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31 Under such conditions temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius.
32 Gap Rock is sometimes known as Daam Gon Shan, in Cantonese, meaning "Carrying Pole Hill,"
33 Besides Waglan Island, lighthouse keepers on Green Island (who were also Government Marine Department Staff) carried out weather observations and passed information on to the Royal Observatory Office at Kai Tak Airport.
34 When the author visited Waglan, in 1999, all the buildings, including keepers' and soldiers' quarters and the fog-horn building, were still there although they were generally dilapidated.
35 Author interviewed Tam Cheong-wai, then Superintendent of Aids to Navigation, Government Marine Department, 22 February 1999. Tam has since retired.
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B.P. stands for "Bailey Pegs" the maker's name.
Fare was not spartan if compared to that given to British soldiers during World War Two when, the author recalls, on active service "iron rations" sometimes consisted of a tin of bully beef and a packet of "hard tack" (army biscuits) for each soldier.
Author's interview with Lai Tak-wah, Government Marine Department, 12 February 1999.
38 Sometimes known as the "Rose of China."
39 A number of rocks in Hong Kong are imagined as resembling animals, birds and other objects. There are Lion Rock, Amah Rock and Lovers' Rock ("Marriage Fate Rock"). The last is along Bowen Path and is supposed to symbolise an erect phallus.
40 The author recalls in Britain, between the two World Wars, that there were still a number of pictures of Grace Darling hanging in homes showing her rowing a lifeboat in a storm.
42 The notification of marriage appeared in the South China Morning Post in August 1935.
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