THE LIGHTER NOTE

Floating signs

There has been much consternation in the market about the float that never was – Clive Palmer’s Resourcehouse.

The Note was as perplexed as anyone else when all the talk of an IPO for the Hong Kong-based company was scotched by the good honorary professor a couple of weeks ago.

The float-that-never-was’ non-demise apparently didn’t occur until after a bungled announcement that misnamed the Resourcehouse’s customer that had agreed to buy $US60 billion of Aussie coal over 20 years.

Resourcehouse had to explain it was not Hong Kong-listed China Power International Development it had a coal contract with, but China Power International Holdings.

Anyway, one of The Note’s many global operatives snapped the above picture on the way to Hong Kong airport – the subtext says “Bringing the world’s resources to China”.

“For a company not wanting to list in Hong Kong, they sure do have a big sign,” nudged our contact.

Cow pat

The unveiling of the CowParade at Margaret River for its 2010 festival left The Note wondering about originality.

CowParade is not a bovine mardi gras but a bunch of colourful cow statues. That got The Note thinking about originality, reflecting on a bunch of exotically-painted buffalo statues we saw grazing in the cultural oasis of Oklahoma City in the US some years ago.

A bit of digging found the cows started doing the rounds in New York in 1999, while the buffalo herd was launched in 2005.

So is Margaret River more or less creative for having the originals? Or could we have seen a mob of concrete kangaroos instead. We are udderly perplexed by this conundrum.