登山纜車2022 peak tram

印象中上一代紅色的纜車也沒有運行怎樣坐過，眨眼間已變成第六代？（又再是兒時的）綠色纜車了。同樣是兩節車廂一起運行，否則正常時期本地人加上遊客是應付不了的。你知道中途可以呼喚停站的嗎？你又知否鋼纜是在纜車經過某一點才在軌道中露面？

hong kong’s peak tram, like the city’s shyscrapers at the same site, went through five incarnations already. the current, sixth, inaugurated 2022, brings back the retro green colour of my childhood. did you know you can request stop in one of the stations along the link between central and the peak just by pressing a button? did you also know that the (steel?) cable only makes its not-so-discreet entrance in between the tracks only when the tram reaches a lower elevation at whatever point you are standing / observing?

un B1 – mor prend sa barre

des cours de francisation pour les immigrés. saviez-vous que le niveau exigé pour réussir un examen du français (TCF ANF – test de connaissance du français pour l’accès à la nationalité française) par rapport à la citoyenneté / la naturalisation est seulement un B1. (d’après le cadre européen de référence pour les langues c’est-à-dire (CECRL) ou en anglais common european framework of reference for languages CEFR / CEF / CEFRL) c’est vrai, tu n’es pas besoin d’être un expert de la langue de molière, plutôt il te faut une fondation suffisamment pour t’exprimer cette langue de ton pays adopté. je pense que d’être admis dans une université, parfois ils vous demandent d’avoir atteint un B2!

tous ça n’est que un des thèmes élaborés ici dans ces vingtaine de minutes, mais ce sujet d’y assister et y venir à bout m’intéresse. après tout ce temps, j’ai jamais essayé un examen pour but de qualifier mon niveau de français.

n’oubliez pas que mor a obtenu son diplôme de capitaine 500, un autre fait assez impressionnant.

學緊法文嘅朋友，你哋知道入籍法國只需要達到歐盟語言標準嘅B1，千真萬確 ! 相對考上某些競爭較大的大學可能要求入學時達到B2來說，移民豈不容易過入大學？如果你『聽』得明這條片（唔係靠估），又不需看字幕的話，恭喜你，移民考試嘅語言部份過咗關了。

maineland 尋岸 documentary

february 2021. prc and usa are still in a de facto proxy (trade) war with my hometown still pretty much in the eye of the storm. a timely yet interesting documentary from three years ago helps shed some light on a tiny morceau of the multifaceted relationship between the two peoples.

maineland saw the camera followed two young, wealthy chinese students stella and harry spending their last two years of high school at fryeburg academy in maine. the tuition fees stand at usd 50k in 2021. why is such an exclusive school so depended on international students from china? half of the international students in 2017 were from china. and why a socialist economy can export so many  “wealthy second generations” 富二代 in their foreign endeavors?

two years ago was the only rare occasion when i didn’t argue with my vietnamese friends that china wasn’t and doesn’t look anything “social” to me with not many nor not so few privileged citizens. and you have to ask why the most powerful country in the world keeps on exploiting the hard earn money of its arch rival.

if there is anything positive to report on, it is that stella and harry weren’t spoiled brats at all. i am not so sure about some of the other characters around them!

a must watch if you dig sino-american politics.

寫於 2021, on commence

從2020走到2021,農曆鼠年差不多尾聲。往年不少人翻讀 卡繆的《瘟疫》 。 如果離題抽水講貓、鼠和疫症的比喻，2020的總結甚至到2021年一月尾這一刻都可以用一張相嚟形容。唉！

si on relie la peste, le rat et le chat mataphoriquement, la photo ci-joint présente un compte-rendu précis de l’effort mondial par rapport à la santé publique. le montagne russe reprend en 2021!

el sexo en los tiempos de corona

year 2020 coming to an end, with the constant reminder od social distancing, many festivities dim their lights or have them outright distinguished, like this sex shop, situated in a business district steps from a few hotels. perhaps only tourists are liberated enough to experiment with toys? fiestas no,el sexo no jajaja la normalidad nueva durante corona!

img 20201227 232507

img 20201227 232445

油麻地停車場大廈 Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building

too much obituary but then here is another one.

Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building, know for the Gascoigne Road Flyover passing through the building on the 3rd floor, will be permanently closed next year, in 2021. The top three floors of the car park will off limit starting 1st nov 2020. disappearing landscape aficionados in hong kong are congregating on the 7th and 8th floors to savour the hustle and bustle of yaumatei on this last full day of its operation.

2020實在寫得太多訃聞，不過還是越寫越有。預告你知十一月仲有我想寫但未寫嘅。油麻地停車場大廈要重建／改建了。我期待的是地下的讀書館會變得更乾淨、更大、提供更多元服務等等。今日我就跟其他香港人追逐那些虛無縹緲、似有似無嘅回憶。油蔴地係五湖四海、人流複雜的地方。出入停車場大廈地下公廁的，有時有點駭人、像是吸毒癮君子、亦有神志不清的人。如果說資源不公，這里的圖書館和公廁都可以算是我用過之中的最污糟。希望這社區奇景消失之餘，政府會改善此地的各項服務。

https://youtu.be/WR97jqinsQ0

too many photos taken inside

carpark

carpark2 – flyover on lower right

bmw – car as model

notice on permanent closure

此時此刻的地圖  library was marked in the middle of the proposed thoroughfare

another video after my errands at the library 去完圖書館再拍過:

低啲再影過 a closer look further down :

社交距離 distanciation physique

社交距離 / distanciation physique / social distancing or even

distanciamiento físico, distanciamiento personal, o distanciamiento social,

no matter how you call it, for three quarters of a year, it is tiring, frustrating or even sad for many. If this photo I dug up from my cell phone which I believed to have arrived at my possession in march 2020 could lift your spirit up just a little..

How would you title / caption it?

para mi, es “star wars vs. covid-19“

covid digital humanities

2020 走到一半，乜嘢係全世界人都在談論covid-19,華文圈就是武漢肺炎、新冠肺炎等等。一年多前首次聽到『數碼人文』digital humanities這詞，雖則其意思在變，但用電腦、資訊科技等來研究、來咬文嚼字的人士對於這半年來新創，或重現的字必定嘆為觀止!

j’ai entendu    digital humanities (humanidades digitales / humanités numériques / DH ) pour la première fois  en 2018. alors au plein milieu de 2020, les chercheurs de DH doivent d’avoir beaucoup de mots logiques et illogiques (comme social distancing, pourquoi pas physical distancing? quelle occasion ratée de régler les choses)

de toute façon, voici quelques mots qui ont fait leurs tours au monde:

隔離, 觀察, 檢疫, 防疫, 社交距離, covid, covid-19, corona, virus, coronavirus, quarentena,  cuarentena, quarantine, quarantaine, confinement, déconfinement, isolation, lockdown,  social distance, social distancing, physical distancing, distanciation sociale

did you know quarantine stems from forty days in one or those romance languages? whatever you think, i simple don’t want to deal with the messy, confusing orthography!

what are those words and neologisms in your own languages? let’s make a bigger pool for the DHers to play with!

 

clean hands save lives

“clean hands save lives” is a book i received as a gift from an academic public health event but never got around to read. that changed earlier this year because of covid-19.  thanks to the virus, medical professionals and laymen alike talked non-stop about infections and how not to get infected. so a long-held simple fact’s importance resurfaced and became à la mode again, for unfortunate reasons. here you can download numerous versions of the book for free!

https://tcrouzet.com/le-geste-qui-sauve/downloads/

 

salud en los tiempos de la corona

如果有得揀乜嘢時候唔好病，咁應該係社會動盪，又或是病毒猖獗嘅時候。我老豆從舊年2019嘅十一月九號到而家五月尾廿八號差不多折騰咗半年。乜嘢搞到佢囉囉攣？米就係偏食引致膽石阻塞膽管發炎、肝酵素上升等問題。經過兩次住院，無數次社康護士上門洗傷口、換紗布之後，上星期五那一針鈎住傷口嘅針最終鬆脫。輾轉由母親陪伴到北區醫院後，日間手術部門的醫護把傷口縫合，暫時解決了對父親來說既重複、又戰戰兢兢、又知啲唔知啲嘅家居護理服務。觀乎其飲食習慣－少飲水，少蔬菜－不出一兩年內想又要遭受折磨！所以腦筋清醒嘅時候，應該養成良好的飲食習慣,免得自己和身邊人受苦又受罪！

plastic forceps, dressing tray, sterile field, non woven sponges… these things have been repeatedly consumed for the past six months on my dad, during the two hospitalizations and as well as the many community health nurses’ at-home follow-up services. owing to his old age, my dad did not have his gallbladder removed since he had this acute inflammation and fever in early November 2019. If he were 15 years or more younger, the surgeons would have removed that gallstone generating organ without second though, as i deduced simply by eavesdropping his ward neighbour. fortunately for him, that organ is apparently back to functioning after prolonged external tube draining, wound-dressing, etc. just one and a half week short of 6 months. if there is any advice for those of you have a weakness for unhealthy, greasy, low-fiber, dehydrated daily diet, my blunt and my-own-dad-tormented advice is DROP YOUR BAD HABITS WHILE YOU ARE STILL YOUNG(ER) AND SANE. it not only hurts your eventual caretakers, in this case mostly  my mom, and part-time-wise, me, additionally it will make taking any remedial actions almost impossible, as in my father’s case who has alzheimers and his stubborn,  deranged perceptions of his own well being or the lack of therein really has been painful and brings anguish to everyone involved. he gets a break now until his bad habits get the better of him in a few years time.