Episode 105 - Grasshopper Cage

Today I made a grasshopper cage using ice lolly sticks.

There was no need for my family to eat a lot of ice lollies to get the sticks. These sticks were purchased from a stationery shop near my home. The price for one pack of sticks (50 sticks per pack) is HK$2.

I also purchased a pack of rubber bands (costs HK$4) from the shop. I used rubber bands to fix the positions of the sticks.

It is easy to make a grasshopper cage (see previous post for the procedures) and I finished one in 5 minutes' time. I made one for Chiu Yin's use.

Gogo also made one himself. He has written an article on it in Gogo's Blog.

The cage as shown in the photo above is for collecting grasshoppers caught in the field. It is inconvenient to bring along a big cage in an outing. A cage for keeping grasshoppers at home should be larger in size. This kind of cage is expandable. What you need to do is to add more layers of ice lolly sticks to it.

In the old days, we did not have many toys to play with. Children made their own toys from available resources. These toys, like the ice lolly stick grasshopper cage, were creative and interesting. I will try to recreate these toys and post photos of them here in the future.

I believe that the boys will have a wonderful time at the Lung Fu Shan Country Park, each with a grasshopper cage in hand!

Episode 104 - Clivia - bearing fruits

I took this photo of my clivia this morning.

I pollinated the plant during the flowering stage. Although the task was not totally successful, I will have at least 3 clivia berries. I am planning to use the seeds to grow more clivias and give them out as presents to my relatives and friends.

It takes about 8 to 10 months for the clivia berries to become mature.


Remember the leave bud of the clivia?

I have detached it from the mother plant. I was not able, as originally planned, to cut it out with some roots of the mother plant - this appeared to be an impossible task unless cutting it with an electric saw. I am not sure if the transfer was successful. It has been in the new pot for 2 weeks and appears to be stable.

Episode 103 - Shyly Grass (II)

This is the recent position of the "Shyly Grass" (or the Sensitive Plant). Lovely, isn't it?

Chiu Yin has learnt to water it occasionally (although I have to make up the balance to keep the plant in good health).

The plant is growing fast - its size has been doubled in one month. I add some diluted liquid fertilizer to it once every week. The plant seems to be happy with this. Judging from its developments, I believe that I will need to move it to a bigger pot soon.

I note from some material that the leaves fold-up ability of a sensitive plant will diminish or even disappear as it grows older. The plant will also not "sensitive" if the temperature drops below 10℃.

I recall that, many years ago, I read an interesting article on sensitive plant written by a famous local science fiction writer. The writer claimed that he had an extraordinary sensitve plant that would not fold up its leaves even if he touched them with force. He said that it was because his plant could recognise its master as time goes by and, therefore, would not react in the normal way. Probably only a man with such an extraordinary imagination could become a science fiction writer.

Episode 102 - Elephant Ride

This photo was taken at the Laguna Resort at Phuket of Thailand.

Chiu Yin and Judith were taking an elephant ride.

The riding site was at a park near the shopping arcade of the resort. There were 2 elephants and we chose the strongest one for the ride. The fee for a 15-minute ride was reasonable.

The seat on the elephant back did not appear to be safe. There was no security bar to prevent the passengers from dropping forward in the event that the elephant lost its balance. Chiu Yin had confident on the elephant and was not frightened. Chiu Yin said the elephant was naughty as it stopped on the way to drink water.

After the ride we treated the elephant with bananas.

Episode 101 - Grasshopper - a close encounter

"Different fields, different grasshoppers; different seas, different fish"

I caught this grasshopper in a recent visit to the Pinewood Battery at the Lung Fu Shan Country Park. The children were happy to see it and it was in fact the first time Chiu Yin saw and touched a grasshopper!

As you can see, the grasshopper was not frightened of me and stayed calmly on my thumb. I released it after taking the photo.

When I was small, grasshoppers were common insects. Where there were grasses, there were grasshoppers. Probably due to the use of insecticide, grasshoppers are not easily seen in the city nowadays .

In those lovely old days, we collected ice lolly sticks to build grasshopper cages.

The procedures for making such a grasshopper cage are as follows:

1. Stack the ice lolly sticks in an orderly manner so that they form a # shaped structure with about 20 to 30 layers.

2. Fix the position of the structure by rubber bands.

3. Add additional sticks to the first and the last layers of the structure to fill the gaps in the middle of the # shaped structure.

4. Pull one or two sticks in the first layer out as an opening - you can then put your grasshopper(s) into the cage.

5. Close the opening by fitting the stick(s) back to the original position - you can then lock up your grasshopper(s).

We can of course purchase beautiful grasshopper cages (mostly made of plastic) from the bird shops. However, a cage made from ice lolly sticks really brings back memories.

In the old days, it was very easy to bring home a cage full of grasshoppers after an hour's "hunting". We "kidnapped" the grasshoppers as pets and fed them with grasses (some unlucky ones became the snacks of caged birds.)

I am planning to build an ice lolly stick grasshopper cage again for the boys' use in their next visit to the Peak. What I need is the material!

P.S. I did one subsequently. Click here to see.

Episode 100 - Drink with a Merry Heart

"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it." - Shakespeare, Othello


This is the 100th post. It seems to be an appropriate occasion to write something on wine.

I love Australian red wines. Apart from shirazs, I found that the sauvignons produced in the Connawarra District are particular attractive. My personal feeling is that Australian wines are strong. Their qualities are steady and, with an acceptable level of acidity, they are drinkable in early years.

Apart from Australian red wines, I also like Chilean reds. The wines produced in the Colchagua Valley are good - French wine quality but at a much reasonable price. What else can you ask for?

Both French reds and Italian reds are great but I found that I will have to pay a high price to get some good drinks.

I tried whisky and cognac when I was young but I did not know how to appreciate them. Rum coke and gin tonic were better choices for me at that time.

I revisited whisky recently. With the maturity of my wine tasting ability, I finally know how to appreciate the freshness of the malt. I like to have Scotch on the rocks in the evening - it's really cool!

Regarding cognac, I still find it difficult to understand - too bad.

Japanese sakes are good and had been one of my favourites for many years. However, after trying the reserved Shao Hsing Chew, my heart has turned to the traditional Chinese wines.

I had a not so good experience with the Mou Tai some 20 years ago. I nearly fell unconscious after emptying a small glass of it - this wine was too strong for me. I am tempting to have a second try.

Episode 99 - Footwork

"A teacher only teaches hand techniques to his student; the footwork is kept to himself. If not, the student can defeat the teacher."


Footwork is not really that secret but it is true that the same is often taught in the advanced level in most martial art systems. In the preliminary stage, a junior student learns how to coordinate his mind and body in a static position. There is no point to teach the juniors any footwork as their body condition is not fit enough to master the skill. The demand for coordination is much greater if one moves forward or backward. Yet, footwork is not limited to coordinating the body and mind whilst moving forward and backward.

Footwork provides a martial artist an additional momentum in action.

The old saying "if your feet do not follow the hands, you are not able to hit your opponent; if your feet come together with your hands, hitting your opponent is as easy as picking up a grass from the ground", refers to the effect of this additional momentum.

Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, it enables a martial artist to take a good offending / defending position by moving around his opponent. Some footwork are designed to get oneself to an advantageous position in split seconds without alerting his opponent - I see you, but you don't see me; I was in front of you a moment ago, but I am now at your back.

In the taiji martial art system, footwork is not explicit in the taijiquan form. Other than some turn arounds, you move forward in a straight line in the form training. If you move in a straight line, how can you execute centripetal force or centrifugal force effectively in action? The best you can do is to "roll" vertically or horizontally or in whatever angle a static ball can do.

The taijiquan form is not an all inclusive system. Whilst it may be arguably correct to say that the form has footwork embedded in it (e.g. before stepping forward, the front leg should make a slight outward turn), you need a teacher to decipher it for you - just like you need a teacher to decipher the application techniques embedded in the form. In any event, you have to train on the footwork as deciphered separately and intensively, as the movements in the form training are far from sufficient to enable a practitioner to be fit enough to apply the technique. You are then in fact practising a different set of skill. That is not to say practising the form is useless - it is an essential element in fine tuning the body / mind control (if you know how to do it) - but a practitioner should know its limitation.

The circular footwork are taught at the advanced stage. The disclosed form (i.e. what you can see from the published material) is the "Da Lei" push hand form, which include a variety of circular footwork.

Footwork in Taiji enables movement of the body like a spinning top. You move from the outer ring into the centre; your opponent is driven from the centre to the outer ring.

Episode 98 - A Journey to the Victoria Peak

My family took a walk to the Victoria Peak this morning.

We started the journey from the University of Hong Kong at Pokfulam. Having had our breakfast at the University canteen, we took a route uphill via the Lung Fu Shan Country Park to the Peak.

The weather was fine with occasional sunshine. The footpath is well paved and the gradient is comfortable.

As it is spring time, the trees are green and the flowers are blossoming. The route to the Peak is vital and full of life.

In halfway of the journey, we stopped for a break at the Pinewood Battery, a historic miltary site, from where visitors can enjoy a beautiful view of the Victoria Harbour. The site is also a great place for leisure, picnic and BBQ.

The Pinewood Battery is closed to Harlech Road, the destination of our journey, which road links with Lugard Road to form a circular loop around the Peak.

It took us about 2 hours (inclusive of resting time and the visit to the Pinewood Battery) to walk uphill from the University to Harlech Road. The return journey (downhill) was about 1 hour.

Episode 97 - On Forms (II)

As the taijiquan form is good for health, a lot of people practise it everyday as "morning exercise". However, it appears to me that not many people know how to do it in a "correct" manner and, therefore, cannot get the best out of it.

By "correct" I mean meeting the requirements as set down in various Taijiquan classics.

One such requirement is that "when you move, the whole body moves; when you stop, the whole body stops".

The purpose behind this requirement is that, you coordinate various parts of your body to do a task. For morning exercise purpose, this trains a practitioner to keep good control of his body and learn how to maintain his balance (reducing the chance of falling down due to lose of balance on slippery floor). While the muscles power of a practitioner may not be be strong, he can still be active if muscles in different parts of his body can work together in carrying out a task.

The requirement is to move different parts of your body coherently. There should be a linkage between these separate parts such that the movement of one part will enhance the movement of the other related parts.

You gain very little benefit, if, for example,:

(1) after your main action has stopped, you extend your arm / leg slowly, pretending to be artistic, relax and soft; or

(2) separate parts of your body do things separately / independently, pretending to be soft as if without bones.

In these 2 circumstances, a practitioner uses individual parts of his body separately and independently. Hence, he cannot get the benefit discussed above. You can regard this as a kind of exercise nevertheless, but this kind of exercise can not be regarded as up to standard in the taiji system, and there is no room for further development.

Taiji emphasises "softness and relaxation". Such "softness and relaxation" is a kind of "coordinated softness /relaxation" engineered by "will power". It does not equal to the misinformed concepts of "absence of strength" or "soft as if without bones" - such misconceived "softness" leads to the defect of "detach" in application techniques.

Apart from coordinating the mind and body, there are other requirements, such as: relax your shoulder, lower your elbow, sink your chest, pluck up your back, upright your tailbone and upright your head, etc.

All these requirements, like the requirement of coordination, have their respective rationale in the martial art aspect and should not be taken literally.

[Link to Part One]