One of my favorite things in bars and restaurants here is commenting on the music. Commenting, or more truthfully ridiculing.
The Chinese restaurants catering to the westerners make it easy. Actually, I think establishments fall in to two distinct categories, the fist one being the group where the music is mostly fitting but include a few odd songs here and there; the second group is far more interesting, and unfortunately, far more numerous.
A prime example is from stopping for a pint after dinner in Hong Kong. Lasse and I found a comfortable, mood-lit little establishment and ordered our drinks. The service was good, the decorations were fitting and everything spoke of upper middle class. Well, everything except for the playlist. I pointed out the disco beats to Lasse, and we listened a little further. They started playing Crazy Frog.
I'm sorry, I can't continue that thought further, but rest assured it's not the only example of unfortunate music here. The Irish bar in Guangzhou looks the part, except you can't really hold a conversation inside due to the disco built to an adjacent hall. Turn left from the bar, walk past the Guinness tap, through an opening and there's a mirror ball hanging over head.
These unfortunates are extreme examples though. Most restaurants just have a partially English menu riddled with typos and unclear expressions and a CD playing in the background. The DIO Cafe I used to go to actually always played the same music back to back. The selection was so narrow I caught on the second time I went there for lunch.
The menus in restaurants I will leave as a topic for another day.
OP Out.
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Friday, February 13, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Stripa Faita Foor
To all my beloved fags: I was busy so I didnt write much. Now I wont write much either, but I was visiting Hong Kong and I played Street Fighter 4. Its a nice game, but the problem when going to HK arcades is that certain geeks practice daily and I just cant beat them.
After about 20 rounds I can already say that SF4 is quite OK as a game, and the game balance seems nice too. The strongest characters in the game are probably M.Bison and Blanka. Also Zangief, Abel, Ryu and Ken (the two latter ones.. sigh.. what a surprise) seem solid as well. And more probably, the Japanese tournament scene will very quickly prove my observations wrong.
Well. I play Ken as always. Akuma seems to weak to bother with, and I dont like how he works. In Street Fighter 3 Akuma was my fav char, but now, I just need to do it with Ken since he seems more stylish this time - and with him I can actually get some rounds in against those HK geeks.
If you manage to find one, and are into fighting games, then try SF4. Ill give it 3,5/5 and probably later on 5/5, but not yet. Depends how good I get in it. Lol. Moi.
After about 20 rounds I can already say that SF4 is quite OK as a game, and the game balance seems nice too. The strongest characters in the game are probably M.Bison and Blanka. Also Zangief, Abel, Ryu and Ken (the two latter ones.. sigh.. what a surprise) seem solid as well. And more probably, the Japanese tournament scene will very quickly prove my observations wrong.
Well. I play Ken as always. Akuma seems to weak to bother with, and I dont like how he works. In Street Fighter 3 Akuma was my fav char, but now, I just need to do it with Ken since he seems more stylish this time - and with him I can actually get some rounds in against those HK geeks.
If you manage to find one, and are into fighting games, then try SF4. Ill give it 3,5/5 and probably later on 5/5, but not yet. Depends how good I get in it. Lol. Moi.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Bedroom magic
There's two kinds of magic that generally happen in bedrooms. The first one is what you all thought I would preach about, the second is geckos.
Geckos are awesome. In many countries, you'd have to build a big terrarium with funky gadgets for life-support and all that to have a pet gecko - and you'd have to feed them. Here, they are self-sufficient and don't even ask for permission to be your pet. They invite themselves in and make it home. Granted, they run around so fast that you don't get to see them a lot (that's why I don't have a picture taken of one yet). So, as such a pet, they're not as much fun maybe, even less so than a cat.
So, what's so bedroom magical about gecko's?
Well, the 'bedroom' parts comes from the fact that they invite themselves in, and pretty much go wherever they feel like going. Including the bedroom. Killing a gecko is not like killing a mosquito (a lot messier, and quite difficult as well - hence I've skipped that part so far), so they pretty much get their way. Besides, geckos are cool and they are effective insect-killing-machines so why would I want to kill one anyway? I can choose between having a cool gecko around, or a bunch of cockroaches and other insects. Not a difficult pick. Thus, if they want to go to the bedroom, they can, and they will. Luckily that doesn't happen so often, and usually not at a time when humans inhabit the bedroom - they have thing about people around and cool air (aircon).
The 'magic' part comes from the fact that geckos operate 97% on magic. This came as a surprise to me as I was researching into their case.
You noticed how geckos can walk on walls like it was no problem? That is because it is not a problem for them. In fact, they're wall-walking-wonders: No suction cups, no stickyness, liquids or surface tension! They stick to walls because (wikipedia):
Now get this (wikipedia again):
Artur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", and I can definiteky agree with that. With geckos, moreso, it's not even a technology - it's what they do naturally. Super awesome!
Now, I suppose that wraps it for geckos. I know there are tons of animals and creatures around with magical abilities. I just thought I'd share my liking to the powers of the gecko - since they've taken a liking to running around my apartment walls.
On the topic of bedroom magic, I could mention my thinking on the human bedroom magic as well, for what it comes to Asia and also how everything relates to my post earlier about sucky jobs.
Don't worry, this is mostly quite scientifical and proper.
In the 'working nations' of Asia (my freshly inveted word for China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) people work as if it was the sole purpose of human life. Or so it seems. In my sucky jobs post I brought the example of factory workers who most likely have to skip large parts of their personal life just to be able to work efficiently (and not lose their jobs). In Hong Kong, many people work 10-12 hours a day and have some overtime on top of that as well - 6 days a week.
In Japan, full-time workers, both male and female, average 55 hours of work per week. One in three men aged 30-40 puts in more than 60 hours a week. Half of them are not even being paid for any of their overtime. There was even a deathcase in July, when a 45-year-old engineer at Toyota died after working more than 80 hours of overtime a month.
In Korea, people rank highest in working hours in OECD country study: with 2390 hours a year (quick calculation: 2390 / 52 = 45.96), that's roughly 46 hours a week. South Korea and Japan are the only countries where death by work or "karoshi" (過労死) is a recognized phenomenon (wikipedia).
Anyway, to put a long story short, is it a wonder that the "working nations" of Asia rank low in sex studies? I just had a look at the Durex2005 Global Sex Survey, and under "Frequency of sex", you'll see that Japan ranks lowest (45 per year), Singapore (73), Hong Kong (78), Taiwan (88), China (96), all well below the global average (103). Finland scored 102 and the 'winner' was Greece with a score of 138. Sweden, for some reason, scored only 92. South Korea was not included.
I'm sure culture plays a very big part in this; the general view on sex and dating, and all that. However, if you spend such a great portion of your day at work, busting your balls (figuratively speaking especially if a girl/woman), you don't have much energy for anything - especially if you get home late and need to wake up early again. You manage to put some time for sex too, of course, but no way as much as the life-loving Europeans or other westeners who have jobs only to pay for the "life" and work as little as possible.
I don't know how Sweden's low (or the relatively low score of Finland) fit to this theory of mine, except that maybe the sampling wasn't really good - or, especially in Finland's case, plans for sex are frequent, but with alcohol and late-nights in the mix too, perhaps people tend to pass out and fall asleep before any action happens. Who knows.
Well anyway, that's all about bedroom magic now. Remember, geckos rock!
Tchau.
1 In, the van der Waals force (or van der Waals interaction), named after Dutch scientist, is the attractive or repulsive force between molecules (or between parts of the same molecule) other than those due to or to the electrostatic interaction of ions with one another or with neutral molecules.
Geckos are awesome. In many countries, you'd have to build a big terrarium with funky gadgets for life-support and all that to have a pet gecko - and you'd have to feed them. Here, they are self-sufficient and don't even ask for permission to be your pet. They invite themselves in and make it home. Granted, they run around so fast that you don't get to see them a lot (that's why I don't have a picture taken of one yet). So, as such a pet, they're not as much fun maybe, even less so than a cat.
So, what's so bedroom magical about gecko's?
Well, the 'bedroom' parts comes from the fact that they invite themselves in, and pretty much go wherever they feel like going. Including the bedroom. Killing a gecko is not like killing a mosquito (a lot messier, and quite difficult as well - hence I've skipped that part so far), so they pretty much get their way. Besides, geckos are cool and they are effective insect-killing-machines so why would I want to kill one anyway? I can choose between having a cool gecko around, or a bunch of cockroaches and other insects. Not a difficult pick. Thus, if they want to go to the bedroom, they can, and they will. Luckily that doesn't happen so often, and usually not at a time when humans inhabit the bedroom - they have thing about people around and cool air (aircon).
The 'magic' part comes from the fact that geckos operate 97% on magic. This came as a surprise to me as I was researching into their case.
You noticed how geckos can walk on walls like it was no problem? That is because it is not a problem for them. In fact, they're wall-walking-wonders: No suction cups, no stickyness, liquids or surface tension! They stick to walls because (wikipedia):
- ...the patula tipped setae on gecko footpads demonstrate that the attractive forces that hold geckos to surfaces are van der Waals interactions1 between the finely divided setae and the surfaces themselves
- Every square millimeter of a gecko's footpad contains about 14,000 hair-like setae
- Each seta has a diameter of 5 micrometers (human hair varies from 18 to 180 micrometer, so a human hair could hold between 3 to 30 setae)
- Each seta is in turn tipped with between 100 and 1,000 spatulae
- Each spatula is 0.2 micrometres long (200 billionths of a metre), or just below the wavelength of visible light
Now get this (wikipedia again):
- Geckos' toes operate well below their full attractive capabilities for most of the time (...because there is a great margin for error depending upon the roughness of the surface [and so they compensate and leave room for error])
- If a typical mature 70 g gecko had every one of its setae in contact with a surface, it would be capable of holding aloft a weight of 133 kg
Artur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", and I can definiteky agree with that. With geckos, moreso, it's not even a technology - it's what they do naturally. Super awesome!
Now, I suppose that wraps it for geckos. I know there are tons of animals and creatures around with magical abilities. I just thought I'd share my liking to the powers of the gecko - since they've taken a liking to running around my apartment walls.
On the topic of bedroom magic, I could mention my thinking on the human bedroom magic as well, for what it comes to Asia and also how everything relates to my post earlier about sucky jobs.
Don't worry, this is mostly quite scientifical and proper.
In the 'working nations' of Asia (my freshly inveted word for China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) people work as if it was the sole purpose of human life. Or so it seems. In my sucky jobs post I brought the example of factory workers who most likely have to skip large parts of their personal life just to be able to work efficiently (and not lose their jobs). In Hong Kong, many people work 10-12 hours a day and have some overtime on top of that as well - 6 days a week.
In Japan, full-time workers, both male and female, average 55 hours of work per week. One in three men aged 30-40 puts in more than 60 hours a week. Half of them are not even being paid for any of their overtime. There was even a deathcase in July, when a 45-year-old engineer at Toyota died after working more than 80 hours of overtime a month.
In Korea, people rank highest in working hours in OECD country study: with 2390 hours a year (quick calculation: 2390 / 52 = 45.96), that's roughly 46 hours a week. South Korea and Japan are the only countries where death by work or "karoshi" (過労死) is a recognized phenomenon (wikipedia).
Anyway, to put a long story short, is it a wonder that the "working nations" of Asia rank low in sex studies? I just had a look at the Durex2005 Global Sex Survey, and under "Frequency of sex", you'll see that Japan ranks lowest (45 per year), Singapore (73), Hong Kong (78), Taiwan (88), China (96), all well below the global average (103). Finland scored 102 and the 'winner' was Greece with a score of 138. Sweden, for some reason, scored only 92. South Korea was not included.
I'm sure culture plays a very big part in this; the general view on sex and dating, and all that. However, if you spend such a great portion of your day at work, busting your balls (figuratively speaking especially if a girl/woman), you don't have much energy for anything - especially if you get home late and need to wake up early again. You manage to put some time for sex too, of course, but no way as much as the life-loving Europeans or other westeners who have jobs only to pay for the "life" and work as little as possible.
I don't know how Sweden's low (or the relatively low score of Finland) fit to this theory of mine, except that maybe the sampling wasn't really good - or, especially in Finland's case, plans for sex are frequent, but with alcohol and late-nights in the mix too, perhaps people tend to pass out and fall asleep before any action happens. Who knows.
Well anyway, that's all about bedroom magic now. Remember, geckos rock!
Tchau.
1 In, the van der Waals force (or van der Waals interaction), named after Dutch scientist, is the attractive or repulsive force between molecules (or between parts of the same molecule) other than those due to or to the electrostatic interaction of ions with one another or with neutral molecules.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Same guy, same gibberish, new location.
Back online and back to posting. I got my internet working again yesterday. That is not to say it wasn’t working before – it’s just a good opening statement implying a kind of a restrain on posting. The thing is, I was actually without internet only for about 20 hours. But let’s not go into trivial details. I’m back online and that’s all that matters.
The reason I was offline for 20 hours is that I’m now living in a new location. I quit my old job and changed to a new one. And with old job gone, so was the old apartment (which was arranged by the old company). And on Sunday as I left my old place in the afternoon, I had to wait until Monday morning to get the internet transferred to my new address.
The new apartment is in a village area of Hong Kong called Kam Tin (it’s under Yuen Long district). It’s a very, very traditional style area in Hong Kong and if you’re thinking skyscrapers or high-rise apartments, you can stop right there. There’s nothing here that is taller than 10 meters. And I live in ground floor – not 48th like before.
Outside we got dirt, bugs, smells and all the fancy things that make a place authentic and real. Inside, so far, I’ve killed a few ants, one small cockroach, a spider and things I’m not even sure what they were. My building is inside a wall of other buildings with distances from 1 to 4 feet of each others. Building next doors is over 100 years old. My main view in all windows is a brick wall.
I fully-heartedly enjoy this place, however. It’s something completely different, again, from anything I’ve experienced so far. The lifestyle is very different, the people are very different and the whole structure of life here is very different. When you think of Hong Kong you think of skyscrapers, shopping malls and modern big city life. When you think of Kam Tin, you think different.
I haven’t had the chance to take many pictures yet but I will. I was going to today, but we got a nasty rain until now and I didn’t feel like getting wet – again.
In the last two days I’ve gone out four times. Three times I got surprised by rain without me having an umbrella. Fourth time I went out and had an umbrella. It stopped raining after a minute. It’s not an easy life. Also, there was a T8 typhoon warning yesterday, I went shopping for some additional cabinets for my new apartment (the second time I was out). While I was walking outside the wind threw a speck into my eye and it hurt. Typhoons are a serious matter!!
To drag this post once more off-topic, let it be noted that the younger generation of my girlfriend’s extended family now refer to me as 哈囉哥哥 (haalougogo) which basically means Hello Brother (older brother) which I assume is because the only thing I say at family gatherings is “hello” to everyone, as I come in. And then I sit mute until the rest of the evening. Nice.
Anyway, off now. With my current and changed life-situation I’m sure I’ll be posting more, and I’ll be having more to post about too. So tchau!
The reason I was offline for 20 hours is that I’m now living in a new location. I quit my old job and changed to a new one. And with old job gone, so was the old apartment (which was arranged by the old company). And on Sunday as I left my old place in the afternoon, I had to wait until Monday morning to get the internet transferred to my new address.
The new apartment is in a village area of Hong Kong called Kam Tin (it’s under Yuen Long district). It’s a very, very traditional style area in Hong Kong and if you’re thinking skyscrapers or high-rise apartments, you can stop right there. There’s nothing here that is taller than 10 meters. And I live in ground floor – not 48th like before.
Outside we got dirt, bugs, smells and all the fancy things that make a place authentic and real. Inside, so far, I’ve killed a few ants, one small cockroach, a spider and things I’m not even sure what they were. My building is inside a wall of other buildings with distances from 1 to 4 feet of each others. Building next doors is over 100 years old. My main view in all windows is a brick wall.
I fully-heartedly enjoy this place, however. It’s something completely different, again, from anything I’ve experienced so far. The lifestyle is very different, the people are very different and the whole structure of life here is very different. When you think of Hong Kong you think of skyscrapers, shopping malls and modern big city life. When you think of Kam Tin, you think different.
I haven’t had the chance to take many pictures yet but I will. I was going to today, but we got a nasty rain until now and I didn’t feel like getting wet – again.
In the last two days I’ve gone out four times. Three times I got surprised by rain without me having an umbrella. Fourth time I went out and had an umbrella. It stopped raining after a minute. It’s not an easy life. Also, there was a T8 typhoon warning yesterday, I went shopping for some additional cabinets for my new apartment (the second time I was out). While I was walking outside the wind threw a speck into my eye and it hurt. Typhoons are a serious matter!!
To drag this post once more off-topic, let it be noted that the younger generation of my girlfriend’s extended family now refer to me as 哈囉哥哥 (haalougogo) which basically means Hello Brother (older brother) which I assume is because the only thing I say at family gatherings is “hello” to everyone, as I come in. And then I sit mute until the rest of the evening. Nice.
Anyway, off now. With my current and changed life-situation I’m sure I’ll be posting more, and I’ll be having more to post about too. So tchau!
Friday, July 25, 2008
My favourite colour is transparent
I'll be off to Finland for a few week holiday so my posting will be slow for a while. With that said, let's move to the two issues at hand.
There is a trainstation close to the border of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Not the KCR station, but the real train station. It's a really nice and modern station. The trains on Chinese railways (especially in our neighbourhood) tend to be quite new as well. With the economy booming, China has been improving the infrastructure quite well, and it's a really nice feeling taking a train which smells like a new car.
Anyway. The train station in Shenzhen. For incoming trains, there is one platform and one small exit from it. The exit is about 5 meters wide and has stairs going down. What this means is that when a train unloads its passengers to the station (last station on the rail), the whole system just chokes.
It takes forever to get anywhere. It's ridiculous!.. The reason I'm writing this is that I had to wait for a good 10 minutes to get out of the platform in the blazing heat of mid-day sun. I was wearing a full suit (had a meeting earlier) and carrying my bags. And I was sweating like a pig. Not your cute little piglet but a fullgrown swine.
Warm weather is nice. Sunny days are nice. Even hot weather can be nice sometimes. But NEVER when wearing a suit! Damn it all to hell.
Few hundred little Chinese trying to squeeze through a 5 meter opening all at once. And one super pissed off Gweilo.
No point in the above. Nor in the below.
One thing I've noticed in Hong Kong (and now in China too) is that a large percentage of girls/women in Hong Kong (and probably in China) who dye their hair are actually not that good looking. And they are probably thinking that doing these kind of "improvements" would somehow improve their situation and make them stick out of the crowd to their advantage. Well, no. They don't.
What they do, is attract attention, yes. But... You see an asian girl with a funky colour hair and you're bound to pay attention. 'First mission accomplished', thinks the girl. But you'll quickly realize that despite the hair colour it's just an ugly broad.
Fail.
Off to Finland in 7 hours. Super fun times. Tchau!
There is a trainstation close to the border of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Not the KCR station, but the real train station. It's a really nice and modern station. The trains on Chinese railways (especially in our neighbourhood) tend to be quite new as well. With the economy booming, China has been improving the infrastructure quite well, and it's a really nice feeling taking a train which smells like a new car.
Anyway. The train station in Shenzhen. For incoming trains, there is one platform and one small exit from it. The exit is about 5 meters wide and has stairs going down. What this means is that when a train unloads its passengers to the station (last station on the rail), the whole system just chokes.
It takes forever to get anywhere. It's ridiculous!.. The reason I'm writing this is that I had to wait for a good 10 minutes to get out of the platform in the blazing heat of mid-day sun. I was wearing a full suit (had a meeting earlier) and carrying my bags. And I was sweating like a pig. Not your cute little piglet but a fullgrown swine.
Warm weather is nice. Sunny days are nice. Even hot weather can be nice sometimes. But NEVER when wearing a suit! Damn it all to hell.
Few hundred little Chinese trying to squeeze through a 5 meter opening all at once. And one super pissed off Gweilo.
No point in the above. Nor in the below.
One thing I've noticed in Hong Kong (and now in China too) is that a large percentage of girls/women in Hong Kong (and probably in China) who dye their hair are actually not that good looking. And they are probably thinking that doing these kind of "improvements" would somehow improve their situation and make them stick out of the crowd to their advantage. Well, no. They don't.
What they do, is attract attention, yes. But... You see an asian girl with a funky colour hair and you're bound to pay attention. 'First mission accomplished', thinks the girl. But you'll quickly realize that despite the hair colour it's just an ugly broad.
Fail.
Off to Finland in 7 hours. Super fun times. Tchau!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I'm a happy consumer.
Brands. Hong Kong is full them. Hong Kong is full of people whose life's only purpose is to boast on new, expensive things. You don't go for just one or two expensive things like a watch or a fancy shirt, no, you go for the full package. You have to have expensive everything on you. It doesn't really matter if you live in a shithole in the Chinese border, or under a bridge in Fanlin. No. What is important is that whenever you're out in the public you can wear the finest things available and look like you're worth millions.
Once I heard my girlfriend call LV bags the "uniform of Hong Kong". Sadly, it's a very truthful way of putting it. Every time you step outside, you will see LV bags somewhere. If you take a look at people queuing somewhere, there's at least a few LV's there too. If not LV, then it's Gucci, Burberry or any of the sort.
I can feel it my fingers, I can feel it in my toes. Brands are all around us. Branding doesn't stop with clothes, of course.
It's amazing how much money locals use on anything from Japan. It's like Japan is a magical land where only good things come. Put a few kanji or katakana characters on a product and it's an instant success. This works especially in cosmetics and skincare products.
Yesterday I was watching a TV show (local channel in Cantonese) which was pretty much like any talk show where they might discuss politics, or the days topics, etc. Well, this program was about new brand products in the market. I don't really know if there's any other point to the show than this, but from what I saw, it's just another marketing tool for companies. This time, a Japanese skincare product company was given a generous 15 minutes for promoting their product with computer animations (the kind of animations that prove the product works without a question) and everything - and the host supporting this obviously superior product (has to be superior because it comes with a big price tag). I didn't really understand a word said on the show, but the message was clear enough. Go and buy!!
A more obvious channel of information for those with material aspirations are the local magazines. They are full of articles about new brand products. Page after page of pictures and product information. They even tell the price for all these new products so that once you see someone wearing/carrying it, you will know how much it cost. And of course, if you have bought one yourself, you can rest assured that everyone seeing you will know how much you spent on that dreamy new LV bag of yours.
There's nothing wrong with brands, of course. There's nothing wrong in bringing a guarantee to the market only brands can provide. In fact, I'm a big fan of brands.
However, the extent in which brands are worshiped in Hong Kong is quite disturbing. Less would do just fine. You have people who make HKD 10,000 or less a month, spending way more than their monthly income on single products. You have people incredibly shallow and materialistic, who will start and end relationships based on the income of their companions and the value of the gifts they give.
When I started going out with my girlfriend, my income was among the first questions she received from her friends. And I am sure they weren't asking out of concern to my financial health.
Anyway, as a final thing, at least Hong Kong people in general know how to dress. When they buy their expensive brand products, they have an idea how to use the product in a proper context. Mainland Chinese (the Nouveau riche), however, can't dress for shit. They buy the garments with the biggest logo available and have no consideration of how the different colours/designs go together with the other things they wear. It's funny. Even in Hong Kong, you can still quite easily tell who is Hong Kong native, who is from Mainland China by what people wear. Of course this is a generalization, but you see these things happen all the time. And it really is funny.
That's about all time I have for today. Maybe I'll get back on the topic of brands later. It is a broad topic to cover. Anyways, off now. Laters.
Once I heard my girlfriend call LV bags the "uniform of Hong Kong". Sadly, it's a very truthful way of putting it. Every time you step outside, you will see LV bags somewhere. If you take a look at people queuing somewhere, there's at least a few LV's there too. If not LV, then it's Gucci, Burberry or any of the sort.
I can feel it my fingers, I can feel it in my toes. Brands are all around us. Branding doesn't stop with clothes, of course.
It's amazing how much money locals use on anything from Japan. It's like Japan is a magical land where only good things come. Put a few kanji or katakana characters on a product and it's an instant success. This works especially in cosmetics and skincare products.
Yesterday I was watching a TV show (local channel in Cantonese) which was pretty much like any talk show where they might discuss politics, or the days topics, etc. Well, this program was about new brand products in the market. I don't really know if there's any other point to the show than this, but from what I saw, it's just another marketing tool for companies. This time, a Japanese skincare product company was given a generous 15 minutes for promoting their product with computer animations (the kind of animations that prove the product works without a question) and everything - and the host supporting this obviously superior product (has to be superior because it comes with a big price tag). I didn't really understand a word said on the show, but the message was clear enough. Go and buy!!
A more obvious channel of information for those with material aspirations are the local magazines. They are full of articles about new brand products. Page after page of pictures and product information. They even tell the price for all these new products so that once you see someone wearing/carrying it, you will know how much it cost. And of course, if you have bought one yourself, you can rest assured that everyone seeing you will know how much you spent on that dreamy new LV bag of yours.
There's nothing wrong with brands, of course. There's nothing wrong in bringing a guarantee to the market only brands can provide. In fact, I'm a big fan of brands.
However, the extent in which brands are worshiped in Hong Kong is quite disturbing. Less would do just fine. You have people who make HKD 10,000 or less a month, spending way more than their monthly income on single products. You have people incredibly shallow and materialistic, who will start and end relationships based on the income of their companions and the value of the gifts they give.
When I started going out with my girlfriend, my income was among the first questions she received from her friends. And I am sure they weren't asking out of concern to my financial health.
Anyway, as a final thing, at least Hong Kong people in general know how to dress. When they buy their expensive brand products, they have an idea how to use the product in a proper context. Mainland Chinese (the Nouveau riche), however, can't dress for shit. They buy the garments with the biggest logo available and have no consideration of how the different colours/designs go together with the other things they wear. It's funny. Even in Hong Kong, you can still quite easily tell who is Hong Kong native, who is from Mainland China by what people wear. Of course this is a generalization, but you see these things happen all the time. And it really is funny.
That's about all time I have for today. Maybe I'll get back on the topic of brands later. It is a broad topic to cover. Anyways, off now. Laters.
"I'm a happy consumer! And you know, I'm concerned about what my children consume! I'd like to consume the barrel of a twelve-gauge shotgun right now -- blam!' - Bill Hicks
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Why, oh, why!?
Doors in Hong Kong open inwards. So what?, some ignorant individual might say, but it's really stupid actually.
The door of your apartment occupies a square meter of your home. In Finland you would use this place for keeping your shoes but not in Hong Kong. You must have an empty space which you cannot use for anything and still have to pay rent for it. Why can’t the door open to the common area which is used only for getting out of the apartment or getting in?
I had a carpet outside of my apartment door for wiping the dog shit out of my shoes but the management forbid it saying that it "obstructs the means of escape". Naturally I ignored what the management said because the carpet doesn't do that because the door opens inwards and not outwards. The carpet would actually obstruct the means of escape if it had located inside of my apartment.
Well, anyways one day I heard a knock on the door and I was like what the hell!? I have no friends so I assumed it's the police or TV-license inspector, so I flushed down the drugs and threw the TV out of the window. It wasn’t the police or the inspector. There was a pretty lobby hostess and a security guard. They had come to inform me that I need to remove the carpet "immediately". Jeez! Is it really that serious that the management sends a blushing girl and guy who keeps staring at the ceiling to my place to say just that get rid of the carpet? Now I have the carpet inside obstructing my means of escape...
The reason why the girl was blushing and the guard was staring at the ceiling was that I was wearing a towel around me, gold necklace, a pair of eyeglasses and nothing else. I guess they had never seen a body figure shaped as well as mine…
Oh, yeah! Let's say you need to crap and you must use a public toilet. First you walk in to the toilet room. So far, so good. Then you open the door of the stall where the toilet seat is actually located. You walk inside and try to close the door but the stall is so small that you can't close it because there is not enough room between the door and the toilet seat. To solve the problem you either stand so that the toilet seat is between your legs or you stand on the toilet seat to be able to close the door. Try to do this with a bag and an umbrella and you really start to appreciate Satan, who designed the Hong Kong doors. And the same difficulties wait after you have wiped your arse.
Then you want to wash your hands. You wash very carefully with soap. Just like the public awareness ads teach you. Then you dry your hands and are just about to leave. In Finland you would kick the door open to avoid SARS and avian flu waiting on the door handle to kill you. In Hong Kong that's not possible because the door opens inwards. Great! So either you wait somebody to get in or use a hand towel and enjoy the convenience of Hong Kong doors.
Let's say that you are indoors in a place packed with people. Somebody farts so terrible fart that everybody needs to get out of the room or they DIE! So what happens is that dozens or hundreds of people are pushing against a door that opens inwards. And they all die. This kind of situation could be caused of fire etc.
Why, oh, why!? I tell you why: because of Feng Shui, the Chinese magic. The doors must open inwards or the good fortune flows out.
I definitely appreciate Kung Fu over Feng Shui.
The door of your apartment occupies a square meter of your home. In Finland you would use this place for keeping your shoes but not in Hong Kong. You must have an empty space which you cannot use for anything and still have to pay rent for it. Why can’t the door open to the common area which is used only for getting out of the apartment or getting in?
I had a carpet outside of my apartment door for wiping the dog shit out of my shoes but the management forbid it saying that it "obstructs the means of escape". Naturally I ignored what the management said because the carpet doesn't do that because the door opens inwards and not outwards. The carpet would actually obstruct the means of escape if it had located inside of my apartment.
Well, anyways one day I heard a knock on the door and I was like what the hell!? I have no friends so I assumed it's the police or TV-license inspector, so I flushed down the drugs and threw the TV out of the window. It wasn’t the police or the inspector. There was a pretty lobby hostess and a security guard. They had come to inform me that I need to remove the carpet "immediately". Jeez! Is it really that serious that the management sends a blushing girl and guy who keeps staring at the ceiling to my place to say just that get rid of the carpet? Now I have the carpet inside obstructing my means of escape...
The reason why the girl was blushing and the guard was staring at the ceiling was that I was wearing a towel around me, gold necklace, a pair of eyeglasses and nothing else. I guess they had never seen a body figure shaped as well as mine…
Oh, yeah! Let's say you need to crap and you must use a public toilet. First you walk in to the toilet room. So far, so good. Then you open the door of the stall where the toilet seat is actually located. You walk inside and try to close the door but the stall is so small that you can't close it because there is not enough room between the door and the toilet seat. To solve the problem you either stand so that the toilet seat is between your legs or you stand on the toilet seat to be able to close the door. Try to do this with a bag and an umbrella and you really start to appreciate Satan, who designed the Hong Kong doors. And the same difficulties wait after you have wiped your arse.
Then you want to wash your hands. You wash very carefully with soap. Just like the public awareness ads teach you. Then you dry your hands and are just about to leave. In Finland you would kick the door open to avoid SARS and avian flu waiting on the door handle to kill you. In Hong Kong that's not possible because the door opens inwards. Great! So either you wait somebody to get in or use a hand towel and enjoy the convenience of Hong Kong doors.
Let's say that you are indoors in a place packed with people. Somebody farts so terrible fart that everybody needs to get out of the room or they DIE! So what happens is that dozens or hundreds of people are pushing against a door that opens inwards. And they all die. This kind of situation could be caused of fire etc.
Why, oh, why!? I tell you why: because of Feng Shui, the Chinese magic. The doors must open inwards or the good fortune flows out.
I definitely appreciate Kung Fu over Feng Shui.
Monday, July 14, 2008
On the Ease of Eating
I'll throw in a second $0.02 worth of opinion to the discussion on food.
One of the things I appreciate in Hong Kong is the ease of eating. It's safe and they have a great selection available almost anywhere. The advantage over Malaysia lies in the ease of finding a restaurant. The information on where to eat is available easily and finding a restaurant doesn't really rely on prior knowledge. Malaysia, on the other hand, has more Indian food - perfectly suited for me.
In both Malay and HK eating the food will be safe and decently priced. And to be honest, I prefer both places to Chinese eating.
I'll share a short news story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080711/ap_on_re_as/china_dog_meat
It's just a short article on how Beijing is taking dog off the menu for the Olympic Games. Nothing new in the fact that the Chinese eat dog, but it serves as a reminder that while eating in Continental China it is very possible to order something quite unpalatable.
Chicken feet in vinegar is the only dish I have been literally unable to swallow at all. Smoked tofu came close, and there have been various oddities ever since. I never ran to anything as strange in Malaysia or Hong Kong.
Seafood is, like Pekka mentioned a good alternative. If you are open minded enough, most of the things that crawl from the ocean bottom to your plate are fresh and according to some, tasty. I'm not that open minded, but I can eat the shrimp and crab shoved on my plate.
The key in eating in China is to find a dish or two that you like, and when asked what should be ordered, always pick the favourite. The other people will order stuff too and you will be safe in the knowledge you get something you like. It's a way of betting on a winner.
There are other tips as well. Eat in a restaurant where you see locals eating. Perhaps it is a coincidence that a restaurant is empty at the moment, but I haven't really gone wrong in following the popular opinion. Even a small dodgy looking place gets an instant "good enough" certificate if it's full with people eating.
In China, you are allowed to say you don't like a certain dish or a food. The Chinese consider it as an honest response and won't think twice of you eating something else instead. This is true especially since the Chinese have a large variety of food. Guangdong food is seafood based, Sichuan is spicy, Shanghai sweet and so on - the Chinese understand fine if someone doesn't like something.
It also helps if you don't really think of what exactly do the crab eat on the ocean bottom, or how clean the water is in the pool used to grow the fish.
OP out.
One of the things I appreciate in Hong Kong is the ease of eating. It's safe and they have a great selection available almost anywhere. The advantage over Malaysia lies in the ease of finding a restaurant. The information on where to eat is available easily and finding a restaurant doesn't really rely on prior knowledge. Malaysia, on the other hand, has more Indian food - perfectly suited for me.
In both Malay and HK eating the food will be safe and decently priced. And to be honest, I prefer both places to Chinese eating.
I'll share a short news story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080711/ap_on_re_as/china_dog_meat
It's just a short article on how Beijing is taking dog off the menu for the Olympic Games. Nothing new in the fact that the Chinese eat dog, but it serves as a reminder that while eating in Continental China it is very possible to order something quite unpalatable.
Chicken feet in vinegar is the only dish I have been literally unable to swallow at all. Smoked tofu came close, and there have been various oddities ever since. I never ran to anything as strange in Malaysia or Hong Kong.
Seafood is, like Pekka mentioned a good alternative. If you are open minded enough, most of the things that crawl from the ocean bottom to your plate are fresh and according to some, tasty. I'm not that open minded, but I can eat the shrimp and crab shoved on my plate.
The key in eating in China is to find a dish or two that you like, and when asked what should be ordered, always pick the favourite. The other people will order stuff too and you will be safe in the knowledge you get something you like. It's a way of betting on a winner.
There are other tips as well. Eat in a restaurant where you see locals eating. Perhaps it is a coincidence that a restaurant is empty at the moment, but I haven't really gone wrong in following the popular opinion. Even a small dodgy looking place gets an instant "good enough" certificate if it's full with people eating.
In China, you are allowed to say you don't like a certain dish or a food. The Chinese consider it as an honest response and won't think twice of you eating something else instead. This is true especially since the Chinese have a large variety of food. Guangdong food is seafood based, Sichuan is spicy, Shanghai sweet and so on - the Chinese understand fine if someone doesn't like something.
It also helps if you don't really think of what exactly do the crab eat on the ocean bottom, or how clean the water is in the pool used to grow the fish.
OP out.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Attenzione!
I'm the last and least of the four authors of this blog. The name is Lasse and the rank is irrelevant. Air France brought me in Hong Kong late November 2006 where I have stayed ever since. Well, I have visited Shenzhen, P.R.C. (four hours) and Malysia (four days) and Macau (four times). Four is the unluckiest number of all in the minds of Chinamen but whatever brings bad luck to other people brings me wealth and fortune.
I don't consider Hong Kong being the best or the worst place on Earth nor anything between. It's just a place where I am now. I have always enjoyed the place where I have lived, even Valkeakoski. This is the second time I live abroad the first time being a year in Kosovo. Luckily I have been blessed with the wisdom from Cross Cultural Communication course so I don't need to worry about anything. Besides I know 74 different ways to kill a man with a library card. I'll be just fine.
I don't make any future plans so I have no idea what will happen later. But one thing is sure: it won't be pretty...
I don't consider Hong Kong being the best or the worst place on Earth nor anything between. It's just a place where I am now. I have always enjoyed the place where I have lived, even Valkeakoski. This is the second time I live abroad the first time being a year in Kosovo. Luckily I have been blessed with the wisdom from Cross Cultural Communication course so I don't need to worry about anything. Besides I know 74 different ways to kill a man with a library card. I'll be just fine.
I don't make any future plans so I have no idea what will happen later. But one thing is sure: it won't be pretty...
The story so far.
Dearly Beloved,
we are gathered here today in the presence of these virtual none-to-be-seen-witnesses, to join OP and Markvs and Lasse and Me (Pekka) in matrimony that is absolutely not at all gay, which is commended to be honorable among all men (in an un-gaily manner); and therefore – is not by any – to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly – but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly. Into this holy estate these four persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together – let them speak now or forever hold their peace.
So STFU.
I'm Pekka, or Pkeku, or Beix, or that-bum-from-TuncChung, I have many names all equally unimpressive and unimportant. I'm the second one of the two writers of this blog who live in Hong Kong. I can't say my output will be worth more than a few jacks and some shit, but I'll make my best to leave the stupid jabbering behing of which I'm previously known for in my old blog Sunset Station.
As the tradition is, I've never had a workable or interesting topic to cover. To honour that tradition, I don't have one now either. Hence I will stop the jabbering but with a promise of more equally worthless post to come.
Tchau! (That's italian for "I never ment to sleep with your sister", used together with fast-paced running movement in the away direction.)
we are gathered here today in the presence of these virtual none-to-be-seen-witnesses, to join OP and Markvs and Lasse and Me (Pekka) in matrimony that is absolutely not at all gay, which is commended to be honorable among all men (in an un-gaily manner); and therefore – is not by any – to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly – but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly. Into this holy estate these four persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together – let them speak now or forever hold their peace.
So STFU.
I'm Pekka, or Pkeku, or Beix, or that-bum-from-TuncChung, I have many names all equally unimpressive and unimportant. I'm the second one of the two writers of this blog who live in Hong Kong. I can't say my output will be worth more than a few jacks and some shit, but I'll make my best to leave the stupid jabbering behing of which I'm previously known for in my old blog Sunset Station.
As the tradition is, I've never had a workable or interesting topic to cover. To honour that tradition, I don't have one now either. Hence I will stop the jabbering but with a promise of more equally worthless post to come.
Tchau! (That's italian for "I never ment to sleep with your sister", used together with fast-paced running movement in the away direction.)
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