Ben Zabulis

After graduating in 1982 Ben worked throughout the UK before an unlikely adventurous disposition led him to Nigeria, India, Japan and Hong Kong. Between each of those overseas assignments he had attempted repatriation with varying degrees of ‘success’; the last of which occurred in 2004 when he and his partner returned from Hong Kong for what they considered to be a permanent move, only to return to Hong Kong years later. The exotic misdemeanours inherent in that first expatriate period (1984-2004) together with various Asian sojourns and activities, contributed to a series of travel journal scribbles which eventually morphed in to the book Chartered Territory – An Engineer Abroad.

Time Travel

In Hong Kong, we recently celebrated the Ching Ming festival, an annual commemoration of ancestors and, consequently, a poignant time of year when family memories are foremost in our thoughts. Thus, delving filially into the past, I often find it

The Shadows Of Bubbles

One very intriguing aspect of living in a place like Hong Kong is that you often find yourself treading niftily between parallel cultures; and never more so than with language. For example, I recently learnt a new Cantonese expression –

Summertime…

…and the livin’ is, well, not exactly easy but manageable with the requisite forbearance needed when living in these parts. Yes, after a few weeks of very pleasant spring weather we were instantly swamped by the sweat-inducing, energy-sapping ambience of

Spring Collection

Forget the likes of Lagerfeld, Gaultier, and McQueen, for this year’s Spring Collection has been effortlessly upstaged, of course you all know this, by something a little less glam. Indeed, influenced by a pumped-up, purple pathogen with suckers, not unlike

New Year Going Viral

One of the odd things about living in Hong Kong is that I get the chance to wish you all a happy New Year not once but twice, second time being for the Chinese version which we are celebrating at

Great Expectations

Although several nations have endured a bout of election fever recently, we in little Hong Kong have enjoyed our moment in the media spotlight too. Nothing quite as grand as a full-blown general election for us however, no, ours was

And On It Goes…

Well, since my last missive we appear to have become the world’s capital of protest and riot, edging out the good people of Santiago, Catalonia and Baghdad who seem intent on giving us a run for our money. But, you

Carrie On Hong Kong

Protest march, rally, riot, violence, revolution of our time, liberate Hong Kong, democracy, f**k the po-po, are not the sort of words or phrases I ever thought it would be necessary to learn in hitherto peaceful Hong Kong, indeed my

Umbrella Movement

Growing up in 1960s England, the term Umbrella Movement could only mean one thing: The Avengers TV series and its suave hero, secret agent John Steed, effectively disarming many an assailant with a swiftly yielded British brolly. Today, courtesy of

The Road To Hong Kong

Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a teeming conurbation and wondered, somewhat despairingly, where on earth do all these people come from? Well, here in densely populated Hong Kong you can find yourself contemplating that little conundrum