"... lively, funny and honest opinions about Hong Kong. "

Notes

Driving an Accordian

I believe I have discovered a reason for the high incidence of tailgating accidents in Hong Kong.

Many drivers do not look far down the road, in fact they rarely look beyond the vehicle ahead. This leads to a lack of feel for the ebb and flow of traffic and certainly provides little time to anticipate a sudden change.

Perhaps the idea of forward scanning is ingrained in we Canadians. When you grow up in a country where the roads are icy at least six months of the year, you learn to leave lots of space, although not everyone gets the concept, to be sure. Some folks like to hug your rear bumper and it's annoying as Hell. Hey pal, just because you like to tailgate doesn't mean my car deserves to be wrecked should I have to stop quickly.

So when I'm in the back of a Hong Kong taxi and can see that three cars ahead someone is waiting to turn, I grow concerned when the driver keeps barreling forward at high speed, clearly oblivious that the drivers in front are about to hit the brakes (it is then that my right foot involuntarily goes for the imaginary brake pedal), and almost all of them are also far too close to one another.

This is why Hong Kong has accidents involving not one or two vehicles, but chains of cars: Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! In all my years here I can't recall many traffic accidents such as t-bones or fender-benders at intersections, a more common collision location in Canada, which has a lot to do with the layout of city streets, people running the lights, and again, icy roads.

This is yet one more reason I've never bothered to get a car.

· ƒ ·

It's So Basic

Subject line of junk mail in my inbox: I want God to be merciful to me.

Then stop sending spam, doofus.

· ƒ ·

Stemming the Flood

One positive outcome in the aftermath of the flood was I discovered how the never-ending stream of cockroaches were able to get into the kitchen.

There were two points of entry, not just one. The first I noticed near the drain pipe for the washing machine; a gap in the concrete seemed to lead outside. The second was the drain pipe itself; I had covered it with heavy cellophane tape when we first moved in (our machine is outdoors), but over the years the roaches had chewed a hole through it. It wouldn't surprise me if they had chewed the gap in the concrete larger as well.

To prevent a recurrence, I jammed a wad of steel wool into the drain pipe and hosed it down with an environmentally friendly but deadly-to-cockroaches poison. I then filled in the crack with silicone.

With luck that will cut way down on the numbers of beasties getting into the house, which is great because the more roaches that get in, the more eggs they will lay. Control mechanisms such as traps and poison bait can only do so much, which is why I prefer heading them off at the pass.

It took the little buggers mere days to rebound after the deluge.

· ƒ ·

It's 'Little People'

Article title in the local rag: "Great homes for midgets, providing they're slim"

Midgets?

· ƒ ·

Or Wish to Avoid Prison

If you look in the dictionary for the word 'aggravating' you will see a photograph of the interior of IKEA in Sha Tin on a weekend afternoon.

Never go there at that time if you value your sanity.

· ƒ ·