To-do (Sep 2012)

Some parts of this post were written earlier… I hope things still make sense:

One year ago, or two blog posts ago, a friend said she liked the direction along which my blog was going – lifestyle blog (?). I told her one of my childhood dreams was to become the editor of a successful lifestyle magazine. To realise the dream I could never realise, I'm implementing some new types of posts, reflecting the style of lifestyle magazines.

I couldn't decide on how to name this post - Items to Put on Your To-do List! or On Your To-do List, Now!... both very creative names, aren’t they? Eventually I’ve chosen to stick to a less bizarre name… TMI. In To-do I'll introduce activities or things that I suggest my readers to try out. There isn't any review, just some lines to support my suggestions.

To read
Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.

Bitten by the reading bug in London in July, I started reading regularly again. Since then I have started three books, the only one that I have finished* is Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.

A review will be written soon and posted on a book review club blog, owned by the world’s two most amazing people – Theodora and I, of course!

Shameless plug:
Fishing in the Tadpole Kingdom Fishing in the Tadpole Kingdom Fishing in the Tadpole Kingdom Fishing in the Tadpole Kingdom

* I have my reasons. One of the two unfinished, now abandoned, books involves torturing and brutally killing dogs. The other is a non-fiction!


To listen
Moonrise Kingdom OST

This is what I’m listening to at the moment. I’m no soundtrack expert, but apparently Wes Anderson’s films always have great soundtracks. This is true for Moonrise Kingdom (which is an AMAZING film by the way). Very great soundtrack, indeed… it’s trying to teach you something about music too! Admittedly I am spoilt and have some nice computer speaker system (for its age), but listening to beautiful tracks whilst enjoying a beautiful film in a cinema is an experience that could never be beaten.

I saw Moonrise Kingdom at the Hong Kong Summer International Film Festival. Full house. We all sat through the end credits and enjoyed The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 7 by Alexandre Desplat. We all clapped. Clapping rarely happens here… what about a standing ovation next time?




To watch
Moonrise Kingdom



Love the cast! Love the story! Love the soundtrack! Love how beautiful it is! Go see it. Very entertaining too.


To Rome with Love



Laughed my heart out during the whole film. I think I enjoyed this more than Midnight in Paris, which was very good. A lot of people are going to disagree with me on that.

To Rome with Love made me hate Penelope Cruz a little less, and love Jesse Eisenberg a little more. Still no opinion on Greta Gerwig. Though I loved Woody Allen’s character, maybe he should stick to directing/writing…


Young Adult



Don’t have the luxury to go to the cinema? Watch Young Adult. It’s funny and really sad at the same time. Is it wrong to say that I could relate to Mavis at my age? *Spoiler Alert* – Uncomfortable ending.

Jason Reitman’s officially my favourite director. Now I wish he were more good-looking.

Got this song stuck in my head ever since. The Concept by Teenage Fanclub.



To go
Flow Bookstore

I’ve actually written the introduction of a post on this little gem, but that post isn’t going anywhere… so let me introduce Flow here.

Selfishly I’ve debated whether I should talk about Flow on my blog… you know, some things are better not said. I’m not sure if I want my favourite bookstore to become everyone’s favourite! But at the same time I want people to know how great this shop is! As I realise my blog isn’t as popular as I imagine it is… here we go:

Whilst googling “garage sale in Hong Kong” during one of my many sleepless nights, I found Flow Bookstore. I dragged my friends there the next day. It wasn’t hard to locate at all.

Flow is a second-hand bookstore, the kind that you don’t think exists in Hong Kong, where chain bookstores dominate. They sell books, all kinds of books, and DVDs. Flow offers a treasure-hunting shopping experience. You’ll be rewarded if you look carefully. I found The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel (new, unread), Essays in Love by Alain de Botton (perfect condition, at almost half the chain bookstore price), along with many other books that I once thought of reading! You know that familiar line “I WANTED TO READ THIS BOOK BEFORE!!!!”? You don’t have to worry about the condition of the books, or the price, at all. I immediately cancelled my Amazon order when I got home (I’d ordered Essays in Love but it wouldn’t arrive until a month later). I purposely left books un-bought so I would go again!



The owner’s an awesome man, so well-read and passionate. We had a little chat on Alain de Botton. He also mentioned that he was working on a database of items!

Flow reminds me of Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road in London. But it’s better because they sell book club books here.

Flow Bookstore
7/F No. 29 Hollywood Road
Central
Hong Kong
Website


To eat
Home-cooked meals
The reading bug won’t get off me. And in August, I was bitten by the cooking bug. I went on thousands of cooking websites. I watched millions of Youtube cooking videos. I got myself the Jamie Olivier cookbook Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours. But still I haven’t made a proper dish this summer! Well, apart from blueberry muffins, but they turned out really bad.

Jamie's Ministry of Food is a great cookbook – aesthetically pleasing and useful. Too bad summer’s coming to an end… so cooking project in Christmas? I’ll update you on this one.

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Incidentally, regular posts will either be in English OR Chinese. Bilingual when I have the time, and trilingual blogs will come when I have the time to learn a new language.