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: Apr 2006

  • Later

    I’m a bit preoccupied, so I suggest you go and read something funny or something controversial.  Then before you know it I’ll be back with more drivel about cheese.

  • Well, you would say that…

    I see that our old friend Julian Harniess is in the news again. The English Schools Foundation (ESF) held a Press Conference on Monday to announce the proposed new ordinance that will fundamentally change the way the organization is run.  From the SCMP, which mysteriously headlined its story Controversial ESF reforms on the table: The…

  • No news, then

    On Sky News tonight they seem to have replaced the news bulletins with wall-to-wall coverage of a rich old woman walking around Windsor and being given flowers.  Apparently she got 20,000 birthday cards and 17,000 emails (unfortunately 16,999 of them were actually offers of V/I/A/G/R/A from the likes of Osvaldo Blackmon and Mireria Goggin).  What…

  • Pesticides’n’Stuff

    So why do you buy your vegetables in Park’n’Shop or Wellcome rather than the local wet market? Is it because:(1) I figure that a reputable supermarket chain has good quality control(2) "Everyday high prices"(3) If I can just get five more stamps I can buy some high-quality cookware from Europe(4) What harm can a little…

  • Still in the holiday mood

    In the UK, public holidays almost always fall on a Monday or are part of a longer holiday. Not so in Hong Kong, where a public holiday can fall on any day of the week – yes, even Saturday (cue howls of protest from Gweilos working a five-day week who don’t realize how lucky they…

  • In the holiday mood

    I was wondering why Air France business class fares from Hong Kong to London are so low, and then I read Boris Johnson’s comments on a recent flight with this fine airline. Meanwhile Oasis Hong Kong Airlines have a leased a couple of 747s previously owned by Singapore Airlines but won’t start flying to London…

  • Idiots

    The SCMP is such an easy target, so here we go again. They currently have a letter column and also a section called ‘Talkback’ (for emails).  I cannot figure out what difference there is between them – presumably most of the letters they receive come via email, so it can’t be that.  You might think…

  • Fools

    Last week I mentioned that Jake van der Kamp had been caught out by an April Fool . He was big enough to apologize for this the next day, and not just as a footnote but in the headline and first few paragraphs of his column. Yet if you go to the SCMP website you…

  • Why?

    Apple have announced that it is now possible to run Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac.  The question is why anyone would want to do that… Windows XP is the best operating system Microsoft have produced (so far), but when you can run it on any old PC you buy, why pay a premium for…

  • April Fool

    Poor old Jake van der Kamp was caught out rather badly by an April Fool played by the Lion Rock Institute.  Phil spotted that the press release was a spoof, which is actually fairly obvious if you look at their list of anti-trust behaviour – there are some silly Hong Kong examples (McDonalds predatory pricing…