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Scott Consulting

The opinions expressed on these pages are entirely personal unless they are credited; you may not agree with all, or anything, that I write. So please use the feedback page to respond, comment or berate me.                                 

Random thoughts

21 February 2004

Last year China sent out 20 million outbound tourists. This was a 25% increase over 2002. 1.5 million went to Thailand. The rising baht will not help this industry.

15 February 2004

Especially for the day after Valentines Day !

Scientists have discovered a food that diminishes a woman's sex drive by 90%. It is called a wedding cake!

You should always marry Miss Right. Just make sure her first name is not Always.

A man inserted an advertisement into the classified section "Wife Wanted". The next day he received 100 letters; they all said the same thing; You can have mine.

23 June 2003 Wow, this page has been ignored for too long. Could someone please do something to take Gerry Springer off US/Canadian TV. It is too too depressing.

Vancouver on a summer's evening. Coal Harbour. Soft evening light. Blue skies. Blue ocean, float planes, cruise ships heading out past Stanley Park, snow still on the mountain peaks to the North.

You can walk all along Coal Harbour, around the park, to English Bay and onto False Creek. You can do it on you own; but honestly It would be so much happier with someone there to share the memory.

And just as a note, Vancouver's downtown condo market is red hot. They cannot build new condos fast enough. And if you want to make a lifestyle choice then there can be few nicer places to be.

25 December 2002 Merry Christmas and a cool yule....

24 December 2002 The 3 stages of man: He believes in Santa Claus. He doesn't believe in Santa Claus. He is Santa Claus.

24 December 2002 The best part about being in Hong Kong for Christmas. No brussel sprouts !!

13 November 2002 So the Prince of Wales has ordered an inquiry into the "the tide of lurid allegations" afflicting the royal family since the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial. But it will not be an independent one. Indeed, the man chosen to lead it is the Prince's own private secretary, Sir Michael Peat. Well he should certainly be impartial !!!!

10 November 2002 The false sense of security lasted but 12 hours!

8 November 2002 I did the English an injustice yesterday. They were just lulling the Australians into a false sense of security,

7 November 2002 First day of first Ashes test; in Brisbane. England win the toss and invite Australia to bat on a perfect batting wicket. Close of play - Australia 364-2 - really - they should just send the English home now. It would save further humiliation.

7 November 2002 Asia's world city watch: HK$27 per hour to park my car in Times Square.

3 November 2002 Two years ago on 31 October 2000 SQ006 crashed at Taipei airport as it took off on a stormy night heading for Los Angeles. 82 lives were lost as the pilots tried to take off from a runway that was closed and under construction.

Focused on a quick getaway before severe weather held the plane in Taipei the crew ignored written alerts and physical warnings that they had lined up on the wrong runway.

Many next of kin of the deceased remain involved in complex law suits. May they all find peace.

October 29: Asia's world city watch; try taking a child's pushcart to Ocean Park. So many stairs; so few ramps; and none existent help.

October 26: With the first Ashes test starting on November 7 these words from an Australian commentator may be sadly prophetic: "Some things never change. English selectors never learn and Australians never tire of watching their old colonial masters get kicked when they are down."

October 25: Asia's world city watch; At the peak watching the evening lights at the lookout point. Twice told to move by photographers so that they could take pics. Not by families taking pics of their nearest and dearest. But by photographers taking digital picture for a fee and printing them for groups of tourists. Very irritating.

October 17: England 2 - Macedonia 2. That sent everyone scurrying for their atlas to find out where Macedonia is. England were woeful. David Seaman has played his last game for England. But none of it is that surprising. With so many foreign internationals lighting up the English premier leagues week in and week out some of the England team are not even certain of first team places in their club sides. Arsenal would demolish the England team. As I fear would any of Manchester United, Liverpool and maybe one or two others...world famous is not world class!

October 17: Asia's world city watch. Jimmy Lai believes that circulation of his Chinese language Apple Daily newspaper would decline by 30% if he dropped the daily sex section including the Fat Dragon column. The newspaper he says would be unsustainable.

October 12: Asia's world city watch. On the night of the mid Autumn festival 143 tonnes of rubbish was left on Hong Kong's beaches. Volunteers cleaning the beaches (why should these people be necessary?) reported that debris included red wax, bones, food scraps, beach mats, burnt out lanterns, chopsticks, bottles, food containers, plastic bags, beach mats and barbeque forks. No littering fines were issued by the authorities.

October 5: Could some one please explain to me the attraction of body - building as a "sport" at the Asian Games. How does it even qualify as a sport. These guys do not drink water for 112 hours before a competition - it apparently improves the body tone; I must try ! And then they have to do a urine test for the post competition drug test ! The things some people do in the name of sport !

October 1: It really is time to ban smoking in restaurants in Hong Kong. Smoking kills. This is a known fact. What possible moral justification can there be for expecting any non smoker to have to sit in a restaurant absorbing second hand smoke.

September 13: And you can now see how this will escalate: The headline says Echoing Bush, Putin Asks U.N. to Back Georgia Attack. So here is the deal. Russia will not veto a UN resolution for action on Iraq so long as the USA (and Britain) will accept a Russian presence in Georgia. The cards are being laid on the table. I wonder what China wants !?

September 13: Interesting Yahoo headline - Life expectancy in U.S. reaches new high. Presumably the headline underneath should read: Life expectancy in Baghdad shows dramatic decline....

September 4: Romeo Beckham - why not !The UK press are in a summer lather over the name. In Hong Kong we would not blink twice !

September 1: You know what they have  to do with Roy Keane - throw the book at him !!!!!

August 29: In Hong Kong it is back to school, or start at school day for most kids; I hope as adults we have the good sense to allow them to inherit a safe world that has decent values and that we bring them up wiser, more generous, more selfless, less prejudiced and better able to change the world for good than our generation is proving to be.

August 29: If you are in Singapore and not tied up here is a date for your diary ! The 7th Annual Asia Congress of Sexology will be held in Singapore in November. Among those invited to speak is the owner of Fetish Fashion in Hong Kong and recent court case victor. I need say no more !

August 16: Never try to buy size 11 or larger shoes in Hong Kong. If you do have big feet, bring what you need with you or buy what you need when you travel.

August 9: It must be winter in England as the football season starts at the same time as England play the second cricket test against India. Very strange !

July 30: Switch off Larry King on CNN. Far too self important, sycophantic and trivial. Watch Tim Sebastian on Hardtalk on the BBC's World Service. He is a dog shaking a bone. He wont give up until his questions are answered. Outstanding interviewing and always relevant.

July 29: Why did it take so long to put winglets onto airplanes? Every boy making a paper plane will put winglets on ! They are better looking and the plane will fly further. I guess it was just a cost issue.

July 17: You know you are getting older when you hear the Boomtown Rats being played on BBC Radio 2.

July 13: What a shambles baseball's All Star game was this year in Milwaukee. Baseball is so much a part of the American way of life - and maybe the farcical way that the game ended was a real reflection of the state of the nation ! No leadership, flawed by the greed of the players and owners and completely out of touch with the fans and public opinion. Disastrous !

June 6: I am already looking forward to the howls of protests from Americans when they are required to be finger printed in entry to foreign countries. The USA has to accept reciprocity. And they wont like it.

June 4: China makes its World Cup debut. 13 years ago the tanks were rolling into Tianenmen Square. Two events watched by the world - and so very different. Do not forget....

3 June: When the football hits you on the shins is it really necessary to fall over clutching your face as though you have been thumped by Mike Tyson. And what was the linesman doing - he was barely a foot away ?! Then to add insult to fake injury FIFA made Rivaldo the Budweiser man of the match. He will be awarded an honorary Oscar. Proof indeed that the people who administer the game always leave long before the final whistle !