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In the duality of being either a shoe or bag person, I fall firmly on the shoe side. But a couple of days ago I got sidetracked helping Jeff find a work bag that I ended up browsing bags for an entire afternoon. In the process I discovered that I'm a huge sucker for a type of novelty bags (namely the panda one, but a lemon one too).

But first admire this with me:

the most perfect bag I've ever set my eyes on

I surprised myself by liking this more than the Kelly, which was my previous moonshot bag. This really isn't much cheaper but at least it's easier to purchase? Not that I actually envision spending that much on a bag, when would there ever be a time when sufficient disposable income intersect with having the occasion to wear it to?

Actually I'm not surprised. This bag fulfills the 3 characteristics that I love for bags: structured, croc, and generally black for practicality but dark green otherwise. Other bags that I'd like to have:

Lotuff / Mulberry / Satin Laurent

My plan is to get the Mulberry bag as a work bag, but the heritage black croc is no longer on their website which worries me. Although the Sac de Jour is my end game work bag. The other two, while not astronomical in price, fall under the "someday" category that will probably never happen. I'm currently incapable of picturing much of life outside of go to work and staying home. Sure I'll go socialize with friends over dinner, but the frequency of these events hardly justify thousands spent on a bag. There's so many other expenses to invest for, mortgages, emergency funds, child care expense, retirement... I'm feeling pessimistic from this article on Millennials. Although buying luxury bags don't fall that much below traveling on my priorities. I'm happy being materialistic as long as that doesn't tread into consumerism.

One more item on my shopping list:

 

Clare V Petit Alistair

I saw a similarly coloured mini bow bag from Cuyana (ugh I want their coin case purely because I can monogram a clover on it) and developed a huge crush for a red special occasions bag. I've been looking out for a "permanent" item for this use case and couldn't come up with a good mental image. Initially I was set on some sort of a rigid box clutch, but didn't see many appealing options. I also had no clue what color would be the most versatile. Black is...safe, which isn't what I wanted for special occasions, but going either silver or gold would restrict jewelry choices. Upon finding the bow bag, it clicked that red is actually perfect since I can always match it to a red lip. Duh. This bag is also roomier than most clutches, so I can actually fit a camera in there.

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Despite ogling over the new shiny bags, I'm super happy with my Court Bag that's been on every trip with me and held m(y stuff) together for PEY. The cost per wear of it is most definitely under $1, maybe about 50 cents? It's aging well too, some permanent scruff along the edges but the face of the bag is like new. I recently conditioned every surface, but it wasn't really necessary. Although everyone (on ffa) say how much the quality has declined from whenever qualifies as vintage coach, I think the construction of my 2014 version is quite good.
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2017 resolutions*

* more like first 9 month of 2017, since who knows how long I'll slack before working.

The new format I'm trying out is stolen from a peer review marking task I had to do for a course.

Start Doing:

• Drinking through my YS pu-er samples, and gong-fu more - been lazy and grandpa brewing all of my tea since the hard water tastes crappy. I have exactly 9 samples with me, so expect a drinking report at least every month.
• Day trips to Bradford-upon-Avon, Forme, and Wells once it warms up. Also a full hike around Bath's skyline walk. Aka get out and enjoy the idyllic landscape. 
• Eat through my cheese list from Paxton & Whitfield, also try my hands at making ricotta. Basically take advantage of the cheap and good dairy here. 
• Read more - goal is one book per month.
• Find a local to Toronto charitable organization to support - talking to David and reading some personal finance blogs made me realize that philanthropy is something I haven't thought about. I'd like to find a local organization to be deeply involved in, on top of donating effectively (although donating will have to wait till I get a job).

Keep Doing:

• Body weight exercises
• Monthly cooking themes - currently pancakes, previously soups (yet to finish). I also have a lot of pasta and salad recipes collected for the warmer months, in addition to 3 cookbooks that I've just ordered as a belated holiday gift to myself. I find having a theme is helpful for consistently cooking through the mountain of new recipes that I collect, otherwise I'll be lazy and eat lentils for every meal. 

Stop Doing:

• Buying cheap cashmere - my tiny gesture to prevent the over-grazing of grasslands. 
• Buying lipstick - imposing a strict quota of 1 per year, plus any replacements. I have no trouble resisting any other make-up temptation except lipsticks "orz also am over-optimistic in what colours I wear day to day.
• Buying from Zara and other fast fashion retailers - I've generally stopped...until I found out about the insanely good deals I can get at Zara kids, and the convenience of buying from ASOS in UK. Time to call it cold turkey quits, with the exception of Uniqlo since I do need one source of cheap basics. 

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As for my overarching direction...I'm not too sure.

One option is be complacent, mostly live within my comfort zone with little incremental improvements. I like this option obviously. Choosing this option would ultimately translate into working at (hopefully) WPM's Toronto office or at the very least an engineering consulting firm in Toronto. Would I be dissatisfied with this when I'm 40? That's possible, but being content rather than wanting more is a good state of mind too.

The other option is try-harding, but for what? The moonshot would be working for Sidewalk for their Toronto project. I was genuinely excited for about a week when I first found out about this, it felt like the same (possibly naive) excitement when I first found out about Arup haha. But realistically (or am I just rationalizing here?), I have zero skills as a fresh grad to offer, aside from some familiarity with passivhaus.

For now, my intermediate decision is to come up with a thesis topic that's related to Sidewalk Toronto, something like feasibility study of a neighbourhood / district scale passivhaus? Then I can either a) proactively contact the team and ask for data / funding (lol dreams) for my thesis, but at the very least b) have some evidence for my enthusiasm if I do apply for a job there post-grad.

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Lastly, new year, new planner!

Trying out the Leuchtturm1917 after years of Moleskine use

loch

I finally cook a fish dish that's not from frozen fish fillet. Refrigerated fillet is barely a step up tho xD

Salmon in Foil

The best part of this recipe is no need to sanitize because the only things that touch the raw fish are your hands. You can also minimize hand washing by prepping the vegetables first, and pouring out some salt for the rub. There's also no oily pan to wash.

It's also quite healthy I assume. The butter didn't add much to the taste so can be cut back, although I have no plans of doing that. I went with pickled carrots (the only uncooked carrots I'll eat) and green onion for the toppings, and dolloped some shiro miso on top. Next time I would sandwich the miso between the top layer of vegetables, otherwise it'll smear all over the foil when folding up the packet.

smoke

Back to cooking for myself:

Migas

Sometime during my early teens, I developed a dislike for peppers. I'm glad to say that this period is finally over. When Jeff was here, he made a chicken stir-fry with braised peppers, and it was those peppers that made me like peppers again. I'm honouring this change with a dish that features soft peppers, with the added bonus of using up some dried rolls that I have on hand. Luckily I found that Iceland sells a pack of just red and yellow peppers, but perhaps the slight bitterness of green peppers will be good here.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Chen Xiang" Aged Raw Pu-erh of Wu Liang Mountain

Bottom of cup smelled vaguely toasty...and a bit sugary. The smell from the lid had whiffs of dried stone fruit. Taste bitter, but not unpleasantly so. There might be a hint of smoke, or that could be confirmation bias since I read a review that said the tea reminded him of smoking a cigar. A mild astringency kicks in after swallowing the tea, along with a slight tingle that travels down my body. Overall it reminds me of the time in Li Jiang where I had a similarly aged Xia Guan raw (I'm certain that took a photo of this situation, can't find it anywhere grah). Aka I like this a lot and will buy a tong of it (surprisingly affordable) as soon as I figure out a good storage condition.

skincare routine: winter '18

Been two years since I last posted a routine? Well it's because it didn't change much, aside from being pared down due to re-locating to UK:

Cleansing items are still the same: Kose cleansing oil and Had Labo foaming cleanser. I might try the Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil, could be worth to switch if the price & performance is about the same so I can avoid ordering online.

Actives is reduced to the Mizon AHA, but I'd like to try Stratia's soft touch AHA after finishing this bottle. I'm also interested in trying Stratia's liquid gold once I'm back in Canada's bone-dry winter. I was going to pick up The Ordinary's 7% gylcolic acid toning solution but am not happy at the thought of needing to use cotton pads. Although they are coming out the a 10% mandelic solution, which I will get once I'm back because a) I loved Dr. Wu's mandelic acid and b) I have a stash of nice Muji cotton pads back home.

Main routine is still the Hada Labo duo, I doubt I'll ever part with these two bottles. The Scinic snail serum is also nothing new, but will switch back to Cosrx once it's done simply because it's easier to dispense the product.

I picked up the two The Ordinary products while in London since I ran out of rosehip seed oil and didn't want to order a bottle on Amazon because I don't have Prime. It's mildly infuriating that the dropper bottle for the rosehip seed oil drips. During my evening routine, I'll mix 2 drops of the rosehip seed oil into the toner and 3 drops of the niacinamide into the snail serum. I was initially put off buying the niacinamide because I read a lot of reviews complaining of a sticky texture, however I haven't experience any of that. In fact it absorbs quite fast into my skin. Hopefully I'll see some improvements in my skin brightness by the end of the bottle Though admittedly it's already got a nice glow after morning routine + laneige bb cushion.

Although my IUD has pretty much stopped any hormonal acne from occurring, I still use a combination of the Cosrx A-Sol and LJH tea tree serum to combat the occasional pimple. Together they are quite effective at reducing the inflammation.

Lastly, my favourite sunscreen so far: Sunkiller perfect water essence. Non-greasy but still light feeling and quick to absorb! Not expensive either!

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respective shoe hauls

I've learned to judge traveling with someone else as a completely separate experience and not compare it to traveling solo. A trip with someone else is experiencing the place from the interactions between that person and me, which is the opposite of being immersed in the place when I'm alone. And not being immersed makes it hard to take interesting photos. But it's good having someone to eat with, more variety of food to try! Other benefits include not being bored waiting in line, and not having to be on guard all the time.

The best part about traveling with someone else is being pushed to try new things. Going to Italy would've never even happened if Jeff didn't just feel like going somewhere before starting work. This is very last minute by my standards even though it was a month in advance. It was fun trip planning in the midst of doing my assignments, I'd research a new city every time I finish a section of my reports. Shoutout to the blogger that did a roundup of all the best gelato places in Florence, we were not disappointed following your advice.

I'm also glad that we visited Bergamo, it was purely a financial decision to stay 2 nights there because hotels in Venice are so expensive while the cheap flight to Milan actually lands in Bergamo. We both enjoyed strolling through Bergamo's old town the most out of all the places.

Our trip was quite laid back. We slept in most days since shops and restaurants don't open early anyways, and went home early since it's quite cold once it got dark at...4pm. A big change for me is not eating somewhere new for every meal. We went back a second time to a couple of favourite places:

• Oesteria dell'orso (Bologna) - student packed, late-night eatery. 6EU for a tasty plate of tagliatelle bolognese is hard to beat.
• Sandwichic & Ara e Sicillia (Florence) - a panini and aracini (plus some desserts and gelato) makes for a good, cheap meal. The two shops are within a block of each other, and 3 blocks from our hotel. 
• Da Nerbone (Florence) - even closer to our hotel is the San Lorenzo market, and this is the most frequently recommended eatery in there. Lots of locals eat the lampredotto, but I'm not a fan of the stomach's texture so we stuck to the bollito. I'm still amazed at how flavourful this boiled beef is. 
• Mercato Central (Rome) - we ate a lot of pasta and trappezzino here haha, because it's only 1 block away from our hotel. 
• Que te Pongo (Rome) - Jeff's favourite restaurant of the entire trip. We had lunch here, and came right back for dinner on the same day.  

We also spent a while in London after Italy. I took this chance to tick off a couple of restaurants from my bucket list. How I wish I have a larger appetite, they were all so yummy ;_; It's actually a problem that I have trouble finishing a regular tasting menu. My overall impression of London is quite similar to New York, which is not really a surprise. It's so huge and full of things happening that  I'll forever want to revisit.

buttermilk

My craving for fried chicken somewhat satisfied:

Absurd Bird: good fried chicken, but not american southern food unfortunately.

Jeff rationalized these two meals by saying that starting the year eating badly will guilt trip us to be healthy for the rest of the year. (Well the second meal is because the receipts in January gives 50% off the subsequent meal.)