Locky's English Playground

Monday, 15 April 2013

News & Science: Love, Smell And Sex

It's a sunny but hazy Monday morning in Hong Kong! Feeling tired about the first day of work? Let me give you a wake-up call and start the day with a little sex talk! No, I'm not going to teach those English words, I'm going to share some videos about love and sex from the Discovery News and the words appeared in the videos that you might like to learn.

Lots of medical terms here, my favourite!

If you are ready, here we go!

Vocabulary:
mate -- (n)[C] an animal's sexual partner:
pheromone party -- (n)[C] A pheromone party is a social event attended by singles, in an effort to find their mate through sniffing anonymous pieces of clothing.
scent -- (n) [C] a smell produced by an animal that acts as a signal to other animals:
trigger -- (vb) to cause something to start:
subtle -- (adj) small but important:
creepily -- (adv) informal strange or unnatural and making you feel frightened:
one ... too many -- informal you have done sth too many times

Vocabulary:
evolutionarily -- (adv) relating to the way in which living things develop over millions of years
primate -- (n)[C] specialized a member of the most developed and intelligent group of mammals, including humans, monkeys, and apes
flaccid -- (adj)
in a nutshell -- in the fewest possible words:
dude -- (n)[C] a man; a guy (often as a form of address):
phallus -- (n)[C] is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object, or a mimetic image of an erect penis.
erect -- (vb)[T] formal to raise something to a vertical position:
vagina -- (n)[C] is a fibromuscular tubular tract which is a sex organ and has two main functions; sexual intercourse and childbirth
orgasm -- (n)[C or U] the moment of greatest pleasure and excitement in sexual activity:
myriad -- (n)[C] literary a very large number of something:
dong -- (n)[C] vulgar slang a man’s penis.
zoom -- (vb) [I + adv/prep] informal to move very quickly:

Vocabulary:
pubs -- noun [C often plural]  one of the short, curly hairs that grow around the sexual organs after puberty
merkin -- (n)[C] is a pubic wig
bumper -- (n)[C] a horizontal bar along the lower front and lower back part of a motor vehicle to help protect it if there is an accident
friction -- (n)[U]  the force that makes it difficult for one object to slide along the surface of another or to move through a liquid or gas:
subconsciously -- (adv) of or concerning the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one’s actions and feelings:
pheromone -- (n)[U] is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species
genitalia -- (n)[C] a sex organ
Strep --(n)[U] Streptococcus is a genus of spherical Gram-positive bacteria belonging to the phylum Firmicutes and the lactic acid bacteria group.
Staphyl -- (n)[U] Staphylococcus --  is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria.
cellulitis -- (n)[U] is a localized or diffuse inflammation of connective tissue with severe inflammation of dermal and subcutaneous layers of the skin.
pustule -- (n)[C] A pustule is a small elevation of the skin containing cloudy or purulent material usually consisting of necrotic inflammatory cells. These can be either white or red.
vulnerable -- (adj) able to be easily physically, emotionally, or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked:
Herpes -- (n)[U] Herpes genitalis (or genital herpes) refers to a genital infection by Herpes simplex virus.
genital wart -- (n)[C] (or Condylomata acuminata, venereal warts, anal warts and anogenital warts) are symptoms of a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease caused by some sub-types of human papillomavirus (HPV). It is spread through direct skin-to-skin contact during oral, genital, or anal sex with an infected partner.
trim -- (vb) [T] to make something tidier or more level by cutting a small amount off it:

Vocabulary:
equitable -- (adj) formal treating everyone in the same way:
reversible -- (adj) If something is reversible, it can be changed back to what it was before.
inhibition -- (n) [U] to prevent someone from doing something, or to slow down a process or the growth of something
snipping -- (n) from snip --(vb)[I or T] to cut something with scissors, usually with small, quick cuts:
scrotum -- (n)[C] (plural scrotums orformal scrota) specialized in most male mammals, a bag of skin near the penis which contains the testicles
forceps -- (n)[C] are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects.

Image from Wikipedia

clamp -- (vb) [T + adv/prep] If you clamp something in a particular place, you hold it there tightly:
Band-Aid (n)/(vb) US trademark (UK plaster, sticking plaster) a small piece of sticky cloth or plastic that you use to cover and protect a cut in the skin
thicken -- (vb) [I or T] to (cause to) become thicker:
tear -- (vb)[I or T] to pull or be pulled apart, or to pull pieces off:
polyelectrolytic effect -- from Polyelectrolytes, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyelectrolyte
icky -- (adj) informal unpleasant, especially to look at:
invasive -- (adj) moving into all areas of something and difficult to stop:
IUD -- The modern intrauterine device (IUD) is a form of birth control in which a small 'T'-shaped device, containing either copper or progesterone, is inserted into the uterus.

Image from Wikipedia

Friday, 12 April 2013

Travelling & Living: Macau One-Day Trip

$30 Pork Chop bun
Image from Locky's English Playground

We are flying to Macau for an English Playground blog article, and yes, it was once-in-a-blue-moon kind of cool, sunny day since we are now in the super raining season in Hong Kong and Macau. First stop, let's go and get some food.

Tai Lei Loi Kee Macau 1968
Image from Locky's English Playground

The Tai Lei Loi Kee pork chop bun has been famous for as long as it began doing business, and really, most of us here in Hong Kong knows about it. It's hot, it's fresh, it's tasty, it looks delightful, and it's a must-eat. What we might not know is that this bun has up the price to $30 per bun! That's almost doubled the price I last visited. How come? One thing I noticed was that there aren't any more seats or tables outside the shops. Maybe that killed their business quite a bit so they have no choice but to double the cost. Inflation is a sad sad thing, particularly when the salary doesn't go up to match the expense.

A nice park for a nice bun
Image from Locky's English Playground

Then again, with a park this nice right next to the shop, free for anyone to rest and enjoy their buns, the no-seats-kills-business theory may not work. Then why are the buns so expensive?

Live freshwater flathead mullet
Image from Locky's English Playground

Next stop, some fish for photography on the Rua do Cunha. I have never seen live ones swimming around in Hong Kong, so this is new for me.

$20 Coconut ice-cream
Image from Locky's English Playground

$20 a small cup of coconut ice-cream is really quite expensive, but it does taste the way I like it, icy and coconutty, so it was all worthy as long as I compared it with Häagen-Dazs.

A pavilion for resting and eating
Image from Locky's English Playground

And it added some bang for the buck when I sat on the base pillars of a pavilion nearby eating that ice-cream.

The pavilion from another angle
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hui Lau Shan
Image from Locky's English Playground

But let say, you want to get a more comfortable place to enjoy some nice mango dessert, there is always the Hui Lau Shan beside the pavillion with large picture windows. Should be quite a good 90° view or a Starbucks around the corner.

Starbucks
Image from Locky's English Playground

$9 for 2 Super Big Fishballs
Image from Locky's English Playground

After some desserts, it's back on the road of spiciness. $9 for two super big fishballs with hot curry sauce may be your next target. It's also just across the street...

The shop that sells big fishballs
Image from Locky's English Playground

...whether one fishball is worth $4.5 is a question difficult to answer.

Fish dumplings in the making
Image from Locky's English Playground

After that, my wife took me to noodles restaurant of which the name I do not know, and she said they make the best fish dumpling noodles in Macau.

All Chinese menus
Image from Locky's English Playground

It looked quite like the place where you could get a bowl of decent noodles indeed, but by then, I was already quite full and was not in a good mindset to judge.

People buying takeaway
Image from Locky's English Playground

But the fact that people kept coming to buy takeaway kind of spoke of the quality of the food.

Fish dumpling noodles
Image from Locky's English Playground

Turned out that the noodles were actually not the chewy type that I like, but my wife likes them soft. The fish dumplings were alright in my opinion, but they are not the type of food I will remember if I don't write about it.

MEGA BUN!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground

Walking further down the street I had my very first encounter with a Mega-size bun and I just had to take some photos with it.

People waiting to take photos with the bun
Image from Locky's English Playground

I didn't go inside for any more food, but my wife did buy a pudding.

Coconut rice pudding at $3.5
Image from Locky's English Playground

A $3.5 coconut rice pudding, slightly cold, really not bad, but slightly too small for that price.

Ladies love wings
Image from Locky's English Playground

Besides the cafe, a guy was charcoal barbecuing chicken wings and a group of ladies flocked to grab them before it was too late. I am not a wing-person but I was guessing I must have missed out something big.

"Minused egg biscuits"? What does it mean anyway?
Image from Locky's English Playground

Charcoal cooking seems to be the key to many of Macau's best food / snacks / dishes and so is the "Minused egg biscuits".

Doughs on the iron plates
Image from Locky's English Playground

My wife told me that if she had to choose one thing she liked most, it would have to be this charcoal-baked biscuit.

You can buy his biscuits at minimum $10
Image from Locky's English Playground

She said that this gentleman only works at the weekends and he only starts selling the biscuits in the afternoon, after all the biscuits are so, he will return home and there will be no encore. Sounds like a man with character to me.

The plaza where the biscuits are sold
Image from Locky's English Playground

The queue was pretty long for sure, and so I took the chance to take more Photoshere photos.

Finally! Our turn! Look at that characoal fire
Image from Locky's English Playground

Honestly speaking, the man was working at full speed, but yet it wasn't fast enough to satisfy the biscuit-hungered crowd, just look at those passersby and you'll know the charm of beach-pants man of character.

How do the biscuits taste like? Brilliant!!! Ironically, it has a very strong eggy taste, so why is it called "Minused egg biscuits"? Maybe you can answer this question by leaving a comment below.

Vocabulary:
once in a blue moon -- not very often:
pavilion -- (n)[C] It can refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure.
bang for the buck -- informal if you get more bang for your buck, you get more or better results for the amount of money or effort you spend:
flock -- (vb)[I] to move or come together in large numbers:

Resources:

Rua Do Cunha @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rua_do_Cunha

Pavillion @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavillion_(structure)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/once-in-a-blue-moon?q=once+in+a+blue+moon
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/bang?q=bang+for+the+buck+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/flock_3

Monday, 8 April 2013

Photography: Dragonball Z Kamekameha Photography (PS version)!!!

Sneak-preview photo on Locky's English Playground Facebook last week
Image from Locky's English Playground

After I have uploaded this photo onto the Facebook last week, I have got 353 photo views, that is almost like 10 times the usual views I get for any blog post updates on my Facebook (since I usually gets around 35 views, sad!), thus proving "a picture speaks more than 1000 words" and "a picture gets more than 10 times the views". And so as planned, I will let you know what that picture is...

What do you know? It's me
Image from Locky's English Playground

It's me, of course, with a Son Goku's Kamekameha pose Photoshopped into an image of fireball explosion. It all began as a fun photography honeymoon photography activity when my wife and I both got bored and decided to fight each other while taking pictures.

One of the many honeymoon photos
Image from Locky's English Playground

I did all those Bruce Li's flying kicks and she did the sidestep dodges. When I got exhausted, I decided to take a photo of me doing a Kamekameha pose, then that photo was kept in the computer hard drive, until last week...

Image from bubblews

Ever since the trailer release of the latest Dragonball Z -- Battle of Gods movie 2013, fans have gone wild and flooded the internet with their very own Kamekameha photos.

Image from neversaymedia

Image from izismile

First the school girls of Japan goes creative ...

Image from a.xx.fbcdn

then it spread to the western world. By now Kamekameha Photography should be an official photography move after levitation and planking.

It would be fun to try something exactly the same, especially if you have a group of silly friends and Dragonball fans around, it could make a whole-day activity during an outing, but like you have seen my honeymoon photo above, it wouldn't be too spectacular if there are only two people, so instead, I went to combine Kamekameha photography with my Photoshop skills.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 1:

Since Kamekameha かめかめ波, literally meaning "Turtle Turtle Wave", I will need to create waves or Ki-blast (in computer game term). I can make my own using Photoshop but for the simplicity of this, you can capture a photo from a Dragonball game like I did above, or download a photo from the internet first.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 2:

Take many photos of the "victim" in painful postures, try to look as agonized as possible. As for the Kamekameha performer, just perform the Kamekameha and take a couple of shots, it won't go too wrong.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 3:
Cut and shrink the same of the men to fit the size of the characters in the image, remove the original cartoon characters with Spot Healing Brush Tool with Content Aware, use layers so you can fine tune the Opacity and Set the blending mode for the layers. Don't forget to add the shadows back to the image and...

WA-LA!!! You have your Kamekameha photo to share with your friends! It doesn't take long if you are good with Photoshop.

Give it a go and have fun!

Vocabulary:
dodge -- (n)[C] [I or T] avoid being hit by something by moving quickly to one side:
levitation photography -- (n) A person photographed while bouncing may appear to be levitating

Levitation Photography
Image from yowayowa

planking -- (n) an activity consisting of lying face down —sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body.

Planking
Image from washingtonpost

agonized -- (adj) (UK usually agonised) showing or feeling extreme physical or mental pain:

Resources:

Levitation Photography @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitation_(paranormal)#Levitation_in_photographies

Planking @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking

Kamekameha @ Dragonball Encyclopedia
http://www.dragonballencyclopedia.com/qdb/Kamekameha

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dodge_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/agonized?q=agonized

Friday, 5 April 2013

Cooking: Japanese Tuyu (Absolutely Velvety) Chicken Wings

Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings
Image from Locky's English Playground

Another stay-at-home activity day and this time it is chicken wings!

Surely there are many recipes out there, such as Cola wings, Swiss wings and Honey wings are Hongkongers' favourite, mostly because they are easy to make. Well this time I want to share with you all a chicken wing dish which I have created, hereby I call it "Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings" (at home, I call it Absolutely Velvety Chicken Wings instead).

It is very simple to prepare this dish.

Step 1: Buy some chicken wings.

Step 2: Defrost the wings.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 3: Lay them on a chopping board and poke the wings with something sharp. This is to allow the sauce to be soaked up by the wings easier and faster.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 4: Add about 80ml of Tuyu -- the kind of sauce used for soba noodles and it is usually concentrated when you buy them.

Tuyu
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 5: Add about 80ml of mirin, a type of rice wine which is low in alcohol but high in sugar content. This is to actually replace plain sugar and add a little wine taste to the wings.

Mirin
Image from Locky's English Playground

Alternatively, you can also use Chinese Shaoxing rice wine to remove the frosty smell from the frozen chicken.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 6: Add about 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. I find this Topvalu brand the best, feel free to use other brands as well.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 7: Stir the mixture and immerse all the wings into the sauce.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 8: Leave it to marinate for about 1 hour, flip or poke the wings a few times to maximise the effect of marination.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 9: Roast the chicken wings at 250°C in an oven, 10 mins per side of the wings.

Step 10: Apply honey or golden syrup on the wings and then return them to the oven for another 2 minutes for caramelisation -- the browning of sugar.

Image from Tumblr

Step 11: Enjoy the taste of the fabulous Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings!

Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings
Image from Locky's English Playground

Give it a go and feel free to leave a comment after you have tried!

Vocabulary:
velvety -- (adj) (also velvet) literary describes something that has a beautiful soft, smooth quality or appearance, usually something dark or deep:
defrost -- (vb)[I or T] to (cause to) become free of ice, or to (cause to) become no longer frozen:
frosty -- (adj) very cold, with a thin layer of white ice covering everything:
marinate -- (vb) [T] to pour a mixture, usually containing oil, wine, or vinegar and herbs and spices, that you pour over fish or meat before it is cooked, in order to add flavour to it or make it tender:
caramelisation -- (n)[U] is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color. As the process occurs,volatile chemicals are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor.

Resources:
つゆ @ Wikipedia
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%86

Mirin @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirin

Caramelisation @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelization

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/velvet_3?q=Velvety+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/defrost?q=defrost
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/frosty?q=frosty
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/marinade?q=marinate+

Monday, 15 April 2013

News & Science: Love, Smell And Sex

Friday, 12 April 2013

Travelling & Living: Macau One-Day Trip

Monday, 8 April 2013

Photography: Dragonball Z Kamekameha Photography (PS version)!!!

Friday, 5 April 2013

Cooking: Japanese Tuyu (Absolutely Velvety) Chicken Wings

About The Playground Founder

Playground Games