Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, 7 November, 2020

They died for our freedom and we should never forget..
At the going down of the sun…
And in the morning…
We shall remember them

Volunteers young & old, were selling poppies on the streets of Central on 7 November, 2020.

Poppies can be obtained at the following location:
Temporary Poppy Depot at Room 3505, The Landmark Edinburgh Tower, Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong (Tel : 2713 3315).
Opening hours: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Poppy-Appeal-7-November-2020/i-b9VtNq5

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Images: Royal British Legion Hong Kong

Remembrance Day 2020 – Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day

We wear a poppy
On Remembrance Day,
And at eleven
We stand and pray.
Wreaths are put
Upon a grave.
As we remember
Our soldiers brave.

The Poppy Appeal in Hong Kong

Poppies can be obtained at the following location:

Temporary Poppy Depot at Room 3505, The Landmark Edinburgh Tower, Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong (Tel : 2713 3315).
Opening hours: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm

Saturday 7th November 2020 – Poppy Day.
The streets of Hong Kong Island from 9am – 12:15pm.

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 – Laurence Binyon (2014)

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

– John McCrae

Mars Upclose…

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a trove of almost 100,000 images of the red planet. Captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard the Mars Express orbiter the images were taken between 2007 and 2020.

There are also images of the release of the Beagle 2 lander in 2003. While the images have been released for scientific study, the public can browse them as well.

The image archive has hundreds of photos of Mars taken from orbit, showing the huge range of geographical features and diverse formations found on the planet. In the collage of images here, you can see everything from dust and water over the north pole (first image, top row), to an unusual cloud formation called the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (second image, top row), to a double cyclone raging over the planet’s north pole (fourth image, top row), to the enormous structures of the Tharsis Volcanoes and Olympus Mons (third image, second row), to the Valles Marineris canyon system (third image, third row).

The VMC was originally intended to observe the release of the British Beagle 2 lander, transported to Mars by ESA in 2003. However the lander disappeared after its deployment and its exact fate remained unknown until 2015, when NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera captured its location. From the images, engineers could see that Beagle 2 landed safely but failed to deploy two of its solar panels, meaning it was not able to communicate with Earth.

Despite the failure of the Beagle 2 mission, the VMC was repurposed in 2007, and has been used to capture images for various scientific papers about Mars.

Note that the images have been adjusted for sensor ‘noise’ and variations in pixel sensitivity and the results are stunning.

Image: ESA Planetary Science Archive

Ruby Tuesday HK Unaffected by US Announcement

Following the announcement in the United States that Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain was entering what’s known as Chapter 11 Bankruptcy to ‘restructure’ it’s business.

Managing Director of Ruby Tuesday in Hong Kong Leslie Bailey released the following statement today 8 October:

“Ruby Tuesday Inc. in the US has filed for bankruptcy protection as it seeks to stabilize its finances during the pandemic. Do know that this does not affect Ruby Tuesday Hong Kong, we are an independent franchisee, and although we all share the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, this event in the US does not impact our restaurant operations in Hong Kong.

We opened two new restaurants last year, and one in January this year. In addition to this, and to underscore our commitment and belief in Hong Kong, we continue our expansion and, we will open a new flagship restaurant before CNY.”

Ruby Tuesday Hong Kong have five restaurants in Hong Kong: Causeway Bay, Quarry Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsuen Wan, Kowloon Bay

HK Express Flycation

Staycations are very popular these days, but how about a ‘flycation’?

For those who are missing flying HK Express has announced a local ‘flight to nowhere’. Known as #UOFlycation –  the new 1.5-hour flight will circle the city offering a different view of the many beautiful areas of Hong Kong that we catch a glimpse of on regular arriving or departing flights.

#UOFlycation launches in November but no details of prices or schedules have been announced as yet

Digital Only…

A broadcasting era ends on 30 November as analogue TV signals are switched off at midnight and from 1 December Hong Kong TV broadcasting becomes digital-only.

The government has advised that people still using analogue TVs  (around 68 000 households based on a recent survey) should obtain digital TV receivers, or they will not be able to access free local TV programmes.

Analogue TV households who are on social assistance programmes can apply at digitaltv.hkcss.org.hk/en/ for a free digital TV set.

Tomorrow

DXG and the musical team behind Glory to Hong Kong have released a new song Tomorrow (in Japanese) to say thank you to all those across the world who #standwithHK