Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writing (mainly) about Hong Kong

recent posts

Archives

Categories

  • British ice cream from China

    I can’t be the only person to have noticed that a fairly well-known brand from the UK is now available in Hong Kong – Wall’s Ice Cream. The story behind this turns out to be slightly stranger than I had expected.

    Mountain Cream is a familiar name in Hong Kong. What I hadn’t realized was that it used to be owned by AS Watson (yes, it’s Li Ka Shing’s Hutchison group again) but was acquired by Unilever about 5 years ago, whereupon they changed the logo to be the same as all their other ice cream brands worldwide.

    3_10022

    When I first saw this logo I thought it looked familiar but I couldn’t immediately place it. In case you’re thinking I must be incredibly stupid, the explanation is that the logo was on a beach umbrella next to a swimming pool, with no ice cream anywhere in sight.

    Unilever sell the same stuff all over the world, but with different brand names. So what you buy in the UK as Wall’s Ice Cream, you can buy in much of Europe as Carte d’Or (I think) or in Hong Kong as Mountain Cream. What I hadn’t realized was that the Wall’s brand was launched (very successfully) 10 years ago in China .

    Now Unilever seem to be launching Walls as a premium brand in Hong Kong, alongside Mountain Cream. Predictably enough, the ice cream now being sold in Hong Kong under the Wall’s name is manufactured in China. So what I thought was a famous British brand actually turns out to be Chinese ice cream!

    It’s a small world.

  • Conrad, tell me it’s not true!

    According to The Economist:

    America has made discouraging comments about [Mr Wiranto’s] candidacy—but no Indonesian court has tried him for any wrongdoing, let alone convicted him. Golkar’s leaders, apparently, considered Mr Wiranto’s chequered career less of a liability than the corruption scandals dogging his rival, Akbar Tandjung.

    Wouldn’t that be interfering in another country’s election? So perhaps The Economist got it wrong.

  • Not quite what it seems

    This story has been widely reported in the UK. It’s about a journalist who got a job in a prison and took some photographs. He was charged under the 1952 Prison Act, with conveying a digital camera into the jail and conveying the camera and “digital information” – the photographs – out again.

    The trial has since collapsed, but what I find puzzling is the assertion that the prison authorities should have known that this character was a journalist because that was what it said in his passport. Makes them look a bit stupid, you might think. The Guardian reported the original story thus:

    Called to an interview in November, Mr McGee was told to present his passport at the gate as proof of identity. It gave his occupation as journalist.

    In fact, British passports haven’t shown the holder’s occupation for many years. I have a red British passport that was issued about 8 years ago, and there is nothing there to indicate my occupation. I also have a black British passport that was issued about 18 years ago, and that has no space for occupation

    Nevertheless it’s a widely believed myth, and it is sometimes used as a (lazy) question when journalists are interviewing someone who has been known to act and sing, or walk and chew gum, or whatever – “so what does it say in your passport?” The answer is -nothing at all.

    So, what’s the explanation? According to The Guardian (free registration required for this page):

    The passport contained an Indian visa dating from February 2000 with the word “journalist” written next to it, but nobody spotted it.

    Which makes it much more understandable that no-one noticed. If a passport is used as proof of identity all you would look at would be the page with the name and the photograph. So, not quite as stupid as it might have seemed.

  • How much fat?

    Go into any supermarket and you will find products labelled as “xx% Fat Free”.

    Fair enough, and I can understand 99% fat free, or 97% fat free, but I have great difficulty with products that claim to be “90% fat free”. That’s 10% fat, and I very much doubt that you’d be able to get away with describing that as “low fat”, which id what “xx% Fat Free” is trying to imply. My first reaction is that 10% seems like quite a lot of fat, and it is probably a product that is best avoided. Which is probably not what they intended.

  • Really?

    Startling new research reported by RTHK:

    Obese children are more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes earlier in their adult life. That’s according to a Chinese University study comparing the health of normal and overweight youngsters. The head of the research team, Professor Woo Kam-sang, said the results revealed a huge difference. However, he said that after a period of regular exercise and a controlled diet the condition of the obese childen improved.

    Er, thanks – I’d never have guessed that.

  • Bye Bye Big Ron

    This is a somewhat strange story from the UK that will probably mean absolutely nothing to the rest of the world.

    Ron Atkinson has been forced to resign from his job as a football analyst (on ITV and for The Guardian newspaper), after making some unfortunate remarks after the Monaco vs. Chelsea game when he thought his microphone was switched off. He was complaining about the performance of Chelsea player Marcel Desailly and said

    He’s what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick nigger

    Subsequently we have heard from countless people that Ron is "not a racist", and that when he was manager of West Bromwich Albion he signed three black players. However, Ian Wright has claimed "Every time I see Ron Atkinson he is making the latest popular racist joke at me and I don’t really want to hear that."

    There are a few theories on people who make racist remarks but genuinely appear not to be racist. My view is that they do have ingrained racist attitudes that they normally manage to supress (and may deny), but which are still there. On a conscious level they are able to be tolerant and reasonable, but they also can’t help saying racist things (perhaps without realising what they are saying). Another theory is that people say these things because they want to appear ‘big’, and when they are shouting their mouth off they make comments without really thinking about it. Probably a bit of both in this case.

    I was watching the build-up to the Newcastle vs. Chelsea game on Sunday, and Sir Bobby Robson was having his say. He talked very confidently for a couple of minutes, but it was total gibberish and utterly without any meaning (yet he is one of the most successful managers in English football). Many people in the football world do have a special talent for this, but Ron Atkinson is acknowledged as one of the masters of this art. Obviously he does know something about football, but that doesn’t mean he can always express himself very well, and very often it’s hard to know whether there is any meaning behind what he says or whether he is just talking rubbish. There are a few websites devoted to the mysterious world of Ronglish, highlighting some of his more bizarre comments.

    He was somewhat unfortunate (in one sense) that the remarks were broadcast. The comments were made during a commercial break, but a few TV stations overseas were still carrying a live feed and people in Egypt heard the comments and complained. The moral is that it’s a good idea to check whether the microphone is really switched off.

    Or whether there are any Labour MPs in the room… Recently, Tory MP Ann Winterton got herself in trouble for making a racist joke about the Chinese who were drowned in Morecambe Bay, and like Ron Atkinson she couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. She made the remarks at a private dinner, but a Labour MP was present and found the joke unacceptable. I think she was sacked from the Conservative Party, but she eventually apologized and was re-admitted after the fuss had died down. Presumably Ron Atkinson will also be back before too long.

    One amusing aspect of the Big Ron story is that ‘serious’ newspapers such as The Guardian printed the comments in full, whereas the ‘popular’ papers added asterisks. So the papers that give us intimate details of what pop stars and footballers get up to in private feel that their readers might be offended by seeing rude words that they probably hear (and use) everyday. It’s a strange world.

    Mind you, the front page of today’s Guardian has a photograph of David Beckham asleep. What’s that all about then?

  • Over budget

    One of the more interesting development in the UK since I moved to Hong Kong has been the growth of budget airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet.  It’s now possible to fly to many destinations in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe very cheaply – as long as you book early, don’t travel at a peak time, and don’t mind going to a small airport.  For some, the latter is a definite advantage, and the availability of cheap flights to regional airports is supposed to have led to a boom in the property market nearby.  Some Brits can afford to spend regular weekends in their holiday home by virtue of Easyjet or Ryanair. 

    It’s probably too much to expect this trend to spread to Asia.  For one thing, most flights within Asia are longer than the typical Easyjet or Ryanair flight, and so the limited legroom and lack of inflight service would be more of an issue.  Also, secondary airports are either non-existent or not so accessible, and anyone from Hong Kong who can afford a holiday home in Phuket can probably afford to pay for flights on Dragonair, so there is less opportunity to create new demand.    

    Nevertheless, we keep being told about so-called ‘budget’ carriers, the latest being ValuAir based in Singapore.  A quick check against the European standard:

    • Operate between secondary airports – No
    • Variable fares that are significantly cheaper if you book in advance – No
    • Booking over the Internet or on premium-rate phone lines
    • No assigned seats (first-come, first-served) – No
    • No in-flight service apart from drinks and snacks for sale – No
    • No entertainment options
    • Limited legroom – No
    • Very short turnaround to maximise utilisation

    In fact, ValuAir seems to be going for a totally different business model!  They are planning to operate between Hong Kong and Singapore with fares that will be fixed, they will assign seats (with normal legroom) and offer some in-flight services. 

    On the principle that if it doesn’t sound like a budget airline, and doesn’t operate like a budget airline, it probably isn’t a budget airline, I predict that one of two things will happen – either they will go out of business or they will start charging fares that are similar to the full service airlines.  Anyway, if you want a cheap flight on this route you can probably get a good deal from China Airlines (accident-free for, oh, several months) or even United Airlines (who have one flight a day).

    What is different (and clever) about the business model used by airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair is that (1) they can fill their planes with passengers who have paid different fares – book ahead and you get a bargain, book later and you don’t, and (2) they normally operate from secondary airports which are not well-served by full service airlines.  They have also reset customer’s expectations, and created new markets (such as the weekend away in Europe or the midweek golfing trip).  Is the same thing possible across Asia?  Maybe, one day, but so far no-one has been brave enough to try.

    More information on low-cost airlines in Asia here

  • Chase me ladies, I’m in the cavalry.

    A big “Ordinary Gweilo” welcome to Chase me ladies, I’m in the cavalry, a new blog from someone who appears to be a Brit and a teacher. Quite funny, and he appears to have a group of friends making comments, which helps (on the whole).

    I sometimes receive requests from people who ask me to include mentions of their (or their friend’s) blog. I adopt a fairly harsh system – I read through the blog and if it looks interesting and not totally barking mad, then I will certainly try and mention it.

    A few clues for things not to do – telling me my site is “great” doesn’t ring true if you haven’t ever commented or sent me an email, and don’t mention my blog on your site. Also, I don’t think I want anything to do with a blog that has a “Links Manager”. Apart from that, do please ask.

  • Battery cows

    I think this is supposed to be a serious story about the problem of batteries being dumped on or near farms. However, I was intrigued to learn that:

    One problem is that cows seem to like the taste of the electrolyte solution that reacts with batteries’ lead plates to form lead sulphate. The animals probably break open undamaged batteries given the chance, according to the vets.

    It conjures up a weird image of cows struggling to break open batteries in order to get a drink. Scary.

  • Norris, Bob and Alistair

    Shaky has alerted me to the news that Norris McWhirter died earlier this week. He was famous chiefly for appearing (a long time ago) on a British TV show called “Record Breakers” with his twin brother Ross. The two of them were the founders and co-editors of “The Guinness Book of Records”, and today you would probably describe them as nerds.  They didn’t just edit the book, they appeared to know the details of every single record in the book and were willing to turn up anywhere that a new record might be set.

    Ross McWhirter was killed by the IRA in 1975, apparently because he was an outspoken critic of the organization rather than because they didn’t like the TV show.  Obviously you don’t really expect people to be murdered in their homes in suburban London, whatever their politics, but to anyone who knew of him only through ‘Record Breakers’ it was even more shocking.

    ‘Record Breakers’ was a cheesy sort of show, hosted by Roy Castle (who is also no longer with us), featuring people who had broken records listed in “The Guinness Book of Records”, with Norris McWhirter being challenged to remember the records published in the book.

    The show, like the book, appealed mainly to children (or anyone who was easily pleased), but this was in the days before videos or cable and satellite so we didn’t have much choice! It is a source of constant amazement to me that the book is still a best-seller – for goodness sake, what is the point? – but I suppose it’s an easy choice as a Christmas present for people you either don’t like or don’t know very well. 

    This reminds me that Bob Monkhouse died just after Christmas.  I remember him as the presenter of The Golden Shot, a rather chaotic game show that used to go out live on Sunday afternoons.  It featured a dizzy glamour girl called Ann Aston, and the catchphrase “Bernie – the bolt”, used when the contestants had a chance to shoot an arrow (attached to the side of a camera) at a target.  They had to give instructions to a blindfolded operator, telling him to go up a bit, down a bit, right a bit, and so forth, before firing the arrow.  Sounds stupid, and it was, but at the time it seemed quite entertaining.

    I hadn’t previously realised that he wasn’t the original presenter of the show (he was a guest on an early show and was then invited to take it over), but he certainly made it successful, and when he left it went downhill again, though he did return for the final series.  Later he was the host of other game shows such as “Celebrity Squares” and “Family Fortunes”, and whether or not you liked the shows you had to admire his professionalism. He was often described as “smarmy and oleaginous”, and in later years he played on this reputation and rather sent himself up.

    Finally in the obituaries section, Alistair Cooke died at the end of last month.  As with Charles Schulz, it was hardly a surprise to hear of his death only a very short time after he reluctantly announced his retirement.  It seemed like he was determined to carry on with ‘Letter from America’ for as long as he could, and he was only going to give it up when he really had no alternative.

    His style of radio essay probably belongs to a different era, not today’s world of rolling news and instant comment.  I remember hearing him talk about the programme he did at the time of Nixon’s resignation – his problem was that at the time they recorded it nothing had been decided, so he talked about the sequence of events, ending with the phrase “and the rest is history”.  By the time it was broadcast the listeners knew that Nixon had resigned and assumed that Cooke did as well.

    Although they really had nothing in common, I think it would be fair to say that Bob Monkhouse and Alistair Cooke were both consummate professionals, always appearing calm and unruffled whatever was going on around them.