#NotAll…

I wanted to say something in response to the justifiable outrage at the victim blaming surrounding the appalling case of Sarah Everard, abducted by a police officer while walking home in Clapham from a friend’s house and then murdered. So much has been said on this already, and especially on the extra vigilance and second guessing that is a part of all women’s lives from early in childhood.

A few years ago I asked on Twitter whether anyone else made sure their keys were in the hands when they went outside alone. All the women respondents understood immediately. None of the men got this at all and thought it was just a matter of personal organisation.

There has, of course, been a #NotAllMen backlash. The cartoon, by Kristine Maione is clear and self-explanatory I think.

Not everyone

The #NotAll thing occurred to me in a different context a couple of weeks ago. The Hong Kong Bach Choir, unable to rehearse together at present, are individually recording movements of the Mass in B Minor, to be mixed by sound engineers and released to us for feedback. Despite a lot of effort going into producing conducted videos and guide tracks in individual voices as well as accompaniment and music minus one type karaoke tracks, not very many choir members have contributed their recordings.

I’m finding each movement quite an effort, but I want to show willing and do my bit when others have worked so hard to provide this facility. Sadly, few other members of the choir are making contributions and the two-weekly informal Teams get togethers are quite poorly attended. It’s such a pity because, though it is hard work, I’m finding that I can learn the work quite thoroughly and do it justice this way without feeling that I’m going to sound like an idiot in an actual rehearsal so it’s a great medium term time investment.

Now, the low participation is a bit of a disappointment after all that hard work so Jerry our conductor sent round a letter reminding us that if people aren’t putting any effort on this major work, it won’t be ready to sing in concert at City Hall in June, after a few, socially-distanced, rehearsals in April and May.

I always feel cowed by being told off like this, lumped in with everyone else when I have actually done my homework. I’m a bon élève, as the French would say, a girly swot, though it’s I only now at the age of 55 that I’m actually passionate enough about anything that I want to research and make notes. I have two degrees.

It struck me that this was a bit like #NotAllMen in that it’s not all choir members who haven’t participated in the joint effort towards something potentially wonderful. But then I reminded myself that the admonishment obviously wasn’t addressed to me, because I have made the effort to understand. And that these things had to be said because, unfortunately too many choir members weren’t getting it, which contributed to an atmosphere of general not getting it and potentially yet another ruined concert date. And that that was just like #NotAllMen.

Speaking of homework…

We’ve just completed our first beginner Cantonese course. With my Chinese degree, I was probably  more attuned to learning this fiendishly difficult language then anyone else on the course but I still found it hard, and confusing in that I kept mixing up Cantonese with Putonghua pronunciation and they aren’t the same at all. Not only that but there isn’t a universally-recognised phonetic romanisation system like Pinyin for Putonghua. (I refuse to call it Mandarin).

I used the course homework notes as an opportunity to refresh my Chinese character recognition but with full form rather than simplified form characters. Bon élève, you see? The ipad and applepencil are quite good for that but you have to complete all the various complicated elements of a character quickly otherwise the autocorrect comes up with a completely different character so notes can be quite painstaking and time consuming and, at times, frustrating.

Cantonese characters aren’t always the full form equivalent of Putonghua characters either, just to add to the confusion, but I was highly amused in a way that only a few people will understand – probably only 戴西孟 (Is this you DXM?) only. Like the character “Mou” which exists only as Mei you 没友 in Putonghua, and means “I don’t have.” There are so many stories about 没友 for another day. Now, the full form character here for “You” (to have) is 有 so the opposite is, naturally, 冇. Well, I found that hilaire. #niche

Four of the eight that started this course survived to the test at the end of the ten weeks. Maybe people think that learning a language is easy – I know lots of people think they can wing it and don’t take it seriously – but people weren’t even writing things down and then wondering why they couldn’t remember anything. Let’s see who joins the next, more advanced, course.

Fifth wave?

I was supposed to go up The Peak for tea with my dear old mate Alleyopps yesterday but she sent me a Whatsapp early in the morning telling me that she had to take her son for a Covid test. His school had closed because one of the staff was a close contact of someone who’d tested positive in the outbreak cluster based around the URSUS gym. Today we hear that other international schools have been affected in the same way and closed, including those attended by children of another friend and a colleague of J’s. Also yesterday came the news that someone in the same company as J who works on the floor above had tested positive and that the floor would be shut and deep cleaned over the weekend.

Now, here in HK, a single case in a residential building will result in an overnight lockdown and a mandatory testing order for all residents in that building, punishable by a heavy fine for non-compliance. No such rules seem to apply for office properties, it seems, and the office tower with the most expensive rent in the world has remained open today.

Meanwhile our case numbers have risen to 60 today from single figures on most days in the last week. This is, then, the #ExpatWave, just as we thought there was an end to this.

Our vaccination programme has finally started here but there have been some post-Sinovac deaths (from underlying causes) and hospitalisations, which have prompted a drop in vaccination take up. I was horrified to learn that vaccine remaining when people don’t turn up for their appointments is being thrown away at the end of the day. So many of us not in the priority groups are longing to have the vaccination so that we can travel or go home. I’d be happy to hop on a bus to the airport vaccination centre with half an hour’s notice but that is obviously not how they do things here.

Pillar to post

Last week I finally took delivery of the Qaio Smart Mirror that I’d paid for four weeks previously. I’d bought this expensive piece of kit for three specific reasons:

1) Because I needed a full length mirror;

2) To stream workout apps and see myself participating without having to pay a subscription or limit myself only to a few apps like others on the market;

3) To be able to record myself with the internal camera as part of my singing practice.

I am accustomed to Apple products which work straight out of the box. This android based equipment was not so user-friendly. It has a few major faults. The camera does not work and nor does the remote control for the lower screen. I can’t switch the thing off. Qaio’ s Mirrorfeeds app doesn’t work either.

The sales representatives at the Evervue company who sold it to me have decided that they can’t help and washed their hands of me. “Support” is through a single email portal on the Evervue website that seemingly does not accept communications from iOS devices like my phone and my ipad.. Any support tickets I have managed to raise receive patronising platitudes in response that seem to assume that I’m an idiot and that the equipment would work fine if only I weren’t too stupid to read or understand the manual. They don’t address my issues at all. I wish I’d read the Trustpilot reviews before I made my purchase. Someone else seems to have encountered the same problem as me but Evervue refuse to help unless people remove “negative” reviews.

I’m wondering whether this is part of a deliberate war of attrition strategy, designed to obfuscate and delay so much and grind me down until I’m too exhausted and frustrated to carry on with my complaint and I give up.

I’ve had the same sort of response from Trinity College in Hong Kong, forwarded from London, to my specific queries about my proposed LTCL recital programme.

Is it the Chinese 没有mentality coming out? Does no-one care about giving good service or happy customers anymore? Does business now take it its lead from laissez-faire government policies that are happy to throw vulnerable, powerless individuals to baying hounds if they don’t quite conform to standard models? I just don’t know.