passion is in fashion

Eeeek!  Here I am preparing to venture to New York for the week.  Please see above, the weather forecast for New York, in contrast with the much more reasonable weather in Hong Kong.  Mon dieu!  For surviving in such treacherous conditions, I have prepared a multi-pronged approach involving sartorial armor, hot beverage consumption, and heartwarming reunions.

1) Sartorial armor

I believe in packing light for *any* occasion.  Not only is over-packing a useless exercise, it is also bad for the environment!  Air travel produces the biggest carbon footprint of any kind of widely-available transportation, and I don’t blame the airlines at all for charging for excess baggage.  Economic incentives should certainly be aligned!  Packing efficiently, much like Homeric Greek, should be taught in schools.

So, for my week-long venture, I have decided on the following essential items.

Black coat - Just got a new one from Ted Baker.  Have never shopped there before but accidentally chilled at the store one day when Korean Honey was shopping.  The store concept is pretty cute.  Think a bridge market version of Paul Smith.  The fitting rooms are very plushy, so much so that I wouldn’t mind hanging out there with a loved one.  ^^  I find them a bit overpriced, however, probably because one is partially paying for the deep purple velvet quilted ottomans in the fitting rooms!

Anyway, onto my new coat!  I love the belt at the natural waist and the skirted bottom.  Instant hourglass figure, which is how girls *should* look!  Was considering this in red (Ted Baker has a very nice shade of red this season… true primary red), but decided against it in case I want to wear the coat with crazy printed dresses.  (Known to happen!)

Over the knee boots - I have gone on and on about how much I adore tall boots so will not bore you again.  Particularly loving the thigh-high versions, which look really great avec une…

Black miniskirt! – Turns out I was just kidding when I said au revoir to them.  This is a wardrobe must-have for any girl!  A life without a black miniskirt, much like a life unexamined, is not worth living.  Really loving the ones with exposed zippers in the back.

These three items, with the appropriate changes in tops, sweaters, tights, and scarves, will easily take one from lundi to vendredi in style!

To maximize the value added to my trip and minimize time spent in transit, there is one simple trick to take any work-appropriate outfit to evening-appropriate: with a quick change of accessories!  Boots, however fashionable, I will always find odd for evening.  A simple pair of black pumps will do.  Big bags remind me of client meetings, or worse, bag ladies, so I will be having a black framed clutch at hand.

And voila!  I am done packing!  For all other occasions, I already had a variety of dresses and items from my favorite stores sent to my hotel.  Oh, the joy of having concierge who will sign for packages for you!  ^^

2) Hot beverage consumption

One of my favorite things about being in NY is breakfast.  Coffee always comes in big mugs (none of those wimpy teacup things), and the New York Times is always readily available.  Coming from Asia, I will be dealing with jet lag and waking up in the wee hours.  Not that I mind.  I really enjoy reading the paper while nursing (one too many) cups of coffee.

3) Heartwarming reunions

What’s the point of keeping physically warm, if my little (black) heart is cold?  My little heart is all aflutter at the thought of whom I will be seeing in NY.  Mom is coming to stay with me for most of the week and I am *so* excited!  We haven’t traveled together in what seems like forever and this will be our chance to explore and have lots of fun!  ^^  I will also be having heart-to-hearts via the phone with my dear friend H, since she cannot make it to NY this time.  Last but not least, cannot express how much I am looking forward to seeing f.  ^^

Nothing (Nothing!!!) to cheer one up like a good food week.   I had one such good week this week, thanks to dad!

Dad was in town for business meetings, which means business dinners.  I have met some of them before (they are buddies), and one of the “zong”s  had a daughter about my age.  And so, off we go!

A gathering of northern Chinese businessmen means a massive amount of drinking.   They would toast each other about every five minutes with shots of baijiu (ultra strong Chinese grain alcohol.)  Part of a being a good businessman is performing the delicate balance of drinking in good faith and not getting sloppy drunk in front of your partners.  If one doesn’t drink, one would never be able to do business in China because they wouldn’t trust you – or even like you!  Even my counterpart, a fresh-faced girl who is still in college, was so practiced in this process that she toasted everyone at the table.  Precocious!

On the last night I made dad escape the alcohol-ness and take me to steak.  A really nice view and yummy food.  Neither of us could finish our delicious steaks – that only means I am eating it for breakfast right now!   Haha!  I am also listening to my favorite NPR show Wait Wait Don’t Tell me… is this heaven on earth?  I think so!

Was having dinner with my dad in Beijing and whined to him that my Blackberry is out of battery.  Without hesitation, he took out his Blackberry battery and gave it to me.  At the time, I had a working HK phone as well as a China phone, but he uses his Blackberry as his only phone.  Touched.

Had dinner with my family tonight and tutored my little cousin in math.  She just newly turned fourteen, which kind of scares me.  Two really cute things she said today:

1) We were going over time graphs, where one axis shows time and the other axis is distance from origin.  I asked her to explain what is happening as time went on, expecting the answer to be something like: “speed increased here, speed was zero here.”  Instead, she gave me a story: “He left the house, walked to the car, rode the car, went to the grocery store which was right next to the office, then he ran out of food and went back to the grocery store…”

2) We ate apples.  She told me: “Apples are my passion.”  Really cute, especially when “passion” is such a fetishized word in corporate culture these days.  Passion to perform, anyone?