Ordinary Gweilo

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

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Month: Jun 2004

  • Marks & Sparks

    I have to admit that I have been following the events at Marks & Spencer with some interest. For many years M&S was hugely successful and very profitable, with an enviable reputation for good quality and reasonable prices. Then competition started getting tougher and profits fell, and the unthinkable happened – it became possible that…

  • Any excuse for a holiday

    Shaky is (I think) complaining that the reaction to the death of Ronald Reagan is out of proportion, especially the day’s holiday for most US civil servants this Friday. He points out that there was no holiday in the UK for the 60th anniversary of D-Day or for the Queen Mother’s funeral. True. There was…

  • Mayor Livingstone, I presume

    Strangest endorsement of the week comes from The Economist, who are supporting Ken Livingstone in Thursday’s election for Mayor of London.  I find this strange, firstly because Livingstone is normally regarded as a left-winger and The Economist is a right-wing newspaper, but also because it’s hard to see why they need to express an opinion at…

  • Wet and windy

    This afternoon the Hong Kong Observatory issued a typhoon warning (standby signal #1). From their website: This is a stand-by signal, indicating that a tropical cyclone is centred within 800 km of Hong Kong and may later affect the territory. Action – If you are planning an outing, remember that there is a tropical cyclone…

  • Everyone’s friend

    I think that “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” started on British TV after I fled the country, so I have never fully understood the hysteria that seemed to accompany the show. For some reason it caught the public imagination, and not just amongst the normal couch potatoes who watch ITV game shows, but amongst…

  • How stupid can they get?

    The latest piece of idiocy from the people who run football is apparently an effective ban on shirts with stripes on the back. It will start the season after next (2005-2006) in the English Premier League, but presumably they won’t stop there. The reasoning is that the players names on the back of shirts (introduced…

  • Copies, copies, everywhere

    Never mind that Hong Kong is apparently awash with copies of everything from watches to soy sauce, American TV is soon to be awash with copies of ‘The Apprentice’. As well as the direct copies (one will feature that bearded bloke who runs Virgin, another that bearded bloke who used to own Spurs), there appear…

  • A mystery solved

    I’ve been wondering where Simon had gone, and now I think I’ve figured it out. On Monday he took part in the cheese-rolling event in Gloucestershire. On Tuesday he popped over to Paris to watch Tim Henman win his quarter-final in the French Open, and tonight he has a secret assignation with Helen in London.…

  • Americans fail to get the joke

    Least surprising news of the week is that NBC will restrict their remake of the The Office to just six shows, after the pilot was very badly received by viewers. Viewers of the pilot show gave it the worst sitcom rating in NBC’s history, saying it was “too depressing.” What did they expect? Friends-style hilarity…

  • Facts vs. Common Sense

    I was slightly surprised to find that Conrad had suddenly taken an interest in obesity and inequality, having rather mysteriously started reading liberal columnists in The Guardian for inspiration. Polly Toynbee’s column was one of dozens (if not hundreds) in the UK on the subject of obesity, which seems to be a current national obsession…