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Hooray- I’ve survived a weekend escapade to Shenzhen! Everyone keeps saying Shenzhen is 'the future' and the richest city in China but to me it still seems like a kitschy place full of gold buildings, Karaokes with B-side Madonna songs, fake goods, squat toilets and people who aren't internationalized just yet. I suppose if you embrace the crazy and accept the randomness and surrealism of the place, it has its charms.

Recently, the Mandarin Oriental invited a few popular food bloggers to a 7 course lunch at Man Wah to taste popular and new items on the menu which were lovingly created by the new chef Man Sing Lee.

Every New Year people make the resolution to live healthier and to get in shape. I suppose I’m no different except for the fact that I didn’t have to wait till New Year to resolve to be healthy. I decided way before to limit my alcohol intake, eat more vegetables and get into wicked cardio/muscular shape.

Recently I was invited by my friend who is PR at The Mo Bar at the Landmark Mandarin to enjoy dinner and drinks with musician and aspiring Presidential candidate of Haiti Wyclef Jean. I was delighted to have an opportunity to meet the lyrical poet as I’ve been a fan since his days with The Fugees.

One of the perks of working in the media is that you sometimes get invited to shows and premieres. On Sept 15th- I trekked out to the City of Dreams in Macau to witness the unveiling of House of the Dancing Water- the new oeuvre directed by Franco Dragone, the creative genius associated with the early Cirque Du Soleil shows.

In case you don’t already know about it, ART HK 10, Asia’s largest, most prestigious Art fair is coming up from the 27th to the 30th of May. 35,000 people are expected to blow through the fair which features international galleries and their star artists which hail from around the globe.

For the art fair, I came up with an offbeat idea to create a dress in canvas and have a local artist paint on it. This would be the dress that I would wear to the art fair. The concept of the dress came about after I read this social media blog about which talks about the concept of person vs. brand.

http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com/2007/10/are-you-person-or-brand.html

Last night I ventured out to Macau to see Electro-Punk Shock Rocker PEACHES- who has been praised by music legends such as Madonna, Joan Jett and Iggy Pop. Born in Canada, Merrill Beth Nisker quit teaching in her 30’s and decided to move to Berlin to pursue a career in music. She was reincarnated as Peaches- an androgynous songstress with a trashy mullet whose incendiary lyrics make conservatives cringe.

A lot of people have been asking me why they haven’t seen me around in Hong Kong recently. It’s because I’ve been in Thailand exploring the country and creating content for HipThailandGuide.com which is due to launch in the next few weeks.

Last night I participated in the Artwalk- a fantastic yearly  charity event where you buy one ticket and are entitled to entrance to dozens of galleries where there’s an unlimited supply of sponsored wine, finger foods, desserts and nespresso. This year there were 62 galleries involved and donations from the proceeds go to the SoCo foundation.

You don’t need to be particularly cultured to appreciate the joy of walking on a fresh spring night from gallery to gallery sipping wine, enjoying tapas and socializing with friends. Art appreciation also gives you a great excuse to talk to complete strangers and make some new friends in the process!