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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  • Best thing on TV

    I’ve recently finished watching season four of The Sopranos – on DVD rather than the bowlderised version on TVB Pearl.  I ordered it back in November, it was stolen and then replaced (did I mention that before?), and I finally got around to watching it just at the time that it was running on TVB.  Actually, I thought that I had missed it on TV, but yes they do show it a full 15 months after the HBO in the States.

    It almost goes without saying that The Sopranos is one of the best things on TV.  You can argue that it isn’t as good as it was, but then what is?  The impressive thing is that the show’s creator David Chase seems to have a clear idea of the show’s progression – season one was about Tony Soprano as a child (and Livia’s son), season two was about him as Janice’s brother, season three was about Tony and Carmela as parents, and season four was about their marriage.  Over the four series, the main characters have developed, and a host of others have come and gone.      

    If you haven’t yet watched season four and plan to do so, the rest of this article is one long spoiler, so you might want to stop here.</p

    (more…)

  • 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.