Luddite Dog Day Afternoon

I’m going to a big birthday outside Hong Kong soon and I thought a good present would be a tailor-made calendar with photos from Hong Kong and China feauturing the birthday boy’s son and daughter-in-law.

I used to walk through Wan Chai every day about 10 years ago and in those days it seemed every other shop was a printing shop and that calendars were their main product out-producting all else. I would nip over on Wednesday and see what they had now.

But being semi-modern I of course went online first. And companies are indeed printing calendars for a modest fee but the starting month for build-your-own calendar was June 2015. I was looking for January 2016, but no such thing.

OK, Wan Chai it is! I then thought. I’ll go and have a look at the calendar patterns they have there and pick out a beautiful one and have them print one copy of that with a promise of more at Christmas. But Wan Chai now consist only of tiny organic quinoa gluten free lentil-restaurants with just enough space for six anorexics if they leave their bags outside.

The one printing shop still surviving could indeed make me a calendar – if I had 3,999 more made at the same time.

Then I went to Admiralty, for I had seen a famous Number One In Printing Experience Extravaganza For You online who would do it. The receptionist didn’t know that they did printing but after a few phone calls she established that they did indeed do calendars, if I would only come back in November.

Then I was directed to Photo Max who could make me a calendar – at the end of this month.

I can’t be sure but I can’t help thinking all this would have been much easier ten years ago? Before we started relying only on computers? Or maybe it would have been worse. At least I got a long walk out of it.

灣仔 (Wan Tsai – Bay-ette/Wan Chai)
日曆 (Yat lek – Calendar)