catching up

apology for not keeping my blog up to date for the past two weeks. so much has happened and so much to blog about..except i haven't had the time or motivation to do so lately...looking at my outdated blog, i barely blogged about mary's visit to HK! although its slightly old news now tht she left over a week ago...so here's my attempt at capturing the last week or two in a nutshell...

one night after my work, mary, tony and I went to this excellent restaurant in causeway bay called "Opia". the food and the ambiance was just incredible. it was one of those ultra fancy and decadent place with a kick of rock-star chic all rolled up into one kind of a deal. i really liked the place.. the place made it feel like i was in a dream of some sort (or maybe it was just the alcohol). anyway, the food was delicious and if you are ever in HK, i strongly recommend it. there's also a more casual place downstairs by the same owner called 'Y's' which i had blogged about before (the food is delicious as well).

the saturday before mary left for germany (2 saturdays ago), mary and i had long been planning a trip to shenzhen..actually i was the one who told her that she might be interested in the place since there are tons of good shopping to be had right after you cross the border..so i wanted to take her there for the real 'shopping' experience..lol. anyway, few years ago, when i first went to shenzhen, i remember getting my china visa right at the boder..so saturday morning comes, we wake up extra early to go cross the border..45 minutes of train ride later, we finally got to the hk/shenzhen border with ten million other people there. when we go up to the visa office to get her a visa (i already have one - got one in the states before i came to hk), we were told that they now give same-day china visa to everybody (and their mom) except US passport holders!!! i was so surprised because all we wanted to do was cross the border and help out their economy a bit... the whole irony to this incident is that we were getting rejected from entering china!! isn't it usually the other way around?! anyway, we had to turn back and go through some immigration hurdles (literally) to come back across to the hk side. at first we talked about having me go in and buy the stuff while mary waited at the hk border..but i couldn't leave her there all alone..

although we got rejected from entering china, there's always a first for everything.... BUT we did accomplish our mission that day by shopping and buying a heck of a lot of things (mainly mary) back in hk. she even bought one of those huge mother-of-all suitcase at the end to lug all of her goods back to berlin. i have never seen anyone buy so many purses in a day.... mary you're quite the s-h-o-p-a-h-o-l-i-c = ) but i really like the sword set that she bought in hk.. i must find me one of those to bring back.. altho i probably can't carry that on the plane 'kill-bill'-style...ohhh, i would never forget this one house that we went for shoe shopping... it was one of those places where the street vendor would take you back to their house to sell you things.. of course, mainly "real" things.. lol.. anyway, when we got to this guy's place, he showed us this small room/closet where all the shoes were kept..OMG.. I kid you not, the room was literally covered floor to ceiling with SHOES EVERYWHERE!! i mean it takes some skill to pile shoes up like that.the room was barely big enough for one person to stand...i have never seen anything like it. there must have been enough shoes for a small 3rd world southeast asian country. i wanted to take a picture but held back. anyway, we left right after because just looking at it made me dizzy. anyway, mary left for germany that same evening.. overall, it was a lot of fun having the "ex-tokyo party girl' come visit in hk =)

the next day, i didnt do much except my usual - 3 hours of body massage and 1 hour of foot massage and then, just hung out.. but i have to say, watching mary buying up a storm in hk made me realize that i haven't bought too many things in HK yet!!!! and time is running out.. in the beginning, when i would see things, i always say i'm here for another 2 months and i can always buy it before i leave..but now i realize that i only have 2 more weeks left so i better hurry...