This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

Phew! What a week!

This week as well as a whirl of unpacking, bouts of holiday blues and a hefty dose of belated Birthday celebrations, two of us Mice have started brand new jobs. Cue a back to school-esque urge to stock our brand new desks with shiny stationery, and kit ourselves out with fresh work uniforms. All we can say is that those first pay cheques better hurry up and hit our accounts VERY soon.

When we haven't been eyeing up new staplers or getting into the office keen bean early to put apples on our bosses' desks, this week the Mice have mostly been... 

Spiralizing absolutely anything and everything in sight. For anyone totally baffled by what the hell I'm talking about, let me introduce you to this life-altering, kitchen marvel - blog buds, meet the spiralizer...

Looks like a cross between a giant pencil sharpener and an instrument of torture, but it's actually your key to creating healthy, low-carb noodles. Grab yourself a courgette (or let's call it a zucchini), a carrot or a sweet potato, spike it in your spiralizer, crank the handle and hey presto - you've got a bowl of zoodles, coodles or umm... poodles. Possibly not the chicest addition to your cooking artillery but who cares about appearances when with the flick of a wrist, you can produce a whole heap of these bad boys...

All sounding good on paper but no idea what on earth you'd pair with your zoodles? Let me introduce the authority on all things spiral, Inspiralize - a blog completely dedicated to bringing you delicious recipes that you can whip up using your new piece of kitchen kit. 

Ok, so you may be rolling your eyes and scoffing at me right now, but with a bowl of zoodles coming in at just 21 calories and less than 4g of carbs compared to a bowl of spaghetti at a whopping 346 calories and 64g of carbs, the spiral logic starts to stack up. Snap up your very own spiralizer (just £30 on Amazon) give spiral slurping a whirl and I'll bet you'll be going round the twist for it by this time next week...

Nailing it with the latest soft gel mani brand that's landed at my fav HK pampering haven, the Loft by the Nail Library. Hot off the boat from Japan is an alternative to Shellac or OPI Gel Colour Nail Labo's Presto Bambina.

I'm now on my second set of Bambinas after I swapped my first set of holiday party nails for a more new job appropriate pale pink this week. While these gels aren't vastly different in terms of durability or shine to any other gels I've had before, the thing I'm loving about the Bambina range is the colours. Ranging from palest pastels (including a lavender-hued white that I'm definitely trying next time) to the brightest neons - see for reference my holiday mani below - the entire colour spectrum is catered for.

If you're looking for a weekend pick me up, what could be better than a snuggling into one of the Loft's comfy leather recliners with a stack of magazines, a glassy of something sparkling and a glossy set of rainbow bright nails?!

The Loft by the Nail Library
Level 2, 26 Cochrane Street,
Central.
+852 2618 8623

Adding some Rad to the weekend's beaching with a Sunday session at new Hong Kong beachside hot spot, Mavericks.

Set on a shady stretch of Pui O Beach in Lantau, Mavericks is the latest venture from Chef Austin (of Brickhouse, Roundhouse, Boomshack & Salon Number 10 fame...). The open-fronted space is decorated with graffiti and surfboards, blasts out sunny beats and serves up a whole host of killer cocktails and laidback comfort food (think - hot dogs, burgers, fish & chips and sliders).  

After hiking round to Pui O from Mui Wo ferry terminal (a fairly hilly 9km amble) we arrived at Mavericks hot and in need of hydration and sustenance. Nothing a few coronas, a couple of bottles of rosé and a round of wonton nachos couldn't sort out.

The ideal spot for whiling away a lazy weekend afternoon and feasting on a devilishly delicious chocolate chip cookie ice-cream sandwich (or six)...

Mavericks

Pui O Beach

Hong Kong

+852 5402 4154

Listening to Lily on a loop. We know we're late to the party on this one, but we've just discovered the latest Lily Allen album - Sheezuz - and it's ace! If you haven't already, download it now and make it this weekend's soundtrack.

iPod loaded with Lily? Great! So, this weekend's one rule?

Have a fab one!

x

The Mice

This Week the Mice have Mostly Been

Another week bites the dust, and now it's time for the weekend! Woo hoo!

This week one Mouse has been up to her eyeballs in work, while the other two have been lazing on various white beaches in Barbados... 

Sometimes life just isn't fair! And when we haven't been smugly sipping cocktails at sunset or forlornly lamenting our lot, this week the Mice have mostly been...

Nailing it at the brand new luxe mani spot in town, the Loft. If you can't have your toes buried in Caribbean white sands, they should at least be perfectly pedicured and painted a bright holiday coral. So HK Mouse thought it was basically essential to spend a whole morning getting seriously spoilt at the Loft, little sister of Sheung Wan's beauty hotspot, the Nail Library. Perched on the escalators just above Iyara, the Loft is without a doubt our new favourite place to get pampered in Central.

The Loft offers flawless manis, pedis and nail art as well as a variety of decadant treatments. Owner, Ping Lam, ensures that from the moment you arrive you're relaxed, happy and super indulged. The Loft's library of nail polishes is the best we've ever come across anywhere in the world, a rainbow of colours await you far beyond the usual nail bar offering of Essie and Opi. Choose from high fashion options like YSL, Tom Ford or Marc Jacobs or detox and go for one of the 5-free brands that the Loft carries, think - ncLA and Kure Bazaar.

The decor at the loft is urban-chic with vintage touches throughout. Settle your weary Hong Konged-out self into one of the leather armchairs, grab a stack of mags (handily stored in a dresser and sorted into separate drawers for fashion, gossip and Lifestyle), and prepare to be beautified. 

We were treated to a Panpuri Path Less Ordinary foot ritual  - a blissful 45 minutes of toe-curlingly amazing foot scrub, massage and mask - topped off with a pedicure and an ncLA coral paint job. Next up, a spin in the vintage barber's chair (the comfiest perch in Hong Kong by a long shot) where we tried out the men's wet shave, energising massage and facial treatment (excluding the wet shave part, obviously...).  

We can confidently confirm that whether you're a girl, a boy or an alien, if you're feeling even vaguely stressed or in need of a little love this weekend, a time out at the Loft will leave you feeling like a whole new person with very pretty nails! HK Mouse even forgot her Barbados Blues for a couple of blessed out hours... 

Getting Oscars Fever and poring over the Vanity Fair Party photos from Hollywood's night of nights. 

Monday morning saw us up as the sun rose to pore over every sequin and stiletto that strolled down the red carpet at the 86th Academy Awards. We brought you our round-up of what we loved and what we loathed earlier this week, but we're still swooning over all the post-ceremony party pics. If you haven't caught up yet, here're our favs...

 

And on that note, it's probably time to wish you all a VERY...

Have a wonderful weekend!

x

The Mice

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

And breathe, it's Friiiiiiiday!

This week in Miceland HK Mouse finally returned to the 852 just in time for a quick round of catch ups with the London Mice before Mini Mouse packed her case to zip off to Portugal for the THIRD time this year... What a spoilt little holiday child she is! But who can blame her for grabbing the last few rays of summer when winter appears to have well and truly set in over in the UK?! 

But while it's Uggs and winter coats all round in London, in Hong Kong it's still pretty toasty. Just as well really given that this weekend is a long weekend for Hong Kongers and HK Mouse's three days off have 'beach' written all over them... 

And, when we haven't been making plans to escape to the seaside, this week the Mice have mostly been...

Coveting a skirt made from recycled plastic bottles. 

Nope, you didn't read that wrong, this week it was love at first sight when we spied a little tartan wrap skirt at the A Boy Named Sue pop-up AW'13 party. Hosted at HK's awesome new beauty bar, the Nail Library, we were greeted with Elderflower Belvedere cocktails, Happy Cow dairy free ice-cream and the most INSANELY delicious pumpkin whoopee pies we have ever tasted. 

Sipping and nibbling we battled through the crowds of beautiful people to ooh and ahh over stacks of gorgeous 9th Muse jewels and stunning Hayden Blest pressed flower art.

And then there were the clothes. We've been huge fans of eco-chic A Boy Named Sue since the very start, and we think that the new AW '13 stock may just be the best yet... The absolute highlight for us being the Svilu tartan skirt which we were stunned to discover is made from a mix of wool and recycled plastic. Eco credentials aside, it's just exactly the skirt we've been looking for to fill the tartan shaped hole in our winter wardrobes. Roll on pay day, this baby will be ours...

Svilu Plaid Kilt
£159

Here's a sneak peek of the object of our lust in the AW Lookbook along with oodles of other gorgeous pieces. Oh and ps. the site offers free global shipping - happy shopping!

Horsing Around at the Hong Kong leg of Crazy Horse's Forever Crazy world tour. We love a bit of burlesque, so when we heard that the Parisian masters of the art were in town, we booked our tickets quicker than you can say 'nipple tassle'! We shimmied on down to the Lyric Theatre on Tuesday evening to watch the Louboutin'd troupe of scantily clad girls doing their thing. 

Sadly it wasn't quite all that we'd hoped. The production and choreography were pretty amazing and a couple of numbers (the mirror one in particular) were great but in the whole the dancers weren't fantastic and it was just a bit more sleaze than tease. Having said that the huge number of lone men in the audience did appear to be thoroughly enjoying the whole thing...

Getting Incredibly Organised for a change and snapping up next year's calendar even though it's still only September. But, who can blame us when the calendar in question is chef extraordinaire, Jason Black's, fab new project - The Icons HK Calendar. The perfect decoration for any desk, this also has to be the only calendar with the danger of making you pile on the pounds... With a different Hong Kong chef for every month of the year each contributing three mouthwatering recipes from haute cuisine to comfort food, this is a truly delicious slice of organisation and at HK$328 is pretty bargainous to boot! Snap yours up on the online store now and guarantee yourself a very well-fed 2014!

And that's it! 

Right, we're off to the beach...

Have a great one!

x

The Mice