New School Year 2024 新的學年 2024
Despite this summer holiday being much longer than usual for my son, time flew by, and now it’s already September. Most students started their school term last week, and today, it’s finally his turn....
Category: Life
Summer Holidays Ride 2024 暑假單車遊 2024
Summer in the UK is quite short, only lasts for about three months. By August, the sun starts setting after 8 p.m., and soon the days get shorter again. A few days ago, my son suggested we should going on a long-distance cycling trip given the slightly longer daylight and the fact that school hasn’t started yet. As he was so excited, I should have no reason to say no. However, in view of the pain in my right wrist, which probably caused by tendonitis, that haunting me for a few months, a long ride might make it worse!.
英國的夏天日子不算長，只有短短三個月，踏入八月，下午八點後便開始日落，又回復日短夜長的日子。早幾天兒子提議趁日間時段稍長，而且仍未開學，不如一起來個長程的單車一日遊。難得他有這個興趣，我理應義無反悔的應成，但心想近幾個月右手腕隱隱作痛，相信是筋膜發炎所致，勉強踩長程車，一不小心，可能手尾會更長！
Round Trip Ride – Hammersmith & Notting Hill 走一轉系列 – Hammersmith & Notting Hill
Looking back often brings surprises or delights, much like when I recently moved my blog posts to my new site. I noticed that there were several half-written cycling posts left gathering dust. Instead of letting them as they were, I’ve decided to tie up those loose ends and hopefully boost some more traffic to my new blog. Although these rides were made over two years ago, in the ever-unchanging British landscape, I don’t think there will be much difference today.
回顧通常都會帶來一些驚或喜，就像我早前把網誌文章搬到新網站一樣，竟發覺有好幾篇單車遊的紀錄只寫了一半，但又不知何解地被擱置於一傍。與其繼續放低不理，我決定要為這些紀錄做個了結，亦希望可為網誌增加多一點流量。雖然我這些單車騎行已是兩年多前的事，但以英國的千載不變的生活環境，相信今天看來亦不會有太大的差別。
Lunar New Year Holidays 2024 農曆新年
Time flies and we are already three months into 2024! If you’ve been following my monthly look back, you probably know that I’ve been busy migrating my blog to a new server. Better than what I originally projected, the transfer of all contents had already been done last week. What remains is to monitor the new system and make any necessary tweaks; my life is finally back to normal.
話咁快 2024 又過了差不多四份一，大家如果有留意我最近的每月回顧，大概都知道我忙於轉移我的網誌去新的 server。上星期尾剛完成全部 contents 的搬動，剩下來是新系統的監察及作適當的微調，空間多一點，生活又可暫時回常。
Welcome Aboard
Hi, Welcome to my new personal WordPress blog hosted within a Docker environment running on my old ubuntu 22.04 NUC server. Comparing to my original WordPress.com blog site, the new self-hosted WordPress environment is...
Slow Cooked Beef Ragù Pasta 慢煮肉醬意大利粉
For the past few years living in the UK, the food we enjoyed most was Italian pasta. If you remembered my previous post about testing out my son’s new bicycle, that small Italian cafe, Little Italy in Sunbury, is our favourite and we visited there almost every one or two weeks.
在英國生活的日子，食得最多就是意大利 pasta。 如果有留意之前和兒子試他的新單車的一篇，那間位於 Sunbury 的意大利小店 Little Italy 就是我家的至愛，差不多一、兩個星期都會去一次。
Here comes Christmas Again 又到聖誕
2023 went much more quickly than I had thought and Christmas had already arrived. This was the third Christmas since arriving in the UK and festive vibes were around Kingston since late November.
2023 年過得比我想像快很多，無驚無險又到了聖誕。 這是到英國後的第三個聖誕，早在十一月尾節日氣氛已濃𦋐整個 Kingston。
Your Honour, I Plead Guilty 法官大人，我認罪
A notice from the Metropolitan Police was received week ago. I was formally charged with an offence.
個多星期前收到 Metropolitan Police 寄來的傳票，法庭正式向我提出控訴。
Can’t Stand the Pain 痛不欲生
I always believe I was a tough guy!
Able to ride 40+ KM back home with my right hand seriously injured after accident and even managed to fully recover within two months after my Coronary Artery Bypass Graft operation.
I remained strong throughout and never felt desperate.
However, I finally reacquaint myself in 2023!
一直以為自己是個硬漢！
當年右手撞傷後仍可踩四十多公里單車回家，即使心臟搭橋手術後，不用兩個月便完全康復。
期間我沒有叫過辛苦，亦不感到絕望。
可是今天我終於重新認識自己了！
Piano Restoration – Welcome Home 鋼琴大翻新 – 回家篇
The full restoration of our Yamaha U1 piano, that was sent to the workshop in last April was completed for quite a while. As I was tied up with other bits and pieces, I failed to provide a timely update on the works. So let me wrap it up in this post.
家裏的鋼琴上年四月中運回 workshop 後，翻新工作早已完成。只因其他鎖碎事情，我遲遲未有作更新，就讓我今天來個總結吧！
A little update before Year End 年終前的生活點滴
In slightly less than 24 hours, 2022 will be in history. Despite I managed to achieve quite a number of my targets in the first half of the year, things were getting worst as I was terribly laid-back for the rest of the year. Judging from the ‘One-post-per-month’ of my blog writing, you will know what I meant. In fact, my personal loopback for November has already missed the schedule and probably (and hopefully) a bi-monthly version would be released shortly.
還有不到一天，2022 年便將成過去，上半年看似完成了很多目標，但無奈下半年卻像洩了氣的氣球一樣，變得不太積極，單從我最近每月一 post 便看得出端倪，而十一月的個人回望更早已脱期，相信要和十二月的一拼發佈！
Paying My Tribute to the Queen 我對女王的致敬
In the evening of 8 September, I was awakened by my wife from my nap. The television broadcast was disrupted by the latest news from the Buckingham Palace:
The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.
The King ad the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral and will return to London tomorrow.
As some of those like me, who were born, brought up and enjoyed those glorious moments of Hong Kong, I believed the Queen definitive had an important place in our hearts.
九月八日黃昏，太太把我從小休中推醒，電視正轉播白金漢宮的最新消息：
The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.
The King ad the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral and will return to London tomorrow.
對於像我這些在英國管治下出生，成長及有幸渡過最光輝時刻的香港人，相信英女王在我們心中佔有一定地位。
UK Horse Racing 英國賽馬活動
My wife recently asked if I would be interested to explore the British horse racing culture. Given that she would make all the necessary arrangement including the tickets, I had no reason not to immediately accept her offer.
早前太太問可有興趣到馬場體驗一下英國的賽馬文化，難得她會安排一切，包括購買入場票，我只須做個司機，真的找不到拒絶的理由。
Do It Yourself 自己的事自己動手做
Since I had published my last post on replacing my road bike tyres, some of my friends living aboard mentioned that DIY is the way to go to save money and possible lead time. I absolutely agreed with them and do believe that mastering DIY skills is another objective to achieve in UK.
居於外地的朋友們對我上一篇自行更換單車軚的網誌，都不約而同提出日常維修工作如果找店家或 Handy man 做，除了費用高外，往往亦要等很久，因此學習自己做 (DIY) 是必然的事。這個我完全同意，亦是移居英國後其中一個學習目標。
Life is just Bits and Pieces 生活就是一些無聊的點滴
Since moving into our new apartment in late May, it seems that I was extremely busy. Spending most of the time tidying up those bits and pieces, moving the furniture around and went shopping household items. I considered myself so exhausted that I didn’t even have the mood to write any post for this blog.
自五月尾搬入新居後，每天總是看似非常忙碌；不是執拾東西，便是把家具移來移去，又或是再添置家居用品，亦因此總提不起勁去寫文章。
Round Trip Ride – London Eye 走一轉系列 – London Eye
Even though I have been living in UK for nearly one year, I still found London’s winter very cold and couldn’t stand the piercing cold wind especially riding outdoor. That explained why I had not go cycling for several months. Anyway, it just happened that I still had a number of cycling trips that I could share with you here.
Comparing with those previous journeys around suburbs or countryside, I attempted some completely different trips across cities. When mentioning city, the first came to mind was definitely our famous cosmopolitan city London. And my destination was central London, the Parliament House, Big Ben and London Eye.
雖然在英國住了差不多一年，倫敦的冬天對於生長於香港的我仍是有點冷，騎單車的話，迎着陣陣刺面寒風更不好過，因此自去年十一月後已有數月沒騎車出外，還好先前尚有多個行程可在此和大家分享。
相比早前走的市郊路線，去年九月尾想過要作不同的嘗試，來個穿越城市之旅。説起城市當然第一時間就想起英國的國際大都會倫敦，而目的地就是倫敦市中心，國會大樓，大笨鐘以及 London Eye。
Piano Restoration – Part 2 鋼琴大翻新 (二)
Our Yamaha U1 piano had been delivered to the workshop for nearly one week and various components were gradually dismantled. Just received call from A. Hanna & Sons Pianos that additional issues were found by technicians and we were invited to their workshop for a discussion.
To be honest, not a good sign!
鋼琴運回 Workshop 已經差不多一星期，内部零件亦續步被拆開移除。剛收到琴行通知，維修技師發現了更多問題，邀請我們到 Workshop 看看及相討。
怕且情况並不樂觀！
Piano Restoration – Part 1 鋼琴大翻新 (一)
Just as mentioned in my previous post, our Yamaha U1 piano was about 20 years old. It was used by my boy’s cousin for her piano learning and subsequently passed to him. It carried two wonder stories of learning and development in music. From random playing with their little fingers to achieving Grade 8 certification and if possible, we would like to have the stories be continued.
正如之前的一篇説過，家中的 Yamaha U1 鋼琴已有約二十年歷史，原本是兒子表姐自小的學習伙伴。一座漆黑的鋼琴盛載着兩個音樂成長故事；由只懂亂敲琴鍵，到取得八級資歷，如果可以的話，我很希望這故事能一直延續下去。
Riding with my boss 與 Boss 走一轉
Studying in UK is really wonderful, there are so many term breaks throughout the school year. Just like the recent Spring Term Break that began on 1st of April, my little boss started staying at home with nothing to do again. Early Sunday morning, he suggested to go cycling, which I had no reason to turn down despite of the cold and windy weather.
在英國讀書真好，年中 term break 多到難以至信，剛過去的四月一日又是 Spring Term Break 的開始，家中小老闆又再百無聊賴的 hea 在家，星期日早上，難得他提議午後騎車出外走走，雖然天氣非常寒冷，我也無法拒絶。
Round Trip Ride – Putney Heath 走一轉系列 – Putney Heath
For the past cycling trips, I used to take those relatively flat roads and footpaths. In this round of my Round Trip Ride, I would include some bike climbs in my visit to another adjacent district, the Borough of Wandsworth and with Putney Heath as my destination. The return trip would go through Richmond Park and back to the Kingston twon centre. The total distance was estimated to be around 29 Km.
過往的單車路線大多是以較平坦的車路或小徑為主，今次會嘗試加多一點爬坡路段。行程以 Borough of Wandsworth 的 Putney Heath 為目的地，回程會穿越 Richmond Park 返回 Kingston 市中心，行程預計約 29 公里。
Driving in UK 英倫駕車日常
I had about 30 years of driving experience in Hong Kong and it wouldn’t be any surprise that I would pick up driving in UK. Once accommodation was settled, I started by car buying exercise.
在香港開了差不多三十年車，到了英國自然心思思想買車，居所安頓好後便開始我的買車行動。
Round Trip Ride – Epsom & Ashtead 走一轉系列 – Epsom & Ashtead
In this round of my Round Trip Ride, I will share with you my visit to another adjacent district, the Borough of Epsom and Ewell, plus an unplanned short ride to Borough of Mole Valley as well.
今次要介绍的行程主要會到 Borough of Epsom and Ewell，同場加影 Borough of Mole Valley。
Medical Consultation in UK 英倫睇醫生
One of the greatest concerns when moving to UK is medical care. People like me having chronicle illness, getting the required medicine and proper medical follow-up are the major issues to be addressed.
移居英國其中一個極大的憂慮就是醫療，就像我這類長期病患者，覆診和藥物安排都是主要面對的問題。
Round Trip Ride – East Molesey 走一轉系列 – East Molesey
There are seven Local Government Districts adjacent to Kingston Upon Thames. Wimbledon and Raynes Park that I recently rode to belong to one of these, the London Borough of Merton. In this round of my Round Trip Ride, I will share with you my visit to another district, the Borough of Elmbridge. The destination is East Molesey.
與 Kingston Upon Thames 接壤的地區政府管轄區（Local Government Districts）共有七個，早前往 Wimbledon 及 Raynes Park 時已到訪過其中一個，亦即 London Borough of Merton。今次要介绍的行程會到另一個區 Borough of Elmbridge，目的地是 East Molesey 市。