Happy Valley and Soufflé

Boy, have I had a fun-filled gastronomical day. Perhaps I should have spread my fun-filledness over a number of days for fear of running out of things to do until I leave for Madrid on Monday.

I met my sister-in-law (HL) to go shopping at H&M in Central to buy my niece some summer fashions (it reminds me of a Teen Girl squad episode). We also dropped into See's Candies for some chocolates. I bought 67, 19 and 28. The Scotch Kiss (no. 19) marshmallow wrapped caramel was... let's put it this way - if I had to pick between sex and the Scotch Kiss, I'm going with the latter. I was still about it 15 minutes after I'd consumed it.

After walking around Central for a couple of hours we did high tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's Clipper Lounge. I think it's better than the one at the Peninsula Hotel.

After tea we took the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. I wanted to take my HL to this arcade I discovered that was full of stuff from local design students. We browsed in a lot of shops and then we walked into a shop that sold crystals and semi-precious stones. After talking to the crystal healing and aromatherapy expert I walked out with a rose quartz bracelet (my accessory for the summer) which is suppose to give me powers to deal with a broken heart and emotional issues. I'm not sure if my heart needs mending but HL convinced me that the colour looked good against my skin colouring. I was told in order to recharge these powers I must immerse my bracelet in salt water and bathe it in sunlight or moonlight for at least half and hour every three months!

We took the subway back to Causeway Bay and met my brother for dinner at Tai Ping Koon. I had their house special "Swiss" chicken wings and ordered another house special souffle to share. The soufflé was so huge that when the waiter brought it out to our table all the other patrons in the restaurant gasped in admiration. Yeah! But we did have to wait an extra 30 mins for it!

After dinner, I caught up with Hannah (a girl I worked with at the JMSC) at Happy Valley for Wednesday night horse racing. I hung out with a couple of barristers (one apparently attended the conference) and the other was a new acquaintance, Sylvia. I betted on the last four races and won two out of four by picking the winners for race numbers 6 and 7. It was so much fun and the atmosphere is addictive. Also, I think you need a maths degree to work out the odds grid. I sought help from a Jockey Club service attendant to fill in my betting form who explained to me how a quinella place bet works if I wanted to place a bet on three horses at the same time. People can be so helpful when all they want is your money. In total, I lost about HK$30 (A$5) but the entertainment value was priceless.