洋紫荊

眾所周知香港的市花是洋紫荊。不過之前在TVB的介紹中看到，原來洋紫荊「只開花、不結果」，是不育的。因為它是混種植物。目前在香港見到的洋紫荊，都是靠杄接或嫁接而來。現時正是洋紫荊的花期，所以大家應該都可以看到不少洋紫荊花瓣在地上。

相對日本櫻花的短暫而燦爛；台灣梅花的堅貞、剛毅、聖潔；新加坡卓錦萬代蘭的卓越錦繡、萬代不朽；只開花不結果、而且要依靠外物才能生存的洋紫荊，給人的感覺真的是很不實在。

我明白洋紫荊也代表華洋雜處或中西合壁，但是那樣又如何呢？這植物原來不育，為何這點又不被考慮？當初選擇洋紫荊為香港市花的人或組織，一是非常了解香港及香港的前途，不然就是有心開香港人玩笑。

導演嚴浩今年也寫了一篇洋紫荊的奇怪命運來批評這件事。他說「洋紫荊樹形並不美，枝葉不盛，樹幹歪歪斜斜，花朵疏落，先天缺乏作為都市主題樹木應有的美態。

洋紫荊

反而它的「本尊」宮粉羊蹄甲，花形與洋紫荊十分相似，花葉茂盛，開花時十分燦爛，絕對可以媲美櫻花。既然這種本土開花樹在香港生長得好，若能大量種植必然會把香港的春天變得像電影畫面一樣美。」

宮粉羊蹄甲

我想嚴浩說得真的很對。宮粉羊蹄甲的花或者沒有洋紫荊那麼鮮艷，但是整棵樹來說卻是美麗得多了。如果香港今天到處都是宮粉羊蹄甲多好。我們也不用花那麼多金錢時間去日本賞櫻。當初當權者的選擇一子錯，現在滿盤皆落索。

放課後 - 東野圭吾

上星期剛剛看完了東野圭吾的小說《放課後》。故事講述女子高中教師前島老師在校內多次感到生命受到威脅，正在苦苦尋找主謀的時候，校內先後發生了兩宗殺人事件，兩位老師村橋老師和竹井老師分別遇害。

學校內的其他老師和學生都有嫌疑。但是究竟是誰下手，又有沒有同謀？

最後前島老師成功破案，找到殺人兇手及其動機。我覺得殺人手法有點過份複雜。不過大概日本推理小說實在太多，普通一點的手法真的很難打進市場。我想正常讀者應該都無法可以破解殺人的手法，而動機更加是有點誇張。即是前島老師其實也沒有查出兇手動機，是兇手自己說出來的。

《嫌疑犯X的獻身》比《放課後》明顯出色。《放課後》的故事和過程實在是太複雜了。

嫌疑犯X的獻身

之前無線在星期日午夜一連播出了多集東野圭吾的推理劇，令太太喜歡上了這位日本推理小說作家。她上月在圖書館借了《嫌疑犯X的獻身》。她看完之後鼓勵我也看。

故事和普通偵探故事不同，一開始已經交代了誰是兇手。不過劇情之後發展成由警察的角度去看這件案件，讀者需要了解究竟兇手和同黨用甚麼方法掩飾罪行。我和太太都沒有想到原來兇手和同黨石神用了這種方法去掩飾他們的罪行，我有點覺得似乎這不是最乾凈的手法。但是卻又很難反駁石神的目的。

之後發現原來2009年東寶曾經將小說改編成電影，於是又上網下載了來看。我們當然是為了看福山雅治。

柴崎幸在片中的角色可有可無。小說中也沒有她的角色。電影中有她只是為了和電視系列連貫起來吧。電影中有一段是福山雅治和堤真一一起去攀山。小說沒有，但是我覺得有些多餘。事實上，很多小說有交代的東西，電影都沒有。

而且我覺得這個故事電影感不夠，連警察輯拿兇手的片段也欠奉。最多只可以用來拍電視電影。總括來說，小說比電影好。沒有福山雅治的話，我想我們根本不會看電影版。

堤真一在《Good Luck》中是一位很酷的飛機師，在這裡卻飾演一位宅男中學老師，反差很大，他的演技不錯。

故事的結局其實很悲慘。堤真一飾演的石神對湯川學(福山雅治)說：「破解了這宗案件就誰也不會得到幸福。」是很真實的事。我們的湯川學教授當然成功破解了謎團，只是在電影結局中他也是失望地在哭。

What will happen in Marvel Cinematic Universe

I am going to write something about how I think the stories will develop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe phase 3, after the big announcement yesterday. I am typing in English because I want to hear what the English speaking Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have to say.

First, I think most of the Avengers survive Age of Ultron. After all they (Cap, Stark and Thor) have sequel movies to do so they must survive. Except maybe Hawkeye. In the trailer for Age of Ultron, you can see Bruce Banner visibly disturbed. He is clearly horrified, probably by something the Hulk did.

Hawkeye

I think the Hulk killed Hawkeye in their snow chase scenes, he also likely did it under influence from Ultron or Scarlet Witch. Joss Whedon has said an avenger will die in Avengers 2. Hawkeye dies in Avengers 2 was already rumoured until Jeremy Renner said his character would survive and may even have a role in Captain America 3, but I think he was just trying to put a stop to the leaks.

Nobody runs around in snow half-naked. Bruce Banner clearly has just Hulked out. By his facial expression and body language it is clear the Hulk has just done something horrible. The only other character we saw running in the snow was Hawkeye. My conclusion: the Hulk killed Hawkeye.

Another issue is Loki's Scepter. It has been confirmed by Kevin Feige as another Infinity Stone. It is on earth and I assume someone will either offer it to Thanos after Avengers 2 or Thanos will come and get it himself in Avengers 3 or before.

Loki's scepter

Captain America 3 will involve Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Black Panther. I think this story is not too relevant to Avengers 3 or Thanos.

Robert Downey Jr, Chadwick Boseman and Chris Evans.

I think Thanos is going to be quite prominent in most of the movies in phase 3. It was announced that Thanos will be the main villain in Avengers 3 and he will have all the Infinity Stones by then. He will therefore have to start collecting them in the upcoming films, leading up to Infinity War.

 

Thanos will probably attack Asgard in order to claim the Infinity Gauntlet and the Tesseract in Thor: Ragnarok. Both items are on Asgard as far as we know.

The Orb

Thanos will then probably go after the Orb on Xandar which is under protection by the Nova Corps in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

But the Aether's location is not known after Guardians of the Galaxy shows that Knowwhere, where it was supposedly kept, was blown up, so that will need to be resolved in one of the upcoming movies. Some people say The Collector still has it. We just have to wait and see.

The Aether. Where is it?

Finally, two more Infinite Stones are still to be revealed. One of them maybe found in Doctor Strange and I think either the Inhumans or Captain Marvel will locate the other. Both Tesseract and Aether were on earth. After all not all the Infinite Stones can be on earth right?

新加坡4日3夜-第四天

今天早上我們在酒店吃早餐，這裡的早餐都頗為豐富，包括白粥、燒賣、豆沙包、香腸、茄汁焗豆、薯仔、沙律、粟米片、西瓜、香蕉、麵包、多士、各種咖啡等等。我們每天早餐都可以吃得很好。

附近的另外一間酒店，ibis hotel。

有三部電梯。

每層都有很多房間

早餐的餐廳叫Big Bite Cafe

由Bras Basar地鐵站坐地鐵去Bayfront，參觀今次行程最後一個景點，Gardens by the Bay。這是外母指定一定要來參觀的景點，因為她有一個朋友說這裡很漂亮。

Gardens by the Bay的Supertree。

其實都是樹型的建設，外面種有植物讓它們慢慢生長上去。

其中兩棵Supertree有橋樑連接，登上要收費S$5。

回看Marina Bay Sands。

當中最大最高的一棵Supertree，頂層是餐廳。

看完Supertree我們就去了溫室。溫室有兩個，一個是Flower Dome另外一個是Cloud Forest。本地人可以選擇只去一個，但是遊客一定要購買兩個溫室的套票。本地人買套票也便宜一些，只需要S$20。遊客要S$28。我和太太都是付本地人價錢。

先去Flower Dome。

之後我們進入了Cloud Forest。這裡真的是令人嘆為觀止。建議你先去Flower Dome再來這裡，先看Cloud Forest會對Flower Dome感到很失望。

入門馬上見到一個壯觀的瀑布。

乘電梯上六樓開始走下來。

這個溫室真的是超越你想像

午餐我們也在這裡的餐廳解決，先來新加坡式咖啡和奶茶。

Mee Siam

Mee Rebus

印尼炒飯。

之後我們再經由Supertree及Marina Bay Sands前往地鐵站。

返回酒店之後就召了的士往機場。

Check-in之後當然要去Bengawan Solo繼續血拚。

我們的航班，16:05由新加坡返回香港。回到香港是晚上8時左右。