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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  • Better, cheaper…fewer

    Maybe someone from AMC Cinemas took notice of my recent complaint.  They have not only implemented an Internet Booking system, but it is actually better than the one used by UA Cinemas – firstly because it’s all one site (UA send you off to Cityline where you have to switch to English, find the film and enter your password) and secondly because there’s no booking fee.

    Unfortunately, AMC will shortly be closing 4 of the 11 screens they have at Festival Walk, and I figure that will mean fewer films in English.

    However, to make up for this they will be taking over part of the space previously occupied by UA in Festival Walk Pacific Place (another mall owned by Swire).  Note that the new cinema will be smaller than the old one.

    According to the SCMP, the rents charged for cinemas are significantly lower than they are for shops.  A cinema pays its way by attracting visitors to the mall, and similar logic applies to other "anchor tenants" such as department stores.  When opening a new mall, you need those guys, but once you get established maybe you can manage without them. 

    Swire, the owners of Pacific Place, have already demonstrated their confidence by getting rid of Marks & Spencer, and now they are reducing the number of cinema screens as well.

    Time to buy shares in Swire?

  • More options

    Air New Zealand will be flying from Hong Kong to London starting in October, which provides another interesting option.  Like Qantas, their flight leaves a bit too early in the morning (8.15) to be ideal, but competition has to be a good thing and they have more legroom in both economy and ‘premium economy’ than BA or Virgin. 

    Or there’s Finnair, who will be flying direct from Hong Kong to Helsinki from the middle of May (currently they fly via Bangkok).  The selling point here is that the total journey time from HK to London (including transit) is 14.5 hours, which is only a little worse than direct flights and significantly better than almost all the other airlines with non-direct flights.  I suppose the reason is that Helsinki is on the route from Hong Kong to London (and maybe it’s a small airport as well). 

    Finnair have a curious offer of an economy ticket for HK$10k – with a free upgrade to business class one way only.  The biggest negative is no seat-back TVs in economy, so you probably want to take a good book.

  • Pricewatch – Green beans

    Haricot Vert (from Kenya).  All prices in Hong Kong Dollars:

    • $7.90 in Park’n’Shop on special offer
    • $9.90 in Park’n’Shop (and elsewhere)
    • $11.90 in Taste (Park’n’Shop by another name)
    • $18.00 in CitySuper

    Exactly the same product in each case. 

  • Later

    I’m a bit preoccupied, so I suggest you go and read something funny or something controversial.  Then before you know it I’ll be back with more drivel about cheese.

  • Well, you would say that…

    I see that our old friend Julian Harniess is in the news again.

    The English Schools Foundation (ESF) held a Press Conference on Monday to announce the proposed new ordinance that will fundamentally change the way the organization is run.  From the SCMP, which mysteriously headlined its story Controversial ESF reforms on the table:

    The proposals sweep away the existing foundation membership, which has been criticised by the Director of Audit, Legco’s Public Accounts Committee and education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung for being unwieldy and ineffective. Instead, the ESF would be overseen by a 25-member board of governors with a majority of independent members.

    "The main direction of this is to have greater accountability to the wider community," chairwoman Felice Lieh Mak said.

    Currently teachers, excluding principals, account for 30 per cent of the foundation. Teachers, principals and support staff would have one member each on the board.

    Actually, there’s not much controversy here.  It has been obvious for some time that the ESF could not continue operating as it had done in the past, and the reforms have been under discussion for a year or so.  However…

    Julian Harniess, chairman of the Association of Professional Teachers of ESF Schools, said the proposed bill disempowered teachers, who were likely to vote against it.  "The more they disempower teachers, the worse it will become for the ESF," he said.

    Well, I’m not sure that I agree with you on that one, Julian.

  • No news, then

    On Sky News tonight they seem to have replaced the news bulletins with wall-to-wall coverage of a rich old woman walking around Windsor and being given flowers.  Apparently she got 20,000 birthday cards and 17,000 emails (unfortunately 16,999 of them were actually offers of V/I/A/G/R/A from the likes of Osvaldo Blackmon and Mireria Goggin).  What I want to know is how the reporters can keep a straight face whilst talking so seriously about something that is so totally inconsequential.

    I suppose Thursday’s meeting at the White House was slightly more important, but not all that much so.  At least Hu Jintao managed to stand looking dignified whilst Bush gave his speech, but when it was turn to speak, Bush did his usual act of looking bored and/or smirking.  ATV News provided what I was told was a bumbling attempt at simultaneous translation into Cantonese, thus preventing the audience from hearing the official English and Putonghua versions – which surely would have been good enough for 95% of the population (though apparently the official Putonghua translation of whatever nonsense Bush was talking was not all that good).      

  • Pesticides’n’Stuff

    So why do you buy your vegetables in Park’n’Shop or Wellcome rather than the local wet market?

    Is it because:
    (1) I figure that a reputable supermarket chain has good quality control
    (2) "Everyday high prices"
    (3) If I can just get five more stamps I can buy some high-quality cookware from Europe
    (4) What harm can a little pesticide do to you?  Actually, maybe if it’s good for plants it’s also good for people.

    If you answered 1, it may be time to think again.

    Incidentally, the new(ish) wet market in Tai Po is quite impressive.   

  • Still in the holiday mood

    In the UK, public holidays almost always fall on a Monday or are part of a longer holiday.

    Not so in Hong Kong, where a public holiday can fall on any day of the week – yes, even Saturday (cue howls of protest from Gweilos working a five-day week who don’t realize how lucky they are).

    The weird ones for me are the holidays in the middle of the week – two weeks ago we had Wednesday off so that people could go and set fire to the hillsides, and then on Wednesday 31 May it’s Tuen Ng (Dragon Boat festival).

    There is a certain art in booking your annual leave to take advantage of the timing of these holidays, especially as most people in Hong Kong get far fewer days of annual leave than is common in the UK. The key here is finding public holidays close to each other.  Easter, Christmas and Chinese New Year are the obvious ones, but there are a few others.

    In 2 weeks time we get Monday and Friday off in the same week (1st May is Labour Day, and 5th May is Buddha’s birthday).  Not exactly a long weekend, but certainly a short week!

    This commonly happens with Ching Ming, which frequently crops up in the same week as Easter but sometimes actually merges with the Easter holiday itself – in 1999 it fell on Easter Monday (so the Tuesday was a public holiday), and next year it is on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday). 

    The only problem is that travel agents know all about the public holidays and increase their prices to match.   

  • In the holiday mood

    I was wondering why Air France business class fares from Hong Kong to London are so low, and then I read Boris Johnson’s comments on a recent flight with this fine airline.

    Meanwhile Oasis Hong Kong Airlines have a leased a couple of 747s previously owned by Singapore Airlines but won’t start flying to London till late in the summer.

  • Idiots

    The SCMP is such an easy target, so here we go again.

    They currently have a letter column and also a section called ‘Talkback’ (for emails).  I cannot figure out what difference there is between them – presumably most of the letters they receive come via email, so it can’t be that.  You might think that the best stuff goes in the letter column and the rest goes in Talkback, but both contain a mixture of interesting stuff and drivel.

    Anyway, the latter is what I love, and two recent examples (both from Talkback) have caught my attention.

    The first was hilariously mundane (and believe me, I know all about that): a reader wanted to complain that the Delifrance in Festival Walk had stopped doing set meals (this week’s special: a sandwich, red soup with cabbage and a tiny cake) and that you now have to queue up for a table.  Er, that’s it. 

    Hello? If you don’t like it, go somewhere else for your lunch.  Thanks. 

    Today’s drivel is definitely in Fumier territory.  A reader complains that he was driving along happily in the overtaking lane on one of Hong Kong’s many fine highways, when he was stopped by the police.  Not for speeding, but rather for driving badly (staying in the overtaking lane whilst not overtaking).  He seems upset about this, claiming that he thought the road signs were just advising him to stay in the inside lane).  Idiot.   

    (more…)