IAIN Brice, business studies (Edinburgh) and land economy (Aberdeen), is visibly chuffed he has survived his first scratching months in Hongkong.
Emily Ashworth, drama (Lancaster), is not planning to stay here or anywhere - yet in seven weeks she has moved from $40 in her pocket to $6,000 in a Hang Seng bank account.
Jane Kaysell, law (Cardiff) and a qualified barrister, is displaying settler determination with no return ticket and rent deposit put on a Wan Chai ''shoe box''; after only a fortnight.
Anthony Healy, English literature and a PhD in critical theory (Oxford), is rapt after eight months by the difference of the place and the complaints numbers stencilled on the rubbish bins, but seems to harbour the suspicion that it might be all one gross conspiracy.
Common to all four is that they are British, out of university, out of a career and out here. They are highly educated statistics in a trend that has become more pronounced as the British recession has deepened and the land has gone moodily still in its darkness.
Young Brits are simply walking out and, if many are to be believed, not returning. They are a new breed - mobile, backs turned on conventional family life and solid careers in the damp island kingdom. They are described by one as ''Euroyuppies''.
