Inside Western Market (西港城), there is a restaurant selling what they call old-fashioned dim sums. Here is the list of dim sums:
1. 懷舊糯米包
2. 鮮味臘腸卷
3. 佐公金錢肚
4. 黃金鴨腳扎
5. 欖仁馬拉糕
6. 白松露菌鵝肝包
7. 荔茸蝴蝶蝦
8. 九彩XO醬炒腸粉
9. 鮮蝦豆苗餃
10. 炭燒珍珠雞
Which of the above dim sums will arouse memories of your old days at tea houses (茶居/茶樓)?
In the past, Merry-go-round was a “Must ride” item for children at Lai Yuen Amusement Park (荔園遊樂場). The up-and-down wooden horses as they went did give a sense of riding to small children. Usually parents or grand-parents were standing beside the horses to safeguard their children or grandchildren from falling off. The feeling of sitting on such horses turning round-and-round and up-and-down at the same time is not at all fun. After turning a number of rounds, a person may become dizzy or sick. I think the children sitting on the horses do feel the same. The game may turn them too excited to speak anything and they have to hold on the rails tightly.
Lai Yuen was gone for a number of years. That Merry-go-round was wiped off as well. Instead private buildings were erected from its site.
A shopping arcade at Ma On Shan has equipped with a smaller Merry-go-round for the customers to bring their children to play. Once the customers have accumulated their receipts of buying goods from its shops up to a certain amount of money, they are entitled a free ride. With this promotion, shops inside the arcade and the customers both benefit.
It is a paradise for children of small ages because they can run about freely and join in games in this giant kingdom .
Besides the lovely Snoopy, there are other characters:
1.
On the wall of the small house, from left to right
2. Marcie – the left-hand-most girl with dark-hair and glasses
3. Peppermint Patty – the brown-haired girl
4. Charlie Brown – a boy with the notable curls at his forehead
5. Lucy – the dark-haired girl
6. Linus – a boy with few hairs crossing his forehead
7. Sally – the girl with yellow hair
They are the main Peanuts characters in a comic series.
This is a new hotel just opposite to the Hung Hom Railway Station. The outlook is extraordinary. The bay windows of the rooms look like ripples of waves that come from the sea. These small ripples and the wavy roof of the railway Station are in good harmony. The hotel is designed roughly in the shape of the left hand bracket “(“. Since it is high above the railway station and there are no more buildings that block its north, west and south side. It masters the “invincible harbour view + view of parts of
The hotel users can look at the sceneries of Homantin, Mongkok, Yaumati and Tsimshatsui from its north-western rooms. Those living in the rooms facing west can view Tsimshatsui, Central and Wanchai. The rest living in rooms facing south can view Wanchai,
Our Hung Hom Railway Station has been re-constructed from a small concrete one into a bigger one with structures made of steel and glass. Now it has a modern look similar to the Similarities of the Airport and the Station:
1. There are quite a number of shops.
2. The restaurants and fast food shops are on an elevated level.
3. Both are see-through by glass walls.
4. The roofs are wavy and supported by metallic structures.
5. They have sky-windows to let in sunlight to save energy.
6. They are both spacious and comfortable to be in.
7. There are seats for people to wait for their planes or trains.
Differences of the Airport and the Station.
1. The Airport is far from the City on
2. The Airport occupies a vast area and now possesses two terminals while the Station is of a smaller scale.
3. The Airport links the outside world to
4. The Airport deals with many in-going and out-going planes while the Station just deals with several passenger through-trains and local trains.
5. The Airport is worldwide famous, but the Station serves locally and for in-land
I love looking at people flying kites, especially those very big interesting ones in television. People in different countries like to fly kites of huge-size into the sky. Their shapes are wonderful – dragons, phoenixes, fishes, butterflies, birds and shapes from creative ideas. Flying kites needs a big open piece of land where winds are frequent and moderate.
On a Sunday, we went to Tai Po Waterfront Park. We noticed some people flying kites there. It was not an ideal place to fly kites because there was not enough space for people to run about so that the kites could fly up easily.
Small kites were seen flying up in the sky there, simply because of their size and weight. We chanced to see a man and his friends trying to fly a kite with a long tail into the sky. They attempted to fly it, but failed because it was soon trapped by the nearby trees.
I believed that if there was enough space, the flight would be successful, interesting and a grand sight too!
This is a sculpture placed at the top of a coffee shop at the shopping centre inside Metropolis Tower (都會大厦), Hung Hum.
I like this sculpture because it conveys a nice message to the customers with the following points.
1. It sells hot coffee or tea drinks.
2. The smoke means hot and carries aroma of coffee or tea.
3. The running pose of the waiter/waitress means the drinks will be served fast.
4. The waiter/waitress carries a smile on his/her face.
5. The coffee or tea is served with a nice warm cup, unlike those plastic glasses in fast food shops.
It is a modern piece of art. Its good points are:
1. It is a human figure with a round head carrying a happy smile.
2. Its body, hands and legs are just simple bended strips with a very natural running pose.
3. The centre of interest comes from the beautiful cup together with the up-going smoke.
4. The nice little flapping apron at the waist shows the uniform of the waiter/ waitress.
Please give your own ideas about this sculpture.
The same rows of flowers may look differently when we view them from different angles.
The photo on the left is a beautiful view, rich in colourful flowers taken on higher ground with the camera pointing downwards. When you look at this photo, you will have a happy heart.
The photo on the right is not so rich in coloursl. It was taken on the opposite side on lower ground with the camera pointing upwards. When you look at this photo, you will not be so happy because of the scarcity of flowers at front.
Every day, try to view things from different angles, you will find the world looks good at a suitable angle!
The top photo shows a real tram at Please find ten differences between the two trams.
請找出以上兩幅照片中的電車那十處不同.
Here are my suggested differences:
Differences in ------------ Real tram ---------------- Toy tram
1. routes ------------- Powell & Mason Streets ------ Powell & Hyde Streets
2. names of co.-- San Francisco Municipal Railway --- San Francisco Cable car
3. car number -----------------16------------------- No number
4. vertical bars at front ------- 5-------------------- 4
5. length of front bar------- much longer ------------ much shorter
6. compartment -------------- yes ------------------- no
7. warning words------- Hold on/ 2 standees only----- no
8. made---------------------- metal-------------------- plastic
9. colour----------- dark blue + brownish yellow--------red + sharp blue + golden
10. step board--------------- thin---------------------- thick
I find two extra ones:
11. bell at roof top---------- smaller------------------- bigger
12. logo of company---------- yes--------------------- no
This helicopter flew in from the
This kind of emergency service stopped ever since SARS broke out in the hospital. Now that this grassy field together with the car park (originally three tennis courts) are closed down for building the New Prince of Wales Hospital, never will a rescue helicopter come again. This is really a historic photo!
This is the slogan given by Watson’s Distilled Water. I chuckled at the sight of Chow Chung (周中)’s face on this bottle of distilled water Tony brought home yesterday night.
Amusing enough to see this famous cook and judge at HKTVB programme, “美女廚房” appear on the racks of supermarkets or 24-hour stores and also in different corners of Hong Kong.
If one day you want your face to appear anywhere in
It was at Sydney Central (Railway) Station that an Australian citizen came forward to ask me (I was holding a camera) if I wanted to have a photo taken with my wife and little Alison. Before this, I had taken a photo of Loretta, my wife and Alison. At that time (about 5 o'clock), I learned that the glare of light that came from outside (left hand side) could spoil the photo, so I moved my camera to the right to lessen the chance of bright light shining towards my camera.
Loretta was actually receiving a phone call and had walked a little away from the pram in which Alison was sitting. I walked towards my wife and Alison. I believed this kind lady observed this and believed that it would be good to take a photo for us.
With her warmest offer, I handed over my camera to her without a second thought. It was the first time I encountered such offer in
The photo came out to be one with the glare of light that spoilt the left bottom corner and blurred the photo to some extent. I did not mind the quality of the photo, but thanked this kind-hearted lady in taking a photo for us so that we could bring home an "unforgettable memory"!
In comparison with the bush animals at Ma On Shan Central Park, those in Disneyland, Can you find the following animals in the photo?
1. elephant
2. pony (small horse)
3. hippopotamus
4. vulture
5. giraffe
There is still an animal on the left. It looks like a monkey. Do you agree?
Turning a bush into an animal is a kind of Art.
It is not simple at all to cut an animal out of some bushes. It is really difficult indeed to make the shape look perfect. It takes time, skill and patience in the process. As the bushes still keep growing, continuous supervision and cutting are necessary. The shape of the animal that the gardener wants to show depends on how much he knows about it. Others cannot help!
What kind of animals are they in the photos?
I bring out some designs of commercial logos today.
Study them carefully and think about the following questions.
1. What can you learn and see from these logos?
2. Are the colours used in good harmony?
3. What special things do you like about these logos?
4. Of the five logos here, which is your favourite logo?
To write your ideas is very simple, just click onto the word “comments” at the bottom of the blog, you may write as freely as you can!
B.O.A.C., PAN AM, TWA are old names of airline companies, but QUANTAS remains the same up to now.
Some names of airline companies such as ANSET were gone and new names such as Oasis, Dragonair, Virgin Atlantic, EVA Air arise.
I was delighted to have chances to take photos of passenger-carrying aircrafts of different airlines at different airports.
At
I took a photo of UA (United Airlines) planes.
At
I got photos of planes Thai Airways, Air
At
I took photos of planes of Singapore Airlines (SIA) and one from an airline company, SilkAir, which I have never seen or heard before.
When I travel again, I am going to take photos of planes of other airlines to make my collection bigger.
On April 24th, some trucks carrying yellow containers moved to the landing site for rescue helicopters in front of the present Prince of Wales Hospital. These containers were placed at different places along the border of the building site of the New Prince of Wales Hospital. The car park was still in service at that time.
Today, May 7th, the construction work is in progress. The car park has stopped service. At the front near the main road, there are some small machines for drilling and picking up soil samples. Definitely they are not drilling oil up. The green steel bars, I believe, will be punched down the soil to prevent it from falling into the big trench dug down. The yellow containers should be for offices and storage use. The construction work can take two to three years to complete and it can be interesting to see how a hospital building is erected, but the people living in buildings near by will suffer from sound pollution and dust invasion in the following years!
On April 5th, we had dinner with my elder brother and sister-in-law. The restaurant we went to sold Japanese food. My son ordered a set-dinner. He was given a small bottle of soft-drink with some Japanese words and cartoons on it. It was the first time in my life to see a bottle with a marble as a stopper. When the soft-drink came, the mouth was open with a straw inserted. My son sipped half of it and I finished it with much satisfaction of 新奇香. The taste was somehow similar to that of Seven-up. In my mind, I was aiming at exploring more about this kind of soft-drinks later. A chance came one morning after we had breakfast at Café De Coral. We passed a shop selling sweets and different kinds of snacks. Through the window, we could see this kind of soft-drinks selling at $10 for two. The shop was not yet open because it was still early.
Later of the day I returned to this shop and bought two bottles of different tastes. They were soda drinks, one in lemon flavour and the other peach flavour. Both of them were made in PRC and with capacity of 250ml.
I chilled them first and was able to learn how to open one of them. When the thin plastic wrapping at the mouth was torn off, I could see a ring and a T-shaped opener. The ring was to keep the opener away from the marble at the mouth. To open the bottle was simple. With a push of the opener downwards at the marble, the gas inside the bottle at once escaped with a hissing sound. The taste of the soft-drinks was more or less similar to the one we drank at the Japanese restaurant. My interest was the marble inside the round compartment. Its movement was limited. Its main job was to close the mouth at the top. It remained in this compartment without dropping into the lower compartment. Why was it designed like this?
I learn that this kind of soft-drinks was invented many many years ago. I don’t know why it cannot become popular all those long years. Maybe the design is good, but the making of these bottles is a little complicated.
not need to guide the door for strangers nor chase any intruders like birds or cats. The backyard and grass lawn are her paradise. She takes the latter as her playground and toilet. Whenever we walk on the lawn, we have to take very careful steps watching out for the “mines” she lays every day, otherwise our shoes or slippers will be dirtied.
Sometimes she walks about to exercise her legs or take a short nap at a comfortable place in the backyard.
Mimi loves sunbathing. On sunny afternoons it rolls, rolls, rolls itself on solid ground at the backyard to get the warmth of the sun. At the same time she would take a short nap. How relaxing she is!
At a corner of the backyard is her comfortable kennel made and painted by Loretta and her friends. It is a good shelter for her from the rain and winds.
Several weeks ago, I bought a cheap funny jigsaw puzzle for 10 dollars. I like it because it is drawn in cartoons. I began to assemble those 1500 pieces the day before yesterday and am able to complete it in 24 hours, not continuously without sleep. It is enjoyable but a tiring thing to do. The difficulty comes from the loose pieces. It takes quite a long time to find and put the related parts together.
My tactics are:
1. First, I collect and assemble the pieces that will form the border of the picture.
2. Next I assemble each related groups, like cars, people based on their colours and shapes.
3. Later on, complete the whole puzzle with those grasses and plants. They are a little difficult to deal with because they are much alike.
I learn that I will work fast in the last few hours because the number of pieces of puzzles becomes smaller and it will be easier to fill the empty spaces.
A problem comes out during assembling these puzzles because the dining table has to be reserved as the “battlefield”. All meals will be finished on the bay window instead.
Another problem is that after the puzzle is completed, how can I keep it? I decide to slice it into smaller rectangular pieces like those grass pieces of a football lawn (草皮) and put it back to the box.
I have double happiness today because I have completed a 1500-piece puzzle within a short time and can have meals at the dining table once more!
