Category Archives: Things I Love Thursday

It struck me that I almost forgot about this week’s Things I Love Thursday post. Well, we can’t have that! Happy things > stress any day.

This first one’s also pretty easy:

♥ SARA BAREILLES LIVE, OMG. Yup yup, that’s right: I went to her concert in Vancouver on Monday night and had a blast. She is a great performer and evidently believes deeply in the concept of ‘fun’. Also, she writes lovely slow, happy songs and upbeat, sad ones. (Amazon is selling her latest album for $1.99 as part of Black Friday sales. Need I say more?)

♥ Has anyone seen the moon lately? As large as a dinner plate, round, and silver or gold depending on the evening, it hangs low almost every night as if to say hello.

♥ I had an internal social event with a volunteer group the other night, and one of our volunteers made The Best Nachos Ever. My mouth waters just thinking about them now.

♥ I have a new tin of cocoa, courtesy of my brother dear. Technically, it’s for my several baking plans post-exams, but I don’t see why I can’t have a mug of cocoa every now and then — you know, as a reward for studying. Or just because.

♥ Whatever I may think of black ice, the deathly cold, the long waits for buses at night, etc, I still think that falling snow is magic.

♥ My friend sent me a link to some gorgeous entries in the National Geographic photo contest. They are breathtaking.

♥ I still have my yellow helium-filled balloon! I’m so pleased!

♥ Lastly, this cute picture by Brock Davis I found while browsing a blog:

A little less negativity, a little more positivity, please!

Positive thinking can be a hard habit to cultivate when very stressed, but this doesn’t mean I should stop trying. Also, I feel better just reflecting on the good things in life:

♥ These days it’s so dark, I love to curl up in the warmth of my bed for a few extra minutes before getting up each morning.

♥ I have a new radio—actually, I obtained it a few weeks ago but never mentioned it. It’s the first radio I’ve had in possibly fifteen years, and it delights me to no end, especially when it introduces me to music like Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orv_F2HV4gk]

♥ While I’m at it, I should also add I really appreciate the Firefox add-on for YouTube replay. It has proved an excellent tool more times than I can count.

♥ It was a friend’s birthday last Wednesday, and I rigged someone in to help make shortbread cookies with orange zest and two kinds of chocolate chips (dark and white). Needless to say, the cookies were decadent. Particularly because we did it all by hand and felt incredibly deserving of sweet rewards afterwards.

♥ My current food stash also consists of a new pot of blueberry jam (delicious!) and masses of cheddar and parsley scones I baked over the weekend. These are sitting in my freezer, ready to go for all my future vegetable soup dinner days! (Of which there will be many, courtesy of my schedule at this time of year.)

♥ I have a new toy and its name is Jing. This unobtrusive image- and video-capture software is simple, intuitive and easy to use. Best of all, it’s free! I’ve been using it at work to highlight text, draw colourful arrows, and type up explanatory notes.

♥ The fact that I can have hot water just about any time I want. Switch on the tap and water comes out. Fill up a kettle and boil water. Pour it out. How many people in the world get to do that?

♥ Last, but certainly not least—hot chocolate! A mug of hot chocolate is a wonderful, wonderful gift to have on cold, dreary days in November.

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.
— Sir Ken Robinson

The above quote comes from Ken Robinson’s TED talk about schools killing creativity. It’s the phrase that most struck me, perhaps because I am very hard on myself when I make mistakes and strive not to—and maybe this, itself, is my biggest mistake.

Today’s Things I Love Thursday post comes a day early firstly because I missed last week’s post, and secondly because tomorrow is Remembrance Day, and I think, if I were to write anything on the day, it would be on something that acknowledges that.

So here we are:

Continue reading →

I missed last week’s Things I Love Thursday because I was so overwhelmed by my life.

This week, I am even more overwhelmed, sickly and depressed, and therefore in greater need of positive thinking. So here we go!

♥ I love the foccaccia bagels from Bernoulli’s in the SUB. When I say love, I mean love. What I need in my life is a large, large loaf of foccaccia bread.

♥ One of my friends is having a sleepover in my room tonight!

♥ I talked to a professor today about potential ideas for my thesis next term and have more material to look up.

♥ The sun came out for a while yesterday! That made the autumn leaves so much more beautiful.

♥ My colouring book arrived! I now have very many fairies to colour in when I’m stressed.

♥ I’m going home tomorrow and am planning on watching Aftershock (唐山大地震). People have been telling me that I’ll be sure to cry, which I certainly hope to do—I think it’ll be very cathartic.

♥ I love doing crosswords, especially with friends.

♥ Sarah McLachlan’s original video for ‘World on Fire’ is my favourite music video of all time so far. Despite some questions it raises for me in the back of my mind, overall, it still gives me an anchor of happiness:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0O2LMqnHGg]

Hmm, I think I should try post more often so this blog isn’t clogged up with Thursday love posts.

On the other hand, even if all I only post on Thursdays, at least this blog will be one great bout of positivity!

Here goes this week:

♥ Thanksgiving last weekend was lovely. It’s the first year I’ve actually celebrated (was sick the first two years, don’t remember last year, so was probably sick then too), and I did so—twice. Once on Sunday with a giant potluck, and once on Monday with a few friends and a more traditional Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cheesy speeches—the works!

♥ I made stuffing for the first time on Monday, and it turned out well.

♥ On Saturday, three friends of mine in Toronto and Hong Kong and I had a Skype baking session. That’s right: each of us had our webcams on and were baking our own things in front of them. I made a marble cheesecake that wasn’t so marbled in the end, but fine taste-wise. I think we are awesome, and that virtual baking dates should be the norm.

♥ I discovered the ballroom in Marine Drive today. Not only does it have a piano, it has absolutely breathtaking views. I can imagine having a fantastic party there!

♥ Speaking of views, I had one to carve into memory today: the half-moon and the sunset meeting each other over the sea outside my window. My camera couldn’t capture the blending of pink and blue horizon, because it was too bright, but I will try my best to remember it always.

♥ I’m super excited to be going to San Jose this weekend to visit a friend there! The funniest part of the whole affair is that I didn’t realise San Francisco is right next to San Jose until she told me, so now I’m doubly excited.

♥ For those of you who have not yet heard the magic of Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider, their Michael Jackson medley is one of my favourite videos of theirs:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R12QVtuB0_Q]

No, that is not an optical illusion. Those really are six singing Sams and one beatboxing Kurt.

Do also check out their versions of Glee’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’, and their original ‘Don’t Want an Ending’. You can also find them on iTunes!