Category Archives: Hemlock

In the newly renovated, higher-revenue-per-square-foot, IFC Mall branch of Pacific Coffee, wild American friend Odell gently moves his steaming avocado and organic birch sap cappuccino to the edge of the uncomfortably small table and carefully sets down his new baby … Continue reading →

Harder to kill than cockroaches, more irksome than rats, faster-spreading than ringworm and deadlier to mental health than mad cow disease. Interns! Or, more accurately, eager and pushy young people wanting to be interns. Or – even more accurately – … Continue reading →

That horde of grotesque, dusky, steroid-sodden, half-naked, latent homosexuals stampeding like spongiform encephalopathy-ridden buffaloes, pausing frequently to writhe in the mud, groping thighs and grinding their faces between one another’s buttocks – the Rugby Sevens, in short – is back … Continue reading →

The mood on the Mid-Levels Escalator this morning is bleary-eyed, as Hong Kong’s dynamic, enterprising and clean-living middle class recounts the misery of another sleep-starved night.  PCCW is back in the neighbourhood, kicking down doors uninvited well after most residents’ … Continue reading →

Through the gloomy chill of dawn, a slightly hunched figure can be seen shuffling across Exchange Square towards the beckoning warmth of the IFC Mall branch of Pacific Coffee. It is wild American friend Odell, on his way to the … Continue reading →

On the top floor of S-Meg Tower, in the throbbing core of Asia’s leading international business hub, the Big Boss approves the near-final drafts of the company’s 2009 financial statement and management analysis, which will be released to shareholders and … Continue reading →

Today is the day Hong Kong indulges in one of its regular games of political charades: the annual budget, in which the government announces its revenue and spending plans for the 2010-11 fiscal year.  The details will be unoriginal, unsurprising, … Continue reading →

The mood on the Mid-Levels Escalator this morning might best be described as ‘borderline personality disorder’, as Hong Kong’s hard-toiling, clean-living, disfranchised middle class struggle to make sense of a world gone mad. No fewer than four of us gliding … Continue reading →

Thursday evening To wild American friend Odell’s hovel in the ratty, greasy, malodorous region of lower Escalator Land for a meeting of the Mid-Levels Welcoming Committee for the Society of Truth and Light.  While we are waiting for the others … Continue reading →

8.31 pm Quite a big turnout!  We are here this evening in the modestly ornate ballroom of Government House for a state dinner hosted by our dashing Chief Executive Donald Tsang in honour of His Majesty King Letsie III of … Continue reading →