A voluntary work

The first guest in the conference

On Saturday, I worked as a volunteer in a health conference for the Centre of Research and Promotion of Women's Health which was organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The venue is at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The work was simple and easy. In the morning, I helped put small gifts into plastic bags for the guests. In the afternoon, I helped served the guests when they arrived.

I have not been a volunteer for quite a long time. That was a job that I had never done before. Although it was simple, it was meaningful. I enjoyed being a helper there. The people I worked with were completely different from my own field. It gave me a good opportunity to talk to people in different walks of life. I am not an outgoing person. I think I need this kind of training - talking and working with strangers :-) I think I will do it again when I have the chance in future.

Transportantion

That was the lorry in front

A lorry stopped right in front of my bus at a traffic tonight. I was sitting at the front and saw the company name at the back of the lorry. Boy! Are someone playing tricks on words or what is happening in Hong Kong?

Cold

It's getting cold tonight. According to the Observatory, the temperature will be 12 degrees C tomorrow morning. The low temperature will last for a week. Well, to experience the first cold weather of the year, why not?

School Picnic

A photo with my colleague, Ms Ma

Had our School Picnic on a 'black Friday', thanked God everything was OK. The best thing today was the walk around Aberdeen Reservoir. Autumn is always my most favourite season and today is a typical Autumn day. High blue sky with breeze around, it was fantastic. The worst thing was eaten the barbeque food the students fired for me, charcoal outside and uncooked inside. Don't want to discourage them but to say the food was good. What a white lie! Felt a bit of stomach ache when I reached home.

It is a pity there are too many meetings after school, too much non-teaching duties. I can hardly squeeze some time out to know the students or chat with them. Today, at last, I could spend a day with them. But it is not enough, I wish I could stay with them more at school instead of wasting time having stupid meetings, doing stupid non-teaching work and discussing nonsense matter.

Hong Kong 'at last'

What made me write again after being lazy for more than a month? It's the picture above. It's what I saw today in the MTR. I remembered this Easter when we went to Taiwan, something impressed me when I stepped on the train was the seats for the needed people. I felt sad why Hong Kong did not have this service for those needed. Now I am happy to see it. At least, I won't feel shamed being a Hongkonger.

One more thing the MTR needs to do is to put a poster up telling people how to use the mobile phone like the one in Taiwan. I don't mind following others as long as it is for our good sake.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the 15th day of August in the Chinese calendar. It is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the 'Moon Festival'.

Lanterns are very important at the festival. Traditionally, kids play lanterns on this day. Being nostalgic, we went to Western District this afternoon to see the traditional lanterns. There were quite a few shops close together to sell both old and new style lanterns. The shops form a tiny market. There you could find 'the lanterns of your childhood'. They were the rabbits, the fish, the star fruit and many others. The lantern shops made a manificent scene of the area. There was a large variety of different kinds of lanterns for you to choose.

Rabbits are the most significant traditional lanterns.

Star fruit - my favourite. My father could make it.

Gold fish again - very cute

When I was a kid, we could not afford to buy these kinds of lanterns. We could only play with cheap lanterns in cylindrical shape. However, our genius father could make us beautiful lanterns like the ones we saw in the shop. He made us rabbits and star fruit, etc. We are proud of our father and we still talk about it at time :-)

The full Moon at the Moon Festival

It was told by the Observatory Department that the moon was the roundest at 11:38p.m. tonight. (03-10-2009)

Mid-Autumn Festival dinner

We had family dinner at the night of the Mid-autumn Festival. Is it delicious?

New meets old

New meets Old

The picture shows the traditional and the modern style lanterns. You can compare the new plastic ones on the right to the old ones on the left side of the traffic post.

The latest lantern I have seen. It's soft rubber with a ball inside. If you shake or hit the ball, there will be light . If it is in a still position, there is no light.

Plants for teachers

Each year, the Methodist church gives us a small gift as a symbol of respect to our contributions to education. I have received some strange gifts that I didn't like for the last three years. I forgot what the gifts were because every time I received it, I either gave it away to someone at once or put it somewhere and forgot about it.

Surprisingly, the gift was different this year. It was the green plants. I liked it because I myself was planning to buy a plant for my desk. Someone must have read my mind :-) The plants not only promote greening in the staff room but also give lives to the teachers. Why I said that because I feel that the teachers there work day after day from morning till night like a machine. With the plants on their desks, I hope they spare some time each day watering the plants and take a look at them instead of burying their heads in the piles of books on the desk.

An underground trip

I have travelled on Ching Ma Bridge to and fro Chap Lap Kok Airport for many many times. That morning was the first time I travelled under the bridge. It was typhoon no. 8 early in the morning when we saw Alex off on 15th September. The wind was so strong that no cars were allowed on the bridge. I was interested in it only because it was my first experience under the bridge. Besides that, I would rather stay on the bridge to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my birthday. The night before I went to Sai Kung with my friends. We went to a very nice restaurant called Anthony Catch. It was quite small but warm. The food there was fantastic. My friend Kwai Kwai nearly gave it 100%. I think I will go there again. This evening I will go to Sai Kung with Peter. Maybe we will try another restaurant. We go there tonight because tomorrow is Saturday and we can stay late.

It was happy to receive the birthday greetings from my friends on the face book. :-)

Not an advertisement!

I am not selling the following product but it is really fun - "wii fit"

It is a sort of video game but not like the ordinary video games that you sit down and play. You can keep fit by using it as well as having fun while you are doing it . It can be connected to a television or computer. Following the instructions in the programmes and stepping on the balance board, you can do different kinds of activities such as yoga, balcance games, strength training and aerobics. It can also check your body conditions such as your weight and BMI, and keep a training schedule to see how your body improves after the exercise.

One thing to keep your interest is that you can go to a higher level if you fulfil a certain requirement. That is to say, it is challenging and 'rewarding'. Be careful, you might be addicted to it like the video games that kids play.

Amount the four categories, I like balance games and aerobics more. Don't look down on the hula hoop, you will complain about the achy muscle on your tummy the next day after doing 3 to 5 mins exercise without the real hula hoop :-)

Why body balance is important to us? We can go to the following web-site.

http://precisionspinal.com/body_balance_and_chiropractic

Fourth day in Kuala Lumpur

There was not much to tell about the fourth day. We woke up late and had breakfast at about 10:00am. Finished breakfast and started to pack. Checked out. Travelled around on the monorail. Finally, went to KL Central and took the skybus to the airport. We reached the airport at 2:00pm and the flight was 4:40pm. Walked around the airport then sat down to have a beer until boarding.

More photos :

Meal on the plane, for budget plane, meal is charged -

horrible sandwich, ham and cheese I think : HK$15 (without water)

rice box: HK$20 with a small cup of water (very generous)

Tou Foo Far (made of bean curd) in Malaysia, I wonder if it tastes good.

Monorail and scenes from Monorail:

A Muslim woman

Fun plane

Walked to the plane (I did it twenty years ago in Hong Kong) - feeling nostalgic!

Full Moon on eye level

Flying coaster - turning you up-side-down - like a washing machine

Home Sweet Home :-) Back to Hong Kong