Leisure Facilities Free Use Day For HKSAR’s 20th Anniversary

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will hold a Free Use Day on 1 July. The aim is to encourage people of all ages to do more physical exercise and develop a healthy lifestyle and bring exercise into daily life.

Various normally fee-charging LCSD facilities will be open for free on 1 July. The facilities include:

Indoor facilities: badminton courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, netball courts, volleyball courts, squash courts, table tennis tables, American pool tables, billiard tables, sport climbing walls, bowling greens, golf facilities, fitness rooms, activity rooms, dance rooms, cycling track.

Outdoor facilities: tennis courts, tennis practice courts, bowling greens, batting cages, sport climbing walls, archery ranges, a rope course and golf facilities (excluding camp facilities, sports grounds and artificial and natural turf pitches); Public swimming pools (excluding Wan Chai Swimming Pool); and craft at water sports centres.

Bookings for land-based leisure facilities and craft at water sports centres on 1 July can be made at the Leisure Link booking counters at LCSD venues (except for self-service kiosks) from 9am on 24 June. Each person can only book one free session on a first-come, first-served basis irrespective of the type of facility.

No prior booking is required for public swimming pools where entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Leisure Facilities Free Use Day
Date: 1 July, 2017
Venue: LCSD Sports Facilities
Tickets: Free
More info: Bookings from 24 June. www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/freeuseday/index.html.

Emack & Bolio’s Fake Off Customers

By 4:30pm today’s hundreds of eager customers were lined up in the stifling heat outside Emack & Bolio’s store on Cochrane Street. Why, because on the 19 June Emack & Bolio’s sent out a press release and announced in their social media channels two hours of Free Ice Cream!

The exact wording of the press release was:
Free Ice Cream for Summer Solstice… celebrate the start of summer with a free scoop of your favourite Emack & Bolio’s ice cream!!! Just visit any of our stores between 5-7pm on Wednesday 21 June, and follow us on FB or IG.
Only one per customer, our decision is final.

Yet hundreds of customers left angry and frustrated because it wasn’t a 2 hour promotion as announced and advertised, it was a 200 scoop promotion. A fact the company didn’t bother to mention in it’s desperate desire for publicity.

This is not the the first time the company has hosted this type of giveaway but obviously they subscribe to the trump pr playbook of telling lies and using fake facts to get publicity no matter the cost or inconvenience to others.

By 6pm the branch staff were outright lying to customers who turned up saying social media had got it wrong. Social media spread the Free ice-cream promotion correctly, Emack & Bolio’s just failed to honour the offer as announced. Adding the extra condition once the promotion had gone viral. Sadly consumers have little recourse to duplicitous companies like this other than to take their business elsewhere.

Snooker Masters

The eight player Hong Kong Masters takes place on the 20-23 July at Queen Elizabeth Stadium and features current World Champion and World no.1 Mark Selby, former multiple World Champions Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins as well as local hero Marco Fu.

There will also be a series of exhibition frames between Ladies World Champion Ng On Yee and two legends of the game Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White.

The Masters returns to Hong Kong after a decade with total prize money of GBP315,000 and is sanctioned by World Snooker. The tournament will follow the standard knockout format with the final taking place on the 23 July.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Hong-Kong-Masters-Snooker-Press-Conference-19-June-2017/n-rVtZg8/i-6KjDqRZ

Quite why in a game where sex should be irrelevant Ng On Yee can’t compete against the men is a question no one will properly answer. Danny Mak Chairman of the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council said it was because men are “Better able to handle the mental and physical strain”. Ng On Yee offered that it was more about competition and opportunity “You can only beat the best if you get the opportunity to play, but hopefully that will improve in the future”.

Hong Kong Masters
Date: 20-23 July, 2017
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Stadium
Tickets: $450, $300, $200, $150, $100 from Urbtix

G-Dragon @ Cotai Arena – 17 June, 2017

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South Korean star Kwon Ji-Yong better known as G-Dragon performed many of his hits at two sold out concerts in Macau’s Cotai Arena as part of his Act III Motte World Tour.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/G-Dragon-CotaiArena-17-June-2017/i-kwXC9mf

Surface Family Available in Microsoft’s HK Online Store

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Microsoft-Surface-Press-Conference-June-2017/i-nR8phZv

It’s been 18 months since the last real Microsoft Surface launch, a lifetime in computing terms. So what’s new? Pretty much everything, the Surface family now features four product lines: Surface Studio; Surface Book; Surface Pro and Surface Laptop all of which include a touchscreen and pen input.

Microsoft’s Hong Kong General Manager Horace Chow was upbeat and confident about the new Surface range of products with several digs at ipads and macbooks during his presentation. Will the new Surface machines attract Mac users – it will be interesting to see.

The rather lovely looking Surface Studio is a beautiful high resolution 28 inch touchscreen on a massive hinge which can stand vertically, lie completely flat or anywhere inbetween. Prices start from $24,888

The Surface Book is Microsoft’s top end laptop released in 2015 and updated last year, version 2 was expected to be released this month but has been delayed. It features a detachable 13.5 inch screen, separate graphics processor and ‘proper’ keyboard. Prices start from $11,588

The Surface Pro is a powerful laptop with a 12.3 inch touchscreen, back stand and an Alcantara fabric keyboard. The press release claims 14 hours of battery, life more than enough for a full day’s work. Prices start from $6,988

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Microsoft-Surface-Press-Conference-June-2017/i-8tXCR3P

The thin light Surface Laptop has a 13.5inch gorilla glass touchscreen and an Alcantara fabric keyboard and comes in four colours: platinum, graphite gold, cobalt blue and burgundy. Sadly the colour options are only available in a specific configuration. Prices start from $7,888.

Confusingly all four lines are sold with different versions of Windows, although it appears you can upgrade to Windows Pro free of charge until the end of 2017.

What to buy? There are now so many different chip sets, generations and numbers that it’s easy to become confused as to what to buy. Unlike a decade ago where the difference between generations of  Intel chips was massive, the differences in use for most everyday tasks will be barely noticeable. So unless your doing heavy number crunching or video encoding then choose the one that feels good to use with as much storage and ram as you can afford at www.microsoftstore.com.hk.

16 June 2017: Edited to reflect that the different colour Surface laptops are available in Hong Kong.

Portuguese Speaking Countries Promotion @ Club Lusitano – 14 June, 2017

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Portuguese-Speaking-Countries-Promotion-Club-Lusitano-14/i-3KTvhnR

Portuguese Speaking Countries Promotion @ Club Lusitano organised by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) to raise awareness of food products from across the lusophone world. Many of which can be found at the Portuguese-speaking Countries (PSCs) Food Products Exhibition Centre in Macau.
Click on any photo for the full gallery

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Pizza Express Cook Off 2

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-7k76tdC

Pizza Express have opened a new outlet at Empire Centre in TST East. The ground floor restaurant is also one the five participating in Pizza Express Cook Off 2. A vegetarian palate buster between Wan Veggie Mom’s Christine Cheng and PE’s Product Development Manager Sophia Cheung using vegetarian ‘fake’ meat.

Christine’s creation Beyond Burger Beef & Fig Pizza ($138) is a beautiful looking vibrant purple as she used beetroot sauce instead of the traditional tomato. Topped with buffalo mozzarella, ricotta cheese and crumbled marinated Beyond burger beef. The beetroot sauce was a little too salty but the combination of fig, beetroot and cheese on a thin crust was good. The fake burger meat added little beyond texture and the pizza would have been just as nice without it.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-38Vvrrb

Sophia chose a rectangular shape for her Beyond Chicken & Kale Pesto Pizza ($138) which was loaded with fake chicken, ricotta cheese, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, kale chips with a pesto sauce. There was little to no ‘chicken’ taste from the fake meat, but the pizza was full of texture and flavour.

Both chef’s have created interesting visually attractive and tasty pizzas that offer something new and different from Pizza Express’ regular menu. The vegetarian ‘meat’ did little for either pizza, and personally I would love to taste both with real meat. You can try the ladies Cook Off pizzas, and vote for your favourite, from 13 June at these Pizza Express outlets: Empire Centre, Wing Fung Street, Wellington Street, Mira Place and Airport.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-W9ttTM4

Carlo Riva Grand Opening – 10 June, 2017

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Carlo-Riva-Grand-Opening-Wanchai-10-June-2017/i-V4m7NFJ

Carlo Riva, Wanchai’s newest steakhouse celebrated it’s grand opening with a traditional ceremony and lion dance on the 10th June.
Click on any photo for the full gallery

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