Hong Kong Designer - Diary

It’s funny that it takes two guys to check the gas in your apartment - the younger guy to check it whilst the older guy (with token mole and long stringy hair coming out of it) looks on and does nothing but grunts and groans.

Well I tried to speak Cantonese with the older guy, but it came out as a miss match of Canto-Mandarin. Anyway, he started to laugh and by doing so broke wind loudly. The younger guy who I guess was accustomed to this didn’t flinch, unlike me.

Damn, I know belching and picking teeth isn’t frowned upon in this country but to fart in someone’s house is not on! I wanted them to fix the gas, not to make it worse!

I think I’ve mentioned how cool the transport is here? I think my only complaint is on the bus, where they constantly play adverts with low-key sound on monitors near the front. I spent 1 hour travelling from one side of HK to the other and the same 2 ads appeared. The first involved some sort of device that looked radioactive and was promoted to show how hair fociles could grow back. The joke was that the young men who were advocating the use of this product clearly never lost their hair. I think having hair plays a big part in Chinese society, strange whenever I go back to England it seems every other guy is bold!

The next advert involved weight loss. This is seems to be a particularly important subject due to the number of adverts you see on TV also. Anyway, this advert showed before and after pictures of women who having taken this pill (exercise or healthy eating wasn’t recommended) would reduce their weight. I was shocked to find that the “before” photos of the larger women were taken at a stage when they were pregnant! Oh lala, I can imagine it now - “I was such a fat lump when I was pregnant, esp. around the stomach area but this X Pill helped me lose 20 pounds”.

• Adverts on the BBC
• HK TV and TV Adverts
• One Nite in Mongkok and Maggie Cheung.
• Gary Glitter in Hong Kong