Christmas Partyyyy!

Last I left you we were sipping eggnog, well here we are again Sunday night and Paul's still sipping eggnog.  Thursday we had the HOFWs Christmas party at Factory 99 which was super fun.  30 or so of HOFWs VIPs gathered for wine samples (Chateauneuf du Pape was the best), turkey, truffle pasta, and fun.  But in not so typical HOFWs fashion, we called it a night at 10.  Good work~

Factory 99 pre guest arrival- me opening wine, Greg, and John (owner 99)

Friday Paul and I hit up AWSEC (wine school) for an evening of wine tasting.  The wines were cool, met the ex-sommelier of a bar I used to frequent in Arlington, saw a bunch of friends from class, and got some words of wisdom on proceeding with WSET from the school's founded.  Asa.

Saturday and I had off!!!!!!  Paul had a work meeting (Cantonese only) from 9-12 while I had a call with the GM of a resort in Bali!!  So excited about Komune, and really looking forward to visiting in February!  Then we were off a for a short hike.  Well turns out the hike we wanted to do was not so short.  4 hours in and we still weren't there.  Stairs and stairs and to top it off I'm wearing flip flops, jeans, and it's 75 degrees out.  Not that I'm complaining about 75 in December....

Heading up to Mount Barker from Quarry Bay

We finally made it out of there, sweat soaked and exhausted, hauled it to Causeway Bay to pick up a gift and home to get ready for a pizza dinner at Helen and Dave's.  Ahhh and how much fun!!  We caught up with Helen and Dave, played with (held) 4 month old baby Daria!, caught up with Kina, Andrew, and Bethanny, and met some new friends.  And the pizza was awesome too :)

Sos cute

Today I had to work at the Island East Market.  boooo.  But at least it was with Julia and there was salad, mulled wine, and brownies :)  Twas a pretty long boring day, until....

Punk bank at Island East Market.  ha kid approved

I got the BEST text message today from my new friend Julia (no co-worker.  I should call her NZ Julia).  I had given her some recommendations of things to do in Taiwan, one of which was the hotel we stayed at in Wulai, the hotspring town.  Well, turns out she and her boyfriend loved it...and he proposed!!!! So so so exciting!  They've been dating 7 years, lived in 3 countries, and now just got engaged!!

I'm excited to celebrate with them!  But first it's a Linguni Fini Italian Odyssey wine tasting with Kina tomorrow night.  Can't wait!!  And then saying goodbye to our bestie, Steve :(  Steve's been a friend since he first moved here, he hooked us up with an awesome apartment, and has been a best friend and neighbor ever since. So sad to see him leaving, but I have a sneaking suspicion he'll be back.  I give him 6 months.

Ta!