People are coming out of Hong Kong's underground railway, known as the M(ass)T(ransit)R(ailway), and going back home. It has stations named after the stopover districts. Coming out of the specific distircts'history, some names are amusing if you read it literally. Take for example, Tsim Sha Tsui (Pointed Sandy Mouth), Yaumatei (Oily Sesame Place), Mongkok (Busy Corner), Shek Kip Mei (Stony Gorge End), Kowloon Tong (Nine Dragons Pool) and Tsing Yi (Green Clothing). The most successful experience the MTR keeps touting to the neighbouring countries, and rightly so, is the electronic instant payment method implemented jointly with all the major public transport. The payment is facilitated by the Octopus Card, which has extended its use to almost every aspect of life from buying newspapers on the street to paying fines in the public libraries. The Octupus Card has morphed into different forms from wrist watches to cellphone lanyard pendants. This may ring a bell to its counterpart in Britain, the Oyster Card. I am interested to know whether the idea of the Oyster actually came out of its Octupus cousin's.
(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work. I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention. The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200. People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene. To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene. The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy. Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth. A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it? I wonder whether the
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