Reenita's Wisdom

This story was written for the Wall Street Journal Asia.

Fifteen years ago, Malawan Patamapongs, an interior designer whose clients have included members of the Thai royal family and a former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, bought a 1,200-square-meter lot in the heart of Bangkok’s central business district.

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If you are like most people, then your new year probably started out with resolutions for trimming your waistline. A great intention but how committed are you? While most people have good intentions on January 1st, come mid month, they are all too willing to slip back into old patterns of comfort eating. This year, instead of training your belly, why not try training your mind instead?

Mindful eating is not rocket science.  In days when life was not all about TV dinners and eating on the go, people would actually have longer and more enjoyable meals that actually resulted in skinnier waistlines.  Think “French family dinners”  which are inevitably a social event. Traditionally, the focus has always been on the food and the wine. Well, it’s no Ayurvedic secret that focusing on food, aids digestion. [...]

Classical Chinese paintings, contemporary Asian art and rare pink diamonds from India set the pace for a show of collectibles rooted in Asian tradition to be auctioned by Christie’s.

Christie’s autumn sales, which run from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, will offer more than 2,800 works of art; the estimated value exceeds 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$219 million).

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This story was written for the Wall Street Journal Asia’s “Scene Asia” column.

Chinese watch collectors have begun to shift their focus toward vintage pieces.

It boils down to heritage and nostalgia: “As the Chinese buyers grow older, antique styles remind them of their fathers and grandfathers,” says Pansy Ku, a watch specialist at Christie’s.

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A couple of years ago I made this video on a whim, mostly to prove to myself that my Sony handycam was worthy of more than recording cutesy moving pictures of the kids for our Friday night entertainment. Little did I realize that once my work of art got onto You Tube, my kids would blatantly flaunt it as their stepping stone to instant fame. [...]