The Root

Now, the Tse's are (or will be) scattered around different part of Australia, Canada and China. Our hometown, however, is in Kaiping (開平), a county-level city in the Guangdong province of Southern China.

Kaiping

Kaiping has a long tradition of sending their people to work overseas, in particular the North America. At the end of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century, Kaiping was poor and had a serious problem of banditry. Hence, people went to work overseas and send back money to support the families.

I think this explains why we have been in Canada for so many generations.

In the old days, we were a landlord in the village. Because Great-Great Grandpa and Great Grandpa worked in Canada, and sent money back to support the country, we were able to survive a number of political turmoils at the turn of the 20th century. But of course, we finally fled to HK like many others did in the 1940s-50s when the communist party came in to power.

Diaolou (碉樓)

One special feature of Kaiping is the thousands of Diaolous (see the picture). A Diaolou is a fortified multi-storey tower. Those worked overseas sent money back to build these towers, and also brought back the western architectural style. Apart from being a beautiful house, it also has a defensive purpose. See the balcony in the middle? Mom said there are holes on the floor, so that those standing on it can shoot through the holes thieves or other invaders underneath.

In 2007, Kaiping Diaolou and the village is added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Our Cho Uk

So, are you wondering why my mom knows this little feature of a Diaolou? It's because our real "cho uk" is a Diaolou itself. The picture in this page is not from a tourists website nor from the UNESCO homepage, but our "cho uk". That means, when Goo-ma, Dad and the older uncles were still kids, they actually LIVED IN a world heritage site!

When I was a kid and Sara was still a baby, we were there once. All I can remember now is that the house was dark and full of cats! (Scary!) Mom said the stairs at the time was half broken and my feet then were way too short, and hence I had a hard time climbing the stairs.

Around our "cho uk", there's a gate made of good quality steel. When China was at war, the gate door was taken away to produce weapon. (There're different versions here. Mom said the gate door was taken away by us to support China at the Korean War in the 1950s. But I think I had heard Grandma saying that the door was taken away by the Japanese army during WWII.)

The Dialect

We Kaiping people speak a Taishan dialect (Taishan is another city next to Kaiping). Even today, when the older ones want to discuss something that don't want us to understand, they talk in the Taishan dialect. I don't know if they have ever realized that the Taishan dialect is actually not very different from Cantonese. I at least can understand 99%, if not 100%!

P.S. Sara had suggested right from the beginning to include this post in the series, but I had tried my very best to avoid it, cause I don't know much about our hometown. But since Rose had sent me this picture, I might as well give it a try.

Extended reading:
Kaiping in Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiping
Diaolou in Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaolou
UNESCO World Heritage -- http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112

The Tse Family "Cho Uk" (祖屋) – Part 5 of 5 -- The Tse Family Treasures

Uncle and Aunt 2's house is a good place for treasure hunt. When I stayed there last December, I found my Autocad (Release 11!) book still on the shelf! That book is 16 years old and I used it at my first year of college!!!!!

The Treasure (1)

Comparing to what Rose had found, my Autocad book is nothing:

Cheque book of Great Grandpa's grocery store!

Great Grandpa had a grocery store in Edmonton. When he's getting old, Uncles 2 and 3 went to Edmonton to take care of him and also to inherit the grocery store. The brothers later on started their own career and therefore the grocery store was shut down at the end. It would be fun, I think, to check out the place where the grocery store had been some times :)


The Treasure (2)

The next item is even more exciting! Drum roll, please......

Pictures of young Grandma and young Grandpa!!!!!

For the top left picture, Rose said it stated at the back that Grandpa was 14 at the time. For the one in top right, it said on the picture that it was 1940 in HK. Mom said Grandpa went to school in HK, so that might be why the picture was taking here.

For Grandma's pictures, they were taken before Grandma and Grandpa were married. Great Grandpa used to put up these pictures, and told everyone that his daughter-in-law was prettier than any calendar girls!

The Tse's in Canada

I always thought Great Grandpa was the first one in Canada, but Grandma and Uncle 2 said it's Great-great Grandpa (i.e. Dad of Great Grandpa, Grandpa of Grandpa, or Great Grandpa of your parents :) who first landed on the Canadian soil.

Great-great Grandpa first settled in Saskatchewan, and opened a cafe. (Rose suspected it was the one in the picture above.) When Great Grandpa was a kid, he somehow got into trouble with another kid so they sent him to Great-great Grandpa as some kind of punishment or an "escape". Great Grandpa first helped in the cafe as well, and then returned to China to get married. Great Grandpa somehow relocated to Edmonton later and started the Jay Grocery.

When I was a kid, I heard a story about how Great Grandpa took a month to travel from China to Vancouver on a ship, and then another week from Vancouver to Edmonton on a carriage. But now with the Saskatchewan cafe kicking in, I am confused whether the week-long trip was to Edmonton or Saskatchewan.

So this wraps up the series on the modern "cho uk". Let's talk about the real "cho uk" next time.

P.S. Special thanks to Rose who digged out all these pictures and "researched" most of the content of this post from Grandma and Uncle 2. More of Rose's findings in the following posts.

《天水圍的日與夜》

上星期在電影資料館看了《天水圍的日與夜》。很好看。而且一定要在電影院看。

What happen when you go shopping without an objective

I'd already exercised some self-control for not buying some even more useless stuffs.

The Tse Family "Cho Uk" (祖屋) – Part 4 of 5 -- The 3rd special item of the house is...

... the girls' room!

From one generation to another

I think this is the first time someone called it the "girls' room".

It is the bigger of the two rooms in the basement of Uncle and Aunt 2's house. The first occupants of the room were Aunts 7, 8 and 9. When they started to move out, Rose and Di occupied the room and I also joined in the crowd during college years. It's a room full of silly girlish talks :)

In the past, there were a single bed and a double-decker bed, couple of small desks, a big build-in closet (big enough for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), etc. Most of the furnitures were there since Aunts 7, 8 and 9's time and are still in the room except the beds. Now, instead of two beds for three people, there's one double bed instead, and it also becomes a guest room when Rose and Di moved out.

Starry, starry night

One of the additions Rose and Di made to the room was the glow-in-the dark starts on the ceiling. (I tried to take some pictures but obviously was not very successful.) During the twin's first visit, we showed them the stars, but they were still at the age that would scare of the dark, so they would only stand at the door and held our hands tight with a very amazed smile.

One day, again, when I was reading in the room, Dai Mui came.

"Can you read outside?" The toddler asked.

"No." And so Dai Mui's gone.

After a while, she came and asked again, "Can you read outside?"

"No."

"I want to see the stars."

I can't remember if she succeeded this time, but Dai Mui sure was an assertive baby.

On a rainly day...

明明我已晝夜無間踏盡面前路
夢想中的彼岸為何還未到...

今晚在《頭條新聞》聽到這首歌...

All you really need to know, you learned it in kindergarten......Part 3

Always show your appreciation. One looks more beautiful when you always remember the good sides of others.

The Dentist -- Part 2 and more to come

I visited another dentist, who is a relative of a friend, yesterday.

This 2nd dentist is more experienced and the nurses are more fun. I also took an x-ray. The dentist explained to me the root problem of my teeth and how every problem springs from there.

So, the conclusion is, I don't need to extract the wisdom tooth at the moment but need to have an "endodontic treatment" (pulp treatment) for the problem tooth. (That's exactly why I was hesitated to take out my wisdom tooth last week. The other dentist asked me to extract a wisdom tooth which I don't feel anything wrong, but leave the one that's killing me for days untouched!)

I still need to go several more times before the treatment is done, and more scaling is needed! (Sooner or later, the dentists will scale out all of my teeth!) Then the dentist also asked me to brush my teeth with the small brushes in the picture. It can go all the way through the teeth spacings. Very scary.

P.S. Stuck at home because of Typhoon Fengshen (God of Wind, what a name for a typhoon). And also salute to those keep working under bad weather to keep the city running.

The Dentist

I'd been to the dentist three times on the last four consecutive Saturdays. There's an extra one cause the clince was drowned by the heavy rain and couldn't be recovered till the following Monday.

So, what had I done? I'd had two tooth fillings and had my teeth scaled. Spacings between my teeth were wide to begin with and now, after some very substantial scaling, it's even more spacious. I can even feel the water running between my teeth and have some difficulty to speak properly :( For a while, I think I will need to stay on an "old people diet" (i.e. fish, tofu, egg, minced meat, etc.) before I am used to it.

The dentist suggested me to extract a wisdom tooth (which I now have three). I am a bit hesitated. What do you think?

P.S. Couple of months ago when I watched Babies of Our Times of BBC, the small group of six or seven years old kids all thought Tooth Fairy was real while Superman was fictional. Interesting. I can't remember if they thought Santa was real or not.

差幾多唐英年就要死？

For my international readers, the title reads "for how much more that Henry Tang will need to die?"

Background

Henry Tang is the current Chief Secretary for Adminstration of the HKSAR Government. When he first became the Financial Secretary in 2003 (which was almost the worst economic downturn in HK history) he had once mentioned that the unemployment rate in HK would never get back down to 2.2% as long as he stayed alive (有生之年，失業率都不會回落到2.2%). No doubt he's being critized as mean (or "black heart"), and he also considered it as one of his most serious mistakes in his political life.

Latest Progress

Today, the unemployment rate of the previous quarter was annouced. The newest number is 3.3%, lowest in the decade. The title is what a FB friend sent me after learning the news.

Jobless rate stays level at 3.3%
http://www.news.gov.hk/en/category/atschool/080617/html/080617en02002.htm

雙方似並行直線，從交叉角度相遇

Again, no special meaning. Just that this song got stuck in my head these few days, and the lines are beautiful.

But then, the next lines sing "曾經交錯但離去後，不會再遇".

Isn't it life all about?

P.S. I thought of translating the lines, but not successful.

The Most Delicious Dragon Boat Dumplings

The other day a colleague asked if I had eaten any Dragon Boat dumplings this year.

I said no, cause my Grandma made the most delicious Dragon Boat dumplings in the world that I didn't eat anything else.

I am not being exaggerated. I tried one mouthful of dumpling that was made outside the family, and I had never tried another ever since. My mom and aunts learned how to make Dragon Boat dumplings from Grandma, but none was as pretty and as delicious as Grandma's (no offense, just telling the truth :)

It's our tradition to make Dragon Boat dumplings during Dragon Boat Festival (very obvious), and, interestingly, during Chinese New Year (don't ask me why). Grandma only made a small amount of Dragon Boat dumplings before CNY for some traditional ritual. However, making Dragon Boat dumplings before Dragon Boat Festival was a serious matter. It took Grandma weeks of preparation -- to soak the leaves, pick the best ingredients (they were all over the place), boil the dumplings, etc. It took long time to boil the dumplings. The fire in the kitchen heated up the whole house, and the entire apartment smelled like Dragon Boat dumplings :)

Grandma's dumplings were simple in one way, but not that simple in another. They were simple cause there're only salty ones, no sweet dumplings ever. They were not that simple cause there were a lot of ingredients -- salty egg yolk, peanuts, fat pork, dried Chinese mushroom, dried scallop, etc. and the sticky rice was stirred with salty egg white before hand, so even the sticky rice was very delicious. Grandma would make tonnes of dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival that they easily became my nightmare every year -- dumplings for breakfast and weekend lunch at least for another month :(

However, the most amazing part of Grandma's dumplings is that she tailor-made for our picky stomach. For example, the one I and Ed ate had only lean pork and dried scallop (I didn't eat the other ingredients). Those that Aunts 8 and 9 ate didn't have peanuts. Grandma would tie different knot to identify the dumplings but usually it's only she who could decode the knots.

As Grandma's getting old, she hadn't made any dumplings or other traditional festive food for a number of years. I heard that Aunt 7 is making Dragon Boat dumplings in Grandma's style as well and they taste "almost" the same. May be someday I will try some.

Support BJ Olympic

《天安門母親的呼喚》

在陽光燦爛的五月裏......

　　在陽光燦爛的五月裏，我們絕食了。在這最美好的青春時刻，我們卻不得不把一切生之美好絕然地留在身後了，但我們是多麼的不情願，多麼的不甘心啊！

　　然而，國家已經到了這樣的時刻：物價飛漲、官倒橫流、強權高懸、官僚腐敗、大批仁人志士流落海外、社會治安日趨混亂，在這民族存亡的生死關頭，同胞們，一切有良心的同胞們，請聽一聽我們的呼聲吧！

　　國家是我們的國家，

　　人民是我們的人民，

　　政府是我們的政府，

　　我們不喊，誰喊？

　　我們不幹，誰幹？

　　儘管我們的肩膀還很柔嫩，儘管死亡對於我們來說，還顯得過於沉重，但是，我們去了，我們卻不得不去，歷史這樣要求我們。

　　我們最純潔的愛國感情，我們最優秀的赤子心靈，卻被說成是「動亂」，說成是「別有用心」，說成是「受一小撮人的利用」。

　　我們想請求所有正直的中國公民，請求每個工人、農民、士兵、平民、知識分子、社會名流、政府官員、警察和那些給我們炮製罪名的人，把你們的手撫在你們 的心上，問一問你們的良心，我們有什麼罪？我們是亂動嗎?我們罷課，我們遊行，我們絕食，我們藏身？到底是為了什麼？可是，我們的感情卻一再被玩弄，我們 忍著飢餓追求真理卻遭到軍警毒打……學生代表跪求民主卻被視而不見，平等對話的要求一再拖延，學生領袖身處危難……

　　我們怎麼辦？

　　民主是人生最崇高的生存感情，自由是人與生俱來的天賦人權，但這就需要我們用這些年輕的生命去換取，這難道是中華民族的自豪嗎？

　　絕食乃不得已而為之，也不得不為之。

　　我們以死的氣概，為了生而戰。

　　但我們還是孩子，我們還是孩子啊！中國母親，請認真看一眼你的兒女吧，雖然飢餓無情地摧殘著他們的青春，當死亡正向他們逼近，你難道能夠無動於衷嗎？

　　我們不想死，我們要好好地活著，因為我們正是人生最美好之年齡；我們不想死，我們想好好學習，祖國還是這樣的貧窮，我們似乎留下祖國就這樣去死，死亡 決不是我們的追求。但是如果一個人的死或一些人的死，能夠使更多的人活得更好，能夠使祖國繁榮昌盛，我們就沒有權利去偷生。

　　當我們挨著餓時，爸爸媽媽們，你不要悲哀；當我們告別生命時，叔叔阿姨們，請不要傷心，我們只有一個希望，那就是讓我們能更好地活著，我們只有一個請求，請你們不要忘記，我們追求的絕不是死亡！因為民主不是幾個人的事情，民主事業也絕不是一代能夠完成的。

　　死亡，在期待著最廣泛而永久的回聲。

　　人將去矣，其言也善；鳥將去矣，其鳴也哀。

　　別了，同仁，保重！死者和生者一樣的忠誠。

　　別了，愛人，保重！捨不下你，也不得不告終。

　　別了，父母！請原諒，孩子不能忠孝兩全。

　　別了，人民！請允許我們以這樣不得已的方式報忠。

　　我們用生命寫成的誓言，必將晴朗共和國的天空！

　　絕食原因：第一抗議政府對北京學生罷課採取麻木冷淡態度；第二抗議政府拖延與北京高校對話代表團的對話；第三抗議政府一直對這次學生民主愛國運動冠以「動亂」的帽子及一系列歪曲報道。

　　絕食要求：第一要求政府迅速與北京高校對話團進行實質性的、具體的、平等的對話；第二要求政府為這次學生運動正名，並給予公正評價，肯定這是一場愛國、民主的學生運動。

　　絕食時間：五月十三日下午二時出發。絕食地點：天安門廣場。

　　不是動亂、立即平反！立即對話、不許拖延！為民絕食、實屬無奈！世界輿論、請聲援我們！各界民主力量，請支持我們。

北京高校絕食學生
一九八九年五月十三日

***** *****

這些年來，共和國都好像沒有怎麼晴朗過 (如果不更加黑暗)。

北京奧運遇上四川地震，就好像命中注定。

P.S. 傳甚麼奧運聖火都只是虛火，政府如何善後、人民如何協力，才最見真章。

Identity and Violence

During the recent heat of rational and irrational patriotism among Chinese around the world, I think of this book, Amartya Sen's Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.

Basically, it stresses the different faces of a person, and the danger it creates when we start to group, label and stereotype people.

For example, I am a Chinese woman born in HK. However, my seven years of schooling in Canada also has a great influence of my values and how I see things. While I may support the Beijing Olympic so that China can has a taste of the international society, I am also deeply concerned about the human rights situation in the Mainland. I can have many different, or even conflicting, characteristics but it's still me.

Unfortunately, very often, we focus only one side of a person, and by simple deduction, we believe that s/he must believe in or do certain things. You may not see the impact when that's only me, one person. However, when we single out a big group of people and start to antagonize them, conflict arises. This happens when the book was first written after 9/11, when persons with Islam background or look like an Islam or simple carry some Middle East features are easily labeled as terrorists. The same happens in our everyday lives too.

Not only people have many characteristics, issues can be discussed from many perspectives too. Lately, however, we can only be one way or another.

Identity and Violence is part of the "Issues of Our Time" series. At the end of the preface, the editor Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote,

These are books, accordingly, that invite the reader to reexamine hand-me-down assumptions and to grapple with powerful trends. Whether you are moved to reason together with these authors, or to argue with them, they are sure to leave your views tested, if not changed. The perspectives of the authors in this series are diverse, the voices are distinctive, the issues are vital.

When the world is becoming more complicated, only one voice is allowed.

了解．關懷一百萬人的故事 (Understand and Care the 1 Million People)

It's a TV programme in HK that attracts a lot of discussion even after the first of the five episodes was aired on Monday.

Basically, it's a programme produced by the most popular TV station in HK and broadcast during prime time. In each show, TV or movie stars interview those in HK living under the poverty line and show us how the poor faces everyday challenges. We have around 7 millions people in HK. According to the statistics, unfortunately, around 1 million are living in poverty.

Ever since I first watched the promos, I was expecting the programme, although I also expect it to be sentimental and shallow.

The programme doesn't fail me on this. What I didn't expect is the tremendous impact. After only the first show, a facebook was created, and if you search the internet using the programme name, hundreds of people have already written about it.

When we watched the first episode, my mom wet several pieces of tissue. At one point she asked if it's inevitable to have the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer as a society develops. I said yes, but others are not as mean as we HK people.

Don't know since when, we start to hate the rich and are not sympathetic to the poor either. We don't like anyone that's different from us. While "we" have to be right and normal, those that are different are undoubtedly abnormal and unreasonable. There's one popular newspaper in HK that criticizes almost everyone and everything everyday, including the government and the civil society, including the politicians from left to right, including the rich and the poor. I finally understand why it's so popular.

The TV programme attracts a lot of criticisms too. For example, the interviewers (i.e. the TV and movie stars) are so ignorant and insincere. Very often I feel that the TV station is only using the poor as a gimmick. However, I do hope that more people can realize that poverty does exist in our society, and don't tell me why the poor can't work harder. Most have already worked hard enough. They just still can't make a living.

Wall Colouring

This is what I did yesterday, except having a minor car accident in the morning.

After a year of idling, I did wall "colouring" with the Arts in Hospital again for two Saturday in a row. Yesterday, we went to the Haven of Hope Holistic Centre, a place for hospice care.

Volunteers have been working on the project for three months already. Along the wall of the corridor, we could see some HK scenery, such as the Lion Rock. Inside each bedroom, we did a border similar to this along the top of the wall. What I did yesterday was to stand on a chair and colour the green leaves. I know you think it's easy. But trust me. It's more difficult than you thought. The actual size I did was about twice as big and I spent my whole Saturday from 11am to 5pm on it! Since we needed to hold up our arm and turn up your head to reach the height, your neck hurt and your arm felt tired simply after the first five minutes.

At first, I thought there was similar wall paper on sale in the market. It might be even cheaper if we counted in the coordination done by the staff and the volunteers' time. But than I thought might be it's the human touch the mattered and couldn't be substitute.

P.S. I am OK. It's just a car crushed on the taxi I was on under heavy rain and typhoon signal no. 3. I didn't go to the doctor although I was a bit dizzy and wanted to vomit at first. Holding up my head to paint was a bit difficult at first cause my neck hurt a bit with the crush.

棒球狂想曲 in YouTube

真係 YouTube 乜都有

Level Playing Field

This morning, the cleaning lady asked if she could have the foam board I wanted to dispose for a while so that her kids could use it for a school project. Her daughter was more than delighted when I said yes, and told me foam board was expensive. It costs HK$10 a piece.

When middle-class parents are sending their kids to overseas study tours in summer holiday, we can't deny that our income disparity is becoming more and more serious, and it's getting more and more difficult to climb up the social ladder. What make me most upset is not we have poor people in the society, but we have no sympathy. While our "Asian values" do not appreciate the concept of "individuals", we are also expert in distinguishing "you" and "me", "my money" and "your money".

I watched the first episode of RTHK's "Life on the Margin" (活在邊緣) last week. Although it's not perfect, I do hope that it can make a couple of people less indifferent. I also read 呂大樂's 《四代香港人》(Four Generations of HK People) lately. Although I don't usually like Lui's work and nothing he wrote in the book is something you have never heard of, it provides a structured account of the similarities and differences of the different generations of HK people. I do hope that it can make a couple of people to realize that we can't no longer apply the standard in the 60s to the Asia's World City in the 21st century.

日唸唐詩三百首

These are what I got today -- kids version of some old Chinese literature.

The wonderful part is, all the Chinese characters in the books have Putonghua pin-yin!

YEAH!!!!! Exactly what I wanted.

The collection has 10 books in total, but I could only find eight today. If you happen to see 三字經 and 成語故事, make sure you let me know!

Spring Resolution

Off-line by 11pm and sleep by mid-night.

P.S. Mission fails on the first and second days :(

The Cover

I can't make up my mind, so I will let you have a say.

Do you like this one?

(1) Square (7"x7")










Or, this one?

(2) Standard Portrait (8" x 10")












How about these?

(3) Standard Landscape (10" x 8")



























I started with the square, and still like it the most, but the size is too small. Then, I tried portrait, but today I find it too boring. What do you think about landscape? Never mind the colours and the pictures selection now, cause I only roughly made up three covers tonight. (Of course, you can suggest some colour schemes.)

Better cast your vote quick, or I will be so confused with which one to choose.

For family members, I am looking for pictures! I have already exhausted every single picture in my computer. My wish list includes:

* Birthday
* Graduation
* Wedding
* With individual family (including family members outside the human species)
* With "unexpected" family members (e.g. Di with goo-ma)
* First time doing something (e.g. first day to kindergarten)
* Winning a prize
* Those on top of your TV or hang on your wall, etc. (inspired by someone's picture being replaced by Bacon's on top of a TV)

You got the idea.

The Tse Family "Cho Uk" (祖屋) – Part 3 of 5 -- The 2nd special item of the house is...

... the stair!

A bridge

The stair is a bridge between the world of Chinese TV (main floor) and the world of English TV (basement). During my stay in December last year, Aunt 2 told me to keep the light on all the time. If I was in an English literature class, I would say that the light that was always on symbolized the always welcomed communications and exchange between the two generations. (Wow! I really did learn something in my English 30!)

Superpower revealed

During our first stay at Uncle and Aunt 2's house, Sara, Rose and Belinda, who were born on the same year, were aged 3Y1M, 2Y9M and 2Y8M. On of our hobbies in the house was to walk up and down the stair. (It's easy to understand. We don't have a stair in our HK apartments!) One day, we were walking up and down as usual. Suddenly, the rather absent minded little Belinda stepped on her long dress and started rolling down the stair. In a split second, I (already landed on the basement) turned and caught her with my hands to avoid her head hitting on the concrete floor.

Till now, I still can't believe I could react so quickly and hold a two year-old when I myself was only eight. May be during time of emergency, our hidden power will reveal without notice.

Guess who?

The first time when the twins stayed at Uncle and Aunt 2's house, they were around three or four and I was already in college. One day I was reading at the basement and suddenly the stair light went on and off non-stop.

"Dai Mui (大妹, the older twin), don't play with the light." I commended.

There's a second of silence.

"It's not me. It's Sai Mui (細妹, the younger twin)." Dai Mui appealed.

"It's you. I saw you."

"No. You can't see me from where you sit." Dai Mui insisted.

"I can see you from here."

And then the twins were gone and the light didn't go on and off again.

After all these years, I have to confess that Dai Mui was right that I couldn't SEE HER from where I sat. However, I could see Sai Mu, who was one step below Dai Mui and was at least half a foot shorter than Dai Mui at the time. With this "height" difference, Sai Mui couldn't even reach the switch.

It's not that difficult to figure out the "doer" for a fan of detective stores.

Friday off

Visited the "World of Mirrors" at the Science Museum today after having a hair cut. Since it's a mirrors exhibition, not everything you see from the collage is real! There's also a "mirror maze" (2nd to last pictures of the 1st row), which I had to walk through carefully as I have a great tendency crushing myself into any glass/mirror!

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, also at the Science Museum, is great too. Make sure you check it out before 1 May.

First a writer, now a publisher

A colleague sent me this, and I decide to get the Myths and the Facts of the Tse Family published! (RELAX! By "published", it means "to print a hardcopy".)

(Make your own book with) Blurb:
http://www.blurb.com/

I've played around with it, and got the basic layout done. It seems a lot of funs, although the software itself has plenty of room for improvement.

I plan to print some copies as Christmas presents for families. So, if you want a separate copies, drop me an email with mailing address. Deadline for ordering is beginning of November. If you have memorable pictures and interesting stories to share, don't forget to email them to me. I will acknowledge the contributors in the books!

6:58pm

Haven't left the office so early for a while. I didn't need the magnetic card to pass the gate at the lift lobby downstairs from office, was able to do some (grocery) shopping before dining at home, had plenty of time for my evening walk and some more for a few pages of a good book.

Just couldn't be better.

How I reborn

Haven't practiced my calligraphy for months, and I am glad that I can finally pick it up again today, although I had to start from the strokes!

One of my finest hours

I went "wow" when I saw this book in store, after an office event, this afternoon.

Churchill is one of my heroes, and I have been wanting to get this book for a while. I had tried visiting two Page One in one day but all they had were books with lots of scratches on the covers.

Bought some more as well (but where's my time?). The bad thing was -- I thought bookstores were still on sale but the one I visited ended the sale earlier than the others :(

Too bad.

[For those not in HK, bookstores with a Chinese background usually have major sale during Chinese January, cause "book" and "lose" in Chinese sound the same!]

Tired

I will reborn after 8 March. Stay tune.

Happy Birthday!

Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year. According to Chinese tradition, today's 人日 (People's Day), i.e. everyone's birthday. On this special occasion, let me wish everyone a happy birthday!

As a People's Day Special, let me present to you the following collage of our first year old b-day party pictures:

Quiz 7

For those in the family, can you figure who's who in the collage? (Rule: You can't name yourself nor the one in your immediately family!)

For those not in the family, can you find me in the collage?

Hint 1: There are 19 of us in the generation. Two of us I can't manage to have their photos in time, while some pictures are actually repeating to make the collage a perfect square.

Hint 2: Due to the difficulty to have a hold of all the pictures, some were not exactly one-year old.

Hint 3: You may want to visit my photo album that shows the pictures in bigger size. I also included in the album some other pictures on the same occasions but with more people.

Isn't it lovely?

Please support an up and coming young artist:

http://photos.yahoo.co.jp/ph/cchoy/lst?.dir=/a7f0&.src=ph&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.co.jp/&.view=t

No Right Click

This is the problem of the touch pad of my notebook, so it's gone for maintenance again. (No. I have nothing in the harddisk. Everything is stored in my two portable harddisks, so nothing can be released.)

So I will have no computer at home for a while. That means blog will be updated less frequent (although I have lots to post), and also less traffic in Facebook. Be patient!

Chinese New Year -- The Tse Family Style -- The Celebration

We had the food, and we had to had a feast (or feasts) to finish them off.

(1) Old days in HK

Since we lived with grandma and grandma and my dad is the oldest brother, everyone came to our house for CNY. (This "everyone" meant Uncles 4 and 5 and their families, while the rest were in Australia and Edmonton. Those days, all that were in Canada were in Edmonton.)

The celebration started on CNY Eve and would last for four days.

On the first day, i.e. CNY Eve, everyone would rush to our house after work for dinner, and my mom would cook for around 13 people (Yiu-lun and the twins were not born yet). Like in Uncle and Aunt 2's house, we couldn't all crowd to the dinning table even though we would "enlarge" the table by adding on a very thin piece of metal plate (as in a Chinese restaurant, but theirs is made of wood. Very common gadget in the house those days when we still had big families.) We would therefore separate into an "adults table" (i.e. the dinning table) and a "kids table" (i.e. the coffee table, still in my house today!). Usually, the kids table would serve fewer, simpler and cheaper dishes than the adults table :(

The Uncles and families would come again on the CNY Day. They would come to our house to greet grandma and grandpa. The Uncles and Aunts and my parents would "pour grandma and grandpa tea" (another Chinese tradition for the young to do to the elderly), I think, and then grandma and grandpa would give them red pockets. Uncles 4 & 5 and their families would stay till after lunch and then off to visit some other friends and relatives. They would come again to have lunch on the 2nd and 3rd days of CNY and then the family CNY celebration was finally over.

One secret I never told anyone before was that I wanted to start my very own "CNY business" during those days. At the time, security of a housing estate was not as tight as now. There would be people knocking your door and said "distributing Choy Son (派財神 distributing "god of fortune")". Basically, it's a small piece of red paper with the words "Choy Son" ugly written on it with a Chinese brush. Usually, since it's CNY, people would receive the "Choy Son", gave the young guy a red pocket and sent him off.

I was less than 10 at the time, but I thought I could use a Chinese brush better than these people, and I had a big pool of "cheap labours" (i.e. Nobel, Sara and Belinda. Simon was too young at the time.), and I should be able to make good money from the same business :P

I thought about the same year after year but couldn't make it real even once :( May be I was too little to propose to my mom this crazy idea :(

(2) Less as old days in Edmonton

Same logic as in HK, everyone goes to Uncle and Aunt 2's house for CNY as they are the oldest in the area and live with grandma and grandpa most of the times. Unlike in HK, the celebration takes part only on CNY Eve (interestingly, on CNY Eve not on CNY day), and hence red pockets are also distributed on CNY Eve rather than Day.

(3) Nowadays in HK

As we are getting old, we have more plans during CNY. The celebration thus only means going to "yum cha" on CNY Day in recent years.

***** *****

The real CNY special of the Fact and the Myths of the Tse Family will come on 13 Feb. Stay tune.

Chinese New Year -- The Tse Family Style -- The Food

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, let's talk about some Tse Family tradition on the occasion.

When I was single-digit years old, we lived with grandma and grandpa. During Chinese New Year, grandma would make a lot of festive food for "ancestor worship" as well as the CNY feast. I can't remember all that she made, but here're some highlights.

(1) "Pond with duckies"

I don't know how it's called. Basically, it's made up of different kinds of flour (麵粉、糯米粉、粘米粉, etc.). Grandma would roll the dough into some small balls, short columns and duckies, and then arrange them in a round bamboo container so that it would look like some duckies swimming in a pond. (Grandma would let us play with the dough but all we could make were the balls and may be the columns.) Then, grandma would steam it and put some red colouring as decoration. Grandma would make a few "ponds" each time for "ancestors worship".

When the "ponds" were freshly cooked, we would eat them directly with soya bean sauce. After the first day, grandma would cut them into pieces and stir fry them just like "Stir fried Shanghai nin go (上海炒年糕)".

(2) Salty Chickens

Chickens were the main character of our CNY feast. The Consultant of the Fact and the Myth of the Tse Family said we would consume five to six chickens each CNY for different ancestors that we need to remember. The chickens were usually freshly killed (i.e. no frozen chicken) and boiled. For the first couple of chickens, we again would eat them directly with some oyster sauce. For the rest, grandma would use a lot of salt to sort of season them after the ritual, but the objective was actually for preservation. To salt fresh food is how people preserve food in the old days when there's no refrigerator. Grandma kept the style even though we had had refrigerator for a long time by then.

The salty chickens were usually re-cooked in one of the two ways: (i) steam; (ii) steam it on top of the rice so that the rice would soak up the chicken juice. The rice tasted real good as well as the chicken. Believe me. The salty chickens usually would take us till the middle of Lunar January even though we had it almost every single day! It still tasted good at the end of the period, although I have to say we (or at least me) was bored after eating them for half a month!

(3) Dragon Boat Rice Dumplings

Yes, this is right. This is our hometown's tradition to have "dragon boat rice dumplings" during Chinese New Year, but grandma would only make a few just good enough for "ancestor worship". (I will talk about grandma's "dragon boat rice dumplings" later on, so please don't comment on this for the moment.)

So much for the food. Let's talk about the celebration tomorrow.

鼠年大吉

Have a great Rat year everyone!

P.S. Huang Yong-yu is my favourite artist. Thanks to Apple Daily, I finally "own" his works!

The Tse Family "Cho Uk" (祖屋) – Part 2 of 5 -- The 1st special item of the house is...

... the dinning table!












The most celebrated birthday

The dinning table is at least as old as the house, if not older, and many of the Tse Family gatherings, from small to medium to big, take place around the table. While it might look ordinary, the dinning table has witnessed a lot of unforgettable Tse Family moments. Among those, it includes Uncle 2's birthdays, the most celebrated b-days in the Tse Family.

Uncle 2's birthday "usually" falls in August (check out my cousin's blog to see why I use "usually"), which is a prime time for the "once in a few years mega Tse Family gatherings". Except, again, Goo Ma, Uncle 4 and his son, everyone in the family has participated in Uncle 2's birthday party at least once, and has taken similar pictures around the dinning table as the two in this post.

Quiz 6

So, can you tell which years were these two pictures taken, or how many years apart of these two pictures?

Who qualify?

However, not all of us are qualified to sit around the dinning table. When there are around 40 of us in the family, even if only a quarter of us show up at the same time (which is quite a "regular" size for a Tse Family gathering in Edmonton), we can hardly fit to the dinning table all at once. So, usually those "older ones" can actually sit around the table, while those "younger onces", especially those not very good with chopsticks and speak better English than Chinese, will use a plate and folk to take some food before the older generation gathers around the dinning table and go to eat at the basement where English TV is on.

Tse Family catering

Last but not least, thanks to Uncle and Aunt 2, delicious food is always served on the table. It's a pity that they don't open a restaurant :(

Food Prices

Lately, fresh food prices in HK are going up like crazy.

For example, pork price has been up for 30% these couple of days. We are not going to have fresh beef from Mainland tomorrow, and hence price is expected to increase again. Children in poverty are having difficulty to have simple breakfast of bread and milk cause the flour price goes up as well. The morning radio programme I listen to has been joking about it's more profitable to buy and sell fresh food than stock, as beef price has increased 50% in just a month.

Sound like we are at war or something.

I heard a joke (I hope it's a joke) from a friend today:

A person is liaising with his/her boss about pay rise.

Boss: So how much do you want?

Worker: Same as the increase of flour price.

Crazy.

It's said that we are having the best economy in 20 years. The result is we have inflation again, but salary rise (if any) simply can't catch up with inflation.

The Tse Family "Cho Uk" (祖屋)

In Chinese, there's something called "cho uk", which is a house that passes from one generation to another, and where significant family events take place.

Where is it?

For the Tse Family, I think we have, or at least used to have, a "cho uk" in our hometown Hoi Ping (開平), China. But for the younger ones in the family, the Tse Family Cho Uk is located in Millwoods, Edmonton instead. That is, Uncle and Aunt 2's house.

Except Goo Ma, Uncle 4 and his son, all of us have stayed, or at least have frequently visited there. I believe that Uncle and Aunt 2 have lived there for almost 30 years, and I heard that neighbours on the same street are still the same ones three decades ago. The house is always warm, in terms of both the caring and the laughers, and also the thermostat that always points to +25C, despite the freezing cold temperature outside! It's also a place full of unforgettable memories of the family. Let's start with mine.

Cho Uk and Ida

The first time I stayed at Uncle and Aunt 2's, I was only eight. That's one of those "once every few years mega Tse Family gatherings" that we, and the #4 and #5 families spent the summer in Edmonton. At the time, the youngest one in the family was my brother (ranked the 9th out of the 19 of us), and I remember that the basement of the house was not yet furnished, nor the plants in the front and backyards there.

The second major period that I stayed at Uncle and Aunt 2's was during college years. I usually spent my weekends and school holidays there unless I was busy. One time during summer, Rose and I had a hard time deciding whether I should be counted as one of the people living in the house when Rose's trying to fill in the census survey form for the Statistics Canada. (Rose had an even harder time to decide whether her mother tongue was Cantonese or English!) When my friend drove me home during weekend, they would ask whether I was going to "Uk K" (屋企) or "Uk K Uk K" (屋企屋企), with "Uk K" being HUB and "Uk K Uk K" being Uncle and Aunt 2's place. Sometimes some very clever friends would drive me to one of those two places without asking and it ended up taking me twice as long to get "home"!

I used to use Uncle and Aunt 2's place as my "permanent address" for quite some years. Even today, I am still very tempted to write down the Millwoods address every time I need to write down a return address under my name!

***** *****

This constitutes the first of the five posts about Uncle and Aunt 2's house. In the next three, I will talk about the three items/places that you simply can't miss in the house. Stay tune!

Same dream, every year

Nightmare on Christmas

I am still suffering from my "24-hr sleepiness symptom", and went to bed around 9pm on Christmas day.

I then woke up at 1am, cause my head ached a record high level in recent years. It's like being hammered with nails to my head.

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got out of bed in the hope of locating any pain killer at home but in vain. After struggling for a while, when I couldn't stand the pain anymore, I finally decided to got dressed and visited the Circle K downstairs (at 1am!). Luckily, it's a real 24-hr convenient store (some 7-11s and Circle Ks closed at mid-night), and I got a pack of Panadol there. In 20 minutes, my headache was more or less gone (thanks goodness) and I went to bed again.

Then the real "nightmare" came. I dreamed of a cat wondering my bed side and used its fore leg to touch my face.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I couldn't scream at all.

And I woke in the middle of the night again. No wonder my Chinese doctor said I don't have quality sleep.

P.S. Pain killers used to be my good friend. My record was taking eight Tylenol a day (maximum dosage) in a few consecutive days, till one day I received an email from a friend telling me that I would die soon if I continued.

P.P.S. Cats are my life-time greatest enemy.

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 6

So Elmo had saved Christmas.

May I wish everyone a warm Christmas and prosperous New Year :)

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 5

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 4

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 3

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 2

Elmo Saves Christmas Part 1

Back

I was backed on Friday night, and will be back to the reality tomorrow.

I would call it a wonderful trip -- eating and sleeping, reading and going out sometimes, chatting with grandma, eating and sleeping again... ... That's what life should be!

Thanks those who had "entertained" me during my study. I was going in a rush indeed. Should stay longer and going more cities next time.

Last but not least, check out my pictures taken in Edmonton. I am starting to like photography!

Platform 9-3/4, King's Cross Station

I sneaked out from grandma's appointment at the University Hospital today to have a walk on campus and took the LRT to downtown. I was supposed to take a bus at the stop on 100A Street and 102 Avenue back home.

Well, I walked around. I saw 100 Street and 101 Street, 102 Avenue and 102A Avenue, but there's no such street numbered 100A.

...... ......

I felt like Harry Potter.

P.S. Of course I finally got the bus back home, but I still couldn't see the mysterious 100A Street. It turned out that the bus stop is located in between 100 and 101 Streets along 102 Avenue. But then I got off the bus one stop earlier and had to step on the snow for another block home :(

Two cups of tea and three mugs of coffee

That's how I stay awake today to avoid more embarrassment. I think I better sleep early tonight, although it doesn't really work.

Safely Arrived

I'd safely arrived Edmonton last night, and not only having jet lag but feeling very very sleepy 24 hours a day!

We went to Burger Deluxe to have greasy burgers, greasy hotdogs, and greasy french fries and sweet potato fries tonight. It tasted so good, and I am going to gain the few pounds lost last month in only a meal's time!

I am flying to Edmonton tomorrow!

So this is how we destroy the earth

Pictures taken during the dismantling of our exhibition last night.

At least 95% of our exhibition was tailor made. That means, at the end of the fourth day, everything became "construction waste" and went to the landfill.

Poor mother earth.
























To rewind a bit, this is how it looked during the set-up process. Two major differences between this collage and the next one are there's no carpet and the light wasn't on yet.





















When the light was on. (Pictures taken after the Opening Ceremony on 29 Nov, when there's still some final touch up.) Somehow I think we used too much lighting, which means a lot of electricity! I think we are one of mother earth's greatest enemies.

P.S. Photo credit to Constance, who took up the role of "stationed reporter" of the exhibition.

P.P.S. I added a slide show of the pictures on the side and it slows down the loading of my blog a lot :(

Sunrise at HKCEC

Seven years ago, I had seen once sunrise at HKCEC while waiting for the results of the LegCo Election 2000.

Today, the day after the LegCo By-election (HKI), I was also at the HKCEC early in the morning, cause it's the last day of the four-day exhibition on Women of HK - A Century of Contribution and Change.

After months of preparation, the exhibition finally came to an end today, and I can finally breath again. Unfortunately, lots of follow up works are also coming and I will be busy for at least a while.

Pictures of the exhibition will be coming soon. Before that, let me introduce the following:

A chart beside my desk showing the status of the production of our 70 exhibition panels, for e.g., if the text and layout are ready, if the panels are confirmed for output, etc. Colleagues came to check out the progress from time to time.

This is the notice board in front of my desk. The one on the top right corner is obviously a wall calendar. The one beside is the floor plan of the exhibition, while the one below the wall calendar is the timetable of our guided tours. They are there to remind me of the works and how many days left, as well as easy discussion with colleagues.

I was at HKCEC since last Wednesday (28 Nov). When I was back to the office tonight, Christmas decoration is already on!

未完的小說 An Incomplete Novel

Couple of days ago, I received the first draft of a novel from a long lost friend, and I couldn't help myself but burst into tears in the office.

To be a writer (and also a painter) was one of my childhood dreams. Unfortunately, I still haven't found a way to start yet. Probably it's one of the reasons I started the Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family. I am so happy for my friend who has taken a lot of effort and squeezed the time in between busy schedules to finish something he treasures.

I haven't started reading the novel yet, but I promise I will, after 3 Dec.

P.S. 《未完的小說》 is my favourite song.

In the office......

Please check your watch, this is 9:29pm, Saturday, 24 Nov, HK time, and I am still in the office working on the project to the right :~

9:29pm is actually quite early, comparing to my departure times during the past few days -- from 12:20am to 1:10am. Fortunately and unfortunately, this still hasn't broken my record yet.

So this is an exhibition on the development of women in HK from 30 Nov to 3 Dec at Hall 5B, HK Convention and Exhibition Centre. Make sure you drop by and say hi, while I am stationing there starting 28 Nov.

For details, please click.

District Councils Elections 2007

I woke up at 4:30am (not what I wanted nor planned) this morning, and figured out that some of the people I know or some of the people I wanted them to win had lost their seats in the District Councils Election yesterday. I was quite upset and couldn't fall into sleep again for a while.

However, I am also proud that one of my friends had run her campaign beautifully. Although she lost, at least she got enough votes to have her deposit back :P

加國大學排名榜 維多利亞居首?????!!!!!

I find the following coverage from Mingpao today quite ridiculous.

For those who haven't been in schools in Canada, it's already the 17th year the Maclean's does similar ranking of Canadian universities. It usually has three categories (as universities can be quite unlike), (1) medical doctoral (those with medical schools and grant PhD; usually the bigger and older ones), (2) comprehensive (those in the middle; also grant PhD with with limited programmes), and (3) primarily undergraduate (very self explanatory; usually the smallest). Most of the universities you can easily recall their names are in "medical doctoral", with a few exception in "comprehensive". Sometimes, the Maclean's might provide a ranking that combines the three together, but not very often or seldom. When a Canadian news medium wants to report the ranking, they almost always put the No.1 college in the "medical doctoral" category in the heading.

So you know what I want to say.

When I read first the heading, my first thought was "What? U. Vic.? Never heard about it."

加國大學排名榜 維多利亞居首

【明報專訊】《麥克琳》(Maclean's)雜誌公布今年加拿大大學的評選排名，維多利亞大學和麥吉爾大學分別獲綜合類別及醫學院類別的第一名，斯高沙省的阿卡迪亞大學和紐賓士域省的阿利森大學，則並列本科生類別的首位。

在 綜合類別中，維多利亞大學由去年的第三位，躍升為今年第一；卑詩省的西門菲莎大學今年則前進兩位，佔據第二名；滑鐵盧大學下降一位至第三。醫學院類別，麥 吉爾大學保持第一的位置；卑詩大學及皇后大學則並列第二。多倫多大學排名第四，該校在1994至2005年間，曾長期高踞榜首位置。

P.S. Apology to those in U of V. Not offensive. Just try to illustrate how ignorant HK news reporters can be.

Powerpuff Girls Christmas @ Heng Fa Chuen?????

I thought it was. But when I turned around:















It's actually the Incredibles!















With the super heroes around, we will have a safe Christmas this year!

P.S. More The Incredibles Christmas decorations are still being set-up in the mall tonight. More pictures next time.

The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince

I am listening to the OST of the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince these two days. It's much better than I expected, and it seems especially good for a sunny Sunday morning, quite stress relieving after another busy week.

I am the type of persons who have to listen to music with vocal. However, when listening to songs that you can't understand any one single word, it becomes quite down to earth that you have to use your heart to feel the music/song. It's something very different.

BTW, the TV drama is good too, although I am only on the 5th episode. You may want to have it a try.

My latest Facebook status

Ida is busier than you can imagine as someone don't know how to use their brains...if they have one...

The Tse's "Quick Dating" Agency

My sis said if we had had a "quick dating" agency instead, we should be rich long ago.

The younger ones in the family shouldn't know that we used to have a garment factory. It experienced the same ups and downs as the HK light industry, and it was long gone by now. During different periods of time, Dad, Uncles 2, 3, 4, 5, Aunt 7 and Uncle 10 had all worked there before, and more of us had helped doing packaging and cutting stitches during peak seasons.

However, the factory was only a mask to hide it's true identity. Its true self was "The Tse's Quick Dating Agency". Dad, Uncles 3, 4, 5 and 10 had all met their wives there. The only exception was Uncle 2. Uncle and Aunt 2 met each other else where. Nonetheless, the Consultant of The Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family said Aunt 2 had also worked at the factory. After Uncle and Aunt 2 were married and before Aunt 2 moved to Edmonton, someone said it would be easier for Aunt 2 to find a job there if she knew how to sew. Hence, Aunt 2 came to learn sewing and worked there for a year or so before she moved to Edmonton.

That makes a complete set of my grandparents' daughters-in-law, who had all worked in Dad's factory.

Mom and the Aunts came in two very different stages. During the first stage (Mom, Aunt 2, 3 and 4), there were really sewing machines in the factory and they all know how to sew. During the second stage (Aunts 5 and 10), however, the "production" part of the factory had already moved to the Mainland, and the factory sort of became a trading film. Hence, unlike the other daughters-in-law, I don't think Aunts 5 and 10 know how to sew and they worked on some paper works kind of things in the company.

Originally, I wanted to add that all the "sewing expert moms" had helped their daughters to do needle work homeworks, except Aunt 3 who only has a son. However, Rose and Di told me that they didn't have needle work class those days, which made my generalization fell :( However, I want to stress that I did all my needle work homeworks myself and thought myself quite gifted. So you know whom Mom had helped :P

P.S. Special thanks to Sara who had contributed a topics. Others should throw me some ideas too or the series will end soon!

Iron Ring

Everyone who received engineering education in Canada wears an iron ring on the little finger of his/her working hand (the one who hold the pen or pencil). It reminds us our obligation and responsibility to the society being an engineer. We have to attend an Iron Rings Ceremony during graduation year to receive the Ring, and we are not supposed to share the details to whom who had not attended the Ceremony :)

Although I have not been in the field for a long long time, the Iron Ring still gives me courage and strength at times of difficulties.

How do you eat your oranges?

I eat oranges only by peeling off the skin. That is, not by cutting them into pieces with skin, but by peeling off the skin only.

Yes, I only eat oranges this way. (Well, except drinking fresh orange juice, I guess.)

I don't know how the younger ones in the Tse Family eat oranges nowadays. But for most of the older ones, peeling off the skin is the only way we eat oranges :)

When Uncle and Aunt 10 were just married (or before they were married), Aunt 10 saw me peeling orange skin and said "all those in the Tse Family eat oranges by peeling off the skin." I said "it's because when I was little, Grandma and Aunt 7 peeled the orange for me so now I peel it myself and for the younger ones too." I remember when Ed was a small kid, he would put an orange and a knife on the dining table after a meal without saying anything. Then, I would peel one for him, may be one for Di and one for myself. It usually took quite a while.

I suddently remember that when Aunt 7 was still in HK, after dinner, she would peel oranges for herself too. Not only she would peel off the skin, but she would also separate each orange into 10 pieces, and line them up on the dinning table one by one before she ate it. (Count it! There're 10 pieces in each orange.) But with five older brothers and one younger one and also Baby Ida, you could easily imagine that she could hardly eat any of them every night :P

There's also one time when my sis was still a baby (really a baby, those that don't know how to speak yet), Aunt 7 gave her oranges. She had one piece of orange per hand, one in her mouth and eyed on the fourth. This was how my sis ate 20+ years ago.

And this is also stories of the Tse Family about oranges.

P.S. I remember this when I saw "thick skin" oranges in grocery store tonight. Why "thick skin"? It's because unless you are very "skillful", your orange will become orange juice if you choose a thin skin one. So, I only eat "thick skin" oranges :>