Just A Minute, January 2012

Watching...Full House. Old school 80's fun!
Reading...The Daily Beast and Politico.com
Finding...myself sick constantly. I just recovered from the chicken pox at the start of the month and I am now ill with viral conjunctivitis. I resembled a one-eye monster. NOT. PRETTY.
Listening...Warrior by rookie kpop group B.A.P.
Drinking...Starbucks Brew of the Day. Because that's the cheapest semi-decent coffee I can get around my workplace.
Enjoying...The Republican Presidential Primaries. I love Election Year!

Bondi, Red & Blue

Two different type of films used to snap almost the same scene. Which one do you like better? Me, I like the redscale one.

Bondi Beach

As a person who rarely gets to visit white, sandy beaches with crashing waves in the distance, being at Bondi Beach was thrilling! Sunny and warm, it was the best kind of day to be by the sea.

How I envy the people who get to live by the sea in those beachfront condos.

Luxe Bakery, Newtown

After our cup of Campos Coffee, we headed next door to Luxe Bakery for a proper plate of breakfast. I like the decor, very industrial-chic. I also found it kind of interesting that the place's clientele is so varied, there were ladies on their days off, businessmen having lunch meetings, families stopping in for a bite and us, tourists discovering a new cafe.

Luxe Bakery is more than just a bakery, it has a full kitchen cooking up a storm. They offer both breakfast and lunch options. We chose mostly breakfast-y items. Quiches, croissants & scrambled eggs and ham & cheese sarnies. Mm-mm-mm.

I am very very behind in my posting schedule because work has been keeping me chained to the desk till late in the evenings. I have so many things I want to share like the progress of my 5 before 25 list, I am steadily crossing them out! Chinese New Year is also happening this coming Monday & Tuesday, lots of festivities to come and I plan to capture them all on my LC-A. :)

Campos Coffee, Newtown

I am a compulsive research traveller. Before I step on the plane, I like to trawl through travel guides, websites and blogs for interesting places to visit. I like to look out for places with interesting concepts or are off the beaten track, read other traveller's experiences and flick through their photo albums.

When I researched for cafes in Seoul last year, I hunted for cafes that were visually appealing rather than for the quality of their food and drinks. But in the time between the two trips, my taste buds finally grew up and I began taking an interest in and appreciating a good cup of coffee. My research, this time around, naturally centred on cafes that took their coffee more seriously than their decor.

It didn't take much for me to discover that in Sydney, Campos Coffee was the coffee of choice. Campos is situated in Newtown and is slightly out of the way from Sydney Central but we didn't let a thing like distance hamper us from getting us a cup of the best coffee in Sydney. (Also, it helps to have a friend who has a car.)

From my travel notes, my impressions of the coffee was that it was "full-bodied" and "very strong". And to my surprise as I was reading the website to write this post, I actually got it right! The coffee they had in November is described as "The body is full and lively on the palete." Not bad for a coffee newbie.

For a big-time coffee house, Campos in Newtown is located in a fairly small space. There were only about 5 tables in the back and counter seating by the windows. We walked in during a lull and managed to snag a table but as we drank our coffee, others were coming in non-stop and had to settle for takeaway cups. This is not a place where you can sit and linger over your coffee and not feel guilty.

By the way, you know a coffee house is serious when they actually have a spare roaster to put out on display.

scenes of bangkok, part 10

and here we are, the last post about my bangkok travels. i went up to the hotel's rooftop pool to try and grab a few shots of the city. there was a glass barrier and the inevitable reflection but i quite like how it turned out in the first photo. the reflections of the foliage added a rather interesting texture to the space where the sky is, don't you think?

i am going to begin working on my australian series of photographs in a bit. if you follow my flickr account, you will see that i am slowly uploading the photographs that i have taken. i am up to about day 4 now, with hopes of getting up to day 6 by sunday. for the australian series, i am thinking of changing up my blogging style a little. i usually begin writing at the end of the photographs but i think i might try interspersing text within the images. let me know what you think and we will see how it goes.

have a good weekend. ciao!

scenes of bangkok, part 9

a few more scenes from the streets of bangkok.

scenes of bangkok, part 8

after dark street side stalls in chinatown, bangkok

just a minute, in november (a meme by muchlove-anna)

watching...helvetica by gary hustwit / the big bang theory
reading...eater's digest by lorraine bodger
finding...the thunderstorms happening in the middle of the day really inconvenient
listening...cleasing cream by brown eyed girls
drinking...iced lemon tea
enjoying...twining's lady grey tea

scenes of bangkok, part 7 & hi y'all, i am back!

hello loves! i am back on the sunny island of singapore (and have been for five days). it's been a torture getting back to my normal life rhythm. how i wish i could stroll the streets of sydney and melbourne forever, with my greatest worry being whether can i get myself to the next great coffee shop before closing time!

i have sent my films to be processed and scanned, and received them back yesterday. if you follow my twitter, you should know that i was pretty bummed out that two rolls of films did not turn out. don't worry though, i bounced back when i saw what the other rolls i had in store for me. i have so many images that i want to share once i finish sorting through the negatives and uploading them up to flickr. you should know by now that i am not the most efficient person in the world so it's going to be a wee little while before i get to sharing them.

i hope you have been enjoying the photographs i have been posting up of my trip to bangkok. if you do, that's great, because there's plenty more to come. i just planned another 4 more posts to finishing up this series before moving on to australia! i love this set that i posted a lot because it makes me craves for tomyum soup. i maintain that tomyum soup in any other country besides thailand will never taste as good as the ones in thailand! i have to have at least bowl of that amazing soup whenever i visit, whether be it by the roadside, at a little store or at restaurant. anyone of them beats the ones in singapore hollow. i can already feel my tastebuds curling their toes in anticipation of a mouthful of that soup. well, sorry buddies, i have to be disappoint you there.

x | till the next post, mich.

scenes of bangkok, part 6