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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  • John Peel

    Very sad to hear that John Peel has died (whilst on holiday in Peru).

    I have happy memories of listening to his shows on BBC Radio One (many years ago), particularly the ‘Festive 50’ when it was effectively a contest between the Sex Pistols (and other punk bands championed by Peel) and the likes of Joy Division and New Order (also championed by Peel).

    The amazing thing about John Peel was that he never seemed to lose his enthusiasm for new music, and that has to be the reason why he was still on Radio One after all these years (he was one of the original presenters back in 1967) whilst other presenters were sacked. Radio One has changed its music policy and presenters many times, but John Peel was always there. From the BBC obituary:

    But, in the mid-1970s, John Peel moved away from the mainstream rock of Jimi Hendrix and The Who to a new and radical sound, punk.

    Bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash paved the way for new Peel discoveries like Joy Division and the Undertones, whose Teenage Kicks was his all-time favourite single.

    The 1980s brought further joy, most notably in the form of The Fall and The Smiths, both refreshing counterblasts to the increasingly bland fare of the charts.

    More here.

    (more…)

  • Oh no, not mad at all

    George Adams has a marvellously batty conspiracy theory about Peter Gordon, Nury Vittachi and IceRed. Last time he took it out for a spin, the central hypothesis was that Peter Gordon was the owner of IceRed and was using this power to supress any criticism of Nury (and presumably to be beastly to George into the bargain). It all went a bit pear-shaped when it was pointed out that Peter Gordon was nothing more significant than the moderator of the Books forum, and George was left looking slightly foolish.

    Undeterred by this setback, he’s back with a new and improved (and equally mad) theory. Actually, it’s much the same as before, but Steve Vines has been added to the mix, and Peter Gordon is now accused of using his power as moderator of “the widely-read Media/Journalism forum” to censor comments if they criticize any of his chums. He’s not, it isn’t. Move along, please, there’s nothing to see here.

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  • Go to hospital, get sick

    Did anyone else watch that documentary on TVB Pearl three weeks ago about antibiotics? Unfortunately, having a good subject doesn’t guarantee a good documentary.

    Their concept was to send a presenter off around Europe within a hidden camera in his bag. This is a favourite technique of documentary makers, but for it to work you need a bad guy who can be confronted later when you have gathered the shocking evidence. Sadly for them, in this case there was no villain but rather a number of misguided but well-meaning doctors and pharmacists trying to give people what they wanted. Worse than that, the evidence was neither surprising nor shocking.

    Nevertheless, we were treated to several trips to pharmacies around Europe. In each case, the reporter tried to get antibiotics for his imaginary cold. In Belgium, Spain and the UK he was successful. In the Netherlands he was not successful. Unfortunately we were not give any information about how many pharmacies in each country would have refused to sell antibiotics without a prescription (I am quite sure that many in the UK would have sent the reporter on his way empty-handed) nor whether any action is taken to prevent this abuse.

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  • Something new, something old

    Mia points out another new Hong Kong blog, though the title is enough to put most right-thinking people off reading it (so it’s not going on my bloglist*). She seems to have been rather confused by New Town Plaza, the hideously large and rambling shopping centre in Sha Tin. Me too.

    Also [this time via Fumier], welcome back to Ran, who has a new blog. I just hope it’s not quite as strange as the last one he did, because that was way too weird for me .

    I’ll be back in a few days when I’m not feeling so damn tired. Must find a way to earn a living without having to work…

    * I changed my mind (see the comments).

  • Supersize that salad

    I went into McDonalds at the weekend and was amused to see that on the one hand they are promoting their new range of salads, yoghurts, tacos and “healthy” stuff, whilst on the other hand they are offering the ‘supersize’ option that was withdrawn in the States following some adverse publicity related to the fact that eating large quantities of unhealthy food makes you, er, unhealthy.

    This week’s Economist has a special report about McDonald’s makeover. Last time I read about the company it was all about their problems, but it seems that the new management have turned things round:

    Remarkably, McDonald’s has turned itself into the world’s biggest seller of salads and its business is flourishing again. Yet despite all of its new lettuce, free-range eggs, bottled water and yoghurt parfaits, success remains, at least for now, all about burgers.

    However, the salads and other new menu items do seem to be making a difference

    The average sale in a McDonald’s is just under $5. Typically what might happen is a mother comes in, buys her children a Happy Meal, and herself just a coffee. Now that salads and other lighter options have been added to the menu, many of those mothers now buy themselves a meal too, lifting the order value to around $12. The lighter options also encourage existing customers to come back more often because there is a greater variety of things to eat. Nevertheless, for now, the Big Mac remains the most popular item worldwide.

    McDonalds has also tried diversifying:

    In 2001 McDonald’s also acquired a minority stake in London-based Pret A Manger, a relatively upmarket coffee, sandwich and salads chain that has done well in Britain and is expanding overseas, with mixed results so far. McDonald’s management are guarded about what they intend to do with such investments. But clearly they provide a hedge against the future, just in case existing McDonald’s sites needed to be replaced with something radically different.

    I had assumed that Pret would have packed up and left Hong Kong by now, but apparently they are opening new outlets – there was a story in the SCMP a couple of weeks ago about another sandwich shop owner who was very indignant when the landlord refused to renew his lease and installed Pret in its place. I was quite a fan of Pret when I worked in London, but in Hong Kong terms their sandwiches do seem over-priced. They seem to be struggling to establish themselves here, and so far I think they only have 6 or 7 outlets.

    McDonalds were experimenting with a new format in a few of their stores in Hong Kong, selling sandwiches and cakes from a separate counter. I think that format may have been abandoned, but I guess they are serious about diversifying. More from The Economist:

    …the signs are that McDonald’s is getting serious about sandwiches. Their experimental “Oven Selects” range, freshly made and toasted to order, is now going on trial at some 400 restaurants in America. If the sandwiches, which will sell for $4 each (relatively expensive for McDonald’s), are a hit, they could become a global product.

    Moving into the sandwich business means that McDonald’s will compete more directly with the likes of chains such as Subway, and against countless corner delis and supermarkets. “Sandwiches outsell hamburgers by ten to one,” says Russ Smyth, president of McDonald’s Europe. “So there is a great opportunity here.”

    Although Big Macs and Happy Meals continue to be the core of McDonalds business, it does seem that they are getting a bit smarter rather than relying too much on the old familiar staples. Perhaps I could be tempted to try a salad the next I am forced to buy a Happy Meal, so I think they are on to something. However, it will take more than that to convince me that going into McDonalds could be a pleasurable experience!

  • Disgraceful? Divisive? Crass?

    Conrad has managed to work himself up into a lather of self-righteous indignation concerning something John Kerry said in the final presidential debate.

    He finds it "crass" that Kerry should have mentioned that Dick Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian "for a vile and divisive political objective". Really?

    So is it a secret? No. (from The Observer):

    Cheney himself frequently mentions Mary as his ‘gay daughter’ on the campaign trail when he is trying to paint his party as compassionate conservatives, so being used is nothing new.

    So Mary Cheney is totally unconnected with the Bush-Cheney campaign? No. (from The Guardian).

    Mary Cheney is the director of vice-presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. She held a public role as her father’s assistant in the 2000 campaign, and helped the Republicans to recruit gay voters during the 2002 mid-term elections.

    This has been an election of negative campaigning and personal attacks from both sides on the candidates. By the currently accepted standards this was mild stuff, possibly intended to embarass Mr Bush by highlighting that (in this regard at least) his running mate is more of a compassionate conservative than he is. Cynical maybe, but no more so than usual.

    Anyway, Conrad, don’t worry – the polls are turning back in Bush’s favour. He doesn’t need your help.

    Meanwhile, The Guardian has started a silly and misguided campaign to get its (liberal) readers to write to electors in the State and ask them to consider the international impact of their vote. Yesterday they printed some of the responses, and, guess what, Americans don’t take very kindly to foreigners telling them how they should vote.

  • Jim’s the name

    There is a Hong Kong urban legend that some people with the family name of Tsim have this mis-transcribed as Jim in official records maintained by the British adminstration. Hence their ID cards show what looks like an English name.

    I am not sure how much truth there is in this story. I know there are people in Hong Kong who have this name, but how many, and was it really a mistake by a stupid Brit?

  • Jim done good

    The new KCR extension to Tsim Sha Tsui was open to the public yesterday for the first time. The full service starts next Sunday afternoon.

    Predictably, there have been complaints about the fares. Idiotic politicians have argued (amongst other things) that the fare from the New Territories to the new TST station should be the same as to Hung Hom, because both stations are in the same district. I thought Hung Hom was in a different district, but even if it isn’t I find this a puzzling argument. Anyone starting their journey on KCR East Rail and wanting to get to TST currently has to change to the MTR at Kowloon Tong or take a bus or minibus from Hung Hom. The new service will be cheaper and more convenient, so why the complaints?

    Meanwhile, the KCR has decided to replace all the signs in KCR East Rail that direct passengers to the southbound service. They used to say ‘Kowloon’, which seems a perfectly adequate description, but they are changing them to say ‘East Tsim Sha Tsui”. True, that is the new terminus, but last time I checked TST was also in Kowloon, so why the need for a change?

    Finally, can anyone explain why they have chosen that English name for the station? The Chinese name is the much simpler Tsim East (sounds something like “Jim Done” in Cantonese), the same as the name given to the area between TST and Hung Hom – which was reclaimed from the harbour twenty or so years ago. This is usually rendered as TST East in English, and reversing this for the name of the station seems rather confusing!

  • Weaselwatch: Don’t buy a Treo!

    Why is that so many gadgets are just too damn clever for their own good?

    I have a Treo 270. If it worked properly it would be a good smartphone (phone + PDA). If it worked properly, which sadly it does not. Charging its battery ought to be as simple as plugging in the power cable, and sychronizing it ought to be equally straightforward. Sadly not. The brilliant minds at Handspring (now PalmOne) decided that it would be better to have a single cable that both recharged the battery and synchronized with the PC. Sounds clever, eh? I wish it was…

    Here’s a typical frustrating experience. Plug in the cable. No response (a red light should come on). Fiddle around with the cable. Red light comes on. Red light goes off. Fiddle some more. Red light stays on. Press the button to synchronize. Bad idea – this disturbs the connection. Red light goes off. Eventually decide to charge it up first and synchronize later. Treo thinks otherwise, and fiddling with the cable causes it to try and synchronize anyway. Try to press the button to clear the error message when it fails to find the PC. This breaks the connection and the red light goes off.

    Or there’s the times when the red light is on but it isn’t actually charging (don’t ask me why). So I switch it on (which more often than not breaks the connection), or I try to switch to the phone application to see the battery icon (which – oh, you guessed). Or it spontaneously tries to synchronize and it displays an error message, and again I have to try to select the phone application to check if it is really charging. Also, I frequently have to do soft and hard resets to get it to respond.

    Half the problem is the physical shape of the phone and the relative weight of the phone and the cable, both of which make it unstable. Because the base is not flat, touching the phone or the cable can easily disturb the connection. A cradle (as with the Handspring Visor) would probably help, but they don’t supply one.

    I have tried reporting this to PalmOne, and after suggesting all the obvious things they admitted that there was a problem. However, their best offer is that I pay them HK$1,500 for a replacement unit. I don’t see how it can be an expensive problem to fix – the screen, the keyboard and electronics are all OK and it is just the connection that is dodgy. Also, I really resent having to pay that much for a phone which is now obsolete.

    The easy way out is to buy another smartphone, but my dilemma is that the obvious choice is the Treo 600. I certainly don’t feel like giving more money to PalmOne, and there is the obvious risk that I’ll end up with another lemon. This phone has already been replaced once because the screen stopped working after about three months!

  • Dumb and dumber

    When footballers tell you how clever they have been, you just know it’s going to end in tears. Thus, when David Beckham’s response to criticism of his booking towards the end of the England vs. Wales international was to say:

    "I’m sure some people think that I have not got the brains to be that clever"

    it actually revealed that he isn’t that clever. Not because it was stupid to get booked and therefore serve a suspension whilst he is injured, but because it was very dumb to admit to it. It’s a fairly obvious ploy, and players often try to serve suspensions in less important games or when they are injured, but it is equally clear that it is contrary to the spirit of the rules.

    So if the captain of the England team does it and then tells everyone how "clever" he has been, this tends to attract the attention of the footballing authorities. There are times when being smart just means keeping your mouth shut.