Ni Hao Ma?

Got back from the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival last Saturday. I never thought a 'business trip' could be fun. We attended talks, observed the scene, and made friends with foreign publishers and distributors.

I did some bookshopping and my shoulders are shot to shit. The great thing about my job is that I can buy children's books without feeling guilty because 'it's for for work.' but I didn't restrict myself to children's books. I think I have a disease. It's called book-itis.

Books I bought:
You Choose by Nick Sharrat/Pippa Goodheart
Hansel and Gretel by Anthony Browne
Not Norman
The Paper Princess by Sam Jam
2 Feng Shui Detective books by Nury Vittachi
HUG! by Jez Albrough
Again! and Harry and the Dinosaurs Say Raaah! by Ian Whybrow
The Stone Goddess by Ho Minfong
Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong (i am loving this book, a lot)
Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Mona and the Promise Land by Gish Jen
Lonely Places and Cuba and the Night by Pico Iyer (oh Pico!)


And I acted like a shameless groupie everywhere we went. Another disease, Groupie Complex Simplex.
People I stalked and blubbered at and frightened into signing my books...
Gish Jen, who is so funny and witty and smart. Who does great voices when she reads from her books.
Ho MingFong who has the most beautiful penmanship I have ever seen.
Nury Vittachi who can work a crowd-- young and old-- like no one else I've seen. He's hilarious.
Ian Whybrow, who has no concept of personal physical space. But he Raaah-ed me, which was way cool.
And Pico (oh Pico) Iyer. Who is so appealing I couldn't believe it. I was planning to just get my books signed (because I can never think of anything witty or engaging to say when I'm awe-struck). And suddenly we were talking about children's books... Le sigh.
I was about to hound Su Tong but I was in the middle of a meeting. So I had to content myslef with making byutipul ays at him.

I also saw my nephew Stephen, and my niece, Audrey last Friday. It was the first time I'd seen either of them and it was great. We had lunch at the Marriot buffet (soooo goooood. the lobster salad is to die for and I had ten different kinds of dessert.) Audrey looks like my grandmother. Stephen looks like my uncle. Hee hee. The moment I whipped out hte camera, Audrey was posing like mad. And Stephne was copying every face I made. Ngrrrr babies! Ngrrr!

Didn't take too many pictures of Hong Kong itself, though. I have so much kuwento I'll have to continue on a different post.