My sports viewing day has gone from one extreme to the other. An event in which I was quite interested … to one in which I find myself completely disengaged And both on the same television network. Game 1 was the Dodgers and Phillies in the National League Championship Series. The game that was on […]

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Hong Kong, the island, is only part of Hong Kong the former British colony — and current Special Administrative Region of mainland China. A big chunk of this semi-independent mini-state is on the mainland side of the harbor. Specifically, Kowloon. I’ve been looking at Kowloon every day since I started work — because the offices […]

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So, it’s Sunday. I got out of bed and went to my cable TV and began trolling for the “random NFL game being televised in Hong Kong” … and found nothing. “Hmm,” I thought. “Maybe it’s because England is playing a World Cup qualifier. … Or maybe they chose the Boston-Tampa Bay ballgame, instead.” Only […]

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Went to Victoria Park here in Hong Kong today, and it is a very special place. For one big reason: The north side of Hong Kong Island is one of the most crowded places on Earth. One sprawling mass of high-rises, narrow streets and yard-wide sidewalks. Block after block of man-made structures. And then all […]

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Tell me you haven’t all done this a time or 50. You’re watching a game, and you know which team you want to win … and they get off to a good start … and you decide that your actions — at home — somehow are responsible. It’s an internalization of the panoply of superstitions […]

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We moved into an apartment this afternoon. It was pretty much a necessity, considering we had used up the seven days the newspaper had reserved for us at a nearby hotel. We now are in serious Hong Kong. Real Hong Kong. Crowded, loud, bustling Hong Kong. The Wan Chai neighborhood, to be precise. If precision […]

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The British ran Hong Kong for 155 years, but sometimes you would hardly guess it. The place seems at least as Chinese as  Beijing, where I spent three weeks in August. A bit later, after I’ve been here longer, I probably will do an entry on traces of the British Empire here. Perhaps they are […]

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After getting all smug about being able to see the baseball playoffs even over here in Hong Kong … we got to Game 4 of the Angels’ series with the Red Sox and ESPN International crapped out on me. They were showing Chelsea soccer. Against some Romanian team. I think. In one of those interminable […]

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Maybe an American expat can buy some sort of cable package, here in Hong Kong, that gets you all the sports TV you might be able to see back at home. I haven’t found it yet. But I’m not totally disconnected from the goings on, via television. I saw two L.A. teams in action today, […]

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*-Or How I Went Behind Closed Doors and Saw, in Three Sweaty Days, Much of Eastern Hong Kong Island Up Close — and the Perfectly Awful Local Living Conditions Deemed Acceptable, Even Desirable by the Locals. This is not going well, and not for lack of trying. We got off the plane at about 7:30 […]

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