For those interested in the progress of the campaign against illegal parking there is good news and bad news.
First the good news. There were signs over the weekend that our months of complaining about the softly-softly approach by police and traffic wardens to illegally parked vehicles appears to be paying off. Our man on the spot reports that on Sunday morning three policemen and one traffic warden were busy booking every car the minute the parking meter expired.
Now for the bad news. You might wonder where this display of enthusiasm occurred. In Hong Kong's most congested areas - Central, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai? Alas no, this diligent ticketing was being conducted in Big Wave Bay public car park, Shek O, which is about half the size of a football pitch. Meanwhile back in Wan Chai, illegal parking was rampant as usual, with cars everywhere, and of course no policemen or traffic wardens.
We are continuing to receive a stream of "observations" from HSBC's ATM card users about the tribulations of attempting to access their funds using the China UnionPay payments system outside Asia. The latest comes from a Dutchman who, frustrated at not being able to extract his cash using his HSBC ATM, card, rang HSBC in Amsterdam. It advised him to consult the China UnionPay website in the hope of finding one that would work. When he visited the "UnionPay in Europe" page and clicked on "Holland", he was confronted with a list of ATMs in Vietnam. Which we can verify is how things still stand today.