Musical
So for some reason I submitted a song to an online forum thing. I'm quite pleased with the reaction, which described my vocals as "like a mumbly, gravelly David Bowie", although I admit the 'mumbly' part might not be a compliment.
On the other hand, at least one person didn't realise the lyrics weren't all in English, so maybe that's where that came from.
Tuesday, December 4
Thursday, November 22
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.
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.
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.
.
Monday, October 29
Random notes
I never did get round to posting anything about my trip to Indonesia. For now, suffice to say that it is very hot in Jakarta, and that I now think I get why LA is described as being impossible to get around in without a car. I mean, intellectually I understood the concept before, but if LA's roads are much like Jakarta's - though I suspect they're in better repair - then it really is difficult to walk anywhere, and the buses don't seem a great plan either.
Jakarta's roads are packed with tuk-tuks, smallish motorbikes and, for the moneyed, 4x4s. Owning a big Nissan Landgrabber or whatever isn't quite as much of an anti-social move in Jakarta as it is in Hampstead. The roads' disrepair does make them rather necessary. Then, of course, the extra wear and tear caused by heavy 4x4s most likely makes the roads harder to maintain. I'd say it was a chicken-and-egg scenario but I suspect the roads weren't too hot even before the 4x4s turned up.
In more news about me me me, it looks like CK will be able to join our trip to the Macau GP after all. I just have to fork out for her plane ticket today. Unfortunately, that's more use of my credit card, a debt I've been trying to get shot of for about three years now.
A friend recently asked me "why don't you pay it all off, isn't the interest really high?" Well, yes it is high, but if I had the money to pay it all off in one go, I wouldn't have had to use a credit card in the first place. Adding insult to injury, I applied for a loan from HSBC in the UK to pay it off, so that at least I'd be on marginally smaller repayments. They turned me down. Bastards.
So they think I earn enough to pay off Amount X at a higher interest rate, but not a lower one. Interesting. I'm going to talk to HSBC Hong Kong, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth it -- HSBC's personal loan rates are more or less the same as their credit card rates anyway.
I hate money.
I never did get round to posting anything about my trip to Indonesia. For now, suffice to say that it is very hot in Jakarta, and that I now think I get why LA is described as being impossible to get around in without a car. I mean, intellectually I understood the concept before, but if LA's roads are much like Jakarta's - though I suspect they're in better repair - then it really is difficult to walk anywhere, and the buses don't seem a great plan either.
Jakarta's roads are packed with tuk-tuks, smallish motorbikes and, for the moneyed, 4x4s. Owning a big Nissan Landgrabber or whatever isn't quite as much of an anti-social move in Jakarta as it is in Hampstead. The roads' disrepair does make them rather necessary. Then, of course, the extra wear and tear caused by heavy 4x4s most likely makes the roads harder to maintain. I'd say it was a chicken-and-egg scenario but I suspect the roads weren't too hot even before the 4x4s turned up.
In more news about me me me, it looks like CK will be able to join our trip to the Macau GP after all. I just have to fork out for her plane ticket today. Unfortunately, that's more use of my credit card, a debt I've been trying to get shot of for about three years now.
A friend recently asked me "why don't you pay it all off, isn't the interest really high?" Well, yes it is high, but if I had the money to pay it all off in one go, I wouldn't have had to use a credit card in the first place. Adding insult to injury, I applied for a loan from HSBC in the UK to pay it off, so that at least I'd be on marginally smaller repayments. They turned me down. Bastards.
So they think I earn enough to pay off Amount X at a higher interest rate, but not a lower one. Interesting. I'm going to talk to HSBC Hong Kong, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth it -- HSBC's personal loan rates are more or less the same as their credit card rates anyway.
I hate money.
Monday, October 15
Vroom Vroom
Just schlepped all the way out to Cheung Sha Wan to pick up the tickets for the Macau Grand Prix! (Hey, "schlepped" is in the Firefox spellchecker dictionary. Interesting. And "Firefox" isn't.)
Woo yay! And I was only 45 minutes late back to work after lunch.
I did a quick search for the company in Gmail so I could write down their address--my first contact with them was waaay back in 2004, for the 51st GP. Well, third time lucky -- me and Rudi remembered the 53rd was on last year too late to get tickets, try as we might (I didn't even try to go to the 52nd).
Anyway, we're there for the two race days, slightly better seat (Grandstand A) on the Sunday. now we just need to make sure we book ferry tickets in advance, and try to book a hotel room at inflated prices.
Just schlepped all the way out to Cheung Sha Wan to pick up the tickets for the Macau Grand Prix! (Hey, "schlepped" is in the Firefox spellchecker dictionary. Interesting. And "Firefox" isn't.)
Woo yay! And I was only 45 minutes late back to work after lunch.
I did a quick search for the company in Gmail so I could write down their address--my first contact with them was waaay back in 2004, for the 51st GP. Well, third time lucky -- me and Rudi remembered the 53rd was on last year too late to get tickets, try as we might (I didn't even try to go to the 52nd).
Anyway, we're there for the two race days, slightly better seat (Grandstand A) on the Sunday. now we just need to make sure we book ferry tickets in advance, and try to book a hotel room at inflated prices.
Tuesday, October 9
Monday, September 17
Voyages
CK arrived in HK on the 7th, and this Saturday we're off to Jakarta. The return flight is a little under two weeks later, but it'll only be me on the plane on the way back. Well, I presume there'll be other passengers, but CK won't be there, is what I'm saying. Shouldn't be for too long, I hope. However, she's moved out of her Beijing flat and all the stuff has to go somewhere.
We went out shopping in Kowloon on Saturday, and found the main branch of Tom Lee music. I got myself a music stand, so now I don't have to stoop over the desk when I'm practising my violin (which, incidentally, I totally suck at after two years away, unsurprisingly). We also picked up a brass guitar slide, a new harmonica for me, and for her a tiny keyring harmonica and a castanet shaped like a koala. As you do.
Now we just need to get CK's niece a present (I'm still pushing for the swanee whistle), and pick up some mooncakes for the family in Jakarta. I'm glad I'm not in Beijing at the moment. Right now I'd be avoiding mooncakes like crazy.
CK arrived in HK on the 7th, and this Saturday we're off to Jakarta. The return flight is a little under two weeks later, but it'll only be me on the plane on the way back. Well, I presume there'll be other passengers, but CK won't be there, is what I'm saying. Shouldn't be for too long, I hope. However, she's moved out of her Beijing flat and all the stuff has to go somewhere.
We went out shopping in Kowloon on Saturday, and found the main branch of Tom Lee music. I got myself a music stand, so now I don't have to stoop over the desk when I'm practising my violin (which, incidentally, I totally suck at after two years away, unsurprisingly). We also picked up a brass guitar slide, a new harmonica for me, and for her a tiny keyring harmonica and a castanet shaped like a koala. As you do.
Now we just need to get CK's niece a present (I'm still pushing for the swanee whistle), and pick up some mooncakes for the family in Jakarta. I'm glad I'm not in Beijing at the moment. Right now I'd be avoiding mooncakes like crazy.
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