Top 29 Cities for Men to Live in

A little diversionary post from me - AskMen.com, with apparently more than seven million readers a month worldwide, today announced the inaugural edition of its "Top 29 Cities for Men to Live In." Selection criteria for the top cities included, among other factors, the rate of employment, ratio of single women to men, frequency of cultural activities and sporting events and the cost of a pint of beer.

They used seven unique rating categories including: Dating & Sex, Sports & Entertainment, Culture, Fashion, Health, Power & Money and The Good Life. Cities earned points and elevated their rank on the list through an evaluation process that assessed several influential features, such as: the population of single, college-educated women, how late bars/clubs stay open, the presence of a reputable menswear-only store,  the rate of male heart disease, the cost of living and the occurrence of an annual international arts festival.

AND THE WINNER IS.........click here

Agree or disagree? and where is your city (see below)

+/- Click Here to expand and see full list

1.      Chicago
2.      Barcelona
3.      San Francisco
4.      London
5.      Sydney
6.      New York
7.      Berlin
8.      Hong Kong
9.      Copenhagen
10.     Paris
11.     Vancouver
12.     Rome
13.     Buenos Aires
14.     Tokyo
15.     Toronto
16.     Miami
17.     Madrid
18.     Vienna
19.     Los Angeles
20.     Montreal
21.     Panama City
22.     Portland
23.     Lyon
24.     Melbourne
25.     Tel Aviv
26.     Santiago
27.     Cape Town
28.     Hamburg
29.     Edinburgh

Tags: ..Top 29 Cities for Men to Live in..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

Hong Kong Sevens

Hong Kong Sevens

Today (in fact in 30 minutes) sees the start of one, if not THE, biggest sporting events in Asia. I only heard about the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament a few years ago and it is generally associated with the words "party" and "mayhem".

The tournament lasts 2 and a half days, commencing on Friday afternoon, and concluding on Sunday evening. Sevens is a stripped-down version of rugby union with seven players each side on a normal-sized field, rather than the normal fifteen and the game lasts just seven minutes each half.

I managed to score tickets so am pretty excited about the whole thing although Ireland didn't make it this year :-((

It is bucketing down rain here right now but it will take more than that to dampen the party spirit of the throngs of people who fly in from all over the world to watch this infamous spectacle. Check the YouTube video for a taster!

Tags: ..Hong Kong Sevens Rugby tournament 2009..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

Hiking in Honkers

It seems like I have sort of lost the plot or at least lost the 'gift of the gab' and don't quite know what to be rambling on about on this bit of the webisphere, so for now I'll just regale you with my hiking adventures.

Even though a thick fog of humidity has literally hung over the city for 5 weeks now and hidden the blue sky and prevented the sun from shining thru it is still pretty spectacular to hike in these parts. You can easily escape the concrete jungle and find yourself in the splendour of deep forest hills in minutes. I am in hiking heaven and am more impressed by this city on a daily basis.

The first set of pics is from a hike to Repulse Bay yesterday which was about a 3 hour hike and the second set is from Tai Tam reservoir which was about 4 hours. Oh - and check out the YouTube video of my view from the top of todays mountain - NOT to be missed!

Tags: ..Hiking in Honkers Hong Kong..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

NO SHIT!

A picture says a thousand words!

Tags: .NO SHIT, NO EXCRETING..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

Saint Paddy

The culture here is very different to anywhere else I've lived before but still in a positive and fascinating way. They eat strange stuff like birds nest soup and sharks fin soup. They drink strange stuff.

The photo below is a very popular energy drink here but with a rather unappealing name.

Here's another fav of the locals - Chickens feet.

Then there's pigs liver and pigs intestine. Turtle jelly where a turtle is boiled for about 12 hours. Chicken testicles either boiled or fried and owl soup including the head of the owl.

I can't say I've tried them all and can't say I ever will but it's a far cry from corn beef and cabbage! I've just realised I've spent the last 3 St Patricks Days on 3 different continents but the common denominator seems to be BEER!


Since legend has it that St Paddy cast the snakes out of Ireland, I must have another specialty around these parts in his honour i.e. some ssssssssssssnake soup (yep they eat that too!) or I might just settle for a pint o' Guinnessssssssssssssss!

HAPPY SAINT PADDYS DAY!

Tags: .St Saint Patricks Paddys Day Hong Kong..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

.

Out To Lunch

Yes it's true I have been slacking and not posting here due to a hectic exhausting and demanding unemployed lifestyle and more importantly not reading and commmenting on my fav blogs but rest assured normal verbal diarrhea will resume as quickly as my next bowel movement.



If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

.

Paddy in Kuala Lumpur

I'm on route to Singapore on that quest for a....damn what is it again? - rhymes with 'mob' or 'sob' or 'gob' or 'rob'? .... well I forget now but I'm making a stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to give me time to remember. This is a vastly different part of Asia from what I've seen before. It's primarily a Muslim population in KL complete with women covered in traditional dress (body covered completely including a veil except for that slit to let them peep thru. There are huge multi storey shopping malls in the center with all the big designer gear (Gucci, Armani etc) and an equal amount of great restaurants (far removed from your foodcourts of USA or Europe)

We visited the impressive Batu Caves which has a Hindu temple built into a cave and is overrun with monkeys. One of the highlights todate was fish head soup which comes in a red curry style broth and is a local specialty. They say travel makes you grow but the only growing I've done so far is around the waist. My exercise regime has been shot to pieces. I've even managed to avoid Delhi belly (aka squirt alert) which although uncomfortable usually allows you to lose a few kgs.


We had two interesting encounters on Friday night. First a lady-boy (she-male) approached and then chased my friend up the street. We had a similar encounter in Vietnam where the only decipherible English was "Hey you - Special price - You - Me - 1 hour - Boom Boom - yes?" Second incident was witnessing a drunk driver plough into and completely wreck a taxi on a busy central street corner and drive off despite the fact there was a police kiosk on the same corner. Never a dull moment in this part of the world.

Tags: .Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

.