佛山祖廟 - 古與今

昨日係China trip 嘅 last day, 適逢係農曆三月初三, 即係佛山祖廟-北帝誕, 所以我地成團人就浩浩蕩蕩咁去趁熱鬧喇.

但我一去到,便感到 overwhelmed with nostalgia. Mom confirmed I had been to this place when I was barely a little bean. :D

當我一回家便馬上"揪"童年舊照, 找到了那時三,四歲的我, 在祖廟前門前的相片. 可是,那隻給我騎過膊馬的石獅子已 retired, 呢個 younger version 高咗, 又瘦D, 沒有古老的那隻親切.

人實在是太多了,只可慨嘆走馬看花, 回家後在網上找到很多關於祖廟的網頁, 只可從那些網站再了解呢個北宋已經存在的 landmark.

 http://www.foshanmuseum.com/jd/jd07.htm

仲找到其他幾張 細路仔照片 呢!

This was me :D

Mom and I :D

My Uncle from my father's side 伯父 travelled with us from Hong Kong to visit my uncle from my mom's side who was living in China at the time. I was in my uncle's arm and the long hair lady next to me is my aunt. :D The 3 kids in the front are my cousins 堂兄,姊.

This is me showing how much I enjoy my Hong Kong cousin's company :D

This is me showing how much I didn't enjoy my China cousin's company :D

 Wow.. this post suppose to be just a few line, but now turned out to be a walk down the memory lane post. :D Better stop before it's too long. :D

:)

Whoa! Found my time capsules! :D

I didn't do much cleaning last Chinese New Year, so this year, when everyone in the family is all well and alive, I finally decided there is no excuse to not clean my fortress anymore. :D

Cleaning up my fortress is at least a 3 parts series! :D hehe

As I was digging into the grounds of my fortress, I found 2 shoe boxes I forgot what I put into... so I open the dusty cover and found out that the shoe boxes are actually time capsules .

I found these ring bounded note books which are actually my diaries from as far back as 2002!!!!  So awesome when I flip through them briefly.

I forgot how I put pictures in my dairies just like I would when writing blogs :D This picture shows my parents and myself dinning with my late favorite aunt.  What a nice family photo.

Hehe, this entry is about visiting an Oyster farm in China and how much I enjoyed eating monstrous sized oysters there.   :D

I think my writing style hasn't changed throughout the years.. :D It's mostly about foods!! :D hahahah

I stopped writing these notebooks since I started blogging. :D Finding these diaries has stirred a  certain nostalgic emotion inside me which re-reading this blog doesn't even come close to giving me the same satisfaction.

Proof I sang in the choir! :D

In respond to my "Songs I sang in my high school choir" post earlier, since my old pals all have memory lapse (老人痴呆症), I decided it's time I show them some proof! :D

This is from a page in the 89-90 high school year book! :D I was form 4 in that year. :D Click on the picture for a huge version. Can you locate me in the picture?

No? Well, I will give you some help.

There you have it! :D I can sing! 我不是五音不全的. :D

Songs I sang in my high school choir. :)

My pal, Old Lee claims she didn't know I was in the Choir back in high school! :D She was in the same Choir I was in! :D Gosh! :D

To jolt her memory, I have located the 2 songs that our Choir had sung many many years ago.

The first song is called "Trees". I think it's my all time favorite. It's a very green song which is still good for today's eco friendly climate.



The other one is a Mandarin song called "白云之歌" (The white clouds song). It's also a lovely song. The version we had sung was a bit more cheery with a lighter beat. This version is more like classic opera kinda feel. :D

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/JmR1BlPChXU/

Please enjoy these 2 songs and walk along my memory lane with me. :)

New toy means clean up time! II

To continue yesterday's post, there were so many treasures of the old days I had found underneath the old printer.... :D

That printer has been such a permanent fixture on my desk, I simply haven't noticed anything under it. :D

Now to show you how bad the "ink asborber"'s problem is...

Eww.. ink actually sipped through the old printer's crack.

Thank goodness the ink is easy to clean off.

Now, here are the treasure from the olden days.

I had actually threw away all my floppy disks a few months ago, but there was this 'escapee' hidden under the old printer!!!!!! I swiftly terminated it without mercy. Muhahahah!

God save the Queen!!! I wonder.. if I mailed out letters with these now... would the letter be sent successfully? :D  I mean... If coins with the Queen's head are still in circulation, why not the stamps?  Come on, I had paid for these stamps in fact!!

Whoa! I forgot about this! :D

This is a key chain designed by students of my Alma Mater, St. Clare's Girls' School. It's a school girl wearing our summer uniform. I think our school's uniform is quite pretty. The 4 red buttons and the maple leaf batch are so distinctive! :)

It's amazing that our school song is considered the longest there is in Hong Kong. :D I used to be in the choir and I still remember how to sing it on top of my head.

These are the rare finds under my old printer. :D It was such a fun journey to discover these objects of history.

Japanese Bento Dinner :P

We have moved to our new office for almost 2 months, my colleagues and I have been trying many of the local flavors day after day. :D

The other day, I had tried this little Japanese restaurant called "New Roly-Poly" :)

This is the menu. :D I ordered # 656, Grilled Cod fish Bento. :)

This was the meal I ordered at Roly-Poly (新不倒翁).

Bento reminds me of my Edmonton school days.

There was a Japanese restaurant, Shogun, right at the ground floor of my apartment which my best friends Liza and Michelle visited often.

This bento didn't meet up to "Shogun"'s bento's standard.

For a mere CAN$15 (Back 15 years ago, Candian$ was so much cheaper than today :D), Shogun's house bento gave you: assorted sashimi, a piece of big thick grilled cod, shrimp tempura, a small slice of juicy steak, a salad, a small portion of rice, miso soup, fruits and dessert! I used to buy a box of bento and splited it for 3 or 4 meals!!!

We treated Shogun like our canteen. :D We befriended the lovely handsome Chefs there so well that we always get free complimentary dishes. :D The chairs at the sushi bar there practically have our butt imprinted on it! :D HAHAH.

Oh the good old days.. :D

Mojo, the turtle

I saw a street hawker the other day on my way to work. What did I buy this time? :D hehe

I fell in love with this turtle at first sight! :) It brings back lots of childhood memories.

I had a green stuffed turtle made of towel materials when I was a small kid. It's been with me since forever until I went aboard to Canada.

When I returned to Hong Kong in 1997's summer, my beloved (although a little slimmy and a bit falling apart due to old age) stuffed turtle was gone.   As it turned out, due to its poor condition, my old dad decided it's time to throw it away.

I was traumatized by the sense of loss and betrayal... waaaaaaa >.<

So, when I saw this green little turtle, I had to impulse buy it!!! :D To relive my happy childhood so I can be a happy middle aged woman... :D

Here are more pictures of the turtle, Mojo. :D

 

  

 

 

Learning Japanese in an English Way.....

Regret to say I didn't pay much attention in my Japanese 101 class back in college! :D Now I am about to go to Japan, it's really hard to learn the place names in both English & Chinese. :D

I am having problem memorizing the English version of the Japanese places, therefore it's hard for me to translate it to my boyfriend, Mr. MonkeyMan! :D

This reminds me of an old prank Hong Kong's 'Soft Hard DJ' (軟硬天師) had played to some innocent listeners some 15 years ago. :D  It's called "I teach you in a Spanish way".  

My friend, Old Lee and I always joke about "learning some language in an English way".  This sure brings back old memory... :D



Some good soul had put up many of their pranks on youtube. :D Bless his soul! :D

My word processor.

粱煥松先生的'打字機, 打字妹' 博文 令我想起 以前伴我到加拿大的'書童'.   所以, 前陣子剛打算清理的房間的時候, 發現了我那書童躲在一個衣櫃內, 等待候命. :D

Mr. Chris Leung has once again inspired me! After reading his blog post about his type writer, I decided I should dig my old 'word processor' up.  It has accompanied me to Canada to study.  Of course nowadays, it's been made obsolete by the computer.

The model is Casio CW-16. 

The advantage about this word processor was that it allowed me to backspace. My typing wasn't so good back in those days.. :D so having backspace really helped. :D

Also, unlike a traditional type writer, it actually has a keyboard instead of keys, so my finger won't get caught in between the keys. :D

I used it for about 2-3 years before I got a computer. :D



This is an ebay listing of the same model. It seems to be selling at a good price still. :D

When flipflops tumble ^_^

20 years ago, my shoe tumbled on the bus! :D
20 years later today, my flipflops tumbled on the bus again! :D

This time though, I didn't scream for the bus to stop. :D  The person who followed me up the upper deck just quietly wait till I fetch my flipflop back on the stair before she can go up too. :P

What good memories! :D

This is the left pink flipflop which left my foot and tumbled down the stairs from the upper deck bus! :D  Better training is needed for this slipper to be better attached to my foot in future. :D

The Mummy III

Hey, I don't know what the fuzz was about! This movie isn't so bad!! Actually not bad at all.

I love the story. I've always been fascinated in subjects related to ancient history. I love that they used this Chinese Legend about the Terra Cotta army as the backdrop of the movie.

I still remember back in my MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) playing days... I used to think about making animated Terra Cotta army as the mobs. :D Watching this movie is like making my fantasy come true! :D I want to write more about the story, but I don't want to give too much away... So I will leave it to your imagination .. and mine. :D

I love Brandon Fraser! (He's 2nd.. maybe 3rd to Dean Cain... Until I can think of someone else, let's put him in 2nd place for now. :D)

In keeping with tradition, I here insert his lovely eyebrows :D

I think I liked him since the movie "With Honors". I am planning to see his other movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth, in a week or so. I think he looks better in this movie than the last Mummy movie. :D MmMMMm...

However, however much I enjoyed this movie, I still have a few complaints...

1. No more Rachel Weisz! She's the one and only Evie!
2. The son looks even older than Fraser! It's weird!
3. Too little funny dialogs compare to the previous 2; but acceptable.
4. Too little screen time of Jet Li! :D

All in all, it's a fun little flick. I believe in having an open mind when you go watch a movie. Unless it's so bad and boring as to knock you off to sleep (like one of the latest Star Wars franchises), I would not give it a bad score. :D

Until next time, adios for now. :D

Another Episode of Childhood memory :)

Hehhe... I was just chatting with my best friend, Sonia. Suddenly I remember this 'Kester Grant College", the old high school I studied in when I was in Vancouver!!!!!!! It's been almost 15 years ago!!! :D

Although the school name stays the same, the system and the location of the school have changed. I was the very first generation of that school's students! :D Back then, the school was just in its dawning age. Classrooms had only enough chairs for 5-7 people. Each 'grade' had only about 5-7 students.. :D hehe

There were only a handful of teachers also.

We Hong Kong people would call these kind of so called high school, 'wild chicken schools'. It was a stepping stone for international students like me to get into Canada. :D It was a fun time too. I must agree small class education is much better than those large classes in public schools.

We had one Mr. Parker who looked like a Santa Claus who taught Math, Chem, Bio, and Physics. He used to yell "HO HO HO!" whenever he saw me due to my name! :D hehe

We had one Dr. Cheng who taught social studies and also acted as our chancellor. He ate too much sashimi (due to the cheap price) and result in getting some kind of parasite in his intestines.

We had one hippy, tie dye shirt wearing, English Teacher.. I forgot his name who taught us English by letting us watch lots of classic movies, such as, "The commitments", "Hamlet" (The Mel Gibson version :P), and "Citizen Kane". His favorites were Clint Eastwood cowboy movies which we enjoyed. :) He was also the director of our school play, "Macbeth". I was one of the three witches :D I had it on video.. unfortunately, the tape was taped over by my parents with some stupid Andy Lau concert looooong ago.. :D
He was also the teacher who ever succeed in getting me interested in Shakespeare's works!

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more...

To this day, I still remeber the above lines from Hamlet.

Kester Grant, although a wild chicken school, was the school which inspired me to learn. It was such a great time in my life. :)

My parents' 35th anniversary :)

I was scanning some baby pictures of my boyfriend's for him today. In the mean time, I was searching my computer for some old scanned pictures of myself. I was such an adorable kid. Haha!! :D

Just realized that my parents have been married for 35 years already. Their anniversary was on the 26th of May. :) Other than watching the Indiana Jones movie, we also went out for dinner to celebrate. :)

I want to show you our family in a picture show and tell. :) Here's how it begins...

Gem of Childhood Memories...

Went out to a little shopping today, found some gem of my childhood memories. :D

Back in the day when I was still in Primary School, I would watch these kind of Chinese black and white movies before I go to school. :D

The one on the left is my favorite. It's called "The Goblet which glows in the dark" :D It's a Chinese legend / fantasy. It's a story in which Aladdin meets Cinderella meets the Wizard of the Oz meets the Iron Chef meets Lord of the Rings.. and what not.. :D hehe

Here are the reasons why this movie is so good.. :D

The Aladdin element: The story involves a little girl, Bobo who found this magic goblet in a cave. The goblet's magical power can be activated by dropping water into it. The 'Aladdin' in this goblet is a pretty genie lady who looks like Bobo's deceased mother.

The Cinderella element: There's this evil adulterous step mother who abused Bobo. She set about to murder Bobo's father and Bobo. Of course, fortunately, there's this faithful housekeeper who always tries to look after Bobo and her dad. The funny housekeeper is called "70%" :D He only does thing 70% instead of 100% :D

The Wizard of Oz element: When Bobo tries to look for a good step mom for herself, she asked the genie to look for someone who look exactly the same as her late mom. The genie found one in a princess; so she created a magical wind (a tornado) to deliver the princess to Bobo's house. :D

The Iron Chef element: There's a wedding celebration scene which shows a bunch of Bobo's neighbors all come around to cook for the wedding. There's a live chicken being slaughtered on the film! :D This won't ever happen in movies nowadays. :D

The LOTR element: There's this magical bowl that can see into other people's lives. Just like Galadriel can glance into her magical water bowl to see into the hobbit's torments... Also, in the end, the glow-in-the-dark goblet had to be melted just like the One Ring... :D Just like the Lord of the Rings, it's a long movie too and there's lots of CGI effects :D hehe

Well.. CGI back in the day of the 60's wasn't called CGI... It was primitive, but it's nonetheless effective, fun and inspiring... :D The effects include.. dead mom coming out of a painting, flying people (like superman's flying), giant trolls in a cave and teleporting people from one spot to another. This is why I enjoyed this movie so much when I was a kid .. some 25 years ago..

Here are some clips of the movie. :D Sorry, my English only readers, there's no subtitles available. :D But you get to see the genie and Bobo (the kid) in these clips. :D

clip 1

clip 2

Passive compulsive Tin Box collector!

I was cleaning my desk, I just discovered that I am a slide cover tin box collector. :D For some reason, I just realized I am attracted to these little tin boxes. :D They are convenient. The design of sliding cover makes the lid very secured.


:D :D

On another note:

i am just watching this documentary about "黃梓澄找黃梓澄". it's about a guy named 黃梓澄, who tried to find people with his same name in HK. I tried to locate my name on the net... :D It seems there are a few others who has my old name. But my new name seems quite unique :D

我愛汪明荃! :D

接著昨日的"O運saint火令"特集...

在我上班前, 我特別把第四段的saint 火接力tape下. 現在看著汪明荃笑著把saint火接下, 真的需要重新declare:”　:D 我愛汪明荃! hehehe :D　”

關於這個”人大”　暨　”八和會館主席”　暨　”京華春夢”　女主角　汪明荃，　我細細個就鍾意佢ｏ家啦! :D

記得細個時(大概 6years old)有一次在伯父家中食飯，汪小姐唱live of the ”京華春夢”　theme song...　我可惡的堂大佬恥笑汪小姐的　”雞仔聲”, 我為咗defend　汪小姐，　我流了我一生人為一位明星流嘅第一滴淚, 嚇得我堂大佬恥笑埋我tim! :D :D :D

廿八年后嘅今日, 我finally可以在我的blog上記載:”我當年沒有看錯這位上海姑娘的Greatness! :D

她近年的風趣作品”我的野蠻奶奶”是我近年少有地追的香港電視劇tim! :D

Side note:
After the torch run is done, the sponsors went up to the stage to say how they help this "Green Olympics". Coka Cola, one of the sponsors says: "Oh we set up environmental friendly fridges everywhere, so the athletes would be able to buy our coke!"

Heh, I doubt a smart athlete would crave such a drink if they want to win some gold medals :D

Childhood Memories! (of 3 years ago) :D

Sonia says (1:03 PM): hey, do] you help Mike to find directions on the map whenevr you have any getaway trip?
Tickle LaBean says (1:03 PM):no
Sonia says (1:03 PM): ok
Tickle LaBean says (1:03 PM): i just sit there and he does the job
Tickle LaBean says (1:03 PM): even if he ask me for help, he won't blame me for reading the map wrong
Tickle LaBean says (1:04 PM): that's the difference between a boyfriend and a best friend
Sonia says (1:04 PM): bitch!
Tickle LaBean says (1:04 PM):same to you hahah!
Sonia says (1:04 PM): Now that I remember this, I'm mad at you again!
Tickle LaBean says (1:04 PM): likewise! hahahah
Tickle LaBean says (1:04 PM): this is gonna go to my blog
Sonia says (1:04 PM): What are you mad at me for?!
Tickle LaBean says (1:04 PM): see this is why we need our joint blog
Sonia says (1:04 PM): :D
Tickle LaBean says (1:05 PM): mad at you for yelling at me while I told you to get a gps!
Sonia says (1:05 PM): only if you can pay for it
Sonia says (1:05 PM): 10 USD per day
Tickle LaBean says (1:05 PM): i said i will pay you the GPS cost
Tickle LaBean says (1:05 PM): you were only there for a week
Sonia says (1:05 PM):Oh
Sonia says (1:05 PM): That's a lot man
Tickle LaBean says (1:05 PM):cheap jing
Tickle LaBean says (1:06 PM): even taxi drivers nowadays has one