Over at Mouse Towers HK, it's been a pretty standard week of desk-bound days with a little bit of fun squeezed in, but those pesky little London Mice are still tanning poolside in Portugal, drinking Champagne for breakfast and having far too much fun in the sun. As the smallest Mouse also celebrated her Birthday this week, there's been even more cause to drain the Pimms bottle...
When we haven't been toasting Mini Mouse's Birthday or dodging the torrential rain in Hong Kong, this week the Mice have mostly been...
Pretending to work while secretly whiling away hours on brand new online beauty oracle, Byrdie.
From the geniuses behind fashion oracle, Who What Wear and home oracle, Domaine, comes this latest e-baby which launched just this week. Covering anything and everything make-up, nails and hair, while also letting us into the beauty secrets of the A-List, click over at your peril - hours seem to vanish in the blink of (a perfectly mascara'd) eye. This week I've been poring over instructions to get Blake Lively's glowy eye make-up look, nosing through Heidi Klum's make-up bag and discovering the superman of beauty products...
I am COMPLETELY obsessed!
Searching for a Bikini Fit fix while I wait for the next round of Bikini Fit bootcamps to kick off (two days and counting...!). I've blogged and written extensively about how much I love Bikini Fit, but at the end of each ten week program, there's a two week break which means... dun, dun, dun... I have to look elsewhere for my fitness fix. I like to work out first thing and I've realised that my self-motivation is a little lacking when it comes to working out. So the search was on for places in Hong Kong offering early morning classes. They're actually surprisingly hard to find if you aren't a member of a gym, but I managed to track down a couple which I've been trying out this week...
Torq Cycle is Hong Kong's first independent indoor spin studio. It's slap bang in the heart of central (tucked down Li Yuen Street East) and is an absolute cyclist's dream!
I tried out a Torq de HK class on Monday morning - a cycling focussed class perfect for anyone with a bit of a competitive streak... As you spin, your performance stats are flashed up on the big screen so that you can see where you rank compared to the rest of the class.
As a complete spinning novice (before this I'd only ever done one spin class years ago), Loretta, our instructor couldn't have been more helpful, getting my bike set up for me and showing me how everything worked. Once the class got underway, I was smugly thrilled that the stats on the screen showed that I wasn't performing too badly compared to the rest of the pro spinners in my class. But suddenly, about a quarter of the way through, my legs started to turn to shaky, useless lumps of jelly and I realised that I'd definitely come out of the blocks too hard... As I slunk lower and lower down the leader board before finally floundering into last place, I decided that this spinning lark is definitely harder than it looks.
All in all, Torq is an awesome cardio workout, but in furture I'll probably stick to the TorqBody classes (which blend cycling, Muay Thai, Pilates and Boxing for an all over body workout) where you get to keep your (poor) performance between you and your bike...
Torq Cycle
26/F Li Dong Building,
9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong.
+852 2677 8623
I've also hit up the H-Kore studios this week for a couple of Lagree Fitness classes... Not sure what Lagree is? I wasn't either. Basically we're talking using Reformer Pilates carriages to add resistance to a series of slow, controlled exercises. Think amped up planks, bicep curls and donkey kicks...
Don't be misled by the fact that this looks like you'll spend the class lying down, you'll be clambering all over your pilates bed and by the end of the 45 minutes you'll be sweating like you've just done an hour on the treadmill. I also guarantee that the next day you'll be limping and wincing at achey muscles you had no idea that you even had.
Jenny, the instuctor who took all three of this week's early morning sessions, not only knows how to make you work, but ensures you're working to your own level of fitness. She also has an awesome soundtrack to distract you from all the agonising stomach crunching and bum tightening. I love H-Kore (although it is pretty pricey) and wil definitely be mixing a few sessions up with my usual Bikini training.
H-Kore
3/F Wincome Centre,
39 Des Voeux Road,
Central, Hong Kong.
+852 2441 9000
Next week it'll be back to HK Park for daily Bikini Bootcamp sessions - hooray! If you want in on the Bikini Fit action, unfortunately the 7am program is already completely sold out, but registrations are still open for the 6am and 8am programs starting in August - get in there fast before they sell out too!
The 10 week 6am program starts from 12th August and the 10 week 8am program starts from 19th August.
To sign up email Bikini Fit: info@bikinifit.com.hk
Chowing down at the latest addition to the Castelo Concepts family, K Town Grill. It's so new it doesn't even get a mention on the website yet, but the K Town Grill is every bit as good at Wagyu, Oolaa and all its other Castelo brothers and sisters. A group of us headed across to Kennedy Town last night to give it a whirl, and I can confirm that lots of your Wagyu/Oolaa/Jaspas favs feature on the menu as well as a few newbie dishes. I went for the oysters to start followed by the black cod. Both were delicious and gobbled up double quick.
Kennedy Town is definitely establishing itself as a great villagey neighbourhood to head to for a lazy weekend brunch or a relaxed weekday dinner. Now you have one extra reason to head out West and check it out...
K Town Bar & Grill
44 Forbes Street,
Kennedy Town,
Hong Kong.
+852 2855 1368
And that's your lot!
All that remains to be said is...
See you next week!
xxx
The Mice
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