍藥和菊花。前者特別驕艷奪目，就讓我展現它們給大家欣賞。

這些芍藥長出的花很大，成半球狀。花瓣微妙地向內及外捲曲，中央部分新出的則捲成蛋卷狀。所見顏色大多是深紅至紫紅色。最神奇的是有一些芍藥花的花尖部分竟然是白色的，給予人一個變幻的感覺。在相片右下方那朵漸變顏色的芍藥花正是我的最愛及令我雀躍不已的特異奇花！