PENNY... ...

Thoughts.

Pondering about 2014, Iceland, frugality, passion and whether I should replace my Minolta.

What's on your mind?

JIUFEN

We've heard a lot about Jiufen, both from friends who've visited and the 'Spirited Away' movie. It seemed to be one of those must-visit spots, but the truth is... ...we didn't enjoy it. The famous 'old streets' were simply too commercialized and swarmed too full of bus-loads of tourists for our liking.

We did however, find a beautiful little cafe nestled by the hillside that serves hakka-style tea and snacks, which became the highlight of this side-trip.

Kind of sums up my philosophy... ...when life falls short, have a good cup of tea.

P.S.

Sending out lots of love for the new year ahead. Thank you for checking in here all these while!

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?

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.

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.