Well, that’s just me. And I suppose I need shopaholics anonymous or something, but, as we addicts always say, “later, I’ll start tomorrow, I can stop any time.”

See, I want to get the Mophie Juice Pack Air for my iPhone. There’s several reasons I want this particular one. It fits all around the phone, top and bottom. It has an on/off switch, so you can decide when to suck energy out of it. And it will fit the iPhone 3GS, which I assume will some day be sold in HK, but just try to get 3 to tell you when.

So it came out in the US in April. I didn’t want to order it from the US. Since the company has an HK distributor, I figured it would hit here eventually. And it’s finally started showing up this month.

But of course, for the past two months, every time I went out to the shops, I’d look to see if they had it yet. And also of course, the staff in these shops have almost no clue about what they’re selling or what’s available. “I see you have the Mophie Juice Pack. Do you have the Juice Pack Air?” They’d run off to the computer and go look. After 5 minutes they’d come back and tell me no. “Do you know when you’ll get them?” I’d ask and for some reason they’d always answer, “Okay.”

Then I was in the DG Lifestyle shop in Times Square on Friday and they had it in stock, but only in white. Then in the Wanchai computer mall today, one shop had it in stock, but only in purple. I want black. I was in Causeway Bay so stopped into Windsor House and no one had it in stock, not even DG (who are supposed to be their HK authorized retailer). Sigh.

Still in Windsor House, I went to a camera shop because last week I saw a Kata bag there that I thought I wanted. I didn’t have my camera with me that day. I had it with me today. And of course now it’s sold out in that shop. (Do I want to go to TST to get this? Maybe.)

I was feeling so frustrated that instead of congratulating myself on not spending any money, when I spotted the Nikon 10-24mm lens on the shelf, I asked if I could take a look at it. Popped it onto my camera. Took some test shots. Zoomed in on the screen to look at the results and they were nice. Added bonus – the price they quoted right off the bat was the lowest price as listed in E-Zone magazine and also on YG Billy’s web site, $6,980. (And not the $8,000 price quoted by every shop in Times Square on Friday – yes, I know, I should know better than to shop there. But I was already there for City Super and Page One.) And to make it absolutely irresistible, the shop was willing to do the HSBC 12 month no interest installment plan. So yeah, I bought it.

(The reason I went with the Nikon over Sigma or Tokina or Tamron? I read a lot of reviews online of all. And all said basically the same thing – that if it’s sharpness you’re after, the Nikon wins hands down. They all questioned if it was worth the extra money, as the 3rd party lenses are selling in the $4-5,000 range. But I believe I’m with Nikon for life and so I’m building a lens collection meant to last and the investment will be worth it in the long run.)

Tomorrow I’ll start shooting with it, do some wide scenic vista landscape shots. Actually I should shoot tonight – clear night with full moon, pop the camera on the tripod, go outside, get some shots. But I’m freaking exhausted and I just don’t have an hour to really play around with different settings and fill up the memory card to see what works. There will be other nights. I am going to sleep ….. now!

Who says there ain’t no free lunch? For reasons that I won’t go into, I had an offer for a free lunch at Dakota Prime. And today I took them up on it. So, since I was getting comped, up to you if you want to factor that in to the rest of what I’ve got to say.

Their basic 3 course set lunch menu is $198 and, for what you get, appears to be quite reasonable. My friend started with black pepper prawns with sundried pineapple jicama salad and followed that with the grilled USDA prime 8 ounce flat iron steak, served with mash and veggies.

I decided I didn’t want to eat 3 courses so looked at the bottom of the menu, where the sandwiches are, and thought I’d try the reuben, as I’d read about it elsewhere. But then the hostess also insisted that I should try their lobster bisque and I can see why they’re proud of it, it was quite nice. Although the reuben wasn’t piled as high as you’d get in a New York deli and I think the corned beef might have been a little more tender, otherwise all the tastes were there and it was probably the most authentic reuben I’ve had in Hong Kong. Served with fat cut chips that were proper ones – seriously crispy on the outside, all potato-y inside. After the soup, I couldn’t finish more than half the sandwich and got the other half (and the rest of the chips) wrapped to take home. If I didn’t like it, I would not have asked to take the leftovers with me.

The dessert was mango cheesecake – a light, fluffy sort of cheesecake, not the New York variety. My friend, who is not from New York, was wishing it was New York style. Me, from New York? I practically inhaled it, it was quite nice.

I came away thinking that the lunch menu (heavier on non-beef choices) is a pretty good value for HK considering what you get. And I wanna go back and try the Kobe beef burger with cheddar cheese and applewood smoked bacon which looked pretty nice and seemed reasonable at $148.

Dinner’s probably a whole different story. At the budget end of the scale is USDA Prime grain fed beef, with a 14 ounce ribeye going for $495. There’s a 35 ounce bone-in Porterhouse Rangers Valley for $980. And at the top end of the scale, how do you feel about Japanese 100% Full Blood Wagyu Beef A-5 Kagoshima Prefecture Bms 9-12 12 ounce ribeye for $1,600?

Now, I won’t say that my palate is the best in the world. I am pretty darned sure I could tell the difference blindfolded between a $150 steak from Outback, a $300 steak from Wooloomooloo and one of the high end steaks here. Could I tell the difference between a $925 American kobe beef ribeye and the $1,600 Japanese one? I don’t know.

There’s also an oyster bar, a good selection of fish and shellfish including live Boston lobster at $85 per 100 grams (so $1,700 for a roughly 2 pounder), and the top item on the menu is Russian Caspian Golden Oscietre (wild) caviar at $2,455 for 30 grams.

But the small “chilled seafood mountain” for two, with oysters, clams, crayfish, prawn cocktail and crab & shrimp ceviche is a reasonable $288 – plus $375 if you want to add on a chilled Boston lobster or Alaskan king crab legs.

So, overall? I think if I worked in the area this could be a regular lunch spot for me (regular meaning once a week or so). Emphasis on the word “work” because I won’t be having dinner there until my employment future is more certain. But I did enjoy it and will happily return.