We always hear that basketball is an urban game. Not much space needed. Perfect for getting a lot of exercise for a batch of guys in a short period of time. A great outlet for a big, crowded metropolis. New York? Sure. But why not Hong Kong? This ought to be a playground hoops hotbed. […]

[Read more →]

Since arriving here almost all our free time has been given over to the vexing problem of housing. Where to live, for four months. What can be afforded? Just how many utterly wretched $1,500-to-$1,800-a-month, already furnished, two-bedroom, short-term-lease apartments are there, on this island? We might have thought maybe 50, or a hundred. Instead it […]

[Read more →]

Back at the Beijing Olympics I rued my inability to speak Mandarin. You show up at a big event, you’re there for three weeks, you feel as if you ought to be able to throw a few local words at the hometown folks. “Bonsoir, Fifi!” “Guten Abend, Heike!” But I got to Beijing and Mandarin […]

[Read more →]

I imagine I will grow accustomed to this. Eventually. Walking down the street, in Hong Kong … along one of the narrow sidewalks (and they all are) … and splat, a big fat drop of water lands in my hair. My first reaction always is, “This can’t be good.”

[Read more →]

Climbed out of bed … and it does require climbing, because the mattress is on the floor. That seems to be fairly common here in Hong Kong. When, really, every bed here should be an extra 12 inches off the floor so you can have one of those storage-under-the-bed things, because nobody has closets or […]

[Read more →]

I’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays. A lot. If you gave me a candle for every lap I’ve completed around the sun … you’d probably burn down a building before I could blow out all of them. It’s not really possible that I’m as old as, apparently, I am. Anyway, I decided today that this […]

[Read more →]

Can’t be too upset about this. These Dodgers never were very good. They had a hot two weeks in September to finish a modest 84-78, only the 15th-best record in baseball, but that was enough to win an awful division. Then they ran into a Cubs team that chose that weekend to go into a […]

[Read more →]

I’m watching the Dodgers go down, and out … on ESPN’s international network. Which is being voiced-over by a Cantonese-speaking announcer. It led to this amusing bit, a moment ago.

[Read more →]

You almost cannot under-dress, in Hong Kong. Jeans and T-shirts are standard men’s wear. Unless it’s particularly hot. Then anyone out and about (but not going to work) is wearing T-shirts and shorts — especially if he is under 30. I like this. I arrived with a batch of polo shirts, a pair of cargo […]

[Read more →]

Our second night in Wan Chai, and it might have been our first, about midnight, Leah let out a high-pitched yelp. She not only is a flincher and a jumper, she is a yelper as she flinches and jumps. Which makes me flinch and jump. The cause of her yelping? A cockroach of heroic proportions. […]

[Read more →]