View from a minibus window...

Nice view, 50th floor, the something hotel, Tim Sha Tsui (used to be Mariners Club)...

Quite bold of him to admit this. But spot the catch: if you vote for the people Beijing want, Beijing will allow you to elect more of them. In other words, it's not the government's job to win your confidence; it's your job to win the government's confidence.

Well fancy that!

No minimum height? And surely they should walk with the tray of drinks balanced on their heads? Mercifully, the SCMP’s 700+ word story spares us anything about checks for families’ political reliability or virginity tests…

In Taiwan you can vote for the opposition. Memory from Article 23 march in 2003: bus of Mainland tourists passing Victoria Park, with excited chubby middle-aged woman banging on window and applauding the massed protesters. Can still picture her.

Genuinely curious: how does urging a boycott of an election threated national security?

Will the rest of you please pretend our tightly managed, opposition-free election is important...

A district mourns. Since 2008, one of life’s little pleasures for residents of HK Island West Constituency every four years has been seeing Reg in person canvassing near the Mid-Levels Escalator. And saying “No, I’m not voting for you.”

Such hypersensitivity about a tightly managed election few will pay any attention to, let alone try to 'disrupt'. Maybe the aim is to stir up some interest...

Festive greetings to all who celebrate! Reg celebrates with tasteful faux Devanagari script, plus a rather fetching bindi. Complementary papadams for the first reader to ID the restaurant. We are going to miss her.

Weird fact du jour, from FT piece on France's luxury-brand scion oligarchs...

In my mailbox today. First thought: it's a leaflet for rejuvenating placenta treatment. "Seems I'm being told to stand down, but we've already printed them, so might as well send them out."

Chef Kamitachi seen at work through a sake bottle at his eponymous sushi restaurant in Central...

Separated at birth? Left: ugly British supermarket; right: ugly Hong Kong car...

Highlights from the small (but, for me, sufficient) "Glamour of the Motherland" exhibition, Pacific Place mall...

Where's my luxury schooner gone???

When you haven't screwed things up enough yet...

Yes you can...

The search for new hubs continues...

Businesses at Hong Kong China City, TST extend a warm welcome to all visitors arriving at the ferry terminal…

Chungking Mansions breakfast...

Should that be 'ensure'?

Did Beijing drop atom bombs on Japan?

Does Reg post her own tweets, or does she have an assistant to do the techie stuff? You be the judge...

Separated at birth? Left: Thai crown jewels; right: Donald Trump's tasteful Cabinet Room adornments...

"They do something like it in other countries, so it's OK"...

Henceforth to be known as the Gale Terribly Group...

I know the answer! Feel free to park on sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, in the middle of the road, or any place you damn well please. You are among the small minority of Hongkongers who drive a car, and the other 90% can go f**k themselves.

By 'win-win' we mean 'slightly less of a disastrous mess-slightly less of a disastrous mess'...

A serious offense against plain English, at least...

Message to government from the HK Hemlock Observatory: It’s fine out there! People are walking their dogs and looking for a 7-11 that’s open. Cut this “Number 8” bs now. Thank you.

Happy Bastille day! (It's still July 14 in Tahiti?)

No thank you

Maybe the US Consulate will follow the example of pan-dem groups who experienced this, and vote to dissolve itself.

Home again. Nice clouds. Can you ID this port between Seoul and HK? (Great night market.) And souvenirs.

Because Hong Kong really, really, really needs more cars on the streets...

"Ugly potatoes". Once rejected for their nasty shapes. Then bought by environmentally and cost-conscious Seoul consumers who hate waste. Now trendy and even selling at a premium. Our friend, the potato.

From Bloomberg report on NWD $11bn refinancing deal. Perhaps part of the problem is that NWD's assets are *not* "worth a 10th of HK GDP" because they are actually just a bunch of concrete boxes?

A pro-pluralist message for HK leaders from Korea's King Yeongjo?

More Seoul: the "Come here, I want a word with you" building. It's a Presbyterian church. As in "We were not sent into this world to enjoy ourselves, but to suffer". Though statue suggests a dash of hip?

Spoiled for choice by Seoul potato pizza options...

Seoul Brutalist architecture quiz: spot the one that is not Dongdaemun Design Plaza...

Joined the Seoul fashion set at the Christian Dior "Designer of Dreams" exhibition. Yes, you can make anything interesting with the right set design. Would have been amazing on mushrooms. But wait! There's more!

Poop bag dispenser, Seoul...

Good day from Seoul Mid-Levels...

Seoul trendy breakfast. Close-up of glistening succulent gorgeousness. Reader, I ate it.

Greetings from Seoul...

Happy Ian Day, to all who celebrate the official* birthday of Ian Chan. Devotees at Airside mall are taking photos of fluffy toys next to cardboard cutouts of the great man. The temporary shrine also has a fancy mirror (as in Mirror, the band!) for selfies. *Actual DOB: June 9, per Wikipedia.

Kowloon City breakfast...