Car racing can be oh so exhausting
While the sirens were wailing for the start of the Macau Grand Prix and virtually the whole enclave’s attention was on whether Schumacher would make it or Hakkinen would hack it, famed shoe designer Tamara Lapinski was displaying a nonchalant scorn for the internal combustion engine. She was spotted, disguised enticingly as a journalist, sunning herself at the Mandarin Oriental pool.
What did the director uncover?
“We came to Hong Kong expecting to find the world of Suzie Wong, but what they uncovered was something far more dark and sinister.” Thus spoke award-winning film director Richard (The Contract) Tildesley, who was in town to shoot a documentary on the local ladies of the night. And what exactly did he find? Alas we have to wait until we see the documentary on local television – censors permitting – before we know the answer to that, as the good Mr Tildesley flew out to Bahrain before he had time to explain himself.
Bear bottoms on show in Repulse Bay
If you’d gone down to the Repulse Bay last week, you would have been sure of a big surprise. That’s because a teddy bear’s picnic was in full swing in a marquee next door. The occasion was the launch of Edwin Mok’s Teddy & I Ltd, which he claims is the most cuddly company in town. It was a view shared by the 50 or so adults and their children who showed up to meet Cheeky, Ophelia, Bliss, Bubblegum and the other bears in the family. So if you can bear to paws for a moment in the pre-Christmas rush, don’t forget that the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children benefits from every sale.
Jogging can be harmful to your health
A stroll along Bowen Road on a Sunday afternoon can be a most rewarding experience. Apart from the astonishing views across the harbour, you can also come across some very unexpected sights. Such as a very senior Hong Kong executive obviously obeying his doctor’s orders to get some exercise.
But I expect the good quack meant something less taxing than jogging, because it seems to me that if things go on the way they were progressing last Sunday, a major corporation will be looking for a new manager.
Frederique does in the French way
“I didn’t want just another boring party. It had to be something with a little more atmosphere,” purred beauty consultant Frederique Deleage – who is also famed for being the only French person in the history of the world to say “Non” to a glass of wine. So the Ambassador Suite in the Grand Hyatt was the venue for this mademoiselle’s 45th birthday celebration, which took the form of late night/early morning cocktails or a chosen few from the ranks of close friends and beautician buddies. Frederique’s concept-and-marketing man and bon ami, Victor Mehra, laid on the whole thing, presenting her with the suite and a row of scent bottle to suit the occasion.
Into an abstract new world
Dwelling in the Jockey Club in Happy Valley, with his pottery-wheeling sister Katherine Mahoney, London painter Robert McKellar must be contemplating how Hong Kong has driven him to abstraction since his initial visit here last year. “It hurts to look at the intensity that is Hong Kong,” he mused when describing his exit from the closet of still-lives into the wide-open world of abstract art. Although he has exhibited at the Royal Academy for the past 12 years, he has never officially hung his abstracts out for public approval. That it, not until the Touchstone Gallery’s Henk Hoppener got to him and persuaded him to stage his first exhibition here. Watch out for the 12-piecer for a fortnight from December 17.
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