The Quarterdeck Club

I’d been meaning for ages to try out The Quarterdeck Club at Fenwick Pier, Wanchai, and yesterday Mrs smog and I had a very enjoyable dinner there.

Free tap water

The only sour note at the Eugene Pao gig this evening was that Grappa’s has joined the “I’m sorry we won’t serve you local tap water, you’ll have to pay an extortionate price for some other country’s tap water shipped around the world in bottles” club. This irritates me immensely - surely it is a basic sign of a civilised society that tap water should be available free of charge in restaurants - and I’m reasonably sure that water was freely available previously at Grappa’s so this is a retrograde move. This evening we spent nearly $1300 in Grappa’s and yet I’m left with a bad feeling about the place for the sake of $50 - surely that can’t be good business sense?

I’ve previously written to the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department complaining that if HK wants to be seen as a civilised place and a world-leading city then they really should make it a requirement for all licensed premises to make tap water freely available (as it is, for example, in most parts of the UK). Of course I got a simple “thanks for your input” response, but no expectation of any action.

So I propose two things:
1) I’m going to maintain a “name & shame” list here of all the restaurants I come across which refuse to serve tap water. Please let me know in comments and I’ll add them to the Hall of Shame.
2) I’d like people’s input on running a formal petition to the HK Government on this issue to see if we can get some action. I don’t hold out much hope in this town run by business lobbies, but if we don’t try we’ll certainly not get any progress. What say you all?

The Hall of Shame
Don’t go there if you want a civilised experience

Grappa’s Cellars (Jardine House, Central)
Olé Spanish Restaurant (Ice House St, Central)
Izote Mexican Restaurant (LKF)

Eugene Pao & friends - Classic Rock

Just back from an excellent gig at Grappa’s Cellars where Eugene Pao & some friends performed an excellent classic rock gig this evening.

Pimping, Albert Yeung style

The SCMP reports today on some of the details of the contract which Albert Yeung’s Emperor Entertainment Group has with one Isabella Leong. If any doubt remained that this man is basically a pimp procuring young girls as his slaves then it is pretty much dispelled now.

Jaw droppingly ignorant remark of the week…

… must be the one reported by The Standard from one Joseph Law, chairman of the “Hong Kong Employers of Domestic Helpers Association” (which a quick Google will show could probably be more accurately named “The Hong Kong Association for the Restoration of Slavery”).

Tapping The Wheel

Yet another new bar has appeared on Hollywood/Wyndham, and, unlike those around the Centrium, this one looks rather less designed simply to milk the wbankers of their hard-earned cash.

Four reprobates and a wbanker met there for lunch on Friday and it went rather well. The Wheel has a set lunch consisting of the soup of the day or one other starter, plus a choice from about 8 main courses; prices vary in the range $68-88 if I remember correctly.

iTunes for expats in HK

It has been a major irritant to people in HK that Apple chooses not to make its iTunes store available in Hong Kong. However, I have just discovered that for expats at least this may not always be an issue.

Hemlock outed by the SCMP?

Like many expats in Hong Kong I have enjoyed the writings of Hemlock for several years, but his identity has always remained a mystery and he apparently makes some effort to keep it that way.

Fair warning as far as I am concerned

I find no reason at all to object to the making and publication of the following film. I do, however, have a major problem with the actions and views of the Muslim people shown and described within it. I’ll write more on this later, but in the meantime here is the film.

Hate speech or fair warning?

There’s a big storm brewing over the film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders which apparently describes Islam as “the enemy of freedom”. The site where he was proposing to host the film has been closed down by the American administrators (Network Solutions Inc) after complaints of “hate speech” were received. This raises some very fundamental questions about tolerance, free speech and “hate”.

Hidden (beside) Jem: Oysters Bar & Grill near LKF

Mrs smog is a big fan of oysters; our home-from-home (the FCC) frequently dishes them up for her, but we are always looking for new places to try them. Tonight, with Mrs smog en route to the Airport Express, we dropped in at Oysters Bar & Grill in Wo On Lane, just off Lan Kwai Fong (or strictly, just off D’Aguilar Street) and next door to Jem bar, managed by the delectable Ila (is that how you spell it? Guys who hang out there or at The Priory will know who I mean).

Why do so many HK advertisements lie so blatantly?

[Edit 19 March: see comments for details of clarification from the HK AF organisers, which shows that in this case it was bad wording rather than bad intent.]

I’ve just received this by email from the organisers of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. In it they claim “ALL performances achieved over 90% attendance”. This is a blatant lie. As I wrote previously we only went to one performance at this year’s festival, and I can say categorically that the attendance at Orpheus X on Sunday 24 February was at best about 60% when the show started, and probably 5-10% lower by the time it ended.

Racist hypocrisy from Fumier

Since I’m not going to sign up to something that I don’t need for any other purpose, I am unable to comment on Fumier’s blog, so I’ll do it here.

In a recent post regarding The Flying Pan he comments on the “racist subtext of the cafe’s name” and then describes its staff as “Flippers” (and he isn’t talking about how they cook a burger). Just a touch of hypocrisy there don’t you think?

Calming words from Professor Yuen, disappointing ones from Mr Chow

It seems after all that some lessons are being learned from the SARS experience. Professor Yuen Kwok-yung’s expert panel has found that there is no evidence that the current flu outbreak is any more virulent than normal, and seem to be quite open about their findings.

On the other hand the Health Secretary, York Chow Yat-ngok, (a politician primarily, not a scientist) continues to demonstrate that the concept of leadership is completely alien to him.

A nice little earner for UK expats

Here’s a nice solid little investment opportunity for expats from the UK who don’t have any other taxable income there, courtesy of the UK Government: National Savings Guaranteed Equity Bonds.

Government by fear and incompetents yet again

So here we go again - a couple of kids die and the city goes into panic mode. Whatever happened to having leaders who could analyse a situation rationally, act appropriately and communicate what they are doing and why to the people?

Yet more Tamiflu hype from the HK medical establishment

The Standard today has a huge headline across the front page saying: “TAMIFLU ALERT” and reports that overdosing of the drug reduces effectiveness against bird flu.

It has been clear for some time that the Hong Kong medical establishment has either been completely blinded by the weight of Roche’s marketing of Tamiflu, or, perhaps, that they have some other incentive firstly to place huge orders for a Tamiflu stockpile and secondly to keep it in the public eye so that people go and waste their money on it every time some little kid has a runny nose.

Amongst the reasons I will never live in the UK again…

Here you can read a rather distressing tale from the UK. Three men out of control on alcohol murdered a mentally-impaired man. Today they were sentenced to “life” with minimums of 12-15 years imposed. This is bad enough, but what was the reaction of the victim’s family? Yes, they hit the alcohol to celebrate the sentences. The irony was obviously completely lost on them.

The Gallery Hotel, Singapore

When I first visited to Asia in 1997 I’m sure a night at the Sheraton in Singapore was under S$100 (at corporate rate), but hotel prices there in the last couple of years have rocketed skywards. Laws of supply & demand are strongly in evidence - it’s hard enough most weeks to get any sort of decent room at short notice, and the big international names are now S$4-600+ per night, room only. But there are still some relative bargains around - I’ve just spent two nights at the Gallery Hotel in the Robertson Quay area.

Government by Fear in Singapore too…

I’ve been in Singapore for an annual meeting the last couple of days. Got my Starbucks, went to the office tower, went up the escalator on autopilot and found a set of pass card entry barriers blocking the way to the lifts. So a staff member directed me to where I could exchange some sort of ID for a passcard. No questions asked. I could then proceed through the barriers and up to the office I wanted to go to. On the way out retrieve your ID in exchange for the passcard.

Now I can see absolutely no purpose being served by this whatsoever, except to employ a few people to exchange IDs for passcards. To me it just seems to be something designed to remind people that they should in some undefined sense be afraid of something. WHY?