champagne dom pérignon, vintage 2000

ha! i'll finally get to pop this baby.

am having friends over for dinner sunday night and we'll get to enjoy this. was also thinking of making mulled wine but maybe i's a bit to much. we'll see.  i just thought maybe it's a good idea because it's supposed to be a pre-christmas meet-up and it's gotten sorta cold and all and it's gonna be outdoor (rooftop of my apartment).  anyway, someone's taking care of food, so i don't have to worry about that.  i announced in the invite that the dom pérignon champagne will be served at exactly 7pm to entice everyone to come on time :)


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jane, ruth, and eric in astoria park

random photo time! reminder of good times with friends in new york.


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rowing team photo series

i've had this series of rowing photos in my hard drive for a while and has already amassed tons of dust that i've decided i should put them all out before the year ends. unfortunately all the indoor shots, including the one above, can't be used as royalty-free because i wasn't able to obtain a property release for the boathouse.


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weta cave

 
these are photos are from the weta cave, from when i visited wellington.  just posting now because they're doing a new movie, "The Hobbit".  weta is the production company co-founded by Peter Jackson, famous for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong", "District 9",  and weta cave is a mini-museum at the corner of the workshop.  it's actually quite small, a sort of mom-and-pop gallery/store with a video room.  it would've been much more fun to see their actual production room and meet the people who do the awesome visual effects and characters. photo above is of the life-size model of gollum, from "lord of the rings", displayed in the mini-museum.  don't know which character or from which movie is the one below, but he sure is scary.

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congee

Photo:  Joselito Briones

this is the congee place on the street where i live - always useful on those days when i just want something quick, hot, and filling.  everything they sell here is basically starch - from the congee (rice porridge), fried noodles (chow mien), rice rolls, deep-fried bread sticks, and deep-fried bread sticks wrapped in rice rolls. so basically if you wanna catch up on carbs (after all the time that you've been on a carb-free diet), you can have the bredsticks wrapped in rice rolls, dip it in congee, and have fried noodles on the side. must-try.




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