Ordinary Gweilo
It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writiing (mainly) about Hong Kong
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Category: Life in Hong Kong
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Simon has noticed a story in The Standard about another clever scheme to fleece tourists. Apparently some enterprising businessmen have set up a mall in lovely downtown Kowloon Bay specifically for mainland tourists, and called it the “Hong Kong Tourist (Duty Free) Shopping Mall”. Nothing is left to chance, and mainland tourists are brought to…
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The food part in this week’s Post Magazine was mainly about chicken livers, and the writer (Susan Jung) mentioned that they are only available frozen (from Olivers and some supermarkets). That does seem to be true, but about two years ago several branches of Park’n’Shop did sell fresh chicken livers (and other similar bits and…
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Today is your last chance this year to collect red ‘Lai See’ or ‘Lucky Money” packets. It’s the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, and marks the end of the holiday celebrations. Traditionally it is also the time for Lantern Parades, and it is sometimes known as ‘Chinese Valentine’s Day’ (a second chance if you…
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Still on the subject of Hong Kong’s domestic helpers and their employers, Simon has noted a news story about a developing trend and Mr Tall has reminded us of an earlier piece he wrote on the same subject (that also referred to the article from the The Economist Christmas 2001 issue). First the news story. …
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Simon has done a fairly effective job of demolishing Hong Kong Phooey’s latest rant, on the subject of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs). As Simon says, Mr Phooey makes some good points, but the problem is the way that he presents them in his posts. If he had written a short ‘rant’ of 2–3 paragraphs about…
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Well, I seem to have survived the first three days of CNY. At least there isn’t too much to think about – you stuff money into Lai See envelopes and buy various boxes and tins of cookies (preferably from Denmark, for no discernable reason). You give cookies, you get cookies. You give out lucky money…
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Have a very happy and prosperous Year of the Rooster, and Kung Hei Fat Choi
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This is like living in the UK! Cold, windy, and wet. It’s not supposed to be like this, is it? I always thought that the deal with Hong Kong weather was that we have to endure a few hot and humid months in the summer (made bearable by aircon and swimming pools) and a few…
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They recently gave an OBE to the man who was credited with inventing the ATM machine (though someone else has claimed that he had the idea first). In case you care, the first ATM machine was installed outside a branch of Barclays Bank in London in 1967. Waiting to use one today, I was thinking…
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Fumier mentions the curious story of a so-called “betting scam” operared by a syndicate in darkest Yuen Long. I saw this story on the TV news last night, but I wasn’t quite sure what was going on and I can’t find it in the newspapers today – so I am grateful to Fumier for filling in the gaps. …
Ordinary Gweilo 