IN HONGKONG, perhaps more than most places, it has always been a problem - what to give the woman who has everything? Ruby Mootee-Cheney was telling us last week how she managed to solve this thorny issue when invited to the birthday bash of Michele Michell, wife of Jardine's number two Rodney Michell, at the couple's Shek O home.
While the other guests were offering the birthday girl their trinkets, Ms Mootee-Cheney proffered hers in a beautifully-wrapped box.
Inside was a perfumed toilet roll in a particularly offensive shade of purple she had brought back from Paris.
''Just what are you expected to give someone like Michele since there is probably very little on earth that she does not own?'' she asked.
By all accounts, the birthday girl was virtually speechless after she unwrapped the toilet roll, only able to tell the guests it was the first time she had ever been given one as a present.
Unfortunately, she never got the chance to enjoy what sounds like the last word in bathroom hygiene. As the proceedings passed into the small hours the bulk of it ended wrapped around Gerard Djaoui's head like an irradiant turban.