Paper Wishlist.

It's no secret that I'm a big stationery fan, in fact starting a new notebook is one of those satisfying little things that just brings me joy. That said, with growing older, in the same way I've (tried to) work my wardrobe, I've found that a few key pieces that I'll actually use are far more important than picking up every pretty-looking thing I can get my hands on.

I was renowned for starting notebooks and moving onto another one before getting halfway through. Now, I try to make the most of what I've got before starting again, we're still talking about stationery here.

With all that said, Christmas is coming and that marks a point where it's time to start new diaries and re-write dates to remember in calendars, and with that said, here are four paper-related things on my Christmas wishlist this year.


1 // 2015 Frankie Diary – I picked up a Frankie Diary last year and have used it throughout 2014, still loving its cutesy page designs and having a space to physically write out my weekly plans - Google calendar just isn't the same but I do put everything everywhere. The likelihood is that I'll be bagging the 2015 diary as a gift to myself before Christmas rolls around but it's so beautiful that I thought it was the decent thing to share it with you all the same.

2 // Cat Daddy by Jackson Galaxy – I came across My Cat from Hell a little while ago and as someone whose cat isn't from hell but is a lot more standoffish than I would like, I do enjoy learning about acceptable cat behaviour and why Doll is the way she is. This book might be a bit of a throwaway and I do have plenty of books on my 'to-read' list at the moment but it also seems like an easy read to pass the time over the Christmas holidays.

3 // One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Book – This looks like the first diary of its kind that might work out pretty well for me. Much easier to do that write a whole entry, it would be really nice to have something like this to look back on.

4 // Rifle Paper Co. 2015 Appointment Calendar – Isn't this beautiful? I've admired the Rifle Paper Company from afar for what feels like ages now but this is the first practical piece of their's that I've genuinely wanted to get my hands on. Like I said, I write everything everywhere and a paper calendar is a must for our kitchen.

Do you have any stationery on your Christmas wishlist this year?

My Week in Meals.

Looking back at this, my diet from last week actually makes me feel a bit silly. There's a lot of junk in here that I wouldn't normally eat, but it was just one of those weeks, plus the Chinese on Friday night was down to circumstance rather than actually going out of my way to get it.

Despite a little bit of shame, I thought I'd share these meals with you anyway because the food that wasn't take-out, was pretty delicious - mainly thanks to my house-husband, Moon. It's pretty good to reflect too as I now know that this week I would like to be slightly healthier.







Monday - Sausages, beans and mash potatoes.
Tuesday - Takeaway - Saveloy and chips from 'The Plaice'.
Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognese ♥
Thursday - Garlic and herb salmon, boiled new potatoes and broad beans.
Friday - Takeaway - 'Eastern Chef' thanks to Moon's dad.
Saturday - Cheese and tomatoes on toast with Worcester sauce.
Sunday - Roast chicken with potatoes, carrots, courgettes and mushrooms.

My favourite - Sausages, beans and mash; top tip, never buy cheap sausages - although my roast is a pretty close second.

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I don't want to keep apologising for being a bit MIA but I really did need to relax and sleep over the weekend. It's pretty good though because it's meant that I've been able to come back with a fresh head and some more ideas, so stay tuned.

Tiny Changes.

I'm so, so glad that the weather has decided to kind of start to clear up, all that gloom and drizzle was a major downer. I haven't felt so productive on a Monday in a while, and there's still so much to get done, I'm putting it down to the lovely sunlight that beamed through my bedroom window this morning, thank you, Sun. I figured I'd take a pitstop here and share some of the new additions we've made to the flat over the weekend, some more living and breathing than others.

Maybe today's productivity is an overflow from all the crazy running around we did at the weekend, felt like we didn't have two seconds to ourselves. If we weren't in the car driving somewhere, we were thinking about how to pack something, it doesn't really make for a relaxed life.

Briefly walking around Dorking on Saturday morning (before 11 o'clock!), and stopping in at my current favourite, Feather & Fern, I thought I'd give Dorking's flagship vintage shop, Shrewd, a quick nosey. Shrewd has changed a lot since it first opened up and has relocated to a much brighter, more spacious location. It has a similar feel to the upstairs of Snooper's in Brighton and I like it. Despite my current clothes-fast, I still really liked going through all the lovely one-off pieces they have to offer.


With yet more drizzle after lunch, Moon and I went over to Guildford to pick up Chris and Calvert before going over to Ikea. However, due to a badly-timed look around the shops to kill time, we (Moon) ended up picking up an armchair, something we've (any visitors) have been in need of. We got it from Sabichi, and it was half-price as it was a display model, but still in as-new condition, although Moon did break it in transit when we headed back to drop it off at my Gran's before heading back to Guildford, second time lucky, to get Chris and Calvert. After nearly two hours in Ikea and being one small sofa-bed up, poor old Chris and Calvert ended up being shoved in the boot of the car. It was a good job we did drop off the chair before, but it was still a pretty stupid idea.

After picking up Doll from 'home-home', loaded up with more cat food than I've ever seen in my life (thanks, Mum!), we brought a pretty stressed-out and sad kitty back to Newbury with us. To be fair though, if someone put you in a cage, bunged you in a car and didn't tell you where they were taking you, you'd probably be a bit anxious too. Despite that, Doll seems happy to have our flat as her new home and readily spread herself out on our bed, she's currently curled up at my feet ♥.

About two hours after we got home...


SOLSTA, £89, Ikea
The stressful sofa-bed; home of my cat cushions and sunshine-coloured knitted throw (also Ikea).


This room still feels half-empty to me, I'm trying to make the most of it as an office space and have spent a few hours in here this afternoon but I think it needs a little something extra.


We've swapped chests, I'm quite happy about this as I put work into painting my one.


The current state of the living room with red leather armchair in-tow. Keep an eye out for that box, it's my next adventure into painting.


Yep.
I think that now, minus a microwave, we have all the furniture we need, once we have a weekend that isn't spent running around, we'll be able to enjoy the work that's gone into making this place our own.

Fitting in with the staying productive, I've made a little list of future posts, and I hope to post a bit more than usual this week. I hope you're having a great start to the week and that your weekend wasn't quite so frantic.

Tsim Sha Tsui & Sai Kung.

Yesterday we were out from 11am to 12am, so like I mentioned in my previous post it was a long day. However, due to all the excitement of, you know, getting home, no one went to bed until 2am... and I couldn't sleep until at least 4am, I only woke up an hour ago. Perhaps I am slightly ashamed but the last few days have been knackering and it's not something that I plan on doing from here on in.
My sleeping pattern so farhas been awful, going to bed at 2-3am and waking up at 9, I hit a wall at about 3pm but don't embrace it and power through, I think that was the key to it, so maybe this slight mistake will make everything a bit better.

We began yesterday with a buffet lunch at The Royal Garden restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, it's part of a large hotel that has a few other restaurants in it too, it was pretty posh. They had so much choice in food, from sashimi to salad and to hot curry dishes and dim sum. It was a weird mixture, but it worked because you could choose from anything, I don't think there's anywhere similar, that is as good in the UK. The had some pretty awesome puddings too - I had chocolate fountain, American cheesecake, a chocolate mousse and a pandan pancake, you know, I haven't really had any sweets in a while and it was all paid for, so...






After The Royal Garden we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History, I was surprisingly underwhelmed. I usually really go for museums and enjoy them, but there was something about this place. Maybe it was because it was too fact-heavy, I knew nearly everything and what I didn't know, I wasn't interested in. I think what the main problem was my sister taking about 10 years to look at everything, she examined every detail of each plaque and we were there for nearly 3 hours, which would have been fine if I had been enjoying it, but I just ended up bored and frustrated. I think the slow pace meant that even the parts of Hong Kong history that I am interested in had the enthusiasm sucked out of it. It's quite a patriotic place too, which I thought was a bit strange for a museum, I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just something I've never really experienced before.







We then did a bit of shopping around Mong Kok, and I picked up a neat underwater 35mm camera, which I look forward to using on the beach in France at the end of August. I hope it works as it's much cheaper than buying disposable underwater cameras and I already have the film, it might be alright. Then we went to the Tsim Sha Tsui ladies market, which was fun until I got tricked into haggling for a bag I didn't even want, it's a nice bag, I just don't feel much of an affinity for it. We all hopped on the bus once we found each other (my sister and I got separated from my mum and cousins) and we headed over to Sai Kung, a small fishing town on the other side of Kowloon. I couldn't see much because it was very dark by then but we went to a restaurant that was right on the harbour which had fishtanks full of fresh seafood to pick from for dinner. I've never seen anything like that before. The supermarkets here and Oriental supermarkets in the UK as well as some restaurants do allow you to pick live seafood, I suppose, but nowhere near on this scale or with this much choice! The restaurants even allowed you to hold some of their produce, my Mum took one for the team and held up a huge lobster, bigger than any I've ever seen. The meal was great but the journey back was a bit of a pain because it was so far away from where we were and it was very late.









Yesterday was easily my favourite day so far, just because there was less travelling and more taking the time to do things, even though it was busy, it was still enjoyable. I loved taking so many pictures and having so many fun things to take picture of, this does however exclude the museum, but that's just me, I think everyone I was with loved it.
Ongoing Flickr set

Hello from HK.

I thought that I should finish the day with a quick post to let you know what I've been up to, otherwise I think that I would start to get behind, I took so may photos to day anyway!

Even more walking has taken place and my legs are basically killing me, but the good news is that I may finally be used to the weather. However, saying that, it has been much cooler in the last two days due to the threat of small typhoons. I experienced my first one yesterday, it lasted about five minutes, but it was some pretty intense, heavy rain. I'm glad for it anyway though because it equates to this slightly cooler (but still boiling) weather.
I still haven't managed to see 'A Symphony of Lights', but I'm only five days into a two and a half week holiday, so I'm not crying about it. Nearly everyone we have told about it gets cross because you can watch the show for free along the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, but that's not at all like a boat is it?

It's actually quite good to keep the blog going while I'm away, because, despite the short amount of time, I'm already losing track of days and it feels like I've been here forever. I think this problem may be related to the heat and the slow pace at which I'm then forced to do everything. It's not as though I am complaining because our days have been very packed, although I am glad for the 'day off' tomorrow.

I'm hoping that we can visit more of the New Territory next week because things seem to be cheaper there, and I'm not really much of a one for designer clothes and brands; although I may be tempted to treat myself to something before I leave.

So, despite the last couple of days being a bit of a blur, I can tell you that the weather hasn't been brilliant and we have been very touristy. On Thursday we did a bit of shopping and hung out in Tai Koo Mall, and on Friday we visited some traditional Hong Kong monasteries. Due to the fact that Hong Kong is part of such a large spiritual heritage by default, I was surprised to hear my BBC cousin, who now lives here, talk about the lack of 'culture' in Hong Kong. We visited both the Wong Tai Sin Temple and the Chi Lin Nunnery, they were a bit of fresh air from the bombardment of over-saturated shopping complexes, but I enjoy both in different ways.
Today was a very busy, not to mention long, day, so I will more than likely update tomorrow on the planned day off, although my Mum is slightly threatening that we might leave Causeway Bay, I might protest and be a bad holiday-maker. I've had more activity in the last five days than I have had in five months. I thought holidays were about rest, but in somewhere as bustling as Hong Kong it was probably always going to be out of the question, at least I'm experiencing new things and taking it all in.

Nearly every shopping complex we have visited has had this kind of stage area, I'm unsure of what was happening, but we have passed several performances now. This photo was at the mall in Tai Koo and seemed to be related to Guiness World Records...

I felt remorse over the lack of arms in this sign.

My sister and I got our fortunes told when we visited the temple in Wong Tai Sin, get your diaries out, apparently I'm getting married in 2013, it's good that I was wearing all my lucky colours too.

Ongoing Flickr set
Lookout for another post tomorrow. It's so odd with the time difference here, my sleeping pattern is more than ruined, despite probably being jet-lag free now.