The Voice

In Hong Kong, I watched the singing contest “The Voice” (超級巨聲) on HKTVB ever since July, 2009. This kind of singing contest first started in Taiwan. Hong Kong follows more or less the same way.

What interests me in the programme is that I put myself into the contest by imaging that I were one of the judges. I would give marks to each contestant after his/her performance and see if the marks I gave matched with those of the judges. I did not know how to comment on the performances, but the marks often came very close to the actual ones. That was the fun I could get from the contest.It was mid-September that I arrived at Vancouver. I saw once again the programmes of the contest on Channel 181 or 182, but they were seven weeks behind. It was disappointing to see that we could not watch this contest through Internet because people living in countries outside Hong Kong could not watch the video clips provided by HKTVB. My feeling for the first few weeks in Vancouver was like that I were in a backward country, watching programmes that were old, torn or out of date.
Since I was in Vancouver for 3 months, I was able to watch several programmes of the contest which I had not seen before in Hong Kong. Some new faces of contestants astonished me because I had not seen them at the very beginning of the contest. Later I learned that they came from mainland China. I guessed the outstanding singers (not professional) from different provinces joined in the contest. From my observation, these new contestants sang really well and I believed they might beat the contestants in Hong Kong.
The contest finally ended on February 7. The results were that 王雯 (from mainland China) came first, 何紫慧 (a 14 year-old HK contestant) second and 趙文 (another contestant from mainland China) third.


On the whole, the Hong Kong contestants sing quite well, but not so well as王雯 because 王雯 's range of voice is very wide and her singing is filled with feelings. Not only she has good skills in handling songs of different kinds, but also a beautiful voice.She is well deserved such an honour to be the winner of “The Voice”.

A Message to the outside world

Here is the message the students of PLHKS (Pentecostal Lam Hon Kwong School) want to tell the outside world through their potted flowers.

The potted flowers I mentioned in my previous post are arranged by the students like these. Can you get the message completely?

Potted Flowers

On February 5, I passed a famous secondary school in Shatin. In between the fence and the school building were placed many small potted flowers. My wife told me that the flowers are called, 石竹花 , in Chinese. They were put together for easy irrigation.

On February 13 when I passed this school again, I was surprised to find a big change to these potted flowers.

What is the change? Can you guess?

小雲和小吉

舊製作，新發現。IQ博士卡通片集重現電視螢光幕。今次要下午六時轉台至J2.

為甚麼今次要帶出這兩位卡通人物呢?

原因是:

[1] 最近可能是Elly快要出牙關係，什麼東西都咬，例如：碗、枱……
情況極像IQ博士卡通片集片中小吉什麼都咬， 甚至吃掉它們。


[2] 對於Abby來講，我覺得她像小雲那般可愛、聰明和有趣。

那麼現時Connie家中出現了卡通小雲和小吉了。

恭喜！恭喜！

Below 10 degrees Celcius

The cartoon weather forecast here reveals the cold weather in Hong Kong in these few days. The temperature drops below 10 degrees Celcius.








Our home in Hong Kong is not equipped with heaters so the best place to hide is our bed. Thick coats are worn to keep the body heat, otherwise our jaws will shake and shoulders shrug.

Back to one day in late November when I was walking homeward, carrying a load of fruit, in Vancouver, the North Wind was blowing and rain drizzling. The coldness of six degrees had already made my nose water. The only thing I could do was to quicken my foot-steps to walk home as fast as possible.








On those December days at temperature around zero degree (Celcius) without my gloves on, the coldness pierced my hands and the latter soon became stiff. I had to bear the pain while escorting Abby to school. You may imagine how we (three adults, two children) struggled our way against the cold in the streets of Vancouver.

Art of displaying food at Ladies Purse

Displaying food is an art. Let us see how food is placed on a plate.

[1] Green and purple vegetables as salad base are placed like hay at the bottom layer. Smoked fish pieces are folded like waves on top. Two rings of onion added elements of Mathematics to this dish of fish.

[2] The piece of beef is the chief character of the dish. That is why it is placed at the centre. Sauce is poured over it and some overflows to one side and on the other side of the dish, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and thick potato pieces are laid to add colour to the meat dish.

[3] Slices of fresh white turkey meat, whiter than chicken are piled up over some egg plants. The brown bean sauce adds a special flavour to the meat. Tiny green vegetables and potatoes are co-stars which surround a small piece of turkey liver. The spot of tomato sauce is a surplus.

上頭炷香

每年踏入農曆初一子時，香港有很多善男信女往黃大仙祠上頭炷香，今年也不例外。當電視鏡頭向著前排人群移動的時候，八卦的我要金睛火眼地找尋我們城中一位名人。

很快這位名人真真的出現在眼前，究竟她有沒有在你心中留下一席位呢?

Chinese New Year Fireworks

In Hong Kong, it was on the second day of the Lunar New Year that fireworks blasted off from barges to the sky over the Victoria harbour.








The spectators on both shores of the harbour and those TV watchers could see the beautiful patterns of “金元寶” for “財源廣進“, “吉”字 for”大吉大利”, the "whiskers" for “Tigers”, “EXPO” for “世博”, "哈哈笑 " for "Happiness", flowers and silvery trees too.







To see all these needs a little imagination and a pair of quick eyes. Can you see them all from these photos?

Parade at Chinese New Year in Vancouver

The Canadian Government in Vancouver welcomes at last the idea of a parade organized by the Chinese at Chinatown on the first day of Lunar New Year.







Hundreds of people, performers, dragon-dancers, dancers from different clans and spectators from local Chinese and even Canadians poured into the streets. They were heading for the BC Place Stadium an hour earlier before the roads were blocked for the Winter Olympics. The parade added good atmosphere at New Year Day for the Chinese in Vancouver. They celebrated and warmed up the Olympics Games as well.







The parade passed the streets at Chinatown, one of which is Columbia Street. I believed we had walked on it before. I can recognize the large wall picture I captured a few months ago in one of its streets.







In some of the pictures here, the streets in this area were crowded with Chinese residents and some were in their traditional dresses. One of the spectators said that the whole world was now focusing on Vancouver.

A Peach Blossom Tree

May this peach blossom tree bring riches, health, romance and love to my CCSC students, colleagues, friends and relatives in different parts of the World in the Year of the Tiger.

It is rare to see a tree full of Chinese traditional feeling at New Year inside an American famous Café at TST. No wonder it is the idea of the managing staff in bringing Chinese New Year atmosphere to their customers at this joyous time of the year.



One interesting thing is that the hanging 常滿 ‘Fei Chun’s add some humour to its coffee products. The café hopefully earns more and the customers enjoy sitting there sipping coffee and chatting with their friends.

Will you join me at a “Starbucks” in Hong Kong?

Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, 2010, will be on at B.C. Place Stadium, Vancouver tomorrow at 10 a.m. Hong Kong time (6 p.m. at Vancouver).

The Olympics are back to Canada for the first time since 1988 when they were held in another city, Calgary. The event officially gets going with the first-ever indoor opening ceremony.



The torch has arrived after travelling 45-thousand kilometers passing through more than one thousand communities across Canada. Today (February 11th), a lady athlete running on 41st Avenue let Abby hold the Olympic cauldron for photo-taking. Elly was lucky too. Mother Connie let her gloved little hand touch the cauldron too. What an experience the two little girls had got!

Some 9-thousand cubic metres of snow has been trucked in or flown in to ensure the sports ground at Cypress Mountain has enough snow for competition.

Canada finished third 4 years ago at Turin, Italy, behind Germany and United States. This year Canada has set their sights on obtaining lots of medals on its homeland.