Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writing (mainly) about Hong Kong

recent posts

Archives

Categories

Month: May 2004

  • Self-interest rules (pt 94)

    Last Friday there was another demonstration by transport operators who want to protect their own interests and prevent new railway lines being built. The Standard reports that taxi and minibus drivers and owners are against the proposed South Island and West Island MTR lines. Noting the HK$5 million daily loss incurred by the Kowloon-Canton Railway…

  • 2 for 1

    Surrey haven’t made the best of starts to the cricket season. In fact, until a week ago they hadn’t won a single game in any competition, and had been beaten by Ireland in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy (if you don’t follow the game it might seem odd that an English county should play a…

  • C for cold

    As Harry would say, damn the Internet with all its informative web sites. I have been taking Vitamin C every day for quite a long time, but I read this article saying that there is no evidence that it is effective, so I thought I would stop for a while. Inevitably, a couple of days…

  • He’s back

    Henry is back from Singapore “for a day or two”. He notes one of the most irritating aspects of that otherwise fairly efficient city-state – taxis. Many is the time I have been standing in a queue waiting for a taxi and hoping that I wouldn’t be late for a meeting or miss my flight…

  • Don’t understand

    I hope someone can explain this to me. Simon posted a comment about his tax dollars, highlighting a rather old story about Hong Kong making a loan to Thailand and seemingly linking it to their madcap scheme to buy 30% of Liverpool FC. Then Conrad picked up the story and complained about his tax dollars.…

  • Don’t believe what you read in the newspapers

    These days, if you visit a large shopping mail in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand or many other Asian countries, you are likely to see many familiar international names. Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Ikea, Toys R Us, Carrefour, Wal Mart, HMV and many others have established themselves in the region. Some operate independently, others have significant…

  • Uh?

    From the Sunday Times, in a report on the FA Cup Final: It was not a good day for the romance of the Cup. Devalued by clubs more interested in the filthy lucre to be obtained from the Champions League, the tournament needs no-contests like this one like Canton needs another Chinese restaurant. Canton? Who…

  • Asiaxpat vs the shaky kaiser

    Shaky is not happy with asiaxpat. He hopes that a few links to his post will cause some hilarious consequences vis-a-vis Google listings. On which subject, did you know that at one time if you searched for NTSCMP in Google this site came up first? Even now, virtually all the links to NTSCMP still come…

  • Like a wet market

    Has Hemlock had been drafted in by Selina Chow to write her speeches? The legislator and chairwoman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board complained that a proposed new bus terminal “looks like a wet market”. Would that be like the wet market in Wan Chai that some people want to preserve? Presumably not… It does…

  • Off the Rails

    The MTRC is pressing the government to support the planned West and South Island lines. They are asking the government to grant them property development rights at one of the planned stations, which will provide some of the cash they need, but they also want HK$6bn from the government. The MTRC is a strange organization…