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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Happy New Year and a quick follow-up to last month’s post on Tesco and other British supermarkets. There do seem to be some bargains amongst the Tesco own brand products in U購select (and Vanguard*), including their basic cheese range (as pointed out by Private Beach in the comments), olive oil, nuts, and salad dressings. They…
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About 20 years ago, Carrefour tried to expand into Hong Kong and were driven out (in part) because their prices were too low. Since then, no foreign supermarket chain has tried to challenge the ParknShop / Wellcome duopoly. But at least we have a bit more choice now, including products from UK supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury’s…
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Last time I was in London, I didn’t swipe my card correctly and so I got charged for several “incomplete journeys”. I filled in an online form explaining what had happened, and received a refund a day or two later. Great service. Then, back in Hong Kong I went to meet my wife on an…
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Simon Jenkins, writing about the fire at Grenfell Tower, apparently thinks Hong Kong is “squalid”: Simon Jenkins has a reputation for being wrong in the vast majority of his columns. Almost everyone in Hong Kong lives in high-rise housing (for some striking photographs, take a look at Michael Wolf’s Architecture of Density). Around 30% of the…
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The MTR “train trip planner” recommends that for early and late departures from East Rail stations to the airport you should go via Hung Hom, Nam Cheong & Tsing Yi. This seems like bad advice, because it requires you to use two of the worst interchanges on the MTR: At Nam Cheong, you can stroll…
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How charmingly Viennese:
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Park & Shop are either using a random price generator, or this is some sort of weird experiment. Almost every day they have a different offer on Royal Gala Apples. Yesterday was particularly special – buy 5 apples and save 10 cents:
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BBC First (on Now TV in Hong Kong) claims to be “the home of premium drama from the BBC. Enjoy all new shows brought to you first and on demand”. So – Sherlock season 4, that would be on BBC First? Well, yes it is in other parts of Asia, but in Hong Kong you…
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From Hong Kong Free Press: MTR Airport Express to increase fares for the first time in its history in June Hong Kong’s Airport Express MTR line is set to increase fares by 10.3 percent in June – the first fee hike since it came into operation in 1998. According to a Tuesday Legislative Council document,…
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More misinformation from the MTR: “The Sha Tin to Central Link (SCL) is a strategic railway line that stretches from Tai Wai to Admiralty”. It really isn’t! What they are actually doing is linking up the Ma On Shan line and West Rail (through East Kowloon, in brown on the graphic) and extending East Rail…
Ordinary Gweilo 