Venturing out to Brisy's Fashion Week

This past week was Brisbane's Fashion Week and last night hubby and I went to a group fashion show and then dinner at the Brisbane Casino Restaurant Lab.  The show was interesting; I think it was almost more fun to see what everyone in attendance was wearing.  It made me remember how much I miss my own clothes that I left behind in the US.  I don't consider myself too vain, but I do love the thrift and random pieces I have collected over the years - just having more options is something I find myself pining after.

So, having been to Paris fashion week and working backstage at Elie Saab dressing models - this show was certainly much more colloquial, but it was really colorful and they had some great ready-to-wear pieces.  I found a new designer that I really liked.  What she showed in the collection was just enough to entice me to go online today and pursue a little further.  I couldn't even find the pieces from the show on the website, but I found others that I was drooling over. I love the sexy sheerness of these pieces meeting the Bolshevik farm girl look - very interesting cross.  You can see more of this work by Alice McCall - all Fabulous!

I even convinced hubby to let me pick out a full outfit for him when we get down to Melbourne and do some shopping.  He demanded veto power so we came to a compromise.  I have a sister who told me once her dream job was to dress men - pull them out of the dredges of their own fashion idiocy.  At the time I thought that was a strange aspiration, but I was simply giddy when he agreed, so I could finally relate to her desire.

The Lab Bar + Restaurant was very good.  A friend grabbed me in the office before we left and told me about the Entertainment book and leant me her discount card.  We were able to save $40.  For us, this made it all the more enjoyable since we are still not quite used to the cost of things in Australia.  At home, we’d go out to a special dinner – maybe an anniversary or celebration and it would run us a certain amount of money.  (And we live in downtown Philadelphia, so I’m not talking country dining here.)  Here in Australia you could go out for pizza or burgers and it would come pretty close to that same price at home. 

The cheese souffle at the Lab was unbelievable.  It has never crossed my mind to learn to make souffle, but now I am on a quest!

Overall we had a really lovely night.  I was proud of hubby for going to a fashion show with me, and actually seeming to enjoy it.  It was nice to do something different, see a different crowd and just have fun, and I was albe to shake my missing-my-own-clothes blues.

Memories of China Pt 2

There are so many things that I remember about China and most people would be surprised to know that I think of it very often, even though it was such a long time ago.  It was 16 years ago, the summer the Olympics were held in Atlanta, GA.  I remember my first experience with propaganda because I would chat with my parents on the phone and they would tell me the US was winning the Olympic medal count and then in China, I would hear that China was ahead.

I remember being so hot that summer, with barely any respite from the heat outside when we were traveling.  The apartment I stayed in with friends had A/C (I think, memory gets foggy here) but most other places - restaurants, shops, tourist spots - did not.

I remember seeing women wear panty-hose instead of pants - picture a shirt tucked into hose!  We called it the land of the misfit shoes, because they were all terribly ugly.  It never crossed my mind to go shopping while in China that time.  I was young and pretty much unfashionable in every way, but it was not Paris, let me tell you!  I don't think I will ever be able to scrub from my mind the thought of the old men swimming in the ocean in their tighty-whities - they get quite droopy when soaking wet, if you know what I mean!

I still have a recurring dream about China once a month or so.  In this dream I am trying to get to the airport because my flight to China is leaving and somehow my parents didn't know what time the flight was, or I woke up late, and I have to pack and get to the airport in something like 15 minutes and I am throwing clothes, trying to get everyone in the car, running in the airport.  Sometimes the dream goes on to me getting to China and trying to find my friends (that I stayed with in '96) and I forgot to tell them I'm coming and I can't remember their phone number, or I can picture the phone number on the desk at home that I forgot because I was rushing.  This dream is why I always feel like I'm trying to get back there.  It has a strange hold over me and I wonder if this short trip last week will do anything to interrupt its force in my memory.  I think I would miss this dream were it to disappear. 

My favorite memories though are vanishing over time because they have to do with me learning to speak Mandarin and as I forget how to speak it, the memories of speaking it obviously go with it.  I was pleasantly surprised with how much I remembered when I was there - it wasn't anything significant - just things like "is it cold?" when referring to buying a soda, "I'm full", "How much?" etc.  It felt nice to show off in front of hubby since he's probably mentally rolled his eyes at how much I still talk of this foreign, long-ago land.

Our time in China last week was really special to me - to fill that hankering that clearly only China can fill, to share this beloved culture with my hubby and to see what has changed and what hasn't.  I just pray it won't be another 16 before I get back again!


I was able to pseudo-design a dress.  Choosing different parts from different photos.  The end result was a fabulous dress.  Photos soon





Hubby fed some really hungry Koi fish.  They were crawling all over each other to get to the food.  A little creepy actually!





Although I really missed eating my Jin Jiang Rou Si (from Shandong Province area), the Xiaolongbao in Shanghai were pretty amazing actually!



Memories of China Pt 1

We were in China last week.  I went for work and we were able to do a little sightseeing.  I was there 16 years ago and sometimes I feel like I have spent all of the time in between then and now trying to get back there.  I have such a love for China.  One of the proudest moments in my life (in a good kind of pride way) was back when I was decent at speaking Mandarin and someone told me in Chinese that I was an egg - white on the outside but yellow on the inside.  The antithesis to this is an insult to the Chinese - a banana - yellow on the outside but white on the inside. 

And even though eggs are the only food that initiates my gag reflex, I was very honoured indeed! 

We wondered if they make welding shields for cats.

 




China has changed so much in the last 16 years, and then it hasn't changed at all.