Flower crab

One of my most favourite seafood in Hong Kong, this crab is sweet and meaty. Luckily supply and price has come down from last few years and is affordable to enjoy. 
I like to simply cut it up and cook on bbq, moist sweet meat with a mild char fragrance. 

2025年11月29日 參觀母校

中學母校有一百廿五年歷史，屹立半山的校舍，在同一地點，經歷了五次重建，包括全幢拆除重建和其中一幢的重建，我讀書時是第四次建設，今早參觀數年前第五度重建後的新校舍。

坦白說，也是我第一次看到歷年校舍的樣子，設計改變外，學校環境改變更大，百多年前學校背靠高山樹林，現在山仍在，但完全被高樓大廈覆蓋。

中學畢業幾十年，不光是第一次回母校，亦是第一次回到那個區域。中半山，不是我居住和工作的地方，亦從沒有需要在那裏出沒。

讀書那些年，每早乘巴士、天星小輪再巴士地去上學，現在改乘地鐵，再走一大段上山路到達。

那段山路，中學七年也竟然從未曾經過，先是有多株高大老樹的花園吸引了我的視線，細看才知是聖士提反女校的校園，學校古雅樸素，相信建築歷史亦悠久，好生羨慕可以在那樣優秀的環境下學習。

相較下，我校在我讀書時期的建築十分基本平凡，而現在的全新校舍，是超乎想像的設計，簡直有點浮誇的感覺。完全拆除重建，走完一圈，沒有任何一個角落，會令我思念那些年的人和事。

自然，校舍大了，設施好了，新一代學生受益良多。值得欣賞是這一次重建，負責人員用盡全力，設計出不一定人人喜歡，但起碼是有水準的建築，而我就讀那時期的校舍，實在是歷年來最平庸的。

離校這麽多年後，常回首思考，覺得當年的校風，純樸平和，可是勤力讀書的風氣不高，亦不大力鼓勵學習其他技能，同學們是十分友善，但沒有引導我們養成追求卓越的心態，最為可惜。

之前和之後的年代，在不同校長、有不同管理經驗後，好可能分別很大，我只是剛剛在那段時日在那裏出現。

Malaysia, Kuching holiday 3/3 eating

 
There are a large selection of restaurants in all price range, including a lot of Dai Pa Dong for cheap good eats. We focused mainly on seafood and Malay dishes. 

Highly recommend these three restaurants:

Lepau, for tasty indigenous dishes in a pleasant environment, the only place I tried Tempoyak, fermented durian wine lys sauce, cooked with bean and shrimp, so fragrant. 

Rock road seafood, with live tanks of seafood and baskets of fresh vegetables to pick and choose, excellent cooking and not expensive. 

 
Kantin at Granary, for the converted old granary high ceiling atmosphere, nicely made Malay dishes. 

A vegetable we eat every day is Midin, the young curled up shoot of fern, cooked in various way, with garlic, Balacan (fermented shrimp and chili) and chili vinegar pickled. All delicious and love the crunch and bright greenness. 

Another interesting find in the market is various Longan like fruits. They tasted like Longan with thick juicy sweet flesh around a big stone. One has thick green shell called white flesh longan and the other has a thick dark brown shell with beige flesh called Buah Crystal. 

Malaysia, Kuching holiday 2/3 outside the city

Rented a car with driver to visit inland of Kuching one day, and to the coast side the other day. 

Visited Fairy cave and Wind cave, both are limestone caves eroded by river many years ago, forming many stalactites and stalagmites. Since then river receded and land mass raised, the caves are high above ground. So unfortunately they are not cool underground places to visit to escape heat. 

Stone maze is an area where river has receded and you are walking around well eroded rocks with amazing shapes. It reminded me of cruising in Ha Long Bay among those huge boulders, except in here I am walking around them and can see in close proximity. 

The next day we went to Santubong area, north of Kuching towards the sea. Very beautiful calm white sand beach at Princess beach, and wide flat bay great for clam gathering at Buntal Bay.  

 

 

Nearby is Heritage Cultural Village, where there are reconstructed wooden houses typical of the various tribes living in Sarawak, plus a dance show. It is nice to see the various building styles and how they (still) live in the traditional way.