manly beach on a cloudy day

just in case you're wondering, the photos i've been posting are not current (taken a few weeks ago) and not in order. i just post them as i see them while organizing my files. this one's taken in manly beach in sydney.

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drinks by the opera

what's a trip to sydney without checking out the opera house, right? harvey and i went to opera bar for drinks (great view, very noisy tho) before going to longrain (super yummy food, but no pics, sorry. was too busy eating).  we were gonna go to quay restaurant but they were all fully booked already so we made a reservation for the next night instead. 

above is sydney's skyline as seen from the opera.

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bills famously fluffy eggs

rene and chris were so impressed that they bought a book about it, and marco swears it's the silkiest scrambled eggs he's ever put in his mouth, so naturally i had to try it. second day breakfast in sydney: bills in darlinghurst.

fluffy indeed. and yummy. unfortunately i wasn't able to take more than a few mouthfuls  - what they forget to warn you about it is its lactose content.  it must've been at least half cream as i was still burping lactose the next morning. 

bills
433 Liverpool Street
Darlinghurst, Australia


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little pockets of happiness

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i was apologetic for having fallen asleep because well, in fact it wasn't my bed. it wasn't even my house. why are all these people here discussing business ideas while i was sleeping?  i got out as soon as i could, put my outdoor clothes on, and started running.  only my spirit was running faster than my body so i decided to walk instead.  after walking for some time i came into, with college students behind me (they don't look american, i must be in europe), an open but empty chapel, sun setting on the opposite direction of where i came from stuffing every corner of the wooden structure with golden light. someone behind me said that the rhythm of the interior is like that of a carpark, with communal tables instead of pews. any other day i would've reached for my camera and start clicking away. but not today. i climbed on top of a  table and jumped from one to another. a band started playing a song that could've been a keane song. we all sat down to listen. at the end of the song the lead said it was entitled "cathartic", and i smiled because i knew the song. then he did the tongue thing that the band "kiss" does. as an encore, he lifted his t-shirt and showed the very big tongue on his belly button do the same. he then went around with a very small pouch, collecting donations.  he said they're trying to save up for a trip to new york. i gave him all the coins i could fish from my pockets, some of which fell on the ground (the pouch got smaller) and i had to help him pick them up.  the student next to me didn't have any coins, when the singer stood in front of him with his money pouch open, the student lifted his hand and used his pointer finger to pet the singer's chin, just below his right jaw. i was thinking - i am so banking this in my little pockets of happiness.

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this is what i get from taking cough medicine before going to bed.  even in my dreams the medicine-induced euphoria is pretty tame (and lame). 


photo above is of kleber from a shoot in beijing late last year


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sicky, sick me

my tear ducts got leak!  at first i thought it was just what i was watching. but then who cries watching "doctor who", right?  (i was watching the last christmas special. why does it take so long for the next season???).  i mean it's great and all and i enjoyed it, but something to make me cry?  i don't think so.  a little experiment then.  i played several other shows and movies and found out that even the silliest comedies made me cry too.  my eyes never had a good cleaning as yesterday and today.

how do i get all these time to waste on a silly experiment?  i had to call in sick yesterday. cold and flu symptoms. head, nose, throat, joints - name it, it hurts.  am still not feeling well so i'm staying in today as well.  all i want to do is stay in bed under the blankets.  i won't be surprised if it's also the cause of the easily-induced saline water inundation of my usually very dry eyes.  i sure do hope so.


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g'day for a walkabout

am still sunburnt from this trip - mainly because i spent most of my time just walking around (the sun was almost always out) - and eating, basically following marco's restaurant recommendations. i didn't get to try the food from this (supposedly) historic pie stall. am just showing it here because it looks pretty.

harry's cafe de wheels
sydney, australia

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fratelli's fresh waitress

 © Joselito Briones
smiling me: "a table for one, please"
smiling waitress: "oh, sure, anywhere you like"
me: (scans the room for the best table and sits myself)
a different, unsmiling, waitress: "i'm sorry but i'll need to tidy up this table, can you please sit somewhere else?"
still smiling me: (having spent some precious holiday time choosing the table i was sitting in) "it's ok, i can wait"
still unsmiling waitress: "but it needs to be cleaned"
unsmiling me: "and you don't want to do it?"
unsmiling cranky waitress: "please move to another table"
hungry me: (spends another precious holiday time and chooses another table to move to)
eating me (after some time): (spies the earlier table, still untidied, being occupied by two women, no fuss)

verdict: AVOID. food was good but as it's really difficult to get bad food in sydney, service counts a lot.

fratelli fresh
sydney, australia

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here's the plan...

© Joselito Briones
this is one of the photos i took more than a year ago in new york - with mae and carol's granny.  when i did the shoot i was planning on putting them up as RM stocks, but now i think there's plenty of them in the series that it's quite a waste trimming them down to 3 or 4, so maybe they'll end up RF after all.

i'm just starting to pick up interest in taking photos again, but meanwhile i have all this photos just gathering dust in my hard drive so now i just plan to unload all of them.



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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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