Hobby turns into career for lesbian erotica writer
— October 7, 2014Former civil servant becomes Hong Kong’s only dedicated author of adult genre
Let the brolly wars begin
— March 22, 2019
- Anyone over a certain height is at risk of losing an eye in the city
If you’re five foot eight or taller, the rainy season can be a dangerous time. I nearly lost an eye last week. The man toting the umbrella that crashed into my face didn’t even break stride. Surely that counts as a hit and run? Two inches to the left and he’d have had my eye out.
Forget “umbrella etiquette”, we need brolly licensing laws on the streets of Hong Kong. Until you’ve passed a test, you would be permitted to carry only a folding umbrella, effectively “L” plates. There’s only so much damage you can inflict with a flimsy fold-up.
Golf umbrellas would be reserved for “advanced pedestrians”. I’ve seen one of those mobile marquees take out a whole swathe of the Pedder Street cab queue. And while people are swatting up for their brolly licence, might I suggest a module on how to open the contraption. Or rather, how not to – as in not flicking it open as you come out of a shop and drenching people standing nearby.
In other cities, there is an unspoken rule that the taller of two people passing raises their umbrella above the other so as not to collide. Hong Kong seems to have missed the memo. My new strategy is to try to make eye contact with the controller of the approaching brolly and if they don’t look hostile, then to flash a smile. Nine times out of 10 this gets results, sometimes even a smile back. But there will always be one reckless soul who doesn’t make the necessary adjustment. They’ve usually got the sturdier umbrella. And having made eye contact, the collision feels personal.
Switching to a good old-fashioned raincoat isn’t the answer because you leave yourself vulnerable. That umbrella is as much a defence against brollies as it is against the rain.
And don’t get me started on the people who “upgrade” their umbrella on leaving a shop or restaurant, ditching their tatty model and picking up your new beast from the brolly bin. An accident, was it? No one believes you. That likely accounts for the introduction of a new breed of anti-theft umbrella stands in the city – the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, in Central, just got one.
Perhaps the answer is to carry a yellow umbrella. Those who didn’t support the pro-democracy movement wouldn’t dare carry such a politically loaded statement and, I like to think, those that did aren’t umbrella-thieving types.
Original Link: SCMP
Random Articles
-
-
The Big Freeze
— December 31, 2015Kate Whitehead puts on the layers and finds out just how cool Antarctica really is
-
Connectography
— July 1, 2016Parag Khanna, the well-travelled author of new book Connectography, can change the way you see the world, writes Kate Whitehead
-
Couples that work
— January 30, 2020An expert, herself one half of a dual-career couple, spent six years interviewing couples around the world at different career and life stages It’s a Wednesday evening and the crowd squeezed into a small function room at Hong Kong’s exclusive China Club are alumni of the Insead business school. Mostly in their 30s and 40s,…
-
‘A huge, caring humanitarian movement’
— February 17, 2023Jeff Rotmeyer grew up in Canada, excelled at sports as a child, then moved to teach English in Korea, where he met his wife, who moved with him to Hong Kong I was born in Surrey, outside Vancouver, in Canada, in 1977, and am an only child. My dad was born in Holland and came…
-
Sacred ground
— August 1, 2013With thousands of ancient monuments to explore, the city of Bagan offers a seemingly endless journey into Myanmar’s fascinating past