Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

I mentioned in the previous blog post that the yield for honey wasn’t looking too promising this year and that the bees had better work harder from now on. Even then it’s probably a bit too late. This spring has made its way out for summer too quickly. Since last week the maximum temperature in Melbourne has stayed above 30 degrees and this week will see more of the same in the second half. It wasn’t so long ago that we seemed to have gone back to winter back in late September to early October, but six weeks since we’re experiencing some consistently warm to hot weather that a standard Melbourne summer may not even offer! (Melbourne’s summer goes through a series of cool to extremely hot days, but it is rare to see more than four hot days in a row with maximum temperatures above 30. It is even not so unusual to have one or two weeks staying on the cool side, disappointing those craving for some summer action. So this kind of a heat spell is not even typical for the summer here.) The f...

Yesterday when I had a short break at 16:00, I looked out to the backyard and discovered a swarm of bees hovering around the bushes! It was dazzling to see a whole lot of brown little bombers flying randomly and making a noise that was more like a humming engine than the normal buzz. 昨天下午四點休息時，望出後花園，但見一群蜜蜂在樹叢中漫天飛舞，咖啡色一點點的，轟轟作響，彷如一堆小型轟作機籠罩着置花園的草坪和花草，看得人眼花瞭亂。 After some time, the bees settled on a bush, forming a swollen mass of moving bodies on one of the branches. 過了不久，那群蜜蜂逐漸聚在一棵樹上，遠看好像是樹枝結了一塊厚厚的疤。 An hour or so has passed when everything seemed to have quietened down, but out of the blue the bees started moving again and resettled on a chunky branch of another bush. It was to be their resting place for a while yet. 就這樣靜止了個多小時，那群蜂突然全體搬遷，飛到另一株樹再次聚集，依付在一條較粗的樹枝，形成新據點。 As one of our neighbours keeps bees, we naturally thought that the bees were his and hoped that he would help us deal with the problem. I looked for him before dinner without success, and tried again after dinner. He told me...

港人最近對高樓價怨言頗多，我當然很理解，但大家看過世界其他地方後，便會知道樓價過高的問題既非香港獨有，港人的處境也非特別差。 就以澳洲為例吧，各大城市的樓價以每季百分之五至六上升，隨便找個上車盤——市區的單位或市郊的獨立屋，不論是新落成或是現樓，動輒起碼50萬澳元（即港幣350萬左右），想像香港找200來萬的上車盤，非到邊錘的地區不可，雖說那些地方地大屋也大，但論到交通及其他設施的配套，真的會給天水圍比不去。 澳洲各銀行明知樓價太高有風險，最近收緊了一般人的貸款準則，要求貸款人有能力支付兩成首期之餘，還要取消高信貸額的信用卡。借到錢後，償還貸款可吃力了，澳洲最近加息已成國際新聞，習慣了兩、三厘利率（甚至更低）的港人，聽到澳洲一般房貸利率已超越六厘，會不會吃一驚？況且，利率祇有越來越高的份兒，待利率再加一厘至澳洲的「正常水平」後，50萬澳元的物業，借到40萬（港幣280萬），年期廿五年，每月供款便達二萬港元！（同樣貸款在香港以三厘承造，年期廿年也祇需每月供$15500，廿五年更低至$13300。） 究竟樓價為何長升長有？簡單來說就是需求殷切，而且資金不斷流入，政府又助波推欄，其實和香港的情況相似，最大的差別，在於港府限制了土地供應，澳洲政府則刺激了需求，推出首次置業補助，最高（用於買樓花或新落成建築）可達32000澳元（22萬港元），原意是幫助首置者及保住建築和連帶行業，但地產商和建築商也不笨呀，所以適合上車的物業，升幅可不少，也令整體樓市堅挺，有評論因而說，此政策的實際功用，乃托住樓價和一眾業主的信心，多於真正協助置業者。就算這個補助現已逐漸縮減，樓市也有一班長期穩定的新力軍，就是移民和短期居留者，而且源源不絕，而他們的目標也是一般市民的中、下價盤！這些新來者，絕非泛泛之輩，同事和朋友都目睹過「國內豪客」，在物業拍賣成交後用現金全數支付，看得我們這些「窮同胞」眼紅！最近有新聞報導說，國內送子女赴外升學而有財政實力的，都會給子女置業，然後把房間分租，租金足以支付學費，而隨着樓價上升，就算如果物業需要貸款，利率再高也不怕，反正學成後把物業賣掉也除笨有精。想不到祖國崛起的效應，在澳洲也在平民層面感受到！ 面對樓價不停上升，澳洲不少人也望洋興歎，不過除了政府會逐步按原來減少首次置業補助外，也不見有甚麼具體行動，小市民要抱怨也祇是中午一同吃飯時發一兩句牢騷而已。港人則進取了，...

Last week I was arguing with my Dutchie buddy on the use of the English word ‘bastard’. Either he was being mischievous or he really meant it; he called a girl bastard but the girl argued that bastard could only refer to boys and not girls. My Dutchie buddy didn’t believe her. I understand that bastard originally means someone born outside a legitimate marriage, and although it was clear from dictionaries that the word could refer to a child of either sex, but I have always thought that it originally only meant a illegitimate son. In order to prove my point, I quickly looked up German and Dutch dictionaries online, then told my Dutchie buddy: the German word Bastard and Dutch bastaard are both masculine nouns, and if those words can indeed refer to both genders, they should have been of neuter gender like the word Kind (which means child in both German and Dutch). My Dutchie buddy wasn’t convinced, so I sought to look up an etymology dictionary for the origin of ‘bastard’. It turned ou...

The latest issue of the scientific journal Nature has a report on ‘ smart mice ’ that have certain genetic manipulation to enhance some brain functions. Compared to normal ones, these manipulated mice show better performance in a variety of standard tests. For example, it takes fewer trials for them to find the floating platform when swimming in a body of water (the water maze), or they are able to find their way through a more complicated labyrinth in a shorter time. However these advantages do come with some trade-offs. The mice that perform better in a complicated labyrinth perform less well in a simpler labyrinth than normal mice, and one of the manipulated genes in another type of smart mice is often involved in cancer development. (If you cannot read the article online, please ask me for a pdf copy.) Of course the scientists hope to learn something from the mice to advance treatments for neurological disorders or enhance mental functions. But before they can reach meaningful and ...

A day where so many runners have broken their personal bests must have been a record in itself, except it’s one that the organisers would not be particularly proud of. Many runners in the Melbourne marathon yesterday found that they have finished their courses faster than expected, but it was all because the actual distances of the 5 km and 10 km runs were shorter than what they should have been. The organisers admitted there was a problem but would not revealed how much difference there was between the advertised and actual distances; they have only denied that the difference was as much as 20%. Here’s the news report that says it all. Close enough is good enough – this should be the new motto for future Melbourne marathons. P.S. (18/10) - The organisers have finally revealed what the actual distances were for the 5 km and 10 km courses. One has to wonder how sloppy those people have been. 做事「提早達標」有誰不想，體育運動不斷打破往積也是很多人的目標。昨天舉行的墨爾本馬拉松，這些目標很多人都實現了，但他們也知道自己開心得太早。 原來五公里和十公里賽事，主辦單位承認實際距離比...

The host city for the 2016 Olympic Games has been announced. Chicago bowed out after the first round of voting for the host city as it received the fewest votes. One of Hong Kong’s news broadcasts reported that the sudden appearance of the US president Obama at the IOC meeting was expected to lift Chicago’s chances, but the defeat showed that the US would not have its way all the time on the foreign affairs scene. Not only would this weaken Obama’s reputation on the world stage, it would also undermine his standing in domestic politics. I couldn’t understand how people could make such an exaggeration on Obama’s effect on the voting and on the consequences of the defeat. I tended to think it was just another of those conspiracies against Obama by his political enemies. 2016年奧運主辦城市已經揭盅，申辦城市之一的城市芝加哥在第一輪投票輪選時已出局，無線新聞報導時說，有人事前預言美國總統奧巴馬臨時決定現身拉票會有助芝加哥勝出，但這次落敗也顯示奧巴馬在外交上並非有絕對影響力，事事不一定順境，還可能影響其在美國國內的管治威信云云。 我聽罷也覺可笑，事前把奧巴馬說成是神一樣，事敗後也把其後果無限放大，真不曉得是不是奧巴馬政敵的陰謀論也。 * * * The same news broadcast also r...