The fairground midway is all about fun and excitement, sometimes though it’s nice to take a break, grab a bite and a drink and soak up the merriment.
The food offerings at last year’s Great European Carnival were pretty gross all told. This year several restaurants are running the show including Maverick’s, Cafe Siam and f&b company Color Chacha. There are also two candy floss and popcorn stands for all ages to enjoy. Beer is $50 for a cup. There are no water fountains on the midway
Color Chacha’s stuffed waffle Imagawayaki ($20) are available in double cheese, Hokkaido creamy custard, matcha and banana and chocolate and are very tasty. They are also offering a range of colourful fruit and sweet drinks.
Scorhios naan bread pizza is tasty but pretty pricey at $110 for a pizza that is less than 12 inches. Individual 1/4 pizza slices are $30. Flavours include Peps and Roni’s, The Fun Guys and Marge & Ritas.
The Spanish Volvo Ocean Race team MAPFRE wins Leg 3 from Cape Town to Melbourne, a 6,500 nautical mile dive into the fierce challenges posed by the Southern Ocean.
For the second consecutive leg, MAPFRE needed to come from behind to earn the victory. And for the second time in a row, it was Dongfeng Race Team they passed mid-stage, to snatch the win.
“We had to fight very hard for this victory,” skipper Xabi Fernández said moments after crossing the finish line. “There’s so much of the race to go. But for now it’s looking good and we’re very happy of course.”
The Southern Ocean pushed the teams to the limit. Extreme cold, storm force winds for days on end and towering seas posed massive seamanship challenges, let alone allowing for racing and tactics.
“The strongest point for this team is the group of people we have,” Fernandez acknowledged. “They are so good and give us so much and have been working so hard on this leg. It was so tough, but it’s all gone perfect. Now we have a few days for recovery and we can get ready for the next one.
Leg 3, Cape Town to Melbourne, Start. Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race. 10 December, 2017.
Dongfeng Race Team, nursing home a boat with a damaged keel system was able to fend off a late charge by Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel to secure second place finish. It’s the second consecutive second place finish for skipper Charles Caudrelier’s team and this one will be bittersweet. The team led for much of this hard Southern Ocean leg and were disappointed to see MAPFRE make a pass to take the win
“This was the toughest leg I’ve ever done,” Caudrelier said. “We had this big fight with MAPFRE for most of the race and then a big problem on board just before the finish. A crazy section of gybing around the ice limits, it was a very, very difficult leg. We’re a bit disappointed after leading 80 per-cent of the time to give first place up to MAPFRE, but there are more legs to come and we will do better.”
Vestas 11th Hour Racing grabbed the final spot on the podium. Just after crossing the finishing line, Mark Towill, team director and co-skipper acknowledged the scale of the achievement “It was a tough leg. We’re happy to be on the podium again. It’s great to be in on Christmas and I know we’re all looking forward to getting ashore. It was a difficult leg, hard on the bodies, but everyone has held up well.”
Leg 3, Cape Town to Melbourne, day 5, Morning watch on board Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag. Photo by Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race. 14 December, 2017.
The Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew finished behind Dongfeng Race Team but ahead of Team Brunel. At one point, with about 36 hours to go, the race tracker showed nothing to choose between Vestas and Dongfeng in terms of distance to finish, but in reality, the tactical situation favoured the Chinese/French boat.
“It was looking pretty close for a little while, but they were always ahead,” Towill said. “They were always comfortable. Brunel sailed well too so credit to them. It was challenging conditions and we’re all happy to be here and in one piece.”
In fourth place was Team Brunel, skipper Bouwe Bekking knows it keeps his team in touch with leaders but wants to be challenging the leaders. hoa
“It’s been a really hard leg. We always expected it would be tough and it lived up to that,” Bekking said. “Plenty of breeze and some awesome sailing as well.
Fifth place in Leg 3 went to Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag who managed to hold off Turn the Tide on Plastic, for the second consecutive leg. Skipper David Witt steered Scallywag across the Melbourne finish line on a sunny boxing day, just in time for lunch. Turn the Tide on Plastic was less than three hours behind, after over two weeks and 6,500 nautical miles of close, hard-fought racing.
“Aussies arriving home after a tough leg. 6th place – shame we couldn’t catch those Scally’s. We tried and it was close. Hopefully next time,” tweeted Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper Dee Caffari as her boat approached the finish line.
Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race represented a return to the roots of the race – a dip down to the Roaring Forties of the Southern Ocean, where storm systems circle Antarctica, unimpeded by land. The result is day after day of cold, strong winds and fearsome seas.
“The Southern Ocean always turns it on,” said Scallywag’s Luke Parkinson as the boat pulled up to the dock. “There are big waves and a lot of wind. This time we probably spent more time further south with day after day of big wind. It certainly can wear you down. When we turned left and headed up to Australia it was pretty special – a very good feeling. We’ve got to rest up now and be ready to leave in a few days.”
It’s an abbreviated stopover in Melbourne, with restrictions on how much work the crews are allowed to do on the boats, ahead of the start of Leg 4, to Hong Kong, on January 2, 2018.
Leg 3, Cape Town to Melbourne, day 06, on board Dongfeng. Rough sailing condition close to the ice gate. Black at the pit. Photo by Martin Keruzore/Volvo Ocean Race. 15 December, 2017.
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 – Provisional Results
MAPFRE – 14 days, 04h:07m:21s
Dongfeng Race Team – 14 days, 08h:10m:16s
Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 14 days, 09h:52m:11s
Team Brunel – 14 days, 11h:36m:27s
Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag -15 days, 13h:06m:31s
Turn the Tide on Plastic -15 days, 15h:52m:50s
team AkzoNobel – still racing
Volvo Ocean Race Leaderboard
MAPFRE – 29 points
Dongfeng Race Team – 23 points
Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 23 points
Team Brunel – 14 points
Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag – 11 points
AkzoNobel – 7 points
Turn the Tide on Plastic – 6 points
Additional reporting, images: Volvo Ocean Race, Martin Keruzore, Jeremie Lecaudey, Konrad Frost, Ainhoa Sanchez
Christmas Eve at Churchill’s an English pub in Wanchai: mulled wine, roast turkey n trimmings, mince pies and lots of Christmas cheer.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images
The Great European Carnival has returned to the Central Harbourfront complete with a big top circus, concerts and a wide range of new rides, games and food to keep all the family entertained until the 25 February, 2018.
bc was there on opening night to catch all the early fun. Click on any photo for the full gallery of images.
Shawn Mendes brought his Illuminate World Tour to AsiaWorld Expo this week to the joy of screaming fans of all ages. Mendes performed all his hits and songs from his new album finishing with an encore of
The full set list was: There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back Lights On Handwritten Medley The Weight A Little Too Much Stitches Bad Reputation Ruin Life Of The Party Three Empty Words Patience Roses Bad Reputation Reprise No Promises Understand Don’t Be A Fool Mercy Never Be Aone/Hey There Delilah
Looking for something different this festive season? Perhaps Pizza Express’ Christmas menu which includes two festive pizzas and a range of themed dishes might interest you.
The seasonal a la carte menu features a baked cheese melt starter ($65), a turkey Caesar salad ($128), Farfalle con Tacchino ($133, turkey pasta with a white cream sauce) and Pumpkin Cannelloni ($138) – this is ok, the pureed pumpkin, spinach and cheese filling is tasty but it perhaps could have been delicious if the pumpkin had been in chunks to give the filling some texture and substance.
There are two festive pizza: Tacchinao Rosmarino ($153) – a thin crust pizza topped with turkey, cranberry and sweet peppadew sauce, pancetta, mozzarella, tomato sauce, a sprinkle of rosemary and pine nuts. The Cicciolo e Fontina ($153) features pork, pork shin, fontina, mozzarella, Parmesan with caramelized onions, garlic oil, béchamel sauce and thyme served on a thin crust pizza.
Strange sounding combinations they may seem, but they’re both not bad. The turkey one, perhaps a little sweet to eat a full pizza yourself. But Pizza Express allows mixing and matching so we sampled a half/half combination which was delicious.
Dessert options are Apple Tortino ($88, a baked apple, cinnamon and puff pasty combination topped with vanilla gelato) and a Snowy Date Pudding ($88) which is rather nice. The warm pudding in a sauce of honey yoghurt and raspberry coulis topped with vanilla gelato.
The festive menu is available at all Pizza Express outlets until 1 January, 2018
League leaders Tai Po Dragons defeated Kowloon Ladies 22-12 at Shek Kip Mei, while SCAA CWB Phoenix claimed third, seeing off City Sparkle 38-8. In the Women’s Premiership, the two leaders confirmed their positions – Valley Black prevailed 30-15 after being pushed hard by USRC Tigers and Gai Wu Falcons beat HKFC Ice 29-12.
In the contest to top the Premiership Development League it was Kowloon ahead early and looking effective and full of running. On 15 minutes a forwards move was worked across the backline, then on via the forwards again with hooker Yuk Wun Yip finishing off under the posts and converted by Ho Yee Mak.
The Dragons were quick to reorganise and spent much of rest of the first half in Kowloon’s rear quarter, albeit against a determined defence. Just before the break Tai Po leveled the scores, 7-7, taking possession in midfield and passing quickly out to the left wing for Kwong Sau Yan to go over.
Three minutes into the second half and Tai Po took the lead courtesy of a wonderful solo effort by Oyinlola Kim Lee, who secured a turnover at a ruck inside her own 22 and then ran 70 metres, slicing through the Kowloon back line en route to scoring in the right-hand corner.
The rest of the second half saw Tai Po looking to play a territorial game, through sharp kicking and forcing errors and then looking to exploit them. Two similar team tries won the Dragons the game, securing the ball in the centre, working it for a couple of phases, and moving the ball quickly down the right-hand channel, once in the hands of Wong Wing Ying, and then by Chui Tung Yan in the 57th and 74th minutes respectively.
A last-minute try from Kowloon, by Hiu Tung Chan was little more than a consolation score.
Tai Po coach Tsang Hing Hung was understandably pleased with the effort “In the first half, our girls were not really concentrating, we allowed [Kowloon] too much space. But after we lost that first try, we reorganised and got our girls keeping pressure on them, and then we controlled the game through the rest of the half,” said Tsang.
“Throughout the game our ball handling and decision-making were not so good, leaving our attack weak. But our positioning was good and that kept us in control. We played pretty well after the first try.”
For Kowloon, Jonathan Ho saw an important game slip from his hands but he had no complaints about the winners. “We just gave them an early Christmas present today. The result was largely down to unforced errors that we made. Really we just killed ourselves,” he rued before adding. “Our own mistakes kept us inside our own 22, and gave too many opportunities to Tai Po.”
While Ho put the loss down to his own side’s errors, he conceded that Tai Po were on top for most of the game. “Their defence was exceptionally good, and that allowed them to put us under pressure that we couldn’t cope with. We are underperforming as a team. We won three games in a row but losing this means we aren’t good enough. This was a lesson, and we have to go away, re-work and step up again.”
In the Women’s National League 2, SCAA CWB Lammergeier showed why they head that table, retaining possession of the NL 2 Challenge Shield with a 59-5 win over City RFC Twinkles.
