Click these: but first...

...let me take a shelfie. Yasumi over at WorshipBlues had a fun idea for a new series of shelfies (shelf selfies), and the first post - with one from me - is up. Go check out the others!

Click these

• Things to do in Porto and Montserrat, Spain. More ideas for my Eurotrip 3.0: Jane takes the Iberian Peninsula.
• On 5 ways to feel more confident and believing you're the best.
• Doing what you love vs. doing what you must. Let's face it - if I dedicated my life to what I truly loved without conditions, I would be spending my days in bed eating only Tims Tams and getting scurvy.
• Ria's thoughts on the representation of Asian women in western media (or lack of).
• Louise's introduction to the Yasukuni issue, which she visited as part of her thesis research.
• Why I don't believe in dressing for my body type - “Flattering” is really just code for “makes you look thinner, taller, more curvy or less curvy”, whichever side your body falls on in comparison to what’s currently considered ‘ideal’. Well said!

One more week until Easter and midsem break! I am dying for it!

Little black classics

As you've probably seen, Penguin has brought out these Little Black Classics to celebrate their 80th anniversary. They're $2 each here in Australia, so I couldn't resist popping by Kinokuniya to pick some up. I ended up choosing three that I'd read before, but didn't have on my shelf.

• The Tinder Box by Hans Christian Andersen. I love Hans Christian Andersen fairytales - they are far superior to the Grimm Brothers ones. I used to have a three volume collection of all the stories, but I don't know where they got to.
• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. The writing in his short stories is just so over the top, I can't help but laugh while feeling spooked about what's actually happening. I remember someone reading The Black Cat aloud during a sleepover in high school (obviously we were all highly intellectual) and freaking us all out.
• The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's a disturbing short story about a woman who's confined to a room by her doctor husband and suffers a mental breakdown - a critique of the medical oppression of women in the 19th century, when it was written.

I considered buying a few more, but none of the other ones really sparked my interest. Check them out if you want to pick up some books for cheap, they'd make nice gift-box-fillers too I reckon.

Sweat it out

Sweatshirt from UNIQLO / watch c/o Daniel Wellington / bad posture from too much time in front of the computer.

After a year or two of kind-of wanting a sweatshirt, I finally caved and bought one. The catalyst was seeing a sweatshirt with elbow patches on Tumblr, which set off some grand plans to DIY patches of my own. However, in typical fashion, I've now decided I'm too lazy to do so. I think this sweatshirt is supposed to be more relaxed in fit, but I sized down because I like a higher neckline, and now it's fitted enough so that I can wear it with nice trousers and nice shoes to try to pass it off as smart casual for placement.

I've been indulging in my wishlist too often lately, I really need to stop spending and save up. I have Big Plans for summer 2015/16 which are getting more ridiculous by the day; I will spill when I manage to finalise everything but it's going to involve a month in London next February (I'm doing an elective term there, which is like the medical student equivalent of exchange). I've been having a look at rent prices in London and let's just say I'm probably going to have to spend all four weeks in a 12 person dorm...

Spectrum Now

Wai Lam and I had about a half an hour window of time on Saturday to look around the Spectrum Playground. Spectrum Now is another festival (I'm actually unclear about what exactly it is) and there is a food market/music thing going on in The Domain for it. I'm a sucker for food in this market kind of setting but apparently no one else really cares. That's okay, fewer lines for me!


The Domain is nice, I'm not sure why we snub it as a picnic location. I like walking through Sydney Hospital to get there too, nicest looking hospital in Sydney possibly?


N2 and Black Star Pastry are doing a collab stall and Wai Lam got the ice cream version of Black Star's watermelon and strawberry cake. I've never tried this cake. I am still not convinced about strawberry and watermelon in a cake.


I crossed over to the Messina stall, Sydney's OTHER favourite gelato place...


They were doing twists on classic ice creams/chocolate bars. I got an ice-cream bar with hazelnuts, dulce de leche, and covered in chocolate...


Things got a bit messy.


Wai Lam managed to eat hers more elegantly.

I think this ends on Sunday so if you're looking for a nice deserted place with food stalls and clean grass to set up on, check it out!