Walk to the dark side

The Dark Side is otherwise known as Kowloon. Some friends and I decided to go on a bit of a tourist trip, so I took my camera (as usual)

bx

The little things...

I was walking up my road earlier in the week towards home and spotted some policemen walking towards me. I don't know why this crossed my mind, but I frequently witness police stopping Asian men and women in random checks, yet this never seems to occur with white folk.

So I thought to myself what it might take for me to get stopped by the police? Options that sprang to mind at that precise moment involved kicking a small dog to my right into the path of an oncoming tram, then perhaps stripping naked and running to my local supermarket. That should get me stopped, I pondered. Truth is though, on that day (Monday) I really did believe that despite dead dogs and nudity, the police would still think twice about stopping a white guy.

Fear not though, this is not an essay on race.

My assumptions were proved wrong on Tuesday when I was told about how recently a white western male was stopped and fined for using a pedestrain crossing whilst a red light was showing. I then heard a similar story taking place in the financial district involving a white western female. I then cast my mind back to a girl I know called Rachel, who was stopped because she had an Ikea bag which police thought she had stolen. So police are not ignoring white folk, they are just ignoring me.

If I was stopped by gun wearing baton weilding police officer my first sarcastic comment might be 'don't you have any real police work to do?' The thing is though, I don't think they do in the typical English sense of the word. Take a look at this news article by clicking (here.)
It is about a police swoop on a famous clothing designers for creating T-Shirts that have a vague reference to Triad gangs. They arrested numerous people and hauled them away, needless to say that the T-Shirts are being removed from circulation.

My main realization is this. I know I should be outraged that police can stop me without cause on the streets. (They are allowed to perform 'random' stop and search by law). I also know I should be shocked at the lack of freedom of speech the police provide to T-Shirt designers.
However, i'm not in the slightest bit shocked or outraged. Police are everywhere on the streets of Hong Kong which is why I can walk past a drug addict clinic at night and not be conerned for my safety. Besides, this is a society that instructs me on a daily basis through announcements how 'escalator safety is easy to learn, and easy to use'.
So what more would you expect?

bx

Email forward

So mostly I delete email forwards as soon as I get them. Mainly because they probably contain some virus or just produce another way of wasting my time at work. Anyway, one I recieved today was called "You know you have lived in Hong Kong too long when..." So I had to see how many points applied to me.

This list was clearly created by someone who earns more money than me. However, the following things jumped out as ringing true.

1. You have paid enough rent to buy a moderate-sized North American or European town.
10. You developed an acquired taste for mooncakes.
16. Your building's security guard is 4 times older than the building itself.
20. 165 decibels is a normal noise level for lunchtime conversation.
23. You believe that pressing the lift button 63 times will make it move faster.
25. You know it is useless to protest when the lady at the supermarket check-out wraps one toothbrush in 6 plastic bags
26. You will never ever EVER buy Miracle Foot Repair.
27. You learnt to recognise Andy Lau, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok and Jacky Cheung.
29. Pink bathroom tiles can make any building or public garden beautiful
30. Your colleagues eat sun-dried cuttlefish coated in sugar and you don't bat an eyelid
41. Drilling on the walls in the wee small hours in the morning is considered acceptable behaviour
46. You compiled a 3-page list of weird English first names that Chinese people of your acquaintance have chosen for themselves.
49. You are convinced that the only thing that moves more slowly than continental drift is a Causeway Bay crowd on a Saturday afternoon.
50. You are not surprised to see 85-year old ladies pushing tons of garbage up the streets of the financial district
51. You bulldoze your way into lifts and MTR trains before other passengers have a chance to alight
55. You use the word "Ayyiieeaaahh" every few sentences to convey surprise, pleasure, pain or anger

bx

Last weekend in pictures

Lamma on Saturday for lunch and a relax

And on Sunday I organized a trip to Disney!!!

Rather impressed that everyone who went to Disney with me thought it was better than Ocean Park :)

All in all an action packed weekend!

bx

Badly thought out sign of the day

bx

Canadians Everywhere

Today I took a trip to the Canadian consulate, and got a bit drunk.

This came about because I was 'asked' in a manner that was clearly more 'told', to represent the organization at an event held by the consulate. This event was for Canadians in the education sector of Hong Kong to meet other Canadians. It was also full of all the big wigs of the education system in Hong Kong, so my job was to network.

My first problem was that I was not Canadian. Every time I opened my mouth I had to explain that I was in the consulate because our organization recruits Canadians. A solution was offered to this problem by a very drunk teacher who grabbed me and began making me copy her accent to try to fit in. Whilst she was only trying to help, it nicely rolled into my second problem, the Canadians were drunk.

After I was asked to sit on the lap of a rotund elderly red cheeked lady Canadian teacher I realized that this was not what I expected. What did I expect? Well I think on some level I was expecting the Ferrero Roche advert on TV, the one at the ambassadors party. In that advert there are no elderly ladies asking young men to sit on their laps. Yet it was quite a swish event, there were smartly dressed men walking around offering fantastic Canadian wine, beer, and food. It was just that unlike the Ferrero Roche advert the room was full of Canadians.

So I decided that if I can't beat them, I was going to join them. I picked out the most important people in the room and set to work. I ended up speaking to the head interviewer and general overlord of the Primary Education government scheme, which was interesting. The real result came when I made the first steps to have the organization advertised through the Consulate itself. That should make a serious difference.

So once that got done, it was time to follow the Canadian example. Which is how I got a bit drunk at the consulate.

bx

Home by sea

I went home by sea on Halloween via the Star Ferry and took some pictures. The skyline never gets boring.