Hong Kong Blog

One afternoon you enter your local convenience store to buy the weekly groceries. Aside from the cashier who is as oblivious to your entrance as he is to the entire universe, you are alone in the store. You slowly wonder up and down the isles until, stopping dead, you notice an unnatural heat radiating from one of the lonely back corners. You decide to investigate. As you draw nearer you see the unmistakable flickering of a spreading fire. Do you A) Shout and alert the shop keeper. B) Run out of the shop, call the fire brigade as quickly on as possible and then tell the shop keeper. C) Ignore the fire completely, pay for your groceries and leave? Well according to the Hong Kong Fire Department, the answer ‘of course for most people’ is C.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello and welcome my friends. It has been a long, long week! I have been so busy I feel myself being worn to the point of collapsing. On the whole though, I have had some brilliant days and nights in the mean time. The highlight blatantly being a party I attended on Monday night which was insanely brilliant with me meeting many a new face. So where to start? I guess with Alan’s new phrase. I have mentioned many a time in Alan’s presence the phrase “…taking the piss out of me”. Alan has obviously taken this up wrong and has now adapted it to the all new and utterly brilliant “don’t piss on me!” This is a brilliant phrase, outshining the original by a clear mile! If anyone says something vaguely aimed at putting Alan down in some shape or form, it is normally greeted by “Don’t piss on me” accompanied by the good old wave of a finger. This makes me laugh without fail every time.

Read the rest of this entry »

I had fully intended for this blog entry to highlight events from the last two/three weeks and it is instead with great, great sadness that I write this tribute to Robert Jordan, my childhood hero, on the day of his passing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello and Welcome people to the renowned Hong Kong blog Good news, I am the first result for the Google search for Hong Kong followed by my name so I am proud that I have finally made an appearance, as my sister dutifully pointed out to me. On another note this week has been hectic to say the least. It has been non-stop so I have not been able to give my time to things such as this blog, I will not complain though as it has allowed me to have many an exciting day and night. For instance it’s not everyday I go swimming at the beach with extremely fit Aussies and French birds, which believe me when I say should be done by everyone once in a while

Read the rest of this entry »

The phrase ‘never make the same mistake twice’ is one I should probably analyse so as to make sure I’m completely 100% certain on the matter. The concept is clear enough; it’s just the implementation I seem to be having problems with. Readers of the previous incarnation of the blog will remember that during my first week at the University at Kent I inadvertently wandered into (and became trapped in) a Christian Society meeting for about four hours. Well guess what…

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello and Good morning world. Time for yet another thrilling and exciting instalment as we venture forth into the world of the big HK. Well, well, well, where to start. Arcades I suppose. I don’t know have I mentioned it before but the boys here play a lot of arcade, it’s bloody wicked. I go out with the boys, wolf my lunch down, and then get to some serious gaming. Now these are very professional companies we happen to work for respectively. We all stick-out like sore thumbs, all suited and booted yelling onslaughts of Chinese insults at each other. It’s bloody funny! I almost beat the punch bag thing the other day, I had 4 turns and almost had it but I decided to leave it for another day. I am most definitely leaving my mark on Hong Kong in the form of the high-score on the punch bag though.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello once again people. I have been up to too much this week, so I was wondering when I would get around to blogging this baby. Anyways no better place to start than with Durian. Widely known and revered in Southeast Asia as the “King of Fruits,” the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and a formidable thorn-covered husk. When I say unique odour I mean unique odour. It is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia. Believe me this is for good reason! It can be smelt from over a yard away and animals can smell it from over 1 mile away. There are many different descriptions ranging from “…flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy…In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience.” Other descriptions also state “its odour is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock”. I definitely agree with the latter description. It is not so much the smell because I can handle that, it is the taste and what it does to my nervous system when I try to consume it. My face loses all control and I have an unbelievable urge to twitch along with heave and a wanting to tear my digestive tract out. This food is absolutely indescribable, unlike anything I have ever sampled because it is not often I choose to eat pig faeces or chow down on soiled diapers.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week is a gripping action filled adventure. It is a tale of Danger, of Bravery and of Courage. The gods must surely have taken an interest to have allowed me to survive long enough to write this account.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another day, another blog. Meeting with MT Chan later. He is our placement supervisor over here; this meeting has been greatly anticipated. MT to the Chan has been deemed somewhat of a ledge by Rich because of his name. I hope he lives up to this title or there will be trouble.

Read the rest of this entry »

Waking to your alarm is never a good thing in my books – the creators certainly named it fittingly. The thing is trouble. Recently its sound has foreworn classes far too early in the morning, exams and now… work. The very concept seemed slightly foreign to me (no pun intended). I’d been told to report to the HSBC floor in the ICBC building located in Central at 9AM and so donning my new suit and with a typical mixture of naivety, nerves and enthusiasm I arrived about an hour and a half early. The ICBC Tower is near the intersection of Garden Road and Queen’s Road in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district and the place is absolutely pish posh. I felt like a nobody walking along the marble floors, slowly making my way up to the HSBC floor in elevators that probably cost twice as much as the majority of people will ever earn (yes… this is an exaggeration, call it poetic license). Aside from a floor number I was only given the name of the person I was to report to and without any idea of what that person looked like, where exactly he’d be in a huge room of desks or generally anything at all really, so I decided to go for a wander.

Read the rest of this entry »