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This is a shout out to all the gay brothers in the house- Hiphongkong loves YOU! We know that the mark of a truly fabulous city is when there are a lot of gays living there making the places pretty, arty and fashionable! So two snaps and a twist! Un huh.

Some people say that advertising is dead and that the only way to popularize your product, service, event or cause is through word of mouth or personal endorsment. This is why PR has taken precedence over traditional forms of advertising such as TV commercials or billboard ads.

The role of a PR person/company is to try to get magazines, websites and publications to pick up their stories and press releases and give them press coverage. This publicizes the product, service, event or cause and gives word of mouth credibility.

At the ungodly hour of 630 AM Saturday morning, I got an SMS from my girlfriend that said, “I’m going to H&M to queue for the opening day of the Jimmy Choo Collection- Wanna come?” Ummm.. Let me think about it for one second..NOT! I rolled back over and in comfort of my bed, I dreamt about people waiting on line in the morning chill.

The renovations in the Soho flat that I own are progressing expeditiously. However, as my construction crew drills and bangs the living daylights out of the sorry residents of that building, the very same thing is happening to me in the flat I’m renting. I call it ‘Re-Construction Karma’.

About a month ago, I started hearing random scraping noises at weird hours in the flat directly above me. Then, a few days later, the demolition/reconstruction started in earnest. I felt like someone had taken a massive drill and started drilling into my skull and brains straight through to my eardrums. There was banging, scraping and the sound of walls breaking. Glasses fell off my kitchen counter from the vibration of the drills and I could not hear anyone when they called me on the telephone. I couldn’t even hear myself think which is a huge detriment when you have a home office.

Fall in Hong Kong is an amazing time to get outside of the city and do some hiking. At first glance, one might think that Hong Kong is nothing but a bunch of skyscrapers and tenement buildings. However there are tons of easily accessible hiking trails all over Hong Kong!

You gotta love Halloween! What’s not to love about a holiday where it’s perfectly acceptable for a man to dress like a woman and for a woman to dress like a complete tart and get away with it! Oftentimes, I feel like the most fun thing about Halloween is preparing your costume and thinking of funny ideas rather than the actual holiday itself.

A lot of people don’t know this, but FINDS (in the LKF hotel) was originally more of a restaurant rather than a bar. Not too long ago, FINDS had a media tasting for their new autumn menu in hopes of helping people rediscover the cuisine. Jakko Sorsa, the head chef of FINDS and president of Disciples Escoffier, a prestigious worldwide gastronomical association, recently came up with a new line-up of delectable Scandinavian dishes for the fall. While I'm a huge fan of meals which are complimentary, I never write about things which I don't personally recommend. However, FINDS is awesome and currently somewhat underrated as a dinner destination.
 

Last Wednesday, I trekked out to Norm Yip’s photography studio in Chai Wan for Photojam! Norm is an established photographer who specializes in Black and White portraiture of unclothed male models (oh la la!) He has published several coffee table books of his work.

Photojam works on the same concept as the Art Jam. It’s a free-style photography session for photographers wanting to get experience shooting models in a studio setting. I’ve actually done a similar thing inside my flat before. I turned my flat into a makeshift photo studio last year (I have constant lights and backdrops) and got a few cool shots. This is one of my faves :

I was laughing at the review that Time Out gave about hiphongkong.com. They called me a “bubbly socialite that knows how to paint the town pink” ummmm.. OK. Hmmmm.. Not sure I’m comfortable with the 'socialite' moniker as I’ve never actually worn a pink frilly outfit, I’m not particularly ‘girly’ nor have I ever danced on a tabletop and been known for nothing except getting my photos in tabloid publications. But whatever- any publicity is better than no publicity!

Attending big social events may seem very frivolous to some, but for me it’s a chance to network and meet people who I may eventually collaborate with. Most of the time it’s not about letting my hair down and partying but about getting the word out about hiphongkong. On occasion, I give the events a miss and just go somewhere purely to release stress and have a laugh.

Every now and then Sony Music holds intimate jam sessions at the Mo Bar in The Landmark Mandarin. Last Tuesday, Crooner Harry Connick Jr. who has released 24 albums under his own name and has sold 25 million copies internationally, did a small set from his new album- Your Songs. Your songs was produced by legendary producer Clive Davis who was recently was promoted to Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music Entertainment after heading the BMG Label Group. Anyway, I had a huge crush on Harry back in the 90’s when he had his big hit ‘Recipe for making Love’.