Talk to Someone

It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.

“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.

“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a glum sounding voice.

“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”

Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself.”

“All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”

Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.

Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”

“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.

Because Pooh and Piglet were there.

No more; no less.

(A.A.Milne, E.H.Shepard)

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day and this is National Suicide Prevention Week – Talk to Someone

Suicide PreventionHotline Service (24 hours): 2382 0000
The Samaritans (24 hours) : 2896 0000

Women’s Rugby Results – 14 September, 2019

Premiership

HK Scottish Kukris 0-20 Gai Wu Falcons
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00

Tai Po Dragons 17-10 Kowloon 
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00

USRC Tigers 61-0 CWB Phoenix
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:15

Valley Black 37-0 HKFC Ice 
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:15

National League 2

CWB Lammergeier 10-15 Gai Wu Hawks  
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 14:30

Police Sirens 0-40 Tai Po Dragons 
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 16:30

City v University 
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

Images: hkrugby

Hong Kong Protests: Wanchai – 15 September, 2019

Sunday’s protest march against the China Extradition Bill started slowly but became another massive peaceful demonstration by HongKongers of all ages against Carrie Lam and her government’s policies.

Later in the day, some protestors vented their frustration agaisnt their MTR choosing Beijing over it’s Hong Kong passengers and the MTR’s allowing the HK police to beat and assault members of the public on MTR trains for no reason.

For more images click here or on any photo below

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2019/Hong-Kong-Protests-Wanchai-15-September-2019/i-828hxB3

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2019/Hong-Kong-Protests-Wanchai-15-September-2019/i-VKQL8sT

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2019/Hong-Kong-Protests-Wanchai-15-September-2019/i-KnmswM5

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2019/Hong-Kong-Protests-Wanchai-15-September-2019/i-rJjVTQT

Livin’ La Dolce Vita – Italia Mia

The first Italia Mia festival opens on the 20th September with the launch of the Leonardo da Vinci Art and Science Then and Now exhibition at City University of Hong Kong and will run through October and November with a variety of events that showcase Italian creativity, innovation and excellence.

The Consul General of Italy in Hong Kong Mr Clemente Contestabile introduced the new festival in this way… “We are proud to present the first ever Italia Mia Festival in Hong Kong and Macao. Italy is rich in heritage, culture, technology and natural beauty; it is well known for the tastiness of its food and wines; it is the homeland of great personalities of the past and of stylish fashion, design and luxury companies. Italia Mia is here in Hong Kong to bring everyone a taste of Italian flair and character without leaving the city. The Festival may tempt and entice you to travel to Italy as well.”

In October and November, Italia Mia events include “Colours of Asia, Paintings by Francesco Lietti”, “Talk with Beppe Severgnini”, “Bing Bing Wang & Klassic Swing Italian Quartet”, “Waitress on Top – La Serva Padrona”, “Week of Italian Cuisine in the World”, “A Pinch of Salt”, “Nous Quartet”, “Marco Polo and the Sounds of Carnival”, “Salt of the Earth”, “Olivia Steindler Solo Violin Concert”, “White Truffle Extravaganza Dinner”…

Full details of the festival and the many events can be found here www.italiamiafestival

Four Changes as Hong Kong Chase Gold in China

After taking silver in the opening Asian Rugby Sevens Series tournament the Hong Kong men’s sevens squad will be looking to go one better in Huizhou, China (14-15 September) – the second of the three-leg series, which builds up to the Olympic qualifiers in November.

Four players are called up to the men’s squad, which lost to Japan in the final in South Korea, as coach Paul John rotates and looks to freshen up the team. Raef Morrison, Seb Brien, Alex McQueen and Ben Rimene are included in the 13-man travel squad with Rimene the nominated injury replacement for the weekend. Their inclusion sees forwards Kane Boucaut and Toby Fenn, and back Tom McQueen, rested.

The eight-team Series offers no easy groups and Hong Kong face a physical route in Pool B, to a hoped-for cup final appearance, against the Philippines, UAE, and China.

UAE had a muscular debut in Korea, narrowly losing to the Philippines in the plate semi-final before beating Taipei to claim 7th overall.

A motivated China seven, fresh from claiming Bronze in the opener – their first podium finish in nearly a year, are second seeds behind Hong Kong and will prove a stiff test on home ground.

John is confident he has a group suited for the task, saying: “Our squad is strong. This competition is getting more difficult to pick a squad for, now, which is good. There is good competition across the group and we have another 14 or 15 guys training that are not travelling, but are pushing for spaces, and that is what we want.

“The boys were excellent in Korea and got very close to Japan, but we didn’t play as well as we could in the final, and that was a bit disappointing. We want to go as far as we possibly can again this weekend. But there is no use in talking about it, until we have an opportunity to play our first game. We’re only thinking about the UAE and China, our day one opponents.

“China were very good in Korea. They can give us a hard time and we are probably playing UAE at the worst time to get someone like that, in the first game of t tournament. It’s a tough group and we need to be on top of our game to come through,” he added.

Hong Kong Men’s Sevens Squad (Huizhou, China, 14-15 Sept 2019):

Max Woodward (Captain); Seb Brien*, Michael Coverdale, Jamie Hood, Lee Jones, Cado Lee Ka-to, Alex McQueen*, Raef Morrison*, Jack Neville, Ben Rimene*, Hugo Stiles, Russell Webb, Yiu Kam-shing.
*Season debut

Additional reporting and images: HKrugby

It’s Back!!! – Women’s Rugby Fixtures; 14 September, 2019

It’s Back!!!
Women’s Rugby returns!

All the action is free, come down and show your support!

Talented Youth Pushing for Hong Kong to Shine

There are four changes in the 13-woman squad for the second-leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series tournament in Huizhou as Hong Kong look to improve on their first-leg bronze medal. Jessica Ho, Amber Tsang Wing-chi and Agnes Tse Wing-kiu coming in as Florence Symonds, Amy Pyle and Lee Tsz-ting are rested.

The youth movement continues as coach Iain Monaghan uses every opportunity to expose Hong Kong’s emerging talent to next-level competition. After a seamless debut from Symonds, who scored a hat trick against Kazakhstan in the bronze medal final, coach Iain Monaghan is set to debut another in a long list of recent National Age Grade (NAG) candidates making senior debuts in forward Chloe Baltazar.

Baltazar is one of a block of Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers players entering the national side and has represented Hong Kong at U18 and U20s sevens level. She is joined in the squad by scrumhalf Jessica Ho Wai-on, one of the original wave of Tigers graduating from age grade to senior rugby in 2017, who earns her first sevens call-up of the season this weekend.

“The young girls bring bags of energy on and off the field, and they are still nowhere near their potential so it’s really exciting to watch them at this level. They all love giving their best to make Hong Kong and their families proud,” said Monaghan.

Monaghan complimented his newest cap Baltazar saying, “Chloe has transitioned well over the summer and played a strong role in the U20s team that won the Asian Series. She brings an edge in our contact tackles and some hard carries from her fifteens experience. She never takes a backward step and I’m pleased she is getting this chance, especially after how hard she worked this summer.”

Captain Melody Li leads the squad with Natasha Olson-Thorne and Nam Ka-man also featured, after successfully returning from injury and delivering impact in Korea. Their defensive skills will be needed with Hong Kong in a challenging group as second seeds in Pool B behind hosts China, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. China showed well to start the season, reaching the cup final in Korea before losing 19-5 to Japan. On home ground they enter as early favourites.

“We want a more consistent performance in both halves and to show our hunger and desire to improve on, and back up our strong performances from last week, while affording some new players a chance to show what they can do,” said Monaghan.

“It is a competitive and hard working squad, which is good, because we have some challenging games against improving opponents, who exposed us in Korea when we did not work harder or smarter; we’re looking forward to righting some wrongs from the last tournament,” he added.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens Squad (Huizhou, China, 14-15 Sept 2019):

Melody Li Nim-yan (Captain), Natasha Olson-Thorne, Sham Wai-sum, Chloe Baltazar^, Jessica Ho Wai-on*, Au Yeung, Sin-yi; Poon Hoi-yan; Nam Ka-man, Chong Ka-yan, Stephanie Chan Chor-ki, Jessica Eden, Amber Tsang Wing-chi*, Agnes Tse Wing-kiu*
^ First senior sevens cap; *Season debut

Additional reporting and images: HK rugby