Let's go shopping & grogblogging

I can see the end of the working week in the near distance, bless its little heart, as I run to it in slow motion with my arms outstretched. So what's doing on the weekend? I often like to finish a hearty lunch on the weekends by uttering my 3 favourite words: Let's. Go. Shopping. This week shoppers in Hong Kong are faced with 2 exciting new options:
1. The new Lane Crawford department store that opened earlier this month at IFC Mall. I tend to visit the place during the weekday evenings (stupid work doesn't let me duck out for high tea and high-end browsing), and on those occasions, have found many waiters hovering at each entrance to present customers with a glass of champagne as they arrive. It's like they want to get us drunk and spend all our money, and in that respect the place is no different to your average girlie bar.
2. Langham Place Mall has also opened and houses 170 shops including Seibu, the Japanese department store. Because it is situated in Mongkok, the ability to acquire genuine luxury goods and pirated goods in the same shopping trip leads to time-savings and maximises efficiency. This I like.

What if you don't really need the adrenaline rush that comes with signing away a month's rent for a divine coat (that will keep you warm & stylish when you are homeless) and just want a relaxing semi-comatose weekend? Well then do some totally unrelated things like read a book (not really safe for work), cook yourself a meal (really really not safe for work) or attend an exhibition.

Over in Sydney, many people will spend the weekend basking in the sweet afterglow of Friday night's Grogblogging 2004. If you are in the vicinity, you should really try and make an appearance. You could form new and lasting friendships, or at the very least have a drunken encounter of the sexual kind, and get to read about it the next day in somebody's blog. Destiny awaits you!

As the theme of the night will be beer, don't leave home without your beer clip, a bottle opener and a money clip in one. Run this scenario through your mind. You offer to buy your quarry a drink, take out your money clip, casually peel some notes from it to pay Mr Bartender, order an unopened bottle of beer, then use the same clip (still containing some money to show that there's more where that came from) to pop open the cap. Theatrical flourish at the end is entirely optional.

As a result of this impressive display, a throng of people would have gathered by now and be thrusting bits of paper into your one free hand for your autograph and contact details. But how's a person to going to write when the other hand is holding a precious beer? Just slide the beer into your handtooled and hand-dyed leather beer holster which you were wearing when you moseyed on in through the saloon doors. Oh my stars and garters, breathes the chief proprietress of Miss Kitty's Reputable House of Ill Repute admiringly.