Where I'm flying from

It has been quite difficult getting direct flights to Hong Kong on a shoestring, student budget. There's a reduced rate for students for Cathay Pacific flights at a Chinese travel agency on Euston Road as you would walk towards King's Cross from Euston Rail Station. British Airways shares the same premium price range as CX, but I'm glad that BA doesn't reduce its baggage inclusions.

For alternative routes and competitive ticket prices back to Hong Kong from London, visit Zuji.

In the end, I chose a direct flight back to Hong Kong via the amazing Branson tech-and-music machine!

High Tea Elsewhere...

...Hong Kong next summer?

Have a Happy Christmas, everyone!

Higher Consciousness

A few nights ago, a children's choir from Uganda sang their hearts out at the new theatre at Discovery College in DBay, Lantau Island. The choir is composed of orphaned children who live in a kibbutz-type foster-parenting, leadership-training and learning community called WATOTO. Should you wish to support a child and help an African community of learners, click this link.

In June, the Wan Chai district will be hosting two major wellness-practice conferences. Click on the appropriate links below:

a. The Asia Yoga Conference

b. The Asia Consciousness Festival

For arts aficionados, the following nation-orientated festivals are up and coming as well:

a. Le French May

b. The Italian Month in Hong Kong

c. The Philippine Arts Festival

Hong Kong has its surprising share of life-changing events. Soak it up late in spring and for the rest of the summer!

Ladies, lift that face!

This season's global recession can bring the doom and gloom to our faces. Yet, Hong Kong is a resilient city, and many a new job-seeker has remained optimistic about the future by putting on one's biz suit and heading out to one's favourite cafe to hang out and....erm, look for a [IMPORTANT: LEAD TO] a job.

But the ladies will have to spend a little more time flushing their cheeks and pouting their lips. 

NEWSFLASH! It looks like NARS will be having another make-up tutorial at Lane Crawford, so sign up when you can. If you want to join a group that's got its finger on the fashionista recessionista events in Hong Kong, joing Sassy Hong Kong. For more ladies' gatherings, there's The Helena May, and for those who like to strut their stuff, sing and dance, join the Kassia Women's Choir.

But here are my favourite make-up brands. Some membership packages cost nothing at all when you sign up AND include a free make-up session for formal gatherings and noteworthy events.

1. Shiseido - Membership here comes with one free make-up session, unless the terms have changed.

2. Shu Uemura - No one in this city does your brows as well as Shu.

3. Bobbi Brown - I love the earthy shades on my skin. I look like I'm wearing nothing on my lips, but I get that properly enhanced pout we women put on before dinner. Visit Elements or Lane Crawford.

4. Lancome - Go to the Harvey Nicks branch; I found the perfect RED that suits me there.

5. Clarins - Not for the face, but for the form....if you know what I mean. 

And whenever you feel like mixing and matching shades and brands, there's always the one-stop cosmetics shop all over Hong Kong! SASA!

Buffet for Nomads

Imagine a hole in the wall diner reminiscent of SM Megamall's MR SHOOLI but with sheepskin seats and friendly staff refilling your drinks.

The place is NOMADS, a Mongolian Barbecue diner in Kowloon. 55 Kimberley Road (kim ba lay toh). Highly recommended for the diner's light, thin-crust pizzas and their delicious Asian grub bowls...all suited to the customer's taste because the customer is in charge of preparing it!

Click this link and then click on 'Kowloon' and 'NOMADS'.

Measure for Measure: 'We are all frail.'

I must keep this line in mind. Funny while Angelo and Isabella were quibbling away at the blocking of Act II, Sc 4, I couldn't stop thinking of how the line really meant.

WOMEN ARE FRAIL. FULL STOP.

It echoes Hamlet: 'Frailty, thy name is Woman.' Shakespeare had just written and staged _Hamlet_ a few years before moving to Silver Street where, in 1604, he wrote _Measure for Measure_.

Angelo later says, 'Nay, women are frail, too.' We'll see about that.

Visit Measure for Measure's LCSD webpage. 

Hotlines: 2111 5999 and 2734 9009. 

Tickets at URBTIX w.e.f. WED, 25 Feb 2009.

Only ugly women hate Madonna

My friend Tanya is going to keep that line for posterity.

After my summer stint at LAMDA, I travelled all the way north to the end of the Nordland Railway, to a town called Bodo. There I met a widow who busied her weekends singing at a choir and reading the liturgy every Sunday at St. Eystein's Katolisk Skole. I heard her sing Schubert's "Ave Maria," and her voice soared. After which, the organist proceeded to play Bach's Prelude in C Major.

The point is this: I hadn't been to church in a few months, mainly because I had grown tired of the way people handled (no pun on HANDEL intended) the music. I wanted something solemn, more ethereal than the usual guitar-strumming...and that woman made my visit to Bodo meaningful.

She even offered to take me around the town while her best friend, my aunt, attended to her patients at the local Sykehause laboratory. At the end of our walk, she made me the best Apfelkuchen mit Slagroom (combined German and Dutch there) I have ever had in my life.

And then I saw a picture of her late husband on the mantle. She talked about him fondly, telling me that it had been more than two years now since his passing. And then I, with some guilt, thought of my marriage--and what little time we seem to have left--and wondered what the widowed years would be like...and dreaded the time.

She seemed to handle her new singlehood with such grace, poise and character - as though nothing ever fazed her, but clearly, she loved her husband dearly: and hers was the countenance I would like to have, should I be (touch wood) in the same situation...heaven forbid not at all too soon.

I wanted to do her a favour, because her life in Bodo has given me an insight into the next phase of my dance with my B together--in spirit and through the after-life. Hers was a quiet, simple life made of the simple joys of entertaining friends at home, solemn private prayer on most days and communal prayer on Sundays, and the hope of having dinner with a nice man in the future, though she wasn't actively seeking company.

So I taught her how to put on make-up, the kind that didn't clash with one's skin tone or made a woman look desperate for a nocturnal companion. We drove over to the local mall, the GlasHaus, and bought something from Rimmel and L'Oreal. We steered clear of Maybelline because the colours were too bright. Subtlety was the order of the afternoon.

This lady stepped out of my hotel room with a pair of big shades on her hair, a shawl that acted as a summer accent, wide-leg trousers, a thick belt to accent her waist, and her red blouse one button down. Her face glowed in peach coral, her eyes were wide and blended with cerulean eye-liner over dusty rose on her lid and mother of pearl near her brow. She had on some raspberry lipstick covered with shiny lip gloss in pearly pink. All in all, the result was one to her liking. And my aunt's, too.

And my favourite widow in Europe remarked, with her cheeky sense of humour: 'O, ayan Ge--. Puwede na tayong kumanta ng "Like a Virgin" sa simbahan'.

Awesome Tennis Next Door

In the other SAR, there's going to be an awesome exhibition match in November. Roger Federer and Pete Sampras will go head to head at the Venetian Macao on November 24, 2007 at 2 pm.

To those who haven't booked tickets yet, well, tough! They're ALL SOLD OUT--and yes, this soon!

I just got off the phone with a sales lady at the Venetian Macao, and she said that all tickets were gone by Friday, August 18th.

I smell scalpers, just like the Tennis Masters Series in Shanghai, 2004. The stadium was half-full, but there were lots of people hawking hundreds of tickets outdoors. Luckily, I managed to score a couple of full season tickets.

Big School

In South Lantau, one can find Lantau International School, a charity of the HK Jockey Club that uses the British National Curriculum.

My daughter starts school there on September 3rd. She'll be dressed in St. Patrick green.

High Tea, Seriously

Look no further! The Peninsula High Tea at the Lobby is the place to wander around for that old colonial charm. However, if you want a more affordable spread try the Lobby Lounge at the Conrad.

So much Gaiety!

What's a gay guy to do in Hong Kong on a late night?

For starters, he can "run the gauntlet," so to speak uphill along D'Aguilar Street, and then turn left into Lan Kwai Fong to have dinner at Post 97.

After which he can proceed to the LKF tower to, quite literally, chill out with a few shots of vodka at the fridge room of the Russian restaurant called Balalaika. To get into the mood for dancing, now.

As soon as he reaches the top of the LKF Tower, he can cross Wyndham Street into The Centrium to make a brief appearance at the swanky Dragon-I. I'm not too sure if it's still as celebrity-packed as it used to be a few years back, though. Well, one must have a look.

From The Centrium, he can head upward to Arbuthnot Road ("ah-bun-noe," which rhymes with "Ivanhoe" I am told) and head up to Chancery Lane. There's a small gallery called 10 Chancery Lane that showcases some gay and lesbian pieces from time to time. Okay, so I by-passed the HK Fringe Club on 2 Lower Albert Road. But everyone knows where the Fringe is.

Cross O'Bailey Street and he enters SoHo. Make a left on Staunton Street and walk all the way to Aberdeen Street and then take a few paces backwards. He will encounter a blue door on the left, covered in drapes without a sign outside. This is the Bohemian mecca: THE FEATHER BOA. It is a must-see. And their Chocolate Martini is one of my favourites. Have that martini and then leave as soon as you're done, because that place can be packed like a can of sardines on weeknights.

Proceed down Aberdeen Street until he reaches Hollywood Road. (Uh-oh, I missed a few other gay spots on Peel Street, but one can always check those places on other nights.) Our lovely man turns left and sees a door with a bright yellow streak on the top. This is VOLUME. Turn up the volume and enjoy the whole night here with MEN AT TEN and its 2-4-1 drinks till midnight. No other deal can get any better than that.

If you're lucky, at 3 am, Volume's dj will take you to Propaganda.

It's raining men--hallelujah!

Where's the Reading Room?

On April 21st, a group of writers from Lantau Island shall be holding a reading marathon at Dymocks Discovery Bay in celebration of International Reading Day. 10% of proceeds shall go to a charity called Room to Read.

Room to Read, just like my friend's HSBC philanthropy award-winning community literacy program in the Philippines, organises literacy events and campaigns all over Asia and in some parts of Africa.

I'm so glad to be a part of this endeavor. My book, A Roomful of Waiting, will be featured at the event.

The Man HK International Literary Festival

In 2001, it was called the "Hong Kong Literary Festival". In 2003, it turned into a publishers' and literary agents' junket when it became the "Hong Kong International Literary Festival". Since the time MAN Investments--the same sponsor of the Booker Prize--became the primary sponsor of this event, the MAN Hong Kong International Literary Festival has grown into the biggest, most prestigious literary event in Asia.

Since 2005, every year's Booker Prize winner visits Hong Kong to give a lecture or workshop. It was too bad that I missed Alan Hollinghurst's talk at Hong Kong University.

To sign up for some of the events, visit this site.

If you're Asian and you happen to have a novel in the works, you still have time to submit an entry to win the MAN Asian Literary Prize.

The 35th Hong Kong Arts Festival

I go to around 4-5 events of the Hong Kong Arts Festival every year. My picks for this year include:

a. Life is Rhythm with the Camut Band - They do capoeira. This was my first try.
b. Youssou N'Dour - Remember Seven Seconds with Neneh Cherry? Lyrics here.
c. 1984 - a play adapted from George Orwell's novel. Actor Tim Robbins directs.
d. Twelfth Night - I never miss Shakespeare; Propeller performs.
e. The Taming of the Shrew - It would be nice to see their take...I wonder what Bianca is like--really.

Enjoy the show!

Run, Hong Kong, Run

Today marks an adrenalin-packed event in Hong Kong. The entire city shall be watching The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.

My friend's husband and father-in-law shall be competing in the 10 km run. Her occasional meanderings can be found here.

Turning Japanese

Fresh fruit, seafood and natural ingredients are flown into Hong Kong every day. This is what makes Hong Kong's unlimited selection of mid-range to high-end Japanese restaurants provide the freshest raw stuff imaginable!

On a personal note, I frequent Japanese restaurants whenever I need a culinary boost and a dietary detox. Here are my favourite non-hotel Japanese restaurants, in no particular order:

• Hanagushi - right smack in the middle of LKF Friday-night action


• Watami - this used to be a popular ballroom-dancing spot


• Inaho Tei - recently discovered


• Wasabisabi - come here for the Fashion TV catwalk experience. Scroll down for the restaurant name


• Benkay - a discreet, non-ostentatious but seriously Japanese restaurant


• DOZO - earn Asiamiles while dining here


• Chef - another good Japanese restaurant on D'Aguilar Street, LKF, Central

Harbour envy

It is a foggy evening in the autumn of 2006, and yet Hong Kong's lights refuse to go dim amidst the clouds.

This is resilience. This is the heart of Hong Kong's brightness.

And on the surface is a wondrous, glorious view of Central onboard the Lucky Star. On a sad note, however, the old Star Ferry pier is no more. But whoever said the new one isn't nice?

If you want to wine or dine with this glamorous view in the background, the places to visit include:

• any of the restaurants on One Peking Road, like the Aqua group or on the cheaper side, the Chinese restaurant on the ninth floor;
• Philippe Starck's odd yet peachy bar and restaurant called FELIX, which is on the 28th floor of the Peninsula and built with its own exclusive lift, I might add; and
• The Hong Kong Museum of Art.

I *Heart* Hong Kong

I have been living here for the past 5 1/2 years. In that time I've become a mom, a nervous wreck, an amateur publicist, a serious writer, an accidental MBA student, a comic actor (me? do comedy? are you serious???), and all that.

Hong Kong has a way of bringing out the full range of a person's skills and qualities. Its vibrant, cross-cultural influx of people to meet, greet and, when necessary, ignore have made a great impact on me. Hong Kong humour, for example, is safe and best experienced with a drink. At a regular Irish-esque pub, people avoid the following: politics, religion, race and all talk about the sordidness of life. Perhaps living in Hong Kong can be quite unbearable for some that these lofty yet trite "ideas" can be stifling and exhausting. Most people work more than 12 hours a day in Hong Kong--one must understand. It is no wonder, then, that one would oftentimes hear the words:

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD.

And oh, does one play hard! Wednesday is ladies' night; Thursday is ladies' night; Friday night is the most wicked of them all; Saturday is Friday's flattering copycat; and Sunday? Where goes Sunday? It passes us by just like another wave passing through the harbour.

5 1/2 years ago, I left another city, some 711 miles southwest of Hong Kong, which I sorely miss, and thus return to from time to time.

Yet Hong Kong is my home for now. It has its pitfalls, for sure--every place in the world does, but it is paradise for now. I became a mother in Hong Kong. It is not the easiest job to take on, but Hong Kong provides enough help. Without help, Hong Kong would not survive.

Let me welcome you to Asia's World City.