Just a quick one as I'm on a timer. Today was the best day ever. Shopping and more shopping! I think that I was spurred on by pretty woman last night which was on the only English speaking tv channel on my tv late at night. Having been woken up at 3am by a whole lot of kerfuffle outside my door - I think it was the local police talking to a very upset French guy who was talking about recognising a guy and something about a pillow. Couldn't work out why he would call the police because someone stole his pillow. I got up early and sought out an English breakfast because as much as I love my little bakery on the pier, I was dying for coffee and cereal. Then I walked along the avenue of stars and tried my hand for size against Jet Li and Jackie Chan's hand prints. Man the people of Hong Kong love Jackie Chan. There are shops devoted just to his merchandise along the waterfront and ads of him play all the time on the buses and billboards.
Today was designated shopping day and shop I did. I have come to Hong Kong at the perfect time of year. It is the end of the summer season and all of the shops are having sales. And when I say sales, I am not talking about the pathetic ones we have at home. Everything is 70% here. I tell you, my room looks like that scene from pretty woman when Julia Roberts is in the hotel room surrounded by carry bags. I won't bore you with what I have bought but I am pretty kitted out for work and any upcoming weddings/parties etc now. As for the cosmetics. Strawberry net has nothing on actually buying it in HK. There is a store here called Sassa which apparently all the mainland Chinese flock to when they come over. It is absolutely everywhere here. I managed to get all my clarins products for about $20 each. Talk about stoked.
I took a break from shopping and went to a free Chinese cake-making course. It was in a little cake shop called Wing-Wah which apparently is very famous. We got taught how to make (and then made) moon cakes which were all very pretty with roses on them. We also got to make egg rolls and eat them while we watched others and drank Jasmine tea. I was such a fun course and I met some really nice people. Not to mention they gave us little gift bags with these giant walnut moon cake cookies and the recipes we'd made in them. Then after dropping my mornings shopping off at my slum, it was back to the golden mile for more shopping.
My new experience for the day was the rain in HK. It has been so horribly muggy here over the past few days that when it rained today it really rained. Thank goodness for cheap umbrellas and the cool plastic umbrella bag dispensers at the entrance to all the shops. Despite the downpour the Sunday afternoon Kung Fu corner in Kowloon Park still went ahead. Tai Chi, Kung Fu etc were on display in all array of ages, shapes and coloured outfits. Very cool.
I am becoming an expert at having a conversation with myself in my head while I eat. I am also now almost totally oblivious to people staring at me while I eat - it's a definite look of pity. I went to Sushi One which was a relatively cheap Japanese restaurant which had one of those revovling counter thingys (like Sushi Catch) and two walls covered by massive fish tanks. Yum! I've decided though that I am not a fan of raw blue fin tuna which I feel bad about seeing as I think it may be the one that is endangered. Who knows.
I braved the crowds on the MTR again to head to Mong Kok where the girl who sold me my jeans told me to go for shoes. What she didn't tell me was that the shoe shops she said were there were all in the scariest, busiest malls I have ever seen and were the HK equivalent to the Number One Shoe Warehouse. So it was back to Kowloon.
As you tell, the timer on my computer has crapped out so I have been able to vent for a bit longer than I thought I would be able to. I have to head back out to try and find some shoes that don't have bows, glitter or ribbon on them and ones that don't have spice girl-esque platforms. So far not so good. I am beginning to think that my name is actually Missy which is what all the shop assistants call me. I feel like I'm being told off everytime I walk into a shop.
Tomorrow morning is an early pick-up for China. I am super excited about seeing the terrecota warriors and those cute little pandas! Actually speaking of warriors, does anyone know if my boys won their game or not. I'll have to go check it out.
Right well it's goodnight from me folks. Hopefully I will get near a computer with a usb port sometime so I can put some photos on this page and facebook.
Where are all the emails people??? I am having gossip withdrawal. Back to hit the shops - I love that shops are open until 11 here. It's so much cooler shopping at night.
Torie
xxx
