So many things to collect, so little time to sleep
An avid collector stayed away from home for two nights to be at the front of the queues to buy tickets in both the Jockey Club's 125th anniversary sweepstakes and Standard Chartered Bank's HK$150 notes.
Leung Shing-chi, 60, was the first in the queue to buy the Jockey Club tickets, which went on sale yesterday. He was kept busy for three consecutive days buying the sweepstakes, the banknotes and special-edition stamps for National Day.
On Wednesday, Leung arrived at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the HK$150 banknotes went on sale at 8am the next day. He was the first in line, and waited until Thursday morning to buy 10 single banknotes priced at HK$280 each.
On Thursday afternoon, he rushed to a post office to get his hands on a National Day first day cover issued by Hongkong Post. He also visited a racecourse to get another National Day-themed first day cover issued by the Jockey Club.
But there was room in Leung's busy schedule to take in some of the National Day celebrations, so he watched Thursday evening's fireworks display at Victoria Harbour. Then he resumed his patient quest, arriving at the Jockey Club's old Star Ferry branch in Central at about 9.30pm. Again, he was the first in the queue, waiting for the 2.5 million sweepstakes tickets to go on sale yesterday morning.
'I was a free guard for the Jockey Club,' Leung joked as he had his picture taken with club chairman John Chan Cho-chak. He used HK$400 to buy a full set of 20 tickets.
Leung took up stamp-collecting when he was six. Over the years, his interest in collecting expanded to include coins, banknotes and various souvenirs. 'I spend around HK$20,000 a year [on my hobby] and have now accumulated 10 boxes of collectables at home,' said the exhausted but excited Leung.
It was the second time in 10 years that the Jockey Club has issued sweepstakes tickets. Each ticket costs HK$20. In contrast, they cost HK$2.10 in the 1960s, when the club held sweepstakes regularly.
Leung said his life had changed for the better since those days. 'In the past we led hard lives. There was so little income... I could not afford to buy sweepstakes tickets often.'
He said collectables provide good company for him as his retirement nears. 'They do not scold you or beat you ... even better than a wife,' Leung said.
At the second place in the queue at the Jockey Club was a woman in her 50s. She also went after the HK$150 banknotes and first day covers celebrating National Day. She remembered buying sweepstakes tickets when she was a child, lured by their attractive colours.
The sweepstakes tickets come in 20 different designs: 10 depicting milestones in the Jockey Club's history and another 10 showing 'Equine Heroes' - great horses in Hong Kong's racing history.
Each ticket comes with a lucky-draw ticket. If the horse number on that matches the number of the winning horse in the 125th Anniversary Club race on November 15, the holder will be eligible for the lucky draw. The first prize will be HK$12.5 million in gold.
There are four prizes for the lucky draw, but anyone holding a sweepstakes ticket bearing the number of the winning horse will receive a HK$20 Jockey Club coupon.
