Summer Holiday I. (July)

I spent a very busy but dulcet time in July.  The days below were the most notable.

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12th (Tue.)

It was the second last day of primary four.  It made me feel quite excited. That day, some schoolmates who joined the  Leadership Training programmes and the DNA Group paid a visit to a secondary school for doing a short and simple experiment.  The experiment we did after visiting all the storeys was a common way to take and gather the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of a kiwi.  When we finished the stuff, for examples, sprinkling washing powder into the kiwis and putting them into the hot water, we put the watery paste of kiwis into some test tubes.  After that, we had to wait for ten minutes.  At the moment, we started to study and watch the general models of DNA and a fake fetus in the womb.  At last, we saw the DNA floating in the lighter liquid.  Its shape was just like bubbles.  How interesting! 

17th (Sun.)

This noon after church, an uncle who is fond of insects gave my brother and I a lovely, light orange and grey cocoon in a plastic box with leaves.  A few days later in the afternoon when Mum was gossiping on the phone and my brother went out, I saw an odd-looking butterfly crawl out of the cocoon.  Its body was amber with black stripes just like that of a bee.  Then, I cried to Mum, ‘Help! Help! Help!’ ……  On the twenty first of July, Dad headed for the Kowloon Park and freed the baby butterfly.

Actually, I wore my black uniform of Hong Kong Scout Orchestra the first time that day too because I had to practice in the building where the Hong Kong Scout Orchestra stayed.  It was cool.

18th (Mon.)

That pouring Monday was not really special but was the very most busiest day in July.  In the early morning, I had to go to the football class which lasted for two hours.  Then, after a brief shower, I had to go to the Cha Duk Chang Cantonese Opera class in Kwun Tong by travelling a long trip on the MTR train.  In the class, I had to hear the thunderous roars of the ‘cha!’, 'duk!’ and ‘chang!’ batting by the whole class, including me.  After that, I rushed to practice with the Hong Kong Scout Orchestra.  At last about five o’clock, I was just gonna have the first lesson of music theory with another teacher.  PHEW!  What an engaging but happy day.

22nd (Fri.)

Today, our Pilipino helper left Hong Kong for her summer holiday.  Hence Mum called my uncle’s Indonesian helper, Ann to lend a hand for a few days.  Uncle’s family and Grandma had a vacation trip to America last week.  So, Ann lives with uncle’s mother.  Most importantly, Ann helps us to cook and takes us to activities.  Ann is a great helper.

23rd (Sat.) I.

This was the most exceptional day, the final lesson of the interesting class of Cha Duk Chang Cantonese Opera Association.  ‘Cha… Duk… Chang…’ are the sounds of the old Chinese percussion instruments: a small cymbal, a piece of wood – but in the old days it should be a drum - and a rather hefty gong.  They are used at Cantonese Opera performances. 

My teacher was Ms Ma.  I had eight Cha Duk Chang lessons.  The six major things about Cantonese Opera are ‘sing, do, say, bat’.  The lessons included visual art (do), music (sing, bat), Chinese Cantonese tones (say), English (say, do) and physical education (do).  The last lesson’s topic was art.  We all had to paint our faces into a red, pink, black and white mask of Cantonese Opera.  I had a mixed feelings about it.  I even suffered from skin allergy afterwards.  My favourite lesson was physical education.  We acted with a light spear each by circling them.  I did it really firm, speedy and steady.  However, Miss Ma appreciated that I did the nine Cantonese tones with distinct and outstanding results. 

Today, on the seventh lesson, the students’ family could come and watch our performance of what we had learnt.  Dad, Mum and my brother were invited.  I performed the cymbal, a Cantonese poem and the spear.  I felt extremely good.  In this Cha Duk Chang Cantonese Opera programme, I discovered loads of knowledge about Cantonese Opera and I desired to have more lessons.    

<<Ms Ma

23rd (Sat.) II.

Besides, Dad, Mum, my brother and I also went to a cinema in Tsim Sha Tsui in the morning.  We watched Kung Fu Panda 2.  The exciting movie was funnier than Kung Fu Panda 1.  The new characters were Lord Shen, the wolf and gorilla army, master Thundering Rino, master Storming Ox, master Croc, Wolf Boss and the Soothsayer.  I like the movie.     

           

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Half a summer holiday has already passed.  Next, I will go to Beijing.                               Why?!!?

Star Wars Savage Opress

Last night, Dad, my brother and I watch the Star Wars cartoon on the television.  This chapter was about Savage Opress, the new character.  I like him very much.  However, I really hope the pity Opress would have never been chanted and transformed by the witches… …  

Savage Opress was once a very just and strong young Dathomiri Zabrak male, who lived as a member of the Nightbrother clan on the star called Dathomir. Opress had a younger brother who was weaker but he loves him.  As a noble warrior and the one who cared for the well being of his kin, Opress was the leader of one of the Nightbrother tribes, who lived subservient to the cunning and evil Nightsister witches.  They lived on the other side of Dathomir.  Following his ***transformation into a tool of the dark side of the Force, the enchanted Opress was a merciless brute who employed weapons such as the witchcraft blade of the Nightsisters and a double-bladed lightsaber.  Wearing his black amour, he drove the Sith Nightspeeder with the top Nightwitch Mother Talzin’s daughter, Asajj Ventress off to serve the Sith Lord Count Dooku as well.  They were ready to rule the galaxy by threatening the Republic.

          ***

Ouch! Opress is transformed by the Nightsisters' horripilate magic.

Lamma Herboland

On Saturday, my family, Dad’s three co-workers and I went to Lamma Island by ferries in the morning.  We were going to visit a herb garden, Herboland.  Lamma Island is an island near Hong Kong Island.  This was the second time I went there this year.  However, it was the first time for me to visit Herboland.  While we were waiting at the pier for the ferry to arrive, I read a few books about Kung Fu Panda 2, which will be screened in cinemas this summer holiday, at the newspaper kiosk.  My favourite character was master Tigress, one of the furious five.  She was a tiger.

When we got there, some Lamma villagers walked us to Herboland through a long path.  At the entrance of Herboland, I saw the word ‘Herboland’ carved on a small rock instead of a usual welcome mat at the doorstep.  Then, I walked to a shack covered with plants on the roof, with some bees buzzing around which had a waxy blue abdomen.  Inside the shack, there were many tables ornamented with herbs and tiny fishes in the clear water in several long rectangular glass vases, and seats which were actually logs.  We met our guide and his partner there.  After that, my brother and I went to a big cage where lived an amenable and amicable pink parrot, Bo Bo.  It belonged to a tourist before, but the tourist forgot to bring it home unfortunately.  There were some rabbits in the cage too.  Bo Bo always stuck its head out because it wanted people to tap its head.  How cute!

After the meeting, we started to make herb cookies.  To make the cookies, we needed cinnamon powder, flour and two pockets of Earl Grey tea leaves.  An egg, brown sugar, dry raisins and half butter were also the ingredients for the dough which we used to make the cookies.  Lastly, we went outside and each people cut a twig of rosemary.  Rosemary is a kind of herbs which can make the cookies taste good.  We put a basil leave on each of the coolies for decoration before baking them.  Just after making the cookies, a small wild ant climbed to my chest and bit me.  I cried in pain and knelt down at once.  Mum helped sprinkle water on the bite for me.

When the cookies were baking in an oven, we went to the herb garden and listened to our guide who introduced the herbs to us.  All the herbs were very fragrant.  My favourite herbs were rue that smelled like Chinese red bean soup, stevia which has leaves that can stick on clothes powerfully like velcro, and passion fruit that has leaves like springs.  Next, we went back to the shack and it was time to have some tea and the savoury herb cookies.  I found that although there was only one kind of cookies, they have two different colours.  One was rather brown and the other one was brownish.  The rather brown ones were crispier and the brownish were softer.  I like the crispy cookies better.  There were two kinds of herbal tea to serve us too.  They were the lemongrass and stevia tea and peppermint tea!!  Guess what?  Yuck.

Before we left, Mum, my brother and I bought a thing each.  Mine was a pot of rosemary and my brother’s was a pot of basil.  Both of ours were the herbs we used to make the cookies today.  In addition, rosemary can do for the chicken wings, and basil can make the tomato sauce taste better.  Mum’s was not a herb but it made from herbs.  Hers was a teabag that we can use to make drinks when catching a cold or having a flu.  Lastly, we took a photo in the shack with our two guides.

After visiting Herboland, we went to the home of Dad's co-worker on Lamma Island.  She has two chameleons which had eyes with black rings around like those of the pandas.  She also has a frisky pet dog on the roof floor.  Soon afterwards, we had a late lunch in a restaurant called Beer Garden.  We could eat Indian and western food there.  I ate a lot of spicy food but my favourite was the spaghetti which was not spicy.  At last, my family and I went to a mini public library which was no larger than two buses.

I always say that I really, really hate insects very much. However, I love Herboland and longed to go there again.                  

              Rosemary                                     basil    

       

lemongrass and stevia tea                  peppermint tea

                  

A Gay Week

Last week, I felt blithe.

On Monday, I didn’t need to go to school.  Mum bought a brand new digital television of Sony.  Its screen is big and clear.  We can use it to surf the internet and do internet chats.  I liked it a lot but not before.  Mum gave the old television to a woman for only seventy dollars because it was quite old.  I watched a Garfield cartoon when testing the new TV.  The next day, I went to school.  However, the teachers didn’t teach a single thing because we already finished the final exam, and the summer holiday is coming.  Guess what?  All the classes could play card games and watch cartoons, movies and videos!  My class enjoyed the whole film of Harry Potter!  The exciting movie was about the bad Wolf Man who had escaped.  Thereafter, I didn’t need to go to school for the next three weekdays again.  So, I could wake up as late as I wished.

Friday was the happiest day of the week.  It was also the Establishment Day of Hong Kong.  In the morning that day, Dad, Mum, my brother and I went to the Broadway cinema in a shopping centre nearby.  That was because we wanted to watch the Transformers 3, Dark of the Moon.  My favourite characters include the Autobots leader, Optimus Prime.  He was brave, just and handsome.  In this sequel, he had a trailer that can change into a flying installation.  The next one I once liked was the Decepticons’ cunning leader, Megatron.  He was an oil truck and wore a robe.  Megatron hid in the dessert.  There were some new characters too.  They were Sentinel Prime, the three awesome sports cars which had loads of machine guns on them, and the evil peppy Shockwave which had a red single eye and drove a huge, long robot snake that could make tunnels.  Sentinel Prime, the cool fire truck, was Optimus Prime’s old friend before.  However, he helped Megatron afterwards just because he wanted his planet back.

When we finished watching the movie, we went to a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui called Marco Polo Hotel to have a buffet lunch.  I ate many meats, like beef cold cut,  pork with pepper, raw salmon, salted chicken meat and steamed fish.  The foods were just yummy.  After that, Dad, my brother and I rode the Star Ferry to Wan Chai to buy toys in the Toy Street.  I bought Ratchet and my brother bought Bumblebee.  Both toys are the characters in Transformer 3, the movie we watched that morning.   They have a ‘Mechtech’ weapon.  The weapon of Ratchet is a cannon that can transform into a saw.  In the movie, he could even stretch out a few machine guns on the bumper, under the alarm, under the spot lights and five mini rockets on each side of the body, which had the words, E4 & search and rescue written when he was a Hummer jeep.  When we got home, I found that Mum had bought a new piece of furniture again.  It was an Ikea big red sofa bed.

On the last night that week, Grandma came to our place after I had my drawing lesson for dinner.  After dinner, we laid on the new comfortable sofa bed to watch a movie on the new television.  It was Nanny Mcphee.  It was funny and exciting indeed.

I hope every week I have in the summer holiday can be as fantastic as last week.