Split of the Sky

I like this tree, not because most of its leaves have fallen, but from my view of the branches of this bare tree. The branches, large and small, have already split the sky opposite to me into thousand pieces.

It is worth capturing something interesting through my camera. Maybe some people think that it is just an ordinary tree, but a bare tree may look beautiful in some black and white tones.

If the largest picture here were a jigsaw puzzle, I would spend a week or more to fix those thousands of puzzle pieces together.

Mimosa

We find potted Mimosa (含羞草) in our public park below and have asked our grand-daughters to touch its leaves and experience what happens. Definitely they like to wipe or finger-touch the compound leaves and watch them fold up.

For myself, I saw these interesting plants at the roadside when I was young. My habit was to touch the leaves with my shoes instead of hands until all of them had folded up. Having the patience to wait for their re-opening actions, I went on to see if another mimosa was near by.

From Wikipedia: The generic name is derived from the Greek word μιμος (mimos), meaning "mimic." – a funny name, isn’t it?.

There are two species in the genus that are notable:

[1] One is Mimosa pudica, because of the way it folds its leaves when touched or exposed to heat. It is native to southern Central and South America but is widely cultivated elsewhere for its curiosity value, both as a houseplant in temperate areas, and outdoors in the tropics. Outdoor cultivation has led to weedy invasion in some areas, notably Hawaii.

[2] The other is Mimosa tenuiflora, which is best known for its use in shamanic ayahuasca brews due to the psychedelic drug DMT found in its root bark.

Botanically speaking, what appears to be a single globular flower is actually a cluster of many individual ones. Mimosa contains some level of heptanoic acid.

The Balearic Islands

In a documental film about "Menorca"in TV, I learn about the Balearic Islands. Great interest comes to me in locating these islands from a map of Europe.Here are more detailed maps about the archipelago.

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital city. The co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. The current Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain.

The main islands of the autonomous are Majorca (Mallorca), Minorca (Menorca), Ibiza (Eivissa) and Formentera, all of which are popular tourist destinations. Among the minor islands is Cabrera. The islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Menorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands, and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pine Islands.

上星期日城市論壇

在四月十五日正午時，從電視上，發現我校的學生團隊出席了城市論壇。令我感覺最奇怪的是這十位在場的學生是清一色男孩子，心裡問為甚麼一位女學生都沒有參加呢？

出席今次論壇的嘉賓有消費者研究及營商手法事務部總主任的熊天佑、自由黨立法會議員劉健儀、工聯會議員王國興和中大市場學系教授冼日明。論壇主要談論市場壟斷及操控價格的問題。

眾所周知，本港兩大超市被指調整貨品價格時間及幅度一致，有合謀定價之謙。

熊主任指出消委會無能力調查超市有否合謀定價，只能定期公佈格價結果，讓消費者得以選擇。

議員王國興促請當局盡快立法，並配合商品說明條例實施，加以監管。

議員劉健儀認為競爭法理應針對大財團，同時給予中小企合理豁免
。
教授冼日明支持盡快訂立競爭法，並指出本港超市、油公司等所佔有的市場額很大，當它們一齊調整價格時，自然令消費者選擇減少，並被迫買貴貨品，也影響中小企的生存空間。他建議政府立法針對違例及濫用力量支配市場行為，非只及對付大企業或大財團。

在論壇的後段，主持邀請台下發言。因時間緊迫關係，眾政黨代表，學生代表及現場觀眾紛紛簡短發言。我校只有一位學生發問一條問題，台上的嘉賓也是速速回答罷了。

At Super Super

It was the first time Connie, Abby and Elly took their breakfast with us at Super Super on 7th of April.

There were congee, noodles, rice rolls, fish, egg, radish cake, macaroni with ham and a cup of Horlicks on the table.

The girls first chose noodles to eat for they did not like congee at all. Abby ate rice rolls while Elly macaroni with ham. They finally shared the cup of Horlicks. We three adults shared the rest of the food among ourselves.

It was a morning lesson from which the girls learned to share food among family members.

太陽風

美國太空總署最近公開新一批由太陽動力學天文台拍攝的太陽風照片。從這些照片來看， 太陽是一個熾熱的火球， 有類似火焰不斷的吹出而形成太陽風。

以下是從維基百科全書節錄下來的資料:

在太陽的日冕層的高溫下，氫、氦等原子已經被電離成帶正電的質子、氦原子核和帶負電的自由電子等。這些帶電粒子運動速度極快，以致不斷有帶電的粒子掙脫太陽的引力束縛，射向太陽的外圍，形成太陽風。 太陽風的速度一般在200-800km/s。從太陽的磁場極地附近吹出的是高速太陽風，從太陽的磁場赤道附近吹出的則是低速太陽風。太陽的磁場的活動性是會變化的，週期大約為11年。

太陽風到1960年代才被證實存在。長期觀測發現，當太陽存在冕洞時，地球附近就能觀測到高速的太陽風。因此天文學家認為高速太陽風的產生與冕洞有密切的關係。太陽表面的磁場及等離子體活動對地球有很重要的影響。當太陽發生強烈的活動時，大量的帶電粒子隨着太陽風吹向地球的兩極，就會在兩極的電離層引發美麗的極光。

More teachers joined OSA monthly lunches

It is good sign to see more teachers join the OSA monthly lunches. This month, Miss M. Ng, Miss Su, Mrs. Sinn, Mr. Fung, Miss Winnie Wong and I joined the routine lunch (on the second Saturday each month). Occasionally, Miss Ng, Miss Su and Mr. Fung come to lunch. For myself, I always attend the lunches except once because I was too late informed.

What a big surprise to see Mrs. Sinn appear at the lunch this time. She told me that she would stay in Hong Kong for a longer period of time instead of in America.

Miss Wong arrived a little late after her shopping at supermarket. We were able to catch a photo with her. A few days before, she had invited Derek Law, the youngest son of our first Principal of school, Mr. C.H. Law, to join the lunch. Derek Law looked far more strongly built when compared with his small size in his early years at CCSC. I was astonished to hear him call me by name although I had not taught him before. He said he observed the CCSC teachers during launch picnics (for teaching staff) held each summer in the early 70’s. What surprised me most was that he had accessed to my blog-site and read about my grand-daughters. My guess is that Derek finds out the blog-site from Mr. Ching’s CCSC overseas web-site. Thanks to Mr. Ching’s “ thread and needle”.

Countdown to 100 days

London Olympics has a count-down machine stationed at Trafalgar Square, Central London. On April 18th, 2012, the count-down has reached 100 days before the Olympic Games actually begin in England.

Many people take the opportunity of taking photos with this countdown machine when they pass the Square.

There are about three months to go when elite athletes from around the world meet at London to compete and break records in all kinds of games. I do like the atmosphere and sportsmanship in the Games. May the Games be held smoothly and peacefully in England.

Bunny and kids

Different people had different aims in this photo. My granddaughters aimed at the sweets in the basket placed on the floor. The big bunny aimed at giving kids sweets at Easter. I aimed at taking a photo of my granddaughters.

Elly and Abby had taken altogether seven to eight sweets because they met this bunny twice at the shopping centre. Were they greedy?

After all, the shopping centre had successful created a warm atmosphere to shoppers and small children at Easter.

Roadside flowers

I found these beautiful roadside flowers at a certain section of Des Voeux Road Central last Wednesday. They were planted on rectangular pots and hung at the railings. These potted plants could have added life and beauty to the busy streets and the concrete forests in Central. I loved to see them there all the year round.

May I wish more potted plants be placed in different parts of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories.

Statues at Las Vegas

Statues are common at Las Vegas Hotels. Here before your eyes are those at MGM and the Egyptian theme Luxor Hotel and Casino. An outstanding one is the Statue of Liberty. One may think for a second if he is at New York instead of at Las Vegas. It is very impressive to someone who comes for the first time to this city of casinos.

Las Vegas in 2011

My dear old student, Peter Ng, drove to Las Vegas with his family more than once in 2011. Here is a brief description of what he experienced there.

"Bellagio is my favorite hotel in Vegas for its elegant Italian theme and the buffet restaurant which is among the best in the strip. Due to the sagging US economy, there were many hotel sales to attract business to Las Vegas last year especially during the non-busy months. Lesser hotels like Luxor and Monte Carlos, dropped their price to around US$50 a night even after including the resort fee (a way to make the price seems lower). The price was so good that we went more than once last year. And in November, we were able to stay in Bellagio for our trip. It was quite an experience."

The photo at bottom-right shows Bellagio with a music fountain before it.

A Stunning photo

It is so nice to have my old student, Peter Ng, sent me a photo of the view of California Street in Downtown, San Francisco. We can also see one of the tower heads of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge at the far side.

The photo is thrilling to me because the look of this street seems like the impending tsunami (in grey colour) that pushes forward cars, cable cars, houses or whatever on its way . The street itself is steeper and longer than those I saw in my visit to Seattle, 2009.

If the image of the arrival of tsunami here is wiped off, still it is a stunning trial of driving down such a street much like a roller-coaster on its rails.

I like this photo very much. Last time when I was at San Francisco, I missed the experience of riding a car down this street from its top to somewhat level ground below.

Steps-like roads

It is common to see these steps-declining roads at hilly Seattle. The fun is that a driver on this kind of roads feels his car descending for a certain distance, next running a short distance horizontally and then diving down again. This motion repeats several times before the car actually runs on level grounds. We may also find this kind of roads in Western and Central Districts on Hong Kong Island. It is not fun if the brake of one’s car fails.

This matter of descending also applies to a passenger plane which is going to land. The plane usually dropped its head a little downward for a certain distance and next descends the second time and third until it reaches a reasonable height for flying over the residential or commercial areas (a good example may be found when a plane is landing from Northwest towards Sydney International Airport).

In the past, there were a few sections of Tai Po Road (in the section of the New territories) of up-and-down roads. They take up V-shapes when they were viewed from the side. When there was no car following mine, I would like to speed up my car from the top of "V" down to the bottom of the "V", waited until the car head upwards for a certain distance and let the gears off and the car still moved up the slope with the remaining force. I just wanted to see if my car could reach to the top of the road on the other side of the "V".

Antennarius

Antennarius (躄魚) is a large genus of frogfishes found worldwide in tropical and subtropical oceans. It contains 25 species. They look ugly, but are in beautiful colours.

They are nearly all very greedy carnivores which sit quietly waiting for smaller fishes to pass by. During this time, they wriggle their "lure" to entice nearby prey to come and then snap up the fish into their mouths.

Here you can see some of them in the sea at Lembeh Strait (藍碧海峽) off the north-east coast of Sulawesi (Celebes 蘇拉威西島).

Easter Elly

Elly has a lot of free time visiting shopping centres in the afternoon since she has not attended school yet.

She was at Sunshine Plaza on March 19, 2012. We told her to stand near these simple Easter decorations and she stood willingly near them and made poses of her “winning signal” or her “fingers” as a pair of “scissors” to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

The colours of her T-shirt fitted well with the decorations. If she stood beside the “bunnies”, “eggs” and “butterflies”, I was sure people would believe that Elly were a decorative “doll” at the display.

CCSC OSA Annual Dinner 2012

On the 23rd day of March, this year, the annual dinner of CCSC OSA was held at Paramount Banquet Hall (百樂門宴會廳) at Elizabeth House, Causeway Bay. Dinner began at around half past eight.

There were altogether 22 tables. There were two VIP tables, Table 1 and Table 2. Teachers, mostly retired or left earlier, sat at Table 3. Some current teachers sat with their students and some who were formerly CCSC students, now teachers of the school, sat with their classmates.
Principal Yuen first made a speech and Miss Winnie Wong, Mr. Yuen and the 2 M.C.s led the guests and students to sing the school song.

The dinner was served soon after the ceremony. In the midst of the dinner, we cheered as the VIPs (members of the school board) drank a toast with us.

There was a lucky draw. Miss Ng, Miss Winnie Wong, Miss Fok and I had the honour to be invited to draw lots, then followed by some of the VIPs of our school. The prizes comprised of mostly the products for sale at the New Year Fairs in the past two years and some red packets with money inside.

Towards the end of the dinner, students of different years came to the front stage to have group photos taken. Before this, some of the teachers had been invited to take photos with their students.

The dinner finished at about half past ten.

Parachuting at Antarctica (2)

Arrangements had been made before the actual parachuting took place. A helicopter took a number of men to the designed landing area for the jump and these men had to make a visible red “sign” on the ground which could be visible to the parachutists and they were supposed to stay until the parachutists landed safely at the right spot.

The plane that carried the parachutists took 2 hours to reach L. Cerro Nevado Glazier, the target landing site, but 30 seconds before the jump, weather reports from the ground said that the weather turned worse and an ice storm had formed. The temperature dropped to - 58 degrees. The speed of winds was around 35 knots and the visibility had become zero. The jump should be suspended immediately. It was great that the men at the land was able to withstand the cold and stay calm for rescue on the next morning.
A successful jump was finally made by the three parachutists at the height of 13500 feet in good weather conditions ( -4 degrees and a suitable wind speed).

Parachuting at Antarctica (1)

Three parachutists planned to parachute at Antarctica. They got permission from Argentina and arrived at the Marambio Base (馬蘭比奧海軍准將站) on Isla Marambio (馬蘭比奧島), off the coast of Palmer Peninsula at Antarctica.

They first practised skydiving somewhere near the base to study the weather conditions, the wind speeds, the safety and rescue measures.

The dangers of parachuting they might face would be sudden wind storms at such a cold place and the falling into the bleak cold icy sea water could be hazardous.
The parachutists found the trial jump, which lasted for only one and a half minute, a perfect and enjoyable one. However, for the case of parachuting deeper inland might not be funny and be filled with dangers.

A two-week holiday

Abby has a two-week holiday during Easter. To Elly, every day is a holiday. They are going to stay almost the whole holiday with us at Shatin.

Today, they were so lucky to find two tricycles at our park below. Abby had long legs so she had no problem in driving. Elly was different. She was too young to steer one. It would mean I was her driver at her back.

Several times they pretended to stop at the traffic lights. Sometimes they went abreast. At one time, they met face to face and held each other’s handles.

From my observation, Elly still needs some driving lessons before she can drive by herself. Hopefully, she will drive alone in a few months’ time.