Canada Continues its Historic World Cup Run

The Canadian men's team celebrate Eustaquio's goal

I was too nervous to watch Canada play against South Africa today in the World Cup. But millions of others tuned in with excitement.

The game was even shown at Vancouver International Airport, where screens at the luggage carousel broadcast the game so that passengers were informed of the score (0-0) at the time.

The game on at YVR

And then at the 92nd minute Stephen Eustaquio scored the only goal of the match and Canadians were ecstatic.

Although Canada did not rank at the top of its group, the men's team have certainly made historic strides in this year's World Cup, and Canadians are not taking it for granted.

They are celebrating every win and relishing every moment. Some die-hard fans splashed thousands of dollars to be in Inglewood, California to witness Canada's first time in the knock-out stage.

And now Canada advances further to play against either Morocco or the Netherlands on July 4 in Texas.

Meanwhile coach Jesse Marsch publicly praised his players in a huddle on the pitch after the game.

"Canadian heroes for the future children of this country, who play this sport," he said. "This sport has a big future because of you guys. You should be so proud of who you are. You should be so proud of this game -- you never lost belief. You went after it, point after point, moment after moment. You are Canadian heroes."

Marsch (in grey) praising the team post-game

The American coach was criticised for doing the post-match pep talk out in the open, but Marsch is unapologetic. 

Perhaps it's a tactic, or showing off his leadership skills. Or he wants to show Canadians are too modest and he wanted to openly pat them on the back.

Whatever it is, it's working and the team seems fired up for the next match.

And so are we! O Canada!

British Columbia Takes a Stand on Daylight Time

Kids jumping for joy at Eby's "Pacific time" announcement

Big news today for British Columbia -- this coming weekend we will change our clocks forward one hour permanently.

Premier David Eby announced the change, saying, "We are done waiting. British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time -- and then never again."

He is referring to the authorities on the west coast of the United States in Washington State, Oregon and California. Originally he had said he would wait for them to decide if they were going to stick with one or the other so that businesses would not be confused with times, but perhaps Eby was done waiting, or didn't hear back from them and decided BC was going its own way.

The new time zone will be called "Pacific time".

The entire province will be following Pacific time except for East Kootenay, which observes mountain time with Alberta.

Eby noted Yukon has already permanently changed to daylight time, and hopes the US will follow. Back in 2019 BC already passed legislation to make this possible, but just didn't have a specific timeline.

Interestingly American President Donald Trump had expressed interest in changing to daylight time after the 2024 election, Congress has not passed legislation for it.

So it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months... there will surely be a lot of confusion on the west coast in terms of what time it is come November, but in the meantime many people are pleased that we'll have longer daylight hours and no more "jetlag" from springing ahead an hour after this weekend.

However, Eby's critics are crying foul because the announcement was suddenly made without much recent consultation; they believe it's a distraction from the horrible budget he delivered last week...

 

Canadian is Top Dog at Westminster Show

Linton with Penny and their prizes as Best in Show

Did you catch the 150th Westminster Kennel Dog Show the other day? Penny, the statuesque Doberman pinscher beat out an Afghan hound, an Old English Sheepdog, and a smooth fox terrier for the big prize.

What's especially cool about Penny is that she's from Toronto, Canada.

Her handler, Andy Linton, was very pleased -- he last won -- also with another Doberman pinscher called Indy back in 1989. 

This win with Penny was especially sweet, as Linton was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a few years ago. "I had some goals, and this was one of them."

Linton kisses Penny on their win

He has explained in interviews what it feels like to have the degenerative disease that affects movement and speech, which can impact his confidence and physical coordination when competing.

"Some days you just don't feel like moving. You're stiff and stuck in a place," he said.

But training four-year-old Penny kept him motivated.

"She's really helped me out considerably, over the last year especially," Linton said.

Originally from Brush Prairie, Washington state, Linton started out being a surfer in Southern California, not a dog handler.

But in the 1970s he started learning how to train dogs for competition, and showed his first dog in 1974 at the Beverly Hills Kennel Club. 

In 1989 he won the Westminster Kennel Dog Show -- the World Cup for dogs -- with Indy, a red Doberman. But it was quite tense days before the competition.

Penny posing with the New York skyline

When the dog arrived from California to New York, Indy almost died of bloating, with a grossly dilated stomach.

She was rushed to the Animal Medical Center where the vets knew they were dealing with a dog in competition and so they fed the dog intravenously through her legs than shave her coat. Afterwards she rested and the rest is history.

"It's pretty weird to do this 37 years later, after I've done it before," Linton said. "It's kind of an emotional moment for me."

Indeed -- what an accomplishment especially with his own personal health challenges. Highly respected by his peers, Linton has proven he is not a one-hit wonder, and plans to continue working with six dogs as long as he can.

As for Penny, after a tour around New York, including a photo call at the top of the Empire State Building, she returned to Toronto.

"Penny's going to retire from showing and become a certified therapy dog, because she loves to be pet so much," said her owner Theresa Connors-Chan. "And hopefully she'll be a mama."

HK Government Doesn't Entertain Benefits of Reusable Cups

So far, Kai Tak Sports Park will be using single-use cups

The Hong Kong government prefers using single-use cups at Kai Tak Sports Park, saying reusable plastic ones will "undermine" efforts to promote carbon reduction and resource recycling.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said that research by the park's operator compared local and overseas practices showed that using reusable plastic cups in Hong Kong would generate more carbon emissions and consume more resources.

But environmental NGO Greenpeace Hong Kong called on the authorities to consider using reusable plastic cups for sporting events like the upcoming Hong Kong Football Festival, and urged Law to look at other international sports organisations like the English Premier League, where 65 percent of clubs use reusable cups.

Reusable cups used at HK Sevens since 2019

However Law was not to be persuaded.

"As reusable plastic containers are not biodegradable, they do not support the plastic-free initiative and undermine Kai Tak Sports Park's efforts in promoting carbon reduction and resource circulation," she said.

"In contrast, the use of biodegradable paper cups aligns well with and makes good use of the above-mentioned waste decomposition system at Kai Tak Sports Park, leading to a better overall carbon reduction outcome."

May we point out that single-use paper cups would not decompose because they have a plastic lining on the paper so that liquids don't soak through it? Not to mention how much garbage it creates after each event?

It has been demonstrated that reusable cups at sporting events make much more sense.

A marathoner named Kristina Smithe took part in a marathon in California in 2019 and was horrified thinking about how much waste paper cups generated in one race. She calculated with 9,000 runners, some 150,000 paper cups were used once and then thrown away.

Smithe with her reusable silicon cups at a race

She went about designing a lightweight, pliable silicone cup that could be reused many times. In 2021 she launched Hiccup Earth, where she rents out 70,000 silicone cups to race organisers. 

Smithe drops off the cups by the thousand, collects them after and then washes them in her proprietary dishwasher that uses less water than a household dishwasher. 

While it's a bit more expensive to rent these cups, there is much less garbage accumulated and wouldn't people feel better using these reusable cups?

It was a proven concept at the Hong Kong Sevens in March. Greenpeace noted the sporting event used reusable cups from 2019 to 2024 and saw a 90 percent return rate of the containers.

Surely it's not too hard to implement at sporting events and concerts?

Tokyo: Snoopy Museum

A family-friendly, fun place to visit

A friend and I have a mutual love of Snoopy. Mine goes back to when I was a child, reading the Peanuts comic strips and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. The comics and characters reflected how kids felt at the time -- and they still hold up today! Snoopy projected our fantasies, from being able to dance to being the World War I Flying Ace shooting down the Red Baron. Oh and observations about cats and dogs were so true.

So when my friend told me about the Snoopy Museum in Tokyo I had to go visit. It is the only satellite museum affiliated with the Charles M Schultz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California.

One of the first Snoopy comic strips by Schultz

The Snoopy Museum Tokyo opened in 2016 and was located in Roppongi, but closed two years later and re-opened in the outskirts of Tokyo in Minami-machida Grandberry Park, a kind of outlet store outdoor shopping area in 2019. Just last February it finished renovations.

It takes about an hour to get to Grandberry Park, southwest of Tokyo, but once you get there you can see how appealing it is for families, with lots of outlet shops -- tax free for tourists -- and activities for children to do, as well as the Snoopy Museum.

There are Snoopy statues along the way to point you in the right direction, but soon you will come across a giant Snoopy with his mouth open, indicating the entrance to the museum. We got tickets online in advance, and in exchange we received paper tickets that were each Peanuts comic strips and two stickers too.

From there we were invited to go up to the third floor and work our way down. There are some rooms where we couldn't take pictures, as they were photographs of Charles Schultz as a child or family pictures, but other than that lots of large-scale comic strips that were reproduced.

Snoopy trying to hit a golf ball with an audience

There were also sections dedicated to each character, and themes like homework, the school bus, and baseball, introducing these from an American perspective. There was also a room with a massive sleeping Snoopy, and up on the rooftop garden lots of Snoopys watching one trying to hit a golf ball. 

Some of the comic strips were animated which was fun, like Charlie Brown watching TV, and Snoopy trying to get his attention and sleeping on top of his head; Charlie Brown gets annoyed and walks to the door, outside and flings Snoopy onto his red dog house to sleep.

Interestingly not much about A Charlie Brown Christmas, though a lot of jazz was played in the museum which made it relaxing to be in there.

And of course the other best part of the museum was the gift shop! All kinds of merchandise were available, but strangely no children's T-shirts, but lots of stuffed Snoopys, plastic folders, stickers, cookies, notebooks, key rings and so on.

Giant sleeping Snoopy... you can't touch though

If that wasn't enough, just outside the museum was the Snoopy Cafe where we had cups of latte in ceramic cups on plates that could be purchased in the cafe. The most popular item seemed to be the Charlie Brown milkshake, with a chocolate wave around the inside of the tall glass.

It was a fun trip down memory lane, but also impressive to see how Schultz's comics still stand the test of time!

Snoopy Museum Tokyo

Tsuruma 3-1-4, Machida-shi

Tokyo

Dallas Stars has Asian Talent on Fire

Robertson celebrates after his goal against the Oilers tonight

The Stanley Cup playoffs are on and last week the Vancouver Canucks were sadly eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers, now the only Canadian team left vying for the giant trophy.

However, in the third round of the playoffs, the Oilers are wondering what hit them tonight as they were winning 2-0 in the first period and then by the end of the second period it was 3-2 with their opponents, the Dallas Stars catching up.

By the third period the Oilers tried to regain the upper hand, but the Stars clinched two more goals, including an empty netter to win 5-3, leading the series 2-1.

Three of the Stars' goals were from Jason Robertson, who scored a hat trick for this game.

Robertson looks Asian and yes he is -- half Filipino and half... Scottish!

The 24-year old is from Arcadia, California and his younger brother Nicholas was a second-round draft pick for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There are currently four players of Filipino descent in the NHL -- Robertson, his brother, Tim Stapleton  and Matt Dumba. 

Stapleton is the first player of Filipino heritage to play in the NHL, and is half Filipino and half Irish, while Dumba is Canadian and his father's background is a mix of Romanian, German and Russian.

Tonight Robertson was on fire and it was impressive watching him play. His teammates call him Robo. I was rooting for the Oilers, but now things are looking interesting with Robertson on the ice!

Picture of the Day: Salmonberries Coming Soon

These salmonberries will ripen in about a month

Walking in Pacific Spirit Park I see small fuchsia-coloured flowers popping up which means... salmonberries are coming!

They are native to the west coast of North America, from Alaska down to California. 

The fruits are coming out now and very green, but once they're ripe they have an orangey-red colour that look like raspberries, but are smaller and taste quite tart!

Where's Qin Gang?

Anyone know where Qin Gang is these days?

There is a lot of background chatter wondering where Foreign Minister Qin Gang is. He hasn't been seen for three weeks now and there's a lot of speculation and rumour about what happened to him.

Qin, 57, is a career diplomat and more importantly someone in Xi Jinping's inner circle. In December Qin was fast-tracked to the Foreign Minister job after a brief stint in Washington.

However, Qin hasn't been seen since June 25 when he met with officials from Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Russia in Beijing. 

Fu (left) likes wearing giant bows in her hair

At press briefings the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has tried to avoid answering the question of where Qin is, which is not only awkward, but also very telling.

As the former ambassador to Washington, he was expected to take part in talks with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and most recently climate envoy John Kerry in Beijing, but was no where to be seen. Could this explain why Yellen and Kerry were subjected to a lot of talk and no action? 

Qin was also supposed to represent in China at the Asean meetings in Jakarta last week, but it was announced that he was ill and was replaced by his predecessor Wang Yi.

The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell was supposed to come to China this past Monday, but Beijing abruptly cancelled the trip with no reason given.

Some rumours suggest Qin has Covid-19, but surely he would have recovered within two weeks at most with vaccines and access to Paxlovid.

Fu's selfie with baby son Er-Kin on a private jet

Others think if he had a heart attack, surely there would be a photo of him in hospital convalescing, maybe even with a thumbs up?

Nevertheless, there is a lot of speculation he may have had an extramarital affair with Fu Xiaotian, a TV presenter with Phoenix TV. She has a penchant for wearing giant bows in her hair like it was the 1980s.

She is known for interviewing top officials around the world and interviewed Qin in around 2022 and then interestingly nine months later Fu had a baby boy.

It is believed the child was born in the United States so he has American citizenship.

There were also pictures of her she posted of herself, the baby and supposedly her parents in a mansion in California that rents for US$60,000 a month. 

Fu has also posted pictures of herself on a Gulfstream private jet -- what reporter can afford to hire one, let alone media company shell out for it?

Her cryptic post on Twitter reads: "Last time flying out alone with this aircraft was from LA to DC for a work visit, and that both happily and sadly turned to be the very last interview I did with Talk with World Leaders. This time to fly out with this aircraft was also from LA, but with precious baby son Er-kin."

Fu hinting Qin is the father on his birthday

And she even posted pictures of her baby boy and apparently on social media has hinted her relationship with Qin by making posts around his birthday or when he was promoted to Foreign Minister.

"It is a very bad look for the PRC for their foreign minister to disappear for over three weeks," says avid China watcher Bill Bishop of Sinocism.

Indeed.

There is speculation Qin may be facing his downfall and people are wondering if this is what happens to someone who is close to Xi, then what? There are also rumours that perhaps when Qin was fast-tracked that he ruffled other people's feathers and someone may have gotten back at him by leaking information about Fu and the alleged extramarital affair.

The longer this goes the worse it looks for Qin and Xi, and by extension China.

One wonders where Qin is now and what he's in trouble for...

San Diego: Old Town

Verdant greeting at the Old Town in San Diego

On our second last day in San Diego we drove south to the Old Town to check it out. It is the first European settlement in California, and the oldest neighbourhood in San Diego (though it's literally just a tourist spot now, no one lives here).

Conveniently there's a parking lot nearby where you can park for four hours for free, but it's not necessary! The area is divided into several sections -- a Mexican-themed place with restaurants and gift shops, and then a more open area with individual shops, sadly many of them have closed. Keep walking up and you'll hit the main street of the area where there are cafes and restaurants serving mostly Tex-Mex food.

Gum Saan sells non-Chinese trinkets

The Mexican area is very colourful with lots of succulents and flowers mixed with skeletons. It's like a perpetual Cinco de Mayo there. Souvenir shops sell colourfully embroidered clothing -- made in China, or jewellery and items made by local artists. There were also tile shops, one selling very spicy chilli sauces, and ceramics.

We then headed to the more Western area that sort of looked like a hastily assembled Wild West Main Street. The City Hall had two women dressed up in clothing from two centuries ago, and there was a candle-making shop that was quite popular that also sold soap.

Another one with many customers was the candy shop where people could not resist buying fudge to stuff their faces with. Interestingly ther was a shop called "Gum Saan" or "Gold Mountain", as many Chinese migrants came to California to try their luck and pan for gold. But the shop actually sold Tibetan and Nepalese items, including bracelets, singing bowls, statues, and incense. Nothing to do with Chinese!

In the end we had a bite to eat in a Tex-Mex restaurant, and I ordered two tacos, one was seared Mahi Mahi, the other pulled pork with a side of black beans. I was full after eating those two tacos and only managed to make a dent in the black beans!

Mahi mahi taco (left) and pulled pork, black beans

We then tried to get on the Hop On, Hop Off bus, but found out it would be a two-hour ride and about US$50 a person, so we made our way back to the parking lot and came home!

Picture of the Day: Beef n' Lakes

Can you imagine eating a full portion of beef n' latkes?!

We're currently in Palm Springs, California, home to about 487,000 people and a lot of delicatessens that serve both smoked meats and sinful desserts. 

Last night we went to one called Sherman's, named after Sherman Harris. It opened in 1963 and is still very popular.

As smoked meats are a rarity in Hong Kong, it was a nice surprise to be able to eat it here! The menu had so many items featuring corned beef, pastrami, chicken soup with the option of matzo ball, chopped liver, and meat loaf!

One interesting dish that caught my attention -- beef n' latkes -- which is corned beef or pastrami in between not bread, but two potato latkes!

I had forgotten American portions were huge and was overwhelmed when it arrived! The only way to eat it of course was with a fork and knife.

A great combo -- better than having bread, as the latkes added more flavour (and oil), and complemented the corned beef flavour!

Needless to say I could only manage half of it!