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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  • On off

    Virgin Atlantic aren't having much luck with doubling their number of flights to London.  They introduced a second flight (3 days a week), and then came 9/11 and they cancelled it.

    They  announced a second flight in 2006, but it never happened (Even more options).

    Then one year ago they announced it again, and it was duly introduced in October 2008.  Unfortunately it is being suspended from 27 September.

    Meanwhile, Virgin's Australian operation may start flying to Hong Kong (V Australia adds Hong Kong to list of possible new routes).

  • A bear?

    Wellcome are currently running a promotion which features Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru who lives in London (at 32 Windsor Gardens) with the Brown family. 

    What shouldn't have surprised me, I suppose, was that people in Hong Kong wouldn't have any idea about Paddington or that there are a whole series of books about him.

    He's a bear?  From Peru?  I never knew that…

  • More cunning plans

    The government is apparently very cross with the good people at Hong Kong Disneyland, who took advantage of the closure of all primary schools by announcing a special offer (for children) of unlimited admission for two weeks for the normal price of a single entry ticket.  Predictably there were big crowds of children there on Friday, coughing away merrily and spreading germs in a reckless manner.

    The government, you see, expects all children to be shut away in their bedrooms for the entire fortnight, otherwise their cunning plan will be reduced to ruins.  Well, yes, I was thinking the same thing.  

    Meanwhile, their next brilliant idea is that domestic helpers should change their day off.  Apparently the idea of thousands of helpers congregating in Statue Square on a Sunday is way too scary for our politicians.  That’s going to work really well for parents whose children are off school for two weeks, isn’t it?

    I also look forward to the reaction from HSBC and everyone else in the vicinity when a few thousand helpers turn up on, say, a Thursday.  Wearing masks, of course – yesterday on the news they showed one helper who had been told by her employer to wear a mask at all times during her day off.  Well, you can never be too careful.

    Whilst we are on this theme, I’ve noticed that dim sum restaurants get very crowded on Sundays.  Maybe civil servants should work on Sundays and have Tuesdays off? 

    It’s. Not. Going. To. Happen.

  • Schools Out

    Good grief.  Does the government really believe that closing primary schools and kindergartens is going to help?   

    Do they actually think they have special powers that will make it possible to keep H1N1 away from Hong Kong?  With the number of people who arrive here every day from Australia, the US and the UK, that would be a miraculous achievement.

    No, surely they can’t believe that.  As it said in yesterday’s sub-Standard, this is a political decision rather than a medical one.  Or to translate that into English, it’s the type of thing that idiot politicians do when they haven’t got a clue how to respond.

    Are they really going to close all schools for two weeks every time there is a “local cluster” of cases?  Probably not, because as with their initial policy of quarantining everyone who came within half a mile of anyone with H1N1, they are going to figure out before very long that this is daft.  It makes sense to close any school where there are confirmed cases (and maybe even ones with suspected cases), but closing every single kindergarten and primary school is not a sensible response.

    It seems likely that by Autumn this thing will be more serious.  At that point it could make sense to close schools to slow the spread of H1N1 simply to make it easier for hospitals to cope.  But does it make sense now?  What’s the worst case scenario if schools were to stay open as normal until the end of the school year in a few weeks time?  A few hundred cases.  So the answer is clear. 

  • Now that’s what I call disappointing

    It’s hard to believe it now, but there was a time when PCCW’s Now TV service looked as if it was going to be a genuinely innovative competitor to Cable TV.  Now they are the market leader and Cable TV have apparently given up, so they seem to have lost interest in innovation.

    OK, so at first glance it looks impressive.  Yes, they have High Definition (HD) and on-demand, neither of which Cable TV can offer.  Now TV even has HD on-demand.  And yet…

    Their on-demand service is decidedly patchy.  The strongest area is soccer, and, yes, it was excellent to have every single game from Euro 2008 available to watch whenever you wanted.  This season they have also had every Champions League game (from the group stages onwards) on demand.  No complaints there,  but Cable TV have the rights to the Champions League from next season (and the World Cup in 2010), so we are not going to see much more of this. 

    The EPL on-demand service is much less impressive.  Yes, there are a few games available each week, but it’s a random selection rather than all of them, and they are only available until the next round of matches. 

    HBO has a small selection of films available on-demand, but this is a limited selection from their schedule of mediocre and ancient movies and TV shows (not totally their fault – HBO Asia is subject to standards of taste and decency across the region, and they are a long way from those of premium cable in the US).  However, they could use the on-demand service to offer shows in Hong Kong that they can’t broadcast elsewhere.  But they don’t.

    Now TV also has a weird service that provides top US drama shows on-demand in HD.  Sounds perfect until you discover these are old series that were on TVB Pearl about 2-3 years ago and on the US networks a year or two before that.  When they can offer the current series before TVB then I might be interested.       

    Perhaps the most interesting service that they provide is the facility to record shows (on their servers) so that you can watch again in the next 7 days.  However, this only covers EPL games and the output from the News and Business channels.  So they have the technology for the service I want (and would pay for) –  the facility to record any programme from any channel – but they don’t offer it (presumably they will say this is for copyright reasons).  Neither do they offer the service that Cable TV provide of letting you program your decoder box to show a particular programme so that you record it.  Nor do they have a SKy+ type box. 

    High Definition is also a bit of a joke.  Now Sports HD has a few EPL games and there are some from Italian Serie A, but so far that’s it – and I am not convinced that this is true HD. 

    What else is in HD?  Well, there’s National Geographic and Discovery HD, and Voom (whatever that is).  Oh, and the History Channel has a HD version, because that 30 year old footage looks so much sharper in high definition.  They also seem to be broadcasting Sunday Taipan in HD on Now Hong Kong (channel 100).

    So what’s missing?

    Well, what about BBC HD?  They have such a channel in the UK and Australia, showing drama and documentaries (and sport in the UK).  It would certainly be a big improvement on the existing “BBC 5”, but that may be part of the problem.  BBC Lifestyle and BBC Knowledge have an awful lot of old stuff that wasn’t made by the BBC or even broadcast on any of the main BBC channels in the UK, whereas a lot of the BBC shows that might be on BBC HD have been sold to other broadcasters (Michael Palin’s New Europe was recently on TVB Pearl, which also shows Hotel Babylon).  Meanwhile BBC Knowledge was showing the first series of The Apprentice (again) when UK viewers were watching the fifth series.  

    A lot of US shows are made in HD, but Star World, AXN and the rest are not in HD.  Actually, I’d settle for the higher picture quality you get on the digital TV version of TVB Pearl, which is much clearer than anything on Star World.  How difficult could that be? 

    Movies in HD?  Wouldn’t that make sense?  Again, there’s no sign of that happening.

    I’m sure there are many complex reasons why PCCW can’t offer viewers what they want, but the harsh reality is that it’s now very easy to download any TV show or movie you want, and that’s what they have to compete with.  Star World were showing American Idol within a few hours of the US network, and that’s a step in the right direction but an isolated example.    

  • Lake Silver

    From the people who brought you Palazzo in Fo Tan (Sino Land and the MTR) comes another hilariously overblown marketing campaign for Lake Silver in Ma On Shan.  The TV adverts have Palazzo-style opera-lite music and computer graphics, and on Wednesday the SCMP came adorned in a glossy full colour advertising wraparound that even referenced their earlier development.  There’s also a fancy website [now, alas, deleted, and Adobe Flash Player is no longer supported but here is what it looked like]

    You won’t be surprised to learn that it has an idyllic setting with “spectacular waterfront views of Sai Kung, Pat Sin Leng, Tolo Harbour and Ma On Shan coastal mountain ranges.”  Wow, all of that from the window of one apartment?  Excellent…

    What’s not to like?  It’s on the MTR and it’s in the countryside.  Fantastic.  The picture shows the development surrounded by green stuff.  But wait – could that be Symphony Bay next door?  Could that be the Lee On estate in the other direction?  And could it be that other developers plan to build on adjacent sites?  Maybe Henderson Land will be building something equally magificent right next to Lake Silver?  I rather think they will.

    Check it out on Google Maps.

    As for the rail connection, well this is actually the Ma On Shan line that runs to Tai Wai (where it connects to East Rail), one of the new lines built by the KCR before it was swallowed whole by the MTRC (once described as a property developer than happens to run some trains).  The newspaper advert claims that it will take 17 minutes to get from Tai Wai to Admiralty on the new Sha Tin – Central link.  Well, maybe, one day.  What they are careful not to explain is how long it will take to get from Lake Silver to Tai Wai.  More than 17 minutes, I fear. image

    The other striking feature of this development is that it seems to include a very substantial lake and/or swimming pool.  Hence the name, I suppose.  I’ll be fascinated to see the finished development to see if it bears any resemblance to the marketing material.  Property developers don’t lie, do they?

  • Out of Service

    Picture the scene: it’s raining and you are looking for a taxi.  There’s one with the “Taxi” light on.  You get closer and notice that it’s “out of service”.

    Maybe the driver is waiting to pick up a passenger who has made a telephone booking; or it could be that he is only interested in a fare to the other side of the harbour; or perhaps he is going off duty.

    All of these different things are indicated by putting the “Out of Service” sign on top of the taxi meter.

    Surely there must be a better way?  Why can’t we have a system that allows taxis to indicate that they are waiting for a passenger and are not available for hire?  

    I suppose it’s asking too much for officialdom to acknowledge that some taxis only want fares to the other side of the harbour?  Yes, I know that there are a few “cross-harbour” taxi stands, but there aren’t enough of them – and how many people take taxis from taxi stands?  

  • Sha Tin to Central – or maybe not

    image

    Last week the SCMP had two stories about the so-called "Sha Tin to Central link", the new rail line being built by the MTR (MTR Corp submits new rail plan and vows to minimise disruption.

    When completed the 17km extension will not only give commuters in Ma On Shan and Sha Tin a direct rail route to Central and Admiralty, it will also link East Kowloon to the New Territories West via West Rail.

    And look, there's a map to show us the route (see right)

    Except that I'm fairly certain that the latest plan is to link up Ma On Shan Rail with West Rail by building a line from Tai Wai to Hung Hom, and to extend East Rail to Central.  They will then be renamed the East-West line and the North-South line.  So Ma On Shan will not have a direct connection to Central (though Sha Tin will).

    I tried to check this on the MTR website, but I couldn't find anything very clear.  I don't think I imagined this, though.

  • Buy the book

    Someone kindly recommended www.bookdepository.co.uk a few weeks ago.  They ship books to Hong Kong and they don’t charge for delivery.  Hurrah!

    Amazon (both UK and US) also ship to Hong Kong, and offer much bigger discounts.  The problem is the delivery charge – Amazon UK add £4.99 per shipment plus £2.99 per item (i.e. £7.98 for one item, £10.97 for two items), which totally wipes out any savings on books with a cover price of less than about £15.  Amazon US have a lower shipment charge ($4.99), and higher per-item charge ($4.99) but the effect is much the same.

    Amazon charge same for delivering one small paperback or a boxed set of hardbacks, which means I will never order a cheap paperback from them, but I may order a more expensive title (this also applies to DVDs, which can make boxed sets excellent value for money).  Maybe they make their charges so high to encourage people to sign up for Amazon Prime (a single annual charge for unlimited shipments), because it’s hard to believe that it really costs them £7.98 to ship a paperback to Hong Kong.  

    Anyway, Book Depository do things differently.  Order a paperback with a cover price of £7.99 from them and you will likely pay £7.19 including delivery (roughly HK$85), whereas it would cost about HK$150 shipped from Amazon or about HK$120 in a Hong Kong bookstore.

    Delivery is by airmail and seems to only take 5-10 days, so no complaints there.  They don’t use such elaborate packaging as Amazon, and that must keep costs down, but the books have arrived in good condition.

    Unfortunately their customer service isn’t so good.  I wanted to order one book in advance of publication, and they were advertising it with a bigger than usual discount, but I decided to wait – and a few days before publication the discount had disappeared completely (whereas Amazon were offering a 60% discount).  I questioned this and got no reply.  I followed up and got a vague response.  I tried again, and this time they suggested I order it from Amazon.  Doh!

    Then mysteriously they started offering their usual 10% discount again.  Puzzling.

    In fact there are many slightly weird things about their website.  Most books have a very prominent link to Amazon.co.uk that tells you the price and the delivery charge.  I suppose this is for price comparison, and also generates some revenue for them if you do order from Amazon.   They even say:

    The Book Depository and Amazon: why do we link to Amazon.co.uk?
    We are not in competition with Amazon, we complement Amazon by providing books which have poor availability, offering considerable discounts on certain titles which Amazon are unable to. On the other hand, we recognize that our customers want books quickly and, so, if we do not have stock — or if Amazon is considerably cheaper — our customers are able to order direct from Amazon via a link from our website. Our aim is to make “All books available to All”, so we make it as easy as possible for you to order and obtain books quickly and efficiently. We hope to give you visibility of other bookseller’s availability and prices; you will also find our catalogue on internet marketplaces at Amazon, Play, and other retailers.

    Well, I suppose they are not in direct competition with Amazon, and it works for them to co-operate instead of trying to compete.  Probably for sound commercial reasons rather than pure altruism.

  • All ends up

    Since the Football League introduced the play-off system, the end-of-season schedule of matches has been fairly consistent.

    The Football League season ends in early May (with League One and Two on the Saturday, and the Championship on Sunday).  A week later the Premier League season ends.  Then it’s the FA Cup Final, and finally the Play-Off finals at Wembley over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend (at the end of May).

    Not this year.  The Football League season ended 2 weeks ago (as normal), but the Premier League season carries on until the Bank Holiday weekend.  Then we have the Champions League final, and (unless I’m very much mistaken) the FA Cup Final will mark the end of the season.  Which is nice.

    It’s often said that the winners of the Championship play-offs suffer because they can only start their preparations 3 weeks after the other two promoted teams.  This year might be different, though, because either Burnley or Sheffield United will be promoted just one day after the end of the Premier League season.  So if United win they will have the opportunity to bid for a sulky Argentinean with a history of scoring vital goals at the end of the season…