Ken C.K. Ngan

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

A miracle came in a lost wallet incident

BKK Suvarnabhumi Airport, 25 December 2022

I vividly remember that my wallet was in the side pocket (right side) of my backpack, I noticed it was missing after I ended my check-in process at the Emirates gate counter of BKK Suvarnabhumi Airport. When I was sitting bored in the waiting lounge to wait aboard, looking at the big plane A380, it was 30 minutes left before the plane took off. By the time I felt no wallet in my trousers’ pocket as it should have been holed up in it, I checked rapidly at least three times against my backpack and found it not in eventually, it was missing and not with me. The time left not much so I informed the flight attendant immediately and told them and explained how I lost it.

The flight attendant told me that the money in the wallet could be claimed from the insurance agent as travel insurance could cover the cost of anything lost because the flight would be departing shortly; however, I told her that it preserved my important stuff, such as personal ID which I need to display with passport at the immigration counter when the flight arrived in HK airport. She helped to call staff to come for help, I described my wallet, it was a black-colored wallet with the word “Di Caro” company print, taking inside a HK ID, 3 credit cards, and tax receipts, each credit card has my name embossed on it. I believe my wallet was missing after a period of short time from it being moved from my left trousers’ pocket to the side pocket of my rucksack as the security staff in the scanning room requested me to take off all the belongings including keys, wallet, shoes, wrist watch, and portable phone, no matter was allowed to be kept by passengers during the scanning time. My belongings were all put in the blue-colored plastic tray and were checked by the X-ray machine. I assumed and told to the flight attendant that the wallet was most likely to slope off at the moment I was carrying my hatch bag or I was sitting down to put on my shoes in the airport security room, or even on the way from the Security Room to the Emirates Gate Counter. I should take it back to my trousers’ pocket after finishing the security process instead still in the rucksack side pocket, I forgot to do so until I noticed I lost my wallet in the waiting lounge.

Possibly, the main reason for loss could be due to people's habits, people often only take or carry backpacks on one side strap, so the bag was tilted causing my wallet to be thrown away, I shouldn't have but made the above mistake because each passenger like me wanna get his bag away quickly so as not to disturb other passengers in line behind.

From my watch, there were 20 minutes left before the JUMBO would take off, it rushed me so much! The flight attendant instructed one of her co-workers to search and ask for assistance to the officer of the security room which is about a 10-minute distance from the Emirates Gate. Great blessing! not long while the news was brought to me that my wallet was found in the security room, but I had to show my passport to let her take a picture via the media apps as to make sure the wallet came to the right person. I might be the luckiest A380 passenger at the BKK airport when I saw her co-worker running towards me and her left hand raised with my wallet up before the last ten minutes of the take-off time, I got it from her and hurried to the entrance of the shuttle lane as if a jet, I sat in my flight seat with dignity as I was the last one of the whole-plane passengers. It was a bit of a pity to remember that I got on the JUMBO before I had time to write down their names and staff numbers,

I sent an appreciation letter to Emirates Airlines stating my miraculous story to their PR division praising the two flight attendants for their assistance. Posted below:

The flight day was 25th December 2022, definitely, it was a miracle, was a great Christmas gift to me.

NGAN CHI KEUNG

Sunday, June 4, 2023

On your past trips, have you been to the same attraction twice?

I did, and I climbed Huangshan again in February this year. Mount Huangshan, known as "the most beautiful mountain in China" for its majestic landscape of granite peaks (many over 1000 meters high) and ancient pines.

What is the reason I went twice? Not only the following ones, but also various reasons can explain why I chose Huangshan after the reopening of China's national gate;...

Firstly, it must be recognized that when you visit a scenery spot (or a place) in a season doesn’t mean the scenery spot or the place is undifferentiated in other seasons, the scenery in four seasons may exist big differences as the climate of Huangshan varies on different elevations and the temperature changes. Some netizens said that the scenery is beautiful beyond description from December to March, the snow-capped yellow mountain absolutely is a fairyland, while the spring in Huangshan with all the flowers blossom merrily from April to July. They said the mountains are green and grand from July to September in Summer there, and the autumn, from October to November, with the leaves turning yellow and red makes the mountains of Huangshan city covered with different colors.

Secondly, Huangshan is one of the six famous mountains. Not counting Huangshan, they are Tranquil Mountain, Splendid Mountain, Balancing Mountain, Permanent Mountain, and Lofty Mountain……. These scenic spots are worth visiting and going again. Another fascinating reason for me to go to Huangshan again is Lianhuafeng, which is the highest peak in Huangshan, I expected to go once as I lost the chance to visit this peak on my trip in 2018.

Lastly, Huangshan Mountain is famous for its 4 wonders: oddly-shaped pines, bizarre rocks, seas of clouds, and the thermal springs. As its beauty in winter becomes increasingly popular among tourists, the winter snow is becoming renowned as the fifth wonder of Huangshan Mountain, so the reason why netizens propose tourists to go Huangshan in February. Truly, it is difficult to say which season is the best time to visit Huangshan, but can be said that Huangshan including nearby villages is suitable for visiting all year round. The first time I visited Huangshan was in November 2018, it was in autumn, and the second was in late winter from 13 to 17 February 2023. Both trips fascinated me with their grandeur and mountainous landscapes.

Photos below taken on 15 February 2023, show the wonders and snow scenery of Huangshan Mountain:

Photo 1 (taken on 15 Feb 2023)

The cableway is the best means of transportation to take me up the mountain. This is a photo showing the cabins taken on the cableway, the top of the car is suspended on the haul rope by a gripper. The rope is clamped by the gripper of a J-shaped structure that pulled and moved the cabins up along the ropeway to the top of the mountain. The Huangshan cableway system is a single-rope design, and the stability is not bad, which makes me feel safe. Its design is slightly different from the system of Ngong Ping 360 Limited, the former is a system with only a haul rope, while the latter is equipped with two sets of ropes to the system (a haul rope and a track rope).

Photos 2 to 7 (taken on 15 Feb 2023)

Magnificent scenery made up of many granite peaks and rocks emerging out of a sea of clouds, the sea of clouds is another wonder in winter on the Huangshan mountain, the clouds surround the mountains so that you may imagine your body floating in the space above the clouds。

Huangshan, is known as “the loveliest mountain of China” because of its magnificent scenery made up of many granite peaks (many over 1000m high) and the ancient pines.

Photos 8 to 15 (taken on 15 February 2023)

The yellow mountain in winter is the snowy heaven on earth.

China has opened the gate, I hope that Huangshan is a place that you will wanna go, and hope you will go again after you have been there. You must experience and feel these beautiful sceneries in life so that you will not regret them.

Best Regards

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Can fabrics make bare walls in home look more elegant?

When it comes to the ways of decorating bare walls in a new house, what would be the first idea that pops into your head?

I had no idea to pop until I listened to some options for dressing up my walls to a designer who recognized my neighbor in her last engineering work. Options do mean proper methods to help fix problems that we need to take the most appropriate for our own. Two months ago, wall coverings (attach textile fabrics on walls with liquid starch), wallpapers, artworks, and wall retreatment with the best quality paints and moisture-proof primers, were proposed by the decor designer after she visited me.

Firstly, I assume that you would be like me to favor a new house in keeping feelings of comfort, warm, and charm to all visitors when they as your friends call on you, see it, and even live with you for a couple of days in it, but you must do mind, absolutely don’t want to experience messy operation in the dress-up period before it happens, sure to that I know. In addition, there’s no denying as all owner's thoughts are almost the same that they wanna make their walls look expensive, need innovative figures or something new and different on walls rather than the bare walls applied only with a thin plastering and simple top coat, color of paint always is white allowed and finished by building developers. Last, have we ever wondered if such makeovers can be taken down whenever we want no matter if they are wallpapers, wallcoverings, or artificial figures? Truly, from the things detailed above, fabrics (or said to be wall coverings) on walls can be an easy and cost-effective way to give rooms, public spaces, and corridors of your new house an instant makeover. (fabrics do add personality to it!)

The decor designer said we ought not to pay a very high price in peeling all original paints and primers off the walls but pay less money to make retreatment for the walls simply upon conditions. You may not wonder that the cost of such wall refurbishment work, for instance, peeling off original wall paints, repainting primers and top coats, and polishing finishes for surfaces, is extremely high, higher than the remaining three, say attaching wall coverings, or wallpapers on the walls, and sticking artworks. Even though you may have to rent a temporary compartment to live in, move affected furniture out as working zoom away the walls, and prepare protective covers for all affected pieces when the work begins to storm your new house. Within the options, I chose removable textile fabric (wall covering) as this was easily one of the most popular wall decor options and as strong advice from the designer.

# Before work started, workers made for the walls with simple retreatment, removed the uneven plastering pieces, applied a touch-up top coat, and polished the surfaces of the walls.

# Decorating with fabric on walls is quite similar to the process of hanging wallpaper, if you have worked with wallpaper, you’ll have no trouble with this work or you may know what I am here saying. See the worth-talking thing which is left in the picture, removed the cover plate from the wall switch, this is good practice before work begins.

# It was acceptable for such a messy operation, not too much debris and micro particulars had been seen but wall refurbishment would do.

# The technician used liquid starch to attach the fabric to the wall and was hanging the fabric, he was in this process that required him to take patience I saw that. The Left shows that he used a wallpaper smoothing tool (shape rectangular) to flatten the fabric against the wall, while the Right shows that he was cutting the excess fabric at the ceiling line with a sharp utility knife.

#The technician had to check residual bubbles by his mobile LED lamp, this process required all light fittings to be turned off, making sure no bubbles were trapped behind the fabric completely. He used a steam machine to heat up the surfaces making the adhesive paste underneath stick securely to the wall.

WORK REVIEW

WORKING TIME: 26 hrs

TOTAL TIME: 2 days

Thank God all the wall coverings were done satisfactorily, it was a perfect thing to put fabric on walls for my new house without damaging them over the refurbishment works and repainting. I appreciate so much all God's blessings as not only do they look great when done right, but this decor has added value to my house.

Before fabrics