Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

 雖說中秋每年一度，但今年中秋比以往特別——那天17:30仍未下班，連老闆也問我為甚麼20年沒在港過中秋也不早點走，究竟在香港過中秋的氣氛是怎樣，我忘得七七八八了！ (Actually many workplaces allow staff to leave early on the day, but I only received notification after lunch and didn’t have time to re-arrange my work schedule.) （其實不少工作場所都容許員工中秋節提早下班，不過我當天午飯後才收到通知，想最新編排縮減工作也來不及了。）  After work I went to my brother’s place, and near his building all passers-by were looking towards the same direction with many lifting their cameras or mobile phones. When I turned my head around, it was obvious what the centre of attention was. The mid-autumn room was slowly rising through the gap between the buildings on both sides of the road, and became gradually brighter with its ascent. I spent a few minutes appreciating what I would normally take for granted! 下班後到胞弟家，在附近街道見到途人不約而同向同一方遠望，不少人還舉起相機和手機，回頭一望便看到當晚的主角——一輪皓月在兩旁大廈中間的縫裡緩緩升起，光芒四射而且愈來愈明亮，我也忍不住花幾分鐘駐足欣賞。 When the moon became the centre of attention 賞月和觀人 I haven’t spent mid-autumn festival ...

September marks the beginning of the academic year in Hong Kong – as well as the beginning of many new things. 九月是新學年開始，有一番新「氣象」。 At the start of the month a new Mainland student came to join the lab. He originates from Shanxi province and has studied in Tsinghua University before. It was his first few days in Hong Kong, and he was already greeted by some typical local weather: continuous rainfall for days with heavy downpours from time to time. He asked me how there could be so much rain in Hong Kong, and honestly I haven’t experienced this for a long time myself either! 月初實驗室有個新來的國內學生，山西人但在清華唸過書，他剛到港，又遇上連續幾天連綿下雨，偶然還傾盆而下，叫他納悶，問香港怎麼會有下不完的雨？說實話，這樣大雨我也好久沒經歷過了！ One day another colleague of mine and I took him to lunch,. The colleague suggested to him a dish of beef briskets and shrimp wontons with dry noodles (specifically for mixing the noodles with the sauces of the accompanying food) so that he could try a few typical examples of Cantonese cooking all at once. The student was cur...

It’s quite a funny feeling living in my first home again after 20 years’ of absence; it’s a mix of familiar and new experiences, and those new experiences can be ‘fascinating but sometimes bizarre’ as quoted from an interview that I read from a newspaper last Sunday. After all I’ve spent most of my life in Western societies! 回到離開了二十年的家定居，既覺熟悉也有點新奇，那種新奇也可上星期日前在報章一篇訪問中那句 fascinating but sometimes bizarre （引人入勝卻奇異）來形容——畢竟我在西方社會浸淫太久了！ Then let me begin from my experiences shopping in the pharmacies, occasionally still called dispensaries here in Hong Kong. 那就先從我到藥房（藥店）購物的遭遇說起吧！ I arrived in the bright hot days at the end of July. Having lived in Australia for ages, sunny summer days naturally reminded me of sunscreen lotion. I decided to buy a couple of bottles from a local small shopping centre as I didn’t bring any with me. The shopping centre had two pharmacy chain stores and 4 smaller independent pharmacies. I first poked my head into those smaller pharmacies, and they all had ...

It's never difficult to catch a glimpse of history anywhere one goes in Europe. Munich and surrounds are full of relics and reminders of its long and colourful histories of the city itself as well as of the former Bavarian kingdoms. 在歐洲想看歷史並不難，慕尼黑和週邊地區便有不少古蹟，見證了這個城市和幾百年前巴伐利亞王國豐富而悠久的歷史。 Munich celebrates its anniversary every year in mid-June, and this year the festivities are held on 15th to 16th June. I went into town on the 15th wanting to try the Prinzregententorte (literally Prince Regent Cake), Munich's very own cake originally made as a present for Prince Regent Luitpold, in the bakery that was believed to be the birth place of the cake. As soon as I found out that Munich was celebrating its 855th anniversary that day, I thought how appropriate it was to mark this occasion with a 'birthday cake' that is one of the symbols of the city itself! 每年六月中都是慕尼黑慶祝成立紀念日的時候，今年的活動便在6月15至16日舉行。15日那日前往市中心，一心想到「攝政王蛋糕」的始祖店一嘗這個最有本地特色的蛋糕。當時製造這個蛋糕，是要給攝政王Luitpold作賀禮（目的則眾說紛紜），但一知到那...