Elmo's Countdown to Christmas (3)

Elmo's Countdown to Christmas (2)

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=OXOi70HDlfI

Elmo's Countdown to Christmas (1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-QATGekLL4

施比受更為有福

The last parcel was sent to Australia today.

Some times, it's more excited sending out Christmas presents than receiving one.

P.S. There were much more people this afternoon than two weeks ago, mostly non-Chinese. It's time to send your Christmas wishes.

First Christmas tree I see this year...

... as the economy goes downhill, the scale of Christmas decorations at shopping malls also go down.

Note: Picture taken last Saturday.

They are here, they are here!

This is the outside.












This is part of the inside.

The bulk print had arrived on Friday, and will arrive your mailbox in another month :)

P.S. I'd showed Dad and Aunt 9 the trial copy. Even my dad is very excited about it.

Typos! Troubles!

See at the Post-its? They are all typos in the trial copy.

So, I corrected them.

It went OK when I changed it off-line. When I double checked the corrections on Sunday morning and went on-line, hoping to upload again when it's done, the Booksmart told me there's a newer version of the software.

So, I downloaded and installed the new version.

BOMB!!!!! The format of the book changed almost on every page under the new version of Booksmart. So, I formatted the book again. However, the new Booksmart doesn't seem to be ready for release yet. Very often, it shutted down every time I clicked on the text box. Even more frequent, I couldn't even boost it up.

So, I uninstalled the new version, and installed the previous version again, and it worked.

I eventually uploaded the book again and sent for a bulk print on Sunday night. However, I have to say I was too tired and too bored for the proofreading. I am sure when I corrected some typos, there should be some new ones after changing to different versions of Booksmart, but I don't care.

So, I am expecting the books by mid-November, and hopefully they will arrive the recipients' mailboxes by New Year, if not Christmas.

It's here, it's here!

After sending an email to Swiss Post to check out the whereabout of the book, the trial print of the Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family has finally arrived today!














I will let you see one of the pages:














The book is much smaller than I expected, although I had taken out a ruler several times trying to figure out how big is 7" x 7". (Don't blame me for that. You guys voted for it!) Quality of the pictures really depends on the quality of the "raw photos". The one of our Cho Uk is real good, but not for the old pictures.

Anyway, I will take a look and send it out for bulk print soon. Make sure you drop me your mailing address!

P.S. In case someone will say I am 自戀狂, the alphabets were there to hold the book or it couldn't open itself.

P.P.S. Quality of the camera of my new phone doesn't seem very good. Very disappointed.

Typhoon HAGUPIT

The cartoon can hardly tell how strong is Typhoon Hagupit. When I was at the door downstairs from my apartment, the wind blew me away just like the cartoon!

I hope everyone is safe.

殘奧田徑蘇樺偉奪金兼破世績 (Updated)

15.09.2008 17:50
北京殘奧會，田徑男子T36級200米跑決賽，港隊的蘇樺偉，以破世界紀錄的24秒65，取得金牌。

***** *****

15.09.2008 19:19
港隊今日在殘奧會奪得一金一銀一銅。其中蘇樺偉就在男子200米T36級決賽，刷新世界紀錄，取得金牌。他對自己的成績表示高興，但承認賽前有點緊張，幸好起跑後即專心作賽。而余翠怡和范珮珊，分別在輪椅劍擊女子A級重劍奪得一銀一銅，上屆金牌得主余翠怡，在決賽面對國家隊的張春翠，輸5比13，只能奪得一面銀牌。余翠怡賽後表示，落敗並非受網球肘影響，認同對手發揮比較自己優勝。而范珮珊就在銅牌賽以15比14險勝匈牙利選手。在北京的民政事務局長曾德成祝賀本港選手奪標。

***** *****

Hong Kong's track and field athlete with disability So Wah-wai won a gold medal at the 200m T35 race at the BJ Paralympic this evening by breaking his own world record. My mom and sis would say it's because they were there to cheer for So :P

By now, HK has won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Paralympic. Still a big gap from last time, but it doesn't really matter.

Here's an interview of So by Andy Lau, who has been supporting athletes with disability since 1996 and employer of So:

Legislative Council Election 2008

Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights --

Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.

Situation in HK: Only half of the 60 seats in the Legislative Council are returned by universal suffarage, while the other half and the Chief Executive are returned by an elite class of people.

Your action: To vote and to express yourself is your basic right. Regardless who you are going to vote, don't forget to cast your vote before 10:30pm today.

Fu Niu LeLe...

... is finally centre of stage!

Olympic Manic

My Olympic souvenirs, fresh from Beijing!













Fu Niu LeLe (mascot of the BJ Paralympic) phone strip. It will go nicely with the pink LG KC550 I am going to get. I hope LeLe will get along well with Elmo.






A 4G JingJing USB. The pink strip comes with LeLe though. Don't know what to do with it yet as I have several smaller USB drives, but combining them all together might not be good from the security angel.

The Power of Typhoon NURI

Broken branches in Heng Fa Chuen. The first picture is the same view as taken from my bedroom window, although it's taken on the street. And more importantly, the first picture is not "out of focus" as in most of my other pictures. It's so windy yesterday noon that I couldn't really stand up right.

Grandma and Grandpa

So we have been talking about Grandma and Grandpa. Have you ever thought of how they got married?

The Marriage

I think you won't reckon they met each other naturally, dated, married and had kids. This is a version from my mom, who claims that she heard about it from Grandpa when she's just married (or even before she's married).

Grandpa had school in HK. When someone's decided to have Grandma married Grandpa, they sent someone to HK to ask Grandpa to return to Kaiping and get married. However, Grandpa refused. He said he had to finish school first. Hence, Great-Great Grandma (Grandma of Grandpa!) pretended she's sick and sent someone to ask Grandpa back to visit her. When Grandpa's back, everything (including the wedding banquet) was there waiting for him!

So here we are. Grandpa said before they were married, he had secretly gone to Grandma's school to have a peek of her :)

When Grandma was married, I think she's only 17, and she still didn't know how to wash her hair. Hence her grandma told her to find an excuse to return to the maiden home when she wanted to wash her hair, so that Great-great Grandma could wash her hair for her.

The Relocation

Grandpa used to be a truck driver. When the Community Party came into power in 1949, Grandpa was working in HK. Later one day when Grandma received the info that she could join Grandpa in HK, she bought train tickets and left with Goo-ma, Uncles 3, 4 and 5 immediately without bringing any luggage nor telling anyone in the neighbourhood. It's only later that Great Grandma, Dad and Uncle 2 stowed away to HK to join them. Aunts 7, 8, 9 and Uncle 10 were born in HK.

Quiz 8

We haven't had a quiz for a while. This time, again, can you figure out who's who in the two pictures? The first one is pretty easy, but there're some controversies in the second one. May be we will need to ask those MIGHT be in the picture.

***** *****

This should be the last post for the hard copy of the Facts and the Myths of the Tse Family, or I won't be able to send you the books before Christmas. However, the on-line version will continue provided I am not running out of topics.

This is how we welcome Typhoon NURI

By taping all the glass doors and windows :)

Typhoon NURI is expected to be the strongest typhoon this year, and hit HK head-on. With only the Typhoon Signal No.1 on, I could barely open the door down stair when I was back home this evening.

We have made different contingency plans in the office today, in case we are stuck home tomorrow. This includes packing stuffs to work at home tomorrow.

你今日睇佐未？Have you watched the Olympic today?

One of the many ways that HK joins in the BJ Olympic manic is to set up big TVs, both indoor and outdoor, to show the live broadcast so that people can cheer together.

We have one in Heng Fa Chuen too. Even in the morning, there are lots of people. Beside the TV area, there's a small Italian grocery store, selling also gelato (kids' favourites here). I hope they can make a little fortune these two weeks.

I myself is trying my best not to watch any, to avoid the sub-standard narrators and the rather irrational nationalism.

In search for a notebook, from a gender perspective

Incident (1)

Because of a sudden impulse, I am thinking to get a new notebook, and have been looking around for several weeks.

Today, I set my eyes on a new pink Sony Vaio (VGN-SR15G/P). It’s thin, it’s light, and it’s around my budget (although to the high side). Most importantly, of course, it’s in PINK. It’s the nicest pink notebook I can find.

Unfortunately, this pink Sony Vaio has only 1G RAM. There’s a faster variation of the same line with more RAM and bigger harddisk. However, IT’S ONLY IN BLACK!!!!!

Incident (2)

I was watching the seven-episode LG promotional five-minuters on their new notebooks over the weekend. It’s sort of like a series of music videos – beautiful people, beautiful sceneries, nice music, etc. all under soft lens :) The series is about two men chasing the same woman.

My question is – is it targeting to men or women users? Isn’t IT commercial usually targeting to men? If that’s so, should it be two women chasing a man? If that’s the other way around, does it mean that women become a big market for IT products?

Incident (3)

I was at the Wanchai Computer Centre one day hoping to get a portable harddisk. I have to say it isn’t a very women-friendly place to start with. All the sales and customers are men, and they simply don’t want to talk to women, especially those don't look like knowing anything about computers. (I believe young beautiful girl is an exception.) Suddenly, I heard a female voice talking to me.

I was relieved.

I think there's really a big service gap for women IT sales.

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.