Big Wave Bay

Big Wave Bay
Not just another beach!

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Tsing Yi Celebration of Reunification Health Trail

My Dear Great Ones,
The Tsing Yi Celebration of Reunification Health Trail is a beauty. Crazy name but its a beauty. Tsing Yi is an island between Kowloon and Lantau island.


Before getting to the trail there is a lovely water front promonade with views of Rambler channel.


  
This would be a greater picture if there were kids on these things.

Fishing boats.

After the promonade one enters a rather dense forest with a rather steep climb.


A butterfly and a pagoda gave us pause.


At the end of this section of the trail there is a bus stop with some rather comfortable chairs.

Green, lush and fresh.
After walking along a flat road for a while we got huffing and puffing up these stairs.
Nice views were our reward.
Stone cutters bridge.
Pagodas gave us some respite from the walk.
Hard to believe you are in Hong Kong.

Tsing Ma bridge.  9th longest span suspension bridge in the world.  Connects Tsing Yi with Lantau.

Trails are well made with plenty of signs.

Another view of Tsing Ma bridge.

Views of nature and civilization abounded.


Spring blossoms.

And now some pics from Celia:







Garbage can made out to be the base of a tree.

The steps are superb.  And lots.

The Tsing Yi Celebration of Reunification Health Trail is a crazy name for a wonderful trail, but is well worth the journey.

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk



Friday, April 15, 2016

Neon Day

My Dear Great Ones,
It was neon day at school on Friday and a good thing too.  The heavens were gray and bleak all week with Typhoon rain conditions at times.  So seeing adults and kids dressed up bright and fun helped inject some hope and joy in the seemingly unending gloom of this week.  Yeah neon!


 Even some teachers got in the act.


 The kids however stole the show with their bright colors.

 Acting up and getting excited.



 Bright and happy!

Hurray for neon day!

Have a bright and sunny week!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Saturday, April 9, 2016

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


From Wikipedia:   "The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem consisting of four stanzas of 5 lines each in iambic tetrameter (though it is hypermetric by one beat – there are nine syllables per line instead of the strict eight required for tetrameter) and is one of Frost's most popular works. Besides being among the best known poems, some claim that it is one of the most misunderstood.[3]

Frost's biographer Lawrance Thompson is cited as saying that the poem's narrator is "one who habitually wastes energy in regretting any choice made: belatedly but wistfully he sighs over the attractive alternative rejected."[4] According to the Thompson biography, Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph (1971), in his introduction in readings to the public, Frost would say that the speaker was based on his friend Edward Thomas. In Frost’s words, Thomas was “a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn’t go the other.[5]

While a case could be made for the sigh being one of satisfaction, the critical 'regret' analysis supports the interpretation that this poem is about the human tendency to look back and attribute blame to minor events in one's life, or to attribute more meaning to things than they may deserve.[6] In 1961, Frost commented that “The Road Not Taken” is “a tricky poem, very tricky” implying that people generally misinterpret this poem as evidence of the benefit of free thinking and not following the crowd, while Frost’s intention was to comment about indecision and people finding meaning in inconsequential decisions.[7] A New York Times Sunday book review on Brian Hall's 2008 biography Fall of Frost states: "Whichever way they go, they’re sure to miss something good on the other path.”[8]


From Dirk:  I believe God gives us opportunities daily to choose to do things His Way or not.  In other words go down God's road or not.  My biggest regrets in life are when I choose to go down the road that He doesn't want me to go on.  ie: anger, hate, lust, greed, pettiness, grudge holding, ungratefulness, meanness etc, you get the picture.   Whereas when I choose to go down the road God has before me, even though I really, really, really, don't want to go down there, when I do, it has always made the difference for good.  Often God's road is the one less travelled by, ie visiting orphanages, visiting homeless people, not reacting to situations in anger, but going on it always makes a difference for good.  The road of selfishness, self serving, self righteous indignation only brings grief in the end.   Sadly that road is basically a well used highway to hell.  Go on God's road, the road of no regrets!  End station: HEAVEN!


Below are a few roads in Hong Kong that I am sure will be in heaven as well.

















Have a great week!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk



Saturday, April 2, 2016

A taste of the Garden of Eden








My Dear Great Ones,
Celia and I headed to Sanya, Hainan, China for a few days.  There we found the garden of Eden and let ourselves relax and savour His goodness to us.  In the evenings we ventured outside and encountered the crazy contrasts that are big part of what China is.

 Dinners at our resort were expensive, but just outside near the entrance was a man selling hot sweet potatoes for pennies Canadian.  Note the expensive looking apartment buildings.  Very nice, but very empty, at night only a few apartments in each building were lit up.  There were hardly any people around either.  Very un- China like.

 Some abstract art near these buildings amused us.

 About a block from our Garden of Eden resort was real China with coconuts and drinks and food at a fraction of the price that our resort was demanding.  Coke at the Garden of Eden was 28 Yuan about $4.50 Canadian, at the local yokels it was 3 Yuan.  About 60 cents.  For me this discrepancy is what makes China so interesting.
 A local store.  Packaged chicken feet instead of mars bars were offered here.  Note the cases of beer.

 We were married under the bougainvilleas not that long ago.  

 The beach nearby was ok, rather manmade, but hey I shant whine too much.  


 Lots of dead coral on the beach.  In the water the coral and fish life was very good and alive.

Some locals enjoying time on the beach.

Celia and I feel very rested and grateful for the chance to rest in such a nice place like Sanya.  

God bless you and have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk