The Girlie Show

It is getting COLD here in Beijing which makes dressing up to go out and not looking like a miniature stuffed yak a real chore. Anou decided to take matters into her own hands and invited the Peking Internacionales ladies to her apartment for dinner and drinks. For a slob like me, friends like Anou and Dionne are worth their weight in gold. They plan what to cook then go down to the local market to buy groceries - salmon (a pop at only RMB22/jin), watercress and other tasty whatnots that I am unable to name simply because I will not, cannot, refuse to cook even if a date with Brad Pitt depended on it. Of course, they even give the evening a theme and on Saturday, it was lingerie night. Why why why do I call these sexpot crackheads my friends. Just kidding, girlies! You know I luv ya. ;-) But seriously, while the rest of them had no concrete plans after dinner, I had a date with Sasha at Banana down Jianguomen way which I could predict would be chock full of leery men infused with alcohol and who knows what else to their shoe laces who were looking for girls of questionable moral fibre to take home. I AM black to the core, no doubt about that, but I am also going out with the perfect man so no need to hang around dark corners of clubs looking coy and batting my eyelashes at every bloke on his way to the men's room.

I picked Di and her apple tarts up in a taxi on my way to Anoushka's apartment. It never ceases to amaze me how domesticated my girlfriends are when my own living quarters bear signs of prolonged neglect and symptoms of acute bacholerette-titis. Cosy lamps, colourful throws, a (albeit sparsely inhabited) fishtank, family photos and an interesting collection of bric-a-brac gave Anou's boudoir a lovely lived-in atmosphere.

Dodgy Mauritian sex figurines.

Dionne and I were the first ones there and the girls started to arrive one by one, some on time while others were fashionably late as always. :-p Matt K called me and I gave directions to the taxi driver to rumbles of discontent going around the living room. A man in our midst?! I placated the naysayers, assuring them that Matt was at once no ordinary man and at the same time a shining beacon of male perfection. What can I say? I think the girls all took an immediate shine to him - it's difficult not to!

A regular meeting in session at the Peking Internacionales Ladies Club, Chaoyang Chapter

Lord Matthew and his ladies-in-waiting.

He doesn't know it yet, but I sense some great pimp potential in Matt...

Sophie pretending that she doesn't like attention and wishes that nasty man with the camera would go away and leave her alone...

...which means I get paid more notice. Can't complain about that *pout*.

Celine and I revel in a rare moment of being the only Orientals in the room. It's like you're not even in China, woohoo!