Commemorative Coins of Vancouver 2010 Winter Games

Of all the 17 commemorative coins (issued in three years time) for Winter Olympics to be held in Vancouver, 2010, I have collected only three through daily buying of things.

It is great to own some which I can bring home for collection. To be greedy, I want to collect the whole set, but it will be costly and time-consuming.

The three coins I have collected are of three events of the Games 2010:
(1) Biathlon (the one with an athlete shooting)
(2) Bobsleigh (athletes riding on a fast and aerodynamic bobsleigh)
(3) Curling (teams of athletes pushing 19.1-kilogram stones towards a series of concentric rings or circles. The object is to get the stones as close to the centre of the rings as possible.)

Another coin is about ice-hockey, but at first sight, it seems to me that it does not belong to the same series. Now I learn that it is my fourth commemorative coin collected.

Let us see what happened in 2002:

An historic Olympic hockey victory for Canada is now forever etched on a 25-cent coin. The Royal Canadian Mint is inviting Canadians to save the latest circulation coin in its Vancouver 2010 collection – the 25-cent coin celebrating the men’s hockey gold at Salt Lake City in 2002. The launch of the coin was commemorated today at a special event for local hockey youth with special guests including NHL hockey star and member of the 2002 men’s Olympic hockey team Michael Peca, Ottawa 67’s head coach Chris Byrne and members of the Ottawa 67’s hockey team.

“Many Canadians from coast to coast remember where they were on February 24, 2002 when the final seconds of the game counted down to the exhilaration of Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey in 50 years,” said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

On the two coins with the face of Queen Elizabeth II, the well-known logo of a “standing man” (stone-hedge like) can be seen at the lower left corner.

Fairmont Empress Resort Hotel

Anyone who walks along Government Street or Belleville Street in Victoria will not miss the majestic buildings of the famous Fairmont Empress Resort Hotel.

It ranks first in all the hotels on Vancouver Island in 2009. The hotel has long been accustomed to entertaining kings, queens, movie stars, Hollywood celebrities and many famous people.


In 1965, there was much debate on whether to tear this hotel down to make room for a more modern, functional high-rise one. One local newspaper warned the people that, 'Without this splendid relic of the Edwardian era, literally tens of thousands of tourists will never return. This is the Mecca, this is the heart and soul of the city.' The decision was announced on June 10, 1966: The Fairmont Empress would not be demolished. Instead she would embark on a $4 million campaign of renovation and refurbishment, named as 'Operation Teacup.'

One remarkable sight of this hotel is that red and green creepers are covering its walls and they have been so “shaved” that they leave out the windows and give “life” to this grand hotel.

In my opinion, its outlook is much better than that of our Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. The hotel buildings also include Victoria Conference Centre and the Miniature World.

Dramatic Poses at Lynn Valley

Having crossed the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, Philip suggested to us taking photos of different poses.

There we raised our hands, twisted our body and made strange, rather funny looks as far as possible on a raised concrete path.

What do you think of our poses?

Elly on her Rock chair

Recently a friend of Philip gave Elly a chair that could “rock”.

The chair has a mechanism that can stop it from “rocking”. A simple designed “T’ shaped waist belt protects the baby from falling off. The chair is light and fits Elly well. She enjoys sitting there for a while, but longer when she watches TV. Whenever we have dinner, we place her near us so that we accompany her while we eat.

Two-door Cars in Vancouver

On this rainy Tuesday, November 10th, I strolled along 41st Avenue, West Boulevardand its neighbouring streets. What attracted my attention were these two-door cars.

The silvery Accura in the top photo attracted me because it had a special nose for breathing. The headlights were stylish and its mouth (mask) was smiling.

The yellow “beetle” won my heart for its colour and shape. I considered it as a toy rather than a car.











The red “Thunderbird” had a classic look, but must have made recently. The round windows at its sides gave the passengers a feeling of sitting inside a ship.











The silver Nissan Sports car was well-designed in shape rather close to a “Porshe”. The headlights were long like a “twisted” parallelogram. Interesting!

Busy hands

What did the busy hands in the photo help doing?

They were going to help
(A) measuring Elly’s feet
(B) exercising Elly’s feet
(C) tracing Elly’s foot-shapes
(D) making Elly’s foot-prints
(E) washing Elly’s feet

A Spiked fruit

One afternoon I found a light green fruit lying on the pavement in the nearby street. This fruit had been broken and the seeds inside revealed themselves owing to the force of falling and the impact with the solid ground.

This fruit made me think of a puffer fish (河豚/雞泡魚) when they swell up their bodies. The fruit looks very much like the spiked iron ball of the weapon called Flail (流星錘) used by knights in the Middle Ages.

The falling of this fruit is half successful because it was broken the seeds had been exposed, but it was on the hard pavement, not on the soil. What it needed was a kick of a human foot or a blow from winds or the rushing water during heavy rain. I hoped the seeds could germinate into new plants with the above favourable conditions.

An Interesting Wall-map

I love maps of this kind and it so happened that I could see one on a big wall in a street perpendicular to Government Street in Victoria. I did not miss the chance of capturing it into my camera.

The map was quite colourful and nicely drawn.

From my observation on the map:
(1) The Parliament buildings has been magnified many times.
(2) The main roads and routes of Vancouver Island are clearly shown,
(3) The various activities such as hiking, sunbathing, camping, whale watching and yacht race are introduced here.
(4) There are quite a number of lakes and several ranges of mountains on Vancouver Island.
(5) The coastline is irregular and there are long narrow sea inlets that go inland.
(6) The map also shows where we could see whales.
(7) Vancouver Lookout at Harbour centre, the Science World and B.C. Sports Museum stand out in Vancouver.

The map also gives a brief history of Pemberton Family, Vancouver Island and Fort Victoria.
Let us look at the last two:

Vancouver Island: Royal Navy Captain, James Cook landed at Nootka in 1778. Captain George Vancouver, arriving in 1792 befriended Captain Bodegay Quadra of the Spanish Navy as they debated coastal sovereignty before the Nootka Convention, and this island was originally named Vancouver and Quadra’s Island. They enjoyed a good relationship with Mowachabt Chief Maquinna. Captain Vancouver circumnavigated the island surveying its coastline, missing the cross-continent explorer Alexander McKenzie by two weeks on the mainland Bella Coola coast.

Fort Victoria:
Fort Victoria was established in 1843 by Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor James Douglas, who thought the area “a perfect Eden”. The fort’s southeast corner was here. Douglas was named Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island and of the Colony of British Columbia before the union with Canada in 1871. This city, named for Queen Victoria, is the provincial capital.

Arms of Canadian Provinces and their Territories

Near the end of Menzies Street neighbouring the Victoria Parliament buildings at Victoria, there was a circular wall embracing a big water-running fountain. On the wall were the Arms of all the ten provinces and three territories of Canada.

Can you recognize some or all of them?

The second photo shows 1 territory and 5 provinces.
Here are the hints the first letter(s) of the names of the territory and provinces:
From left to right: Y, BC, A, S, M and O.

Then the hints for the next 2 territories and 5 provinces in the third photo are:
From left to right: Q, NB, NS, PEI, N, NT, N.

The bottom photo shows Abby watching the fountain.

Elly and the Bees

Yesterday, November 6th, I took some photos of Elly when she was lying on a inverted “U” cushion. I select this photo for display because she was calm and comfortable at that moment.

She was wearing a brown body-long bag-like clothe with red, pink white and blue dots. There was a pink flower at her left chest. The photo was so taken that it seemed that the flower had attracted a number of bees flying around her
.
Elly was puzzling with a frown not at me, but at my camera lens. It was good that she remained motionless, otherwise the photo would become blurred. I knew why she was so peaceful, simply because she woke up after a nice long sleep.

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge

It was a sunny afternoon of a Saturday (2009/10/03) that we drove to Lynn Valley, North Vancouver, by way of Second Narrows Bridge.

The parking spaces lined on two sides at the end of Lynn Valley Road. We walked some hundred feet to a spot where there were tables and chairs in front of a café.

We first took our hot-dog lunch first and off we went to see Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.











A board described the history and features of the bridge.and precautions too.
It says:
Officially opened in 1912
To view the early photos visit the Ecology Centre
50 metres over Lynn Creek
Bridge span 48 metres
Bridge slippery when wet
Danger, don’s swing or bounce
Pedestrian traffic only
All other traffic and unauthorized activities are prohibited

From my observation, I add the following:
(1) The bridge is free of charge.
(2) It is secured at its centre by two iron wires one on each side so that it would not sway too much.
(3) Its walkway is 3 feet wide with floor totally sealed up and wood strips for footholds.
(4) There were thick iron ropes for handles and strong net-walls on two sides reaching the waists of adults and high enough to protect infants from falling off the bridge.
(5) Some visitors including us stopped at different sections of the bridge to take photos to memorize such a “safe” walk on a suspension bridge.
(6) The creek below is fast flowing, but not a large volume of water is running.
(7) Abby liked the walking experience on this bridge. She strode by herself without fear and even told us that she would like to try again.
(8) It took us less than a minute to cross it if people do not stuck at points taking photos.

Common Plants at UBC

Inside the Botanic Garden of UBC were small fields planting some common vegetables and apple trees.
















Here they were:

Top left photo: Tomato plants --------------Top right photo: Leaves of Broccoli

















Middle left photo: egg plants ------------------Middle right: maize plants










Bottom left: Leaves of Cauliflowers------------Bottom right: apple trees

In the past, I just looked at the end products of the vegetables or fruits at home or markets without knowing how they grew and what they looked when they were young.

It is really wonderful this time in Canada to know more about the growth, changes and development of some vegetables .

Touching pumpkins

Small children like touching new things with their little hands.

In the top photo, a toddler of about one year old bent forward and touched the ball-like pumpkin with his fingers. He was peaceful to the touch because the pumpkin did not move and the skin was smooth. If the pumpkin really jerked or rolled about, he would scream and ran to his parents.

Abby is also curious at new things. She dares to try touching things she has never seen before.

Here came the chance at UBC Apple Festival of touching living pumpkins on the ground with her left hand. Her right hand was still holding the bag of dried apples Philip had bought from a stall. “Fresh” and “Dried”. What a big contrast!

UBC Apple Festival

UBC Apple Festival was held on October 17th at UBC Botanical Garden. We arrived at about 2 p.m. and was directed to a open car park on uneven sandy ground. The parking fee was C$5. The entry fee to the Festival was C$2 each. After walking some paths, we reached an open ground with stalls promoting different kinds of apples. Different varieties of apples were introduced on posters. There were apple-tasting sessions and the tickets for tasting were C$3 each. We did not join the queue because it was quite long. We did try to taste apple slices which were free at a stall, very delicious indeed.













Philip bought Abby a bag of dried apples. I myself bought a slice of apple pie which was sold at C$4 to share among us. The pie was not bad to taste, but it was a little expensive. There was a small beautiful cart selling snacks and drinks.

It began to rain after we had studied the common vegetable plants at their breeding ground. We rushed back to where apples were selling. We bought a bag of Honey Crisp apples (C$6) and a bag of cheaper yellow apples (C$3). Off we ran for our cars because heavy rain fell over our heads. By the time we reached the car park, we found many puddles of water and the ground turned muddy. Our clothes were all wet with rain water. What a “Wet” Apple Festival!

Chinatown, Victoria

On our second night at Victoria, we drove to Chinatown to have a look and dinner. Although it was raining, we walked around with our grand-children in their cart and pram. This Chinatown was quite small and there were few people walking in the only street called Fisgard Street. On the two sides of the street were mostly restaurants, green groceries and stores.

There was a large gate called the Gates of Harmonious Interest (同濟門). I saw similar kind of gates in Sydney and Los Angeles.

We decided to dine in the restaurant called Sea Garden Restaurant (海園酒家) at the corner of Fisgard Street and Government Street. It was interesting to see several tables of Canadians eating Chinese food inside. This suggested to us that even the local people loved the food here.

We sat a large table because we had six people in all. Because of some reason, Abby cried and Elly too, so the two sisters formed a “mini-choir”. It took us some time to calm them down first.

We ordered three dishes of food, orange pork chop (香橙豬扒), sesame chicken balls (芝麻雞球), Lor Hon Vegetables (羅漢上素) and a large bowl of rice to share. The three dishes satisfied us all because they were appetizing and cheap, just around C$10 each. At other restaurants in the same street, dishes of food were normally sold at around C$12 or well over.