🌊Flower Market's comeback
🌊Flower Market's comeback
An era of surprising returns
Good morning,
It’s been a while- surprise :0 Because life and people are both messy, (I can power through a very nocturnal typing sprint).
Spot The Difference, to start the day anyone?
— Charlotte
On Today’s Tide
Updates | Flower Market coming soon
COVID | Tour groups potentially allowed into showcase events
Politics | UK lawyer to defend Jimmy Lai on the stand
Events
Behind the paywall:
Aviation | Cathay Pacific’s new CEO
JUMBO | A [glorious] return…?
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Flower Market to make a return this year
Wednesday signalled the start of the most scintillating auction ever: HK florists bidding for stalls at the previously-annual Flower Market, now to make its return from January 16-22 next year at 15 different locations (including the beloved Victoria Park)!
The bidding for any one of the 120 stall spaces sold so far saw up to ten times the opening price (so far), with the highest bid being a whopping HK$56k for a 3x4 metre stall. [insert intelligent commentary on housing prices] There are 175 stalls for sale in total.
Florists are optimistic despite the potential threat of the market being cancelled for a second consecutive time- if the epidemic were to make a roaring return to its worst.
The remaining 55 stalls of this two-day sale will be auctioned off on Thursday. So all you (aspiring) florists out there, get ready to invest, because there’s certainly big money- HK$2mil in profit, as an example- to be made from roses and lilies alone.
COVID in Hong Kong
COVID-19 in Hong Kong
New cases: 5,068
Total cases: 1,962,610
New deaths: 13
Total deaths: 10,492
Compulsory Testing locations: 48
Special exemption for tour groups, maybe
Inbound tour groups might be allowed to bypass travel restrictions and head straight to specially considered showcase events of HK. Like the 7s, or the Art Basel Fair.
Authorities are eager to welcome back tourists to get that economy flowing again- more calling to ease that ‘0+3’ surveillance period, though it’s doubtful that all travel curbs will be eased by the end of this year. Yet there’s talk about making the amber code more flexible to accommodate larger travel groups.
Jimmy Lai gets his lawyer
Finally after months of back and forth between the DoJ and the High Court, Jimmy Lai is out of legal limbo and will get the London Counsel he asked for all along.
While the Department of Justice originally struck down Lai’s request to have Tim Owens as his lawyer, the High Court admitted Owens in October owing to his world class experience in human rights law.
The DoJ then appealled against the decision saying that Owens wouldn’t add anything to the case and that a local lawyer would serve better. In their latest appeal, they even said that National Security is different from other cases and that Owens, being a gweilo, doesn’t speak Chinese and just wouldn’t understand.
The courts said that the language element was blown “out of proportion” and that non-Chinese speaking lawyers had served in other NSL cases, so this wouldn’t be a problem.
Lai’s trial is set to start on 1 Dec.
Events and deals
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Carbon Brews: Mui Wo Beach Party
Carbon brews is launching their new pale ale Bright Side! Celebrate in style at the Beach House in Mui Wo for a sunny afternoon of all-you-can-drink carbon brews beers, groovy music, beach games with prizes/merch and more.
Where: The Beach House, Silver Mine Bay Beach, Mui Wo
When: 26/11, 1-5pm
Cost: $128 per person
CHOMP! One Year Anniversary Party!
Our friends at CHOMP! are turning one! We first met the founders of the food saving app, Chris and Carla, at ReThink 2021 and we’ve since featured Carla as a Leader of The Week and in articles on sustainability.
Come celebrate with us on 11 Nov as we bring in another year of not throwing away food that’s still good.
Where: House Studio, Soho House. Sheung Wan
When: 11/11, 7-11pm
Cost: $100 (+fees)
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