dressing up capital of the world

You encounter plenty of surreal experiences in this town, but one of my favourites is using sign language to get measured for a dress at a tailors near western market. Since neither of us could converse in each other's language it involved a lot of pointing, drawing and the odd smirk as we attempted to record the inches around my bust. Nope, I wasn't copying the latest little Chloe number, I was getting my costume made for the 7's. Fancy dress is taken pretty seriously here, planning your outfit is a military operation involving weeks of email discussion and hours of trawling the markets of Mongkok. Competition for the best ensemble is rife, I heard rumours at the weekend of the Flintstones getting very hot and bothered about who was in their gang. Revellers here pour about the same time and effort into getting their costume right as most girls do over their wedding dress. That's fine by me, and wouldn't the world be a happier place if all brides looked like Hello Kitty?