Happy Friday friends and well-wishers,
This was a long ass week. having a wedding on a Sunday night followed by an early Monday morning is just killer. It threw off my whole week.
Anywho, so speaking of weddings, I am but a mere 10 days away from celebrating my sister-in-law’s wedding! Could I be ore excited? The answer is no. no I could not.
I love weddings, any and all weddings BUT there is nothing better than the wedding of someone who you actually are excited to celebrate- a wedding where you feel a part of the celebrations and you are not just a witness to them. A wedding where you are a part of the love in the room, not just another body on the dance floor. So with that, I am obviously especially excited for this one!
I’m sure I will have more to say about this as it nears but for now, we have Friday to dwell upon- and boy do I love Fridays...
Especially Fridays the fall right after epic Thursdays- we spent last night with friends and amid a lot of gossip and too many gin and tonics I am pretty sure that I didn’t stop laughing for 4 straight hours. I am all for a weekend that begins like that!
So this week, after being encouraged by mon mere, I finished the book Age of Miracles. Have you read it? You should. Not only is it awesome, but it inspires some good and interesting thoughts about what is important to you.
The book opens with a 12 year old narrator who walks us through what happens to her and her life as the world slows its rotation around the sun. I am not a doomsdayer, but I am pretty sure that this is how we are going to die.
While there are the obvious repercussions that apply to all mankind, like food shortage, natural disaster/ weather, and electricity and networks- the loss of friends and family and the overall terror that the end of the world would inspire, the book calls to light what are the particular losses of the narrator and her family. I will not ruin this for you because it is just too damn good but suffice to say that I finished the book and couldn’t help but think about my personal essentials. The whats and whos of what would matter to me if I was faced with impending death/ doom.
And of course, because life is sometimes like that, the next book I picked up, called The Happiness Project, follows on the tails of this theme- what does one need in life to be happy.
Anyways, just something to think about as we head into the weekend- a time where, for all intensive purposes, we are meant to enjoy and indulge in that which makes us happy!
I myself am spending this weekend with my husband, family and good friends- those would top my list of “essentials” to survive- oh, and cheese. DEF. cheese.
xo
Jane
After a very pleasant weekend spent with one of my favorite pooches in the world, Billie. I am more convinced than ever that I have to have a dog.
I was born to a cat household- Cookie, our Tabby cat was my first furry pet (aside from Shoobie and Vucka- yes, Vucka, root of the name: unknown- I was a strange kid) was a good pet. Cookie cuddled and let us dress her up in our baby clothes without the littlest peep- she slept with me every night and I would delight in being awoken at her pouncing on my toes.
Then, my parents began developing allergies to cats and before I could protest, Cookie was passed over to a loving woman who was looking for a cat- we moved into a new home and it remained cat free.
Fast forward now to university. First thing I did was get myself a cat. I called her my mitzvah (good deed) cat. She belonged to a woman dying of cancer and I thought that by giving this sad cat a good home so she would not be abandoned, was a good thing. The vet said so, the dying woman said so, my heart said so. The cat said fuck you.
I brought the cat home with me when I left university despite it being akin to satan.
For 1.5 years I had a cat that was unfriendly, unfun, and spent the majority of its waking hours running and flinging itself at the window in my parents living room as if to try committing kitty suicide.
Suffice to say that when my mom “accidentally” left the door open and the cat escaped, I was only slightly heartbroken. I hated to think of the poor cat surviving in the wild of Suburbia, but relished in the knowledge that I could get a new, better, more lovable cat to shower my attentions on.
Fast forward to 3 years ago when I moved in with my now husband to our flat. He brought his family cat. I was elated. The cat was the best cat in the world- and the furriest. My husband got allergies to the cat. The cat went back to live with his parents. I can never have a cat again.
Anyways, I digress because the true point is that I want a dog. A big dog. A dog that likes cuddles.
Now, I don’t want to sound like I would be a bad dog owner- I would be amazing. And I don’t want to seem like I want a dog for the wrong reason- but one super perk I found out about dog ownership is that it makes you popular. Like abnormally popular. Like even the grumpiest old men stop and smile at you when you are with a cute dog, popular.
I was like the Snow White of the neighborhood! Children who usually recoil at my very presence were flocking to me just to get a glimpse of the dog, old people stopped to say hello, shop owners left their registers unattended to come over and pet the pooch. It was ridiculous!
I have walked my neighborhood many a time before, I have run, sauntered, strolled and I have never had even 1 single person say hello to me (less the crazy dude outside Starbucks who, less saying hello and more not speaking at all, rubbed against my whole body with his whole body on my way to pick up the pup- and that encounter was certainly less enjoyable and far more invasive and disgusting).
Anyways. Point being- having a dog makes you an instant hit on the streets and with my child and general people repelling ways- I need all the help I can get.
mission: dog.
Were you thankful all weekend long?
I can tell you this. I was hella thankful for the long weekend and super hella thankful to sleep in on Monday instead of my usual up at 7am (or 8 am, more often, much to my husbands dismay).
This weekend felt super long, likely because Friday was such a full day and not a work-until-5-get-home-go-out day. I even got a nap on Friday courtesy of my 9:30 dinner resos.
So, for the second time in this past few weeks I went to the Shangri-la hotel to sample the fares at Momofuko. Having already been to the noodle bar, which was ok, I was anxious to try the more fancy pants upstairs spot, Daisho.
Hot dang.
First of all, the drinks. The drinks were amazeballs. I am a sucker for anything tequila based so tequila plus some kind of lemon stuff and flower extract was perfect for moi. We grabbed drinks at the bar on the second floor, Nikai, which was bordering obnoxiously swanky but somehow skipped being too pretentious by virtue of the older clientele (we heard of some very famous foodie people at a table nearby and the manager of the whole Momofuko establishment held court at a nearby table as well).
The ambiance at Daisho struck my husband as being very “hotel-y” (he has such a way with words...) and it was, a bit sparse and modern and not like the usual mismatched country kitchen places we are used to going- but nothing could faze me (after 2 tequila drinks).
The food. I am not sure what to say about it. It was delicious, wonderful, tasty and remarkable but that all being said, I only left craving 1 item so my desire to run back is..meh.
But ok, to the nitty gritty, here is what I ate (sorry my beautiful trainer, this was a “cheat night”): oysters, pork buns, rice puffs, trout and pork- both of which I cannot really remember other than they were delish and... The piece de la resistance... A giant loaf of fresh crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside bread with a side of “drippings” which is the fresh gravy sauce that drips off of the meats as they are cooked. ERMAHGERD. Shit was cray.
We basically spent the remainder of the weekend stuffing our little faces, seeing friends and family and getting house stuff done- because, that just never seems to end. Oh, and I went book shopping- hurray!
I have been addicted to reading since my birthday this past April- I have always been an avid reader but have gone from avid reader to super sonic mega reader. I was, in fact, banned from purchasing books at one point (but you just cant put a price on education, in the end). At Indigo, my dad, who happily spent Sunday with me, suggested a kobo e-reader. I don’t know how I feel about that. Part of my love for books is the ink, the paper, the weight, the way they bend and feel- they way you imprint your reading experience into them.
Was I stuffing myself full of chocolate or crying hysterically as I read- the telltale brown smudges or water marks tell the story of the experience. I don’t know that I can give that whole part up just yet.
So, I got myself 3 new books instead and said no thank you to the electronic book.
I got a book called The Age of Miracles- which I just started today after a review from my mother who called it “spooky”- I like spooky stuff... I got a book called the Marriage Plot by the dude who wrote Middlesex and I got a book called The Happiness Project, the true story of a woman who simplified and happy-fied her life. On the tail of the last book I read, which was fantastic (The Virgin Cure) I am already anxious to get through thee 3 and read more. The appetite is insatiable.
