Traffic in Tolo Harbour

Tolo Harbour is never busy. The water is calm on most of the days of a week. The slow-going barges, some with cranes, pulled by tug-boats do not stir up the sea as they go.

Speedboats or fast marine police patrol boats are different. They speed across the harbour cutting up the sea water and leaving behind long lines of white foam and waves.

I like this kind of quiet sea traffic in Tolo Harbour.

Recent Breakfast at Fairwood

Fairwood at City One is always crowded with people. To get a seat there, we must go as early as possible on Saturdays or Sundays.

Last Sunday, we were able to reach it at seven fifteen and found two single luxurious “sofa” seats with a small table in between. There are three such sets of seats by the window in the whole restaurant and we were so lucky to find empty seats for the very first time.

Prices of food rise rapidly in these years and so as those of breakfasts.
Here was our example of twenty-five dollar set: chicken fillet (shrunk in size already), harsh-brown with salted beef, macaroni with shredded ham and a cup of hot drink (we chose Horlicks).

The container of the macaroni shapes like our Hong Kong Coliseum which narrows down. This means that as soon as one finishes the top layer of food, he/she will see the bottom of the bowl.

自由創作二人組

昨天早上，阿比和艾莉在睡房中好有默契地分別拿著玩具搖鼓和口琴，各自搖和吹起未經編排的樂章。

吹著口琴的艾莉自然無法哼出心愛電視劇「潛行狙擊」的主題曲；阿比則邊搖邊唱，很陶醉地瞇著眼唱出無字的歌。這時刻令我感受到兩姊妹正分享「合奏」的樂趣，而欣賞她們的表演的正是擁著有限音樂細胞的公公！

Landing at the Old Kai Tak Airport

No one disagrees that our old Kai Tak Airport is one of the dangerous airports to land.

Usually aeroplanes had to turn 90 degrees before the “Signal” Hill (with a chess-board on the vertical surface of a small hill at Kowloon Chai), lowered their altitudes, passed hundreds of low buildings at Kowloon City and aimed at the single short runway at the edge of buildings. Sometimes planes could not fly straight at the runway because of strong winds. Quick steering and immediate correction of route were necessary.

The location of the airport was so close to residential buildings made the pilots very excited every time they land, but such awareness for a safe landing raised the skill of the pilots to a high level.

Appreciation of Bromeliads

Without photo contributions from my classmate as well as friend, Stephen Wong, I cannot show you these varieties of bromeliads.

The top two rows of photos and the largest one on the right are Neoregelia.

The second bottom photos show, from left to right, Neo Corriea Araujoi, Alcan Imperialis Rubra, Neo Gee Whiz and Neoregelia.

The bottom photos are, from left to right, Vr. Fosteriana, Vr. Hieroglyphica, Neo Rose Morn and Neo Lambert's Pride.

A Garden of Bromeliads

To study Bromeliads, the best place is Stephen Wong’s garden.

Stephen is mad at growing various kinds of plants of the family of Bromeliads. I am sure Stephen can tell anyone about the characters of each of his plants, their growth and special behaviours.

A Grand House in Australia

This is the grand house of my classmate, Stephen. I have been there before. From my impression, his house resembles a modern palace.

The largest photo shows the view of his house from his backyard. The top left photo shows the front of his house and next to it is the view from his house to the road with wide steps descending to his main door.

Stephen grows a lot of plants, mostly bromeliads (鳳梨科植物), at his front as well as back yard. He tells me that, in the family of bromeliads, he grows Guzmania, Neoregelia and Vriesia.

Red Plums and Pears

The day before yesterday, I found red plums and pears that came from U.S.A. in a “P” supermarket.

The supermarket named the red plums as “恐龍蛋布冧”, On the labels were printed Prune Rouge. Well the plums looked beautiful and attractive. They cost $19.2 for 5. On another side, there was a dearer kind of yellow plums (around $30 for 5) also called as “恐龍蛋布冧”. I bought the cheaper kind and found out that they were not sweet at all. Here I presume the dearer plums are sweeter and that extra ten dollars will be responsible for the sweetness.

The pears are called Scully Bartlett. The weakness of these pears comes from their over-mucous texture.

Japanese Wisteria

Japanese wisteria (日本紫籐) bears the longest flower racemes of any wisteria; they can reach nearly half a meter in length. These racemes burst into great trails of clustered white, violet, or blue flowers in early- to mid-spring. The flowers carry a distinctive fragrance similar to that of grapes.
Japanese wisteria can grow over 30m long over many supports via powerful clockwise-twining stems. From a distance, it looks like a waterfall.

The foliage consists of shiny, dark-green, pinnately compound leaves 10–30 cm in length. The leaves bear 9-13 oblong leaflets that are each 2–6 cm long. It also bears numerous poisonous, brown, velvety, bean-like seed pods, 5–10 cm long that mature in summer and persist until winter. Japanese wisteria prefers moist soils and full sun. It is amazing that the plant often lives over fifty years.

A Flying Chinese National Flag

Today is October 1, the Chinese National Day. I need not go to neither Golden Bauhinia Square nor Tiananmen Square to watch the flag raising ceremony because below me a National flag is flying peacefully and quietly at the roof of a school.

There is no procession, no national song nor ceremony of any kind because all schools over Hong Kong are closed today.

It is very windy, so the flag flies high and flaps all the time. It is definitely different from the “hard” flag the first U.S. astronaut was holding when he landed on the moon.

雨中等過馬路

我拍這兩張照片時，相隔只是幾秒，但觀感不同。

今天下午時晴時雨，無聊得向窗外望，找拍攝靈感。就在這時刻，眼前的景像很特別─有打著傘的行人正等著過馬路。

看著他們很有耐性地等候行人過路燈轉綠的情景令我佩服不已。

右面那一張照片構圖及色彩很美，原因是行人拿著傘的分佈很平均，有不同顏色的雨傘出現，大家不約而同的望向前方等給自己開步走的訊號是有趣的，你是否同意呢？

數學題:右面那幅相比起左面那幅多了幾人？

觀察題:有幾多位行人是原封不動，無移動過一步呢？

What animal is it?

Hints:
[1] It has the ability to run at maximum speeds of about 97.5 kilometres per hour (60.6 mph).

[2] It lays the largest egg of any living bird.

[3] It usually weighs from 63 to 130 kilograms (140–290 lb).

[4] Its eyes are said to be the largest of any land vertebrate – 50 millimetres (2.0 in) in diameter.

[5] It has three stomachs.

Run, Run, Run

Our two grand-children, Abby and Elly, ran round and round a children’s park the day before yesterday. It was safe to run on that soft-to-bouncing ground. Abby started the run and little Elly followed her sister from behind. Though Abby, light-weighted and tall, won several metres before Elly, the latter did not give up the run. She strove on with her own short legs.

Before this, the two sisters went to the top of a slide. They found the slide too hot for sliding because they could feel the heat of the sun when sitting at its top. We told them to play at a lower and shorter slide near by. They both welcomed the idea. Their climbing, swinging, steering at a wheel and tip-toeing over the bars (with my close supervision) occupied almost an hour at the playground. All through the time, their spirits were high. I wondered if they would have nightmares that night.

Buondolce

Finding new things each day is rewarding.

Today from a rack in a “P” Supermarket, I discovered small sponge cakes in packets of ten. Each packet cost about twelve ninety Hong Kong dollars. There ought to be four flavours, which I found only three, namely, chocolate & honey, strawberry and milk. I thought the missing one was orange.

The attractions of these cakes come from low prices, beautiful outlook, “milk & yogurt” and their special flavours. To me, they are a little sweet, but they satisfy me.

The moment I picked them up and studied its "country of origin", I was astonished to see the language used was Japanese. Later I learned from the web-address that the product was from Italy.

Buondolce is just the brand name of cakes while Freddi was the company’s name. This is similar to Camry as to Toyota.

This company produces other products, say, Swiss roll, Omamma, PicNic, Dolcetto and Moretta. Their outlooks are more or less the same, rectangular, except those Swiss rolls.

It is very nice to see Italian food become popular in Hong Kong markets. I do support Italy’s food products.

一個不用上班的日子

今天八月廿九日早上颱風納沙 (Typhoon Nesat) 帶給大部分的香港市民一個不用上班的日子。昨晚我臨睡的時候，天文台仍舊發出三號風球信號；睡醒了，天文台已發出八號東南烈風信號。學生們、老師們不用上課固然開心，上班一族，除了服務性行業的員工，亦不用返工，享有額外半天甚至一整天假期。太太及我今天都無需照顧孫兒，自然放假一天，確要爭取多些時間休息。

今天的快餐店、餐室、酒樓、超級市場、街市、報紙檔、麵包店都照常營業。上述的正正是市民在打風的日子要去的地方。

早上附近的麥當當坐著幾枱青灰間隔制服的九巴司機們 (這裏其中一幅照片中，可見在巴士站過夜的一批巴士還未開走)，因為天文台已經在早上四時四十分宣佈八號烈風信號，全港的巴士停駛了。港島的電車、過海渡輪也不例外。除小巴、的士及港鐵(有限度服務)之外，公共交通工具的停駛帶給在風暴下還要返工的市民不便。

今次納沙只是在香港南面三百公里外掠過，所帶來的災害不大──只是一些大樹及一個巨型棚架倒塌壓著一部的士(的士司機無恙，乘客受傷)。也許清晨一艘浮塢斷纜漂浮向杏花邨岸邊撞擊，威脅民居的事件算是比較嚴重一些而已。

Glue and Oil paint

Abby made two mischievous acts, one on this Wednesday and the other Thursday.

First act: She took out a bottle of glue from her dad’s desk in the reading room, returned to her tiny blue desk in the sitting room and began to squeeze glue onto a page of a single-lined book. Next she used coloured pencils to dip into the glue and draw. Certainly the colour could not go through the sticky glue onto the paper. I warned her not to do this, but she did not listen to me or stop right away. A second thought came to me that in that instant, I should not stop her “creativity”. I let her do it, but warned her that she would dirty the table. Abby went on adding glue onto the page and spilt some onto the table. I was a little agitated.

At first, Elly, sitting next to her sister, was doing something quietly. Soon she joined her sister and wiped her hands onto the thick spread of glue on the page. I was filled with fury at this point because Abby had started the mischievous act which caused her little sister’s hands and fingers all dirty with glue. I seized the bottle of glue and the book, and threw them into the dustbin and carried Elly quickly to the toilet to have her hands washed clean. I feared that Elly would swallow the glue, a chemical which might be toxic to her. I shouted to Abby, too, to clean her hands. I looked like a "mad" man at that time. Obviously, Elly would not like my idea of forcing her to wash her hands. Afterwards, I let grandma to calm and settle her down. I thought that I had to show to my grandchildren that they were wrong and that I was angry at their naughty acts.

Second act: Abby, this time, took out another book and picked an oil-based marker pen to draw on it. I warned her that if she drew out of the pages of the book, she would dirty the table and make the table difficult to be cleaned. The consequence came out that she did dirty the table with a spot of yellow when she flipped the wet page of paint onto it. I was sure that yellow spot would stay there forever. If we use an oil solvent to do the cleaning work, the solvent may as well solve the blue paint of the table. That was an unforgettable “scar” Abby made on her lovely blue table.

Opal

Two young men travelled from Adelaide to Darwin. They stopped at Coober Pedy (in South Australia) which people called it the opal capital of the world. They met several workers at the mine drilling and insert small explosives into holes and blast the red soil up. What they aim at is the opal (蛋白石).

Opal is the national gemstone of Australia, which produces 97% of the world's supply. It is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl and basalt.

Opal's internal structure makes it diffract light; depending on the conditions in which it formed it can take on many colors. Opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common. It varies in optical density from opaque to semi-transparent. For gemstone use, its natural color is often enhanced by placing thin layers of opal on a darker underlying stone, like basalt.

Besides the gemstone varieties that show a play of color, there are other kinds of common opal such as the milk opal, milky bluish to greenish (which can sometimes be of gemstone quality); resin opal, which is honey-yellow with a resinous luster; wood opal, which is caused by the replacement of the organic material in wood with opal; menilite, which is brown or grey; hyalite, a colorless glass-clear opal sometimes called Muller's Glass; geyserite, also called siliceous sinter, deposited around hot springs or geysers; and diatomite or diatomaceous earth, the accumulations of diatom shells or tests.

功夫新星

繼魔法擂台之後，無線推出新節目功夫新星，前者帶出娛樂給觀眾之外，同時吸引喜歡玩魔術的人才出來表演，霎時間使香港產生玩魔術熱潮，是一個不可多得的節目，而後者亦發掘了好些習武的年青人大顯身手(表現拳腳功夫、 舞動不同的兵器)，切磋武藝之餘， 亦訓練其膽量，不斷接受新挑戰。評判團都非常有份量，當中有武術前輩，大師和武打明星，所給予參賽者的批評非常中肯。

參賽者共有十二人， 經過幾輪比賽之後，只留下六位比較出色的賽員角逐最後兩名香港區武術代表資格與另外六位從外國回來的選手比賽。

在決賽中，香港區有一男一女做代表 (穿黑色服裝那兩位)， 其餘六位來自英國、馬來西亞、美國等等不同的國家(穿白色服裝那六位)。最後由香港女代表何佩珉得到評判一致的讚賞奪得功夫新星的榮銜.

評判認為何佩珉耍的棍比很多的演員打得狠，亦很出色。最後何佩珉從武打女星及最佳影后惠英紅小姐手中接過冠軍腰帶成為功夫新星.

Playing Balloons

Elly and Abby play balloons in two ways:

[1] They strike them to me from the top berth of their twin beds and I hit back to them.

[2] They ask me to pump a balloon to a suitable size first and release it with the air escaping from the mouth. The ball will then thrust forward and fly freely before them. No matter where the balloon will fly to, they cheer.

What’s on TV?

Yesterday when I took this photo, Elly was watching TV.

What’s on TV at that time?

She was imitating an action. There are 4 options below.



[1] Someone was licking ice-cream.
[2] Someone was drinking coca-cola.
[3] A dog was licking his master.
[4] A dog was panting in the heat.