Commiting the Ultimate Sin (at the mall)

So we're in Hong Kong land of 'flash the cash'. I figured I'd give up on trying to save the world for a night and just go with the flow. Anyway, before we even arrived in Hong Kong, one of my friends had already reserved us seats at her table at the Yacht Club ball. The problem is I had to piece together an outfit in two days (sans the Tongdaemun night market and the Itaewon underground market! Wahhh.. You guys are lucky to live in Korea!) 
On top of that, I had to find a new tux for my husband who was away on a business trip in Kuala Lumpur. His tux is a sorry relic from the early 90's with a rounded collar and a boxy cut fit for a person who ate too much Burger King. Poor hubby's had back to back business trips around Asia and hasn't even had time to fart, let alone time to find something to wear to a party. So off to the mall I went. (Okay, twist my rubber arm)
I started out at this shi-shi dept store called Lane Crawford where I fell in love with a luxurious yet trendy Armani Collezione tux. It was outrageously priced of course and I just couldn't bring myself to put down the credit card, so I pressed on for a better alternative. I didn't find one. However, I did find the manager of the Armani Collezione and he explained to me the differences between the cuts and fabrics of the tuxedos. To complete the look, he showed me a smaller silver bowtie which is very trendy at the moment. It was the entire 'Armani Concept' he said. Just to give you an idea, the 'small' bowtie alone cost 170 US dollars. OUCH. But damn it looked good and I knew my husband would look hella fine in it. I had to confer with my better half and he said, "Well if it looks good, that's going to cost money, baby". I guess you can say that about many things, including girls (sometimes)….
As for me, I found a floor length eggplant-colored goddess gown in stretch silk. It was dangerously low cut enough to garner the approval of some random pervert who was shopping in the women's department. It wasn't crazy expensive, so it was a done deal.
That was all well and good, but then I had to find the accessories, like shoes for example.
Yet another ordeal!
I was trolling the luxury goods floor because that's just what you do in Hong Kong. I gingerly passed by the Manolo Blanik store and more out of curiousity than anything else, I allowed myself to walk in for a browse. That's when I commited the ultimate sin, I walked into Manolo Blanik wearing ten dollar flip flops! Gasp! There were 5 shop girls in this tiny store and no one had anything to do except glare at my feet and whisper softly to each other. I had this distinct feeling that my flip flops were making this loud noise with every step I took. Hey! Didn't they realize my back was injured at Body Pump! Oh well screw them, if they want my money, they better play nice. To their credit, Hong Kong girls who work at luxury shops are never snobbish like they are in New York or Paris.
  I've never owned a pair of Manolos and I really don't see what the hoopla in about. I looked at the heel of one of them and the bottom part of it shouted "made in China". Even without my feet in them, the shoe itself teeter-tottered. That left me thinking that before the end of the long night, I will probably lose my balance and fall down in those ridiculously expensive shoes.
Anyway, after my adventure at the mall, I came home with barely enough energy to eat leftover falafel from the Lebanese take-out joint. My husband better like his tux.

5:32 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

What a pain!

In my eager quest for the fit body of yesteryear, I injured my back.
I was doing some apparently malformed squats in my 'Body Pump' class when all of a sudden a dull insistent pain spread slowly across my lumbar region. I knew I was sticking my butt out too much! Anyway, I was toast.

For three days now, standing up from a sitting position has been a painful struggle. I took intense pain killers and spread some anti inflammatory gel on the afflicted area, but there would be no relief for this unfit soul.

I decided that when in Honkers, do what the Honkies do, so I trekked it over to the Chinese medical clinic for some acupuncture and some holistic healing. I've also been fatigued and I feel like my hormones have been out of wack, so I figured it was time to give my 'Qi' and overhaul anyway. 

I've never done acupunture before so of course I was apprehensive. The doctor didn't speak any English and the nurse had to translate, but he did seem to know what he was talking about.
He asked me to stick out my tounge, then he felt the pulse on each one of my wrists, then he took my blood pressure. I told him what was ailing me and he said that it definetly was not a pinched nerve otherwise I'd have shooting pain all the way down my leg. He said I most likely had strained the ligaments in my back, which is what I had self-diagnosed anyway after reading about it on the internet.

He said there was no point in doing "bone setting"- the Chinese equivalent to chiopractic back cracking (SCARY!) Instead he recommended acupuncture, which was what I wanted in the first place.

I lied down on the bed with my exposed back and he proceded to tap the needles into points of my lower back, behind my knees and in my calves. There were 12 needles altogether and I haad to stay like that for 20 minutes. He said he could see the Qi flowing because the needles were vibrating. 

Surprisingly, I did feel better after the treatment. So much better that I decided to meet my girlfriend at the Armani bar for a Halloween drink. 

Everyone was dressed like pirates. There's this super fine Guest Relations manager who works there. I swear girls go there just to ogle him. He was dressed like Zorro and all the girls were having Casanova fantasies about him. (I'm sure a few guys too)
After a few shots of Jagermeister, the back pain had all but disappeared into oblivion.

The doctor also gave me some aromatic powdered medicine to take every day. He said it would purify my blood and help cure the ligaments. The medicine smelled like incense. Apparently one component was myrhh, something that they actually make insense with.

My girlfriend was poking fun at me the next day when I was mixing the powder into a glass of water. She said "Are you sure that isn't the ashes of some dead Chinese guy?" She also said I was going to grow a big FuManchu beard after taking that stuff and that I'd develop a big mole with a long hair growing out of it. (Oh shut it!) I chocked the stuff down anyway.

4:09 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

The Beach

I'm back in Honkers and back on the hunt for a place to live. Yesterday that hunt took us to an area called Stanley which is at the southernmost tip of Hong Kong Island. At first I thought Stanley would be too far away from the city center for me but on the upside, Stanley does have gorgeous beaches there and a famous outdoor market. These days, the place has been seriously upgraded and now the place feels like a groovy little beach village with it's own amenities.
Stanley is also the place where they hold this really rocking dragon boat regatta. Rows of yachts and junk boats hook up to each other and line the race course. It's basically a huge floating party with a few dragonboat races in between. Some teams are really into the race competition and some are just in it to get dressed in crazy costumes and get piss-ass drunk and PARRTYY! I actually rowed on a very serious girls team for three years in a row and it will be very convenient for me to live in Stanley if I decide to get back into the sport.
It was a goregous day in Stanley. Not too hot, not too cold and the sun was out in full force. I put on a hippie dress, some shell earrings and flip flops for a beachy day.  It was a perfect day to be there and we decided to have lunch at this charming little beachfront restaurant run by a cute Chinese family. The whole afternoon left us with a good feeling about potentially living there. Stanely had a few promising properties, but the market is still outreageously high. It may behoove us to wait just a little while longer to see if anything else comes on the market.

After Stanely, my hubby dragged me to the auto mall because boys just have to be boys and he wanted to ogle all the shiny convertibles. The auto mall is in a parking garage and there were some really fancy vehicles on display. I checked out all the convertibles and as well the SUVs and I decided that I would rather take taxis and save the environment instead of purchasing some gas guzzler that would deplete the natural resources of the world an pollute the air. My husband was not fully convinced. One day he just may end up taking home one of these slick two-seat Mercedes convertibles in which case, I'll have no choice but to get dolled up and ride in the passenger seat.

I've been meeting a lot of interesting people lately. A really gorgeous friend of mine came in town from Singapore and she introduced me to a bunch of people she thought might be good people to know for any future endeavors. She had previously lived in Hong Kong and she's best friends with the model/PR person from Dragon-I so I'll never have a problem getting in there whenever I want.

Here are a few new pics:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/liza-world/stanley-beach.htm

I also met a bunch of potential new friends at a rooftop barbeque the other day. There was a fashion editor, a woman that worked for Turner media and some other miscellaneous fashion chicks. The rooftop of this building was so amazing! You were surrounded by neon and city lights all around.

I'm starting to get a real feel for Hong Kong now. It's conservative. At times even more conservative than Seoul. It's also not very imaginative. Someone said people are like sheep here. (Sounds eerily comparable to Seoul?, However I really do feel that Seoul is way more experimental and artistically inclined than  Hong Kong) Anyway, I will post more pics later, but I must get to the gym for body pump now!

2:23 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

There's endless possibilities with feathers

I came to Seoul partially because I've been wanting to conduct a photoshoot called "Behind Closed Doors". This shoot was meant to be an arsty exploration into all the rooms or "bangs" that Koreans sneak around in. I wanted to shoot in three places, the Love Motel, the DVD bang and the Norebang.

What does a shoot like this involve? Well first you need to have the idea or the concept, then you have to source for photographers. Then you have to find volunteer models who are willing to make your vision come to life. You also have to find a place to do the photo shoot.
Then, everyone has to agree to come together at a certain time with all the props, makeup, wardrobe and equipment. This takes a bit of organization and is no mean feat, I tell ya!

So, I found all the players. Two photographers, a friend to do makeup and 4 volunteer models. We were out at M2 the night before and everyone was pretty much trashed from all the tequila shots and the dancing. It was also raining heavily the day of the shoot so that put even more of a damper on the situation. The shoot came very close to being cancelled due to hangovers and weather, but in the end, everyone rallied.

Me and the photographers got together to scout locations and in the rain we walked in and out of every love motel we could find in Kangnam. It was a very funny situation. One of the photographers is a British guy and he was with me and the other female photographer. All the ajosshis at the front desk were giving us this smirk and they kept asking "How many of you are going into the room?"
Little did he know that there were 9 of us including all the equipement, tickle feathers and a fishnet bodystocking. It must have looked quite suspicious. 
We were looking for a really kitschy campy place, one that could easily exist in Las Vegas- mirrors on the ceilings, heartshaped beds, funky jaccuzi tubs etc... But that was not what we found. In the end we found a really nice clean place on Karosugil with the rubber curtains to hide the license plates.

The ajosshi at the front desk insisted that we rent two rooms. One of them had a jacuzzi on the terrace, but it was really too swishy to get the feel of what we wanted. There were however some very interesting shots involving the blindfold, fishnet stocking and a bottle of cheap champange. We'll have to wait to see what comes up in the end.

Well, after hours of location scouting and shooting, everyone was knackered. We all went out to Hongdae to finish off at the Norebang and DVD bang, but everyone started losing interest. Rightfully so as it was a looooonnnng day!

10:46 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Beyonce in Da House!

I was fed up with Hong Kong. Fortunately circumstance brought me back to Seoul this past weekend for some seoulstyle related activities. As soon as I arrived, the friend I was staying with announced that there was a hush-hush party for the Korean American guy from Linkin Park and that Jay-z and Beyonce would be there. Obviously the guest list was pretty tight, but we were cleared to come.

The party was at the Imperial Hotel which is purportedly a mob hangout (hence the ability to attract the VIPs, I suppose). It turned out to be the party of the year. There were only three other parties that I could think of that were as star-studded and as fun as this one. The Gucci fashion show in 2003 (topless male bartenders!), the Christian Dior party at the W in 2004, and the Taewon Entertainment party at Mr. Chow.
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Pre-party we had dinner at The Park in Apku. The girls were there to hang out with me for my brief stay. The entourage trekked it over to the party and it was truly a blast. How could it not be fun when there's free flow Veuve Cliquot and Belvedere Vodka?
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One actor I met said "Wow, this is like the crème de la crème of the Korean entertainment industry". Indeed it was. A lot of peeps were also in from LA due to the Busan film festival.

I kept having the same conversation all night:
 "Are you an actor?"
 "Yes, I'm in from LA actually"
"Are you an actress too?"
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There was a lot of dancing and drinking and meeting so and so and so and so's manager. There were also a few drunken movie offers and meeting such and such producer. I really felt like I was in LA. Beyonce and Jayz did come for about 20 minutes just to check out the Korean Rap band's performances. No one could get close to them because of their big gooda bodyguards, but later on someone introduced me to their manager. It was a truly fun party where people just let their hair down, went crazy, danced and just talked to each other.
Here's the link to the photos on seoulstyle:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/pics-beyonce.htm
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Well I paid the price for all the champagne and tequila shots I drank. I had to go to a meeting at 10:30 am with a dermatologist who wanted to sign up for advertising. How I conducted the meeting was beyond me as I only sobered up at 3pm. I was so tired all day, but I had gathered a bunch of people together to do a photo shoot on Sunday and they were all going out to M2 for a night of boogie and it would have been rude of me not to go.
 It was another big night at M2. In fact, it was one of the best nights I've ever had at M2. A lot of the people from the Beyonce party were there and I ran into all these people that I hadn't seen in ages. I had to walk out of there before dawn as I didn't have my sunglasses.