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: Jul 2004

  • and then there were six

    I’m still finding ‘The Apprentice’ fairly compulsive viewing. Last week (episode nine) the teams were given the task of selling modern art, and this week they had to run a fleet of pedicabs in New York City for one day.

  • Not so bad after all

    It’s uncanny how often alarmist stories in newspapers prove to be totally wrong. Thinking back to 1997, I was in the UK shortly after the handover and everyone who knew I was living in Hong Kong asked me how things had changed. My answer was that life carried on as normal, and the only thing…

  • Damp squib

    Hong Kong had its first no.8 typhoon signal of the year today. Almost everyone leaves work and rushes home, and some people join long queues in supermarkets. Wait an hour or two and the streets are clear, public transport is still operating (but with few passengers) the supermarkets are still open (and largely empty), and…

  • No surprise there, then

    Least surprising news of the week is that Cable TV is dropping ESPN and Star Sports from the middle of next month. Oh, sorry, what I meant to say was that Now Broadband TV has beaten off stiff competition from Cable TV to secure ESPN and Star Sports (more in the SCMP if you are…

  • Free – at a price

    Funny thing Frequent Flyer programs. I think I have miles in three or four different programs – I have a large number of miles in one program, a few in another one and some more that are about to expire in a third. Should I pay a fee to keep my miles alive for another…

  • Gangsters (and more water)

    Spike actually had an exclusive this week, with a story claiming that a well-known local businessman was responsible for the threats that prompted Albert Cheng King-hon and Raymond Wong Yuk-man to quit their radio shows. They didn’t name the businessman, but you might get a clue from Hemlock‘s take on the story. The unfortunate thing…

  • Six and Out

    Each country has its own rules governing how long foreign nationals can stay and whether they can work. However, as far as I am aware, normally the difficult part is getting a visa in the first place, and once it has been granted you can stay at least as long as your contract of employment…

  • Mug Punters

    This week the Jockey Club announced that although their turnover on football betting was lower than expected, the profit margins were much better than they had expected. They say that this is because of some unexpected results in major competitions, but my information is that it is actually a matter of mug punters and good…

  • Nice cheese, shame about the fly

    This is from a brochure that a British supermarket gave out to the press. Seems no-one noticed the fly feasting on the Stilton… Full story here Our promise – more stories about cheese than any other Hong Kong blog!

  • Hong Kong fashions we don’t like (2)

    Grandpas in pyjamas. In public. Nothing more needs to be said, I think.