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Remember Joseph Woo Wun Fai
He who came back from heaven is well and alive in Chicago. 有相為証 and Joe Pao can witness it too |
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今次两月一次嘅聚餐由鄒秉漢同學主持，六月廿七日响煐煌御宴舉行。有七个同學同老婆出席，只有廖柱文帶長期拍乸來，難怪大家都追問佢地幾時會升呢？一如既往，肥鄺大晒六个趣緻外孫遊船河嘅相，成个幸福公公嘅樣，睇嚟其他嘅人都幾難追。當晚大家高談闊論，十分開心。
流著淚看完這篇網文，為自己曾經的無知，為那些被曲意踐踏的英靈！
- 作為一個中國人, 第一次看到了日本投降書，我不知是該感到慶賀還是該感到悲哀；
- 作為一個中國人, 第一次知道國軍在抗戰中是如此英勇無畏, 我不知是該感到自豪，還是該感到羞辱；
- 我曾經那麼恨的“國民黨反動派”, 我曾經那麼恨的張靈甫原來都是抗戰英雄……
歷史如此不堪入目:我們卻依然活在欺騙中. 原來我們和日本人一樣都在篡改著歷史。 (崔永元說: 你可以不說, 但是你不能撒謊!）現在看來, 不能拿聖人的標準去衡量政客了。政治是無情的, 甚至是殘酷的；喉舌是機械的，甚至是麻木的，有時毫無公允和客觀可言。
6 weeks away from training together with a nagging cough which started in the 2nd week of our North American vacation has put a damper on the possibility of a good result in the second most prestigious championship of the year: the National Capital Dancesport Championship. My GP gave me a couple of asthma sprays to clear my bronchitis and even ordered complete rest on dancing training as the best cure for my bronchitis. When I tried to ignore his advice, I found out that he was correct in his prescription because I had lost but all my stamina and couldn’t finish one and a half minutes of Quickstep without coughing. And all the cough mixtures and Chinese tonic didn’t work for me.
Another week passed and I started to worry as my conditions had not improved. I went to see another GP whom I had acquainted in the dance studio. He understands how important it is for me to go to Canberra for this championship, so he ordered a number of tests: the X-ray came back with my lungs cleared but the blood test for whooping cough was borderline. As a last resort, he prescribed some codeine cough mixture which gradually stopped the cough but had the worrying side effect of constipation.
They say that Australian share common values with Canadians and Americans. This is true only to a certain extent because in the land of plenty that is Canada and the US, you can be over generous with food and beverages. Things are much more expensive in Australia, thus Aussies are meaner and leaner. For example, we pay AUD18.95 for a packet of 20 cigarettes. In the US, I noticed that the general price was less than a third at USD5.95. No wonder that people of all ages and across gender smoke when cigarettes are so cheap! Maybe it was a dirty plot to keep prices down to lure people into smoking. Who knows?
Clothing was about the same ratio in terms of price, may even be more than half. In Australia, we must have paid more than double than you guys in North America. Richmond is already inexpensive to shop but Tommy was telling me that sometimes he goes on shopping trips across the border to Portland in Oregon where they don't pay any sales tax. We noticed the prices in Las Vegas where they sold top quality clothes and cosmetics for much less than people pay in Australia. In fact, I saw some shopping outlets on the Canadian border near Seattle advertising to their customers that their goods are just as inexpensive as in the US. So why shop in the US?
The sights over Seattle were beautiful with islands and lakes everywhere. The city itself was not spectacular, I thought. However, we would love to re-visit Seattle one day to find out more. When the plane approached San Jose, the view from the plane's window seat was awesome as we had to fly over San Francisco Bay to get there. The lush green terrain with low mountains is very different from the Australian mainland as the wetlands and lagoons are joined by bridges. There was quite a fair bit of human activities judging from above the ground although it seemed not to be overdeveloped, thanks to the environmentalists. It was amazingly beautiful and fertile with rivers and lakes intertwined the landscape and low hills were green with vegetation.
This impression was largely confirmed from the ground. I saw the plains worked by machines to its best efficiency, irrigation systems and even aerial spraying using small planes. Agri-business is big in America and I guess Southern California has provided us with good examples. Land-holding are in smaller blocks as I can see mostly Mexicans working on the land. Apart from almonds and walnuts trees that I saw, there must be hundreds of acres reserved for wine-making and other crops. And you should see the soil they use to grow grapes. Australian farmers would use a poorer soil for grapes but good soil are so plentiful in California that the Americans could be forgiven for using good soil for its cultivation. Gary later told me that there is pollution problem in Fresno as it rests on a valley and the methane from the cattle actually posts a problem to people's health. Such is the richness of California farmers. Gary told me that the Government turns a blind eye to illegal Mexicans working in farms because the landowners need farm-workers.
The friendships that had been extended to me during my 6 weeks away from Sydney were so genuine and touching that I want to tell the world that I'm the most lucky person in the world. It feel so good that when you have friends who care for you and look after your interest. So far I have mentioned 9 friends: Tommy and Winnie, Bor and Susan, Lola and Gary, Tony and Mabel and Sidney who had made me feel welcomed and helped me in the first leg of our vacation. You will hear me mention many more friends who had warmed my heart and touched my soul with their friendship, especially Godfrey Lam and his wife Martha.
I was in Hong Kong to visit my mother who was 93 before I set out for my travels. While in Hong Kong, Magdalen and I did a dance demo/talk in a school hall attended by about 20 dance enthusiasts organised by my friend, Martha Lam who was a former work colleague. Her husband, Godfrey, is an eye surgeon whom I have met in Sydney 25 years ago. We had lunch together before the dance demo and almost casually I mentioned my vision problems relating to my recent cataract surgery. Without anyone prompting Godfrey knew that I needed remedial surgery so he suggested that I should see him for consultation. Because his schedule was so tight he had to sacrifice his lunch time in order to see me on Wednesday. On Friday, he carried out the remedial surgery necessary to re-adjust my cataracts. I have included the following letter of gratitude which I sent to Godfrey:
While visiting in Hong Kong in April, Magdalen and Philip Lee presented a demo/talk of their excellent dancing technique to friends. Wah Yan alumni in Hong Kong were invited too.
Here is Philip’s description on how it went:
“The dance/demo went smoothly. The venue was the school hall of the very prestigious Peak School on Hong Kong Island. It was quite big so we were able to dance the choreographies of each style of dancing. We demonstrated each of the 5 dances first to show the character of each style and then went through some basic steps of each style. We combined theory with practice by calling upon the audience to take part in working out the actions of some figures. Magdalen and I took turns to explain the basic techniques in establishing a ballroom hold, transference of weight and movement in action. We divided the men from the ladies with me working on the men steps and Magdalen working on ladies steps. Some of the people present had some experience in ballroom dancing but most did not, so it was quite challenging to keep everybody interested and happy for nearly 4 hours non-step. We managed to go through the 5 styles of ballroom dancing: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep as well as 3 New Vogue dances: Swing Waltz, Barclay Blues and Tango Terrific. By the end of the session most people were exhausted and complained about sore knees and ankles but I think they had thoroughly enjoyed the dance demo/talk.”
The idea of a Canadian vacation was first canvassed when Tommy Lam Wing Yuen pointed out with a sense of pride that Vancouver continued to reign as the best city in the world to live in and that other Canadian cities such as Calgary and Edmonton were also on the top 10 list! Intrigued by the statistics, I thought it was time to visit the Western Hemisphere from Downunder. It would be nice, I thought, if we could repeat what we did last year and go for a vacation after the South Pacific Championship in early October and then fly straight to Toronto for the reunion.
I began to press Cecil Li and Tommy for a definite date for the October reunion and went about costing the Canadian trip. As it turned out the reunion was scheduled on October 2 and the South Pacific championship was going to be run a weekend later on October 6. As my dancing form was going well in 2012 we couldn't really not go to the championship, so another gap in our dance calendar had to be found for our annual holiday.
Philip & Magdalen Lee paid a visit to Vancouver in May 2012. Gregory Yu Dad/Melanie, Lawrence Chan Wang Yip & Tommy Lam Wing Yuen/Winnie joined for a welcome dinner on May 17, 2012 followed by a karaoke night in Gregory & Melanie's home. A wonderful night for all great singers!
