New on Gwulo: 2022, week 52

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 01/01/2023 - 11:00

As this is the last roundup of what's new for 2022, and the first Gwulo newsletter sent in 2023, I wish you health and happiness in the new year ahead.

Kind regards, David

General

Curiosities from the old newspapers
- 1930 Motorcycle racers given free whisky - racers could drink free whisky at petrol stations along the route of the motorcycle trial.
- 1930 A car drove around the Peak via the narrow Lugard and Harlech Roads
- 1937 The Hat That Flew Round The World - travelling via Hong Kong, and unaccompanied by its owner.
The 1938 Jurors List is now available online. Thank you to volunteers Annhw, David, Grace, Joybot, Patricia, Strickja, and wingcli2015 for typing it up so it can go online for everyone's benefit.
Readers ask:
- Looking for any information about Driscoll & Co., a local business in the 1870s/80s.
- Does Pillbox 419 still exist?
- How did the 25 Field Squadron, Royal Engineers end up using the Chinese character for 'fist' as their emblem?
- What was the route from London to Hong Kong in the 1860s/70s?
- Can anyone identify this singer? Possibly Ms Cora Ballecer.
  
  Norman Smith's Philipino combo., by Andrew Suddaby
Memories of:
- Quarry Bay School
- Wah Kiu Yat Po's offices on Hollywood Road
HMS Tai Mo Shan, built in the 1930s and believed to still exist today.
We had a lovely surprise on Friday evening: while having a drink with friends we were joined by Patricia O'Sullivan, freshly arrived from the airport. Patricia is the author of Policing Hong Kong, An Irish History, and Women, Crime And The Courts, Hong Kong 1841-1941. It's been almost three years since we last saw Patricia in Hong Kong. She's booked to give several talks on this visit, so keep an eye out for details.

Gwulo's books

Asia
- Gwulo's online bookstore now accepts orders from all of Asia, with free shipping on orders for Gwulo's books. You can select shipping to any of: Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, or Vietnam.
China
- We now accept Alipay and WeChat Pay, to make it easier for customers in mainland China to pay for orders.
Hong Kong
- Thanks to everyone who came along to my talk at Lion's Ink Bookstore on Thursday. We had a full house, there were plenty of interesting questions after the talk, and no-one fell asleep, so I'll consider that one a success!
UK & Europe
- I've re-stocked my books at Amazon UK, so they now have all four volumes available to buy. (Affiliate link)
Enhanced images
- Several readers asked for details of the tool I used to enhance the images for the latest reprint of Volume 1. It is called Topaz Photo AI, and runs on Windows and Macs. It is aimed at the modern photographer, processing their digital images, but I've found it can also improve the historic images I work with. Not all of them though, results certainly vary, so if you're interested I'd recommend trying their free trial version with some of your sample images to see if the improvements are worthwhile for you. To download the trial version, go to their web page for Topaz Photo AI, and click on the Try for free button. (Affiliate link)