Was Abby inside a Space Capsule?

Of course not!

Abby was looking out from behind a transparent plastic window on a specially-designed slide at a play-site for small children. She found it interesting and happy to look at things up there and smiled at us through the window.

There was a low-hanging bridge with holes where children might grasp or put their feet on as footholds. Abby was not yet skillful at walking, so she could not climb or walk up to the slide from the swaying bridge so Grandma took her up the slide from the staircase on the other side.

Earlier, to our surprise, Abby dared to walk up the steps of the staircase of a restaurant after lunch. With Connie’s aid, she spread her legs wide up upon the big steps and was able to finish walking up the whole staircase. That was a good climbing lesson for Abby.

A Gift!

Thanks to my student, Chan Kit Sum (陳潔心), who gave me this crystal some years ago. When she came to the Staff Room and handed the gift to me, I was happy indeed to get such a meaningful crystal in which I could see a “Merlion” (魚尾獅). Kit Sum said that she had visited Singapore. Her words made me feel a bit sour because my wife and I had not been to the Lion City before. We did not have the mood to go on tours when we were still working. What a nice thought of Kit Sum bringing a message to us that one day we should go to Singapore to take a look. The dream came true this January when my elder brother and sister-in-law suggested us to go with them to Singapore for a few days.

On one of the days we stayed in Singapore, we came to this Merlion. At first there were a few people. I took photos of this big Merlion from different angles, one with buildings from behind and the other with the new Esplanade (similar to the Opera House in Sydney) as the background.

There used to be water running out of the Merlion, but on that day, there was not a single drop of water out of its mouth. I wondered if the man-in-charge forgot to turn on the water tap. Minutes passed. As more tourists came to see this Merlion, the area became crowded. Most of them came by tour-buses.

There was a smaller Merlion behind the real one (one slightly bigger than Man-size) for tourists to take photos with. We had to wait a little while before we could take one photo with this mouth-watering one.

Next to this small Merlion, there were some stalls that sold souvenirs, but I was not interested in them. At one end of the passageway, there was a shop selling souvenirs too. I believed this shop was operated by Singaporeans or Chinese because they spoke Mandarin and Cantonese. The souvenirs here were more expensive than those at the stalls outside.

Snow-capped mountains of New Zealand

It was August 30^th, 2007. Ho Keung and Yin Ping’s plane flied over the snow-clad mountains on the South Island of New Zealand.

This great range of mountains is called the Southern Alps. It is my first time seeing this rugged range with lofty and snowy tops in a photo. I guess it will be extremely difficult and time-consuming to cross this mountain range from one side to the other.

Their plane soon landed on the International Airport at Christchurch.

They rented a Toyota Corolla from a company and drove along the roads from Christchurch to Picton, the northern-most port to take a ferry to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

The smaller photos show the sceneries along the road to Picton. Those sheep, old and young, enjoy eating grass. The snowy mountains at the far end are cool to see, but hard to climb. Their icy tops are really fascinating, like the ice at the top of our red-bean drinks.

Bread n Butter

Next to a shop inside New Century Plaza, Mongkok, there is a round pillar. On it are different pictures of clothes, ladies’ wear, cooking utensils, appliances and food with their names underneath. It is just like a children’s picture book. This pillar is not only supporting the building, but can also be educational to children and adults alike.

A few days ago, before I caught sight of this pillar, I passed by a shop and found its name “Bread n Butter”. The name stopped me from walking further on and I peeped in. I wondered if it really sold bread and butter. The answer was “No”. I found nothing of bread nor butter. The articles on the shelves were all clothes.

Most probably the owner of the shop loves bread and butter or maybe he/she attracts people’s attention in this way because people like me may be curious of what bread and butter it sells.

The Hearts of my readers

Ever since September 9^th, 2007, my son helped me set up the Google Analytics. From these analytics, I know the origins (countries and towns) of my readers, the top contents, number of visits and date of visits.

I am very glad that up to this moment, there are altogether 1503 visits and 2993 page views. A total of 166 unique readers have read my blog.

Obviously most of the readers live in Hong Kong. You have paid a grand total of 1211 visits in these three months. Unfortunately, I do not know who you are. I guess you are my relatives, old colleagues, friends, students and friends of Connie, friends and students of Philip. Thank you so much for your support. Write me e-mails or comment if you please!

There are overseas readers. I can locate some of you, but not all. Let me list out the places and countries so that you may show yourselves up to me by writing an e-mail or by writing a short note by clicking the word “Comment” and write there.

The following information is from Google Analytics.

Country-State-Location-(reader)

U.S.A.

Maryland

Rockville (Daisy Mak)

New Jersey

Mount Laurel

California

Albany

Emeryville (Felix Ching)

Los Angeles

Piedmont

Pinole

Sunnyville

San Jose

Canada

Winnipeg (Yingzi)

Vancouver (Maybe Conrad Wat)

Brampton (David Cheng)

North York

East York

Richmond Hill

Agincourt

Mississauga

Ajax

Richmond

Singapore

Singapore (Daisy Lam and Dik)

Australia

Melbourne (Maybe Lo Wing Yun)

Sydney (Ho Keung and Yin Ping)

Brisbane (M.C. Kung)

Each Heart in the Photo represents a country or region:

The Pink Heart represents my readers in Canada.

The Yellow Heart represents my readers in United States of America.

The Light Green Heart and Beige one represent two unknown readers in United Kingdom and Italy respectively.

The Purple Heart represents those in Hong Kong.

The Green Heart represents those in Singapore.

The Orange Heart represents those in Australia.

Thank you ALL for reading my blog!

New Name, Old Department

In order to give people a sense of “Reforms”, new names are introduced to replace the old ones in our SAR Government.

“Water Supplies Department” replaces “Water Works Department”

“Education and Manpower Bureau” replaces “Education Department”, and now, “Education Bureau” replaces “Education and Manpower Bureau” and so on.

Students, teachers and publishers of E. P. A. (Economic and Public Affairs) are watching the changes in the names of Departments, their policies and the new titles and names of the heads and assistant heads and the forever-changing structures.

This old building of “Water Supplies Department” has long been there on Sai Yee Street, Kowloon for more than 40 to 50 years. The old building does not change much except that it has been repainted, so people feel that it has a new dress. That’s all.

In most departments, people may change and policies too, but their buildings may not change. The building of the “Water Supplies Department” here is a good example!

Clarke Quay

This is a famous sight-seeing spot in Singapore. Any tourist should not miss this heritage of an old port for fishing boats near the head of Singapore River. The Singapore Government has preserved it well so that tourists can call back the scenes of the old City.of Singapore.

One day this January, before going up to the street level, we were definitely sure we came to the right place. The walls of the underground station at Clarke Quay showed the paintings of yachts, fishing boats and the low houses of the Singaporeans in the olden days.
These low houses were painted in bright colours which gave a fresh colourful complexion to this area. New tall buildings had been raised near by so that tourists might come here any time they liked. I supposed they would come at night to enjoy drinking or eating along the shores of this narrow and winding Singapore River.

Learning to pull

Little Abby learned to pull at Wetland Park. At the Entrance Hall, I first witnessed Abby pulling the handle of a purple umbrella with her right hand and at the same time gripped the lower half of the umbrella with her other hand. Her face showed that she was using strength of her own to pull. She knew it was hard to do so, but she did not give up. Very soon she was successful in pulling the handle up.




Her red face (加幾錢肉緊) showed that she had tried very hard indeed to complete her mission of pulling. What a great effort she had made!

This exercise revealed that Abby was good at gripping and pulling.

People may overlook such small actions. In fact, Abby has learned the skills and will obviously use them again when she needs!

Skywalk 2007

On July 16^th, 2007, my brother and sister-in-law arrived at the Grand Canyon, California. They paid US$278 (an additional US$5 to the tour guide) each to visit this famous sightseeing spot in Nature. The fare included the transportation by bus, a McDonald breakfast, a helicopter ride, a boat ride on the Colorado River, a Red-Indian buffet lunch and the entrance fee (US$27) to the Skywalk.

The Skywalk is a horse-shoe like structure that hangs itself out in mid-air with its glass window below the feet of the visitors. Most visitors may feel like walking out to the sky and floating there!

There are limitations at the Skywalk:

(1) No personal belongings should be brought out to the Skywalk. All bags, food, cameras, video-cams and everything except clothes cannot be taken along. They should be kept in lockers.

(2) No private photo-taking. Photos can only be taken only with the assistants there. The photos can be processed instantly by the people concerned at the Skywalk. Of course money should be paid for the copies of photos taken, being another business of the Skywalk.

(3) Time to stay at the Skywalk was about 10 minutes

(4) Plastic bags are to be worn to cover the shoes of the visitors to avoid scratching or damaging the glass floor!

(5) No food should be taken out to the Skywalk.

The small photos show the advertisement of the Air-River-Land tour round the Canyon on a big bus, the rock of a big eagle (I saw it last time in 2006), and the paper belt (Entry ticket for identity) worn by each of the visitor to the Skywalk.

In my opinion, it is not worth HK$200 to step on this Skywalk, just to get the overhanging feeling. I love to take photos of my own and the Skywalk does not let me to! Why should I visit it when I go to the Grand Canyon next time?

A Malay Village in Singapore

At the junction of Still Road and Changi Road on East Coast of Singapore, I found a Malay Village.

The red-brown roofs of this large Malay complex were tiled in the shapes of pyramids and truncated ones. It must be very cool inside because the big slanting roofs provided plenty of room at its ceiling for air ventilation. In the past, I had an impression that a Malay house must be one with a roof made of straw or leaves and the other structures of bamboos and wood and was built high above the ground to avoid flooding, but this one was very different. Maybe this was the Malay-style in the twenty-first century.

The grass lawn before the house was big enough to house a thousand people.

A few coconut trees growing at the corners and sides of the house made it look very comfortable and people around knew very well that they were in an equatorial country.

In Islamic countries, towers are common. This one was no exception. The sceneries from the top of the tower must be very nice. The crescents at the roof tops symbolized that the people living inside this house were Muslims.

This big house was surrounded by roads on all sides. The side on Still Road was busy with vehicles while the other three sides were quieter.

The Best Advertisement of the Year

If I am a judge, I will consider this advertisement the Best of the year.

Anyone who reads newspaper will certainly smile (會心微笑) when he/she looks at this advertisement.

The good points of this advertisement are as follows:

(1) The pose of the young man and the lady sitting on a chair in this advertisement resembles that in the hot photo of the lady tycoon (小甜甜) and her best friend (聰聰).

(2) The costumes worn in the advertisement and in the photo of Tim Tim are more or less the same.

(3) The advertisement quotes the exact wording used in the love story of Tim Tim – “One Life, One Love”

(4) The advertisement tries to promote nutrient food (補品) for older people to keep themselves young. This implies that if people do not eat the suggested food, they will grow old rapidly.

(5) The word “鍾情” may reflect that the lady and the man in the advertisement are affectionate and they do love eating the nutrient food.

Fishipedia

It is a nice thing that “ParknShop” recently educates people of Hong Kong about the fish meat they can buy from its stores.

ParknShop is so clever to post the names and photos of the fishes it sells in its website so that people can read the information from Internet and it also prints out the photo of one fish a day on newspapers. Through these two channels, people may know what the fishes they buy look like or are called.

Before this, fishes are packed in plastic bags, frozen and placed in freezers. They look alike because most meat from fishes appears white. People cannot figure out what the fishes look like and how good they taste unless they have learned something about them before.

A Good Season for Flying Kites

Autumn is a season in which some leaves start to fall in some countries, but it gives Hong Kong cooler weather and stronger winds which provide an ideal time for flying kites.

Yesterday we joined some old colleagues’ visit to Tai Po Waterfront Park. There we saw some experts skillfully send their beautiful kites into the air. This was one of the kites I saw in the park.

I do not know how to fly a kite, but I love watching others flying their kites high in the air. The joy of flying a kite can be immense because it comes from the control of the kite through both hands. The movements of the kite depend on the strength of the winds, the pulling and loosening of the thread.

Kites fly elegantly and freely in the air. Their colours are usually beautiful and the swaying tails from side to side are lovely to see. I always marvel at the dancing of kites and their freedom to fly over the area their masters are standing or running.

Aborigines

I first came across this name when I studied Australia in Geography lessons in my school days. It remains a mystery to me how these people look like until last December (2006).

At Circular Quay in Sydney, I discovered these Australian aborigines doing some sorts of performance of blowing their musical instruments made from tree trunks. I guessed they were professional ones employed by the Australian Government to show themselves and play music before the tourists from different parts of the world.

The aborigines I saw here was not primitive at all because one of them wore modern shorts, another plastic slippers and two of them had their hair done. Their skin was dark, but they were painted white with patterns on their bodies. They wore hair bands round their heads like those of Japanese.

One interesting thing was that all the men had big bellies. They must have eaten excessively in this beautiful city. I believed they did not need to run about to catch wild animals for food any more and never did exercises. They might be actors and eat at restaurants somewhere at the Quay. The lady beside these aborigines was beautiful. I did not know if she was one of the wives of these aborigines.

Anyway, it was good experience to meet these people at such a busy place. They saved our time of going to the countryside, forests or deserts to see them.

教育局九龍塘辦公大樓

設計這辦公大樓的設計師真幽默, 把這建築物主體設計之中央部份割開成兩份, 好像當局被人用刀在腰部斬開似的!

在有些人心中, 教育局的政策僵化, 死板, 一刀切, 商業化, 自定尺度去量化教育, 去評核學校的優劣, 標簽學校. 升中派位以三組別代替一直以來的五組別以消滅名校. 因此有些名校由資助轉為私立, 以避過一劫!

九七年後至今, 教育統籌局排山倒海地推出很多新政策, 把老師校長們弄到心力交瘁, 叫苦連天. 各資助官立學校要寫往後三年校政及課程的計劃書, 訂立教育目標方向, 要實行, 要檢討, 要改善!

設立的所謂優質教育基金, 不斷被有些學校巧立名目去申請基金, 浪費了不少金錢, 但得來的沒有一點兒優質教育的味道, 只是一些康樂活動而已!

在小三, 小六及中三以系統評估去評核學生的程度, 最近的結果顯示小三的成績無問題, 但到小六, 成績欠佳. 那又怎麼辦呢? 其實各校秘密操練學生去應付評核, 以保存校譽, 成績, 避免被殺校, 辛苦的是大部份老師及學生!

這辦公大樓唯一好處是路面層設有巴士總站, 小巴站及來往中國長途車站, 把九龍塘地鐵站附近的交通變成暢通無阻罷了!

Special Effects

What I want to show everyone here today are the special effects created by my Digital camera.

The photos show the same free gift given by the newspaper – Apple Daily to their readers. The footballer on this card holder is the famous David Beckham.

With my camera tilted in different angles, special effects such as a Big head with a Small body or a Small head with Big legs can be created. The last photo shows the normal look of the football star.

Water-lilies at Wetland Park

Have you ever seen yellow flowers of water-lilies? I saw one at Wetland Park last Sunday.

It stood out from the rest of the lilies because of its uniqueness. The other colours of water-lilies are lovely to see too – reddish pink, purplish blue and white. Together with the round flat leaves, the water-lilies form a beautiful picture worthy for me to take dozens of photos.

Usually, water-lilies grow in ponds. Here at Wetland Park, they are living in widespread areas of water surrounded by man-made canvas. They grow healthily here in clean water and the flowers come out almost at one time. What a flourishing scene of the lilies!

格格變公公

Abby很聰明,模仿力很強, 但學講說話只是剛起步. 她曾叫過Philip爹爹, 但現在Abby一視同仁, 叫雙親做媽咪, 十分奇怪!

但對我來說, Abby 當初叫我一個尊貴又女性化的稱號 -“格格”, 我巳感到飄飄然,

而前天她進步到叫我做 ”公公”, 笑到我連嘴都合不攏來, 希望她不要當我做清朝的太監就好了!

你們估Abby甚麼時候叫我呢? 答案是每當我走在她前面時, 她便叫我. 也許她叫我是有以下其中一個原因:

(1) Abby嫌我”大份”, 阻礙她看風景.

(2) Abby見我行路太快了, 叫我停下來等她.

(3) Abby在自己的私家車(手推嬰兒車)實在無聊得很, 叫一聲”公公”也好吧!

你們有沒有其他想法呢? 請告訢我, 多謝!

Halloween!

Abby enjoyed sitting on the ground watching the changes of images before the entrance to Shatin Railway Station. The overhead projector above sent out video-pictures to the ground, mostly funny games and figures to cheer people passing by.

We stopped there and let Abby experience the interesting games. There were a mini-basketball game in which when one stepped on the ball, it would bounce away and shoot at the goal, a flat white plane that flied across the screen, pumpkins and ghosts to meet the Halloween Festival.

The photo here shows that Abby was fearless of the ghost lying in front of her. It is simple enough. Abby knows nothing of ghosts nor she has heard ghost stories before. Moreover, she has never been to a haunted house and has not yet learned about Halloween.

Abby became the centre of interest at that small light-flooded stage for about 5 minutes. Some people crowded around the edges of the stage looking at her while I was busy taking photos of Abby and this was one of them!

Sentosa Island viewed from Vivo City

Sentosa Island is an island to the south of Waterfront, Singapore. It is an ideal seaside resort because there are beaches, lagoons and lakes, waterways, hotels and different golf courses.

This island can be reached by taxis using its motor-way called Sentosa Gateway, or by Sentosa Express (LRT – light rail), or by ferry or by cable cars from Mt. Faber Cable Car Station through Harbour Front Tower across the sea to the island.

There is a Sky Tower near the Cable Car Station. From the Tower, visitors have a better view of the Lion City. To the south-east, there is another giant Merlion.

The Rock Garden, Lost Civilisation Ruined city, Musical Fountain, Flower Terrace, Cinemania, 4D Magix, Mt. Imbiah Reserve, Underwater World, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom Museum are worth visiting.

There are footpaths, trails and drive ways for visitors to walk across the island. The remains of a former British fort and its secret tunnels may look interesting to some of the visitors