And Signed

Paul officially sent in all of his papers to his new employer, The Harbour School!  August 1 we're moving, August 4 going home for 10 days and most importantly Chetta and Ryan's wedding!, and August 16th Paul starts!

Last night Paul and I went all the way down to Kennedy Town for a night of trivia, wine and friends.  Kennedy Town is awesome.  It's further West than Sheung Wan and is totally up and coming.  Tons of cute little bars tucked in between shark fin shops and dai pai dongs.  We met Laura and Derek who just moved into that hood, and Justin and Jackie who we hadn't seen forever!!  It was so much fun to do bar trivia again, and best of all Laura, Derek and I totally schooled Jackie, Justin and Paul....by like 3 points.  And the other best thing about Kennedy Town is that we can catch the 101 bus directly back to our front door.  Nice little Thursday night out....

Sales Woman

Yesterday I went out on my first (solo) sales assignment.  I went down to Maureen's in Wan Chai so she could sample some of our house wines.  This is so much fun!! I dragged a softiee cooler with 4 bottles of wine through the 90 degree heat, oh did I mention I was wearing heels.  Made it there drenched, but had such a blast sipping on wines, chatting with Maureen, and snacking on some of her delicious snacks!!  She put out her Chinese Wine Egg which was amazing!  There was also a plate of her lemon chicken, Spanish cured ham, marinated mushroom, and an incredible abalone.  Most of her food is sous vide which was cool to watch, but her main business is noodles.   I will definitely bring P back soon for some custom designed noodles.  Best of all she ordered 48 bottles to start which equals commission for me!

Post meeting it was still early so I head over to Central to solicit some more sales.  Didn't have a terrible amount of success, but dropped our brochure and my name card a few places and then it was time to relax with Foodie Magazine (my Street View is in this issue) and a Thelonious Monk.  Life is good.

Tonight I'm hosting a wine tasting at AME Gallery in Soho.  I'm excited since this was my event and I saw it from conception to fruition.  Fingers crossed we sell a lot!  Or at least something....

Another Bum Weekend

Saturday I met Paul after work and we searched for lunch.  We don't go out to eat too often so when we actually make plans to, we want to make it count.  We strolled through Kowloon City when all of the sudden we were beckoned by some red lanterns and an inviting lunch menu.  Twas a cute little Japanese place, Daisuke.   We eat sushi here all the time, but not generally at sushi restaurants.  The sushi from Yata and most grocery store is decent and we enjoy having sushi picnics in the park, so it was really a treat to get the whole deal.  As you walk in there's a private room on the left where the patrons were grilling on the floor, then walk down a couple stairs through wood paneled halls and we were taken to our table which was partition with a small paper screens.  We each got a lunch special; Paul the grilled meat set, and me the salmon sea urchin on rice.  Each set came with a miso soup, sesame dressed cabbage, a glutinous rice ball filled with red bean paste, and best of all a steamed egg.  Oh steamed egg I miss you!  In Korea you always get one with galbi.  This steamed egg came with crab meat in the middle and was topped with smokey shitake mushrooms.  Paul said he liked it more than his grilled meat! While Paul grilled his beef and pork rib, I waited.  Eventually my food was brought, and it was totally worth the wait.  If you've never had sea urchin, you must go right now and find some.  Butter of the sea.  Asa.

Post lunch I had to go home and get ready for work.  Boo.  I get to work, load the van with Greg and our helper of the day, Vivian, and we're off.  We end up hitting more traffic than anticipated, so I'm left on the side of the road with 3 boxes of wine destined for an art gallery, while Greg and Vivian head to our event.  I get a taxi and 30 minutes and a lot of looping through Sheung Wan and Central, and finally I make it to the gallery where I have to cart these boxes up a hill, up a floor, in my new dress.  Then it was back in the taxi:

Me: 'Do you know Park View in Tai Tam?"

Cab Driver: "Oh yeah, no problem."

This is where I spent Saturday afternoon

Flash forward 40 minutes later and we pull into Pacific Place in Stanley.  No bueno, dude.  I get Vivian, who speaks Chinese, on the phone and she clears it up.  We drive alll around the island again and finally 2 hours after I got to work, I got to our event.  

Craaaazy

To top it off, there's 4 of us working the event and 3 attending.  ha more for us I guess.  I talked to the guests that were there, made friends with a woman from Texas, and then it was just the HOFWs, tennis pro, and one guy from the tennis match and we just sat around drinking wine, then beer, then onto Prosecco.  Ohhhh it was the Prosecco and the lack of dinner that did me in!!  By the time we left at 9:30 I was pretty well on my way.  I met Paul over at Kina's who were also there will Will and Sarah, our English friends.  hhaah yeah, did not have a sip of alcohol there, and come 12 everyone called it a night.  

Of course 7am Sunday rolls around and I'm WIDE awake.  Got to love that.  Paul and I took it as a sign that we should not do anything all day.  So we didn't.  We watched TV, at one point walked down stairs to get supplies to make pesto, and the immediately returned to the comfort of our couch.

In other news, our roommate Christy informed us that she will be moving out to Sai Kung June 3rd.  Wooohooo, apartment to ourselves until the end of July!!   I mean....we'll miss you Christy.....

Supermarket Gear

This Just In

Christy's moving out June 3rd!!!  We have the apartment to ourselves for a full two months before moving.  Party on, Garth!

Mandarin Burger Date

Hungry for Facebook burgers

On Labor Day Paul and I cashed in my our Facebook contest prize burger dinner at the Mandarin Oriental's Cafe Causette.  We didn't know what to expect as the coupon just said two pulled burger dinners.  What's a pulled burger you ask?  Well so did we, and turns out it means 3 mini burgers of pulled meat; pork, beef, and lamb!  With a huge tub of amazing french fries!  I'm not joking on the huge.  Neither Paul nor I could finish our meals, which made for an awesome  breakfast the next day!  And if all that isn't exciting enough, we had some good ole Heineken to wash it all down.  The pork was definitely the best, although I will say they didn't taste terribly different as they were all on the same soft buns and had the same lettuce and pickle toppings.  A BIG thanks to the Mandarin for this cool holiday treat!

Oh and we got cheese bread.  Yum.

Oh we're excited.  PS are my wrinkles really that big?

Sick of dinner pictures yet?

Chowin Down.

Post dinner while Paul excused himself I decided to hit the closest jewelry shop to try on some necessary pieces for my collection.  Poor guy didn't know how much this bathroom trip would cost him.

Really brings out the crook in my pinky

4K and 18 stones?  Don't mind if I do

Yup and after that we ferried over to TST for what we thought was going to be the opera.  Well turns out it wasn't opera so much as a French choral recital....beginning with the children's choir.  Perhaps this makes me a bad person. Maybe I'm unsophisticated or uncultured.  But within 4 songs of Chinese childrensinging French songs, I was asleep.  Paul and I searched the program for an out.  Intermission was still a good 8 songs off.  Can.  Not. Do. It.  So we go up and ran out like the weenies that we are.  As soon as we got out we laughed, hopped on a bus, and came home to some real culture; Real Housewives of Vancouver.  Ohh if you haven't seen it, dawwwling you absolutely must!

Bailed on the Cultural Centre for the view!

LEGAL!!

Out of tourism and into legal working status!  9 months later!!!!!!!!!!

This means I can now:

Get a library card
Skip the lines at the HK airport/Macau immigration
Enroll in my wine certification class
Unlock the doors at the office during the day
Join a gym
Open a bank account and get a credit card
Utilize the socialized medical care
And not get kicked out!!

Ohhh and become a permanent resident in just 7 years!

Never

Would I have thought that I would have this problem.  Too much open wine at serious risk of going bad!  Usually you're short on booze, no?  Well, when you work for a wine company and get new stock in you just don't have a choice.  You've simply got to taste them all.  Chetta and Maria, I need you girls stat!

Paul and I had planned a sober night of Avengers (we get it a week before you America!), but here it is 4 bottles of wine opened later, and I'm probably not sober.   We have a client from France in and it's soooooo interesting for me to watch him (Greg's making him taste blind) evaluate the wines.  There are flavors and things I have noticed in wines but never been able to put a word to.  You know how some reds taste artificial and chemically?  Well, probably it's because they are.  A lot of times it's added perfume for aroma.  Or instead of oaking the wine in expensive barrels, the vineyards add wood chips to the pot and get the wood flavor there.  A bit cheap, but does enhance the flavor. 

The trifecta of whites:

acid, concentration, aromatics

For reds, add in some tannins and you got yourself a fiiiine wine.

Anyway,  Paul and I had a wonderful holiday!  Labor Day in Hong Kong means no work on a Tuesday, which is just fine by us.  We hit up Festival walk for some shopping at H&M.  They usually annoying because of the cheap quality, but they have some SUPER cute stuff in now!  I got a couple pairs of awesome sunglasses, a new bathing suit, a dress, a cat tank (which is awesome!), and I even let Paul get a pair of sunglasses :)  Then we raced home in the squally 90% humidity to get ready for our Mandarin burger dinner followed by the opera.....