Argh
Managing editor's Post-it note: Does this mean Oxford University? If so, let's make it clearer.
Original text: "Buchan was educated at Oxford."
At Oxford. Not in Oxford, you daft apeth. At Oxford.
So just to be annoying, I've amended it to be specifically Brasenose College.
On another front, though, I've just gone along with changing 'tales', used in one paragraph of a back-cover blurb, to 'stories' "because the book's title includes ...'and other stories'". Is it stupid? Yes. Can I be bothered to explain why? No.
The woman has a tin ear for language.
Thursday, November 22
Wednesday, November 21
Who do I have to kill to get out of Hong Kong?
I don't like Hong Kong. It's boring. There is nothing to do except buy things. The low, low prices on electronics are lovely, granted. But I think it's easy to tell why so many PSPs have been sold here. It is dull. Why have so many malls when they all sell the same stuff, anyway?
This is rather a moot point. I'm about to sign another year's contract and possibly move to a permanent position, so I'm in HK for a while yet.
I am, however, seriously considering moving off Lamma Island. I went for it originally because the island is genuinely quite nice (green, no cars, etc.), and because the rents are lower, which meant I could afford the deposit with the money I'd brought from Beijing.
There's a snag, though. The inhabitants. Not the Chinese, or Filipinos, who have their own peccadillos but no more so than anywhere else in Hong Kong. It's the white (mostly British) expats. I thought the "oh hey, isn't China amazing" and the work-placement crowd on the mainland were bad enough. The financial bods around Central are slightly more annoying, but it's only like being in the City of London. No, the Lamma expats are a category higher in the unpleasantness stakes. And at least on the Island, you won't bump into the same people all the time.
To be fair, most of the white people on Lamma are fine, going about their business like everyone else. Including myself, I'd hope. It's the visible and vocal minority that are the problem. What's referred to in HK as FILTH--Failed In London, Try Hongkong.
They're drunken, drug-fuelled pseudo-colonial failures with a penchant for violence. And I don't like being near them. I don't like having someone knocking on my door at midnight on a Sunday asking if he can hide in my flat while a gang of these white-haired (because they're always white-haired, with a clippered hairdo) louts scouts around the village looking for him to give a kicking to. I don't like the aggro I get just for talking to Chinese people in bars. I don't like being told "my mate wants to fight you" because "he doesn't like new people".
They might seem interesting in Graham Greene novels, but they really aren't. They're just dicks.
.
I don't like Hong Kong. It's boring. There is nothing to do except buy things. The low, low prices on electronics are lovely, granted. But I think it's easy to tell why so many PSPs have been sold here. It is dull. Why have so many malls when they all sell the same stuff, anyway?
This is rather a moot point. I'm about to sign another year's contract and possibly move to a permanent position, so I'm in HK for a while yet.
I am, however, seriously considering moving off Lamma Island. I went for it originally because the island is genuinely quite nice (green, no cars, etc.), and because the rents are lower, which meant I could afford the deposit with the money I'd brought from Beijing.
There's a snag, though. The inhabitants. Not the Chinese, or Filipinos, who have their own peccadillos but no more so than anywhere else in Hong Kong. It's the white (mostly British) expats. I thought the "oh hey, isn't China amazing" and the work-placement crowd on the mainland were bad enough. The financial bods around Central are slightly more annoying, but it's only like being in the City of London. No, the Lamma expats are a category higher in the unpleasantness stakes. And at least on the Island, you won't bump into the same people all the time.
To be fair, most of the white people on Lamma are fine, going about their business like everyone else. Including myself, I'd hope. It's the visible and vocal minority that are the problem. What's referred to in HK as FILTH--Failed In London, Try Hongkong.
They're drunken, drug-fuelled pseudo-colonial failures with a penchant for violence. And I don't like being near them. I don't like having someone knocking on my door at midnight on a Sunday asking if he can hide in my flat while a gang of these white-haired (because they're always white-haired, with a clippered hairdo) louts scouts around the village looking for him to give a kicking to. I don't like the aggro I get just for talking to Chinese people in bars. I don't like being told "my mate wants to fight you" because "he doesn't like new people".
They might seem interesting in Graham Greene novels, but they really aren't. They're just dicks.
.
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