I went on a junktrip today - and it’s been a really hot & beautiful day.

We sailed from discovery bay to the Soko Islands - in the southwestern tip of hong kong’s territory. It’s one of the nicest spots in Hong Kong, and virtually untouched.

Yes, we’ll be having wifi access on the subway in Hong Kong soon. See below article for the details.

http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/134642961/

I don’t sit in the MTR that often, but it’s another nice sign of how Internet access is starting to become ubiquitous.

Besides above, noteworthy is that Singapore is working on a city wide network of wifi access points. On my last trip I was able to access this public wifi network for free, from my hotel.

It’s a good day; my sis just gave birth to a healthy girl.

They call her Robbin - after ‘roodborstje’.

Congratulations bob, bar, yanieke.

Life’s a great thing isn’t it?

Last Friday we attended a friend’s wedding in the Peninsula hotel.

It was a great evening, with a beautiful view over the Hong Kong skyline. But unfortunately the pictures from my phone do not do justice to reality…

I’d never tried snake before today - even after 7 years in Hong Kong. So some time ago two of my colleagues had promised me to take me to a restaurant that has snakes on the menu. Today lunchtime was the day: snake day.

Although before we went to the restaurant I had vague imaginations of a chef in a kitchen struggling with a live snake and a knife, it was all rather more civilized in reality. In fact the only snake dish on the menu was a soup which included the snake meat - together with some chicken and vegetables.

We each had a bowl of the snake soup together with some more regular canto food (”cha siu” or barbecued pork).

The soup was tasty - I liked it. Quite close to chicken but just a touch to the sour side which I like (but it could have been the soup that gave it this taste).

They say snake meat makes you strong and it’s also perceived as heart warming. My colleagues tell me it’s best to eat on a cold day as it will make you feel warm the rest of the day.

Anyway - this beat my Pret or Big Apple sandwich for today.

H&M opened up its first outlet in Hong Kong recently. Today I passed by their new shop and found a 400 mtr queue along the main shopping street. WTH?? Why would you want to be queuing up to shop in an H&M store???

This is insane; it’s Hong Kong brand madness. To think that one would want to line up to get into an H&M is just unthinkable in any European country.

Ow - and I saw a lot of men lined up too - alone. So not just shop-aholic ladies dragging on their husbands / boyfriends…

What’s going on in the world.

After a trip to Ireland and Amsterdam I’m back in Hong Kong. The jet lag is nearly gone, but I still feel strangely tired or awake at odd times. It’s definitely worse now than on my way to Europe. Traveling West is easier than traveling East.

I’m traveling just too much lately, and I look forward to a few weeks without flying.

Back in Hong Kong we’re getting back into the wet season again. The humidity has shot up and it’s the time of the year that your towels just won’t dry up. So we have the dehumidifiers on and start wearing summer clothes again.

Two more weeks before our holiday starts - we’re off to the US while Matthijs will stay in Hong Kong with Opa and Oma who will arrive from Holland for a few weeks.

The year of the pig started on Sunday - and we had a few days off for the annual Lunar New Year celebrations.

Fortunately most of the new restaurants around DB are now open for business and in fact I had a great weekend just hanging out in ‘da bay’.

Okay here’s another Hong Kong frustration. Number two in the series, as number one was about Hong Kong office lifts.

This post is about 7-Eleven and my annoyance with the fact that they’re one of the many Hong Kong retailers and businesses that have picked up on a part of the local community’s liking for collecting garbage collectables.

The latest in their series is a hello bloody kitty pin. I’m sure it comes in a hundred varieties and that it’s a ‘limited edition’ etc. (bla bla bla). Now their brilliant marketing idea is that lots of people would like to collect these annoying little space wasters and are now triggered to go and buy their things in 7-Eleven rather than the local Park’ n Rob, Wellcome, or elsewhere. Eureka the concept of customer loyalty is born - give your customers lousy gifts and some of them will come back to get more and spend more.

Here’s the little bugger:

There are many reasons to make a point out of this:

1. This is not a stand-alone case; 7-Eleven has done this for ages, and many other stores are doing similar things.
2. Many people get this tossed into their bags or hands unasked, so I’m sure many hello bloody kitty pins end up straight in the bin, unwrapped.
3. It is a waste of energy.
4. Discarded unused gifts do damage to the environment.
5. Hello Bloody Kitty is just hugely annoying in itself and enough of a reason to kick this up big.

I’m sure 7-Eleven analyzes the ROI on these rubbish marketing actions, but I wonder how they do it. They’re in the business of small ticket, low value impulse purchases and the majority of people would just go to the nearest shop to purchase these items, whatever name it has or whatever incentive it offers.
And 7-Eleven is just so bloody big here that you just drop into one on every street corner.

A hello bloody kitty pin can only appeal to a very specific segment of 7-Eleven’s total customer group - do they really spend more if given lousy little gifts?

I’m afraid they do - but in fact there’s probably a bigger and higher value segment that is getting increasingly annoyed by these actions.

So what you gain at the bottom end, you’re loosing on the top end.

I say here’s what we do with ‘em hello bloody kitty pins:

They’re building up a fun fair in Admiralty. Some nice looking rides are being built.

I thought it was interesting to see just half of the Ferris Wheel sitting there today

Gloomy day today…