Did I mention that I hate the South China Morning Post? Well I do. It is the worst English language newspaper I know.

The writing is awful, features juvenille and irrelevant. The Sunday Post is not much better. That magazine which comes with it, in particular, reminds me of that wretchedly loathsome TVB Pearl programme called "la Dolce Vita" ... or some such foreign language for a programme name which really is all about Harvy Nicks and the Four Seasons. I really do hate that programme with all my life and soul and guts and give me a gun and I swear I will shoot the presenters and the producers and the writers as well as the advertisers. It's all about .... crap. The only good thing about the SCMP is that it has some pretty good pictures every now and then. But at $7 a pop I'd rather spend $3 more and buy a copy of any of the trashy Cantopopping mags. Or buy a load of stamps which I will never use.

The Standard is going to be a freebie from next week on, which is good. Not that I ever read it, but free is good. I also get the China Daily free, and it is far more interesting than the SCMP.

So why am I bitching about the Scampie when I loath it so much, never buy it, and I can feel my blood pressure rise every time I so much as flick through a copy? Thing is, it seems like we'll be getting free copies for a while. I like collecting free newspapers for our domestic helper to sell at the recycling shop down at the market. Now these free Scampies are obviously an attempt to lure gullible freshmen into thinking that reading this rag could in some inexplicable way improve their English, and, even more unrealistically, broaden their knowledge of the world. So now I have a copy on my desk. As it would not be right for me to burn it, I am writing about it, instead. So help me, God.