HAVE A BOODAY

What do you do when you find a nice cozy cafe?

We do what we do best.

We sit down and have tea.

And forgot what it was we were rushing to see.

@Booday Shop & Cafe

WHAT ARE YOU SHOOTING?

HC often like to ask me what I'm shooting. He would look at the direction my camera is pointing, scrunch up his face in a puzzled way and seemingly try to figure out what I could be possibly putting in my frame.

I don't blame him really, because I do tend to shoot... ...the most ordinary things. I especially like everyday street scenes, where no one's really doing anything, and nothing in particular is happening *lol*

Makes me wonder if it's why my all time favourite famous artist quote is this,

"I like boring things..."     - Andy Warhol

Scenes from Taipei:
Mongo or Bangka district
Huashan 1914 Creative Park

DANSHUI

I wanted to begin with my favourite place in Taipei this time. The funny thing was, we hadn't even intended to go at all in the first place. We were in Beitou for the day, done with our looking around when I recalled a friend mentioning Danshui once. It was on the same train line and so we thought 'why not?'.

It turned out really wonderful. We stumbled upon a beautiful sunset, and a quirky tiny cafe with a great view of the pier. As we sipped our mocha and iced chocolate, we saw the sun slowly turning amber, a deep pink, until it dipped its head under the horizon.

Sometimes the best things in life come where you least expect it.

Doesn't it?

WE PACKED AND WERE GONE

It might have been quite an understatement to say that sometime in the middle of last month, we were fed up with work and decided to runaway to Taipei. In fact we decided to runaway so fast that we were booked and packed and gone in 5 days. To us that's probably the best kind of travel, with lots of 'we'll figure out when we get there' and very little waiting before we hop on to our plane.

We just wanted to unwind, slow down, and be quiet.

Happy to share more soon, for now it's off into the tub and to bed.

WHEN THE SKY BATHES YOU IN RED

Kind of how I'm feeling today.

Hang in there, it's just another two days to weekend.

MUMBLE JUMBLE

A sunny stroll around Yanesen.

A visit to a cafe with snoozing cats.

A doughnut picnic in Ueno Koen.

A mumble jumble of photos taken on the last day in Tokyo.

PEEK

Realized that I haven't blogged in quite a while, so decided to take a peek while the laundry's spinning. I still have half a roll stuck in my Minolta from Tokyo (it always happens) and I'm wondering how to use it up in a good way.

Random things going on recently:

o Been on a shopping 'fast' for more than 2 months, except for basics like food and little everyday things that need replacing. I thought if I stop myself from buying things I would be able to think of nothing but buying things. Seems that I'm wrong. Seems that it's enough to love beautiful things without wanting to bring them home.

o My favourite cake shop is currently closed. Though I can do without shoes and clothes and bags, I feel sad when there's no more cheese souffle cake.

o Which leads to me thinking of baking things myself. HC and I are thinking of starting with scones (a favourite). We've been having home-cooked food a bit more too, which makes me happy.

o And on the topic of home-cooked food, please allow me to rave about my love for our local wet markets. The stall aunties and uncles are generally friendly and give you good advice depending on what you want to cook. Oh and where else can you buy a single stalk of leek?

Hope to have more photos to show you soon. Happy weekend!

KAWAGOE

A very long post of another long and rainy day in Kawagoe. The place is famous for the clay warehouses from the Edo period, I've never seen so many gathered in one place, and so beautifully preserved. It's not my first time there, but HC had never been, and I think he enjoyed it a lot more than Karuizawa.

As I was sifting through the photos, I was thinking about my classica and minolta, the way I use them and how the photos would turn out. There are many a times when I would see something and instinctively feel that this should be a 'classical shot' and vice-versa, though recently I've been pulling out my classica more and more, simply because it's a point-and-shoot and I've been feeling under the weather and rather lazy. But I think it's time I wean myself off the classica and get back to feeling good about my minolta again.

I like how the SLR slows me down, and makes me think a bit.