The other day I decided to participate in the CLSA share scheme. As part of this scheme we can elect to take a loan out with HSBC to fund part of the investment. So I filled in the forms and sent it off to Ms. Cindy Chong at 1 Queens Road Central in Hong Kong with details of my pitifully low salary and personal assets. That said it was a shock to have my application rejected. It transpires that I am on the HSBC bad debtor list which is not a good place to be. Apparently I have an outstanding balance of HK$975.49 due on my HSBC credit card, which dates back to when I left Thailand - and closed my account - in March 1998. I have yet to discover how much I inadvertently left on my card, but I suspect it was something like HK$200. The power of compounding exorbitant interest rates. The old lady from the ship-wrecked ferry I told you about last week, who left HK$200 worth of fruit and veg on board, would be having a good laugh at my expense.
A formative bit of comedy for me was Tony Hancock's "The Blood Donor" and in particular the scene where he starts challenging his fellow donor on the subject of how much he has given to various charities. When I was at our China Forum last week I asked the question of one of our lunch time speakers, Tim Flannery, who had given a compelling presentation on the damage we are doing to our environment, how we could measure and address our impact on an individual basis. Well, this morning one of my colleagues gave me the answer. www.carbonneutral.com Take a look. And in the spirit of Tony Hancock, I can't resist telling you that 26 more trees should be sprouting in a forest in Devon giving Sophie and I a slightly clearer conscience, from a carbon footprint perspective at least, about flying to Antigua tomorrow. Ha ha. Hen is coming too, of course, and I am shortly off to Boots on a mission to buy her the "bronzing gel" she has put in a special request for. No carbon conscience there I can tell you.
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