Emergency packages needed at Penny’s Bay

With all the misery in Hong Kong right now, we need a sign that God exists and wishes us to be happy. For a brief moment we had it: a gwailo pilot in quarantine publicly freaking out on Twitter because he had pasta, cabbage and spicy chicken for breakfast – when he apparently expected Marmite, instant spotted dick and deep-fried Mars Bars. Sadly, the potentially rivetting real-time anguish seems to have been deleted. I guess you had to be there. (There were some similar examples, like a family horrified at receiving/seeing for the first time congee. I know it’s cheap, but we need the amusement.)

Instead, some intriguing reading on the possible origins of Covid-19 from science writer Nicholas Wade. Pinch of salt: Wade is a journalist rather than a scientist, and authored a controversial book on race. But let’s say that if you are suspicious or skeptical about Beijing’s denials that the virus escaped from a lab, this won’t make you feel any better. (Retraction Watch meanwhile has a report about a leading Mainland scientist’s conflict of interests involving Covid-19 research.)

Just occurred to me, reading this, that the Hong Kong government managed to procure both the most effective and least effective vaccines. And clearly pushes the latter.

Kevin Carrico watches Carrie Lam’s ‘sudden and quite creepy occupation of RTHK airtime, which seems to have abruptly emerged out of nowhere’ so you don’t have to. Or perhaps, because no-one else is going to. It sounds even more dire than you expected – as well as Bunny Chan, there’s a guest from the Taoist Association, much talk of Jiangsu snacks with Henry Tang, and of course endless ‘interviews’ in which both sides of the conversation agree with each other about everything. 

For those of us manly enough to ignore sell-by dates – or donating to Penny’s Bay emergency food parcels – bargain of the week at Green Price is HK$5 for 600ml of Yanjing beer. A pretty acceptable-if-chilled light-but-not-quite-insipid slightly-dryish lager. Hey, it’s five bucks for more than an Imperial pint. A good way to get rid of surplus change.