Author Archives: Justin Fox

Day 13: Hong Kong > Sydney

Posted on 12 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

Goodbye Hong Kong!

Teleporting back home soon! SO homesick! I can’t wait!!!

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Day 12: Hong Kong

Posted on 11 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

THRASHER. Have run out of clean underwear and T’s, having to wear new stuff I’m buying now which kinda blows lol!

Kurt would be turning in his grave.

Clean R33 4-Door.

Decided not to shop with the crew, and instead check out the markets.

Street meet. No ice, no refrigeration and Hong Kong weather is super hot, sweaty and sticky right now too. Buckets under the tables to catch the dripping blood, and I literally saw the shop keepers resting meat on the filthy wet footpath, next to our feet, then hanging it back up again to sell. Chinese stomachs must be tough as nails!!!

Exotics everywhere in HK.

Goose! Wasn’t quite as gamey tasting as duck, much more like pigeon rather than chicken.

Lucy’s been heaps of fun! She’s still got plenty of fire in her belly this woman!

LOL Julius!

I’ve been hanging out with this guy for the past week in HK. He’s a tenor who got all the way to the finals in Australia’s Got Talent in 2013. I’m sure he’s gay (or bi as he says he has a gf) as he’s suggested more than a few times this trip that I should probably give guys a go! Love his gentle nature, we’ve had some great D&Ms, big laughs too. Sad that he’s put his dreams of singing for a living on hold to run a restaurant back home in Indonesia, but he can’t discount that he truly does have talent, and who knows, the stage might be ready for him later on in life. Check out one of his performances here.

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SO GLAD that Zen is not being sold in General Pants Co.

Posted on 11 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

Thrills Scrambler sold at Zen Garage Leichhardt 2011.

We had contacts a few years back, and made moves to try and get our gear in General Pants Co. We hit a wall though and left it at that.

A little while back I had dinner with my relos and one of my aunties was wearing a Thrills T-Shirt. I asked her about it and she had NO IDEA who Thrills were, she just liked the design and bought it from General Pants Co.

Thrills are a small label from Byron Bay, think Deus, they were more a small bike gang than fashion label and they even approached Zen to sell their gear in our store when they were starting out (and we did sell some of their stuff in the end). So it was a surprise to see such a small young brand make it into General Pants SO quickly.

I’m just glad the people who buy Zen get it. And when I see someone wearing Zen I can wave, or beep my horn and get smiles and waves back. That FEELS good! I hate the idea of aunties and whoever wearing Zen, but not understanding what Zen is about. So here’s cheers to being unsuccessful with getting the Zen brand out there in the big shops. #fuckthatshit

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Day 11: Hong Kong

Posted on 10 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

Hung out with young car obsessed 14yr old Anthony today. We dropped past Reinart Design unannounced, which is how we like to do things at Zen. IE: We don’t like workshops ‘preparing’ for our visits! #keepitreal !!! Justin at Reinart was super chill, he even moved this beauty into the light for me to shoot. Dead set legend!

Also caught up with Jim, who answered a callout I put up on Facebook the other day. Jim moved from Sydney to HK 10 years ago, how time flies. He runs an automotive workshop here in HK and he gave me an all access pass to shoot whatever I liked, over all 4 floors! I’ll be writing up a feature on Zen Garage soon!

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RPRSNT

Posted on 10 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

Import Model: “Hey, let’s collab!”

Me: *Checks her instagram page, lots of followers, USA, cool, why not?!* “Sure! What’s your FULL address? It might take some time to get to you though, we’re in Australia!”.

Import Model: *didn’t know we were based in Australia* “I charge $50 for a promotional post”.

Me: “Ah yeah sorry not into that shit. All the best!”.

Import Model: “No need to make it unprofessional. In all honesty why should I promote a clothing company or any company for free? Merchandise is not payment”.

Me: *goes to neck myself*…

A SINCERE THANKS TO ALL ZEN BABES (guys and girls!) WHO REPRESENT ZEN PROUDLY. You guys rock my world. It’s not about the money, never will be. We promise to never ever pay someone to wear our gear, ever. #keepitreal #findyourzen

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Day 10: Hong Kong

Posted on 9 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

Must put on weight! Triple O’s burger, fries + gravy!

High Tea at The Peninsula Hong Kong to celebrate Lucy’s B’Day.

Mum’s a boozer!

Load up on carbs.

Lucy, Julius and Mum.

Shopping isn’t doing it for me in HK so I’ve just been enjoying having D&M’s with Mum, Lucy and Julius AND eating as much as I can to put on weight! Tomorrow I’m catching up with Anthony who I had dinner with the other night. He’s 14 and crazy into cars so we’re going car hunting! Should be a great day out!

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Day 9: Hong Kong

Posted on 8 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

964. Man I still can’t believe how close I was to putting money down on one of these once. I’m so glad I didn’t! Much rather just appreciate them from afar.

Love it!

SO many more money cars in HK since China infiltrated.

Retail therapy.

Out with the old, in with the new.

When in HK one MUST have a bowl of noodle soup from Ho Hung Kee (they have one MICHELIN Star!). They’ve moved into a mall, and it’s not quite the same authentic experience as eating it on the street, but the noodles were just as good as always!

That teal!

Happy Hour at the hotel, free drinks!!!

My new mate.

Then we had an EPIC Chinese dinner with some relos.

These things are EVERYWHERE here in HK. Literally see one every block.

Spotted this bike shop next door to the hotel, will have to check it out during opening hours.

I like to use shit till it breaks and have had my hipster Herschel laptop backpack for 4 years now. I’m sincerely surprised it’s lasted that long as I assumed nothing trendy is built to last these days. The bag has finally had it though, and the fake leather bits were literally disintegrating and leaving bits of the bag all over my clothes and wherever I put it down (lol), so I was crazy happy to find a Herschel store here in HK that had the exact same model! I went even more timeless this time by fucking off the fake leather bits and going all black. #happydays #wouldratherazenbagtho

PS: Culture shock going from Japan > Hong Kong. Japanese = Clean. Chinese = Dirty!

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Day 8: Nartita > Hong Kong

Posted on 7 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

It’s a new day.

Narita Airport. Goodbye Japan.

Hello Hong Kong.

Spotted.

We’re staying at Lan Kwai Fong near Central (not Causeway Bay for a change!), it’s a lovely little boutique hotel.

Was a rough night. I’ve been going through the motions of being both sad, and fucking mad about Howie taking his own life. I’m saying “Fuck Howie?!” out loud a lot. I’m just saying fuck a lot. I’ve had lots of people message me with concerns, but hey I’m fine, definitely not suicidal! I might have depression, but I don’t really mind the suffering, in fact I might even strive in it. I sure as hell ain’t fighting it, I don’t feel I ever really have.

Sure. I have an appetite for destruction, and my dream has always been to crash and burn, to die young even (though I’ve fucked that one up already), but that’s all VERY different to being suicidal.

The show must go on.

When I came down to the lobby this morning I was bracing myself for a new day. A fresh start, but some of the people in our travel group knew about Howie as they now follow me on Facebook. I even had one of the older ladies tell me that she found my blog, and loved reading all of it, she especially loved the honesty and that really touched me. Mum’s a little down too as she’s met Howie many a time over the years. So talk about Howie we did, right up until our bus got here.

Mum and I said our final goodbyes the the group, lots of hugs and kisses, it’s been real sweet. I’m now sitting in the Cathay Lounge waiting for a flight to Hong Kong. In my calendar it says SYDNEY tomorrow. It turns out that at some point, Mum decided to extend her stay with 5 nights in HK before flying back home, she says she did ask if I wanted to tag along (or if I wanted to just go home after Japan) and apparently I said yes to HK, strange as I really am not a fan of the place (just been too many times as a kid). I’m not complaining though! I’ll be sure to eat as much as I can in HK and hopefully put on some weight (I’m now 53kg, way below my natural 58kg weight).

PS: Star is 90% sure that Mia’s peed on my bed. Ah bugger! She must be so upset to do that. Looks like I’ll have to go home and buy a new mattress too!!! *sigh*.

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RIP Howie.

Posted on 7 April, 2017 by Justin Fox

I’ve just heard that my friend Howie took his own life. I’m speechless. I knew he had issues, but I never knew how bad they were. He was always in his head a lot, a really smart guy, deep and he loved to have a good laugh. I’m now so upset that I didn’t take the time to catch up with him the last couple of times he reached out to me. Life is fucked up.

Apologies to anyone and everyone I’ve snobbed off these past few years. I’m a busy guy, sure, but I have PLENTY of time to catch up with friends. The drugs, the laziness, hobbies, they all get in the way of maybe what’s really important. I don’t hold myself responsible, in any way, but I do know I’ve got a way with words, and I do know that if I had caught up with Howie we would have had huge D&M’s because that’s what we always used to do. All of a sudden Berty Nghiem’s Cars For Hope project means so much more to me. I’m gong to make moves to help Berty as much as I can going forwards. This is a wake up call of sorts. If you’re my mate, and need to chat, please, get in touch. I’m all ears.

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