Snapshots in a week…

I love it when i do spring cleaning and come across all sorts of gems that i have almost completely forgotten about. As i came to my senses and out of my laziness, i managed to do some spring cleaning this week with not too much of a success but i always say, every small effort counts!

To start off with, i was going through my make up kit and discovered that i had more than two lip balms and lip glosses and seriously, i keep telling myself i only have one mouth! I’m not sure what it but every time i buy a lip balm or lip gloss, i just seem to naturally take my money out without much hesitation and buy it. I suppose it’s one of those easy and affordable impulsive buys.  In fact, i only just bought a lip gloss last week!

Another thing that i buy on impulse is those glossy fashion magazines that just screams “buy me, buy me!!!” It was quite surprising when i found out that some magazines dated back to 2010. Honestly, how did 2 years go by already?!?!?

The thing is i always buy magazines and read bits and pieces thinking i’ll go back to it later. Of course, that mostly never happens. I think i may need to cool it down with the magazines but i do have a back up plan. I started buying the Cosmopolitan UK magazine online earlier in the year, which works out a lot cheaper as it’s in US dollars, hehe. I’ve only bought 3 issues so far and i think that is pretty good as we’re already entering the month of June. Self control is all i can say!

Lately i also believe that i have taken up on another obsessive  impulse buys on scarves. I never really bought scarves in the past as i always used my pink Burberry cashmere scarf and another cheap leopard print scarf that is totally worn out now.  However, I recently started to notice how easy it is to accessory an outfit with a scarf and so my shopping spree kicked in. I won’t say it’s too bad as i’ve only bought 4 scarves in the past 2 months and they are cheap as well. The most expensive scarf that i got was from H&M (the one to the far left) at HK$79.90. Not bad eh? I guess i’m a bargain hunter at heart and try to shop wisely.

Today was mothers day and to me, this is a special day where i show all my love and appreciation for my mom.  As i mentioned in my previous post, she is my best friend and she has always been there for me for good times or bad times and vice versa.

To celebrate such a special occasion, i decided to take her and dad to high tea at “the parlour”. My dad has actually never been to high tea in his life so he was really excited about it! Lets just say my dad normally hangs in his local town and eats his local Chinese food all the time. He actually likes western food a lot so i was looking forward to bring him along in case he felt left out, lol.

The weather was on our side and it did not rain, nor was it too hot or humid so it was perfect! As we arrived to “the parlour”, we were asked if we wanted to be seated inside or outside. Knowing my mom very well, i knew she would say outside and so we did. We ordered one high tea set and we especially ordered the Hullet House smoked salmon club sandwich with fries for my dad as he likes his “man food”. My dad ordered a cup of cappuccino along with his man food and he said it was alright.

It was a real relaxing day and it was just nice to be out with my parents and experience with them something that is very normal in my life style. We sat there for almost 2 hours where we were just talking and eating away, and there were many times that i noticed my dad was really enjoying his food! It just bought a smile to my face.

I suggested my dad to try the coffee as i know how much he likes his coffee and he ordered a cappuccino.  As soon as the cappuccino arrived, he just seemed really happy and he told me he felt like it was the good old days when he worked in Denmark and had his morning coffees.  Yes, that is how easy it is to please my dad, hehe.

After our much satisfied meal, we walked for a bit before we decided to call it a day and went home. Once we go home, i told her that i had to go down to buy something. Little did she know that i was actually going to the local flower shop to collect a bouquet of red roses that i had ordered the day before. My mom liked the surprise but being the typical mom that she is, she was saying that i wasted money, which is fine because i could tell she was happy and that’s what counts. There’s also a delicious mixed fruit cake waiting in our fridge right now but i’ve decided to save that for tomorrow because i am just too stuffed now.

High tea’ing at the Ritz

I have always enjoyed having friends coming into town for visits where i tour them around or eat at the yummiest places that our taste buds would direct us to. My BFF did just that and popped over to Hong Kong for a short one week vacation last month.

Being the high tea fanatics that we always have been  and hearing all the high tea rage about the recently opened Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong Hotel, we knew it had to be the one! My friend was a real darling and called a day in advance to reserve a table for two, and i took a day off work to enjoy this lovely Ritz high tea experience with my good old BFF.

As i took the escalators connecting the International Commerce Centre to the Ritz Carlton, i was greeted at the lobby by friendly staffs who asked me where i wanted to go. They directed me to take the lift up to the 102th floor and go up another level by the escalators to get to my high tea paradise, The Bar &  Lounge.

Once i arrived at the place, all i remember was seeing this amazing view of Hong Kong. It was blue skies with white fluffy clouds setting in amongst the Hong Kong sky scrapers and sea. Unfortunately we did not manage to get window seats but i was not too fussed about that as its the company that counts after all. The place was really spacious with high ceilings and there were these lovely long yellow/red chandeliers that were dangling down.

When the very familiar looking three tier stand arrived to our table, my friend and i had an enormous smile on our face and that’s when we started snapping away.  While most normal people would dig right into their food, we started taking photos to capture the special moment and i have to warn you beforehand, this is a pretty normal sight if you ever get to visit Asia. The presentation of the high tea set definitely was up to standards, where it was filled with vibrant colors and textures, and displayed in a neat manner.

Having the biggest sweet tooth that i have, i was quite surprised that i found the mini sweet bites overly sweet.  Although i did enjoy the raspberry cake as it had a mix of sour and sweet in its taste, which was a perfect combination for me. The other sweet bites just seemed too sweet for my liking and there weren’t a lot of varieties for the savory food.

My friend and i slowly nibbled away whilst we sipped on our coffee and tea and  enjoyed our special day together.  As we finished off our high tea and the sun was setting, we could hear the live band from afar playing on the saxophone to “Noting’s Gonna Change My Love For You”, which was the perfect and sweetest way to end our day.

Keep the good times rolling…

So i hope everyone had a lovely October and more so, a fabulous and wicked Halloween!!!! I’m glad that you all liked my previous Halloween themed “Photo Sunday” post. I actually love that LV pumpkin too!!! Anyhow, i know i’ve been absent from blogging for quite a while and i guess things just happen or life just happens!

But seriously, it was crazy how busy October was for me and don’t get me wrong, i loved every moment of it! I was bombarded with birthday celebrations (one of my friend’s big 30!!!), Halloween celebration at Ocean Park, my BFF from New York coming over to visit, and then sadly, i ended up in the hospital for 3 days last week due to a stomach flu and a terrible high fever. I normally don’t get a fever so i had no idea what was going on when i woke up one morning and my entire body was sore and aching, which apparently, can be one of the symptoms for fever. The doctor told me that i wasn’t full recovered from my cold and sore throat, and that going out almost everyday and night didn’t help one bit. Oh well, lesson learned – no going out when sick!!! It’s just that i’ve been having this bloody sore throat for almost 1.5 months that i got so sick and tired of resting, lol.

Anyway, i’m feeling a bit better now so i just need to rest up, and i better make  a speedy recovery as my sister is arriving to HK on Thursday. Yup,  my sister is coming back for a 2 weeks holiday and we’ll be celebrating dad’s 68th birthday that night!!!! I’m sooo excited!!!!! I can’t wait to see my sis and of course to get my pressies from the UK, hehe. I already told her to stock up on some fashion mags for me as they’re so darn expensive in HK.

That’s a quick recap on what’s been happening with me lately and i’ve included some photos to share with you guys. Hope you’ll enjoy them!!!!

Here are some photos of my one day trip to Macau with my friend who was on visit. She said she’s never been to Macau and so i decided to go with her. We arrived at 3:30pm and we ended up getting home at 1am. We covered mostly everything that a tourist would cover and considering the amount of time we had, i think we did pretty well. Yes, it was a freaking long day man but it was definitely worth it, despite that fact that i got a fever the very next day!

1. The Ruins of Saint Paul’s – the ruins of a 16th century complex, which was one of the largest Catholic Church in Asia at the time, with only the stone facade remaining today.
2. Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) Library – The IACM Building was built in the 16th century and was used for senatorial meetings of the Macau local authority at the time. The construction of the IACM library started in the early 20th century.
3. Tourist  attraction area selling local goods, food, and souvenirs – selling some local preserved dried pork and beef meat in yummy flavors
4. On the busy streets leading to the Senado Square – one of the main attractions with beautiful patterned mosaic of black and white stones on the ground, which were created by Portuguese experts.
5. Visiting a very well known famous dessert shop, “Yee Shun” – they serve yummy steamed milk pudding and steamed egg pudding and if you fancy a savory dish, you can try their pork chop buns.

Ruins of St. Paul's by night time

Saint Dominic Church

Local residental area

We also managed to visit 2 hotel/casinos and that included the relatively newly opened Galaxy, which was opened to the public in May. I have to say, i was kind of disappointed with what it had to offer. The interior design was plain and not much to see in the hotel or shopping area either. But to be fair, we only took a quick glimpse and left as we were in a hurry to see the Venetian before catching our ferry home. I have been to the Venetian 3 times already but my friend wanted to go so badly that i just gave in. That’s what friends are for right?;) But i have to say, the Venetian never fails to amaze me. I can always take photos in that hotel and never get bored of its architectural designs and decor. It kinda reminds me of the Renaissance era.

The Galaxy

The Venetian

As for Halloween, I celebrated it with 2 friends at one of HK’s famous theme parks, Ocean Park, and it was a great spooky night. Basically they set up 8 haunted houses and there are staffs dressed up going around the theme park to scare you when you least expect it. As always, i always get freaked out because I’m an easy target, i scream at the smallest sudden movement, lol. The only crap thing is the long queue for the haunted houses and i waited 1.5 hours for the first one named “Fear Factory”, it was pure torture! I guess next time i will buy VIP tickets at a higher price to avoid waiting forever in queues.

We stayed until almost midnight and i was sooo damn tired by the end of the night. But it was great fun and i dressed up as a cat and my 2 other friends dressed up as a nurse and a leopard. I just wore all black and put on the cat hair band and tail, and then drew some whiskers on my face with an eye liner. Easy Peasy outfit, and cost effective, lol.

I also took my friend to high tea at The Parlour as she kept saying she wanted to try the high teas in  Hong Kong. I’ve been to the Parlour before and i think their high tea is ok but not the best. In fact, i think it was better when i went last time, which was a few months ago. But it’s still a nice place to chill with your friends and just chat and enjoy the lovely weather outside. I would definitely recommend you sit outside the balcony area during the warmer seasons because the view is pretty chillaxing:)

Macarons, cupcakes, and all that good stuff…

Over the weekend, I went a little crazy and kinda had this major sugar craving. So on my way home on a Friday night, i decided to pop by the The Mira hotel where i could get my sugar fix at their cake shop COCO. I’ve not been there for a year or so, and god knows why – oh i know, there’s too many dessert shops  to choose from over here, hehe. Anyhow, i wasn’t left with much choices to begin with as they close at 8pm, and i arrived an hour before closing. After looking for what seemed hours, I decided to go for a delicately looking cheesecake by the name of Raspberry Chic but i reckon Raspberry Posh would have done the deed just as well, lol. As I’ve not had cupcake in a while, i decided to go with their Mango Velvet cupcake and plus,  i’m a big fan of the Velvet cupcakes!!!

I got home and decided to be extra nice and shared the desserts with my mom after dinner over a nice cuppa Chamomile tea. Ahhhh….i surely had a great chillaxing Friday night and it was just what i needed after a stressful week.

COCO Take Away Menu, yum…..

And you would think the sugar craving ends there, eh? Think again! Nope, i had made plans to meet my lovely girlfriend the next day for a lovely high tea at the recently reopened Ritz Carlton hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong. I went there once  last month and it was fully booked so i decided to go a bit earlier  this time and try my luck. Now you gotta understand how much i’ve been looking forward to this as it’s been the talk of town (at least i think so!) and I’ve seen their food reviews and photos, and it looked simply divine!!!! They have 2 places for you to high tea, either at the “Chocolate Library” located on the 103rd floor, or “The Lounge & Bar” located on the 102nd floor, with a spectacular view of Hong Kong.  Now if that is not enough to persuade you to check it out then i don’t know what will!!!

We arrived to the Ritz at 2pm and the high tea starts at 3pm and so I thought we did pretty well with the time. Wrong! The lady at the lobby said that the “Chocolate Library” and “The Lounge & Bar” were both full house! I was really annoyed about this, especially as it was my friend’s first time to experience high tea and it was already coming to a bad start! So what did i do? I asked the lady in my nicest voice possible on what time is ideal to arrive for high tea and guess what she replied? She said normally 1pm on week days and that on weekends, some people arrive as early as 12pm. Boy, people in Hong Kong truly will go that extra mile for food and yes, to try anything that is new in town! hahaha…i just can’t get up that early on weekends and to wait for 3 hours in advance for high tea is a bit absurd. Oh well, i will just have to squeeze one day out of my  lazy weekends to wake up extra early just for this very special occasion, lol.

Ritz Carlton Lobby Area

On the other hand, to satisfy my high tea frenzy because it just wouldn’t subside until i got a taste of those yummy macarons, i decided to try out the high tea at Lobby Lounge in Marco Polo hotel. Surprisingly, there were only 3 tables occupied and to top it off, the price was not expensive at all!!! It was HK$128 (plus 10% service charge) per person. I say that is a fairly good deal as the other high teas i’ve tried in the past usually comes down to around HK$200+ per person. Now i have to say, i was kinda disappointed with that delish looking rosey macaron because first of all, it was soo bloody hard and secondly, i didn’t know what flavor to make out of it and there was chocolate filling in the center. I’m no macaron expert by all means but i’ve tried better ones in in Paris, like at that Macaron heaven, Laduree. Oh how i miss you Laduree!!! I have to say, the cheese cake was really nice and rich, and the texture was just right! As odd as it sounds, the mini sandwiches  and pastries which sounds quite plain, were actually really yummy too. I forgot the flavor but it was some tuna, egg, escargots, cucumber, or something. The ingredients tasted really fresh and i guess that was the main reason to it being so pleasant to eat. Lastly, the scones were not a big winner for me this time, it was a bit too dry and they were a bit too petite, lol. Then again, I’m pretty sure i will come back again for it’s price and food quality.

I ended the night by meeting another good friend of mine who flew in from New York for a brief stay.  We decided to go for some yummy Italian dinner over white wine, and it was a much needed catch up time indeed!!! But gosh, that was clearly an eating marathon moment to experience and sadly, I forgot to take a photo of my delish scallop pasta in pesto sauce! Although we only managed to catch up once this time, I enjoyed it a great deal and i guess as the saying goes, its the quality not quantity, right?

So have you ladies every had a super lovely or horrible high tea experience to share? I would love to hear all about them!!!:)

Long weekend with Kylie Minogue and high tea’ing

This past long weekend was super chilled and fun as we only had four days of work. Yep, i love long weekends and i wish we could get more of them! Unlike America, we were not celebrating 4th of July (surprise surprise eh!).  Now not to sound too boring but let me give you a little bit of history about this public holiday that we celebrate in Hong Kong. July 1st is the special day celebrated every year over here for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day. In short form, this marks the day of July 1st, 1997 when the land of Hong Kong was returned to the People’s Republic of China from the United Kingdom, marking the end of the British rule in Hong Kong. I guess it’s kinda similar to the meaning behind Fourth of July eh?

Anyway, this is just a quick post to update you all on what i did over the long weekend. Now what better way to spend July 1st than being with the lovely Kylie Minogue!?!?!!? Yes, you read that right, lol. I went to the Kylie Minogue Aphrodite Live concert and I’m not a like a big big fan but i have to say, it was the bomb! The concert was much better than i had expected. I took some photos of the concert but please excuse the poor photo quality as i had to zooom in super close! Yeah, the seats were pretty far away but the ticket prices were already so damn expensive! 

Her live performance was awesome and her singing was fantastic!!! I don’t understand how you can sing for 2 hours without losing your voice and still manage to hit high pitched notes! It was crazy and did i mention what a great and sweet entertainer she was? She  was really friendly and sang a few classic oldies that i loved, such as “Do the Locomotion” and “I should be so lucky”!!! OMG, i literally danced my azz off! lol…i was sooo high and of course i mean the natural way, hahaha. The theme of her concert seemed to evolve around this Roman theme but i gotta say, all her outfits were soo pretty! I loved her first outfit when she opened the show, simply amazing white flowy dress and loved her hair piece! I’m not sure what they are called but they were some kinda Roman wings? You guys know the term for it? lol. The acrobatic skills that the dancers did was beyond amazing too! There were these buffed men just hanging up there in the middle of the air for like forever! Good work out i must say,lol

 

I had a more relaxed Sunday afternoon and met up with a friend for high tea at The Parlour located at Heritage 1881 , and we just talked and ate for hours. That is the one thing i like about high tea, you can just sit forever and nibble small bites along with a nice cuppa tea. I especially enjoy spreading the clotted cream and strawberry on the warm scones!!! Yum!!!! One of my favorites was the mini heart shaped Rose scented mousse cake. The sweetness was just right and i loved how the rose scent was slowly infusing into all my taste buds. Ahh…..

If you are ever in Hong Kong, I would definitely recommend this place. It’s got a relaxing ambience and nice Asian interior decor with good quality food, and i can only speak for high tea as i’ve not tried their lunch or dinner menus.  If you like, you can read the reviews and contact info for the restaurant from Time Out Hong Kong  here.  Here are some yummy photos of the high tea that i took! Bon apetit!

I also did some shopping a few days ago and i’ll post my lovely treasures with you all soon so stay tuned!!!! Hope you all are having a superb week and  i’m looking forward to the weekend already! lol