Real Strawberry Ice-cream

Recently the outdoor temperature is hard for us to bear. The hottest day wears a record of 35.3 degrees Celcius. It is Global warming that upsets the Nature. We must do something to turn our Globe better!

In the past, during hot days, we bought cheaper ice-cream from Dairy Farm, Wall’s (Mountain Cream) or Apollo. These kinds of ice-cream did not contain real fruit, nuts or chips of chocolate inside. We often bought those boxes of 3 flavours (strawberry/vanilla and chocolate) because there were varieties.

Recently we bought Dreyer’s ice-cream home to get the cool feeling of ice. We seldom see Real Strawberry ice-cream on sale. This time, we bought two boxes because they were sold in dual at a cheaper price. When eating, I loved to see real strawberry bits in between the ice-cream. It was really rewarding indeed.

There are other kinds of Dreyer’s ice-ream that we have tried.

(1) Rocky Road – Brown chocolate ice-cream which resemble the mud, White marshmallows as the pebbles and Roasted almonds as hard rocks

(2) Chocolate Mint – Mint flavoured ice-cream with chocolate chips

(3) Vanilla – No comment because we have not tried it

I begin to love this brand of ice-cream because I have something to chew besides eating the ice-cream.

With the same amount of ice-cream, the cheaper kinds (Dairy Farm/ Wall’s/ Apollo) normally cost around $20, Dreyer’s $30, Haagen-Dazs $60. I prefer the Middle-class!

A Forever-changing Stage

It was the first time Tony asked me to look at the sky at sunset yesterday. I handed my camera to him and asked him to take some photos of the sky for me. It did not mean I could not take the photos myself, but I wanted to see why he marvelled at the sky.

The photo here shows the sky as the stage and the clouds as the actors and actresses. The light of the setting sun has turned some of the clouds to burning red, beautiful enough to attract the attention of Tony and me.

Such a beautiful sight of burning flames in the sky was actually an overture of heavy rain that fell several hours later in the early morning. I want to see if the same thing will happen next time.

Building of New Prince of Wales Hospital (3) – From Simple to Complicated

The foundation work has been carried out for months.

First metal tubes were inserted into the ground, then the digging work was done by tube-like dual shovels which would dig out a limited amount of soil from the ground each time. The soil would be carried away by trucks.

Next more cranes moved in and the digging work was abandoned because it would take much time. The soil inside the metal tubes was removed by water pouring in and muddy water sucking up by pumps into tanks. When the soil inside the tubes had been removed, round network of steel bars were inserted and then concrete was poured in to set. Well, this kind of making piles was done every day and it was quick indeed.

There are a few questions I have in mind.

(1) How can such kind of work be done with so many machines around?

(2) How can the workers know the exact spots to make the pile?

(3) How can the concrete be set underground?

Using a Ball-pen

At a Pizza Hut on July 2^nd , we were lucky to sit at a table with a comfortable sofa on which Abby could have a soft landing. Abby’s presence did not involve any eating for her. She was given a short ball-pen. It was not the first time she saw a pen. She held it with confidence and began to draw strokes on a big piece of paper. Although her hands were little, her grip was tight. No matter what she drew on the paper did provide exercises to her hands and fingers so that she might find it easy to write or draw later at kindergarten or school.

Pride and joy could be seen on everybody’s face at the table. I admired her courage in trying new things as long as they are not dangerous to her. Praises were given to her as encouragement. I believe Abby enjoyed being praised and carried on exploring new things around her.

Y!

Thanks to Vivianne, who gave me this EP bag recently. It is a fresh member added to my collection of Environment Protection Bags. I like its bright bluish purple colour and fashionable design.

Auntie Chung likes it most because its size is fit for holding about six books to and from the library and the books are not easily seen from outside.

People may ask me why we should own so many reusable bags. Well, different sizes of bags serve different purposes. We carry those big ones for heavy duties such as bringing home a great number of fruits, large bottles of drinks, boxes of ice-cream,…..from supermarkets

The smaller ones will be for light duties, bringing home smaller articles from Watson’s, Mannings and other shops.

So REAL

I like this wall picture because of its nice colour and composition. Although the people in the picture are not “Real”, they are all praising the KFC chicken to be delicious and “So Real”.

People like things to be real: - Ladies like their jewels to be real. We always want our dollar notes real. People like their food they eat to be real, otherwise their health will be endangered.

Few months ago, some visitors were angry about the fake watches or jewellery they bought home from some of our Hong Kong shops.

Fake food is usually poisonous or harmful to us. Once the “Oily Fish” (油魚) have caused people diarrhea. The supermarkets said that they were (龍脷魚).

In the past, stories told us that some soy sauce was made from hair instead of beans.

It is interesting that some of our vegetarian food appears to be “so real” to taste and look such as 齋鮑魚,齋燒鵝,素雞,…..

A Comparison between Drawing and Photo

Drawing of Peak Tower on a $20 note.
It is a good technical drawing, but without people.

Photo of Peak Tower with a clear sky on a sunny day.
It is rare to see a blue sky in Hong Kong.

Drawing of the Victoria Harbour on a $20 note.
You can also see the Peak Tower and peak tram on the right. There are people in the tram!

Photo of the Victoria Harbour with many many tall buildings fringing along its shores.

Study the two sets of photos and drawings carefully.

In each set, compare them and tell me which one you like better!

Night and Day

The two photos shows the same place at night and day.

The Night view was taken near midnight, while the Day view was taken early at six.

From these photos, I think of “Gain and Loss”.

At night what we gain is the Moon and what we lose is the Sun.

At night we earn darkness and quietness, but lose brightness and noisiness.

To me, after retirement, I gain plenty of free time, but lose the pressure from work.

Building of New Prince of Wales Hospital (2) – Morning Exercises

June 22^nd , 2007

At 7:30 a.m., the workers at Prince of Wales Hospital building site lined up orderly at a corner and began to do some morning exercises. They stretched their hands and legs for a few minutes as warm-up exercises. It was a good practice for them because they would not be easily hurt during work.

In some firms, the employees have an assembly and listen to the instructions of their heads before they start work. They may nave some slogans to say before they go to work for the day. This may arouse much of their team spirit.

In some high-class restaurants, the waiters and waitresses have to receive information, say food promotion or new policies laid down by the restaurants, what to observe and do in their work and ways of improving their services to the customers.

In the past each morning at police stations, squads of policemen lined up to listen to their heads the orders and updated information about the recent criminal cases, what things to observe and suspects to be found so that they could start work easily.

Watching Sunset from a plane

The sun was setting towards six o'clock when our plane was flying over the South China Sea towards Hong Kong. It took less than an hour to land. The sky was in deep blue, but the orange sunlight began to fade and the skyline was clearly in curvature. The clouds below did not look white any more. Instead they appeared dark brown.

It seemed very quiet outside, but actually there were a lot of activities below the clouds. Ships of all kinds – warships, cruisers, cargo ships, fishing boats and yachts were sailing on the South China Sea. Birds were flying. If they were clever enough, they could land on the desks of ships for free rides, but the problem was that the birds did not know where the ships went. Fishes, big or small, sea turtles, octopuses, jelly-fish were swimming or floating in the sea water to find for food as their meals.

Inside the plane, the passengers had had their meals either in Chinese style or the Western Style. The best items of our meals were the delicious desserts - the bricks of chocolate ice-cream from Haagen–Dazs. Next time, when we fly Singapore Airlines, we expect to eat another flavour of such good ice-cream.

The Theme Song from the Cartoon series “Doraemon”

This KFC toy can play the Music of the theme song. Wonderful!

The following are the words of the song. Try to sing if you know the tunes!

多啦A夢主題曲 (叮噹主題曲) – the recent version from TV

人人期望可達到
我的快樂比天高
人人如意開心歡笑
跳進美夢尋獲美好

爬進奇妙口袋裏
你的希望必得到
離奇神化不可思議
心中一想就得到

想小鳥伴你飛舞
雲外看琴譜
咦, 喺竹蜻蜓呀!

多喜愛, 誰都知我真喜愛
Do ra e mon 唔

多喜愛, 誰都知我真喜愛
Do ra e mon 唔

Bird Study (8) – The Last Episode

It was June 25^th, 2007.

As I expected, the birds were ready to begin their journey of life.... As usual, when I come back home after work this afternoon, the first thing to do is to take a look at the nest and I found the nest empty. They were gone, and left nothing but their empty home... no goodbye message, nothing. I didn't expect them to leave anything for me, of course, except this nicely constructed nest. I wish them the best of luck for their future.

Here is the photo of the empty nest.

As a Biologist's point of view, Felix predicted that the robins would leave soon. There was no doubt that the birds did not read our calendar nor they could read Felix’s mind. They picked a week day to leave without saying “Goodbye” to their hosts. Would they come again next time? Felix and I never know!

Two Poor Designs

First, the design of the 10^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR MTR souvenir tickets is poor in “Spacing” The 16 photos are very small and too closely packed together. The hole and the arrow with “IN” on each ticket spoil the photos behind them. The problem can be solved by interchanging the lower half (the purple belt of Bauhinias) with the upper half (the photos). Next, the photos can be enlarged and take a better arrangement. The purple belt should be made thinner at the same time.

Second, the design of the First Day Cover issued by MTR for the 10^th Anniversary is also not good at all. The famous buildings are arranged in a long line, but they are out of proportion. There is no linkage among these famous landmarks of Hong Kong.The worse part is that the cable car is grounded on the floor which happened lately in Hong Kong.

The Bauhinias again occupy again a large area of the First Day Cover.

Only the Chop mark and the $1.4 stamp are outstanding. The stamp shows a number of children running hand-in-hand along the shore of Kowloon and the background of the stamp is North Point, Hong Kong Island. The beautiful orange colour of the stamp comes from the early morning sun.

HKSAR 10th Anniversary MTR Souvenir Tickets

They are “Special” tickets that can be used for Unlimited Free Rides on July 1^st, 2007 only. I did not use them on that day for fear of too many people in the streets, attending celebrations or watching fireworks.

On the twin tickets, there are 16 small photos which shows the infrastructures of Hong Kong, scenic points, lives of people and the MTR trains.

Top row of photos (from left to right)

1. IFC – International Financial Centre

2. MTR train at Disneyland, Hong Kong

3. The Kap Shui Mun Bridge

4. The Convention Centre

5. The winding roads in a part of Hong Kong

6. The young and the old

7. The Big Buddha

8. Tai O fishing port

Bottom row of photos (from left to right)

9. Bauhinia

10. Hong Kong International Airport

11. AsiaWorld-Expo

12. Airport Express, MTR

13. Ngong Ping 360 cable car

14. Golden Bauhinia Statue

15. Peak Tower

16. Hong Kong Disneyland

Peak Tower

The new Peak Tower (凌霄閣) replaced the old one (老襯亭) in May, 1997. It stood 396 metres above sea level. This architecture is a modern one which resembles the crescent shape of the Moon. There are restaurants, a cinema called “Peak Explorer Motion Simulator” (超動感影院), Hong Kong Historical Adventure (漫遊列車), Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium (奇趣館), shops, display rooms of wax-figures of famous people (蠟像館) and the most important of all, the Peak Tram Station at its base(山頂纜車總站). Tourists love to look at Hong Kong at it Scenic View Platform (觀景台).

This modern building appears on the back side of our new Blue 20-dollar notes issued by two of our banks. Do you know which two?

A. Standard Chartered Bank

B. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

C. Bank of China (Hong Kong)

B.Y.O.B.

In recent years, HKSAR urges people of Hong Kong to bring their bags along when they buy food or things from shops or supermarkets.

B.Y.O.B. means “Bring Your Own Bags”. It is a very good idea to meet the need of “Environmental Protection” and to save the World.

Before HKSAR imposes a law on a tax of 50 cents to be given to the government for each plastic bag issued to the shoppers at any shops in Hong Kong, different companies, shopping centres, petrol companies, organizations, even schools give people EP bags (I called them) 環保袋 as free gifts. The purposes are two, first as advertisement and second as environmental protection.

We welcome such acts and carry some of these bags along whenever we go to supermarkets or ordinary markets.

Our collection of EP bags is:

1. am730 – a newspaper on weekdays, free of charge

2. Family Fun Day 04 – La Salle College

3. 無間道 – one of our Hong Kong films

4. Green EP bag – MTR

5. EP bag – Caltex

6. Giordano Concepts – Giordano

7. Sony Shop – Sony

8. 康鈣C – a brand of Vitamin C

9. Telford Plaza – the shopping centre at Telford Garden, above Kowloon Bay MTR Station

10. RITE – Recycle Ink & Toner for the Earth

11. 天主愛你一百分 – 福傳 evanlife

Recently in Hong Kong, thousands of people are crazy at buying a kind of EP bags which are sold in England and are used by some famous film stars and models. They are sold here at HK$120, but in England, about HK$80.

These bags are nothing unusual, but with the words “I’m NOT A Plastic Bag!” printed on them. I don’t believe these buyers of bags will carry them to markets or supermarkets. They just want to own them, simply because some famous stars own them first.

Circle Game

Before driving into the Eastern Harbour Tunnel on Hong Kong side, every eastbound driver has to turn about 270 degrees before the car or vehicle goes into the tunnel. While turning like swirls of water into a pipe, cars from two lanes have to merge into one. This always creates a circle game as well as danger of car collision if drivers lose patience, courtesy or lack of skill.

It is great fun to someone who loves turning around and around while driving down the circular road at Festival Walk(又一城) in Kowloon Tong. There are three floors down from ground level. The first level down is the pick-up or drop-off area for passengers of taxis, private cars or vans, ….. The next floor is for unloading goods to the shops inside this shopping centre. The lowest floor is a big car-park.

Once a driver is driving his car down the circular road, he has to be sober enough to make sure the right floor to go to! This circular road down the floors is too sharp and it keeps on turning and turning. To reach the car-park below, a driver has to turn at least 1080 degrees. It is an exciting and dizzy driving Circle Game!

Bird Study (7) – Felix remembers a previous bird visit

Felix considers these birds to be his friends, not simply visitors. It was June 24th.

Felix gave his report:

I went out today and manage to come back before sunset, and took a picture of the "3 sisters"-- baby robins. (I just make out the name '3 sisters' as honestly I can't tell a male from a female.) Anyway, as you see they are now very big and alert... just look at their eyes. I envisage some time next week when I come home I may find the nest empty.... the mother may have flown off with her 3 daughters. I really hope I can see them leave myself.

The last time the cliff swallow left my place when I was working in the yard one Sunday (or Saturday) morning, the mother bird (and kids) were very noisy (like the mother giving final instructions to them before setting off).... then the mother led the kids off the nest, circle two times over my house/yard, and flew off.... never to be seen again. I did quietly say my good wishes for them.

I don't know how these robins do when they leave. I wish they pick a Saturday or Sunday...;-)

Felix has made his wish and let us see if it comes true!

Bird Study (6) – A Tactful Mother and All-the-time Hungry Siblings

Felix went on with his story of his visitors to his tree hotel on June 22nd afternoon and 23rd morning:

first photo: mother at the nest. It is difficult to take a picture of the mother because I don't have remote control camera -- the kind that I can set at the tree branch and activate the shutter from remote when the bird comes back (with this, I would be able to take pictures of feeding scenes) but unfortunately, now as soon as I get near the mother bird will fly away, or if I am at the nest first and the mother (or father) birds comes back, she will just turn around and go somewhere first, until I disappear.

2nd photo is taken this Sat morning, when all three siblings are awake and sticking their heads out, waiting for mommy to bring back breakfast.

What will happen if they are humans, having parents leaving the small babies behind unattended?

The answer is: The parents will be charged for lack of care to small children. They will be jailed and the children will be sent to a nursery under the Social Welfare Department!

A Shop that Never sleeps

Some of our Mc Donald's Fast Food Shops in Hong Kong are now open for 24 hours. The one shown in the photo is located on King’s Road, North Point.

This kind of fast food shops provides services to those people who are off work at late hours and are hungry to some extent. Some people even sleep a little inside before they take the first buses home. There are also customers like taxi-drivers, people who loses sleep at night and some youngsters who sleep in the daytime but play all through the night. There are young people who would like to play “Play Station” games inside the shops.

Mc Donald’s shops are nice places to go – clean, air-conditioned and fashionable. The toys that go with the children’s meals (開心樂園餐) win the affection of many small children and their fathers and mothers usually surrender their money to the shops..

What kind of food do these shops provide after mid-night? That is still a question to me.