I can now say with confidence that Hong Kong has been my favorite stop on the F. Diamond’s tour of Asia. It’s the big city air, the international atmosphere and most interestingly, the impeccably dressed inhabitants.

I’ve been to and lived in many big cities in the world, but I have never seen an entire population so well-dressed and so well groomed in all my travels. From their boots to their sculpted hair, you can’t help but admire the phenomenon surrounding you. As Yuri says, “It’s like they all have salons in their basement.”

While this might be true, I think it is a genetic trait. Just like some people can sing because their parents were opera singers, or some people can take the square root of 3 trillion and 2 without blinking because their father is a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician, these people are bred with fashion. Now granted, this is just my theory, but I can see no other explanation.

Food for thought as they say… any other guesses out there?

To be honest, I have no idea what has happened in the past five days. Mr. Adam got off the ship to fly to Bangkok on the 27th, and we have been on the sea since then. I do know, however, that my sleep schedule has done a complete 180. I go to sleep at noon and wake up at 8 in the evening. It’s crazy and when you’ve lived these hours for a long enough time span, you actually start to see things a little differently. I certainly do not prefer the abnormality of these hours, but for this job, it works. In fact, you are much better off if you adopt this schedule, as many of our events run way into the early mornings of the post-party day.

Back to today though. So at 11 p.m., all of us aboard believed that we would be in Saigon in a matter of hours. However, by the time midnight rolled around, the ship has been turned around and we now have two more days at sea.

Where are we going, you ask?

Well, Bangkok, of course.

I have no objections though, because hey, Thailand is a great place. I didn’t think I would get to say hello to it again, but I’m glad I’ll have the chance.

Now in Guangzhou, we had an event this evening promoting the F.Diamond’s plan for the coming months. Mr. Adam has developed an idea over the past few weeks that will kick-start the beginning of international fashion careers.

As the F. Diamond travels up and down the coast of China, FTV will be looking for young designers, photographers and models that have something to bring to the ever-changing international fashion scene. With the help of FTV, the designers will be able to develop their own line to be distributed through FTV.

Not a bad deal when you consider that FTV is broadcast in 202 countries worldwide. When I have more information about this, I will let you guys know.

In any case, after the press conference and dinner, we had a fashion show of the new collection. This was the first indoor show we’ve had though, due to the irritatingly chilly climate of January in China, but still very nice. My only complaint was the dim indoor tungsten lighting, but I’m sure no one else noticed.

Overall, good turnout for a nice party.

I didn’t mention this in Hong Kong because I was really hoping it was just my imagination. The weather is -

So. Unbelievably. Cold.

I walk around the ship with two sweatshirts on and a blanket wrapped around me. If you were to award points for having the sense to adequately pack for this trip, I scored a zero, maybe even a -2.

Anyway, we will be in Guangzhou, China shortly and there is definitely no sign of a favorable climate change. I will be wandering from room to office for the next few days, dressed just as I described above. This, of course, is only acceptable because we have no models on board, nor any other passengers. This is sort of like walking around in your pajamas all day at home, knowing no one outside immediate family or friends will see.

Because of my new wardrobe, the ship has taken to calling me “Grandma.” I don’t really know how I feel about it, but I think they mean it in the best way possible.

As I say my goodbyes to Hong Kong, yet again, I can’t help but miss it a little. I did get to see a handful of things, but I also didn’t have time to make it to everything. That’s the trouble with traveling while you work. Work always comes first.

Still, I am very grateful for all that I have seen because of my work.

However, if I’m not mistaken, we are heading back to China. I’m not exactly sure as to which city, but all I know is that China spells trouble for my visa, which also means that I won’t be seeing much of anything.

Finally, all of the girls have flown to their respective parts of the world and I am relieved of my travel agent duties!

What a great day. We were supposed to leave tomorrow, but I believe we will be staying until Wednesday. That’s great news for my camera and me, but not so swell for my wallet.

I’ve liked Hong Kong because it has opened a little more of the ship up to me. On the tender rides from ship to shore and vice versa, you really get to have some nice chats with people you’ve never spoken to before. The funny thing is, they live right next to you, or below you or above you, but for some reason conversation never arises. Most of these people have great stories to tell, confirming my suspicion that that ship could fill the pages of a great novel.

My assessment of Hong Kong Fashion Week is that first and foremost, I either missed the “insanity” or it just wasn’t there. Now granted, Hong Kong is not Paris, Milan or New York City, but it’s still up there. Not to say that the event wasn’t huge, but I wasn’t ever packed like a sardine into any media hole. Perhaps it’s because we were in such a big space that the “a ton” of people could have felt like “holy cow there is no room to breathe” if confined to a smaller area.

On the FTV side of things, I think we hit all of the bases. The press conference was successful, the line was well received and we now have a great starting point to proceed with the marketing of the collection. It’s a shame this ship can’t hurry up and make it over to the US for NYC’s fashion week in early February. Not only would I love to see the spectacle, but I miss New York. No, I’m not from the city that never sleeps, but I’ve had enough perfect moments there for me to call it one of my favorite places on Earth.

But New York is not what this blog is about. This blog is about a pretty awesome ship that goes all over the world promoting an international network as well as young people in the fashion industry. And…. It’s fun. The ship is just fun. Nothing else like it exists.

So in re-reading the last few paragraphs, I realize that I’m in a very curious mood at the moment, and nothing is really coherent.

Pick up your fingers and step away from the laptop.

As the last day of Hong Kong Fashion Week, I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling pretty tired too. This is our last slated event for the next few days, and I think it’s good because everyone needs to breathe a bit. Ha, as always though, Mr. Adam is planning and developing with every hour we see him. He’s just perpetually on the go, just like that little Energizer bunny (cheesy and unoriginal reference, I know, but my brain feels like it’s shorting out).

Does anyone else think it’s strange that the last day is on a Thursday and not on a Friday/Saturday? Maybe I haven’t been in the fashion industry long enough, but it just seems incomplete for some reason. Or maybe, I just feel like I missed something. This week went by faster than I ever could have imagined.

I don’t know, last fashion show of the week starts in 10… got to run.

Only half of the production team went to the convention center this morning, the rest of us with plans to join later.

Initially quite glad I wasn’t involved with group one, I rolled over at about 9 a.m. to try to catch one more hour of sleep. About 30 minutes later, my good friend “ticket problem” came knocking on my door. So much for sleep and so much for the rest of the day.

I will spare you the long and agonizing details of the drama that ensued, but just know that by sunset that evening, we had everything squared away. This is where multi-tasking on this level becomes a problem. Today it was tickets over shooting. Not good. This is also when I realized that I really needed to go back to doing the job I was hired to do.

Enough of this though, she has her ticket and I have tomorrow.

Back at the convention center for another day of fashion, the some of the girls are beginning to look a little tired. Many of them haven’t been home since the beginning of December, so I can understand. Then again, you look around you and say, “Hey, I’m in Hong Kong!,” and suddenly you shouldn’t be so tired. I don’t know, somehow, when they step on the catwalk, that face goes away and they are all beautiful again. Magic, I suppose.

So aside from all the fuss at the convention center, we have a party on the ship tonight as well. The girls are walking around the convention center today, handing out invitations to those influential in the fashion business. We will also have a fashion show on board in addition to all the doll house shows we have today.

Since Zev will be on the ship, I am to stay here until the fashion shows later this evening. Cecilia Yau and Peter Lau have their showcases tonight, being two of the most important shows of the whole week. Eddy, Cholo and I will meet up with another camera team we’ve been working with in order to get the show/backstage coverage we need.

After that we will all head back to the ship to wrap things up at the party. Once that is done, we’ll finally get to sleep for a bit in preparation for episode three of Hong Kong Fashion Week.