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: Jan 2005

  • Barking (up the wrong tree)

    I see that the SCMP is apparently still printing nonsense (paid subscription required) from Simon Patkin. I hadn’t noticed his article last Friday (mainly, I suppose because I didn’t read the paper that day), but there have been a steady stream of letters to the editor pointing out the stupidity of his views so I…

  • 100sq foot each

    100sq foot each is a new blog noticed by Simon.  The author is another Brit married to a Hong Kong Chinese, and he claims to live in Island East (as Swire are trying to persuade us to call the area they are re-developing in the vicinity of Quarry Bay).  He wishes us to know that…

  • 275,000,000 miles

    So what did I do with my useless Asia Miles (see below)?  Well, I gave them to charity – and I wasn’t the only one.  Amazingly, it seems that in the last couple of weeks Asia Miles customers have donated 137 million miles to the tsunami appeal.  Asia Miles offered to match those donations, so that means they have a total…

  • Miles and Miles

    The Economist frequently has light-hearted leaders.  This week their subject is the large number of frequent flyer miles that are outstanding, and they claim (somewhat mischeviously) that they have replaced the dollar as the world’s main currency.  Shaky mentioned this a few days ago (based on a report in The Guardian). This sounds absurd, and…

  • Firing duds

    I am trying to resist the temptation to write about ‘The Apprentice’, but I did enjoy this week’s episode so I’ll indulge myself.  This week Trump actually did something that appeared to be spontaneous and also made sense, which must be a first.  Many is the time when I’ve sat there thinking that he should…

  • Bye bye VHS

    A few weeks before Christmas, British retailer Dixons announced that it was going to stop selling VCRs (video cassette recorders).  This story generated a lot of interest, but it seems Dixons may have acted too hastily.  The Sun recently reported that other retailers have seen a huge rise in demand for VCRs and VHS tapes…

  • Asia Blog Awards 2004: it’s all over

    Simon has announced the results of the Asia Blog Awards.  When this all started I confessed my indifference towards the whole process, and nothing has really changed my views.  The top three for Hong Kong (as voted for by you, the people with access to several different computers) are as follows:  1. EastWestSouthNorth – 307 votes2. Glutter –…

  • No smoking in the street

    You may be aware that The Dublin Jack banned smoking a few months ago (Shaky mentioned it at the time).  However, it seems that the government is doing all it can to sabotage this sensible initiative.  This from the Irish Examiner The enterprising owner of the Dublin Jack banned smoking in his bar seeing an…

  • Big news: shop closes down in Hong Kong

    All the top news is in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English language newspaper. Just before Christmas they reported the exciting news that the Marks & Spencer store in Pacific Place will be closing down in June.  It’s obviously important because they returned to the story the following day, and again last…

  • Less than the cost of dim sum

    I didn’t see yesterday’s SCMP, but apparently it had a self-congratulatory story about the generosity of Hong Kong people under the headline: HK leads the world in tsunami relief The figures apparently show that whilst the Hong Kong government has not been very generous (giving less than US$4m), individuals have donated an average of US$7…