And so to another staple of the HK scene - the charity ball. The format is a simple one - take a top end location (ballroom of a plush hotel, top end restaurant or, last night, the deck overlooking HK's skyline), adopt a cause (Care for AIDS sufferers), invite guests and add booze. Then chuck in a raffle, silent and real auctions and proceed to part the guests and their money.
HK is a remarkably wealthy place (I think I've read somewhere that it has the highest per capita number of millionaires of any city) and also somewhere where enjoying and displaying your wealth is not viewed with any distaste at all. In fact, vulgar (to my mind) and ostentatious shows of just how much cash you have are almost mandatory.
I have been on the guest side of such events of course, and they are normally quite good fun, depending on the guests at your table and the entertainment laid on. Last night, however, I was on the other side of the fence, volunteering my time to work behind the bar at an event to raise cash for supporting AIDS suffers in HK and China.
It's been a long time since I worked behind a bar. I've certainly never before worked behind a bar where the most popular order was $800 bottles of Moet. Still the evening was great fun, and most of the guests remembered that we were in fact volunteers rather than professional bar staff and modified their behaviour and expectations accordingly. I got to stand behind the makeshift bar watching the great and good of HK society troop past, regulation furs for the ladies and arm candy for the men. The owner of one of the more pretentious bars in HK (Dragon-i - somewhere I avoid on principle ever since a friend was denied a table because she didn't fit the look of the place) arrived with a troop of young models for his guests. Hilariously they arrived after the food. I guess when you work in the catwalk trade main courses aren't part of the deal.
The realisation I had was that working the bar was actually more fun for me than being a guest at the event. I chatted to far more people, got a better view of the entertainments and altogether felt far more comfortable than parading around in a posh frock spending money like water. Hey ho. Still, next week I am the guest of a good friend to the American Chamber Ball so will get the chance to compare and contrast. And I'll certainly make sure that I'm polite to the staff.
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2 comments:
I reckon you have to look at the long term bigger picture. Certainly in the short term day to day detail noone in their right mind would have children. It is far more stressful and time consuming than any job I have ever done; you get no holidays, no weekends, no time off at all - not even for a whole cup of tea (in fact I have taken to putting myself on the naughty step for much needed deep breath moments whilst my two toddlers look on in wide eyed awe). Your brain decays from having so little to do. You really start to understand why people take valium as something to take the edge off the day would be more than welcome.
But, children re-introduce you to the smaller pleasures of life. Admittedly just as well that I can appreciate the beauty in a daisy again as my eldest sets off to look at every single daisy in the field, but in a busy world which whirrs past at speed, being forced to slow down and look around is a pleasure. And despite their maddening habits, lack of sleep, early mornings, constant demands and total lack of consideration for their parents, children are a pleasure in small and unexpected ways. And talking to my parents confirms that they will continue to be so throughout their lives. Not only that, but they will continue to contribute to the richness of our own lives. Tallying it all up suggests to me that nothing worth having is worth having easily.
More of an issue for me is the inequality between men and women. Men are generally still able to have it all - family life, rewarding career, variety. Finding that balance as a women is very very much more difficult. Finding it without guilt is impossible.
Love the blog Claire! Em x
Yup - blatantly can't use all this new fangled technology stuff. Obviously meant to attach this to the other post. Sorry!
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