maggie and sat's little love nest

 © Joselito Briones 
last weekend maggie and saturday invited me for a late lunch at their new flat in fortress hill.  you know there's no place i won't go for free food. and there was so much of it - maggie spent the whole morning cooking.  the best was the chicken wing marinated in coke zero, and the enokitake salad.

the flat was cute, full of toys and knick knacks (not for a future baby, for them!)  ah. to be young and starting out. 

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so not hollywood road! (these are the people in my neighborhood)

© Joselito Briones

something else that's new - this was the first time ever that i saw a religious procession in hong kong. i was climbing up the escalator, at night almost always full of suits on their way back to their posh mid-levels apartment from work, or party goers coming down to hollywood road and soho, when they started ascending with their candles (is that even safe, i mean lit candles on escalators?). as more and more of them appeared, their song, a church hymn, also got louder (the track on the video was added in, the audio originally recorded was of very poor quality).

i used to see a lot of this kind of candle procession growing up in the philippines, so it was a nice surprise to see it here.  i hope they don't do this often tho.  i remember how fascinating it was first time i saw a bunch of hare krishnas chanting and dancing and doing their drum thing in soho in london, but after seeing them again and again over a couple of months they just looked weird.

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renewed (these are the people in my neighborhood)

 © Joselito Briones
these are the friendly people that say hi to me everyday - they run the "dai pai dong" (street food restaurants) right in front of the building where i live, in stanley street in central.  when i moved here, this street was packed every night with regular locals and adventurous foreigners feasting on freshly cooked food.  the energy of this street  was one of the reasons i chose this apartment.  a few months ago tho, the health and sanitation department decided to close all the food stalls in the street and do a major clean up (the rats and roaches haven't forgiven them yet).  the stainless steel stalls you see in the background are all new, they replaced the makeshift stalls (patches of incongruous materials) that used to be here. the street was stripped, sprayed with disinfectants and pesticide, laid with proper sanitation fittings, and repaved. they finished putting up the stalls last week.

the dinner (photo, above, taken new year's eve) was a dry run to test if things work.  at least one of them (the one that serves seafood specialties) should be open again for business tomorrow.

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christmas meet-n-greet

 © Joselito Briones
more holiday get togethers.  some of my nicest friends since high school: (r-l) christie, cynthia (whose youngest is my godson, poor child), and joy (here with daughter nikki). they dropped by my parents' house when they learned (thanks, eric!) that i was gonna be there this holiday season.  last time i saw cyntch and christie was at eric's wedding last july, last time i saw joy before this was probably high school graduation day.  she seems a lot more down-to-earth now, and happier.  she has this spiel, poking fun on herself by saying that she breezed through high school because two of our senior year teachers just happened to be her parents.  first time she did it i searched her face for any indication that she might be looking at how someone reacts to this (if only to see if the intended audience agrees with the statement or not), then decided she really was doing this just for comic effects.

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more holiday chow-downs

clockwise from left: choi, butch, me, ogie, d.a., jim, jomel, rina, rene, faye, jan, manuel

izhikaya japanese restaurant (food was so-so, company was so much fun!) in wellington street with hong kong friends, just before christmas.

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sp2 christmas dinner

the occasion: office christmas dinner of sp2
the place: pierre II at the mandarin oriental
in attendance: mr. joseph fung and his guests: stover jenkins, paul lau, bing kwan, sk kan, nicholas wong, and anita mak; me of course, and the rest of the people who work at sp2: ligaya, david, maggie (with hubby saturday), eric (with wife sally), wing, raymond, carl, danielle, and karen.

stover, joe, nicholas

wing, karen, danielle, maggie, sat, david, eric, sally, ligaya, raymond

joe, paul, bing

tk, sk, stover, carl

anita, wing

karen, danielle

maggi, sat, david

eric, sally

ligaya, me, raymond, nicholas, joe

the usual suspects

 well i did say that i was gonna post more photos. so there ya go.

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resolutions

© Joselito Briones
not the new year's kind, timing's just a coincidence. it's more about this (link to previous post).

first one's long ago solved.  i couldn't remember the 4-digit PIN because, surprise - it's a 6-digit PIN. (how could i have forgotten this?) when i couldn't remember what it was, i looked at my secret place for PINs and passwords and such. it was there all along. i ignored it the first few times because i was looking for a 4-digit PIN.  doh. i actually had to convince myself to try the 6-digit one. how stupid is that?

as to stock photography, i've consulted my ever-reliable oracle in new york, source of high-wisdom and tips on the latest happenings at the local malls (do you know anyone who got excited upon hearing that target will soon have a fresh produce section?),  and the advice i was given helped me make a plan. i love plans. i don't even have to follow them through.  all i need is a plan and i'm in a happy place.

the third one - ah well, who cares.


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photo above is of course me, from our office christmas dinner last night, at pierre's in mandarin oriental.  i'll post more photos tomorrow. or next year. and no, that's not the happy place i was talking about. that's the constantly flowing wine.