Coca Cola (Beloved series)

Coca Cola Company is so clever in bringing out such a good idea of drawing people to buy its product of the "Beloved" series. As there are people who are interested in finding their names or their friends' or their relatives' or younger generations', the heat is spreading fast.

My son is obvious one who likes to search for names of his beloved ones. I believe he cannot find my name easily from the market because my surname is rare and I am lack of
an English name.

In the eyes of Elly

In the eyes of Elly, noodles are her favourite food. She can almost finish the whole bowl of  noodles shown in the photo. Here she raises the fore-finger in her right hand to praise the noodles while pushing them into her mouth by the chopsticks in her left hand. What an enjoyable moment!

Arrival of Christmas 2014

The first touch of Christmas this year comes from school. It is a Christmas card with a beautiful tree formed by a swirl of stars, quite a creative design. The card carries a greeting message from the principal, staff and students of CCSC in the current year. Warmth has been delivered to me through this palm-sized card because it shows that we, retired teachers of the school, are remembered and respected.

The second touch comes from Farm Heroes Game in Facebook, in which my wife and I sometimes are playing. The appearance of a Christmas cap on an onion and the European Holly on an green apple adds much interest and Christmas atmosphere during playing..

The third comes from the wall of a running tram in North Point. The big teddy bear and Christmas tree reminds people in the streets that Christmas is near.

The fourth comes from the CCSC Christmas Buffet Lunch, in which, current and retired staff of the school meet and chat for a couple of hours or so.

The fifth comes from the Christmas as well as Birthday Party of my eldest brother, in which we, relatives in the Wats and Sungs families meet. The turkey in the buffet dinner marks the symbolic dish at Christmas. I of course pick a few pieces to eat. Champagne is served in glass to cheer for my brother’s birthday.

Superman at Mc Donald's

Superman arrives at our Mc Donald's recently. The curl of hair, the red cloak, the blue tight uniform and the diamond shaped badge of "S" are fused together on a box of a new product, called " Honey Mustard Chicken ".

The taste of such a burger is terrifically attractive. In the first place, the bacon masters the whole burger and wins the flavour from the chicken. There are cheese, lettuce and tomato too between the lovely buns.

The soul of the burger comes from the sauce of honey and mustard. This sauce wins my heart and many others'. Hopefully they will not temporary sold in the shops, but permanently.

Music Buses

KMB has created Road Shows for long on their buses. These shows provide news, interviews,themes in daily life and most important, advertisements.

Now, Music buses like those in the photos provide series of music videos for their passengers. Obviously the songs are not heats, but they make the bus journeys filled with music. Whether or not the passengers like the songs is another thing.

Santorini

 

Santorini is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago, some 200 km in the southeast of Greece’s mainland. It is easily recognized by the cave houses dug into the volcanic rock at the edge of a vertical cliff at Fira, the capital of the island. Its classical mansions, cobbled streets, winding paths, domed churches (many with a blue dome) and whitewashed houses (most of which have a dome at some part of the roof structure) cluster.

 

I noticed Santorini long ago when my daughter brought home from Greece photos of these unique architectural structures. Those paintings of blue-domed houses hung on the walls of Windsor Restaurant (our usual canteen in the early years of the 21st century) often reminded me of this beautiful island in the southern Aegean Sea.

The terrain on the caldera side (west coast) is steep volcanic rock of pumice stone with unusual formations. Other areas have a gentler terrain. The climate here is moist, warm in summer with cool evenings. In August, the famous 'Meltemia' winds blow. Sparse rainfall is experienced during the winter months.

In the northwest of the island, similar building structures are found at Oia. The windmill here is one of the most recognizable buildings in the town.

It is said that shopping at supermarkets here should be done earlier because these shops usually close at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Please click to enlarge the photos.

Elly drawing her family

On August 26th, we had dinner at a restaurant at MOS. Before the food came, Elly drew on the back side of a sheet of food menu her family of four. The male with a thick body is obviously her father. The rest looked almost the same, as thin as match-sticks. As a matter of fact, her mother should wear glasses, but none of these girls did.

Who do you think in the drawing is the mother, Abby and Elly?

Ellipsoids

Recently, I find some South African Sunkist oranges which look like ellipsoids. They are good models for teaching  this kind of solids in Mathematics to students.

First of all, the taste of these oranges is okay.Their outlook of smooth and shiny skins attracts me. to some extent, they are a little dry.  Maybe they have been left alone for a long time. I hope to see some others next time at better conditions.

Soft Drinks

Recently, at dinner outside, a waitress bought to our table twelve cans of soft-drinks. Most of them are made by Swire Company - Sprite, 7-up, Coca Cola, Schweppes and Fanta. Mirinda (orange flavour) is not common, but still survives all through the years.

In the past, there were several classic brands of soft-drinks such as Cosmos Beverages (大同汽水), Watson’s Cola (屈臣氏哥喇) and Green Spot (綠寶橙汁).

My favourite drink is malt Vitasoy which is made of malt and soya beans. It is the best drink in cold winters when they are served hot. In hot days, I love Cream Soda of Schweppes to go with ice-cream. My choice all-year-round is Coca Cola since it is full of out-coming gas. Apart from the healthiest ones, the two Vitasoy(s), soya and malt, the rest of the soft drinks are sugar solutions. I understand that the over-dosed sugar is bad to health, so it is wise for me to avoid drinking them as often as possible.

Three bridges in Istanbul, Turkey

The Bosphorus Bridge, also called the First Bosphorus Bridge or simply the First Bridge is one of two suspension bridges spanning the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey; thus connecting Europe and Asia (the other one is the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, which is called the Second Bosphorus Bridge). The bridge is located between Ortaköy (on the European side) and Beylerbeyi (on the Asian side).

It is a gravity anchored suspension bridge with steel towers and inclined hangers. The aerodynamic deck hangs on zigzag steel cables. It is 1,560 m long with a deck width of 33.40 m. The distance between the towers (main span) is 1,074 m and the total height of the towers is 165 m. The clearance of the bridge from sea level is 64 m.

The Bosphorus Bridge was the 4th longest suspension bridge span in the world (and the longest outside the United States) when it was completed in 1973. At present, it is the 22nd longest suspension bridge span in the world.

Since April 2007, a fully computerized LED lighting system of changing colours and patterns, developed by Philips, illuminates the bridge at night.

The current Galata Bridge (the fifth one) was built by the Turkish construction company STFA just a few meters away from the previous bridge, between Karaköy and Eminönü, and completed in December 1994. It was designed and supervised by GAMB (Göncer Ayalp Engineering Company). It is a bascule bridge, which is 490 m long with a main span of 80 m. The deck of the bridge is 42 m wide and has three vehicular lanes and one walkway in each direction. It has also recently had tram tracks re-added to it, allowing the Istanbul Tram to run from Zeytinburnu in the suburbs near Atatürk International Airport to Kabataş, a few blocks before Dolmabahçe Palace. This bridge along with Trowse Bridge in Norwich, Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, a number of bridges in Saint Petersburg in Russia, a number of railway bridges in the United States may be the only movable bridges in the world that also carry electrified rail tracks.

Haliç Bridge, which literally means the Estuary Bridge, is a highway bridge on the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. It connects the neighbourhoods of Ayvansaray in the south and Halıcıoğlu in the north. The O-1 highway passes through the Haliç Bridge.

It was constructed between 1971 and 1974, and entered service on 10 September 1974. The engineering firms which undertook the construction works were IHI Corporation of Japan and Julius Berger-Bauboag AG of Germany.

The bridge has a length of 995 metres, width of 32 metres, and height of 22 metres above sea level.

Red prawns on Vatulele

Vatulele is a coral and volcanic island 30 kilometers south of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. It has an area of 32 square kilometers with maximum altitude only 34 meters.

The island is inhabited by four villages, including Taunovo and Bouwaqa. Economic activities include coconut and taro farming. Vatulele is known for its Legend of the Red Prawns and Petroglyphs.

Vatulele is a raised coral limestone paradise that lies to the south of Fiji's main island of Viti Levu. Vatulele, often discussed but rarely visited, has figured prominently in Fijian legend because of its extraordinary red prawns. Known as ura-buta (cooked prawns) or uradamudamu (red prawn), they have to be seen to be believed.

The islanders treat the prawns with great respect, consider them sacred and are forbidden to kill or harm them in any way. Legend records that anyone who tries to take them away will suffer a shipwreck.

Scientists may not share the explanation of the origins of the ura-buta (red praens) but they remain fascinated by the environment in which the prawns live. Known as anchialine habitats, they are pools some distance away from the sea but which still maintain tidal influence. In actuality most of the pools are brackish due to interactions between the lens of freshwater under the island and the tidal influence. Linked with these anchialine pool is a great network of caves and passages, most of them virtually unexplored.

Source of materials: Wikipedia

Little Elly draws a Mermaid

My eyes blinked with surprise when I saw the beautiful "Mermaid" drawn by Elly on the i-pad of his uncle. The colours are strriking and well-selected. The "strokes" of colours made are so interestingly waved by this little girl of four. The smiling face of the mermaid totally reflects Elly's happy heart at time of drawing.


I admire Elly's every detail of the picture. I am sure, in future, she will become a bright artist.

Shortbread from England

Shortbread is what Philip bought us after his school's visit to England in April, 2014. I expect the shortbread to be very heavy with butter, but no,on the whole, it is lighter in butter.

My great interest comes from their shapes. There are Union Jacks, London buses, roses (National flower of England) and ones that I am still thinking what they mean. From this box of shortbread, I learn that English people are very patriotic and proud of their country, even their shortbread carry strong and easy-to-recognize "symbols" of England.

Neapolitan ice-cream

Yesterday night Elly gave me a big surprise.

She drew on our i-pad a cone of Neapolitan ice-cream (三色雪糕). Her choices of ice-cream were a little different from the traditional flavours of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. She changed vanilla to lime. Her wafer-cone lined with squares was in the right colour. What she had added this time were the narrow crispy wafer-bars which possibly arouse more interest than just an ice-cream cone alone.

To us, it was a luxury in eating ice-cream in the early 60’s and 70’s. On Saturdays or Sundays, we often dug those 2-litre containers of Neopolitan ice-cream up from the freezers at Dairy Lane (former name of Wellcome Supermarket) at Kowloon Tong. We chose them because they came in three flavours.

It was at Manly, Sydney, in December 2006. As soon as we got off the ferry, we came across a store selling ice-cream at the pier. It was such a hot summer at that time in Australia that I thought it was a good idea to buy some ice-cream for everyone to eat. There my wife was fascinated by the taste of lime (in green colour) ice-cream which she still praises as first-class today.

Another surprise came in January 2007 when we were on board a Singapore Airline plane flying back to Hong Kong from Singapore. We never expected to be served with a cup of first-class ice-cream from the “H” brand. It was, in no doubt, a “bonus” after lunch. How “sweet” it was to see and taste it during the flight.

How to cut a pineapple?

Let us see how Aloha, Quality Fruit growers from the Philippines, suggest to us the cutting of a pineapple.

1.    Slice or Twist off crown.
2.    Cut lengthwise in half and then in quarters.
3.    Slice inner core.
4.    Starting at one end, slice between skin and fruit; stop just before the other end.

The company also supplies some history about pineapples:

In 1493, Christopher Columbus landed in Guadaloupe and tasted his first pineapple. On his return he presented a pineapple to Isabella, Queen of Spain. Once introduced to Europe, the pineapple became highly sought after and was regarded as a sign of great hospitality and friendship. Many of the great houses of Europe today still carry a pineapple motif carved in wood above the door.

The so-called Honey Pines here (for example, the pineapple in the photo) are neither as sweet as honey nor sugar, but the fibre and freshness are up to standard. Usually we add tidbits of these pineapples to fried rice.

House in the air

Last week Elly drew these pictures, two in colours and one in black-and-white.

In the large picture, she outlined in black ink, a house with three windows. What interested me was the house itself. It could suspend itself in the air, perhaps by an invisible air cushion. The smoke that came out from its chimney showed that there were people inside, probably cooking dinner at that moment. A straight concrete road ran towards the house.

From the grass lawn beneath the house, two big flowers and a giant banana tree grew out.
The sun was shining brightly over the land. Not far from the road was a pond. Swimming in it were some fish. We suspected the green object as a tortoise, but Elly explained that it was a leaf.

This picture is full of life, flowers, a tree with fruit, fish in a pond, hidden people in a house and our mighty sun. It seemed to me that there was a flying insect on the tree trunk.

In the black-and-white picture, Elly told everyone in words that it was a house. She drew quite a number of hearts to show her love to her "flying house". This time she drew a similar tree. On the table was a cooking pan with an egg in it. She asked her grandma to teach her how to write "insect" in Chinese. Well, beside the pan, I found some insects.

In the picture at the bottom right, Elly drew another winged house which had already landed on the ground with a two-lane road leading to the doorsteps of the house.Elly always put a door-knob to her house and planted a tall tree next to it. Instead of a chimney, this time she put a flower. She never missed a fishing pond close to the house.

Curling

Curling is one of the sports games in Sochi Winter Olympics which attracts my attention for a while. There are tournaments among teams of different countries of the world. In this Olympics, the champions in Men’s and Women’s Curling all go to the strong teams of Canada.

In a Curling game, players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric rings. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, called rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the "house", a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly turn as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who go with it as it slides down the sheet. On the way, the sweepers use their brooms to rub on and melt the ice in front of the stone. A great deal of strategy and teamwork go into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. This gives curling its nickname, "chess on ice".

It is interesting that sometimes a team send some stones out to guard the area around the “house” so as to protect their own stone(s)  near the centre of the house from being hit away.

The process of sliding a stone down the sheet is known as the delivery.

The skip, or the captain of the team, will usually determine the required weight, turn, and line of the stone. These will be influenced by the tactics at this point in the game, which may involve taking-out, blocking or tapping another stone.

Please note the following points:
•    The weight of the stone is its velocity, which depends on the leg drive of the delivery rather than the arm.
•    The turn, handle, or curl is the rotation of the stone, which gives it a curved trajectory.
•    The line is the direction of the throw ignoring the effect of the turn.

The skip may communicate the weight, turn, line, and other tactics by calling or tapping a broom on the ice. In the case of a takeout, guard, or a tap, the skip will indicate the stones involved.

Before delivery, the running surface of the stone is wiped clean and the path across the ice swept with the broom if necessary, because any dirt on the bottom of a stone or in its path can alter the trajectory and ruin the shot. Intrusion by a foreign object is called a pick up or pick.

After the stone is delivered, its trajectory is still influenced by the two sweepers under instruction from the skip. Sweeping is done for two reasons: to reduce friction underneath the stone, and to decrease the amount of curl. The stones curl more as they slow down, so sweeping early in travel tends to increase distance as well as straighten the path, and sweeping after sideways motion is established can increase the sideways distance. When sweeping, pressure and speed of the brush head are key in slightly increasing the layer of moisture that builds up under the stone.

One of the basic strategy aspects of curling is knowing when to sweep. When the ice in front of the stone is swept, a stone will usually travel both farther and straighter. In some situations, one of the two alterations in path is not desirable. For example, a stone may have too much weight, but require sweeping to prevent curling into a guard. The team must decide which is better: getting by the guard but traveling too far, or hitting the guard.

Much of the yelling that goes on during a curling game is the skip calling the line of the shot and the sweepers calling the weight. The skip evaluates the path of the stone and calls to the sweepers to sweep as necessary to maintain the intended track. The sweepers themselves are responsible for judging the weight of the stone, ensuring the length of travel is correct and communicating the weight of the stone back to the skip. Some teams use stopwatch timing, from back line to the nearest hog line as a sweeping aid. Many teams use the Number System to communicate in which of 10 playable zones it is estimated the stone will stop.

Sweeping is allowed anywhere on the ice up to the tee line, as long as it is only for one's own team stones. Once the leading edge of a team stone crosses the tee line only one player may sweep it. Additionally, when a stone crosses the tee line, one player from the other team is allowed to sweep it. This is the only case that a stone may be swept by an opposing team member. In international rules, this player must be the skip; or if the skip is throwing, then the sweeping player must be the third.

Two Flowers

Two purplish pink flowers grow out successfully from Elly's potted plant. She points at them with a smile, kisses them from a distance and pretends to eat them in the air. That leaves a page of a beautiful flowering plant in her mind.

新畿內亞鳳仙

以下是太陽報在2014年2月26日一項報導:

【記者李寶怡、李盛芝報道】康樂及文化事務署在全港逾千間學校推行的「一人一花計劃」，今年發生大規模種死花事件，逾三十七萬名參加計劃悉心栽花的莘莘學子，估計有半數人枉費心機，事件更在學界引起回響，不少家長為求子女能完成功課，急撲花苗重新栽種，引發一輪搶花潮。據業內人士指，今年康文署選用的主題花新畿內亞鳳仙，根本不宜在太冷環境下成長，結果卻因康文署缺乏常識選錯花種，又延遲了兩個月派發花苗，大批花苗終「集體慘死」於寒冬下。

康文署自二零零一年起為全港中、小學、特殊學校及幼稚園舉辦「一人一花計劃」，每年種植的主題花不同，目的是提高學生綠化意識及培養他們對種植的興趣，而本學年斥資七十五萬元，主題花為新畿內亞鳳仙。參與學校須在活動完結後，向康文署提交一本簡單的活動記錄冊，以相片和文字載述推行計劃的過程，例如學生領取花苗時的情況、種植過程、校內種植活動花絮等。

家長撲花供子女交功課──本學年全港有一千一百七十四間學校、共三十七萬六千名學生參加，康文署去年十一月至上月期間，向參與的學校派發花苗。不過，不少參與學生的家長在社交網站fb留言，指「花未開已死」，需急急趕到旺角花墟買花苗重新栽種以求「交功課」。有家長坦言，「我家那棵死狀恐怖，只剩下兩小片像吃剩的紫菜乾」，質疑康文署延至冬季才向學校派發花苗並不合適。

香港鮮花盆栽批發商會主席賴榮春指，新畿內亞鳳仙適合在攝氏十五至十八度、陽光普照環境下種植，太熱、太冷、空氣不流通等室內環境均不宜，故本港大多數住宅均不是理想的種植地點，「香港有幾多住宅有露台畀棵植物曬太陽吖！結果今年好多小朋友種死晒啲花，一股家長搵新畿內亞鳳仙花苗潮就湧現咗」。

賴又指，自十二月底，陸續有大批家長因子女「種死花」，需急忙到花墟搜索新畿內亞鳳仙的花苗重新種植，高峰期每日接獲十宗查詢，令花苗於新春前夕出現「缺貨潮」。位於花墟的華景園藝負責人招先生亦指，新畿內亞鳳仙花苗每盆約售十元，但因一月初有太多家長蜂擁搶購，暫已售罄。康文署發言人回應指，新畿內亞鳳仙是多年生草本植物，花朵顏色艷麗，花期漫長，適宜栽種在明亮但不受陽光直接照射的地方；香港大部分時間都可栽種，亦適合在香港的冬季種植。由於新畿內亞鳳仙較容易護理及生長，因此適合學生種植。發言人又指「一人一花計劃」的目的，是提高學生的綠化意識，該署會於學校報名後舉辦栽種講座，然後會免費派送花苗到各學校，強調若學生在種植期間植物枯萎，該署亦沒有要求參與學生或家長需另行購買花苗重新種植。

這邊廂是艾莉外婆種植新畿內亞鳳仙花的過程:

去年十一月底，因為家裏冬天陽光不足艾莉將自己從學校帶回家的新畿內亞鳳仙花苗交到外婆手上，她充滿信心外婆一定會種出一盆又美麗又茂盛的花。

外婆返回沙田家中，把新泥土倒入對上一年幫兩姊妹種過萬壽菊其中的一個膠花盆裏，再插入花苗，加一點水，讓它翌日開始得到太陽的照射。最初，鳳仙花長得不錯，葉多了，也開始茂盛起來。大約一月中，葉片邊緣開始變得枯黃，部分的葉掉下來了。外公心想可能這盆植物不能接受太多陽光，於是把它放在陰涼的地方退避一下。果然，這棵鳳仙經過挽救之後，生命得到保存。過了一段時間，大約舊曆新年前，奇蹟出現了──有大大小小四個花蕾長出來。

倆老在新年期間一直盼望這棵鳳仙要堅持生存下去，還要把花開了，使艾莉放完年假之後，可以回校交功課。皇天不負有心人，這棵生命力極強的新畿內亞鳳仙終於開了第一朵花，顏色是驕美的紫紅。

交功課的那天，老師和艾莉及鳳仙花合照了一幅相做個紀念。老師還說艾莉是第一位學生把長出花的鳳仙帶回學校。這次成功都應該歸功於艾莉外婆每天悉心澆花上。

Recent fruit news

What we need in our family from fruits these days are mainly oranges, apples, pears and bananas.

Sunkist navel oranges from United States became abundant in February. The prices went down reasonably at $3.30 each (3107). The tastes of such oranges recently are up to our expectation. They are sweeter and fresher. The 4012 oranges are bigger, but dearer at  prices around 4 to 5 dollars each.

Apples branded "Jazz", packed in sixes in Seattle, are considered in the public as snackers. These apples are in red colours and sometimes with patches of yellow. I do agree with what it says on the packet, "Tangy - Sweet and Crunchy". The firm texture and taste are quite adorable and impressive. It is interesting that the company in selling these apples describes them as "Small Apples for Small Hands". In my opinion, these apples rank higher than the "Red delicious" and "Washington" apples although the latter two brands of apples are bigger in size.

Anjou pears from America, in my mind, are always good in quality, but they take a few days to ripe. Before we eat them, we need some patience to watch the colour on their skin change from green to pale yellow .

Bananas are found all the year round here in Hong Kong. Most of them, I believe, are shipped from the Philippines. Their prices fluctuate recently from $3.60 to $4.50 per pound. They are nice to eat, but their skins soon become spotted in a day or two.