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Golden
News
Volume
15, Number 09 - Monday 27 August 2001
One Night in
Bangkok:
 Yes folks, The Phantom has finally returned to
Hong Kong and I will be available for autographs at this week's
meeting!On the way back from Germany, I spent an entertaining evening with my shooting buddies in Bangkok, a city I haven't visited for over 12 months. Not much has changed there; the people are still as friendly as ever, the traffic situation remains as congested as ever and the weak Baht makes Bangkok a very cheap place to visit. By the way, despite having been an avid supporter of Cathay Pacific for 20 years, this time I flew Thai Airways First Class to Germany and return (via Bangkok), for HK$10,000 less than the CX Business Class fare. The seats were wide and very comfortable (they reclined all the way, which made sleeping easy), and the food and service were excellent, so I highly recommend Thai Airways to KGM members seeking better airfare deals. Anyway, perhaps it's time we arranged another fellowship to Bangkok because the last time we were there as a club was in 1997, when our fearless leader was President Joseph "Katoey" Kwan, who discovered that things are not always what they appear to be, especially in certain establishments in Patpong. Ahem. You had to be there! However despite my well-known bias, I still think the Philippines is better value and more fun. In any case, President Ebe Tung "Chee Wow", International Service Director Elissa "Peanuts" Cohen and Rotary Foundation Miranda "King" Kong need to brush up on their Filipino lip-pointing and eyebrow-raising skills which, believe me, need a lot of work! Since I missed last week's meeting
and as I did not receive the usual report from my spy "Mata Hari", I can only presume that our
guest speaker Dr. Jerry K. S.
Liu gave us an interesting talk about dentistry and
dental implants. Who knows? Nobody ever tells me anything.
I am seriously considering changing my "nom de plume" to The Mushroom because I'm kept in the dark and fed on er, um, ah, well, you know how the saying goes. This Week's Meeting:
Although I can neither confirm nor deny it, rumour has it that our speaker this week is PP Joseph Kwan, who will be giving us a Vocational Talk on the services he and his organisation Rehabaid provide in respect of access for the disabled in Hong Kong. Then again, our guest speaker could be Bozo The Clown talking on "Where to buy red noses and extremely large, floppy shoes"? At the rate we're going, this bulletin will soon be as reliable as weather forecasts from The Observatory. Milestones:
As far as I know, there are no KGM members celebrating birthdays, engagements, divorces or other milestones this week. However on this day in 1912, author Edgar Rice Burroughs published his book "Tarzan", who's famous jungle cry was apparently the result of his first unsuccessful attempt at using the YKK zipper attached to his loincloth. Member Updates:
Former KGM member Martyn Davies, who resides in Vietnam, is trying his best to generate interest in establishing a Rotary Club in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The Phantom has recommended that Martyn refer the matter to the Rotary International Ad-Hoc Committee for Development of Rotary in Vietnam, which last met on 6-7 August 2001, for their guidance and assistance. Fellowship
News:
Well, continuing on with our theme of "keep 'em guessing", I have absolutely no idea what happened at the "Old Is Gold Night" at Jimmy's Kitchen last Saturday evening, nor do I have any idea about our next fellowship event. Yep, just call me
The Mushroom.
Semi-Annual
Dues - Shame List Updated:
Do any of you guys actually read the bulletin? Do we really need a bulletin?? Oh well, as far as I know, apart from receiving a cheque from Community Service Director Silva "Dollar" Yeung last week, the following members remain delinquent: Chris Carroll, Balu Chainrai, PP Raju Daswani, Per Larsen, Norman Liu, Susie Misini, Hans Peter, Jagdish Pursram, Nasreen Ting & Notan Tolani. -:which means 20% of our members have not paid their
dues.
By the way, rumour has it that the Treasurer is about to resign. Does anybody care? Nah, didn't think so. Next KGM Board Meeting: The next BOD meeting will be held at 6:30
p.m. Tuesday 28 August
2001 (tomorrow
evening!) at the 2/F, Holiday
Inn Golden Mile hotel.
All Club Directors are expected to present a report on their committee's activities for the year to date. And remember, if you
are a male Director (i.e.
on the endangered species list), remember to speak only when spoken to,
and the correct answer to all
instructions is: "Yes,
Ma'am". You have been
warned. District 3450 News: 1) A District Rotary
Foundation Seminar will be held from 9:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. Saturday 8 September
2001 at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Jockey Club
Building, 99 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. The
registration fee is HK$320 per person, which includes lunch. The keynote
speaker will be Regional Rotary Foundation
Coordinator PDG Jackson Hsieh from Taiwan. I expect that KGM Rotary Foundation Director Miranda "Show Me The Money" Kong will be leading the KGM delegation to this event. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International does tremendous work around the world and additional information about the various programs they undertake can be obtained at their web pages. 2) A District Vocational Service Seminar will be held during the regular club meeting of RC Peninsula from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tuesday 30 October 2001 at the Hong Kong Hotel, Tsimshatsui. There is no charge for the seminar; attendees only need to pay for their lunch. More information can be obtained from KGM Vocational Service Director PP Louis Thomas, who will undoubtedly be seeking KGM members to accompany him. Rotary International News:
A) Did you know that current RI Director Gary Huang from Taiwan was our District Governor when KGM was chartered on 25 February 1987? At that time, Rotary Clubs in Hong Kong and Macau were combined with certain clubs in Taiwan as District 345. However the Rotary Clubs in Hong Kong and Macau were eventually granted separate district status (excluding the Rotary Clubs in Taiwan), and our district was renumbered 3450 by adding a trailing zero, as were all other districts in the Rotary world. B) August is designated "Membership & Extension month"
by Rotary International, so now would be a good time for KGM to induct a
member or two. Click here for more information. You can
expect to hear more about this from KGM
Membership Director Diana "The Red Baron"
Chou.
C) The RI Annual Convention will be held in Barcelona, Spain from 23 to 26 June 2002, and you can register on-line here. Acometidas! Can't find what you're
looking for by using the KGM web site "Search" function? Click on Site Map at the top of the page, where
you will find a list of most information on our web site listed in
alphabetical order.
Dear Geek: Dear Geek, I am considering upgrading
to a broadband service in
order to speed up my web-surfing and email connections. Do you have any
advice? Yours, Richard Cranium.
Dear Richard (or may I call you "Dick"?),
Broadband services
provide significantly faster (and cheaper) Internet connection times,
typically 10 or more times faster than speeds experienced with a standard
56k modem connection, and there are many prominent companies in Hong
Kong offering broadband services. However, unlike traditional "dial-up"
services, broadband is often employed on an "always on" basis, which means
your connection is "open" to the outside world.
This presents security
vulnerability issues and I therefore strongly urge you to install a "firewall" to prevent unauthorised
access of your computer by "hackers" (more correctly known as "crackers").
The Geek uses and highly recommends Norton Firewall 2001, which can be obtained from most software vendors in Hong Kong for under HK$1,000 and the software can be easily installed, even by novices. Cunning
Linguist:
Did you know that the expression "Sick as a dog", dates from the 18th century? However there are several expressions in the form "sick as a .......". "Sick as
a dog" is actually the oldest of them, recorded from 1705;
it is probably no more than an attempt to give force to a strongly worded
statement of physical unhappiness. It was attached to a dog because dogs
often seem to have been linked to things considered unpleasant or
undesirable. Down the years dogs have had an incredibly bad press,
linguistically speaking (e.g. dog tired, dog in the manger, dog's
breakfast, go to the dogs etc). Large dictionaries have long entries
about all the ways that dogs
have been used in a negative sense.
At various times cats, rats and horses have been also dragged into the expression, though an odd thing is that horses can't vomit; one 19th century writer suggested that this version was used "when a person is exceedingly sick without vomiting". Golden
Smile:
Sister Mary-Joseph has just turned 90 years old, and she is not feeling so well, so Mother Superior summons the parish doctor. After examining her, the doctor concludes: "You're in good health Sister, but I suggest you take a shot of whiskey twice a day to help you relax." Sister Mary-Joseph replies: "Oh doctor, I could never be lured into such worldly pleasures." The doctor explains his advice to the Mother Superior who says: "Don't worry, doctor. As Sister Mary-Joseph loves milk, I'll just ask the kitchen to spike her milk twice a day." A year later, Sister Mary-Joseph is on her death bed and the Mother Superior asks: "Sister Mary-Joseph, would you like to leave us with any words of wisdom?" Sister Mary-Joseph coughs and, with a tired voice, says: "Whatever happens, don't ever sell that cow!" Quotable Quotes:
"I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a
vegetarian because I hate plants." -- A. Whitney Brown
--
The Phantom |
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