The End of Summer & Memories

The Summer has come to an end. In the backyard, the tree still has one yellow rose left. This is probably the last rose for this year. A neighbour next door who passed away a few years before my mother used to come over and ask my mother for a few roses every year. She admired our roses very much. Mother always let her picked whichever ones she liked.




These flowers below came out this week. They always bloom on schedule in Autumn. Mother planted a few of them a few years before she passed away. They have been coming out like clockwork every year. I love them. Seeing them reminds me of mother.

Past Glories

It was my sister who put the idea of fencing in my head. I have to thank her for that, because it created an important and memorable chapter in my life. I started practising fencing around 1979 or 1980. I had my first competition in the same year and began representing my school in competitions.

Below is the Gold Medal for Men's Team Foil Event at the 1982 Joint School Fencing Competition. This competition really made our name as formidable foil champions. Because of this championship, our team got first-seed in the Interschool Fencing Competition later that year.

In those days, medals were in the form of a key chain.

The reverse side of the medal showing Tuen Mun Fencing Association as the organizer of the event.

The bronze medal of Men's (Boys') Foil Team Event of 1982-83 Inter-School Fencing Competition. Assistant Coach Edmund Wong of then Jubliee Sports Center in Shatin, NT, Hong Kong named our "lost" as the "Battle of Waterloo." Everyone were expecting our team to capture the gold medal in this event, but in the final round, facing two left-handed fencers that we were unfamiliar, we broke. We managed to keep the third place and earned valuable points for the school in winning the Omega Rose Bowl. There is a trophy that goes with the medals. It is, I believe, still in the trophy display case at school.

Shortly after the "lost," I began learning the techniques of sabre fencing on my own, mainly from reading books on saber fencing. I had a more junior fencing buddy from school as a partner in helping me work out the techniques. After a few months of training on my own, I entered the 1983 Hong Kong Open Men's Individual Junior Saber Event. Lo and behold, I managed to get to the finals and captured the 4th place. Below is the trophy. When I received it from Head Coach of then Juliee Sports Center, Mr. Tom Norcross, the next day, he asked me if I was upset at being the Second Runners Up in the event and thus did not pick up my trophy at the ceremony. I told him that I was not expecting to receive a trophy for being the 4th place and so I left after my final bout was done. After that, Tom had me begun receiving training from a Hong Kong Team saberist.

This is the last medal that I received before leaving Hong Kong. I can no longer remember exactly which competition it was from, but I remember that it was a Men's Individual Foil Event and was a tough competition, and I finished the final round with terrible leg cramps. I was still very young and had quite a temper. I remembered throwing a fit and behaving like a spoiled brat at one point arguing with the president officiating the bout. This is the best gold medal that I ever received. It's actually made by the German fencing gear manufacturer Ullmann. It's big and came with a blue velvet display case. However, the organizer did not make any inscriptions on the back and I have lost the display case when I moved to the U.S.

Italeri's Templar Knights

I just got ahold of Italeri's new set No. 6125 Templer Knights. The box cover has a nice picture of Templer knights charging. It's kind of similar to one of Wayne Reynolds' pictures in the Osprey book, God's Warriors. See below for information on the book.



The back of the box has a color chart and a picture reference.



The Templers were religious warriors of the Order of the Temple vowed to defend Christians and Christian territories against non-Christians. The Temple refers to The Temple of Solomon. The Order was set up in 1120 and came into being by the consent of the Pope in January 1129 at the Church Council of Troyes in north-eastern France. It became a very powerful force both militarily and politically because of its wealth and properties.

The Order's end began with the loss of Outremer to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in 1291. In 1307, King Philip IV issued orders and arrested the Templer Knights in France on false charges of hersey and witchcraft. Pope Clement V announced that the charges were unproven, but the Templars' reputation was reuined. In 1310, King Henry of Cyprus put the Templer Knights in his territories under close arrest. In 1312, Pope Clement V abolished the Order of the Temple in the bull "Vox in excelso" and transferred the Order's properties to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (the Hospitallers). In 1314, Master of the Order James of Molay and Commander of Normandy Geoffrey of Charney were burned at the stake at Paris, France. In 1319, the properties of the Order of the Temple were transferred and distributed to other Orders. See Helen Nicholson & David Nicolle, God's Warriors: Knights Templar, Saracens & The Battle of Jerusalem (Osprey 2005); Piers Paul Read, The Templars, (Da Capo 2001).




Typical of Italeri, this set has three identical spurs with 15 mounted knights of 5 different poses. The scuplting is OK, but not great. On the box cover, the Templars has smaller (shorter) shields which seem to correspond to Wayne Reynolds' pictures in God's Warriors, pp 165 and 186. However, the figures have long kite shields. Four of the poses are holding flat long kite shields, while one figure is holding a curved kite shield. On page 189 of God's Warrior, the book refers to Templars having curved triangular shields.

The shields in this set all have a cross design on them. Wayne Reynolds' picture on page 165 in God's Warriors show this design with a cross on a white over black insignia. The picture on page 186 shows a black and white insignia with no cross design.

The lances that come with the set are definitely too short. So, wargamers and modelers will have to make new lances for their Templars.

Lastly, the knight on the left below: holding sword swinging from left to right is in a similar pose from the older Italeri set 6009: The Knights.

Water Truck

As a kid, I was always fascinated by water trucks. They were a pretty common sight in Hong Kong in the late 60s and early 70s. My uncle (uncle no. 5), who knew of my fascination, would draw water trucks on the blackboard for me. One day, he took me to a high scale toy shop and bought me this die cast water truck. Die cast toys in the early 70s were rather expensive in Hong Kong. I love this water truck and have kept it with me ever since. It had traveled thousands of miles with me when I moved from Hong Kong to the United States. It is still in very good condition.

Power Outage Morning, Mooncakes and Mid-Autumn Festival Night

This morning I got up at 7:30 AM to finish up a few details before heading back home. Just when I was about to begin packing up, the electricity power went out. At first I thought that a light bulb had just burned out, just like the one in the bathroom did on Friday night. I was about to get a new bulb from the cabinet when Sam came up knocking on the door. So, it was not just a bulb. I then thought that may be the fuse switch had popped, so I went downstairs with Sam to check on the fuse panel. We tried the main switches a few times, but nothing happened. Sam suggested calling the electricity company. So I picked up the phone and called its emergency number. After a 15-minute wait on the phone, a voice came on and the moment I mentioned our location, the representative assured us that they were aware of the situation, and that the power would be restored by 11 AM. I was relieved that it was not just our house, but was concerned that this might delay my departure. I was uncomfortable leaving knowing that there was a problem. I would have to wait for the power to come back on first. So, I took my second shower of the day in the dark. After drying off, I started to pack my backpack and I began to feel warm without a fan. Half an hour went by and I began to sweat. Suddenly I heard a pipping sound from the security alarm. I went over to the control panel and saw the warning lights were going off and the normal lights came back on. I was glad that the electricity company restored the power so quickly. It was only 10 AM. They were an hour ahead of schedule. Bravo.

The ride back to New York was long, but tolerable. I arrived at the Bus Terminal at about 3 PM. We were half an hour behind schedule. But this is normal. I then had another long ride on the subway as the N train was again traveling on the local line. I got home at about 4 PM and immediately went out to Brooklyn's Chinatown to shop for next week's groceries.

There was the annual summer street fair on Fifth Avenue so our bus took a detour and I got off on Fourth Avenue.

Since it was Mid-Autumn Festival, Brooklyn's Chinatown was even more crowded than usual. You can hardly moved at some spots. I bought a few things and saw the boxes of mooncakes on sale. Some of the boxes were selling at $32.50, there were some at $24.50 and others for about $17 to $20. A box has 4 mooncakes. They are not big, at least not like the ones that I had as a kid. Compared to the ones on sale nowadays, the ones I had as a kid were huge. Those days are gone. May be it was to cut down cost and make it more affordable to many, or may be it was just not too healthy to consume a huge mooncake. I looked around a bit, comparing prices and brands, and finally settled on a box from the Hong Kong company, "Garden." Mainland Chinese brands are just too risky, I just don't trust their quality control, especially with all the news about their toys and powder milk. Olympic Games and space walks are one thing, industrial standards, controls and corporate/commercial ethics are another that are still sub-par by international standards.

I even got a nice carry bag for the box of mooncakes.

The mooncakes came in a tin box, just like the old days. However, I remember that in the late 60s mooncakes mostly came in cardboard boxes. I think companies started using tin boxes in the early 70s. Now some companies are reverting to cardboard boxes.

There are four in a box and contained in their individual sealed transparent plastic wrappers.

Here is the cake unwrapped in its plastic container. Why do we need this plastic container when we already have a sealed transparent wrapper. That's why the cake is much smaller than the ones we had as kids.

A slice of the cake has been cut. You can see the big yellow egg yoke. Nice, but don't tell my doctor.

I have made a pot of hot yasmine tea. One can't really enjoy a piece of mooncake without a cup of hot Chinese tea. Bon apetite.

Mid-Autumn Festival Weekend

September 14 is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon is supposed to be at its fullest. It is a time for family members to gather together to celebrate. The completion of the family is to echo the fullest (roundness) of the moon.

Unfortunately, instead of being with my family or loved ones, this weekend I am at South Jersey painting and doing repairs on my house. After doing chores from 9 AM to 7 PM, I have finished about 90% of the things. So, I went out for a quick dinner. I had an order of chicken with mashed potato, but it was too salty. After dinner, I bought some groceries and decided to take the boardwalk to walk back home. Summer has gone, but the boardwalk was still crowded with people tonight. I looked up and saw the moon shinning brightly over the neon-lights on the boardwalk.




A blogger has posted this old Chinese poem on her blog yesterday and I think it is very apt. So, I am copying and posting it here:

明月幾時有？把酒問青天。不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年。我欲乘風歸去，又恐瓊樓玉宇，高處不勝寒。起舞弄清影，何似在人間？轉朱閣，低綺戶，照無眠。不應有恨，何事長向別時圓？人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺，此事古難全。但願人長久，千里共嬋娟。

Since I am copying materials from her blog, credit must be given to her. Here is the link to her blog: http://iriscyp.blogspot.com/

Storm, Firecrackers, and Time Wasted

This weekend, I was down in South Jersey working on my house again. I couldn't do much work on Saturday because of the storm. So this morning I got up early to work to make up for lost time.



While I was painting the house, some young men from across the street set off two big firecrackers, actually more like bombs. They were really loud and generated quite a bit of smoke. The firecrackers were so loud that most of the neighbors came out to have a look. Someone apparently got pissed off and called the police, and two blue and white came in record time. As I was working on my house outside, a police officer came over and asked me what I saw. I gave a narrative description and informed the officer that we all got a scare but no harm was done. The officers went around and did some further investigation, and then left. The young men were of college-age and seemed to be summer vacationers from Nebraska and it was their last day in town. So, they decided to be jerks and set off two firecrackers. They all left for good in mid-afternoon. Later in the afternoon an ambulance and a police car came to one of the neighbor's house. It was the one with an older gentleman who has a medical condition. I hope the firecrackers had nothing to do with this.



By three o'clock, I finished with most of the things I planned to do and I headed back to New York. The New Jersey Transist bus ride was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad on a Sunday afternoon. It could be worse. However, I forgot to factor-in the terrible New York subway. Their services are terrible and they dare to ask for a fare raise time and again. Today, the N train was running on the local line and it stopped for a 5-minute wait at every major junction such as 14th Street in Manhattan, Pacific, 36th Street, and 59th Street in Brooklyn. Then, it took another 15 mintues to switch over to the R train. By the time I got off at 86th Street I was about to scream. It was too late to cook dinner. So I went to a restaurant and I was so hungry that I ordered straight away without even looking at the menu.



Has anyone conducted a study as to how much time and thus money we have wasted inside the New York subway. Time we could have spent doing something else more worthwhile or enjoyable than to get trapped inside the subway system waiting and waiting for the train to arrive and get us to our destinations. The time spent on the subway system is an economic waste that is lost forever.



I could have used that time to paint figures.






Another weekend gone. I am exhausted.

Figure Painting

I did some figure painting a while back. Here are some of them. Below is a 54 mm Conte Collectible Norman archer.

Here's another: Conte Collectible Norman with mail, shield and sword.