Life-wide Learning Day - 10 November, 2006

I was honoured to be invited by Mr. Sing to join the picnic of his 5D class at Lamma Island on November 10th. I wanted to experience this Life-wide Learning Day from another perspective because I was no longer a teaching staff of CCSC after my early retirement in September 2005.

Mr. Sing’s e-mail to me made me feel happy from top to bottom.
It ran like this: "Today when I taught my class Maths, I used similar triangle to solve a problem.

Some students at once told me that they learned similar triangles from you. I asked if they missed you. Some of them said, 'Yes'. So I think of inviting you to go for the picnic with us. "

I thought it was good to see my old colleagues and my students whom I was, at one time, their Mathematics teacher and class-teacher as well. Without hesitation, I wrote back to confirm that I would go.

I was to meet Sing at Central MTR Station at about 7:15 a.m. We met and went to a Café De Coral to take our breakfast. I planned to be the boss, but Sing said that his brother had given him a coupon. We met some of our students eating in the same restaurant.

After breakfast, we rushed to the Star Ferry Pier, not far away. With my camera, I took photos of this old pier which would be pulled down in a few days’ time. These photos, I believed, could bring back some of my memories in olden days when I embarked its ferries there.

Soon we headed towards Pier 4 where our students were waiting. I was happy to see some of my students greet me at the pier. We passed the gates with our octopus cards and was able to catch a ferry to Yung Shui Wan (榕樹灣). Mr. Siu was another teacher who would go with this class too. I said hello to my other colleagues on the ferry. In about 40 minutes, we arrived at YSW pier, in the north-west of the island. I was familiar with this island because I went there recently with my daughter, son-in-law and wife and several times with the whole school on Picnic Days.

Our destination was at Lo So Shing Beach (蘆鬚城海灘). After passing Hung Shing Yah Beach (洪聖爺灣海灘), we started to walk uphill and the speed slowed down every minute. One of the girls said that she could not walk any more, so her friends and teachers encouraged her to move on, but could not carry her. On the way up the hills we took some photos. Soon we took a short rest at a lookout where we could see the power plant of the Hong Kong Electric Company at the far side and Hung Shing Yah Beach on our right.

We started to walk up a little before we descended and turned right into another footpath. It was strange to me that the path narrowed at a certain point which suggested to me that we might be in the wrong path. I took the lead to take a better look. Further on, I was able to see some footsteps leading down to the beach we were longing for. We were actually on the right track!

Our students started to find the best site for barbecue. There were empty tables, benches and barbecue pits at the far end of the beach. Some of the students hired big umbrellas to shield themselves from the hot sun. Thanks to Sing who served us with good food such as sandwiches, eggs, chicken wings, fish balls and some sushi. What a great masterpiece of food prepared by Mrs. Sing! Siu brought along his mini-Scrabble. He expected to find Sing and me to be his opponents at the Game. Later, some students joined in the Game as they found it interesting and challenging!

I remembered that at one time, I used my mobile phone to call to my wife. Later when the telephone bill came, I learned that that call was considered as an oversea call from China. What an absurd thing to know this! The island was just a few miles from Hong Kong Island. Be advised to my readers here that you better not make any telephone calls with your mobile phones on this island unless it is for emergency.

We were to take the ferry back to Hong Kong at 4 o’clock. After some photo-taking and cleaning-up work, we started to move. Sing took the lead and the students at the head of the column walked very fast. Siu was in the centre and I was at the end. I had to drive those slow ones like sheep in a warning tone, “Hurry up, otherwise we shall miss the ferry!”. Siu was so kind to turn back several times to drive the students on. I just didn’t know why our teachers (I was acting as one on that day) were so worried and that the slow students did not bother the idea of seeing the ferry go away with their friends waving on deck!

It was God’s (I am not a Christian nor a Catholic, but I use it here) arrangement that the whole class could board the ferry at the last minute. One of the ship-crews marvelled at the sight of the colourful design of a tie laminated on the T-shirts which Sing and his students were wearing. Do you know what that crewman said? He said he wanted to have one T-shirt like those too!

Stepping out of the pier, the whole class of 5D took group photos on a staircase, showing off the front and the back look of their T-shirts! Let me tell you the designer of these T-chirts. He was Lam Shin Wai, Jeff. He was one of the handsome and kind-hearted students of my class 3B. I was amazed to find that students were allowed to design their T-shirts for the picnic. I liked the Change of P.E. T-shirts to their creative T-shirts. Tell you all a secret. Their class-teacher's T-shirt was similar at your first glance, but looking closely, you will find the shirt was merely made for Mr. Sing because his name was printed on it. Thanks the good designer, Jeff for this masterpiece. I think Sing would treasure such a T-shirt and would not wash it!

These students were very lovely. Even if some of them were not taught by me, we talked freely. Perhaps they knew that I was once a teacher of the school. Soon they will take the Certificate of Education Examination. Hope that they will have very outstanding results!

Life-wide Learning Day

Life-wide Learning Day (全方位學習日) is a strange name to the outside world except the schools of Hong Kong. It is a new product in School Reform created by the Education and Manpower Bureau (in short EMB) in recent years.

In the past, this day was reckoned as a picnic day, welcomed by students at all ages because they could spend a day at the seaside, down our valleys and over the hills. They could absorb sunshine and breath fresh air in the countryside, eat sandwiches or fry chicken wings at the fires they set. They could talk to and play with their classmates freely without hearing their teachers saying “Shut up”.

Now, the happy moments have gone because EMB says that picnic day is not meant for fun and that students should learn something from this day of school function. What our students in Hong Kong have to do is to write reports in the form of essays, poems or songs if they have the talent, drawing pictures or photo-taking, studying nature, rocks and plantations. Tourist guides and Biology teachers are busy talking about history, living environment and names of plants they come across. Class teachers have to keep an eye on every student to see if they will lose sight in the countryside or at the seaside.

I had the experience of taking my class to Tung Chung (東涌) on such a day. As soon as we reached Tung Chung, we were guided to see the remains of an old castle(東涌炮台) at Tung Chung. It was surrounded by walls with a few cannons pointing at sea. It was supposed to be a lookout for watching any pirate ships coming in. The castle was a fortified one in a small scale, interesting but primitive. It had the size of two to three basketball courts. The tourist guide said that it had been turned into a school before!

During lunch time, I accompanied some of my students, all boys, to a MacDonald at Yat Tung Estate (逸東邨).“15 minutes for lunch” our tourist guide shouted to us. I thought it was a crazy thing to finish eating in such a short time, especially for those boys who decided to eat in a MacDonald. The waiting time for ordering burgers was far more than that of eating in this fast-food restaurant. I went with these boys because I was afraid that they would get lost and might run about, doing something dangerous which I did not expect to see. Even more, I did not want them to be impolite to other customers or dirty the MacDonald. My another duty was to find the location of a Male toilet so that they could go and made sure that all of them left the shopping centre.

Soon after we had taken our lunch, the tourist guide took us out to the wetland near Tung Chung. We avoided from stepping on the wet mud on our way. I did not like the act of a few of my students throwing pebbles seaward to see them jump over the water surface because sooner or later the land would be reclaimed in this way and there would be no more wetland at Tung Chung.

Next we spent most of our time at Tai Ho Wan (大濠灣). Our tourist guide was an expert, explaining to us different kinds of plants as we walked along the narrow footpath round the bay off the North Lantau Expressway(北大嶼山快速公路). We stayed for about an hour there and took the same bus to North Point where I dismissed my students.

I guessed my students must have one or two compositions to write in their English or Chinese Composition lessons. I myself would not ask my students to do any calculations in relation to Mathematics as assignment on this special day. We, teachers, just let our students experience what EMB supposes them to do on a Life-wide Learning day.

One-day Trip to Macau – 27 October 2006 Friday

It was a nice fine day. Alan, Winnie, Joseph, Yolander, my wife and I were to meet at the pier to Macau at Shun Tak Building at 10 a.m. We boarded a jetfoil at 10:45 p.m. Winnie invited me and my wife to eat her boiled eggs. Fung, Yolander and Alan had no interest at all. I gobbled two, not because I was hungry, but of courtesy.

After an hour, we reached the pier at Macau, a new and modern one. We first fetched maps of Macau from the Travel Department Office at the pier. We boarded two different taxis (taxi-fare: about $20) to 議事亭(在Av Almeida Ribeiro(大馬路)附近) to take lunch at Restaurante Platao (九如坊) which served Portuguese food. We ate clams, rice, sweet puddings, bloody duck. Winnie refused to eat the duck because she was scared by its name and its muddy look. The rest of us tasted it without fear. To me, there was no smell of blood but soy sauce! The bill was around $800.

Having fed-up with food, we walked to de S. Paulo(大三巴) and then we turned right to climb a little footpath to a fortified castle with a big cannon and later on to Museu De Macau (澳門博物館) at the top of a small hill. We descended from the other side of the hill back to the square surrounded by the old classic buildings at the time under Portuguese rule.











We took a bus to Taipa (氹仔), an island connected to Macau by 3 bridges. The bus climbed the tallest one with a big arch at its centre. I liked this bridge because when I was travelling on it, it was as if I was sitting in a roller-coaster going to a great height and then dropping back to earth! We got off in a narrow street and found our way to a park with a small church. Photos were taken there and then we walked down to some other narrow streets on the island. Winnie, my wife and Alan tried the “Lau Lin” flavoured ice-cream. They said it was good, but Fung and I refused to taste!

We then walked to a roadside café famous for its pork-chop buns (豬扒包). The buns were sold out, instead we had pork-chop sandwiches (豬扒三文治) and milk-tea. The food was okay, but not outstanding. The scariest things to see were the massive number of ants crawling on the wall a few feet away from us.

Soon we returned to the city proper and dropped off at the bus-stop at Hotel Lisboa (葡京酒店) and crossed the road to the new Wynn Hotel(永利酒店+賭場). As we were taking photos outside this hotel, the 007 theme song“Diamonds are forever” started to raise. The fountains of water waved about and shot up at times. It was an amazing sight! Entering the hotel, we turned to the casino to have a look. It was comfortable inside with people gambling. We did not bet because we believed we had no such luck. Anyone could take drinks of water or soft-drinks inside, free of charge.

On we went to Macau Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) by taxi. We did not take many photos there because it was already dark. Surprisingly, we found very few people in this area. Although the sea-food restaurants had opened, many of their tables remained unoccupied. There was a street singing at a corner. We acted as their audience. Winnie was the one who enjoyed the music most. She even requested the singers to sing the songs she liked to hear! I guessed these songs were those of the Brasilians (森巴舞曲).

We walked to the Sands (金沙娛樂場) and had a look inside. The casino was too crowded with people gambling. We did not stay long because it was not comfortable at all to be there!

Soon we drew back and took a taxi to dine at a Chinese restaurant in a side street of (大馬路). There we ordered Chinese dishes such as steamed fish, shark fin soup, salted chicken and vegetables. After dinner, Winnie was a big spender. She bought bags of food gifts, major in peanut candies from Pastelaria Koi Kei (鉅記餅家). Fung bought some. We did not buy any because we did not want to carry. We rushed to the pier by taxi hoping to get an earlier ferry, but, to our disappointment, we could only get the 11:15 p.m. tickets although it was just 9:30 p.m. Helpless in thought we walked past the immigration counters and headed for the gates to see if we could get an earlier ferry by queuing before the gate for the 10:30 p.m. ferry for substitution seats. My colleagues were so kind to let my couple go first to the gate because they knew that we lived farther than they did. Although we had to wait for some time, all of us were able to board that jetfoil back to Hong Kong. We believed we were the last few to board. The feeling was really like that of refugees running away from their motherland.

Visit to Sydney - 31 December 2006 Sunday

Six of us, Ho Keung, Yin Ping, Connie, Philip, Yuen Siu and I once again had backyard breakfast.



We met everyone at a church and left there at about 11. Tim drove Connie and Philip to Parklea Market. Kenny had to go to his church and Loretta took Alison home.


Ho Keung drove us to Bondi Beach. We walked and took photos on the beach for some time and absorbed a lot of sunshine. This beach also faced the Pacific Ocean, so it was an ideal beach for surfing. There were very few trees here, so caps should be worn and skin rubbed with suntan lotion, but I did not do any of the above. Soon I found myself sun-burnt!

At about 1:30 p.m., we headed for the airport. Ho Keung took a wrong turn, so Yin Ping had to find out the right track to the airport. We quickly checked in first. Soon Connie and Philip joined in. We took lunch at a Macca inside the airport. Next we took group photos before we went to the immigration at about three o’clock. This time we hugged one another and waved goodbye to everyone of the Chung’s family.

We had to fill forms before we stepped to the counters of Immigration. Our passports were stamped and we went to the gate and boarded the Cathay Plane home. It took off at about 4 p.m. After another 9 hours or so, the plane landed on Hong Kong International Airport. It was about 10 p.m. We had to wait for our luggage for some time. We took an A41 home. Well, it was almost midnight when we reached home!

Visit to Sydney - 30 December 2006 Saturday

In the morning, Ho Keung, Yin Ping, Connie, Philip, Yuen Siu and I went to Tobruk Sheep Station. A shepherd had started the demonstration of baking Damper. We were served with bread and milk tea . Next he demonstrated how he reared his sheep with the help of his two sheep dogs.


Following this, he went on demonstrating how to shear the wool of a sheep. When the demonstrations were over, another man at the station taught us how to play the boomerang. Philip and Ho Keung were the best two who could swing the boomerang in a circular track. Soon it was time to say good-bye to the owner of the Station who was very kind indeed.

We left and went to Fagan Park to have a picnic lunch on gentle sloping grass lawn. The trouble always came from the flies there. We had to wave them away from our food. Hopefully we did not them as well in our sandwiches!


We rushed to Koala Park because it was near the feeding time of the koalas. We were happy to see Loretta and Kenny dropped by to say “hello” to us. Inside the park, we found very lovely koalas, an emu, penguins and kangaroos.


I was happy in feeding a kangaroo. We encountered an elegantly beautiful peacock. Ho Keung hand-fed it. Before leaving the park, I bought souvenirs of a magnet and a cake of soap. We had dinner at Castle Hill and in the night time we packed our luggage, ready to leave the next day.

Visit to Sydney - 29 December 2006 Friday

At about nine we tanked up both cars. Next we picked up Tim and May. Philip drove Tim’s car while I drove Ho Keung’s car northward to the Blue Mountains. Ho Keung did not join us today because his back was hurt during a competition with his elder sister. He had to take a rest.

At the blue mountains, we walked about the Scenic World, but did not take the cable car. We took photos of the “3 sisters” at a lookout.

We drove to a small town called Leura. There we ate lunch at the sloping grassy partition of a road.

Next we went to Wentworth Falls to take a bush walk at Valley of the Waters. As we were walking down the path, it started to rain. Yin Ping, Yuen Siu and I stayed at a shelf of a big rock while the young ones went on their way down the rocks. It was a tiring upward walk back to the visitors’ centre where we started.

Next, I again did the driving back to the City proper, while Philip drove to Castle Hill to pick up Ho Keung. Soon we faced a heavy downpour of rain on a freeway. The traffic slowed down. As we reached New Town, the rain began to stop. We turned into the narrow street where Kenny, Loretta and Ally live. It was a parking test to me. I had to squeeze Ho Keung ' s big Mitsubishi into the tiny spot opposite to Kenny’s house in between 2 cars. It was a miracle that I could do it!

Loretta and Alison started their concert. Loretta played the piano for some tunes and held Ally’s hands to play the others. How interesting!

Later all people arrived. We went round the corner and walked to an Italian restaurant selling pizzas. We ordered 5 to 6 pizzas. Philip, Connie and the rest gave me a big surprise when the waitress brought a sweet dessert with ice-cream pre-celebrating my birthday. At Loretta’s house we ate gingerbread.

Each of us had to say a few words about his/her recent deepest experience. Mine was about driving to and from Canberra. Loretta and Kenny gave us Christmas gifts (grape juice to Sek Sang and The Essential Aussie Song book and its “CD” to Yuen Siu. Yin Ping drove us back to Castle Hill.

Visit to Sydney - 28 December 2006 Thursday

Early morning at seven something, we drove to Tim’s place in two cars to pick up Tim and May. Loretta’s family did not join us this time. Ho Keung took up the driving. We planned to go to Canberra, the capital of Australia. We went more or less south-westward to Exeter.

There Tim tanked up his car and we parked our cars before a Macca and took our breakfast. It was my turn to drive. The next stop was a small town called Goulburn. An enormous grey Merino sheep stood at the roadside. It was actually a shop for visitors. We walked in to look at the articles. On its third floor, we could look out from the two eyes of the sheep. Funny enough!

Next we reached Canberra by 12 noon. We found our way to the War Memorial. Inside we studied the war history of Australia in World War I and II. I loved to see the warplanes in the Second World War.

It was 2 p.m. when we had picnic lunch at the lakeside near Albert Street. As we were cooking and eating the noodles and vegetables, a swarm of flies flown around our food. We used one hand to wave them away and the other to push food into our mouths. Then we drove across a bridge to reach the New Parliament House. It had a modern look. Not far away on the opposite we saw the white Old Parliament House.

Inside the New Parliament House, we visited the rooms and halls where meetings were held. Later we drove around the streets with embassies of different countries. Then we took a rest at Lennox Gardens. Tim , Ho Keung, May and Yuen Siu took a short sleep on the mats we spread on the ground. Yin Ping went about taking photos, but dropped her pair of glasses on the grass. All of us tried our best to find it, but failed. Fortunately she found it by herself, unbroken.

Our next stop was Manuka. We went into a Thai restaurant for dinner. The food was tasty and we asked for much rice. I thought the shop-owner was an Australian who could speak very fluent Thai. This time Tim and May were the bosses.

It was nearly dark when Ho Keung started to drive back. On the way, Tim asked us to follow his car to see a ghost town called Collector. There were only 150 people in that town. The road was dark. There were a few shops there. We were able to find a so-called hotel there. Next we saw a petrol station, but it was out of service at that time. Soon we stopped before some blurred figures of people-like sculptures. Tim reminded us to close our windows. Those were ghosts, I thought.

Next we reached Goulburn and I took over the driving onwards to Sydney continuously for about two and a half hours in complete darkness. It was an exciting drive for me, full of sweat! I drove 300 miles in all the whole day. On the way back to Castle Hill, I noticed that the petrol tank of Ho Keung’s car was almost empty. I wondered if we had to push his car home any time near Castle Hill!

Visit to Sydney - 27 December 2006 Wednesday

This morning we had a backyard breakfast with Connie and Philip. They enjoyed such an arrangement. We went to pick May and Tim in two cars. We parked our cars at Eastwood and travelled to Circular Quay by train.

We met Loretta, Kenny and little Ally at the quay. Connie, Loretta and May were beautifully dressed because we would go together to a buffet at the revolving restaurant at Centre-point that night. At about half past twelve, a total of 11 people boarded the Captain Cook’s harbour cruiser. This time, we sat at a long table parallel to the ship’s side. The lunch was again an enjoyable one. After lunch, we were told that we could go to the open top deck as we pleased. We were in time to find a plane writing some letters in the sky. “SAGEM” it wrote. How amazing it was! It was another busy time for photo-taking for everyone who had a camera. The cruise ended at about three.

Outside the quay, Philip, Connie, Yin Ping, Yuen Siu and I decided to tour inside the Opera House while the others walked around. The Opera House had different looks from different angles, inside and outside. It was like a beautiful sculpture. We bought tickets at a discount rate of A$106/ 5 persons at the booking office. The tour began at 3:45 p.m. A tour-guide took us round. She talked of the builder and some history of the Opera House. We entered the Concert hall but we could not take any photos inside because of copyright. Soon the tour ended after the last talk in the theatre for plays. We had a sip of orange juice at a shop underneath the Opera House. There we met everybody.

Next we strolled inside Royal Botanic Gardens. Philip intentionally rolled himself down a gentle slope of grassland. There Connie and Philip lay on the ground, talking towards the sky. We were only the watchers. We walked on, out of the park and turned on to the State Library of New South Wales. I took the last photo there because the battery in my camera became low. On we went past the Parliament House of NSW and Sydney Hospital. Soon we reached Hyde Park. Ho Keung started his bird-feeding. Ha! He was not afraid of bird-flu! We stayed in the park for some time. Connie and Philip went to take photos themselves.

Towards half past seven we stopped at Centrepoint. We paid at the counter for the buffet and queued up before the lifts. We waited for a number of minutes before we could reach the restaurant at one of the top floors of the Sydney Tower. It was a delicious buffet dinner but it was too much for me and Yuen Siu. It was dim inside. The lights above turned as the restaurant revolved, so we hardly knew what food we were eating at times. We could see the marvelous 360-degree night view of Sydney. It was a pity that I could not take a single photo there, but concentrate at my food or look at the view outside. It was almost 11:15 p.m. when we got on a train towards Eastwood. It was a tiring day for us all.

Visit to Sydney - 26 December 2006 Tuesday

We took a heavy breakfast at Tim’s home at 8:30. Then we drove to Parramatta. Having parked his car, Tim ran to buy day trippers for us (A$15.4 each) for a whole day on any train, bus or ferry. Tim was able to return in time to hand over the trippers to us. We boarded a Rivercat to Circular Quay. It was almost an-hour journey.

It was the first time Connie and Philip‘s visit to the Rocks. We took photos at every spot and were planning to take a ferry to Manly Beach, but the pier was full of people waiting. We learned that the ferry would stop service shortly until three because there would be a yacht race in the harbour that day.

We boarded a train to Town Hall and enjoyed a steak-lunch at Star Bar. I was too stupid to choose “well-done” to my steak. The steak, to me, was like a tough rock. Yin Ping said goodbye to us because she had to go to work at that hour. We next went to Queen Victoria Building to have a look and photo-taking. We took a train back to Circular Quay and boarded a ferry to Manly Beach.

It took only ten minutes to walk from the pier to the beach. There were tall trees here to give us shade. The water was blue and the waves were high because the beach was facing the Pacific Ocean. There were lots of people here, sunbathing, swimming and playing. We took photos of the three young girls, May, Loretta and Connie on the beach. Philip took a splendid photo of Connie and me jumping up from the sand. At the pier before we stepped onto the ferry, we ate ice-cream. Yuen Siu chose the green lime-flavoured ice-cream. She liked it, but I didn’t.

Evening came. We took a train ride to Central Station and then a bus ride to New Town where Loretta lives. That night we had pizzas as dinner. Later Kenny drove us to the nearby station and we returned by train to Parramatta – Tim drove May, Connie and Philip home first while we waited for Tim’s car to return for our ride back to Castle Hill.