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: Jul 2009

  • All the news we found by reading yesterday’s paper

    Today’s SCMP has a big story on the front page of the City section informing us that Cable TV would like to provide a free-to-air television channel.  They say that it’s unfair that TVB has a Pay TV service and free-to-air terrestrial channels, but no-one else is allowed to do both.  Which seems like a…

  • We call it a term – get over it!

    In Hong Kong, you often find the UK and US versions of books sitting next to each each on the shelves.  And generally the US version is significantly cheaper, but for many books from the UK I don't want the US version. Because they change stuff.  I remember reading the first of the Charlie Bone…

  • Eat more, eat less

    A recent study showed that being "overweight" can be good for you (Study: Overweight People Live Longer): There is more evidence that people who are overweight tend to live longer than people who are underweight, normal weight, or obese.  In a newly published study, people who were underweight and those who were extremely obese died…

  • B&Q moves out

    I see that B&Q are closing their only store in Hong Kong, in the lovely Megabox in Kowloon Bay.  The SCMP rather ridiculously compares this to Carrefour’s withdrawal from Hong Kong a few years ago, but somehow doesn’t have the space to explain what actually happened.  B&Q simply had the wrong type of shop for…

  • Damp squib

    Another weekend, another typhoon signal.  Looking at the predicted direction of Tropical Storm Soudelor it never looked likely that it was going to come anywhere close to Hong Kong.  Yet the Observatory raised the no.3 (strong wind) signal – and on the basis that you can never be too careful the management here closed our…

  • Chrome

    After the browser, the operating system.  As with the Chrome browser, it would appear that Google’s main interest may be in prompting Microsoft to respond.  If Microsoft can offer a cheaper (and smaller) OS to run on Netbooks, then that will bring down prices and encourage more people to go online more often – and…

  • Panic?

    A 76-year-old man gets the flu, and is now in a "serious condition".  It's swine flu, so this is news. People get flu.  Unfortunately some of them do die, especially if they are elderly or sick.  This is nothing new – flu is much more serious than a cold (even if most people get them…

  • On off

    Virgin Atlantic aren't having much luck with doubling their number of flights to London.  They introduced a second flight (3 days a week), and then came 9/11 and they cancelled it. They  announced a second flight in 2006, but it never happened (Even more options). Then one year ago they announced it again, and it…

  • A bear?

    Wellcome are currently running a promotion which features Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru who lives in London (at 32 Windsor Gardens) with the Brown family.  What shouldn't have surprised me, I suppose, was that people in Hong Kong wouldn't have any idea about Paddington or that there are a whole series of books about…