East Asian Games, 2009

Hong Kong is the host of East Asian Games, 2009. There are nine countries or regions which take part in the Games, namely, China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, North Korea, Mongolia and Guam.

Hong Kong has outstanding performance this time, winning 26 gold, 31 silver
and 53 bronze medals.




I was able to watch the final football game between Hong Kong and Japan. I did not expect Hong Kong would win, but they made it. By penalty goals, 4:2, they won the gold medal. They made the spectators at the stadium filled with joy.


Along the streets of Shatin, banners of the Games are hung on their lamp-posts.
Here are some of them.

On board a Boeing 777 home

I was glad to take a Boeing 777- 300 Air Canada plane home yesterday. The plane was new and comfortable inside. The colour of lightings changed at times so that the passengers like us would feel warm when the cabin was lit reddish pink , cool when green and watery when blue and romantic when purple.




















The small monitors in front of us were workable and there were quite a number of recent films such as “Up”, Harry Potter series, scientific and documentary films.

I did not watch any of them because I was interested only in tracking the route the plane was flying. I started the count-down work ever since the plane had taken off.
From inside the International terminal at the YVR airport, I could see the tops of the mountains of North Vancouver being covered by thick low clouds.

My wife was able to take a photo of Richmond for me because she was sitting next to a window of the plane when it thrust into the air. I could still recognize the landscape of Richmond, the bridges and the road networks. The plane was taking an Eastward direction and then turned round for a North-west direction over Vancouver island and it headed for an Alaska route, then across the Pacific Ocean and then turned south-westward home to Hong Kong.

Two Flags

These beautiful flags of Canada and British Columbia remind me that I am still in Canada. Soon I shall fly back to Hong Kong with my wife.

In the past three months, we travelled to many hot sightseeing spots such as Stanley Park, Gas-town, Chinatown, Metro-town, Downtown Vancouver, Grouse mountain and Lynn Valley in North Vancouver, UBC, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia.

I shall bring home some Canadian coins, especially the Winter Olympics Commemorative ones and a great many pamphlets I collected in Vancouver and Seattle, some ball pens as souvenirs and hundreds of photos.

I am glad that I had driving experience yesterday in quieter streets in the neighbourhood where we live. I think I can beat the fear of left-turns at crossroads with more practices in future.

Tram-like bus

On December 1st, on the way to Grouse Mountain, I saw a tram-like bus stop at a traffic light. I did not miss the chance of taking a photo of it.

Taking a closer look at it in my computer, the outline of this bus looks like those trams in San Francisco, especially the top part, but the big differences are that passengers could not get on it from the sides nor could they cling to the bus with their hands.

Obviously they are no ordinary buses that run on the roads of Vancouver, but mainly for sight-seeing tourists.

Banners Street by Street

Banners are displayed street by street or area by area in Vancouver.

On Granville Street, Santa Claus, Christmas gifts and stars are main themes of the banners.

On Victoria Drive, a Christmas tree, candles and Chinese lanterns can be seen on their banners.











On the way to Burnaby, the banners show the tram that ran in past time of Collingwood.

Along the roads of Richmond, banners about the Winter Olympics are displayed.

First Meeting with Santa Claus

It was the very first time yesterday that Abby went into the hands of a Santa Claus and sat on his lap to take a photo inside a studio at Burnaby Heritage Village. Since Philip and Connie were standing at the “frontline” talking to him, Through an opening, I could only take a photo of four of them except Elly .I believed Philip should have taken some good pictures of the Santa Claus with Abby and Elly.

We were much impressed in seeing what Burnaby looked like in the old days through this heritage. There are lots more I shall write about this village in the days to come.

A Beautiful House Decoration at Christmas

Tonight I discovered a very beautiful Christmas decoration at a house in Vancouver. In front of this house along the footpath were lightings of white grass. Colourful light-bulbs on the two sides of the house made the short potted-shrubs visible. A long line of colourful light bulbs went straight across the house making the house stand out clearly in the dark. Spotlights on the sloping roofs made the house look clearly.

The small top window near the roof was decorated by a ring of lights.

My special interest went to the lovely train on the ground, bringing trees and gifts to this house. At one side of the house closer to the road were some bright-coloured sticks for Christmas.

The War of 1812

The following battle scene in Miniature World shows the war of 1812 between the United States of America and the British Empire (particularly Great Britain and British North America), lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.

The British troops were infantry in red coats, white trousers and black boots. They advanced orderly in groups of 30 to 40, led by commanders on horseback. They shot at the U.S. soldiers with their rifles when reaching suitable positions. On the other side, the U.S. soldiers on higher ground were waiting for the British soldiers. They were dressed in blue coats, yellow trousers and light brown boots, firing their cannons or rifles at the advancing enemies.

The scene was so real because we could see the flames of burning cottages and the smoke from rifles of both sides. Dead or wounded soldiers could be seen at the battlefield.

Frost

It is cold in recent days in Vancouver, around 0 degree, but snow has not started to fall. The cold morning of December 2nd brought frost to some of the low vegetation near the ground.

Here I bring out some photos of the interesting leaves of a plant where frost gathers round their edges. They look prettier than before because the white frost has embroidered them at their rims.

Lady Santa Claus

Have you seen a lady Santa Claus?

At Richmond Centre, I found several. They, having no white beard, dressed in green instead of red, walked about the shopping centre and talked to the customers eating at the food court. What they did was to promote their photo-taking business of a Santa Claus with his customers.

When they met small children, they would give them little gifts, but to the adults they gave them pamphlets of promotion instead.

Bilingual

It is so special in Canada that we often see two languages, French and English, on articles, instructions and regulations publicly.

McDonalds and Starbucks use both French and English to communicate with their customers. We are glad to see and learn isolated words in both English and French although the number may be limited.


Here we see 4 words of expressions on a drinking cup of Starbucks.

Joie----->Joy
Voeu----->Wish

Amore---->Love
Espoir--->Hope

Sister leaning on sister

It is nice to take a picture of two sisters, Abby and Elly. Elly cannot sit upright by herself at the moment. We first asked Abby to sit on the sofa and next let Elly lean on her side backed up by cushions and an arm of the sofa.

The title of this picture is “Elly leans on Abby”. Elly is like a leaning tower!

Christmas Decorations

Christmas decorations in the streets began in November. Along Robson Street, Downtown Vancouver, the trees were lit with small bulbs. At intervals, there were stars flying up. This shopping area added much Christmas atmosphere. Shoppers might think of buying Christmas gifts for their friends and relatives.

Along the main streets of Vancouver, banners showing snowy mountains, a reindeer and fir trees with a blue sky were hanging on the lampposts.


At Abbotsford, east of Vancouver, snowflakes, well-designed lights of Christmas trees and rings could be found in the streets.









At the base office of the peak tram at Grouse Mountain, a beautiful Santa Claus was placed at the corner of the counter to mark the arrival of Christmas. I guessed it was a lamp lit at night.

Christmas is approaching

Christmas in Canada is approaching.

At home, yesterday, December 1st, 2009, Abby started to flick open the first small door on her Advent Christmas Calendar.

This calendar is only for the month of December. It is actually a box made by cardboard with partitions each of which contains a piece of chocolate. The doors are opened day by day according to the date reached. There ought to be 25 chocolates to be eaten in all. Abby has not started to eat her first chocolate. Maybe under some condition that she can bite it. She, at the moment, can hold it in her hands, but cannot eat it. We warn her today that her hands may somehow melt the chocolate and that she cannot eat it at that time. I don’t know when she will be allowed to eat it. I shall wait and see!

I did not need to wait. At noon before Abby went to preschool, she gave her first chocolate from the "calendar" to Connie. She said she would give the second chocolate to Philip. Whom will she give the third chocolate to?

Two Stadiums at Seattle

In the photo, the arches show the covers for spectators of two stadiums. The stadiums are neighbouring to each other, south of Downtown Seattle.

[1] The left hand one is called Qwest Field, a multi-purpose stadium (completed in 2002) where football or soccer (rugby) is played. It can house at most 72000 spectators. It is interesting indeed that events such as car shows and musical concerts are sometimes held at the stadium.

[2] The right hand one is called Safeco Field where baseballs are played. Its capacity is 47447 spectators.

Ferries sailing at Seattle

When we were waiting for Connie who would like to purchase a cup of chocolate from the first-born Starbucks, I suddenly caught sight of a ferry that was sailing in the harbour. I crossed the street to take a photo of this ferry in a distant land.

To me this three-decker ferry looked much longer than those Hong Kog Yaumati Vehicular ferries in the old days.


In the evening when dining at Ivar’s Acres of Clam, through its windows, I saw the same ferries at Washington State Ferry Terminal, Pier 52,. There were two routes: one to Bainbridge Island and another to Bremerton. These ferries were special because they carried vehicles on two lower decks and passengers on the top deck.


I wonder how much the fares were to the westward island and peninsula.

Gifts to children

When Abby entered Ivar’s, she was given a small bag of four crayons and a mask. The two holes fitted Abby’s eyes and the two rubber bands could go round her ears. Well, it was quite interesting that Abby suddenly became a diver. There were a small octopus and a fish swimming in front of Abby’s head and bubbles were coming out of her breathing tube.

There was something on the back side of the mask. What do you think it was?


A. History of this restaurant
B. A menu for children
C. A photo of dishes served in this restaurant
D. A coupon for food
E. Promotion on its food

An Expensive Dinner at Ivar’s

Philip exchanged conversations with a man standing outside the original Starbucks shop at Pike Place, Seattle and learned from him that Ivar’s Acres of Clams at Pier 54 was famous for its chowder. With the man’s recommendation, we planned to go there to have a try of its soup.

Since it was still early, just four to five o’clock, we drove around the city. The sky became dark in that hour, so by the time we got back into our car, it was completely dark already. We passed many high commercial buildings, hotels and government offices. We drove on to Chinatown and its neighbourhood. There were quite a lot of Chinese restaurants in the area, but we saw few people walking in these streets.

At last we went back to the waterfront and parked our car fifteen minutes before six. These parking spaces were free of charge after six. We strolled along the waterfront, passed a number of piers and entered a few shops.

Finally we went into Ivar’s Acres of Clams to taste its famous Chowder. Sitting at the far corner of restaurant, I could take photos of the large vehicular ferries to and from Bainbridge Island and Bermerton.

We ordered fish fillet and chips, prawns with pasta, a mixed seafood dish and four bowls of chowder soup. We thought that the soup was best, being creamy and rich in sea food especially clams. The four fish fillets were quite small in size, but the delicious potato chips compensated the deficiency. The other two dishes did not give me surprises.

The bill came to 91 dollars. With tips given, we paid 101 dollars. Such a dinner is expensive to me.

Two languages on a cup

It is not surprising to me that Starbucks and Mc Donald in Canada use two languages on their cups.

Let us study these French words on a cup from Starbucks: Amour, Joie, Voeu and Espoir.
Test if you know them.

Amour in English means
1. One more 2. Good odour 3. Affection 4. Love 5. Aroma
Joie in English means
6. Joy 7. Jolly 8. Jaw 9. Joe 10. Joyce
Voeu in English means
11. Empty 12. Warm 13. Welcome 14. Wish 15. Valued
Espoir in English means
16. Hope 17. Expectation 18. Expire 19. Explain 20. Escape

Petrol prices at Seattle

I was eager to know the petrol prices at Seattle. I did not miss the chance of taking a picture of the prices of three kinds of petrol (Shell) listed on the panel of the price-board at a petrol station nearby the hotel we were staying at Seattle.

Regular (cheapest) : US$2.999 per gallon = US$0.78749 per litre = HK$6.103 per litre
Plus (dear) : US$3.159 per gallon = US$0.8295 per litre = HK$6.487 per litre
V-Power (dearest): US$3.259 per gallon = US$0.8558 per litre = HK$6.6322 per litre

I wonder if the prices of petrol in San Francisco match with those in Seattle.