One of those things

On Thursday I had to attend my first event, a book launch for IFlR1000, a publication including a list of all the top law firms and top deals over the past year. It was an opportunity for me to meet with potential speakers and network with the people I will be speaking with to produce the best events. It was also a great chance to chat to people from work outside of the office.

There was a sense of anticipation and excitement in the office. We headed to the venue at 4pm to set up at the venue. It was in the heart of Central in a bar called Azure, on the 29th floor of LKF hotel (the hotel lobby was on floor 12)

The entire top floor was reserved for the cocktail party. There was panoramic views of the city, it was all very grand.

We got to work packing gift bags for all the guests. There was a lovely atmosphere amongst us all. Lots of laughing and getting to know each other. Two hours after arriving the guests started to filter in and the wine and canopies were brought in.

Friday morning was quite in the office and it remained this way all day. I had an appointment at immigration tower in my lunch break to collect my Hong Kong ID card. Immigration tower is a soulless place. I was exceptionally tired by the afternoon. I couldn't focus any more and left at 6. Nicola waited for me and as we walked in the direction of home we decide that a glass of wine would be nice to finish the week and start the weekend. We sat on the balcony of The Pawn and watched the Friday night world go by.

I left after a lovely natter and made my way home to natter to my lovely sister. A proper old catch up and an early night.

Saturday morning was time for a run and a slow morning of cleaning, washing and generally relaxed flaffing in my apartment.

By 12 I left to meet with a friend for lunch and then to Tseun Wan for a charity event. We headed to il Bel Paese to have some Italian before our long, for Hong Kong, anything over 20 minutes is considered 'long', journey.

Discovery Park was a bizarre place, another shopping mall and not much else. The charity event hadn't started so we meandered around, finding a children's arcade to entertain us, which it did for about 29 minutes. We won enough tokens for a notebook, after a few moments of thinking we had broken the machine, which printed tickets for five minutes. They just kept coming out, enough to stretch the length, and then some of the entire shopping mall. We thought we must have hit the jackpot. It equated to 225, which you could exchange tokens for. Prizes from a chocolate bar for 20, to a toy for 2000.

Soap Cycling carnival was in the centre of the mall with workshops, candy floss and soap modelling. I spoke with the founder of the charity, as I'd like to arrange for Feeding Hong Kong and them to collaborate efforts.

IIt was a long journey back and we almost travelled from one side of the MTR to the other. Tai Koo was our next destination, to have a look round the shops. I managed to find some jeans and a suit jacket for work thinking its funny moving country, you have to replace everything you left behind that you have already purchased before but in another country.

I set off home for another Skype catch up. I wanted to have early nights all weekend so I wasn't too tired for my week at work.

Sunday I met with Sally, Richie and Tapper for brunch at the Brunch and Supper Club in Causeway Bay. A lovely little place with a great Sunday morning atmosphere. It was busy and the menu had a good combination of offerings. Eggs Benedict is what the others ordered, and I opting for poached eggs and spinach.

We had another long trip ahead to Sha Tin for Ladies Day at the race course and the Red Bull Soap Box Race, which I had been looking forward too for weeks.

It was a bit of a let down. The races were pretty miserable, not like the Happy Valley niceties. And the Red Bull Soap Box Races were very poorly managed. How an event organiser in Hong Kong doesn't think that potentially thousands of people will turn up is beyond me. We couldn't even get close and after a few attempts at breaking through the crowd and climbing over various fences we decide our efforts were in vain and headed, with the other few thousand people, slightly disappointed back to the MTR deciding on a few drinks in Central.

I was feeling a bit fed up by this point and went back to Happy Valley with Richie for some food and a cup of tea. I decided to call it a night on the day and weekend and head back to have an early night.

There is something a little frustrating about a weekend that isn't very enjoyable when you have a full time job. You have two days of freedom to do whatever you fancy and when this turns into something not matching previous expectations it leaves you feeling empty when heading to work on Monday. Luckily, by Monday afternoon I was feeling myself again and vowed to myself that I would make sure I always had a busy schedule booked in for Mondays as it seemed to boost start your week well. Lesson learnt: Busy Mondays are good. Hong Kong needs better event managers

Better luck next time......