i turn my camera on. i cut my fingers on the way.

i was on ebay the other day and i stumbled across this gem. a canonet 28. AND it came in the mail today. let's just take a moment to look at this beauty.

troy. my canonet 28. he's older than me, but still going. going strong.

i must say, this is the only good thing that has happened to me all month and it's my birthday month. it's been tiring and i did have a think about just ending everything. just jump out that window maybe. this is going to sound fake and surreal, but i feel like i haven't because i haven't done enough. i have never owned a proper film camera. i have never been to glastonbury. i have never ever felt like i worth something. maybe it's time for me to just look for myself.

i've always thought i know who i am, but i'm not so sure anymore.

what i love about film cameras is that it's irreversible. thoughts have been put into every single frame taken, giving the photo more value. also, the fact that not knowing what is going to turn out is a big attraction. isn't it great to just sit and wait to see what turns out?

but film cameras. i can now die a happy bunny. i am a proud owner of a canonet 28.

by the way, two days till home. yey.

she don't cook mashed potatoes, she don't cook t-bone steaks.

me and my friend have decided it would be a good idea to cook before school gets hectic and work piles up. so we've bought some ingredients to make spaghetti bolognese. first we got:

• 1 packet of minced beef
• 1 packet of spaghetti
• 1 onion (if you like onions, you can always get more; but we're cheap asses so we only got one)
• 1 jar of tomato sauce
• 1 tube of garlic puree

well, i'm not going to lie. i don't cook. i'm from hong kong, and bitches don't cook in hong kong. my friend however has always watched her mom cook, so she knows a little about it. this is our recipe and it's by no means the best, but if it worked for us beginners, it'll work for you.

1. you cut the onion into dices and then you fry them
i'm not going to lie, this is one of the easiest steps you can imagine, BUT make sure you have a super sharp knife, or else it would take you days. it took me and my friend 15 minutes just to cut half an onion. not cool.

add some oil (we used some weight-watchers normal oil we found in the communal kitchen) into the pan/saucer. add more if the onion pieces start to stick to the saucer. fry them until brown. simple.

2. you add the minced beef into the saucer and cook until it's not raw
by this time, the mix should start smelling nice and meaty. if you're vegetarian, i'm sorry, but i love my meat in my spaghetti.

so, as this is not my own kitchen, we lack the appropriate utensils. this should not be encouraged and we would be shot by a chef if he saw us cooking like this. however, if you're a student just like me, it doesn't matter as long as the utensils are clean. improvisation is very important when you have limited resources.

3. start cooking the spaghetti
translation to normal english: dump it in hot water and let it submerge into water until it's the softness of your preference. it took around 15 minutes for me and my friend to get to our optimum softness.

also, add a pinch of salt and some oil to prevent sticking. you don't want all your hard work go to waste, do you?

4. add tomato sauce and garlic puree

dump the tomato sauce into the meat mix. stir and let it simmer. we used dolmio tomato sauce. it's a little sweet if you ask me, but oh well i think it wasn't too bad. if you think the mix is a little tasteless, put some salt or some garlic puree. i like garlic, so i've put around half a tube in.

5. sift all excess water out from the spaghetti

it's almost done. don't worry. just make sure all water's sifted away. if not, you'll either make the meat mix less salty or more tasteless; or you'll get really soggy spaghetti. either way it's not great.

6. make it look pretty

most important step of all. all humans are very visual beings. if they see the good-looking food, they'll assume the food's actually good. 

now some artsy shots of spaghetti. enjoy :)

i can't say i haven't enjoyed the whole process. it's different and it makes myself so proud when i was eating the spaghetti. also men find women who can cook so much more attractive, so i guess spaghetti bolognese is a good starting point. bon appetite.

when you gonna live you life right?

hong kong. where do i start? let's just list some facts first.

• it's one of the smallest cities in the whole world
• it has an amazing railway service - and i mean it. it's greaaat.
• it's a beautiful place
• it's home

i went out for supper with a great friend today and we caught sight of the amazing skyline. he started teaching me how to properly use a camera. what to do when there's a lot of light. what to do when i don't want a shadow to look that way. i've always loved photography, but this has opened my eyes to a whole new world. photography gives me a fresh new perspective to see the world and i like that. 

i guess when one over-thinks, everything one sees, one can relate to life. that was what i was like when i took all these photos. photography is like life. you'd always want the best out of a photo. i want the light to hit the object in this direction and only on that area. i want that boat out of the way. i want to calm the waves. however what do you know what's the best until you've tried all ways?

"how do you know which shutter speed and what size of the aperture to use?"

"you don't. you just need to try until you get the best photo. you won't really know what is perfect until you've seen the imperfect ones and improve from them."

my friend is only four months older than me, yet he's so much more mature than i am. he doesn't just know how to survive, which is what i'm doing, but he's living his life. he knows what he wants and he works for it. i felt slightly ashamed when he was talking about how he picked up photography and learnt himself. i always say to myself: "sam, it's ok if you don't know how to, no one really taught you", but that's not the way to go. i'm not hungry enough to find the knowledge and learn it and make it mine.

i'm one of those kids, who never knows what she wants to do in the future. i have no special passion and no burning desire to study one particular subject in university. hence law. i do like law, but am i passionate about it? let's be honest, it's kinda hard to be passionate about a legal system. i'm still going to do it in university. i'm that kind of girl who prefers bread more than love. a girl's gotta eat you know.

however, now i know i'm passionate about something too. i want to live. i want to feel alive. photography takes me there. another reason why i love photography is that i like the fact that no photo i take would ever be the same as another. just like my experiences in life. not a single feeling is the same if you think about it. today i'm happy and satisfied. tomorrow i might be satisfied, but not happy. yesterday, i was happy, but not satisfied. i'm constantly changing, just like the photos i take. it's always about balancing everything out.

as i have mentioned in the last post i've written, i have been down and battered. i'm tired. i constantly feel sick of myself. sick of the fact that i can't even protect myself from the pain. when i looked through the viewfinder of my camera and saw the beautiful sea, the thought of just jumping in and terminating all the trouble i'm going through was very very tempting. then my friend said,

"it's hard to grab hold onto so dynamic and it's always easier to just choose something else, but there is a certain attractiveness to this."

i looked at him. in the future, when i'm sixty, i'll look back at this time of my life and i'll smile. i won't laugh, but i'll pat myself on the back for not ending everything right there. it is hard to be remembered and to leave a mark on the earth. it's easier to just end this all right there, but is it the best way? i haven't left my mark yet. i haven't experienced anything. i haven't lived.

it was time to go home and i looked one last time at the beautiful harbour. hong kong is such a beautiful place. not only is it beautiful, it has taught me so much. it's a place of hope and dreams. yesterday i was at the worst position in my whole life. today i'm doing well. tomorrow i'm going conquer the world. metaphorically. i won't go around shooting innocent civilians. pinky promise.

to the person who taught me how to take photos:

life is hard right now for you too. i know. just remember no matter how hard it is, it will pass. also the harder you've gone through, the easier the next obstacle will be. one day, when you're sixty and four months old, you and i will be standing at the same spot on the side of the harbour, talking how life's whizzed by and how memories last. you've taught me so much and inspired me so much. i cannot thank you enough. thank you. thank you for teaching me how to take photos. thank you for cheering me up today and giving me hope. thank you for sharing your darkest secrets with me. thank you for being alive and awesome. i cannot be more grateful to have you in my life. i don't just care about you. i respect you with all my heart.

don't forget how to relax. it's bad for your health to be too uptight. smile a little more. you look nicer with a smile hanging off your face. it takes 33 muscles to frown, but it only takes 13 to smile. you can also use 4 to slap that bitch hard if you want, but violence is not promoted in our society unfortunately. no matter what happens, even if the sky falls down, i would be there for you. just say it and i'll come to you. it's hard right now, but it'll be ok. i promise.

keep calm and relax my ass off

summer has officially started for me and so i packed my bags/suitcases and hopped onto a plane to hong kong, which is home. even though i am sad about leaving school and my friends behind, it's just great going back home and spending time with my family. so when i saw my mom and co. at the airport, i was over the moon. 

the heat in hong kong is almost unbearable, so i had chosen to go straight back home right after my flight journey to just shower and sort out my life basically. the air-conditioning is on and it felt like heaven in the flat. then this grabbed my attention.

my poor sofa. apparently the new ones on its way. thank god.

someone has broken the sofa. after a long period of interrogation, i found out that my brother and my god-brother are the culprits. boys boys boys. apparently my brother was on the sofa, watching tv, while my god-brother decided it was a good idea to just sit on my brother. well i think not.

as you can see in the next picture, i have successfully marked my territory at home with my laptop and other random bits of items i own. i mean there are four kids at home, so if i don't move fast, i won't get anywhere to just sit down and chill on my laptop. this does in fact feel a little like a dog peeing over land to show the others who's boss. in my household, i am.

i'm proud to announce sam is the winner of the pissing contest.

 my brother's favourite spot in the whole flat for sure. there's actually a reason why it is though. if you look straight, you see the ginormous tv with all kinds of game consoles and machines and whatnots. if you look right, you see the view of the balcony and sometimes a little strip of sunset. if you look left, you look directly into the kitchen / the food prepared. the science of choosing where to sit.

i then ventured into my room next. in order to make it more homey, i've lit a candle and it's still sitting quietly in a corner burning away. it smells like lemon tarts. i mean why not? even though it's meant to be a christmas scent, it's my (and my sister's) room, so i'm just going to do whatever i want unless momma lee gets involved (she never plays fair).

ain't this cute? my little baby fisheye-lomography-colourful-cutsy film camera that hangs off my keys. might have to get if off my keys though. last time when i had them on, i couldn't open the doors, because my hands were too small to handle that bundle in my hand. did i mention i have a teddy bear about the size of a tennis ball hanging off my keys? haha maybe not.

my little fish eye <3 it actually takes picture.

this is the intellectual corner. just looking at it makes me feel smart. sadly my sister has contributed into this little pile. right now i need to get on and just read as much as i can. next book on the reading list: paradise lost - john milton.

as you can see, there's quite a lot for me to go through. but hell, i've got a whole summer.

i have decided to add a photo of me dressing up as a bride when i was a child. my mom has always wanted me to get married and to have a family of my own. do i want that? hell i don't know, i'm only seventeen and i refuse to make life-changing decisions (other than university choices). but yeh, here is a photo of me fancy-dressing. i was very very cute.

looooook at those chubby chubby cheeks. god i was adorable

home slippers. may i just add, these are the smallest pair i can find in the whole flat and now they're mine. my preeeecious. it's not like anyone's got big feet in the family. my mom and my sister are a size 36. i'm a 37. my dad's a 38. my brother's a 41. my god-brother's a 43. but look at these, i swear they're like a size 50 or whatsoever. doesn't mean i don't love them though. they're just so comfy.

white and oversized slippers. gotta love anything oversized <3

although coming home is a wonderful thing, something always happens against our wills and we humans, who have no control over matters like these, call it misfortunes. however in my case, it's worse and more serious than just misfortune. one of my four dogs is in hospital and in critical conditions. she has a malfunctioning liver and i don't even know if she is actually alright or not right now. to those who don't have any pets, pets are just like family, and i really don't know what to do without any single one of mine.

bebe, if you can hear me, don't worry about anything. i'm home now and i'll come see you tomorrow. be strong my baby girl. i promise it won't be as hard as the last time you were in hospital. you can show them who's the boss and come home healthy. it's just another obstacle and you'll be fine. i'll get a cake and we can celebrate when you're out. i love you and stay strong girl. come home soon, we all miss you.

my baby girl when she was healthy. you'll do great. i have faith in you.

summer's begun and i'm planning to just enjoy myself. it's not like i'm always home. also it's the last summer before i turn eighteen / legal. whooop can't wait. so right now i'm going to relax and just let everything run its course. summer here i come.