Childhood

On my way to work, I always walk pass a primary school and a kindergarten. Hearing the laughter when the kids are having sports lesson on the playground and small kids saying "One, Two, Three..." after their teacher, suddenly I realized how far those experience / memories are behind me now.

I couldn't quite remember the time when I was in the kindergarten, my parents told me most of the things back in those time which I don't remember.
I do remember a bit of my primary school experience, like how naughty I was back then, running around with boys, fooling around with my classmates. I think they would be surprised to see how I have grown into now. I myself, am surprised too at the change of my personality throughout these 10 years. Back then, I didn't quite remember exactly what has happened but I was 'powerful' enough to push the boy sitting next to me off the chair because he pissed me off...LoL now when I think about it, it's kind of a funny memory *HAHAHA*. (and now I learnt how to control myself well, so don't worry when you are sitting next to me...LoL)

I was a fast runner back in primary school, my legs earned me 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal(considered as a flaw back then) in 100M, relay race and basketball on school sports days. Well...about the sports gene, I don't think they are very active now (overpowered by the fat gene?!)...LoL but I do like to play most of the sports still!

English, Music and cooking classes were my favorite subjects in secondary school. Proudly to be ranked #1 in music for quite a few years, partly because I was one of the pianists for morning assembly and I could play piano okay. However, due to the fact that my instinct interest in piano was overpowered by external forces in the last few years of my piano-learning, and that I was not in a very good relationship with my teacher, I couldn't enjoy playing piano anymore after I have obtained my grade 8 qualification. Now after a few years of cooling down period, I think I can pick up piano again in a new and easy way.

Back to the spot where I saw the kids running around on the playground, I wondered, when seeing the youngster doing what I did, are they enjoying what they are doing? Do they know that what they are doing are gonna be memorable experience? Do they know that those are their golden time in childhood?

If we have a pet we might have stronger feelings towards a life-cycle. When we see our dog young, full of energy, do our beloved dog knows that he's in his golden time? And I am pretty sure when our respectable elders see us, they would wonder "Do these young people know that they are in their golden time?"

Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right?
Are we enjoying and treasuring the presents (gifts) that the present (now) gives us?

p.s my friend and I have attended a touching wedding of our friend today, there's a message about family that is inspiring. The speaker said what makes a family works start with loving our parents, for family might be the short form of Father And Mother I Love You (F-A-M-I-L-Y), when we have learnt how to love our parents and set an example for our kids, the family will automatically run well.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 34: reflection

Week 34!
The weather was cool and fine in the weekend, finally it feels like autumn! My family and I went hiking in that beautiful weather around one of the reservoirs in Hong Kong. We walked for about 3 hours, about 8.6 km and the scene was beautiful. This picture was taken around the half way through, a reflection of a big tree on clear water. It is so hard to believe that we have this beautiful scene in Hong Kong when we are living in the middle of our city. It might sound a bit weird to our foreign friends but you will get what we mean after you have visited Hong Kong!

When we were there, we can't actually see the real tree because it is so tall and there are lots of other plants nearby, but we can clearly see the tree through the reflection on the water. It was so beautiful and calm. The picture is 180 degree rotated. Let's love and protect our beautiful planet!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 33: Love

A bit late for previous weeks' collection! The plan was messed up a little during the weekend because of Megi the typhoon. I was also trying to take pictures of the heart shape cookies that were bought in the weekend. However, the pictures didn't turn out to be what I have pictured in my head so this is what I have got for the previous week!

A long time ago I saw a picture with a ring and a heart-shape shadow, I am still so fond of this incredible effect of that and this explains why I took this picture. It is quite hard to find the content in the book that matches the rings and topic "love". I flipped through some books and finally found a few pages that are decent, and finally this is the content I like most among what I have found.

'Treasure your beloved and your relationship will flourish.
A relationship is like a garden, if you tend to your garden with care, attention, and maintenance, it will grow.'

No happiness or success comes by its own, we have to at least do something to get what we want. Even if the food is placed on our plate, we still need to make some effort to put the food into our mouths, or the food will turn bad sitting on the plate untouched for a long while.

Same to relationship or any aspects in life, doing nothing guarantees getting nothing. Sometimes we get so used to the love from our parents or family members that we take their love for granted, forgetting to treasure what they are offering us unconditionally or saying hurtful words to them without much thinking.

"A relationship is like a garden. Give it plenty of water and sunshine, the seedlings will mature into strong healthy plants. Neglect it and hope for the best, it will become overrun with weeds. Step on the plants, tear their leaves, deny them love and nutrients, they will wither and die."

Treasure our beloved ones.

P.S. The is page 174 from the book "If love is a game, these are the rules" by Cherie Carter-Scott (Hard-cover)
I read "If life is a game, these are the rules" first and found it quite good so I got the love one also! :D:D Try to read them if you are interested. This type of book is one of my favorite!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 32: Imperfection

Time flies really quickly, it's already autumn now, more than 3/4 of the year has passed! There's a playground along the way when I am on the way to work, seeing the kids having PE (sports) lessons in the mornings, they reminded me I am no longer a kid. I miss those time when I was in primary school / secondary school, when I was spoiled by all the people around, when teachers encourage us to ask questions (Teacher: No question is regarded as a stupid one at school) and to learn through trial and error. Perfectionism is something that pushes us for further achievement while at the same time, gives us stress. We are not perfect, and it's quite unrealistic to try to get everything perfect, that might be a bit discouraging but we have to remember that, we are all unique. Without imperfection, we couldn't know what is perfect.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 31: Sweet as Honey

A happy day with a lovely couple!
An old saying reads how we look is the reflection of our heart (character) - 相由心生. Women are most beautiful on their wedding day, and I truly believe it's the love that makes them so pretty. The love between the couple who are stepping into a new chapter together, the love and best wishes of the guests to the newly-wed, and of course, the love of parents who see their children grow and now starting a family of their own. It's the happiest day of the couple celebrating their love with their loved ones, for sure they should look happy! My sincere congratulations to Harold and his beautiful wife!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 30: Dream a Dream

Oh yes I like sleeping a lot! :D Such a relaxation! Because of the National Day on Friday, I am enjoying my 3 days' holiday! Cooking, crocheting, gathering with friends, shopping, eating! And after that we will have to long for Christmas holiday...LoL

Play Time

Oh now I have time to write about what I did last weekend! George introduced me to his teacher who keeps a wonderful dog and a cute cat. It was a fun day, half working day and then play time with the lovely dog. His name is TaiChi and we played foot-tennis. He is certainly a very good player at kicking tennis LoL I haven't been playing with dogs for a few years now and it's true that I love dogs a lot, still.

The fun time at weekend flies at a lightning speed, thanks to the national day now I am having 3 days' off! :D:D

The 52-Week Collection - Week 29: Dedicated

Week 29! It's quite exhausting to go photo shoot after a half day work, but I enjoyed it no less. I am always a dog lover, they are really cute and with attractive character. I think dogs are connected to their owner in a very special way and the fact that they are always by their owners' side is one of the reasons I like dogs so much. Be nice to them though, think carefully before we want to keep a pet, it's a huge commitment!

Btw...I think my prime lens is not working well since it was dropped on the sand about one year ago...sigh >.< it focuses in a slower speed and the focus point seems to be not that right...

First encounter with Black and White

Frankly speaking, I didn't like black and white photo, I thought they are lack of color, lack of lively spirit. Not until I read an article on the newspaper regarding Mr. Chow Yun-Fat's point of view on photography do I start to learn how to admire the beauty of black and white photo. Mr. Chow said black and white photos are special in the way that they are black and white, that the subject in the picture wouldn't be distracted by the color presented, and I agree!

I tried to experience what he said about black and white photograph and to me it's true that when I look at the colored one, I focused on the color compositions of the flower, on how the color interacts with each other. However, on the black and white one, I would focus on the petal of the flower, the texture and lines of the petal, and the different level of light reflection between the left side and the right side.

Now I don't resist black and white pictures that much as before, but still, I fond of colorful pictures more~ :):)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2010

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Now the cool weather is approaching! Didn't have time to make my icy moon cake this year, but happily got a box of moon cake from the workplace! These few days have been raining with lots of cloud so we couldn't quite admire the moon, however we enjoyed the moon cake no less!

Baked a cake today! That's what I like to do on a holiday...do something relaxing at home...hehe!
Quite a lot of people around me has been talking about Pandan cake, I haven't tried one before so this morning I decided to see if I can get some fresh Pandan leaf nearby, luckily I found them haha! 1 dollar for 2 pieces! I got 6 of them and followed this recipe.

It turned out quite well however the Pandan flavour is not as strong as the egg flavour, maybe I should get a piece from the cake shop and see how the taste is!