Author: amylamsg

by

Irmo/South Carolina

21 Sep 2011 – The Palmetto State

South Carolina/SC is a state in the USA that borders Georgia/GA to the south, North Carolina/NC to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. With a pop of 4,625,384, SC has 46 counties in an area of 32,020 sq mi/82,931 sq km and its capital is Columbia.  The state bird is the Carolina Wren and Yellow Jessamine is the flower. Also known as the Palmetto State, it is rich in history going back to the 1700s when it was settled by English settlers from Barbados.

Linn & family lives in Irmo, where the Cherokee Indians once roamed the waterways and woodlands of this area while following the Cherokee Trail. A suburb of Columbia 12 miles outside of the city center with a pop of app 11,039 in an area of 4.1 sq mi/10.7sq km. Chartered in 1890, the town was named for 2officers of the local railroad whose names were IReall&MOseley.

Mon&Tue: busy getting to know my 5grandchildren better!

Wed: breakfast@Bruegger’s. A peaceful! morning walk around the Town Park and surrounding area with just Linn while all the kids were in school and nursery 🙂

Welcome Center with a wall mural of the railway & a train; African Methodist Episcopal/Young’s Chapel

Town Hall

Town Park with its floral 1) Swamp Hibiscus. 2) Abelia Kaleidoscope. 3) Castor Bean plant. 4) Zebra grass. Appreciations to Elizabeth Killen/Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce & Rick Woodley/Woodley’s Garden Center for providing the names.

The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad – John Moody

by

The Halls’ News by Katy HALL

20 Sep 2011 – Safe & Sound in Columbia/South Carolina

Sun: the traffic jam was terrible to get to LGA airport due to VIP (Obama etc) coming into NYC for meetings! Left 6th Ave at 1715hrs and was stuck in the town traffic for over an hour. Thank goodness Super Shuttle (US$19/S$24) usually estimates plenty of time to catch the 2035hrs flight. Uneventful 2hrs direct flight on Delta using 25,000 mileage of my Delta SkyMiles arriving CAE 2235hrs on time.

What a delightful way to be greeted this Mon morning, Katy & Ellie getting ready for school and Katy printed out The Halls’ News – note what Jeff was doing 🙂

Linn Hall’s mother, Amy Lam, is coming over!!!!! Her children, Katy, age 9, Ellie, age 6, John, age 4, Sophie, age 2, and probably James, age 0, are very excited. Ms. Amy Lam’s arrival is making Linn Hall have the family clean up. Linn Hall is cleaning the kitchen, Katy and Ellie are cleaning their rooms, the bathroom in Katy’s room, and did their laundry, and John is cleaning his room. Sophie and James took a nap. Jeff Hall, the father, read Calvin and Hobbes.

_____________________________________________________

Fall is coming!!! The days are getting cooler!!! The 3rd weekend of September is very cool out. Katy Hall is very excited for the winter!!! She thinks some of her siblings agree. This winter, she says to herself, I really, really hope it snows!!! Let it snow!!!

_____________________________________________________

Yay!!! On September 25th, James Magnus Hall will be baptized!!! The Halls are having people over after church, at Faith Presbyterian where James will be baptized by Pastor Karl McAllister.

by

High Line

18 Sep 2011 – Condolences to Auntie Winnie&family

Sat: received sad words that cousin Desmond LAM, passed away Fri 16 Sep in HI – RIP to him. He was eldest son of 12th uncle John LAM and auntie Winnie who immigrated to Honolulu/HI in the 1960s. Des has been battling with cancer for a couple of years and my last visit with him was Oct 2010. Was hoping to see him before the year is over, but alas it is not to be so. Prayers and thoughts for him and his family in HI.

Tkx to May&Albert for delicious dinner@Ise Japanese Restaurant***on 49st. A lovely evening stroll to Rockefeller Plaza to complete the Sat in NY.

Sun: The High Line is a 1-mile/1.6km built on a 1.45-mile/2.33km section of the former elevated freight railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway. Started the walk on this beautiful morning from King St at 07.15hrs and back 10.30hrs with a stop at Amy’s Bread!

Flight to CAE leaves this evening, so to clean the mess I have left in King St and to pack. Appreciations and gratitude to Pat, Albert, Kiera and to Kat & Greg for putting me up and for all their hospitality.

by

Walkabout

17 Sep 2011 – Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District

Fri: dinner@Panca***good Peruvian food on 7th Ave with dishes from the fusion ethnicities that inhabit Peru, ingredients and techniques from Asia and EU. Thank you Kat & Greg for delicious dinner.

Sat: The Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District is bounded by Varick, Vandam, MacDougal and King Streets and is characterized by the quality of its Federalist and Greek Revival architecture. One of them is a lively Queen-Anne style building, 29 King Street Grammer School No 8 built in 1886 is now a block of condo. The whole building is a protected historic monument; very charming and lucky me who gets to stay here.

6th & 7th Avenues and the surrounding areas are colourful and interesting, well-worth walkabout on this cloudy afternoon. Even managed to get a walk-in and needed hair-cut for US $20/S$25!

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe – Anatole France

by

Lower Manhattan

16 Sep 2011 – Happy Bday to a wonderful sister-in-law, Ivy!

Goodbye baby, M&B and friends in Norway for this time round. Local train from OSL S to airport costing NOK 110/S$25 (would have cost twice as much on Flytoget/AirportExpress but half the time to get there and theonly option if in a rush!). Flight from OSL-KEF, 2hrs 40mins with 1hr layover in Iceland. Flight from KEF-EWR was delayed for an hour and arriving into EWR after 6hrs in the air. Airfare from OSL-EWR with IcelandExpress, NOK2,033/S$455. Super Shuttle from EWR to Manhattan, USA$23/S$29.

Arrived late Thu evening into Manhattan and woke up to a beautiful day. Walked towards Ground Zero Memorial site but lines to get in were just not what was in the mind. So has to be another time round to get into the grounds! The day was just so beautiful with strange clouds formation, it was such a delightful walk on 6th Ave down to Church St and back.

I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love – William Butler Yeats

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry – Elizabeth Frye

by

A Donkey Story

14 Sep 2011 – with life’s journey continuing across the pond!

Today is the last day in Norway before heading to NY via Iceland. The next time round to see baby, he will be 6/7 months. Hopefully he will have a name by then. This time round, have only 1hr lay-over, thus no time to visit the Blue Lagoon unless there is delayed from KEF-EWR.

One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast and simply fill in the well. Hopefully the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.

The farmer asked his neighbours help and before long they all began to shovel earth quickly into the well. When the donkey realised what was happening he wailed and struggled, but then, to everyone’s relief, the noise stopped.

After a while the farmer looked down into the well and was astonished by what he saw. The donkey was still alive and progressing towards the top of the well. The donkey had discovered that by shaking off the dirt instead of letting it cover him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as the level rose. Soon the donkey was able to step up over the edge of the well and he happily trotted off – Author anonymous.

Life tends to shovel dirt on top of each of us from time to time. The trick is to shake it off and take a step up.

Life only demands from you the strength you possess – Dag Hammarskjold

by

Mid-Autumn 2011

12 Sep 2011– Mid-Autumn/中秋節


Baby Hald-Hermansen is one week today and has now spent the weekend at Kolsås. Life is going as it should, ie he eats, sleeps and soils his diapers! Human new-born are most helpless but also the sweetest perfect little being.

The info below is a repeat from 2009, thus this is for the benefit to new readers. or to those who are interested.

Mid-autumn also known as Lantern/MoonCake Festival falls on 15th day of the 8th month in the Lunar/Chinese calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumn and spring Equinoxes of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties as there are with stories and legends preference is the simple plain old-fashioned mooncake.

This day is also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard and the memories of this scene is still very intact! Peaches, pomegranates, melons, oranges and pomelos are the usual, the offerings might have lessened after men set foot on the moon :-)Special foods other than the mooncake for the festival are cooked taro and water caltrop/菱角, a type of water chestnut resembling bulls’ horns, impossible to crack without a hammer!

DSCN3184DSCN3171Mid-Autumn'07

Fond childhood memories of animal-shaped lanterns beautifully made of coloured cellophane paper decorated with a variety of coloured glitter. After the sunset, candles lit inside these lanterns gave an exquisite sight. Walking and balancing with these lanterns was a skill and inevitably somebody’s lantern would catch fire resulting in tears. Magically there were always spare ones and tears were soon forgotten and the celebration resumed.

I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum – George Bernard Shaw

by

In Memory of those who perished on 9/11

11 Sep 2011 – Happy Bdays to bro Steven & May Yung-Lam

2001: May, Kat & Dika were all living and working in Manhattan and trying to get on the phone or online that fatal day seemed to have taken forever. They were and are safe (only Kat still lives in Manhattan today). Could not bring myself to watch the news on TV or look at any the pix then as it was and still is too sad, inconceivable and speechless that such evil, destructive, malicious deeds could be carried out. 

From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; a section of The Pentagon collapses; Flight 175 crashes into 2 WTC; a fireman requests help at Ground Zero; an engine from Flight 93 is recovered; Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon.
Location New York City; Arlington County, Virginia; and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Date Tuesday, September 11, 2001
8:46 am – 10:28 am (UTC–4)
Attack type Aircraft hijacking, mass murder, suicide attack,terrorism
Death(s) Approximately 3,000 (including 19 hijackers)
Injured More than 6,000
Perpetrator(s) Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

In Memory of those who perished on 9/11/01

Passengers and the pilots on the United Air and AA flights
Workers in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
All the innocent bystanders
Prayers and thoughts to the families and friends

by

Fated To Meet

9 Sep 2011 – Dr John Kløve HALD (1)

Thu: a visit to the Museet Ullevål sykehus/Museum Ullevaal Hospital was productive. Wed, managed to get a print-out of a painting with the name Johan HALD, a face and dates which fit into what I have heard and seen from L&M’s paternal great-grand mother, Emma. Was confused, as the correct name should be John! The administrators claimed that it was the only HALD director in the records.

A destined meeting with Dr Stein HALVORSEN, retired consultant who was volunteering his time there. We chatted and I explained about the situation and inquire as to who Johan was. It turned out that Stein was a student of Dr John (2) and knew much about the family. Appreciations to him for showing me old pix of Dr John (1) & family and for his two patient hours guiding and telling the history of the director’s resident which is now a school, Kirkevien Videregående Skole/Kirke Rd High School

Stein has the authority to inform the administration of the mistaken name and that we did together. Fate brought us to the museum as he was supposed to be at another museum and I would not have been here if not for May. Hopefully the name will be corrected for the children and the grandchildren’s family history and heritage! At least I have done my part to the best as I know how.

Pix of L&M’s paternal great-great grandfather Dr John Kløve HALD’s (1) family, Dr John (2) and his pet dog when they lived in the director’s resident from 1894-1911. The barn and the stabburet/storehouse still exist but not in use.

Thank you Ingrid and Hans K & family for a lovely farewell dinner gathering. Grateful to them for taking time off their busy mid-week schedules.

There is a destiny that shapes our ends rough, hew them as we will – Frank Harris

by

Grandchild #6

6 Sep 2011 – Ullevål 

5 Sep 2011, 0631hrs #6 grandchild, a beautiful dark-hair boy arrived safely into the world at Ullevål universitetssykehus/Ullevaal University Hospital (1884), OSL/Norway weighing 2,942grams and  height, 47cms. Those figures are similar to both L&M when they were born. Mother and baby are well and the proud father survived the ordeal. Congratulations to M&B, welcome and good luck to parenthood!

The combination of May’s Bday (4 Sep) dinner and the champagne bubbles must have triggered off her contractions, LOL; she was driven to the hospital 03.30hrs and the birth was over by 06.35hrs. Bday, Labour Day and motherhood are quite a handful when they all happened within 24hrs 🙂

Coincidentally and interestingly that grandson#6 (name has yet to be confirmed but his last name is HALD-HERMANSEN) is born in the hospital where his paternal great-great-great grandfather Dr John Kløve HALD (1)/1842-1921 was the 1st director (1894-1911) and the longest director, 17yrs.  This hospital even has its own museum which opens for 2hrs on Tue & Thu.

A clever idea to have Ullevål Hotel next to the maternity ward today but 224yrs ago these were the buildings then…5. September 1887, four buildings for patients (272 beds) , a reception and economy building, stables for horses ambulance and mortuary were established. A consultant and two assistant doctors were then employed.

http://snl.no/Ullevål_universitetssykehus

Located in this neighbourhood is Ullevål Stadion/Ulleaal Stadium (1926). It is the national football stadium. Besides being the home for national team Vålerenga, the Cup finals are also held here sitting app 25,500++ Surrounding the stadium are shops and there is even a hotel by the shops.