Episode 161 - Good Taste From Tradition

These photos were taken at Tai O recently.

The sticky substance in the rounded-shape baskets is another famous local produce of the village - shrimp paste. The paste was being dried under the sun before it was packed for sale. In Tai O, you can buy shrimp paste in the sauce form or in the brick form (see the shrimp blocks in the 2nd photo (taken by Gogo)).

Shrimp paste is a delicious ingredient commonly used for cooking fried vegetables or steamed pork. However, the manufacturing process of the shrimp paste could be a nuisance to many people as the unfinished paste emits repulsive smell.

Episode 160 - Narcissus - New Developments

The narcissus bulbs are growing well.

I have moved 2 of them to a smaller vase, as I wish to have 2 pots of flowering narcissuses on the New Year days.

The weather was not steady in the past few days. There was not enough sunshine. The leaves were growing long. The flower shoots are not yet visible but I expect to see the first one in a week's time.


Links to subsequent stages:
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Episode 159 - Narcissus Bulbs

Cutting and planting your own narcissus for the Chinese New Year is fun. If you wish to have flowering narcissus on the New Year day, it's time to cut and plant the narcissus bulbs. I started the work yesterday.

I purchased one box of narcissus bulbs from the flower market recently. There were six bulbs in one box. As you can see from the second photo, the bulbs were individually packed. They had dark brown coloured clothes and came with mud. They looked ugly.

The first step I did was to remove the mud and the clothes of the bulbs . The result was six white onion like bulbs (See the third photo). They looked beautiful.

I cut the bulbs with a knife. The cut began at the position of around 1 cm from the bottom and went up to the top. One cut to each side of the bulb (2 cuttings altogether). I loosened the layers at the top of the bulb to make rooms for the flower shoots to come out (See the fourth photo). No pain no gain?

I then dropped the bulbs into a bucket of water and left them there for 24 hours (See the last photo). Live water?

They are now sitting in a flower vase (See the first photo).

Waiting for the flowers!


Links to subsequent stages of the narcissuses:

Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Episode 158 - BBQ at the Pinewood Battery

This photo was taken at the BBQ site at the Pinewood Battery.

The facilities at the BBQ site are clean and tidy, with a number of stoves and sufficient seats and tables. Water is available nearby. There is no need to make booking - first come first served.

To have BBQ at the Pinewood Battery is a real challenge. As the site is near the top of the hill, it is not easy to carry the food, drinks, BBQ forks and the charcoal up there. My family was in fact the only party that used the site on that day.

The cold weather on that day was perhaps the other factor that deterred people from having BBQ here.

We barbecued our food by charcoal. It is not easy to ignite the traditional charcoal (the big black objects in the photo). We started the fire by using some easy-to-burn environmental friendly charcoal (the round objects in the photo). We then added traditional charcoal to the burning stove. The traditional charcoal is cheaper in price and appears to have a longer burning life than the environmental friendly charcoal.

Compare with the gas stove in the modernized BBQ corner of the estate we live, the traditional charcoal stove brought back beautiful memories and good taste - the chicken wings cooked by charcoal fire were extremely delicious!

Episode 157 - Close-Up of the New Flowers

Another photo of the Purple Cattleya, taken earlier today.

Both flowers are larger in size than those last year.

Episode 156 - Flowering Season

Once again, the purple cattleya is the first plant to blossom this year.

This is the mother part of the old plant.

Last year, I let the mother part develop in the same flower pot without further dividing it. The result is larger and more colourful flowers.

The flowers are 3 petalled and, this time, came out from a flower sheath.

Episode 155 - Theory and Practice in the Taiji Martial Art System

Taiji : Martial Art or Morning Exercise? (Part II)

Some more notes:

The taiji martial art system comprises of two aspects: the artistic - the body of the art; and the martial - the use of the art.

The artistic aspect provides a practitioner the conceptual tools to work out the best positioning. The martial aspect provides a practitioner the techniques to destroy.

Dealing with the art of taiji in the pure artistic way is just like treating it as an academic subject.

Developed from the pure artistic is the artisticalisation of the martial art - the art is practised as soft physical exercise. The stress in the exercise is on the spiritual aspect and the will power.

It should be noted that, without the support of training in fighting , a theoretician (soft physical exercise is generally not sufficient, unless having reached the level of achievement), no matter how knowledgeable, is like one who has a useless body - He will not be able to meet the demands in a real fight.

Dealing the art of taiji in the pure martial way is different, it stresses on usefulness / effectiveness.

Developed from the pure martial is the martialisation of the martial art. It emphasises the strengthening of both internal and physical power (with more emphasises on physical strength). In action it calls for meeting the positive force with negative force - using intentional softness to dissolve the positive force. This is where taiji becomes a fighting art.

It should, however, be noted that, without the backup of martial art theory, a fighter can only apply the techniques in a mechanical way and will not be able to deal with an unexpected situation which he has never been taught.