Born to shop

My favourite shop in Hong Kong is Lane Crawford. It is wonderfully glam, stocks all my favourite designers, sometimes has things in my size, and has a habit of inviting me to champagne and shopping evenings. On Saturday morning, while the Boy went rowing, I popped in to buy a housewarming gift for some friends, taking Eve along with me.

LC is normally staffed with, as my friend describes them, po-faced miserable assistants. They are dressed head to toe in black and talk into those funny earpiece things better suited to FBI men and actors on 24. Whenever you ask for a bigger size they almost invariably scowl and scurry off before returning with a size 6 that would barely cover my thighs. So, I was not expecting them to take too well to Eve.

However, I think I may have now found the flashest crèche in Hong Kong. Never before has Eve had so much fun and so much attention. As I walked through the shop, every assistant, without exception, scurried over to say hello and play with her. She, of course being a little tart and loving the attention, would happily chat and giggle back at them prompting more attention. They happily held Eve while I tried on some shoes, were fine as she chewed firmly on the Prada sunglasses I was trying on, and didn't even mind when she posseted up some milk on a dress and their sofa (and it was quite an expensive dress too). The gay male assistants were the best and I practically had to wrestle Eve away from one of them.

As we left, Eve insisted on holding the handle on one of the bags so we trotted out, all SATC-like, with her proudly brandishing a bag from one of HK's most expensive shops.