IT was the administrators' turn to waffle on. For weeks now the annual Policy Address debate had been in full burble. First there had been the Chief Executive, then the legislators and now the policy secretaries were having a go.
Transport Secretary Nicholas Ng Wing-fui was giving sceptical legislators a lightning tour of Hong Kong's road-map to a brighter future. Suddenly, he stopped to hail a bus.
Here, trundling up the road - looking remarkably like an old China Motor Bus vehicle with a new soap-and-polish - was his chance to point to at least one success for his bureau.
It was, once you read the tiny label stuck over the old CMB lettering, unmistakably a blue and white vehicle from the dynamic, nearly-new New World First Bus stable.
Mr Ng seized the opportunity to remind the Legislative Council what a good job First Bus had been doing since it took over 88 routes from the unlamented CMB in September.
The service, he said, had been running smoothly and the company had used various channels to consult the public on ways to improve its services further. He pointed to its Internet homepage and its customer liaison group as evidence of its forward-looking, customer-oriented approach. Performance, he said, was encouraging.