Picture of the Day: Supermoon

Admiring the "Supermoon" from Admiralty

Tonight after dinner, my friend and I walked out of a restaurant in Pacific Place in Admiralty and looked up to see the moon.

The "Supermoon" is closest to the Earth now and so it appears 7 percent larger and 15 percent brighter than usual. The last time it was this close was in 1948.

The moon did look much bigger and we admired it for a few minutes, observing its roundness and brightness while taking pictures of it.

Later in the evening I went out for a run around my neighbourhood and saw many amateur photographers setting up their cameras trying to get a good shot, though there were many street lamps in the way.

Of course taking it from a smartphone isn't the best, but gives an idea of how beautiful it was, because we won't see it again like this until November 25, 2034.

Sampling Treats at Lee Tung Avenue

Love it or loathe it -- Lee Tung Avenue from Queen's Road East

This afternoon I met a food writer friend visiting from Vancouver and after a very good traditional dim sum at Hoi King Keen in the InterContinental Grand Stanford, we went over to Wan Chai where he was taken on a tour of Lee Tung Avenue.

The coffee here is expensive, but expertly made

The are area used to be known as "Wedding Card Street", where shops would help couples get their invitations printed up. They were moved out so that a massive residential/commercial development could come up. In the end it's a pedestrian-only strip that tourists think is neat, while others think it's a gentrification exercise gone totally wrong.

Nevertheless my friend sampled the Japanese coffee at Omotesando Koffee and said it was spot on, very smooth. He admired the clean minimalist design of the place, as well as nearby Japanese bakery Yoku Moku, appreciating the preciseness of how all the cakes were made and presented.

We even tried Calbee, a Japanese potato chip shop that is a nostalgic favourite for Hong Kong people, something I was unfamiliar with. At this place, people can order freshly made potato chips in various combinations, including with soft serve ice cream, or topped with chocolate sauce or cheese sauce.

Typhoon shelter spicy chips with soft serve ice cream

Curious, we tried the limited edition Hong Kong typhoon shelter one that featured spicy chips with soft serve ice cream (HK$38). Just a few minutes later came a large paper bowl filled with the spicy waffled chips with soft serve in a small cup. It was a nice presentation, and there were no broken chips at all -- they are all sorted out during the production process.

The chips themselves were mildly spicy and so when they were paired with the ice cream, the spiciness was dulled, tasted sweet and salty, and there were the textures of crunchy and soft, hot and cold.

At first my friend was indifferent to it, thinking it was bizarre, but interesting. After trying a few more he admitted they began to grow on him.

Previously I didn't understand why people lined up to buy these chips, but now I do, because how can you beat having freshly-made chips? Not that I will specifically go and order these myself, but now I know what all the fuss is about.

Our strawberry-passion fruit rose gelato

We also tried some gelato by Givres and the gelato is scooped up flat and then arranged around a cone like a rose. My friend had never seen this before so we ordered one to try, in strawberry and passion fruit flavours (HK$66 two flavours).

He was very impressed. I had tried it last year in Paris thought not as artfully arranged as this one. The two fruit flavours were delicious and not too sweet. While the amount of gelato isn't the same as other ice creams you'd get in places like Haagen-Daz, at least it's pretty looking!

Two Cities, Two Trials

Ho Chio-meng will be facing 1,970 charges against him next month

Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will be facing three charges against him in a trial by jury that starts in January.

But that's nothing compared to Macau's former top prosecutor who will face almost 2,000 criminal charges when he appears in court next month.

Ho Chio-meng was prosecutor general, equivalent to Hong Kong's director of public prosecutions, from 1999 to 2014.

Former CE Donald Tsang will be going on trial in January

He was even tipped to become Macau's chief executive, but that possibility has been dashed, as Ho is accused of 1,970 charges, including initiating or founding a criminal syndicate, fraud, money laundering, unlawful economic advantage, abuse of power, and forging documents. He also faces a charge of "damaging goods under his domain".

An investigation into alleged corruption and kickbacks involving at least HK$44 million has led to the arrest of more than 70 suspects to date.

Ho and others will face trial on December 5.

Since his arrest in February when he tried to board a ferry to Hong Kong, Ho has been locked up in the same prison annexe as disgraced former public works secretary Ao Man-long, who is serving a 27-year term and is the highest ranking public official ever convicted of corruption in Macau. If convicted, Ho will be the second.

Rafael Hui is serving a 7 1/2 year sentence for taking bribes

There was a three-year investigation into Tsang's case, and he is the highest ranking government official in Hong Kong to face a corruption trial. His deputy Rafael Hui Si-yan was jailed for seven years in 2014 for taking bribes worth HK$34 million from Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen. Thomas Kwok is serving a five-year sentence.

No doubt residents in both Hong Kong and Macau will be watching both trials closely...

Picture of the Day: Friday Rush Hour

An MTR worker held a plastic tape preventing commuters from going down

My office is in Taipo in the New Territories, and our company provides us shuttle buses to get to and from work, otherwise no one would want to work so far from town.

This morning we were on Hennessy Road in Wan Chai, trying to turn left to get over to the Harbour Tunnel when there was a massive traffic jam and the traffic cop directed our bus go eastwards to the Eastern Tunnel.

Interestingly we arrived at the office only about five to 10 minutes later than usual.

Then in the evening, I decided it would be better to take the shuttle bus to Kowloon Tong and then take the MTR back home.

But when I got down to the station, past the turnstiles, no one was allowed to take the escalators down to the platforms. There were too many people already down there.

There were so many people waiting to get onto the train

After a few minutes we were allowed down and the platform to take the train towards Whampoa was several people deep. I had to wait for three trains to go by before getting on, and even then it was a tight squeeze.

What happened? Why an unusually large number of people today?

It was partly because of the new MTR stations at Ho Ma Tin and Whampoa on the green line, because a number of people were still on the train, while the rest of us got off to get the train to Central.

So by the time I arrived at Kennedy Town station, it was exactly an hour and 10 minutes later, which usually would have taken an hour if there weren't so many people at Kowloon Tong.

Very strange, but hopefully this is not the new normal. We can only take being squished like sardines for so long.

Speaking of which, have Hong Kong's senior officials ridden on the MTR during rush hour lately to see for themselves what we plebs go through everyday?