Baby Muse having fun at Science Park
Image from Locky's English Playground
Early April we enjoyed a day of great weather at Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks. It was my wife's brilliant suggestion that we should have picnic sometimes and it was mine to pick a place where there is excellent view,
Excellent weather with an excellent view and lots of bikes Image from Locky's English Playground
Fellow Tesla EVs: green Roadster and Red Model S, CLP electricity "vending machine" on the pillar, $0 / hr with Octopus Image from Locky's English Playground
and 10-hour free parking and charging if you have an EV and have applied for an EV Pass. 10 whole hours!!! That's a lot of money saved and worry-free time with family!
Lots of charging points, some are occupied by selfish non-EV owners. Image from Locky's English Playground
There are 18 standard charging stations (13A sockets) run by CLP, not fast at all but pretty good for the long free parking duration. And they are very conspicuous to find at the basement of Phase 2 car park, though I have failed to understand why non-EV owners failed to see the huge green walls and chargers there and still occupy our charging stations even though there were many other vacant spaces nearby for normal cars.
Outdoor theatre! Image from Locky's English Playground
Once we left the car park, we were scotched by the blazing sun and so we went to find the best shade around, and there it was the theatre, where everybody else take time to enjoy some cooling breeze.
Picnic time! Image from Locky's English Playground
We were totally starving when we arrived so it was sandwich-making and devouring time immediately!
Chasing bubbles! Image from Locky's English Playground
Outdoor theatre has a canopy providing ample shades, best place for bubbles with little ones.
Cherry Blossom!!! Image from Locky's English Playground
We are in Japan!Image from Locky's English Playground
And to our surprise, you can even find a few cherry blossoms to trick your dear friends that you have gone to Japan by posting some photos on Facebook!
Easter fun! Image from Locky's English Playground
It was during the Easter holidays, and so there were Easter workshops for 4-6-year-old kids, too old for baby Muse, but she still managed to squeeze out some photo-taking fun.
Workshops for 4-6-year-old kids, too old for baby Muse Image from Locky's English Playground
Too bad she is underage, otherwise baby Muse would have had a lot more fun! Especially with all those bouncy castles!
Too young to play, baby Muse felt puzzled Image from Locky's English Playground
People cooling off under the shades Image from Locky's English Playground
It would have been nice to have dinner there too, or on weekends occasionally, but because we already had dinner plans somewhere, so decided to leave this experience till next time round.
6 Tesla superchargers will be open soon! Image from Locky's English Playground
Then of course, as most Tesla owners will do, we visit the site where the soon-be-ready Tesla superchargers are located, took photos and update each other on our chat group. It would be nice to have a solar canopy so that our cars don't get cooked before they finish charging.
Cables aren't really connected yet Image from Locky's English Playground
The stalls aren't ready yet but if everything goes well, it should be ready in less than a month. By then, both human and EVs can have great meals at Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks.
Baby Muse is enjoying her run in the park at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal
Image from Locky's English Playground
One fine day near the end of last month, I took my whole family to Kai Tai Cruise Terminal for our first ever green outing on my Tesla Model S. It was my second time to be here (the first being the Tesla Model S first RHD delivery event), but my first to actually target the greenery rather than the superchargers. Just posting the video again here, it is an excellent piece reminiscence:
It was also my first time to visit the superchargers there, took a little while to find the stalls but I was lucky enough to be the only car there when I arrived, though immediately another petrol car arrived to block our chargers. In fact, most of the cars there at Kai Tak are used to blocking charging spots, whether they are standard 13A or the Tesla superchargers.
Image from Locky's English Playground
It was only after the petrol car has left then I saw a metallic movable sign hiding behind the supercharger stands.
I placed this sign to fend off ICE Image from Locky's English Playground
Immediately I took one out and placed it in the spot to fend off further musking. I have at least fended off three ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles after the sign was placed. The thing is, there were actually some other parking spaces available at that time but people just didn't care! Surely need to be re-educated.
Looks better than it tastesImage from Locky's English Playground
By 3pm, it was almost the end of the yum cha session, but since my dad insisted, we tried out the only Chinese restaurant there.
Crispy rice rolls? Image from Locky's English Playground
The food may look alright, but the taste is far from standard.
Looking good, taste average Image from Locky's English Playground
And the price is pretty expensive too, if it wasn't for my dad, or that we were extremely hungry, or for the view, we would have settled for a quick snack instead. The only thing that is worth mentioning about the restaurant is that it does offer free parking upon spending, but one has to remember to press that ticket button at the machine before entering, or the restaurant will not offer you rebate for the parking.
Baby Muse is learning about flowers from mummy Image from Locky's English Playground
After late lunch, baby Muse woke up and so we left the restaurant for the rooftop park. She was having a great deal of fun and experiences with flowers, plants and ample space for her to run around.
Baby Muse on the move Image from Locky's English Playground
There are toilets, seats and vending machines every 20 metres or so, very caring!
View from the rooftop Image from Locky's English Playground
The end of the rooftop has an amazing view of the arch, the signal tower and the harbour, taking a panorama of the scenery is a must-do!
One floor down Image from Locky's English Playground
Afterwards, we went down one floor for more photos and close up of the harbour,
Baby Muse on the grass Image from Locky's English Playground
then we headed down to the pasture for baby Muse to explore.
Artwork on the floor for display Image from Locky's English Playground
There were organizers running several art events for children on that day, there were group paintings,
Lots of children's creation to be dried by the breeze Image from Locky's English Playground
individual painting on round Chinese paper fans,
Pencil drawing by the wind Image from Locky's English Playground
as well as exhibits of wind's pencil drawings.
Baby Muse is charging! Image from Locky's English Playground
There are people playing music, reading books, or just sitting around enjoying their own private time. Overall, it is a top spot for a good family outing or even picnic if you have young children, there are eateries to fulfil your stomach's emptiness and even babies' room for changing diapers.
Parking is $8/hr for Mon-Thurs and $12/hr for Fri-Sun, so it is relatively inexpensive considering the parking fee could actually be the only price you have to pay to have a whole day of fun!
Model Ss charging at the superchargers Image from Locky's English Playground
And of course, if you do drive an EV, not just a Tesla, you can get your cars charged at the thirty-six 13A charging points all around the car parks! Free electricity, why not?
This happened in early March, I was waiting outside a clinic for a doctor to check on my left ear (I had been having ear blockage for about 3 weeks and it was getting worse, with pain with every little pressure change and my hearing was down 80%) when a girl about 16 or so collapsed in a cross-shaped posture in front of me. The back of her head banged onto the floor and her mum couldn't get her up. All she could do was to sit on her daughter's lap, looking helplessly frightened as she hugged her daughter's powerless upper body.
Image from Oxford journals
Immediately I went over to drag her to the wall and away from the static crowd for a quick rest. She was at least as heavy as I am and her face as pale as sheet. Nurses at the clinic that I was waiting came out to check her up. Her mum said she just had her teeth scaled and stitches in her mouth removed, she also said she ate before the visit but the nurses gave her candies anyway. The nurses didn't inform the doctor. Maybe they would had the girl completely lost consciousness. The dentist came out soon after the girl collapsed and the mum asked him about the treatment her girl received. The dentist denied that there was anything to do with drugs or sedatives used and I believe so. He asked if the girl saw her own blood but the girl said no. After a few pats on her head telling her she will be okay, the dentist returned to his clinic and so did the nurses to theirs. The girl and the mum later moved to the sofas as they sat down and murmured among themselves.
I suggested her mum to get another adult to come in case she collapses again but her dad went on business trip and she had no relatives nearby, then I told her mum to give her a cup of water as she was sweating quite a bit, and make sure she get enough rest before leaving.
Running in my head were thought processes and questions of how this girl managed to collapse in free-fall style. There is a possibility that blood loss during dental scaling has weakened her, or that she might have had low blood pressure in the first place. She is a teenager, so blood loss during her period could be possible but that is something I cannot confirm. Blood loss is just one suspect. What I can confirm is that the teenage girl was taller than me and probably heavier than me, adding sudden sweating, complete loss of balance and consciousness, and regaining of consciousness after collapsing onto the floor, we get something called vasovagal syncope.
Definition from Wikipedia goes,
Vagus nerve
Image from Wikipedia
"A vagal episode or vasovagal response or vasovagal attack (also called neurocardiogenic syncope) is a malaise mediated by the vagus nerve. When it leads to syncope or "fainting", it is called a vasovagal syncope, which is the most common type of fainting. Vasovagal syncope is most commonly discovered in adolescents and in older adults."
I shared this incident with my uncle who happens to be an expert in emergency medicine, girls collapse often and vasovagal syncope is related to stress, pain, anxious, hunger and many others, may or may not due to amount of blood loss. I am not sure about her stress or pain level but she should be in good mood enough to get teeth scaling. People who feel very upset don't go to make their teeth look better, they will just cancel the appointment. Then again, even if it was because of pain and anxiety, nothing a doctor or I could do to help at that point.
After about 15 mins or so, the mother and the daughter decided to leave. I gave them a final reminder that they should both hold the handrails at the staircases when they leave the building and soon I was called to enter the room to see the doctor myself, who referred me to a specialist to have my earwax removed as he did not have the equipment to help me. I paid $360 in exchange for an eardrop and a referral letter, but that is another story.
Vocabulary: murmur -- (vb)[I or T] to speak or say very quietly vasovagal syncope -- (n)[U] please refer to definition in the passage
Double-deckered Hong Kong-style French toast
Image from Locky's English Playground
So one day my wife, baby Muse and I went to this modern retro-Hong Kong cafe which I honestly considered nothing more than gimmick, sat down because we had had too much of Fairwood for tea and ordered Swiss wings and French toast.
Law Mark Kee @ Kornhill
Image from Locky's English Playground
Never expected anything from Law Mark Kee despite the constant full-houseness at dinner time and their good-selling signature breadloaf chicken rice on most tables, I just don't understand the attraction.
Awesome thickness
Image from Locky's English Playground
But when the toast arrived, I was shocked, not only by the size but by the gorgeous look. Never thought a tab of round butter would look so pretty on a square-shape toast. Makes me think wonder why no other cafe has ever done this before. There was no sight of a syrup dispenser, just a plate with prefilled syrup. Not sure if this is the way I like it though.
Peanut buttery goodness
Image from Locky's English Playground
Once it was cut, there was my second shock. My cholesterol detector immediately signaled that siren in respond to that ample peanut butter filling! Way too much for one person to devour unless one is looking forward to his first atherosclerosis diagnosis confirmation, maybe so even for two.
Distinctive layers
Image from Locky's English Playground
But some will say, it is the cholesterol that gives its flavour. I will have to agree with this point but for just this once. That look, those distinctive inter-ply of syrup, toast and peanut butter, possessed that magic of devilish forgiveness which made you forget all sins and guilt from breaking away your low-carb high fibre eating routine.
3 bottles for HK$233 at Wing On Store sales
Image from Locky's English Playground
Few days ago, Wing On Store at Tai Koo Shing was on the last day of final sale, shoppers rushed to the store to grab their goodies at bargain price and down at the car care section, all men were stuffing bottles after bottles of their favourite car cleaner and wax into their arms. Likewise, I did some research and pocketed 3 bottles of Turtle Wax at a total of HK$233!! Each has received at least HK$12 discount.
My research involved watching a lot of YouTube videos reviews on car cleaners and waxes. Among them, Acc0rd79 did many videos on a number of brands and products over a long period of time, so it is trustworthy.
I picked Turtle Wax over Armor All (two of the major car care products in Hong Kong) was mainly also because of his review.
Wait, does that car in that bottle look like a modified Tesla Model S?
Image from Locky's English Playground
Wait, does that car in that bottle look similar to my car? Cool!!!
Cleaned to the rims!
Image from Locky's English Playground
On the same day, I actually did a cleaning test on two cars: my sis's BMW and my own Tesla Model S. I did hers in the early afternoon and mine in the late afternoon. So hers got to see some daylight after cleaning while mine was early evening when the cleaning-and-waxing was done. Since my car was overly filthy having driven at a drizzling night about 5 days ago, it took me a whole hour to get every little part cleane, even the rims. I must say I am impressed with the thickness and bubbliness of the liquid, I think the difference between my feeling and Acc0rd79's is that I used a small bucket and about 100ml of the Turtle Wax liquid. I managed to get the whole car body cleaned up with lots of extras for the rims, which I did not intend to wash them using Wash & Wax in the first place. The rims were the dirtiest part but the dirt came out so easily!! I didn't even need to use the Turtle Wax Wheel Cleaner I bought!
Cleaned from roof to rims!!
Image from Locky's English Playground
After the foam wash, I rinsed it with two buckets of water and my car was looking good. I couldn't see the shine that evening on that street so I really couldn't say if this product was making any difference from the Turtle Wax Car Wash 2-in-1 that I have been using before.
Shiny side mirrors
Image from Locky's English Playground
But once I returned to my car park with the indoor lighting, I can really see the difference, probably not so much from the photo above, but from the photo below.
Real shiny!
Image from Locky's English Playground
That shine really stood out this time! Just look at that windshield, frunk hood cover and that nosecone! No Photoshop or retouching whatsoever with these photos. Looks brand new amazing, doesn't it? With just HK$87.3 and I am getting this shine every time I wash and wax, I am more than happy and impressed!
But, how do I know which wax is the one for me? Well, it depends on your budget, time and energy really. Here's a nice video telling you the differences between different types of wax.
PS: Oh, do I need to say I don't get paid for writing this article? Well, here it is! Just like I don't get paid for all articles from day 1. I thought this is a well-known fact for those who follow my blog.
Resources:
ICE Wash and Wax Turtle Wax Review and Test Results on my 2001 Honda Prelude @YouTube http://youtu.be/D-AFG8b1OSs
Do you ever look back how what happened in your past and see how you write? I was looking at my drafts of this blog and found this entry which I wrote dated 18th Jan 2012 before I was admitted to Master's Degree programme. It is funny now looking back at a time which made me feel uncertain about the future, I still feel that uncertainty now, just not about admission. Recently I have completed one 2000-word assignment in less than 5 days, and I was managed to do this because I know what I have to write and I am familiar with the topic. Here on this blog though, I am starting to have the writer's block I mentioned below. Academically, I am reading more, but reading less about the world does make me less creative.
Anyway, I don't want to waste the following post so I insist on sharing it. Although it might not be relevant any more, it still serves as a nice timestamp.
If you have been keeping an eye on the time that I have been updating my blog, I haven't been keeping up with the schedules lately. This is due to the fact that I am actually writing something else.
When I write my blog, I can go on forever without stopping, and words come easily and quickly, straight from my head and my logic flows smooth like the flowing river, because I know very well that I am doing this not for myself, but for you guys. Like my student Godwin said in his email for me, I love what I do, I love to share. I know very well that I will write well. If you send me essays for corrections, I will know exactly how to make it sound better.
The story is completely different when I have to do something for myself, which I hate, I get writer's block. I can't seem to think of anything! The more I care about it, the least I can write. I guess many of you have had the same experience as well.
Apart from getting writer's block, another challenge is to think out of my own definition of "perfect".
Last year, I spent almost a year writing my personal statement. I spent month after month preparing, self-reflecting, researching, writing, cooling, rethinking, rewriting, modifying... making them look perfect for submission. When I pulled them out from the folder two weeks ago and read them again, they looked like trash!
This year, I only spent like a week to rewrite everything, which I think is a miracle, and I also think they look great (not perfect this time), but who knows, maybe after a year, they might too look like garbage? It is really difficult to break out from one's frame of thinking.
Then shouldn't I have spent more time on cooling them down, think them over and make more changes to them before submitting? I can't, because I am afraid that the seats for the courses may be filled before I even submit my forms. You see, they begin interviewing in December and they may even finish the interview before the submission deadline. I had to hurry. But excuses or not, I think that "chop-chop, submit quick" in my head got me to overlook my errors in the application form -- now I have 2 full-time job instead of one because I forgot to put an end date on my ex-full-time.
Nice going, Locky!
I double- and even triple-checked my form of course, but sometimes, even making 100-tuple checks is simply not enough to spot the error, ask the computer programmers and they will agree. What's worse, the admission board might even regard me as not giving a damn about the application and filter me out at once.
I started getting these dreams about me sitting on a chair in front of 3 interviewers with no face, who were asking me how I could possibly not take a blind bit of notice, and I had to explain why I made such stupid mistakes.
So silly, right? I might not even get an interview. But guess I have to plan early, for either full-time or part-time mode will greatly affect my monthly income and I need to know how to arrange my life then.
Master's degree classes are usually held in the evenings, which means I will need to relocate my working time to other days in order to keep my contract. If not, I will have to switch to part-time. And I suppose all of you will be comparing my salary with those Star Tutors on newspapers, well, the truth is, it will take about a hundred years for me to catch up with their annual salary.
Life is only going to get tougher no matter what, but I will boldly face it.
PS:
Just one final complaint, why is it that the Trinity CertTESOL teaching certificate which is widely recognised around world not being seriously considered in Hong Kong?
Vocabulary:
to keep an eye on sth/sb -- to watch or look after something or someone
logic flows smooth like running river -- (simile) meaning quick and smooth
writer's block -- (n)[U] a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown
chop-chop --exclamation informal used to tell someone to hurry
overlook-- (vb)[T] to fail to notice or consider something
nice going -- (if sincere, means "good job"); (if sarcastic, means "bad job"), hereby the latter.
100-tuple -- (n) from n-tuple, means 100 times.
not give a damn about -- offensiveused as a way of saying you do not care about something, especially the annoying things that someone else is doing or saying
not take a blind bit of notice -- UK informal not to pay any attention
