Author Archives: Hemlock

As the last of the breakfast crowds leave Yuet Yuen restaurant and head for the office, I peruse the well-thumbed English menu.  The lengthy and enticing list of barbecued meats, steamed fish and roast poultry contains relatively few embarrassing spelling … Continue reading →

As dawn breaks over Exchange Square, wild American friend Odell sits bleary-eyed in the IFC Mall branch of Pacific Coffee, takes a sparing sip of his Xmas Special cordyceps and loganberry latte and lapses into a lament. “You know, Hong … Continue reading →

The tap water was not salty in Macau this weekend.  Usually in recent years the dry winter months, combined with Guangdong Province’s ongoing drought, lower the West River’s level to the point where the sea comes upstream, resulting in a … Continue reading →

The mood among Hong Kong’s beautiful people on the Mid-Levels Escalator this morning is one of subdued disappointment as word spreads about our undemocratic government’s latest outrage against the will of the people – the closure of the elite cognoscenti’s … Continue reading →

I really should take back all the horrible and spiteful things I have said in the past about the ridiculous quantity of sports results RTHK Radio 3 uses to fill up space during its morning news show because it’s easier … Continue reading →

The expat Hong Kong history expert is a harmless and quiet member of our species: full of obscure facts about eccentric colonial governors, opium-peddling taipans and the exact locations of long-redeveloped and forgotten mansions, bordellos and military fixtures.  One such … Continue reading →

Entering S-Meg Tower yesterday morning, I did what every one of the other 6.99999 million stories in the Naked City does every day, and repeatedly jabbed the elevator call button – bang bang bang bang.  Four times works best.  I … Continue reading →

Users of the Mid-Levels Escalator should be warned about the organization behind the touching banner hanging from a building in Cochrane Street asking people to give shelter to mendicant rabbits.  Although friendly and welcoming on the surface, this supposedly charitable … Continue reading →