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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Month: Sep 2006

  • Round-up

    Hongkong Disneyland are now offering an annual pass (Disney passes aim to lure visitors) with prices that vary according to when you want to go there.  My advice (for what it’s worth) – don’t go there on a very hot day (because there’s not enough shade) or when it’s very busy (the queues are too long, and very few attractions currently have ‘Fast…

  • The wrong kind of fat

    Last year I seem to recall I was rather dismissive of a food label that said “0g Trans Fat” – on the grounds that the product still had a high fat content.  However, perhaps that was a little unfair – it is widely accepted that there are good fats and bad fats, and Trans Fats are the worst…

  • Unwellcome

    Only this morning I was wondering how many ways there are that I hate Hong Kong supermarkets.  This thought was prompted by the discovery that the most of the blueberries I bought a few days now seem to become rotten.  Would it really be so difficult to put “sell by” and “eat by” dates on the…

  • Communication problems

    I’ve just been reading the hilarious argument between George Adams and the rest of the world over at Flagrant Harbour. The consensus seems to be that the problem is with the company hosting the website and its connection to Reach, rather than anything in Hong Kong.  George refuses to accept this and insists that his…

  • Keeping cool

    I see that after Spike’s complaint, the SCMP published a series of sensible letters on Friday (Denying our role in global warming will cost the Earth – subscription required), including this one which I thought summed it up quite well: Correspondents like Richard Straw miss the point. The argument that it has not been conclusively proved…

  • Not what I was expecting, but…

    About six months ago I was hoping that the the problems in Thailand would get resolved peacefully.  It now rather looks as if they will be, but only because the military have staged a coup and ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, the democratically elected prime minister.  Which wasn’t really what I had in mind as an ideal outcome.  And yet… One…

  • Now That Should Create More Publicity

    An email from George Adams is a rare treat, especially when he manages not to be offensive. His reason for contacting me was that his website is apparently not available to anyone who has Netvigator as their ISP, and he felt that I might be outraged by this. Well, up to a point, Dr Adams.…

  • The same old rubbish?

    The BBC is to replace BBC Sub-Prime with a new channel, BBC Entertainment.  It’s not at all clear what this might mean (after all, BBC Prime is already supposed to an entertainment channel) but I suppose we can hope for fewer old sitcoms starring Geoffey Palmer and something more modern instead.  The BBC will also…

  • On a roll

    Sometimes it seems that Jake van der Kamp struggles to find things to write about in his daily SCMP column – you may recall that he was famously caught out by an April Fool joke earlier this year. However, he has really got stuck into the debate on GST.  Unfortunately you need a paid subcription…

  • You have been warned

    As you may have noticed, I have a strange fascination with Hong Kong’s bewildering array of weather warnings.  Yesterday we had a typhoon pass by Hong Kong.  Although it’s initial track was towards Hong Kong, it then turned west and was always heading away from here.  The no.1 (standby) signal was raised on Tuesday afternoon,…