Carlsberg @ HK$22 ?!

Two-for-One main course Mondays ?!

Beer-and-Burger @ HK$88 ?!

House Cocktails @ 30 Bucks ?!

What’s going on in WanChai’s The Canny Man these days?

Well, Kevin over at Hong Kong’s “only authentic, traditional Scottish bar” mailed us to say that The Canny Man is going “Cannier!” with this promotion.

I must admit, I’ve never been, but after hearing this, I’m on my way!

Slainte Mhath!

Find The Canny Man online or if you’re on FaceBook, once you’re logged on, just search “Canny Man” and FB will hook you up.

Here’s The Canny Man’s mad promotion:

When I decided to start this category on Howzit-HongKong.com, I spent some time wondering just where to start.  Not wanting to make it an academic topic, I decided to just start somewhere and see how it develops, and where it takes me.  Besides, the aim is really to introduce readers to the rich and varied musical styles and sound that come from our country.

I decided to just go with with it and use one of my all-time idols (Bra) Hugh Masekela to tell you where he came from musically.

Also:  

As I’m from Cape Town, the city’s beat (I dare say ‘heartbeat’) stems from it’s historical global position as a refreshment station for the old Dutch East Asian Company, which started a refreshment station in the southern-most tip of Africa for shipping companies rounding Africa en-route to India (for spices). 

As Mac McKenzie (in the video below) will tell you, Cape Town was a confluence of all the nations of the world… right there in the Cape.  That’s is also where my favourite genre originated… Cape Jazz: a mixture of all the “blood of the world” as per Mac McKenzie.  

Lastly, I’ll play you a video of one of the foremost exponents of Cape Town Jazz, Abdulla Ebrahim (previously known as Dollar Brand) playing his famous song “Manenberg.”  The song is named after a suburb of Cape Town where coloured people/people of mixed heritage were forcibly removed to during Apartheid. 

I hope you will take this journey with me as I tell you about South Africa… through it’s music.

Here’s Hugh Masekela:

Cape Town music according to Mac McKenzie:

Abdullah Ebrahim’s Manenberg:

Of course South African music is not limited to only these two genres.  There are also Afrikaans music, kwaito, rap/hiphop, pop music as well as many others.

This journey will be an ongoing one.

Welcome and enjoy.

With the 2010 World Cup a mere 43 days away, Hong Kong has really come to the party insofar as getting the locals in the mood for Africa and the world’s biggest sports event.

Olympian City2, a mall in the West-Kowloon area will be hosting the biggest local event in the run-up to June 11 when they present the South African Festival between April 30 and May 9.

The South African Bazaar

(30 April – 9 May, 12noon-8pm, Central Atrium, Olympian City2)

For the whole 10-day period, you can enjoy a wide range of South African products like Rooibos Tea, wine, Appletiser, skin care products, to name but a few.  There will also be some typical Saffa delicacies for you to sample, while South African handicrafts will also be on display.

African Vibes

(30 April – 2 May and 7-9 May, 3pm-5pm)

Enjoy the African drum beat, complete with African dancers.

Diski Fever

(30 April – 2 May and 7 May, 2pm/4pm)

Come and dance with the mastermind behind the Diski Dance, Wendy Ramokgadi and his team, who will be flying in especially for this event.

Diski Dance world record attempt

(8 May at 2pm)

A competition to find the Diski Champion will be staged with prizes worth over HK$10,000 on offer. Lastly, Olympian City will attempt to set a world record when they try and get 1,000 people to dance the Diski Dance.  Special guest at this event will be Hong Kong’s own William Chan.

(To get to Olympian City2, take the MTR Tung Chung line, get off at Olympic City MTR and exit at Exit D)

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This advert appeared in The Standard this morning:

If it wasn’t for the fact that Hong Kongers are very suspicious of people with cameras on the MTR (perverts taking “up-skirt” pics are in the news often), I’d always have my cameras handy. 

One can see so much of the real Hong Kong riding the MTR:  Women meticulously applying make-up, doting moms cleaning their little ones’ noses (picking, not wiping), old folks trimming their nails, even men shaving with battery-powered razors.

Our friends over at Secret Hong Kong recently snapped this mom killing time on the MTR checking her little one’s homework:

Time is money in Hong Kong!

Cheers Chris!

This is probably a scoop of sorts for Howzit-HongKong.com considering it’s just after 1am on Wednesday April 28 and we just picked this news from the Cape Town band Freshlyground’s FaceBook site.

The song Waka Waka by Shakira featuring Freshlyground has been announced as the official song of the Fifa 2010 World Cup.

The song will be performed by Shakira and South African group Freshlyground, at the Closing Ceremony before the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final on July 11 in Johannesburg Soccer City Stadium.

The chorus of this song borrows from a favorite Cameroonian marching chant made popular by the group Golden Voices.

“We are thrilled to have collaborated with Shakira on Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), especially as we feel that the song captures the spirit and energy of the African World Cup,” said Zolani Mahola of Freshlyground.

“We are certain the song will inspire people around the world to celebrate the gathering of nations at the place where it all started. Here in Africa!”

Waka Waka will be made available for download through digital retailers the week of May 11.

It also will be included on “Listen Up! the Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Album” to be released the week of May 31 by Sony Music Entertainment. A Spanish language version of the track, Waka Waka (Esto es Africa), will be made available in certain markets.

Proceeds from the album will benefit FIFA’s “20 Centers for 2010” initiative, whose aim is to achieve positive social change through football by building twenty Football for Hope centres for public health, education and football across Africa, and other African charities.

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This video of the song has been on YouTube for the last week:

As a young boy I grew up virtually on the beach.  My home was 5 minutes walk from the white sands of Strand (near Cape Town) and I used every opportunity to be in the water. 

Unfortunately, because of South Africa’s apartheid laws, I was restricted to the “non-white side” of the beach. 

The bad old days…

The Strand municipality had erected a series of red and white concrete poles that stretched from the sandy beach, onto a rocky outcrop about 100 meters into the waters of False Bay.  Fortunately for us the red and white pole that jutted out from the rock was also where our favourite swimming spot was and during high tide indicated it clearly.  We called this spot “ENO” named after the bubbles that formed when we dived into the water.

On 2 February 1990, in a groundbreaking speech to Parliament, President FW De Klerk announced the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the imminent release of Nelson Mandela.  With this he formally ended the State’s apartheid laws. 

Nine days later, on Sunday 11 February 1990 Nelson Mandela walked through the gates of the Victor Verster Prison… a free man after 27 years.  I was amongst the masses who gathered in Cape Town when he uttered his first words from the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall.

South Africans celebrated our first democratic elections on 27 April 1994.

Today my children can swim anywhere they like.

However, the reality in South Africa today is far from the  simplistic scenario I sketched above and, even after 16 years, a lot needs to be done to make South Africa a truely ‘free’ country.  I nevertheless wish you:

Happy Freedom Day.

Aluta Continua *

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Rural South Africans wait to cast their vote in the first-ever democratic elections

Freedom Day commemorates the first democratic elections held in South Africa on 27 April 1994.

It is celebrated annually as a reminder of the struggle for a free and just South Africa culminating in the first democratic elections held in 1994 where South Africans of every walk of life participated in the making of our new country.

* Aluta Continua or “the struggle continues” is the name of a song we sang at university during apartheid.

After typing up the story above, I found this video posted by our friends over at Zoopy.com: 

Still in the chasing pack on the last day of the Ballantine’s Championship on South Korea’s Jeju island, the ask proved too much for our Ernie Els as Aussie Marcus Fraser took the title in rather blustery conditions.

Marcus Fraser stayed calm amid the blustery conditions at the Ballantine’s Championship yesterday (25 April) to claim the biggest title of his career.

The 31-year-old Australian carded a three-under-par 69 at Pinx Golf Club on the Korean holiday island of Jeju to win the €2.2 million showpiece by four strokes.

Fraser remained clear of the chasing pack – which included world No.7 Ernie Els – and kept his composure on the back nine to become the first wire-to-wire winner on the European Tour this year.

He finished on 12-under 204 for the tournament, which was reduced to 54 holes after play was held up for six hours on the first day due to fog.

Australia’s Brett Rumford (71) and Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin (72) were second on eight-under.

Fraser’s only previous European Tour success came seven years ago at the BMW Russian Open, a dual ranking event with the Challenge Tour, and he admitted it had been a long and frustrating wait for his next win.

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“Unbelievable, I can’t describe it,” said an emotional Fraser. “I just don’t know how I did that today. I’ve had so many chances to win in the last seven years, so to go out there and play like I did today and this week, it’s a big relief.”

Fraser, who collected the winner’s cheque for €367,500, admitted leading from the first day of the Ballantine’s Championship had increased the pressure.

“I don’t know if I have anything left in me to go a fourth round, but I don’t care,” he said. “I’ve worked very hard the last few years to be in a position where I should be winning golf tournaments, so it’s a huge reward.”

Fraser had dropped only one shot in the tournament before playing safe and laying up at the par-four 18th, where he tapped in for a bogey.

“At no point did I think I had it. I knew roughly what was going on but never got ahead of myself,” he said. “And on the last I just concentrated on getting on the fairway, and there was no way I was going to risk going for the green from there.”

Since his 2003 victory, Fraser’s best performance had been finishing runner-up in the Australian Masters at the start of the 2009 season.

Until the Ballantine’s Championship, his best finish this season was joint 11th at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Rumford, meanwhile, was happy with his week’s work. “I just missed a truckload of putts early today, and in rounds one and two, so I’ll be working on my putting for the upcoming tournaments,” he said.

“But it was really tough out there, any missed shots and the wind was really throwing the ball about. Even so, I’m really happy for Marcus, it’s his second win on tour and no one is more deserving. He’s a great guy.”

Maybin also struggled on the greens. “I missed a couple of short putts, so I’ll go back and work on that,” he said. “But it’s been a pretty good week. I didn’t come in here with a whole lot of form, so to finish second is a great result any time.”

Teenager Noh Seung Yul flew the flag for Korea with a sparkling 68 to finish equal fourth on seven-under with England’s Oliver Fisher, who carded a 71.

Defending champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, who started the day just one shot behind Fraser, returned a disappointing 75 to finish equal 10th on five-under.

Three-time Major winner South AfricanErnie Els also finished on five-under after a difficult day. The Big Easy started the final round just two shots off the pace but, after closing the gap to one early in his round, fell away on the back nine and returned a 74.

Marcus Fraser with the Ballantine’s Championship spoils (Pic: Paul Lakatos/Parallel Media Group)

Typing this in my apartment in Hung Hom Bay, directly across from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Kellett Island HQ, I can see that Day 2 of the annual Spring Regatta is in full swing.  Judging from the angle of some of the boats, it looks as if they are again experiencing great conditions for some exciting sailing.

Yesterday, it was T-shirts, shorts and big smiles today for the first day of the RHKYC Spring Regatta. 

Sunshine and 18 knots of easterly breeze were provided to blow away the cobwebs during the around-the-cans race in the Eastern waters of the Harbour. Given the faultless conditions, the Race Officer, Simon Boyde, selected a Club start, treating spectators on the balcony to the sight of 93 boats in eight starts.

 Day 2 of the RHKYC’s Spring Regatta, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. (Pic: Mike Jansen)

Continues below:

Guy Newell captured some of yesterday’s action in this slideshow:

When you’re on a roll, there’s no guessing where you’ll end up.  For Hong Kong’s fifteens rugby side, there’s no guessing involved in their quest to top the log of the Top 5 competition of the Asian 5Nations rugby competition. 

Hong Kong stunned South Korea 32-8 in the opening game of the 2010 HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition to take a massive step forward in their IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 qualifying campaign.

A brace of tries from tireless forward Nigel Clarke plus one try each by fly-half Keith Robertson and substitute winger Tom McQueen enabled Hong Kong to seal a magnificent victory in front of a capacity crowd of over 3,000 at the Hong Kong Football Club.

Hong Kong captain Simon Leung tries to evade a Korean defender in their clash at HKFC on Saturday.

South Korea began strongly, posting eight points on the board in the opening 10 minutes courtesy of a penalty by fly-half Oh Youn-hyung and a try by winger Choi Si-won, but then played second fiddle to Hong Kong whose forwards set the foundation for victory – which was aided by a superb defence.

“This is an awesome start, and just what we wanted,”said delighted captain and No.8 Simon Leung. “It was a great squad effort, but we have to keep our feet on the ground as we still have another three games to go.”

Despite trailing 8-0, it was Hong Kong who held the upper hand, with Keith Robertson making up for an uncharacteristically poor half with the boot with some incisive line-breaks. The centres pairing of Rowan Varty and Simon Hempel also regularly exposed holes in the Korean defence as both forwards and backs began to move the ball around, retaining possession well and making deep inroads into Korean territory. 

Robertson missed two early penalties, but Hong Kong nerves were settled just before halftime when Clarke grabbed the first of his two tries after picking up from a ruck inches from the try-line and smashing his way over. That try was converted by Robertson who also knocked over a penalty to see Hong Kong take a 10-8 lead into the break. 

Hong Kong began the second half strongly and were rarely threatened thereafter with Korean offensive efforts further blunted with the loss of fullback Kim Won-Yong, a back-line stalwart and Korean sevens star side, through injury. 

Robertson missed another easy penalty early in the second stanza but he made up for it by creating and converting the team’s second try, helped by a lovely exchange of passes with wing Alex McQueen, to score under the posts. The scoreline was extended to 22-8 when Clarke notched his second try from close range capping some solid lead up work by brothers Tom and Alex McQueen and captain Leung.

Tom McQueen then gave Hong Kong a crucial bonus point – for scoring four tries – when he finished off another flowing move that was started by Robertson and involved Rowan Varty, who drew the defence and off-loaded beautifully to McQueen to score. Robertson knocked over the conversion to take his personal tally to 14 points for the day. Alex McQueen then put the icing on Hong Kong’s cake with a late penalty to give Hong Kong a comprehensive 32-8 victory. 

Korea’s fullback Kim Wong Yong is wrapped up by the determined Hong Kong defence

“The dream lives on,” said elated Hong Kong coach Dai Rees. “Nobody expects us to win, and that is why this is a dream. There is now a strong possibility that we can at least finish second.”

If Hong Kong finish as runners-up, (defending HSBC A5N champions Japan – who had a bye today – are favourites to book the direct berth to the World Cup next year) they will meet Uruguay in a play-off with the winner moving on to a final home-and-away repechage against a side from either Europe or Africa.

In today’s other match between Kazakhstan and the Arabian Gulf in Almaty, the visitors jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, extending it to 13 before Kazakhstan, last year’s runners-up in the HSBC A5N, asserted its dominance with its first try to claw back to a 13-7 deficit. Kazakhstan scored another in the last moments of the first half to edge ahead to 14-13 at halftime.

The excitement didn’t let up in the second half either as the game went down to the wire with both teams trading tries. With 15 minutes remaining, the score was 33-28 and both teams were in contention for the bonus point for scoring four tries or more. Paced by a raucous home crowd of over 4,000 spectators, Kazakhstan made home advantage tell, finding its stride in the waning minutes of the game to pull away for good 43-28. 

After today’s victories, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong both earned a bonus point along with five points for a win, bringing them to equal first on the table with six points each and setting up a colossal encounter in Hong Kong on May 8. But first, Hong Kong will have to overcome what promises to be a stiff challenge from a rapidly improving Arabian Gulf XV in Bahrain. Hong Kong now face a short week and will travel to Bahrain on Thursday for a match on Friday evening April 30th, while Kazakhstan are on a bye in week 2.

Read more about the HSBC Asian 5Nations on their website

While I am typing this, Victoria Harbour seen through my window, is awash with billowing sails where the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is hosting their annual Spring Regatta.  Judging from the trees below and the sails in the harbour, the Regatta is is full swing. 

Across the harbour at the Hong Kong Football Club, the Asian 5Nations rugby tournament is also in full swing with Hong Kong taking on South Korea on the hard HKFC pitch.

The respective skippers appeared at a press conference at the HKFC yesterday:

Korea captain Kim Jeong Min and his HK counterpart Simon Leung Ho Yam at the HKFC yesterday.

The CEO of HSBC Hong Kong (middle) presented gifts to the Korean and Hong Kong coaches.

A drop-kick competition for U16 players to win a trip to Tokyo was held at HKFC