Secondhand Swap Meet and Minibus Interior

I found this little poster stuck on the minibus I took to work on Saturday morning. I'll be working all day on Saturdays for a couple of months, which means that I'll be posting entries less frequently. From today onwards until my schedule clears up, I'll be posting every other day. Otherwise, I think I'll end up having a nervous breakdown again. Alternatively, I can put up mostly outfit photos since they are the easiest to do.

If you still want to see daily entries and don't mind outfit photos, just let me know in the comments or e-mail me (by the way, OOPS, I'm sorry I haven't been checking e-mail that often, I'll answer them as soon as I finish this entry).

I really hope I can make it out to this swap meet thing, but I'm not sure if I can because of work. Anyway, if anyone does go, please let me know how it was!

I also thought I'd take a picture of the interior of a minibus because most tourists don't usually take them, and I honestly wouldn't recommend it, either. Too stressful.

You know, I have never seen anyone put on seatbelts on the minibus. Maybe foreigners do it, I really don't know.

The driver of this minibus kind of made me feel more vomity than usual. Minibus drivers are generally quite crazy, and I get carsick easily. Isn't it funny? I have a healing factor that's almost Wolverine level -- among other serious injuries, I've accidentally cut off the tip of my pinky toe and glued it back on (yes, it looks fucked up) and I've survived drowning -- and my weakness is motion sickness. I never play video games because the first and only time I ever did, I barfed (the game was Doom, incidentally).

Anyway, this ride was made even worse by the scents, and, like Wolverine, I also have a really sensitive nose. The driver reeked of cigarette smoke, plus I was sitting in the back and the smell of the diesel fumes and hot plastic...ugh!

Books & Co.

I'm not really sure if this entry will help any visitors to Hong Kong as this particular cafe is rather out of the way. However, since I like this place so much, I thought I'd write something about it.

Books & Co. is a tiny cafe on Park Road up in the Mid-levels, across the street from St. Stephen's College. You can take the number 13, number 23 and 40M buses, get off when the bus rounds the corner of the HSBC. Books & Co. is right at the bus stop, but there's some construction going on, so don't miss it.

If you are a dude, I suggest not lingering around the area too much because St. Stephen's is a convent school for girls, and you know teen-aged girls are the most vicious commentators when it comes to guys. Shakespeare obviously didn't have a teen-aged daughter when he was talking about sharp serpents' teeth. Unless you feel like being exposed to a group of giggling girls who will stare at you and say rude things that will shrivel the hair on your balls, get your ass in the cafe quick-quick. Trust me on this, I'm a convent girl as well, and I'm no stranger to making guys cry.

The cafe is filled with secondhand books that you can read as you sit there or just buy. I always end up walking out with at least one book to replace the ones that I lost when I moved flats last March.

Cosy little nook where you can stare at passersby and make rude comments about them. Yes, it's hard to remove that convent training. Sister Dina, I will continue to make you proud!

Another cosy little nook.

According to my friend who studies at St. Stephen's (yes, I'm old enough to be her mother, but she is one of my closest friends, isn't that scary?), it gets really busy here around lunch time, and unless you want to have a side-eye staring contest with professional bitches over a table, don't show up till after two. I was here at around four in the afternoon, and it was really quiet and nice. The lady at the counter said that they're open every day until eleven at night.

The dude in the dark sweater was kind of cute. I wanted to get a picture but his unattractive friend kept getting in the way. Shoo! Don't stand in the way of handsomeness!

A cake and coffee tea set is about HKD40. Lunch  is about HKD60 and up.

This place smells so wonderful, like coffee in a warm library. Love it.

Broadway Cinematheque and Kubrick

I'd originally wanted to do separate entries for Broadway Cinematheque and Kubrick, but as usual, I was crap at taking photographs. Broadway Cinematheque is where a lot of independent and art house films get shown in Hong Kong. My friends and I popped over there to watch the film version of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood  even though we're not huge fans of the book. I really much prefer A Wild Sheep Chase-- a marvellous, funny book that feels completely effortless, even though I'm sure it was painstakingly written. As I read A Wild Sheep Chase, I kept gasping out, "The audacity!" because of just how fantastic it is. I really recommend it.

Anyway, we were there for Matsuyama Kenichi. Oh, this gorgeous boy!

Photos below courtesy of Oh No, They Didn't.

I found the movie incredibly beautiful. The cinematography was just stunning. Everything looked gorgeous and dreamy, even the rubbish. However, the narrative was just terrible. If you hadn't read the book previous to watching the movie, I don't know how you could piece it together. Also, what a waste of a great composer! Jonny Greenwood did the music, but you wouldn't be able to tell because it was so badly edited into the film. The music would just cut off at random points or start  up at the strangest moments. Very distracting!

It was really such a fucking shame because the actors were so excellent, especially Matsuyama Kenichi. He is just terrific! He has an innate vulnerability to him, which helps, but he is fearless as an actor, his emotions seem so raw. There was a scene where he's crying, and I felt like Pauline Kael watching the then-unknown Marlon Brando onstage for the first time. (Brando had been so authentic, so real, that Kael had thought he was actually having a breakdown and had to avert her eyes in embarrassment before realizing that he was just acting. I felt the same, dudes!)

Anyway, watch the movie for the visuals, but otherwise, sad to say, it's kind of a shitty film. I should have expected it because the director is Tran Anh Hung, who did the beautiful but plotless The Scent of Green Papayas. After watching it, my first ex-husband commented, "That director needs to watch some Korean dramas."

Anyway, I wanted to take pictures of the Cinematheque because the interior is really uniquely designed, but then, you wouldn't know from the photographs I took because we didn't have time to linger as the movie started as soon as we arrived. The fancy stuff is on the second floor, but we had to rush to our seats, so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures.

I did manage to photograph a bit of Kubrick, which is a bookstore and DVD shop. This is the DVD portion of the shop. The bookstore portion has a little cafe attached to it. They stock mostly arthouse DVDs -- I still have my eye on Ninagawa Mika's Sakuran, except it's so damn expensive. I've also given up on the Johnny To film soundtrack set. I just can't afford it. I think Volume 1 alone is around HKD1,500! The bookstore focusses mostly on film-related publications.

Broadway Cinematheque is in Yau Ma Tei, just around the corner from Mido Cafe.

ka-pok

Full disclosure: ka-pok carries my jewellery so this isn't exactly an unbiased entry. ka-pok carries mostly artisanal or stuff by young and/or independent designers.

Arnault, who owns ka-pok on St. Francis Square (around the corner from Star Street) and its sister store on Sun Street, has excellent taste. He is also the official distributor of Moleskine, so if you like their products, head on over.

Basheer

I really love Basheer, even though they don't have as many books as Page One. Basheer is not exactly an independent bookstore, but it's close enough, so I like to support it. Also, they focus strictly on design, architecture and art books, and sometimes, they have really weird and random zines and magazines in stock.

The prices are cheaper than at Page One, too, and the staff are so knowledgeable. My friend, NY, calls them otaku staff, that's how well they know their stuff.

Basheer is at 439-441 Hennessy Road, right beside the Wan Chai fire station and just behind Times Square. It's on the first floor of the building, I would suggest just using the fire exit to walk up because you'll get to see this:

Well, well. Guess who's been here.

Basheer is open from 1130 to 2200 from Monday to Saturday, and 1200 to 2200 on Sundays and public holidays. You can check out their books at their Web site and also read a bit about the history of how Basheer got started in the book business. Apparently, he selects the books himself!

World Wide House

World Wide House in Central is mostly known as a place where Filipina domestic helpers go to stock up on products from the Philippines. This means that there are a lot of shops here that sell Filipino snacks, beauty products -- including those ever-present and dangerous skin bleaching kits. Tsk!

However, World Wide House has a lot more things than just snack food and colonial mentality products. There are the usual shops selling clothing, jewellery and shoes, lots of tailors -- two of the best used to be housed here -- and even electronics shops. There are also lots of money remittance and foreign exchange places here with really good rates. Do have a look around, you'll find that they're very competitive. There are also a ton of door-to-door freight forwarders here.

You can also buy all sorts of phone cards for international calls.

World Wide House is also home to Chaip Coin, where you can buy almost any magazine you desire at a discounted price. Japanese, Korean, European...all kinds of magazines that you've never heard of talking about stuff you didn't think people would publish magazines about.

World Wide House also has this watch shop. This guy is quite famous for his hand-crafted watches. He's got some kind of special tourbillon technique. A fellow artisan! I hope to master my craft the way he has his.

And finally, World Wide House has lots of these little eateries with delicious Filipino food, a cuisine that I cannot believe most people have not tried. Filipino food is just plain fantastic. These eateries don't have the best kind, but they're a decent enough introduction. For HKD25, you get a scoop of rice and two viands of your choice.