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: Jan 2008

  • Chinese news in English

    Tau Tiul Yat Bow has a very simple concept – take the top story from HK Headline News (a free Chinese language newspaper) and translate the headline into English. “Staff have no right to ask for alcohol test”職員 ( jig yuen ) = staff無權 ( mo queng ) = no right要求 ( yau qui )…

  • Late delivery

    The SCMP likes to think it is a serious important newspaper.  In truth it’s a local newspaper that prints lots of agency stories. Here’s one of the letters published in today’s ‘Talkback’ about a matter of great international concern (subscription required): I would like to complain about the poor service of Plaza Hollywood ParknShop. My…

  • Down as well as Up

    I have no idea what to make of the Hong Kong stock market.  In the last few weeks it seems to have become routine for the HSI to go up or down by hundreds of points for no reason at all, so in response to a general fall in stock markets all over the world,…

  • All made up

    About a week ago, I came across a strange story about a pair of twins getting married.  I think it first surfaced on the BBC website (Parted-at-birth twins ‘married’) – where the use of inverted commas around the last word indicated that it was not a verified fact.  This all seemed a bit too much…

  • Apple TV

    Some people get very excited about announcements from Apple.  I don’t.  The truth is that I am not going to rush out and buy any of these fine gadgets, and anyway Hong Kong doesn’t appear to feature in Apple’s plans (we still don’t have the iTunes store or the iPhone) – so although the new…

  • Mad

    This really is the gift that keeps on giving… I thought Newcastle’s board were going to spoil the fun when they said that they would take their time finding a manager and might consider appointing a foreigner.  Gérard Houllier was mentioned, and then Didier Deschamps was suddenly installed as favourite.  They even turned down Alan…

  • The dream team

    I see that Harry Redknapp somehow managed to resist the temptation of a few months up on Tyneside followed by the inevitable departure "by mutual consent".  Makes you wonder why they were in such a hurry to sack Allardyce if they didn’t have a replacement lined up.    Mark Hughes now seems to be the…

  • Fired by mutual consent

    Yet another Premier League manager has been fired, and once again it is by ‘mutual consent’, as if that meant anything:  “Sorry, Sam, you’re fired.”“OK.” It was a shock, but not a surprise.  For several weeks Sam Allardyce has looked to be under a lot of pressure, but I think everyone assumed that he would…

  • Slow train to Hamburg

    Most of the products that are exported from China to Europe go by boat.  Yes, some go by air, but that’s an expensive option. Yesterday an agreement was signed to set up a regular freight train service that will take 18 days to get from Beijing to Hamburg, less than half the time it takes…

  • Eat, drink and be merry

    Two recent studies say that drinking moderately is good for you (and that exercise helps a lot). The first survey also concludes that it’s OK to be overweight as long as you eat your sprouts: People who adopt four principles for a healthy lifestyle can add as much as 14 years to their lives, a…