Long Walks Yield Discoveries

Brilliant fuchsia flowers to brighten up an overcast day

Perhaps because the weather was overcast today, or people finally heeded the warnings of health officials, fewer people were seen out and about during the Easter holiday.

Today Hong Kong had 11 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total to exactly 1,000; of the new cases, 10 were from overseas, one was local.

Stone Manor was so intriguing I had to take a closer look

To make sure I would avoid crowds of people like along the waterfront, I walked along Victoria Road, a relatively quiet road that few people walk on because of the long incline involved, and it passes by a garbage dump area that has a certain smell... thankfully wearing a mask helps block the pungent odors!

Along Victoria Road are cemeteries and a handful of people came out to belatedly visit their ancestors for Qing Ming. I even spotted my relatives from across the street who were carrying bunches of flowers. For a second I wondered if I should join them, but decided they probably didn't want my company in our era of social distancing and continued on my way.

I passed by socialite Brenda Chau Tam Yuet-ching's home called Villa D'Oro that apparently has a gold toilet, and tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung's place across the street with Happy Lodge where he has probably had numerous trysts.

There are two of these crests, one on each gate

I walked all the way to Sassoon Road and at the roundabout, spotted a house made of stone and circled round to take a closer look. After some research I find Stone Manor was built in the 1930s and is the home of the late Henry Fok Ying-tung's family. Drapes cover up the windows, but it looks like it should be in the English countryside than on a quiet street in Pokfulam.

The gates have a crest that say: Semper Fidelis", or "always loyal".

The last time the home was in the news was when Fok's son Kenneth Fok Kai-kong married former Olympic diver Guo Jingjing there in 2012.

Perhaps I should go on more walks to discover other interesting things!

Cecil Chao Ups the Ante

Cecil Chao still thinks Gigi (right) should marry a man, not Sean Eav (left)

Poor Gigi Chao. Her father Cecil Chao Sze-tsung doesn't understand her sexual preferences and that she is married -- to another woman.

Two years ago Cecil announced he would give HK$500 million to the suitor who wins his daughter's heart. But after 20,000 applicants, he was disappointed none of them caught her heart and now he's doubled the "dowry" to HK$1 billion.

"I don't want to interfere with my daughter's private life," he said in an interview on January 20 with Malaysian paper Nanyang Siang Pau. "I only hope for her to have a good marriage and children as well as inherit my business."

He also insisted Gigi was still single and that it wasn't too late to change her thinking because she's only 33.

However she hit back in an interview with a Hong Kong paper. "First of all I'm concerned about his use of the word 'dowry' in an Asian country, as it is well known that dowry deaths are a human rights concern in India, and I don't want people to step backward on hearing this news," she said.

"Secondly, I don't think my dad's offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive. Alternatively, I would be happy to befriend any man willing to donate huge amounts of money to my charity, Faith in Love, provided they don't mind that I already have a wife. Third and lastly, thank you Daddy, I love you too," she said.

Faith in Love Foundation is a charity Gigi founded that encourages volunteering to alleviate poverty.

Her response to her father doubling the "dowry" was markedly different from her reaction two years ago when she said she was "a really lucky girl to have such a loving daddy, because it's really sweet of him to do something like this as an expression of his fatherly love".

Perhaps she was hoping that the incident would go away and tried to spin it in a light-hearted way, but he also forced her out of the closet -- which she bravely handled.

She has since become an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and is a founding member of the gay rights group Big Love Alliance along with other celebrities, Denise Ho and Anthony Wong. The alliance works to reduce discrimination against sexual minorities through public education and support networks.

However this latest development in Cecil upping the ante has made Gigi's partner of nine years, Sean Eav, "distraught".

Nevertheless, Gigi is doing her best to take it all in stride. "I understand that he loves me, it's just he's from another time and it's difficult for him to understand the plight of the LGBT [community]. At the office it's business as usual. At family gatherings we hug and dance. And we just agree to disagree on what marriage is and family is," she said.

When will Cecil Chao come to his senses and realize his daughter isn't going to marry a man any time soon?