Ordinary Gweilo

Been a bit busy these last couple of days, so I'm afraid this is all I can manage for now. I didn't watch that old geezer on the TV yesterday and I haven't read a newspaper today, so I can't offer any words of wisdom on the Policy Address or pontificate on the SARS thing. Well, I could, but I'm not going to. However, I can write a few hundred words about blogs.

Phil has announced the results of the Asian Weblog Awards, and The Gweilo Diaries has won the Hong Kong section. Conrad seems to be back in business after the technical problems of earlier this week, and has celebrated by adding this blog to his blogroll and having a go at NTSCMP. George Adams (self-described as "founding editor" of the website, if you will) fired back a few barbs of his own, thereby demonstrating that if he sticks to one-liners and avoids being so pompous and self-righteous he can be quite entertaining. Simon didn't win 'Best New Blog' in spite of leading for much of the time, but he was the runner-up, and also finished 3rd in the Hong Kong category Big White Guy was 2nd). Reading Simon's blog was what convinced me to start mine (and you can draw your own conclusions from that), and so (through gritted teeth, I have to admit), I offer my congratulations! He celebrated by promoting this blog to his main list of HK blogs (rather than the 'click here for more HK blogs' backwater where I was previously located).

Simon has more good news that he can't resist telling the world, namely that his wife is pregnant. I always thought it was tempting fate to tell too many people at such an early stage, but perhaps that's just a Chinese thing. Many congratulations to Simon and Mrs M, and I hope everything goes smoothly.

Which reminds me that my wife and I went over to Macau for a few days last month, and on the way to the station we met a neighbour with her 3 year-old son. When we told her where we were going, she told us that this child was "made in Macau". Another one for my "way too much information" collection.

Finally, I was having dinner yesterday in a restaurant (that will remain nameless) in Fashion Walk (Causeway Bay), and there was a lot of noise at the next table. The reason soon became clear, as a large rat wandered out, had a look at the shop opposite and then disappeared down an alleyway. A security guard took a look, talked into his radio and then carried on standing there lifelessly. Perhaps when the Guangdong authorities have finished exterminating all their rats (#2 on their list after civet cats) perhaps they could pop down to Causeway Bay.

I think that's me done for today. I'll try a bit harder tomorrow, and no more about blogs unless there's a really good excuse.