7 pm JW Marriott

Yesterday I walked out of the house wearing my new Betsy Johnson dress and Zara sandals that I purchased specifically for this occasion and was off to the salon in Central where I was to get my hair and makeup done. (I'm such a dork!) I've never gotten my makeup done nor even really done it myself; I don't even really know how to put makeup on for that matter. But if I was going to potentially be on TV, I wanted to look good.

The people in the salon were polite, but perhaps overly polite, like the kind of polite one would be if this were their first time doing it. Oh no! I just kept hoping that I wouldn't come out looking like some hooker hanging around the streets of Monkok. But no, the ladies were good. Fiona, the woman treating me, was like an alchemist in her laboratory, mixing and concocting different colors in order to make me BEAUTIFUL. And that's exactly how I demanded it too. For over an hour, she brushed, smeared, dabbed, drew, plucked and retouched. It was really something. I couldn't imagine doing this every day especially since through most of it she had me close my eyes. When she finished, I looked in the mirror and saw subtle changes, enough to notice there was a difference but I wasn't a completely different person. I was content.

So it was off to Pacific Plaza where the hotel was located. We had an hour to stroll around in the mall which was fun because we went into those ultra chic top end stores which I normally would have never entered but because we were dressed well, it felt like we were in our native habitat. 7:00 came and went, we actually ended up getting lost in the mall. We eventually found the Marriott, then the correct conference hall, where I presented my award letter in exchange for some Discovery Channel travel bags. The room was nearly filled; most people were eating food acquired at the marvelous buffet set up in the back of the room. There were slightly fewer than 150 chairs set up for the audience. There was a small stage with two screens on either side promoting Ian's new show VIP Weekends.

The next hour was spent chowing down on The most delicious food including Mongolian spiced rack of lamb. Mmmm. Then before I knew it he was walking down the aisle, everybody cheering him on. He got on stage where he introduced himself and then delivered some hysterical travel stories. Afterwards, he answered some questions one of which I found rather interesting. "Do you actually stay in the places (hostels) they film on TV?" "Uh, no not always, and there's always a bit of guilt involved in that." Lastly, there was the picture taking session. We could use our own camera or have a Polaroid taken. I got to exchange a few words with him, had my picture taken with Ian Wright, shook hands with him and said good-bye. All in all, I went home feeling like I had a pretty good night of free entertainment (disregarding the cost of that new dress, new pair of shoes and the afternoon at the salon).