Cantonese – The Movie Episode 32!!!!

The simplified characters menace is growing. Businesses all over Hong Kong are falling over themselves to accommodate mainlanders only, showing in a not very subtle manner that they’re not interested in local customers: by using →

Serendipity, Knob and Thomas Jefferson

Oh! Oh! Oh! USA! Talk about the exact opposite of Mexico – at least Mexico City and Horn Cow. In those two places, everyone lives behind high walls and sturdy gates. And according to my →

Mexican Wedding

You will forgive me for my thoughts and feelings straying somewhat from Cantonese recently. It’s all about the Spanish now. Now, for example, I’m in Cuernavaca which interestingly means Horn Cow. It’s a beautiful, hilly →

Grooving With Non-Moustache Pete

Let me just say, any town where this is the central post office has my vote! Yesterday as we were driving and walking around downtown Mexico City, I shouted out loud with joy several times. →

Paraguas (Umbrella)

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! This is even better than I had envisaged. It feels indescribably good to walk on cobblestoned streets knowing that the same houses were here 200 years ago. I can’t remember the →

Thank You For Not Being An Arse

Thank you for not being an arse? That was my first reaction. Then I thought: That doesn’t make sense. Why would someone put a sign saying Thank you for not being an arse on their →

A Delicate Piece Of Medical Advice

Hong Kong’s airport – don’t you just love it? I do. It’s so so airport-y! I had been looking forward to spending a couple of hours there before my flight to Mexico (I’m now in →

It Only Took Two And a Half Years. Almost Three

How long does it take to make and edit a 10 minute film? The answer is: Two years and eight months. Not bad!

Woo-hooo, after weeks, months and SO much hassle with the company I paid to reformat and spread my book (it’s now just in pdf exactly like the format I sent them and I had to →

I’m so afraid of the dentist, I go every four months. That sounds like a contradiction and a half, but it’s true. Going every four months gives me peace of mind and no cavities. (Also, →

Hainan, Hainan, day and night, edit film, edit film… Film is coming soon! Meanwhile check the trailer. .

New Victory For Client

I just received this from one of my victims, Elise Lefebvre:

“Yesterday night, I was invited for dinner at a Chinese friend’s place for what seemed to be the last of the Chinese/lunar new year celebrations, with his family and extended family. After a delicious meal of taro cooked in coconut milk, pigs trotters cooked in coca cola and other specialties, my friend unfolded two dice games mats, and the ten of us or so around the table started a two-hour game of, well, let’s call it saï dïe (small big). It was in fact two types of board or dice games in one.

They briefly explained me the rules in English, but really, with a minimum of sense of observation and a few words of Cantonese, I was able to understand AND play with them. And in Cantonese. All I needed to know was four names of animals (we’d learned two already in “class”), numbers, big and small, the word for “dollar”, two symbols (which I had to learn) and a couple of inoffensive swear words which I had a very good knowledge of already. We played for two hours, and there was NO need for English since I understood all the words. Wine was flowing, every one was merry (someone even thanked me for the wine, although I hadn’t brought any, perhaps he wanted to thank my country for making it), the game was exciting… it was all a fascinating, heart-warming experience. And I needed the warmth as it was 7 degrees went I left the New Territories at around midnight.

I was still gambling on hens and double fours in my dreams at night.. all in Canto.”

It’s easy! set yourself up for a life of fun and games with HAPPY JELLYFISH PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC LANGUAGE BUREAU.

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