going to california

well, not yet. just found the vid and thought i'd share it.
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i spy

i spy
with my little eye...
something beginning with L and V

hmmm... i wonder who's the gonna be the lucky one.


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frei aber froh

no, my german has not improved at all.  it's got something to do with the music accompanying this letter (you'll have to play the music above).  johannes brahm's musical motto for this symphony Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90  (3rd movement, poco allegreto) consisted of the notes F-A(flat)-F, the first letters of frei aber froh.  and no, i have not suddenly become a music expert either, i just read it somewhere else.  why frei "aber" froh (free "but" happy), you might ask, not frei "und" froh (free "and" happy)?  supposedly it's in response to the composer's friend's motto of frei aber einsam (free but lonely).

what about this music then?   not sure.  i think this is supposed to be meadows and creeks and flowers of spring, but somehow it gives me all sorts of feelings - at times confused and indecisive, bouts of resolve and brief periods of peace, sometimes hopeful but nothing more. it stops short of a conclusion, as if happiness or whatever resolution there is to be had lies after the last note.  i was listening to this when i was thinking of my last year in berlin and somehow it just fits and i couldn't get it out of my head.

i read somewhere that real happiness is that moment when you are faced with the promise of being happy.  i'm hoping the same is true about not being happy - that the worst one can feel is when one fears the possibility of not being happy - because if it's true, then the worst is over.

anyway, i should hear from my lawyer anytime soon. today is the court hearing for my divorce.


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riding for the feeling

,

"in conclusion... leaving is easy
when you've got someplace you need to be..."
- bill callahan

hmmm.  lately these letters seem to be like a countdown of some sort, don't you think?  give me until first week of september and i promise i'll snap out of it. in the meantime here's some more depressing sad music.


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doctor who is back!

yay!  new doctor who episodes are here, finally.  the first one's called "let's kill hitler" and picks up where it left off, it's a sci-fi soap actually. someone who was called something before now has a different name and character, someone's killer turns out to be someone's lover. someone's best friend turns out to be her mother, someone who died in one episode turns out to be alive after all.  see what i mean?  this episode belongs to alex kingston.

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antony and the johnsons

another charlie - well, this one's a "charles", a friend who lives near you actually, says a lot of the music i listen to are very depressing, sad music.  i guess it's true. here's an example. antony and the johnsons.  again, not my favorite among their songs but the only one they have with a proper video.

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meet charlie

in case you've been wondering who this "charlie" is who's been leaving comments here, well, here she is :)

***

hi joey,

hindi ko alam kung anong pic ang i-aattached ko kaya i2ng best pictures ko na lang.

thank you...pinky

So, this picture was taken last July 1 CANADA DAY...i live close to this beach in Lakeshore,Toronto.

It was already past 8:00pm but during peak summer here it is still sunny around 9:00pm.

We are waiting for the fireworks,very far from HongKong Fireworks. But because it is getting late we just went home because it is not worth the wait.

The funny thing is instead of having fresh air here in Toronto,the smell of marijuana is always in the air.The same thing during canada day,so we went home before we get addicted to it.

***

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dylan leblanc

this isn't my favorite among his songs, but this is the only one with a proper video... so here you go. dylan leblanc

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ice candy

as promised, here's the ice candy that woke me up so early yesterday.  i bought these from muji, where they come in 100% apple juice and grape juice flavors. i like the grape juice better.

i remember we used to sell the home-made type when i was a child.  or maybe it was my nanny (meding?) who made and sold them and i just watched her make them and helped tying the end to a knot which was difficult because there was always very little of the plastic left to tie.  there were two basic flavors that i can remember - buko (young coconut meat, coconut water, water, sugar) and red mung beans (boiled red beans, with sugar).  am sure there were other flavors but i can't remember them.  there might have been chocolate (cocoa, water, sugar?) and melons, but not so sure anymore. i think we also sold ice, so i can only assume that not every household in our neighborhood had a freezer then.  i can't imagine now how it might have made sense, because with what we could've charged for ice candy and ice at that time, and the cost of electricity, i doubt if she made any money. back then of course, it was always hot and there was always ice candy in the freezer and that's all that mattered.


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wisdom of dick

record early wake up time of 2:30am.  dick once told me that old people always wake up early because they're afraid they might not wake up at all anymore.  i don't know about that, because i know i woke up remembering that i have ice candy (you know, frozen flavored liquid in plastic container - bah, i'll show you photo tomorrow) in the freezer, and i wanted some right at that moment. and anyway he's in his mid-30's, what does he know about being old.

well, one can only have so much ice candy so early, so after a few i decided to run. it was already 4am by the time i got there.  i saw a few old chinese men in their standard gear of white vest, khaki shorts, black shoes and high socks - , doing their tai-chi thing, some carrying radio, walking the path alone - but they kept disappearing.  i mean, like, one would say "good morning" in cantonese to me and i'd say the same as i pass him, but if i look back he's gone.  what's weird about it is that one side of the path is high retaining wall and the other side is a steep fall.  and this happened a few times.  creepy, no?  i decided either they fell and rolled down all the way to causeway bay or, more likely, they can walk through solid concrete retaining walls.

when i reached the end (same as the beginning, it was a return run) and i stopped, i felt very woozy. woops. (uh-oh, the vanishing old men are after me!) feeling dizzy combined with being hot from running and soaked all over is really bad.  i sat down on a park bench, took deep breaths, and it took a while before i felt ok again to stand up.  went to the street (magazine gap road) and waited for a taxi. none came. strange because there's always taxi anywhere in hong kong at anytime. after waiting for sometime i got dizzy again, combined with some rumbling in my belly, so i went to the toilet in the park nearby and let one rip. or two. ok, a few. then i felt REALLY better.  how was i to know that this dizziness thing was just a massive case of fartiness?  i blame the ice candy.  well i can't really because they were good. when i went back to the street there were plenty of taxis but by then i'm pissed at them already for not being there when i needed one, so i walked home.

i usually go back by the central escalator, but this time i thought i'd go a different way.  down to garden road, by hong kong zoo and botanical, between government house and u.s. consulate, ice house street, then queens road. lined along the sidewalk of an entire block in queens road were people manually sorting freshly unloaded newspapers, literally doing inserts. (photo, above). 

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al molo

very nice italian restaurant - the name's "al molo". saw it when i took photos of that yacht the other day and decided to go in.  ended up doing a 4-course meal.  :) (i was very hungry!) not cheap tho.  raw oysters for starters (french -  if anyone tries to make you feel guilty for not consuming locally-sourced food, carbon footprint and all that, take him to this restaurant and feed him french oysters), a glass of sauvignon blanc, hand-made pasta with mushrooms, sea bass fillets, some dessert with a name that i think translates to "granny's cake", and a double espresso, plus tip, amounts to HKD 950.  was yummy tho, and the staff were nice. i'll be back.


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tûranor planet solar in hong kong

not sure what this was but it sure was more interesting than the light show yesterday. i googled it and turns out it's some solar-powered german-built yacht that intends to go around the world, currently in its hong kong stop.  tûranor planet solar. here's their own website.

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hong kong's symphony of lights

i found an unused hong kong ferry token among my coins, probably from when jane visited, so i took the ferry to tsim sha tsui and watched the light show.  it was bleh.


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eta: someone told me that this used to be much better, with a lot more buildings participating.  too bad i never saw that version.  still, i think it would've been much better had don dorsey done it.

what can you buy for $20

as an experiment, i invited my nephews and nieces (and kids) to submit a gift wish for the early christmas celebration - with the condition that it should cost US$20 or less, and that if i can't find it in the price limit, they'll automatically get PHP50 instead.  you should've seen the list they made:  lens for a digital camera, wrist watch, desktop speaker with subwoofer, and the one that takes the cake, a complete kitchen package from ikea. well that one's from my youngest sister, and of course she'd pay for it, but i'm in hong kong and she actually expects me to put the whole thing, cabinets and all, in one door-to-door box.  between her and my eldest sister who thought up the early christmas celebration, i wonder why i bother making up fictitious characters for stories.

anyway, kids today have a very grand idea of what a gift can be, and no idea of the value of money. no one asked for a certain book, or cd (i suspect they all just download anything they want), or any traditional toys, or some special food, or something really basic, like a new pair of socks. sign of the times? i remember when getting ANY sort of gift was a real treat - now it has to be branded products and electronics, and only the latest ones will do.  in a way i guess it's also a good indicator that all the basics are well provided for.  now that's really something to celebrate.


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early christmas shopping

norie, my eldest sister who lives in california, decided she wants to celebrate christmas in september in the philippines (and why not, right?). so we'll have a reunion/christmas party.  i expect lots of food and noise and fun.  photo above is from last year's christmas eve party games.  there'll be a hired band for the party so there'll be lots of singing as well.  in the past it's my nephews and nieces who make up a band, but now two of them have moved to california. we'll also have an exchange of gifts, that's why i'm going christmas shopping this weekend, in the middle of august.


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i'm stuck.

remember how i said i'm on to my next screenplay?  well i am. only i'm stuck.  how does one write dialogue for an old and grumpy italian-american male and a young black female? i've got the whole story  (another short one) and even camera set ups but i can't put words in my characters' voices.  most of my adult life i've taken pride in understanding most english accents to a point where i can actually ignore them and focus instead on the message, and now it's come back and bitten me in the behind.

hmm.  skip and move to another one?

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eta: photo above has nothing to do with this, of course.  i just wanted something to link to my photography page and this is the only photo i have with an italian-ish and old-ish-looking guy (character i have in mind is older).

the next day

i know, it was photo overdose of this place from yesterday. i just thought i'd put this one up, taken early morning of the next day, because that lone figure in the water may or may not be me bathing in the buff.

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long ke wan, sai kung

i had a great time in long ke wan (photo above - click for full size, a panoramic view taken from the hill as we walked from east dam of high island reservoir).  it was peaceful, weather was cooperative, water was clear, sand was fine, company was most agreeable. perfect weekend getaway. and right here in hong kong!

ok, so let me back track.  after visiting sai kung town, we took a taxi to the east dam roundabout of high island reservoir, passing by west dam (we asked the taxi to stop so i can snap the photo above and below).  in most websites you'll come across, the trip is usually described as a bus ride plus a three-hour hike. but we didn't go for the hike, we went there for the beach.  HK$ 6 for the bus plus a three-hour walk in this heat, or a HK$110 (including tip) taxi ride? was really a no-brainer (although we did see health nuts who did the hike).

photo above is the east dam of the reservoir where the taxi dropped us off.  from there it was another 20-30 minutes of walk (steep climb and descent) to get to the beach.  considering we were carrying our camping stuff and photo stuff and 16ltrs of water between us (ok, we over estimated. we were able to use up just more than half of that), it wasn't exactly easy.  no wonder there were so many boats there - it's still the easiest way to get there.

when we finally saw the place (photo, top) from the hill, and heard the voices of people having fun, the effort was really nothing.  first thing we did was look for a nice place to set up the tent (i bought one instead of sleeping bag - turned out to be a good decision). photo above is also a panoramic view from where we stayed - click image to enlarge.

by late afternoon most of the boats have left and we shared the whole beach with only two other groups of campers.  the water was nice and warm. it was most relaxing and i just couldn't get away from it. it was already very late when i dried off.

by sunset we already had a nice fire going (we brought our own charcoal, huh!) although it was really only for effect, as it was really warm, with only very gentle breeze. we didn't cook anything either.  we had bread and fruits and nuts and german sausages. 

we stayed out most of the night, lying down on the straw mattresses, watching stars and chatting and listening to iTunes.  was surprised how long the battery lasted when the screen was off, even if the speaker is on full volume.  there was no signal from my phone service provider ("3") so i didn't mind just using it as a radio.  the tent on the photo above was the one i bought in mong kok. 

all images taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II  and panoramas stitched with Adobe Photoshop Extended CS5.

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sai kung town, hong kong

following charlie's (ms. p. in disguise) suggestion, i finally got to visit sai kung town.  well i'm sure i've visited 20 or so years ago when i lived in hong kong the first time, but during that time all towns' names sounded the same to me so i can't remember any of it.  this time around, dick, an old friend (in this picture, my nephews, two of whom are now married, were actually watching him do silly things to amuse them), came along.  photo, above, shows a fishing boat selling fresh seafood at the pier.  dick was amused when one of them got indignant when a customer offered her own bag to put her purchased fish in, saying (dick's translation): "oh please, i provide special plastic boxes for these".

the town center has narrow passages and seafood restaurants similar to those in lamma island's fishing villages, but this one, being in the main island, also has the usual chains of groceries and shops as anywhere else in hong kong.  being favored by expats, it also has some of the shops they frequent in central/soho.   

as this was just a stop before going to the beach, we didn't spend much time here.

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mong kok

just about anything can be found cheap here in mong kok. the visit tonight was to get a sleeping bag. been waiting for weather to clear so i can go to sai kung's long ke wan.  i wanted to go for the beach, but it turns out the place is also good for camping, so what the hey, might as well spend the night. hope the weather stays good.


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wga

hihi.  i've registered a screenplay at the wga :)  on to the next one!

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the box

i know, end of january is still quite far away (that's when i'm supposed to move to california) but i don't know - somehow the ritual has begun.

for one i've started sorting my clothes.  the ones i won't be using anymore goes in the box.  my favorite items go in the box.  things in the apartment that i know i won't be using anymore for the rest of my stay here in hong kong goes in the box. i've also started buying things that are common in hong kong but hard to find in california.  those go in the box.  books i've read go in the box.  i don't think i'll be doing any more photo shoots in hong kong, so my studio lights went in the box.

the box goes to the philippines.  from there the contents will be resorted, and only the "musts" go to california.

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