help save HK seas

Well, really, in terms of natural wonders of the sea, you know the beautiful sea creatures and plants we like to see when we go diving, I doubt HK really has much to be saved. But according to WWF, now fish stocks are reducing at an alarming rate and some species are even headed for extinction, all due to overfishing and bottom trawling. Thankfully however, it is not too late. There are still some pockets of areas which are relatively unpolluted so a good habitat still exists, but we must act now to prevent any further damage.

We hope you will sign the WWF Conservation Save Our Seas Petition Online which basically wants the government to stop fishing in HK Marine Parks, stop uncontrolled fishing and more. Read more interesting facts about HK seas (did you know we had manta rays here?) and other information on their website.

Thanks for reading!

Vins de France Food & Wine Tasting evening

Dear friends,

Vins de France, a wine company in Hong Kong will be holding what promises to be a really delightful event at brunch club & supper this Thursday evening. We’ll be providing the food, and they’ll be supplying wine!

All are most warmly invited, if you would like to attend please see reservation details below. Do feel free to forward to any of your friends who are into food and wine.

Have a good week!

today all our mailboxes got jammed!!

I’m sure most of you know what happened…an unsolicited email came to everyone on my mailing list, which triggered a herd instinct of people hitting “reply all”.

Of course, people started getting annoyed, and they in turn hit “reply all”, further irritating more people, and asked to be removed from our list. No one wants to be on a list that swaps names with other marketers. I know I wouldn’t.

I’d just like to give my deepest apologies to all those who had their mailbox jammed this morning by all these unnecessary emails. I’d also like to say that swapping email lists is something I would never consider doing. I think its unethical, and also most importantly because I know most of you on my list: I’ve served most of you in brunch club, taken your orders, helped you through our menus, helped you plan your party here, worked with you to promote your wonderful products & efforts, though alot of you may not know me by my name.

So the first thing I did when I saw this was damage control, I deleted the list to prevent other people from using it. For all of you who still want to stay updated with our activities, or activities of other brunch clubbers, feel free to let me know your email address, and rest assured this won’t happen again!

The moral of today’s story: USE THE BCC BUTTON

Also, sadly, the only emails that were given out to everyone were those of the people who hit “reply all”. No one else could see any other emails on the list, because it was all under one email address only: brunchclubbers@brunch-club.org. Sadly, this list is no more, and I have lost email addresses of alot of friends.

I’d really like to thank my wonderful friends and brunch club customers (including my mum who called me from Canberra!) who although I’m sure they all got annoyed, still found the time to write an email or call to show their support! They really make what I’m doing worth it! Here are some excerpts:

Dear Li Lian,

I would like to say, contrary to what everyone has been requesting, PLEASE KEEP ME ON THE LIST so I am informed about what is going on at the brunch club. Last night’s event was great and it’s good to know that the brunch club supports charity.

I think some people are over the top when they request for their names to be removed from the list. I hope you will not be too upset by that!

Cheers,

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Please stop sending emails like this.. if you not happy and want to let Lillian know about it please email her directly without CC everyone

Lilian is a trustworthy and honest person and i am sure she would never do anything mailing swapping like this..

Thank you

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You are a sweet lady, I like your style on handling this.
On the mean time you have to learn how to use the “BCC” fonction of your email software… so people don’t see the addresses of others. With “CC” everybody can see everybody and you may have some people pissed off again.
Bise

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Dear Fellow Brunch clubbers:

The request to swap was simply a request to Lilian to swap email databases. She never agreed to do it so please don’t be so hard on her. By the way, every time you reply to the brunch clubbers email address you are giving that company your email address. Perhaps you should just write to Li Lian going forward.

best,

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Hi Li Lian
dont worry-please keep me on your mailing list.
regards

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Thanks lilian, you can keep me on your database, i know that you never bombared me with spam. 🙂

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Dear lilian,

Please keep me in your mailing list!!!!.. sad to see how everyone goes crazy.. I trust you know what to do and am sure you would never betray or sell out your guests you worked so hard to get.

For all of you who asked to be removed… you all gave out your email address since you all CC so do not blame Lilian for that….

I am sure you all have been well taken care of at Brunch Club and it would be a shame to see the Brunch Club suffer due to…

Lilian keep up the good work

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No worries, don’t be sorry. Don’t get upset with the emails, people are just being silly. Can’t believe that they hit reply to everyone…

keep me on your list ^_^

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love your Emails, Lilian,
Please keep me informed on your activities.

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Hey Lilian,

I am trying to recall back & now that I remember you from our last Brave 4 – The New Grand Tour exhibition, I just want to send you my apologise for mistaken your email as a spam mail.

I take back my request to remove from your database.

Due to my busy schedule, I am not able to attend your event but I am sure it will be a great one !!!!

BTW, do pencil down a special date – May 28. We are now planning a big event that we would love you to attend. Will send you the invitation then.

Cheers,

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Dear Li Lian

Please don’t be embarrassed, one is only responsible for one’s actions, not for that of any and every plonker one comes across.

Best regards

PS : 26 emails in one day, I thought I was getting popular !

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Dear Li Lian,
Thanks for doing so. I actually don’t hate the emails from brunch club, I really like the place, but it’s just not very appropriate to receive with work email…
And the german guy who threatens you guys for emails – he’s just being too serious and silly about it.
Thumbs up for brunch club! You guys have great food!

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Thanks for your support Lilian!

Really enjoyed your event last night, was a very good crowd! Didn’t get a chance to buy some handbags, would love to coz they all look very special!

Keep me informed for upcoming events like this!

Have a nice day.

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diet, cupcakes & bookazine novels

So I’m now on day 3 of my diet which was supposed to start after my eating binge over Easter, which of course I postponed up till now because of various very imaginative reasons. Today while walking to the bus from brunch club I happened to pass by Sift, a very yummylicious dessert shop. They had started selling cupcakes and boy am I a suh-KER for cupcakes! So I walked in and ordered the only flavour they had, which was Oreo. Needless to say it was yummylicious, really soft & moist with a topping that’s really sweet.

Then I proceeded to Lyndhurst Terrace towards my bus stop, passing by Antique Patisserie and guess what, they had started selling cupcakes too! Something with peanuts, and so I went in and got a takeaway. After all, really, a person on a diet shouldn’t be eating cupcakes, let alone gorge on 2 within a space of 5 mins of each other. Feeling a little full from the first cupcake I decided to take a taxi (another imaginative reason to be lazy). On the cab, on Arbuthnot Road, the cupcake actually spoke to me. It said “hey, why not just eat me now. The traffic is bad, the taxi’s going to be stationary for a while, and I’m a cupcake, I’m not going to spill all over the car, come on, JUST DO IT!” Wow, the cupcake’s been seeing too many Nike billboards…

And so I ate it, it was done even before we reached Robinson Road. It was good. Buttercream peanut icing on top. And that was how my diet ended. And I’m not even the least bit embarrassed about it, yet – I suppose the horror of my gluttony hasn’t quite sunk in. I’m actually in bliss, barely wanting to move, dreaming of a cigarette (if you do smoke, you’ve got to have one after a cupcake, or two). Funny how one vice can lead to another and another – I’m also considering taking a nap, but I shall refrain from being so decadent on a Wednesday afternoon…

And on to the other thing I want to let you know about, books, yes BOOKS! Bookazine has very kindly supplied brunch club SOHO with 10 of their bestselling novels, perfect brunch club reading, and of course, if you are a Bookazine VIP card holder, get a 15% discount on them!!! Here are the titles listed below:

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Ruins by Scott Smith

The Black Swan by Nasim Nicholas Taleb

Mr. Wong Goes West by Nury Vittachi

Step On A Crack by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (good movie by the way)

King Hui The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong by Jonathan Chamberlain

Great picks, aren’t they?!

Yes, you are right, and I admit it: two random topics put together in one post, but why shouldn’t you grab a cupcake and read a novel? I should have taken a picture of the cupcakes to put on this blog but as I had already explained earlier, I had eaten them before I had the chance. Hopefully next time the cupcakes would stand a better chance of having their eulogy on this blog complete with colour photographs before being chowed down.

So HAPPY READING folks, do come in and grab a copy of your fav title. Also please do participate and submit your book reviews to me and any of your personal recommendations for more books.

Moral of the story: If you are ever on a diet and have a mental disability for cupcakes like me, don’t walk by Graham Street (Sift) or Lyndhurst Terrace, the Upper part (Antique Patisserie).

which magazines do you want?

Dear brunch clubbers,

Alot of you may not know but all our magazines are also for sale, so next time you want to grab a magazine, do consider picking them up here at brunch club.

We’ve actually got a really wide range, from gossip to art, interior design to sports, from surfing to psycology, business to religion…

I also subscribe to Sports Illustrated and so for all those guys who are into American Sports, all the latest copies are at brunch club!

Next time you are here and want to buy something interesting and different to read, do check out these titles:

Donna Hay: One of the most beautiful cooking magazines on the market. The ideas and food are so wonderfully presented you’ll just want to look at them even if you are not into cooking.

Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong: This is a brilliant book for all who live in Hong Kong. You need to get out there and explore the many wonderful trails on the island, from nature to museums, cultural, beach and even interesting cemetery hikes! This is the bible for hikes that are relatively moderate and have lots of fun factor. It has all you need from what you’ll see during the hike, historical background of the places you’ll visit, the length of the hike, estimate time, and how to get there and back. For the more serious hikers, we also stock the “Serious Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong”. Also by the same publisher is “Hong Kong: What’s in What’s Out”.

Psychologies: You’ll be surprised how many articles in here you’ll actually find interesting and be able to associate with. Very often we are so busy trying to improve our careers & romance we can leave our own feelings, emotions and psychological needs neglected. They have great articles on some of the emotions we feel but sometimes sweep aside like shyness, embarrassment, the blues, how to entertain, low self esteem, mood swings and the like. A good read!

Culture Hong Kong: Another gorgeous publication that is packed full with beautiful pictures of art, culture and natural landscape. They feature a great column on antiques by the proprietor of Oi Ling Antiques who is definitely an authority on the subject of old Chinese artifacts. They’ve also got a wonderful Good Grape Review which focuses on wine & cuisine and a travel page that shows you the other side of China, one that is still filled with raw, natural beauty & little touched by development.

Do let us know if there are any magazines you want to see at the brunch club and we’ll try our best to stock up for you!