Being Momma G: Day 112

When in Hong Kong, one shops. And shops a lot.

Poor Jonathan. He's seen the inside of more shops on this trip than he had seen of important landmarks and tourist attractions! It was just as well then that today, there were things Jonathan wanted to buy as well.

After having breakfast with the family - another soul warming feast of congee and fried dough sticks, the men retreated to their rooms (Dad to his, Jonathan took Sean) and the ladies went into Zara and shopped for HOURS. I didn't even realise how long we were gone until I looked at my watch and realised why my boobs were so sore - Sean was well and truly overdue a feed! We tried on so many things, and in the end, I grabbed a couple of tops while Grace bought a pile of clothes. It helped that the clothes fit her - they don't make clothes for people my size (curvy).

While Sean was enjoying a feed, we contacted Carolyn to find out what time she was going to meet us at the hotel. It was close to lunch time, which meant she had had time to sleep in and have a lazy morning. Carolyn met up with us close to lunch time, and while we thought today was our "exclusive" day with Carolyn, it ended up being a day when Carolyn took all of us shopping.

The rest of the family were thinking about going out to lunch when Carolyn arrived at the hotel, and one thing led to another, and we all ended up at an eatery for lunch. We sat down and ordered our meals, and amongst the many things that we ordered were a few tall glasses of Hong Kong style ice tea. I was looking forward to having one of these, and eagerly grabbed the spoon to start mashing down the lemon slices in the tea to infuse the lemon juice even more.

One mash saw the glass flying across the glass topped table and the tea spilling all over my jeans. Sweet, sticky, lemony ice tea. Yum.

I was so embarrassed. I should have held the glass with one hand while I was trying to mash the lemon slices. Any kid could have told you that this whole process needed both hands, yet I was so eager to get to my glass of ice tea that I forgot the cardinal rule - hold the damn glass!

Luckily, I wore most of the spillage, with Kiran getting a little bit of tea on his clothes. Kiran didn't mind, even though I was apologising profusely for the rest of the meal.

After lunch, I now had an excuse to shop. I needed clothes that weren't covered in ice tea. Fortunately for me, there was a Giordano store not far from the eatery, and they had a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" sale on, so we all went inside and had a look. I ended up with 2 pairs of jeans. I could not tell you the last time I fit into jeans from Giordano in Hong Kong. And they weren't the largest size available either. So stoked right now!

There was a tailor on site, so she altered the length of the jeans for me in next to no time. So impressed with their service. Whilst we were waiting for the jeans to be ready, Sean managed to perform a poosplosion that required a trip back to the hotel, so Jonathan took Sean back to get him all cleaned up. When they returned, we walked up the road to get eggettes. Another first for Jonathan, and I'd almost forgotten how light and fluffy and delightful these tasty morsels were!

Next stop was to the Golden Computer Centre, where Jonathan had requested we visit so he could buy the things he wanted to buy. I was happy to stand outside with Sean in the pram and wait while everyone else milled up and down the narrow corridors. Jonathan didn't take very long - he found what he was looking for, purchased it, and away we went to our next destination.

Carolyn took us to a new shopping centre called Festival Walk, which was, well, HUGE. This enormous structure has 217 retail stores and restaurants, a multi-screen cinema, one of Hong Kong's largest ice rinks, over 220,000 sq ft of office space, and 830 car park spaces. Bloody hell!

Carolyn led us to Marks & Spencer, and we spent ages looking for clothes and trying on clothes. I managed to find a few more items of clothing that not only fit but looked good and were within my price range! Sean was mostly good, and didn't really give us any trouble while I shopped up a storm. We spent another hour just in Marks & Spencer before walking out with bags and bags of clothes.

Last shop of the day was a visit to H&M, which stocked some very cute Hello Kitty merchandise. We looked through the items and bought a few bits and pieces for Mina.

We were all exhausted, so Carolyn took us back to the hotel again. She had already made plans with her friends that evening, so we thanked her for spending the day with us and headed to our rooms. Dad had wisely returned to the hotel after lunch, and with all of us completely worn out from our day of shopping, we were glad he was well rested and happy to arrange dinner reservations for us.

Totally pooped. I'd organised to have lunch with an old friend and an old colleague tomorrow, both of whom happen to know each other - small world! It'd been years since I'd seen Karen, and I had yet to meet her beau of 3 years, Ben. And I'm looking forward to seeing Jerome and meeting his partner Claude as well. Fun times ahead!