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 2007

  • Expect delays

    There was a rather stupid letter in SCMP on Monday (Hidden cost of budget airlines – subscription required) about the recent problem Oasis had with a flight delay.  Here they go again – "Flat tyre takes the wind out of Oasis Flight" (April 8). The airline’s inaugural flight last October was delayed for 24 hours…

  • Always look on the bright side

    Spike has noticed the same thing I just noticed, namely that HSBC have decided to “improve” their PowerVantage account from the start of next year. The catch being, of course, that these improvements are accompanied by a substantial increase in the monthly fee if you don’t meet their minimum balance requirement – oh, and that…

  • Mr Jam

    I’ve mentioned Nury Vittachi’s blog here before.  Now he has redesigned it, purchased a new domain, and started writing a diary that is someone similar to the Lai See column of old (which ran in the SCMP until 1997 and then in the iMail for a year or two) – though naturally you can expect…

  • Van blanc

    The SCMP reports that new 5-seater taxis are to be introduced in the New Territories (subscription required).  Battery-powered seven-seater vans will soon be introduced across the New Territories as a more comfortable alternative to the usual taxis, with the same fares, at least initially.  The chairman of the Taxi and Public Light Bus Concern Group,…

  • Not so much of a bargain

    According to The Times: "It had to happen.  You can now fly around the world entirely on low-cost airlines." And most important, they mean you’ll end up with a serious bargain. For example, you could bag a fantastic trip from London to Hong Kong, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York and back to London for…

  • Headline here

    From the City section of today’s SCMP… OK, so the SCMP runs banal stories such as the one about children liking to chat on the Internet (who’d have guessed it?) or a building we’ve never heard of being structurally safe.  The question is what made someone sandwich those stories with the other 4 items that…

  • Not listening

    I knew this would happen.  I started using Pandora, and now it seems that it’s under threat, as the BBC reports: US webcasters will face sharp rises in royalty fees that could be "fatal" to the nascent industry, a coalition of web broadcasters has claimed. The increases will start on 15 May and will eventually…

  • Do the maths

    Someone please slap me around the face, will you? I think I’m about to something a bit daft. The problem is that I have lost my access to SCMP.com and I am therefore considering the rather radical step of actually paying for it. As luck would have it, the SCMP have written to me suggesting…

  • A foretaste of spring blossom

    Someone decided that it was a good idea to advertise these shoes to the "upmarket" (and presumably English speaking) readers of Post Magazine. Wouldn’t it have been worth checking the copy before submitting it?

  • Why not?

    Octopus cards can be used very widely these days, but not to buy tickets on the MTR or KCR.  That might sound a bit daft, but what if you a travelling with someone who doesn’t have an Octopus card?  Why do you have to use cash to buy a ticket when you could use your…