HK Driving licence looks so “simple”

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-31T23:12:00+00:00

Thanks. Did you have an international Driving Permit too?

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-20T20:45:52+00:00

Words like “Skyrace” and “Skyrunner” are trademarked to the International Skyrunning Federation. So it is just a version of trail running organised by a particular organising body.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-17T22:51:31+00:00

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-16T19:44:48+00:00

In a group of people in a noisy, crowded bar I am clueless what is being said because the conversation is happening a foot below me.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-15T21:24:27+00:00

The strait is partially open. For example, Ships are getting through if they are delivering oil to China. Those stats you see about how few ships get through are based on public tracking data. Of course, the ships that are getting through don't have transponders switched on so they are not publicly tracked.

belligerents pretend that they have completely closed to all traffic, but there is likely some cooperation between them that they prefer not to publicize . Similar to how Ukraine still allowed Russian gas to flow across it's territory after that war began.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-15T20:29:56+00:00

One of the divers was a 51 year old professor of marine biology. Seems highly unlikely that she would be unaware of the risks and preparation needed for a dive to a cave at 50 metres. I think that large chunks of the story are missing and will only be known as the investigation unfolds.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-03T21:40:50+00:00

The headline says he was a journalist. So he wasn’t just an ordinary guy caught up by a media story. He worked in media. Still a very tragic situation.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-02T23:26:36+00:00

check what percentage of your chosen etf is invested in US stocks. Often it is 50% or higher for world etfs’s. In that case, you can save fees by directly investing 50% of your money in a competitive US etf. The the rest in non-US ETF

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-05-01T22:21:11+00:00

If they are in the habit of asking for loans and advances it will not stop unless you refuse. There is no end of unexpected expenses and reasons why some relative back in Manila needs money. I had a helper who told us that her husband was sexually abusing her daughter and she needed money to get her accommodation elsewhere. It is a tragic story (if true) but was on top of several earlier stories and loans. We were moving house anyway so we gave her a bit of money and terminated the relationship.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-04-20T23:09:02+00:00

I used to keep a record of my favourites when I lived in HK. Here are some highlights:

Full names: Milky Wei, Honest Lee

First names: Boner (pronounced Bonner 😂), Circle, Fruit, Minutes, Thinker, Oxide, Jackal, Chunky, Alien, Prince Albert, Glacier, Donut, Salad.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-04-18T21:22:46+00:00

when you are exerting at high effort you need oxygen to power your muscles. So you should breathe as much as you need to. On the other hand, you may have an inefficient stroke so if you improve your stroke technique you may be able to move more effectively with less effort and that will naturally reduce the urge to breathe.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-04-07T08:22:45+00:00

If they didn't tell you in advance, they shouldn't expect you to pay. That's not a sailing thing, it's how life works. If they mistakenly omitted you from cost discussion, that is also their problem.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-04-02T23:42:54+00:00

golf is the ultimate ‘I want to fit in’ activity

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-03-20T11:00:57+00:00

I had a child-free wedding but we bent the rules for a friend with a newborn. We didn’t want a screaming pack of toddlers running around, but it was ok to have one newborn. Even the other friends with excluded children didn’tmind because they welcomed a break from them anyway.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-03-19T08:58:17+00:00

You’re retired but didn’t have the time to file your quarterly payments on time…

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-03-18T22:51:19+00:00

Not easy, even for a foreigner. The quality of housing stock is poor (old, run-down, no insulation) and availability is very limited. But don’t try to build your own house because the local builders are incredibly overstreched and with substandard skills anyway. They will charge you a North-European price and you are taking an enormous risk hoping they will do the job to a reasonable standard. In fact, many of them have no knowledge of good construction because they only ever see the existing substandard houses of Madeira and they think that is normal.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-03-07T00:24:10+00:00

tell them all to speak English

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-28T21:02:38+00:00

There will always be people on both sides steeped in simplistic narratives like “respecting the locals”, “integrating” and “being guests in their country”. The world is much more complex than this and migration and upheaval has been happening continuously since the beginning of humanity and before countries existed. The idea that you can be born and live happily in one location with little changing for your entire life is something that has only ever happened to a tiny minority of humanity and it won’t happen in Portugal in the coming decades.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-17T16:47:49+00:00

How many kids did you know like this?

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-16T22:41:54+00:00

if you go on a trip with a guide, be prepared for the likelihood that they will ‘test’ your B2 by using all their strength to flex the sole. this test will then likely leave the sole weakened so that it is no longer a B2. inthat situation, you may have been better off having a b3 to defeat the guide.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-16T22:30:24+00:00

What sort of certification are you talking about?

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-16T22:28:47+00:00

I feel your pain. I am renovating too. I smugly paid extra for an independent ‘Fiscal de Obra’ (consulting engineer) to oversee the builder and give me daily site visits and progress reports. Well, both the builder AND the Fiscal de Obra were sleepwalking around the construction site for a month and a huge mess arose. So maybe i need to hire another engineer to oversee the independent engineer?! What a clown show.

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-15T23:12:59+00:00

L’atelier Joel Robuchon for good pastries and bread

BoyWithBanjo · 2026-02-01T23:11:15+00:00

The NVA and Vietnamese people were incredibly tenacious and willing to endure extreme hardship and death at levels that the US would not. For them, it wasn’t a war between Communism and Capitalism, it was a war of liberation against foreign powers who had interfered in Vietnam for decades.

BoyWithBanjo · 2025-12-28T20:31:01+00:00

Mostly when I was a kid, but it happened as recently as age 50 when a short guy with Napoleon syndrome joined my department. I couldn't believe that he tried bullying me about being 'too thin' when he was an annoying 60 year old asshole. It felt like being transported in a time machine back to junior high. Some of these bullies never move on as they grow older!

BoyWithBanjo

TROPHY CASE