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 2008

  • Apprentice Week 6 – adverts

    Last week, Matthew was fired for being an ‘awkward character’ and Saira had a lucky escape and a big falling out with Paul.  The teams are picked up by a London bus with an advert for ‘The Apprentice’ on its side.  They get a phone call from Sugar, who wants the teams to prepare an…

  • Prince Caspian – a stupid adaptation

    Having watched the film (which opened a few weeks ago in Hong Kong), and read the book, I have to say something about the horrible job they have done of adapting this children’s classic for the cinema. In the book, the story starts (as it should) with the Pevensie children.  They are on a railway…

  • Rush hour in the middle of the day

    Another day, another no.8 storm signal  in Hong Kong. This one was somewhat unexpected, because Tropical Storm Fengshen was originally supposed to be heading towards Taiwan, but it changed direction and went right past Hong Kong. The no.8 signal was raised late last night, and early this morning it was very windy and very wet,…

  • Trump is puzzled that no-one is taking him seriously

    I find myself drawn to the Celebrity Apprentice (TVB Pearl, Saturdays 8.30 pm) with a sense of grim foreboding.  How many ways can it go horribly wrong? Several, as it turns out. In week one, it was nothing more than a contest to see which “celebrity” could get their friends to pay the most for…

  • Revolting parents, supine journalists

    The story of the week in Hong Kong’s First Free English Newspaper (HKFFEN) seems to be the “revolt” by parents against a fee increase by the ESF (English Schools Foundation). We all know that The Standard (HKFFEN) is run on a shoestring, and in this case it seems clear that the revolting parents have fed…

  • East is the new West (VS238 reappears)

    A couple of years ago, Virgin added a second daily flight to London to their schedule to start in November.  I mentioned it, but then they quietly dropped it before starting the service. Now it seems to be back, but unfortunately it is an afternoon flight from Hong Kong, arriving at Heathrow (boo) in the…

  • Euro 2008 on Now TV – a town called Basil

    Now TV seem to be doing a fairly good job of covering Euro 2008.  All the games are available in High Definition and on-demand, and channel 632 has 24 hours a day of live games, re-runs, previews and highlights.  They even have re-runs on 660 (HD), which they don’t do for the EPL. There is…

  • Apprentice week 5 – modern art

    Just a brief summary of week 5, in which the teams had to choose an artist and then sell their work. I thought the wrong person got fired.  The two teams both chose the same artist, and so it was down to the artist to select which team to work with.  Saira and Raj had…

  • The Apprentice – Harrods

    As usual, things pick up straight after last week’s boardroom survivors return “home”.  Tim would be surprised if Adele didn’t get fired.  Amazingly, he actually tells her this rather than being two-faced.  That’s not going to work, is it? The next morning they are summoned to the nearest corner shop.  Sir Alan tells the contestants…

  • Warning – a few thunderstorms somewhere near Hong Kong

    Thunderstorm warnings still annoy me.  There’s been one in force all day today, but actually if you look at the Lightning Location Information from the Hong Kong Observatory you will see that there hasn’t been any lightning over Hong Kong for nearly two hours (up to 7pm).  So what are we being warned about? I…