Star of Beans

Recently some of the stars in the Universe are named after some young scientists or famous people in Hong Kong.

Today I name Elly as a Star of Beans (“畢”豆星) simply because she finds interests in transferring white beans with her little spoon from her cap-like eating bowl to an ordinary plastic one and vice versa. No wonder this primitive game exercises the motor muscles of her hands and fingers and builds up her patience and concentration in finishing her "task". At one time, she tries to put a bean to her lips. We shout out through the microphone, thousands of kilometres away, to stop her from eating it.

Soon sister Abby comes to join in the game. Instead of transferring beans, she picks some beans up and let them drop like rain back to the bowl. In this manner, the two sisters enjoy their playing beans for a while. All these reminds me of the old days when children played simple games such as striking marbles, making guns from wooden strips (handles for ice-bars), throwing tiny bags of sand, jumping over ropes made from elastic rubber bands and kicking plastic balls or shuttle corks.

Christmas Light Decorations

This Christmas, the glass walls of hotels and commercial centres at Tsim Sha Tsui East are fully decorated with beautiful lights.

The themes are mainly pictures of Santa Claus and rabbits around a Christmas tree.

The most interesting ones are:

[1] Reindeers pulling a sleigh on which Santa Claus is sitting with Christmas presents.
(See Centre Right Photo)

[2] Santa Claus flies by plane over a town giving gifts to the people below.
(See Centre Left Photo)

[3] Santa Claus comes by the “Flying Dragon of Hong Kong”.
(See Centre Photo)

Helen Lo

Mrs. Helen Lo invited some of us to her new flat on October 28, 2010. To me, her home is much larger than mine.

The white sitting room is quite big with a large television set, a potted plant without flowers and an L-shaped white sofa on which five to six people can sit.

There are nice souvenirs bought from overseas, one of which is a crystal flower. At the ceiling we find an interesting intestine-like electric light with six bulbs inside.

There is an open kitchen. The long bench separating the sitting room from the kitchen can be used as a dining table. What we notice on this bench-table are the coffee-maker, glasses, a plate of fruits, a cold water-bottle, a hot-water heater and a rice-cooker. Helen put her lap-top computer on the same bench which means that it is also her working table.

Helen served us with radish, a drink of 羅漢果 and some potato chips.

From my observation, Helen or her daughter likes Maruko (小丸子) because there is a clock with this lovely doll on the kitchen bench. Helen loves eating bananas, green pears and dragon fruit (火龍果).

We could not see Helen’s cooking skill that day because she invited us to Yum Cha at a nearby restaurant where we were joined by other colleagues.

A Bus ride to TST

Today, I took a bus ride to Tsim Sha Tsui. The bus I boarded was a 2010 double-decker model. The new seats bore some red-helmeted funny figures. I found the same figures on the information panels of the modern bus-stops at TST when I got off the bus.

The Park Lane was filled with shops, but not people at half past eleven in the morning. The shining sun gave people warmth on the Lane.

After taken lunch with my old friends at a restaurant at TST, It so happened that the bus I took home was exactly a new bus similar to the bus I took earlier. The attractive yellow handles, the new seats, the big TV screens, the straight staircase and even the new logo of KMB all gave me a feeling of comfort and freshness. I felt good during my ride to and from TST today It was really rewarding to me after all. If I had taken MTR instead, I would have changed “chairs”, better say, “carriages” 3 times and might not have found a seat for myself on the rides.

Christmas Party for Children

To us, December 24 night was a Christmas Party for Children and a birthday party for adults.

Jasmine and Hayley met Dr. Lau’s two daughters, Emily and Elka. At the garden, they played glowing balls, a mini-slide, crawling into a tent, throwing balls into mid-air and bouncing on a soft mattress. Hayley, in her Santa Claus dress even rolled herself down to the mattress or even laid herself on the grass. Parents of Jasmine and Hayley together with Tony took photos of the children while others kept watching the four girls play.

Inside the house the girls’ team sat together with their mothers to take some cute photos.

借東西的小矮人 亞莉亞蒂

我前天經過旺角新世紀廣場，發現其中庭舉辦一個名叫日本宮崎駿新作《借東西的小矮人 亞莉亞蒂》“放大”聖誕派對展覽。

細心看展覽，感覺自己走進大人國，身邊的毛毛龍貓大得驚人，周圍都是奇花異草，花朵大得像小雨傘，葉子很像熱帶的芭蕉葉。縮小的屋子模型正是卡通片故事發生的地方，其佈置極度細緻，有趣，很像大家愛看的玩具屋。

穿上紅色裙子的大女孩就是亞莉亞蒂，頭上結了大大的蝴蝶結，面露笑容，甚可愛。

Doraemon at Lok Fu

This Tuesday at Lok Fu, all of a sudden, the cartoon figures of “Doraemon” characters on the stage at the multi-purpose courtyard caught my eyes. They all look vivid. The sizes of these figures look more or less like ours.

What I could find here on the stage were:
[1] Doraemon (叮噹/多啦A夢)
[2] Nobita Nobi (大雄)
[3] Shizuka Minamoto (靜香)
[4] Takeshi Goda (胖虎), nickname “Gian”
[5] Suneo Honekawa (小夫)

Let us see these characters closely:

Doraemon, a robotic cat, was always in my mind when I was young. He is a very kind, true, friendly, intelligent and interesting character. He possesses a 4D pocket from which he can get various kinds of futuristic tools, gadgets, and playthings from a future department store. Doraemon originally had ears, but they were bitten off by a robotic mouse in the 22nd century. As a result, he developed the fear of mice despite being a robotic cat.

Nobita Nobi wears glasses, a red or yellow polo shirt with a white collar, and blue shorts. Nobita is lazy, uncoordinated, dim-witted, frail, plain-looking, unlucky, and bad at sports. Nobita is used to arriving late on classes, scoring zeros in his tests, getting lectured by his teacher, being bullied by his classmates Gian and Suneo, falling into curbside rain gutters, being chased by dogs, and getting scolded by his mom for his sloth and poor academic results.

Shizuka is the smart, kind, and pretty girl next door to Nobita. Nobita is fond of her. She takes baths several times a day. Nobita often disrupts her in the bath due to some misuse of Doraemon's gadgets, resulting in Nobita's head getting dunked. She does not like piano lessons but they are used as excuses for declining to hang out with Nobita. Her true passions are sweet potatoes, which she'd rather keep to herself out of the knowledge of others, and the violin, in which her playing is as bad as Gian's singing. Owing to Doraemon's intervention, Shizuka will become Nobita's wife in the future timeline, and the mother of his son.

Takeshi is the big, strong, and quick-tempered local bully. He is known for his confidence in his terrible singing voice, though he considers himself a great singer. He frequently steals other children's toys and books under the pretext of "borrowing" them, unless the toy is damaged. However, he does not hesitate to help Nobita and his friends when they are in real trouble.

Suneo is the fox-faced (inherited from his mother) rich kid who loves to show off his material wealth before everyone. He is often seen with Gian, serving as Gian's lackey while they bully Nobita together, though he fears and despises him as much as everyone else. He has an good knowledge of science, and is a talented artist and designer. He has the habit to invite Gian and Shizuka to something or somewhere, but always leave Nobita out with one excuse or another.

December Snow in Europe

Recently snow falls in Europe. England, France and Germany are affected. The snow has upset the operations of the international airports in these countries such as London Heathrow Airport (England), Charles De Gaulle Paris International Airport (France) and Frankfurt am Main Airport (Germany). Tons of snow on the runways and on planes should be cleared before flights. Many flights are cancelled and only a fraction of the planes can take off or land.

The airports are in chaos. Passengers are stranded. Some have to sleep on the floor, having no bath and they have to find for food themselves. The airports are really like refugee camps.

Recent news says that Heathrow Airport lacks of ice-melting chemicals to remove the snow on the planes. The British army can help removing the snow on the runways, but the Spanish-managing authority at the airport refuses the idea. If the weather turns better, the runways cleared and the planes defrosted, the flights of planes will soon resume.

The traffic on land is equally bad. The “Eurostar” has reduced its service because they cannot travel at high speed on slippery rails. The roads are congested and drivers need to drive cautiously for safety.

Sunset Trains on the rails

I seldom take photos of trains, but today it is different. I wake up to find the setting sun still high up. The orange to red reflections of sunlight on this part of MOS rails attract my attention. I cannot help finding my cameras to take photos of the rails and the trains that run soundlessly to and from the nearby City One Station.

What interests me here is the glamour of red lights shining on the railway lines. I trust it is just a narrow chance to see such a scene on the rails. The temporary “clear” sky, the angle of rays of the setting sun and the time of discovery all match together to form photos like these.

Please double-click to see larger photos.

First Breakfast at new Fairwood, City One

Today we rushed to Fairwood early in the morning, just in time to find an empty table for us. My wife sat down first while I turned to buy a breakfast. I chose scrambled egg, fish fillet, white radish pudding with milk tea. It cost 22 dollars. I added an extra bowl of macaroni with shredded ham (another 3 dollars). The same kind of breakfast cost more or less the same in the brotherhood Café de Coral.

The breakfast came with food lying close together like neighbouring countries on a map of Europe. The crust on the fish fillet here is softer and thinner than that of Café de Coral. The latter is usually as hard as a shell. We find the paste of mayonnaise at a corner while that of CDC comes in a tiny plastic round cup. There is no big difference in the scrambled egg and radish pudding in both fast food restaurants when compared. The only big surprise came from the slice of lemon that went with the fish fillet. This told us that Fairwood really “cares” about the customer's need.

I could see hot steam coming up from the bowl of macaroni. My wife added that the soup base of the macaroni was not transparent, but milky in some way.

The last thing I have to mention here is that the fish fillet provided by KFC has a spicy taste which I like most.

In the photo, my wife was like playing magic with her hands to make the dish of food appear before her.

A Glimpse at Fairwood at City One

Let us take a look at the new branch of “Fairwood” Fastfood Restaurant at City One.

The orange colour used by the restaurant is attractive and striking to the eye. I love its modern-look. I hope it serves delicious food to the customers, among which are my family members.

I also hope that the food is sold at a fair price so that everyone can afford.

What can you see from these pictures?

I can tell you that it is a figure side-somersaulting. The figure looks like the letter “大” rolling round and round. Such rolling letters create “movement” and movement of our bodies means doing physical exercises.

After doing physical exercises, we need to refill ourselves with food. Behind these wall pictures is the kitchen which provides food for us. This is the new “Fairwood” branch due to open tomorrow, December 19, Sunday, 2010 in Ngan Shing Shopping Centre at City One.

Recent M & M

To buy M & M clothes from Bossini shops, customers have to surrender their empty packet bags of M & M Chocolate beans. A new discovery comes that the beans become bigger, thicker and richer in taste. To me, the chocolate taste lasts longer in the mouth. The packet of chocolate we chose contain peanut butter which my family likes.


I totally agree that such improvement will make the chocolate lovers like M & M more. Recently, I notice that the M & M dolls look very lovely at our supermarkets, but they are too expensive for me to collect. I simply look, smile and go.

Merry Christmas

Many new shops have been recently opened after renovation in Ngan Shing Shopping Centre at City One.

It is the first time to see Christmas decorations in this centre. At its central square Christmas trees and “sleepy” dolls are placed. My wife tells me that these dolls are called MashiMaro (賤兔). According to history, they were born in May 8, 1999 in Korea, created by ”金在仁”先生. It is quite interesting to learn that the name comes from “marshmallow”.

May I say Merry Christmas to you all, my blog readers, and wish you all the best to come in the coming year 2011.

I have to announce a happy piece of news today: As from September 9, 2007 up to yesterday, December 13 , 2010, the total number of unique readers of my blog has reached 2001, just over 2000. I never expect to have such a large number of visitors here. Thanks to everyone who peeps in and reads my articles.

亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽

以上是亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽精彩照片集

亞洲星光大道3決賽

經過大半年不斷的參賽者比試,亞洲星光大道3歌唱比賽決賽終於在昨晚播出.

在首兩輪唱歌過後,最後六強中, 攪笑氣氛相當好的日本三人組合JAC名列第六,而被大會評判之一Walter Ma看好的李麗珊(嬌滴滴穿紅衣的那一位)則獲得第五名.

留下來的四位比賽者是兩男兩女:分別是譚焌釗(Leslie), 盧思穎(Nicole), 楊麗珊(Gretchell)和鄭昆洪.經過一輪比賽,大家所得的分數非常接近,高大威猛的譚焌釗以0.1分失敗了.
接下來的是最後三強比賽, 楊麗珊把握其首本高水準的英文歌從後居上把自己的分數推向最高,而盧思穎只獲得第三名.

最後, 鄭昆洪和楊麗珊各人要唱多一首歌,由評判決定誰是冠軍.
楊麗珊唱得特別出色, 以一曲我是一隻小小鳥贏得冠軍

現在讓我從上面照片介紹一下這六個參賽賽員/單位:

左上角是JAC主歌手,他的兩位拍檔分別是結他手和鼓手;三位是出色的樂隊組合.
右上角那位英俊斯文的是譚焌釗,適合唱柔情的歌.
左下二是鄭昆洪,唱功不俗
右下二是盧思穎,唱出的歌很悅耳
左下角楊麗珊是今次冠軍,樣子甜美,唱英文歌特別出色,音域廣闊,可以和無線電視超級巨聲2的冠軍林欣彤可相比.這兩位未來歌手前途一定無可限量.
右下角是李麗珊, 唱歌算幾好

Huge Waves at Sea

Man Kin, one of primary school classmates, sent us a video of ships rocking through rough seas. His good friends, Man Fai and Fred Chak, soon responded. Below are their experiences at sea. Although they worked in different ships, their jobs were to communicate with the outside world. Their ships sailed in different oceans. Except Man Fai, Man Kin and Fred Chak both thought of their families and Life & Death when huge waves struck hard at their ships.

REMEMBER to DOUBLE-CLICK the collage photo to see larger pictures.

Man Kin: I had experienced huge waves several times, once in the Indian Ocean just off the coast of South Africa, and couple of times in the South China Sea.

Man Fai: I have personally experienced 50-knot wind and 40-foot wave in the Mediterranean off the southern coast of France. Fortunately, I was safely on a 82000-ton cruise liner (950 ft long with stabilizers) and not on my first ship, which was only 3000 tons. I had two other rough ones in the south Atlantic, and both were worse than the weather in the video.

Fred Chak: The ships I worked 30 years ago were mostly around 5000 tons. During the worst case, everyone on board had to wear life jackets and securely pocketed our passports preparing for the capsize of the ship at any moment. I felt deeply sick and could only lie on bed, stabilizing myself by pressing my arms and feet against the wall and the bed railings. Things in my cabin were thrown everywhere. My cabin was next to the bridge and the captain's cabin which was the highest cabin on the ship. However, some of the waves hit the ship over the funnel and the seawater broke open the outside doors and rushed through the corridor! The chef couldn't cook and my steward brought to me meals which were just sandwiches and tin food. I felt extremely guilty to see him (aged almost 50) struggling painfully up the stairs to bring the food to me. However I could not eat and drink. I just worried for my family folks who needed my support. I prayed for myself and everyone's safety. It was hell then and life was not easy. That was how we seamen earned a living!

Man Kin: “No fear” was not the feeling. While I encountered rough seas like that, I tried to comfort myself by leaving it to fate, and my thinking was along the line: “if my time is up, my time is up; there is not much I can do”, though I tried to keep faith with the crew and the ship too. Luckily, I was a born sailor as I did not suffer seasickness. When I was not on duty in the radio room, I usually stayed up in the bridge with the captain, the duty officer and the quarter-master. They tend to appreciate my presence. I pitied the engineers and the engine room crew, as they usually suffered seasickness worse than those above deck (probably due to the smell of oil and enclosed space which made it more difficult to sense the ship’s pitching, rolling and gyrating).

Like Ah Chak, my family folks would need my financial support, but my wishful thinking was that if I perished with the ship, there should be a huge insurance payout to my family as compensation. How silly and immature was I in those days? Lucky for me, my seafaring days were mostly sunny and calm, rough seas might be about 10% of the time. The best ship I sailed on was an ex-passenger ship so I spent most afternoons around the swimming pool and evenings in the bar. At that time, we spent a fair bit of time anchoring in the Persian Gulf waiting for berthing (the Arabs had money to buy from all over the world but their harbours were not that well advanced to handle the volume), so we sometimes invited crew members from other waiting ships to ours to have BBQ parties, drinks, movies… and this poor RO would have to handle the projector (changed films a few times per movie) !!! In general, I had a good life during those few years at sea; where else would you have a steward serving me and keeping me well fed (3 meals a day, couple of tea breaks and supper), tidying up my room, washing/ironing my clothes, shining my shoes, and taking care of odd jobs for me (only a small tip every now and then)?
Those were the days…

Man Fai: I enjoyed immensely my days as a seaman. Like my fellow sailor classmates, I had to support my family, which I undertook cheerfully. And very much like Ah Kin, I fortunately did not and still do not suffer from seasick, and spent many off-duty hours on the bridge too. Otherwise I read and listened to music from radio; my favorite stations included Radio HK, Radio Luxembourg and Lourenco Marques Radio (now Maputo, Mozambique).

When encountering rough weather, I never experience fear or even concern, and did not think of death nor had to pray. Right, Wai-Han, indeed it was good to be young. 初生之犢, so fearless and ignorant! I had my fair share of bad weather: for example my ship the 3000-ton Norwegian M/V Tarva, was battered by a typhoon from the Taiwan Strait all the way into the middle of the South China Sea. For three days we had no sightings and steered by dead reckoning only. On the fourth day, we found we were almost a hundred miles off course. Another time I was on a 20000-ton Greek tanker, M/T Antares, sailing from Mombasa to Montevideo. The normal course after rounding the Cape of Good Hope is to sail straight west. However, my new, 33 years old captain (I thought he was “mature” as I was only 23 then), on his first ever command; decided to take the great circle route (GCR) since it was fair summer. Though shorter, the GCR would bring us much further south and deep into the Roaring Forties. Half way through the crossing in the middle of the South Atlantic, a storm hit. The chief officer actually took me to mid-ship to feel the vibrations caused by long wavelength swells, which could break the ship in half. My captain stayed on the bridge after dinner, we chatted and he explained how he was steering the ship across the swells. Then I went on watch (duty), checked and found the nearest ship was over 300 miles away, and would take over a day to come to our rescue. With the frigid sea in the area, we would only last minutes in the water. Anyway before I went to bed, I scoured my closet nonchalantly, found the life jacket, and placed it for the first time ever beside my bed. I then promptly fell sound asleep. When I woke up next morning, the storm had subsided. My chief officer told me our captain stayed up all night till early morning. He probably would never venture into the Roaring Forties for the rest of his career.

Their sea adventures are exciting. aren't they?

Dolls crowned Kings and Queens

We often see "Kings" and "Queens" on pokers or in historic films about kingdoms.

Today I came across these kings and queens at Sunshine City. They looked rather like dolls because they were all baby-faced and big-eyed. Some had moustaches which might mean they were kings. Those without could be queens.

I saw mothers ask their children to stand near the dolls to have pictures taken. This might be a playhouse for children instead of a doll display.

A sports car raced with a 747

On September 6, 2009, there was an interesting race between a sports car and a Cargo 747 plane at Singapore Changi Airport. The race was broadcast to the public.

The pilot of the plane (in white shirt) and the car driver took a photo before the game was played.

This heavy cargo plane had to power up before it could start. It must be a long-distance run for both to make the race exciting. The plane started off first and the race car started next. No wonder the sports car could accelerate fast and chase past the giant Hercules 747 on the ground. The sports car won.

A New Advertisement

This Chinese Pill advertisement is comfortable to look at. The designer of the advertisement connects “the luggage delivery belt at an airport” with “the intestine of the human body”. The left-hand side of the belt displays the disorder and discomfort inside the intestine while the right-hand one shows the neat and fluent flow of our food/waste. This advertisement shows clearly to people two situations in our intestine, normal and abnormal. Of course, with the effect of the pills if taken will turn the situation from bad to good.

The slogan of the manufacturer is always like this:

常備XX丸，有病唔駛怕

Do you know what XX are?

What can you say about how the luggage lays on the delivery belt at the airport of your country? Does the luggage lay neatly like the right-hand side of the belt as in the above photo or in the way like the left-hand side?