taffy

I'm always very happy to see series featuring Sichuan food:

The first 3 episodes take place in Sichuan, with the remaining in Guizhou and Yunnan. Makes me miss my summer there.

hex

More soups!

Smoky potato and chickpea stew

I think at this point, most soups taste pretty similar, and none too exceptional (though caldo verde is really good). Maybe it's time to move onto other types of food, but so hard to beat the convenience of making a big pot of soup and stuffing all the veggie and legumes in.

...

I did come up with a quicker way to cook carrots: steam in microwave and then sear in pan:

The first batch turned out good enough, I'd like a harder sear but I was stupid and put powdered spices in the oil at the beginning, thus I couldn't turn up the heat too much for the fear of burning the spices.

here and now

I've been listening to a podcast called Secular Buddhism, which is a worldview that's...compelling and relevant to me, I think those are the right words. The podcasts are clearly explained and offers quite practical lessons. If this was compiled into a book I would definitely buy it.

Previously if you ask me what worldview I believe in, I would've answered existentialism. That's probably because it's the only one I've studied with half an ounce of rigour (in grade 12 ha) at the right timing. There's some concepts that are common between existentialism and secular buddhism, such as no inherent purpose in life, suffering as result of choice, and it's ultimately up to you to have your perspective to alleviate said suffering.

A few notes from some notable episodes I've listened to:

• The Nature of Human Suffering: outlines three types of suffering of physical pain, emotional loss, and stories that we use to make sense of what's happened that causes us grief. The first two we cannot help but feel, the last we should recognize and eliminate.
• True Selflessness: the sense of self / ego is not a permanent thing (as there is only impermanence). The self is only a collection of relations to others, hence to be selfish is to care about other people. This reminds me of a discussion I had with Tien where he told me about how no one person deserves more than another because anything we've ever had / have is given by someone else. 
• Parable of the Raft: teaches us to let go. Not sure if it's actually this episode that discusses that the present moment is all we ever have, aka the past and future are mere constructs. 
• The Faith to Doubt: reinforces the idea of there's reality, which we should / can have faith in, and then there's the stories we make up, which we should doubt. My favourite analogy from this series also makes an appearance in this episode, it goes that life is like tetris, we know there will be a new block that falls, but we don't know which block. If we wish / expect a certain block, we will suffer once our expectations are not met. But if we accept whatever block that comes up and manipulate it accordingly, we'll do well in the game. 
• Truth in the Context of Time: reinforces the idea that everything is impermanent, but that we shouldn't discredit conceptual truths (as opposed to empirical truths which are true independent of humans, conceptual truths are human beliefs) of the past because they are no longer true in the present. May I gloat a bit and say that I've learned this lesson well. 

tower

Haven't had a nice sunset in a while:

griddle

the pancake adventures continue with a classic buttermilk:

I'm still bad at mixing in flour without deflating the batter...because I'm too adverse to washing another utensil, so I kept mixing with a fork. Smh. These turned out quite heavy and dense (so full from eating these two) due to my laziness, but I do prefer these to the previous sour cream version.

错过的时间怎么买

Been re-listening to all my Jay Chou songs these couple of days. Was reminded by manga (so happy that I retain enough chinese to understand the raws) and a conversation with friends about the celebrities that we found good looking. I've also finally listened to his new album, which isn't much to my taste except this song (it sounds like a soundtrack song because it is):

男：假装我们还在一块 我真的演不出来
        还是不习惯你不在 这身份转变太快

女：画面里不需要旁白 却谁都看的出来
        是我情绪涌了上来 想哭却一遍空白

男：雪地里相爱 他们说零下已结晶的誓言不会坏
合：但爱的状态 却不会永远都冰封 而透明的存在

        轻轻飘落下来 许下的梦融化的太快 或许我们都不该醒来

女：你还是住在我的回忆里不出来
男：让我们微笑离开让故事留下来
合：放手后爱依然在 雪融了就应该花开

        缘若尽了就不该再重来
女：你依旧住在我的回忆里不出来
男：我离开将你的手交给下个最爱
合：纠缠与固执等待 反而是另一种伤害

        彼此紧握的手松开 去拥抱更多未来

男：错过的时间怎么买 谁都付 不出来
女：或许我们学会释怀 让过去安静下来

合：雪地里相爱 他们说零下已结晶的誓言不会坏
        但爱的状态 却不会永远都冰封 而透明的存在
        轻轻飘落下来 许下的梦融化的太快 或许我们都不该醒来

女：你还是 住在我的回忆里不出来
男：让我们微笑离开让故事留下来
合：放手后爱依然在 雪融了就应该花开
        缘若尽了就不该再重来
女：你依旧住在我的回忆里不出来
男：我离开将你的手交给下个最爱
合：纠缠与固执等待 反而是 另一种伤害
       彼此紧握的手松开 去拥抱更多未来

It's so hard picking a favourite line for the post title, the runner up is "让过去安静下来" but also all the lines where they both sing. 

Now excuse me while I go watch Now You See Me, which I just found out stars Jay Chou. And that there's a sequel, featuring his song! 

pecan

Milk braised sweet potato with chickpea version of texas caviar 

Browned (maillard reaction) dairy is yummy, I'd very much like to try toasted cream. Will also try the same recipe with potatoes and thyme instead, and also with single cream instead of milk for more yummy milk solids.

ABDC

Hurray new cookbooks!

In other, very extremely, sad news, batoto is closing down. It was many glorious years of reading manga on there, thanks for having been there. I'd be panicking more if not for:

• I follow a lot of webcomics on Line
• Already bookmarked several escalation groups
• It's probably a good opportunity to downsize my manga consumption

:(

...

I caught up to all the translated chapters of Knight Run, which is not that many considering the main episodes start from now on (?!), and this is the high praise that I shall give: it's a cross between Ares in how it depicts war (oh it's been so many years) and The Brothers Karamazov in how it depicts humanity. While browsing my archives to find the links, I came across my post on Yongbi and thought what I wrote there applies to KR too.

It rounds out ToG and CiTT as my favourite webcomics. It's similar to CiTT in how much foreshadowing and clues there are in each chapter. It's literally the only webcomic that I've read with its wiki page open in the adjacent tab, searching as I go. 

press

Decided to cook something more involved than soup to get over a slump:

masala eggs wrapped in flatbread with shredded cabbage

It was delicious, I wish I had the stomach room to eat another one.

The eggs will definitely be a staple, along with green onion fried eggs and tomatoes and eggs. It takes a bit longer than the Chinese eggs since I'm super slow at cutting vegetables into neat little dices. The bread tasted sweet despite not having any sugar in the recipe, which I credit to the fancy jersey milk that I used. It's insane how a bottle of that is 70p whereas a comparable bottle of whole milk (not sure what type of cow) in Toronto is $4. I was apprehensive at the bread's success since I only have volume measurements, and I did have to add a lot more flour than the recipe stated to arrive at a not too sticky dough, but in the end breads are pretty forgiving. I found that putting a lid on the pan to trap some steam produced a better texture.

And I do feel better after dedicating the morning to cooking. Also made poached pears with cinnamon (flavour pairing discovered via The Flavour Thesaurus) which was delicious as well. I'm so on board with fruit soups after my friend highly recommended cooking apples in the winter to avoid eating cold fruits.

The Signal and the Noise

First book read of 2018! Blocking out half to an hour before sleeping to read has been working well.

David recommended this book to me as an introduction to Bayesian thinking / probability. More generally, Bayesian thinking helps to correct, or at least bring into awareness, many cognitive biases and therefore help us be less wrong. I found the book to have clear explanations and quite entertaining. It was interesting to me that the author felt the need to explain the rules of poker but not baseball or political polling, the reverse would've been helpful to me personally. I do really like how the book is printed on super smooth (but not glossy!) paper.

The introduction basically outlines the pitfalls:

The instinctual shortcut that we take when we have "too much information" is to engage with it selectively, picking out the parts we like and ignoring the remainder, making allies with those who have made the same choices and enemies of the rest. 

The story the data tells us is often the one we'd like to hear, and we usually make sure that it has a happy ending. 

We face danger whenever information growth outpaces our understanding of how to process it. 

Prediction is important because it connects subjective and objective reality.

Once you learn a new idea, you start seeing it everywhere, much like when you learn a new word, you start hearing it in every conversation. I recently started listening to the Secular Buddhism podcast, and in episode 2 (or was it 3?) it tells the story of 6 blind men describing an elephant, which is the same idea as "the forecaster's next commitment is to realize that she perceives [the objective truth] imperfectly". 

Part 1 describes how predictions about the 2008 financial crisis fail because it used out-of-sample data and defines the difference between uncertainty (not quantifiable) and risk (quantifiable).  "When you can't state your innocence, proclaim your ignorance: this is often the first line of defence when there is a failed forecast." reminds me the concept of due diligence in the engineering profession, whose purpose is exactly to safeguard against proclamations of ignorance. 

Part 2 describes the difference between foxes and hedgehogs, which represent two different personality types. Hedgehogs tend to let strong ideology cloud their judgement. 

Part 3 describes the litmus test of good predictions: that the accuracy should improve with additional data. "The key to making a good forecast [is] having a good process for weighing [both qualitative and quantitative] information appropriately".

Part 4 is the rare success story of weather forecasting, where computational models are amended with human judgement. The easy part is that we know a good amount of atmospheric science so the models are based on sound theory, the hard part is that weather systems are chaotic (non-linear and dynamic). 

Part 5 describes how in contrast, earthquakes forecasting haven't been so successful. Some failures are because the models are overfitted, meaning that too specific of a solution has been found for a general problem. Earthquakes are also complex (simple elements but complex interaction, I know I just used a word to define itself). 

Part 6 brings up the famous quotation of "correlation doesn't imply causation", and says that:

To not confused correlation for causation, one need to have a theory of what the cause is

Technology did not cover for the lack of theoretical understanding about the economy; it only gave economists faster and more elaborate ways mistake Noise for a signal.

The amount of confidence someone expresses in a prediction is not a good indicator of its accuracy.

Part 7 describes how human behaviour messes everything up even more:

In many cases involving prediction about human activity, the vey act of prediction can alter the way that people behave. Sometimes, as in economics, these changes in behaviour can affect the outcome of the prediction itself, either nullifying it or making it more accurate. Predictions about the flu and other infectious diseases are affect by both sides of this problem.

Pretty much every course I've taken has made a joke of if only we can get rid of the pesky occupants.

Part 8 formally introduces Bayesian probability and bashes a great deal on the stats that's most commonly taught. I don't feel as bad that I forgot most of what I've learned.

We learn about [the universe] through approximation, getting closer and closer to the truth as we gather more evidence. [...] The Bayesian viewpoint regards rationality as a probabilistic matter.

The frequentist approach towards statistics seeks to wash its hands of the reason that predictions most often go wrong: human error. It views uncertainty as something intrinsic to the experiment rather than something intrinsic to our ability to understand the real world.
It emphasizes the objective purity of the experiment - every hypothesis could be tested to a perfect conclusion if only enough data were collected. However, in order to achieve that purity, it denies the need for Bayesian priors or any other sort of messy real-world context. These methods neither require or encourage us to think about the plausibility of our hypothesis

Part 9 describes chess as an example of a deterministic problem that is not within our (or even a supercomputer's) practical capabilities to fully solve. Instead we employ heuristics (rules of thumb).

Part 10 gives a step by step example of Bayesian probability applied to poker.

Part 11 describes that unfortunately more accessible information cancels out the wisdom of the crowds as we adopt a herd mentality. Our decisions becoming dependant, which creates a positive feedback loop for mistakes instead of vice versa.

Part 12 is even more depressing as it describes the politicization of science and the difficulty of communicating uncertainty (it was already bad enough learning about it in ENV221).

Part 13 describes "our propensity to mistake the unfamiliar for the improbable" using terrorist attacks as a case study.

...

I'm not sure how well I'll actually apply the lessons learned to my life. Perhaps I'll at least analyze data for my courses/thesis better?

foam

I finally started on making some pancakes! The delay is mostly because I was too lazy to pick up baking soda and baking powder whenever I'm at the grocery store, for some reason baking ingredients are on the opposite end of the store as produce.

But alas, Smitten Kitchen's sour cream pancakes:

I think they turned out well, considering that I haven't made pancakes for at least 3 years. But the credit goes to the clearly written recipe with both time estimate and visual cues. I was nervous while mixing the batter as it looked like way too much sour cream, and the mixture did not look like it wanted to come together with the beaten eggs; it'd be nice if Deb included photos of the batter (instead of the eggs in a bowl).

However, I don't think I'm a fan of this particular recipe. The pancakes turn out very...custard-y? Although to be honest I'm not sure what type of pancakes I prefer. Well that's why I have many other recipes to work through, including buckwheat crepes since I did find buckwheat four in my grocery store, it had pretty packaging to boost.

...

Also made texas caviar, which is really just a bean salad:

"just" a bean salad is doing this dis-service, it's a very tasty bean salad. This will definitely be in my lunch rotation once the weather warms up.

I'll admit my hubris in not wanting to use canned beans because I think I should be able to cook dried beans to textural perfection (ha...at least I can partially blame the dubious quality of grocery store beans). But my grocery store do not actually have dried black eye peas. In the end, it turns out to be good luck that I used canned beans because chalky beans would've made this horrendous.

silence

Ming Thein's article on creative integrity is the exact message I want to convey whenever someone suggests to me about turning a hobby into a profession.

Don't wanna open a tea shop
Don't wanna be a food blogger

...except potentially opening a noodle bar.

truckle

This is the...second? third? recipe invention by yours truly: pasta e 酸菜

To be honest it's not super creative, simply a case of ingredient substitution. It mashes together pasta al olio and pasta e pepe, but switching sichuan pepper for black pepper and adding in sour veggies as a salty / sour element. Add in a generous amount of cheese at the end and it has all the flavour components of sat, acid, fat and heat.

Previously I've had trouble emulsifying the sauce, which I wrongly attributed to not enough oil. Turns out it's actually the opposite, which I found out by accidentally splashing in too much pasta water. I also accidentally discovered today that starting eggs in kettle boiled water in a cold pot produces a more similar texture between the whites and eggs. My old method was to boil water in pot, add eggs once a rolling boil is reached and cook for 6 minutes (Siri can attest that this is the most frequent command that I issue), while letting it cool naturally (ie. not running under cold water). But now I've revised it to pour kettle boiled water over egg in pot, then turn on the heat and cooking for 7 minutes and letting it cool naturally (the photo above shows a 6 min cook time, which left some of the white still runny although the yolk is perfect). However, the 2 eggs that I cooked with the new method are super difficult to peel. Not sure if unlucky or it's a flaw.
Later edit: tried again with 2 more eggs. One was easy to peel and one was moderate. Seems to be just luck.

...

In other (food) news, a new wheel of Snowdonia cheese: red storm

It's just as yummy as the Black Bomber...but they also taste the same to me. Guess it'll be a while until I develop a more sophisticated palate.

porker

Back to the old reliable soup for dinner:

Caldo Verde

I'm glad I resisted the urge to do some substitution and just stuck to Kenji's recipe. Well except for the potatoes since I couldn't figure out British potato varieties so used "baking potatoes". I also cheated on the stock by just adding water to the pan where I browned the sausages in and scrapping up all the fond. It's super delicious.

cave

I was reading through my archive and came across an old post that linked to another blogger's compilation of outfit silhouettes. I thought it'd be a good exercise to abstract my wardrobe (both existing and aspirational) into silhouettes.

It's interesting, and I suppose reassuring, that the quantity of each category of clothing is proportional to the different silhouettes that interests me.

Man, the constant barrage of sales starting with Black Friday and ending now with the season clearance has caused me to publish so many clothing posts. Still on my shopping list are:

• Chore coat
• Black boots
• Beret (maybe, all the high street shops' quality is meh, but I don't want to drop too much money on one)

frame

In the duality of being either a shoe or bag person, I fall firmly on the shoe side. But a couple of days ago I got sidetracked helping Jeff find a work bag that I ended up browsing bags for an entire afternoon. In the process I discovered that I'm a huge sucker for a type of novelty bags (namely the panda one, but a lemon one too).

But first admire this with me:

the most perfect bag I've ever set my eyes on

I surprised myself by liking this more than the Kelly, which was my previous moonshot bag. This really isn't much cheaper but at least it's easier to purchase? Not that I actually envision spending that much on a bag, when would there ever be a time when sufficient disposable income intersect with having the occasion to wear it to?

Actually I'm not surprised. This bag fulfills the 3 characteristics that I love for bags: structured, croc, and generally black for practicality but dark green otherwise. Other bags that I'd like to have:

Lotuff / Mulberry / Satin Laurent

My plan is to get the Mulberry bag as a work bag, but the heritage black croc is no longer on their website which worries me. Although the Sac de Jour is my end game work bag. The other two, while not astronomical in price, fall under the "someday" category that will probably never happen. I'm currently incapable of picturing much of life outside of go to work and staying home. Sure I'll go socialize with friends over dinner, but the frequency of these events hardly justify thousands spent on a bag. There's so many other expenses to invest for, mortgages, emergency funds, child care expense, retirement... I'm feeling pessimistic from this article on Millennials. Although buying luxury bags don't fall that much below traveling on my priorities. I'm happy being materialistic as long as that doesn't tread into consumerism.

One more item on my shopping list:

 

Clare V Petit Alistair

I saw a similarly coloured mini bow bag from Cuyana (ugh I want their coin case purely because I can monogram a clover on it) and developed a huge crush for a red special occasions bag. I've been looking out for a "permanent" item for this use case and couldn't come up with a good mental image. Initially I was set on some sort of a rigid box clutch, but didn't see many appealing options. I also had no clue what color would be the most versatile. Black is...safe, which isn't what I wanted for special occasions, but going either silver or gold would restrict jewelry choices. Upon finding the bow bag, it clicked that red is actually perfect since I can always match it to a red lip. Duh. This bag is also roomier than most clutches, so I can actually fit a camera in there.

...

Despite ogling over the new shiny bags, I'm super happy with my Court Bag that's been on every trip with me and held m(y stuff) together for PEY. The cost per wear of it is most definitely under $1, maybe about 50 cents? It's aging well too, some permanent scruff along the edges but the face of the bag is like new. I recently conditioned every surface, but it wasn't really necessary. Although everyone (on ffa) say how much the quality has declined from whenever qualifies as vintage coach, I think the construction of my 2014 version is quite good.
SaveSave

2017 resolutions*

* more like first 9 month of 2017, since who knows how long I'll slack before working.

The new format I'm trying out is stolen from a peer review marking task I had to do for a course.

Start Doing:

• Drinking through my YS pu-er samples, and gong-fu more - been lazy and grandpa brewing all of my tea since the hard water tastes crappy. I have exactly 9 samples with me, so expect a drinking report at least every month.
• Day trips to Bradford-upon-Avon, Forme, and Wells once it warms up. Also a full hike around Bath's skyline walk. Aka get out and enjoy the idyllic landscape. 
• Eat through my cheese list from Paxton & Whitfield, also try my hands at making ricotta. Basically take advantage of the cheap and good dairy here. 
• Read more - goal is one book per month.
• Find a local to Toronto charitable organization to support - talking to David and reading some personal finance blogs made me realize that philanthropy is something I haven't thought about. I'd like to find a local organization to be deeply involved in, on top of donating effectively (although donating will have to wait till I get a job).

Keep Doing:

• Body weight exercises
• Monthly cooking themes - currently pancakes, previously soups (yet to finish). I also have a lot of pasta and salad recipes collected for the warmer months, in addition to 3 cookbooks that I've just ordered as a belated holiday gift to myself. I find having a theme is helpful for consistently cooking through the mountain of new recipes that I collect, otherwise I'll be lazy and eat lentils for every meal. 

Stop Doing:

• Buying cheap cashmere - my tiny gesture to prevent the over-grazing of grasslands. 
• Buying lipstick - imposing a strict quota of 1 per year, plus any replacements. I have no trouble resisting any other make-up temptation except lipsticks "orz also am over-optimistic in what colours I wear day to day.
• Buying from Zara and other fast fashion retailers - I've generally stopped...until I found out about the insanely good deals I can get at Zara kids, and the convenience of buying from ASOS in UK. Time to call it cold turkey quits, with the exception of Uniqlo since I do need one source of cheap basics. 

...

As for my overarching direction...I'm not too sure.

One option is be complacent, mostly live within my comfort zone with little incremental improvements. I like this option obviously. Choosing this option would ultimately translate into working at (hopefully) WPM's Toronto office or at the very least an engineering consulting firm in Toronto. Would I be dissatisfied with this when I'm 40? That's possible, but being content rather than wanting more is a good state of mind too.

The other option is try-harding, but for what? The moonshot would be working for Sidewalk for their Toronto project. I was genuinely excited for about a week when I first found out about this, it felt like the same (possibly naive) excitement when I first found out about Arup haha. But realistically (or am I just rationalizing here?), I have zero skills as a fresh grad to offer, aside from some familiarity with passivhaus.

For now, my intermediate decision is to come up with a thesis topic that's related to Sidewalk Toronto, something like feasibility study of a neighbourhood / district scale passivhaus? Then I can either a) proactively contact the team and ask for data / funding (lol dreams) for my thesis, but at the very least b) have some evidence for my enthusiasm if I do apply for a job there post-grad.

...

Lastly, new year, new planner!

Trying out the Leuchtturm1917 after years of Moleskine use

loch

I finally cook a fish dish that's not from frozen fish fillet. Refrigerated fillet is barely a step up tho xD

Salmon in Foil

The best part of this recipe is no need to sanitize because the only things that touch the raw fish are your hands. You can also minimize hand washing by prepping the vegetables first, and pouring out some salt for the rub. There's also no oily pan to wash.

It's also quite healthy I assume. The butter didn't add much to the taste so can be cut back, although I have no plans of doing that. I went with pickled carrots (the only uncooked carrots I'll eat) and green onion for the toppings, and dolloped some shiro miso on top. Next time I would sandwich the miso between the top layer of vegetables, otherwise it'll smear all over the foil when folding up the packet.

smoke

Back to cooking for myself:

Migas

Sometime during my early teens, I developed a dislike for peppers. I'm glad to say that this period is finally over. When Jeff was here, he made a chicken stir-fry with braised peppers, and it was those peppers that made me like peppers again. I'm honouring this change with a dish that features soft peppers, with the added bonus of using up some dried rolls that I have on hand. Luckily I found that Iceland sells a pack of just red and yellow peppers, but perhaps the slight bitterness of green peppers will be good here.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Chen Xiang" Aged Raw Pu-erh of Wu Liang Mountain

Bottom of cup smelled vaguely toasty...and a bit sugary. The smell from the lid had whiffs of dried stone fruit. Taste bitter, but not unpleasantly so. There might be a hint of smoke, or that could be confirmation bias since I read a review that said the tea reminded him of smoking a cigar. A mild astringency kicks in after swallowing the tea, along with a slight tingle that travels down my body. Overall it reminds me of the time in Li Jiang where I had a similarly aged Xia Guan raw (I'm certain that took a photo of this situation, can't find it anywhere grah). Aka I like this a lot and will buy a tong of it (surprisingly affordable) as soon as I figure out a good storage condition.

skincare routine: winter '18

Been two years since I last posted a routine? Well it's because it didn't change much, aside from being pared down due to re-locating to UK:

Cleansing items are still the same: Kose cleansing oil and Had Labo foaming cleanser. I might try the Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil, could be worth to switch if the price & performance is about the same so I can avoid ordering online.

Actives is reduced to the Mizon AHA, but I'd like to try Stratia's soft touch AHA after finishing this bottle. I'm also interested in trying Stratia's liquid gold once I'm back in Canada's bone-dry winter. I was going to pick up The Ordinary's 7% gylcolic acid toning solution but am not happy at the thought of needing to use cotton pads. Although they are coming out the a 10% mandelic solution, which I will get once I'm back because a) I loved Dr. Wu's mandelic acid and b) I have a stash of nice Muji cotton pads back home.

Main routine is still the Hada Labo duo, I doubt I'll ever part with these two bottles. The Scinic snail serum is also nothing new, but will switch back to Cosrx once it's done simply because it's easier to dispense the product.

I picked up the two The Ordinary products while in London since I ran out of rosehip seed oil and didn't want to order a bottle on Amazon because I don't have Prime. It's mildly infuriating that the dropper bottle for the rosehip seed oil drips. During my evening routine, I'll mix 2 drops of the rosehip seed oil into the toner and 3 drops of the niacinamide into the snail serum. I was initially put off buying the niacinamide because I read a lot of reviews complaining of a sticky texture, however I haven't experience any of that. In fact it absorbs quite fast into my skin. Hopefully I'll see some improvements in my skin brightness by the end of the bottle Though admittedly it's already got a nice glow after morning routine + laneige bb cushion.

Although my IUD has pretty much stopped any hormonal acne from occurring, I still use a combination of the Cosrx A-Sol and LJH tea tree serum to combat the occasional pimple. Together they are quite effective at reducing the inflammation.

Lastly, my favourite sunscreen so far: Sunkiller perfect water essence. Non-greasy but still light feeling and quick to absorb! Not expensive either!

2x

respective shoe hauls

I've learned to judge traveling with someone else as a completely separate experience and not compare it to traveling solo. A trip with someone else is experiencing the place from the interactions between that person and me, which is the opposite of being immersed in the place when I'm alone. And not being immersed makes it hard to take interesting photos. But it's good having someone to eat with, more variety of food to try! Other benefits include not being bored waiting in line, and not having to be on guard all the time.

The best part about traveling with someone else is being pushed to try new things. Going to Italy would've never even happened if Jeff didn't just feel like going somewhere before starting work. This is very last minute by my standards even though it was a month in advance. It was fun trip planning in the midst of doing my assignments, I'd research a new city every time I finish a section of my reports. Shoutout to the blogger that did a roundup of all the best gelato places in Florence, we were not disappointed following your advice.

I'm also glad that we visited Bergamo, it was purely a financial decision to stay 2 nights there because hotels in Venice are so expensive while the cheap flight to Milan actually lands in Bergamo. We both enjoyed strolling through Bergamo's old town the most out of all the places.

Our trip was quite laid back. We slept in most days since shops and restaurants don't open early anyways, and went home early since it's quite cold once it got dark at...4pm. A big change for me is not eating somewhere new for every meal. We went back a second time to a couple of favourite places:

• Oesteria dell'orso (Bologna) - student packed, late-night eatery. 6EU for a tasty plate of tagliatelle bolognese is hard to beat.
• Sandwichic & Ara e Sicillia (Florence) - a panini and aracini (plus some desserts and gelato) makes for a good, cheap meal. The two shops are within a block of each other, and 3 blocks from our hotel. 
• Da Nerbone (Florence) - even closer to our hotel is the San Lorenzo market, and this is the most frequently recommended eatery in there. Lots of locals eat the lampredotto, but I'm not a fan of the stomach's texture so we stuck to the bollito. I'm still amazed at how flavourful this boiled beef is. 
• Mercato Central (Rome) - we ate a lot of pasta and trappezzino here haha, because it's only 1 block away from our hotel. 
• Que te Pongo (Rome) - Jeff's favourite restaurant of the entire trip. We had lunch here, and came right back for dinner on the same day.  

We also spent a while in London after Italy. I took this chance to tick off a couple of restaurants from my bucket list. How I wish I have a larger appetite, they were all so yummy ;_; It's actually a problem that I have trouble finishing a regular tasting menu. My overall impression of London is quite similar to New York, which is not really a surprise. It's so huge and full of things happening that  I'll forever want to revisit.

buttermilk

My craving for fried chicken somewhat satisfied:

Absurd Bird: good fried chicken, but not american southern food unfortunately.

Jeff rationalized these two meals by saying that starting the year eating badly will guilt trip us to be healthy for the rest of the year. (Well the second meal is because the receipts in January gives 50% off the subsequent meal.)

2016 resolutions: retrospective

Before moving onto (a new format) for 2017 resolutions, here's a progress check on how I've done in the past year:

• Overarching theme of being patient and trying harder: I think I accomplished this? I don't recall specific events or actions that qualify, but I have been less hard on myself which is related to being patient. I've also not slacked off in school (both final year and also in grad) so that counts towards trying harder? Communicating better through fighting issues out with Jeff instead of burying any disagreements is my biggest improvement in trying harder. Also been pushing myself to be decently social with photography club activities. 
• 1-in-1-out for clothing purchases: haha yeah this definitely didn't happen. Retry!
• Exercise more: I didn't keep up the light jumping jacks but am doing some body weight exercises circuit style. Writing down exercising as an activity in my planner has been the most helpful in keeping up the habit. I also feel a slight improvement in my physical abilities. 
• G2 & bike: hahaha...nope. Still hoping for faster widespread adoption of self-driving cars! I did ride a bike one evening, and safely looped around the block multiple times. It was quite uncomfortable and I was super tense the whole time, which made for a bad experience so I never continued. I do want to bike, so perhaps I need the financial pressure of owning my own bike before I can summon sufficient willpower. 
• Pickle and bake more: pickling - no, baking - yes :D at least until I came to Bath. 
• Learn Japanese: I did actually learn hiragana well, but that's the extent of it. And now I've forgotten pretty much everything, opps. 
• Grad school apps: clearly not good enough for Cambridge but oh wells! At the very least I can say that my personal statements aren't full of bullshit. 

...

Later add-on:

The best decision I made in 2016 is to get an IUD. First because it was covered under my student insurance as well as my mom's insurance, so I paid nothing for the item and procedure. Second it stopped my hormonal acne from appearing so my skin's pretty much clear and free of any primary concerns. Third because I chose an IUD that's the most likely to prevent periods from occurring, and life is so much better without having to deal with periods and cramps. Even if I paid out of pocket, the savings from buying menstrual products would have been worth it (and all the extra luggage space now that I don't have to bring pads on trips). Luckily I didn't experience much side-effects aside from continuous spotting for the first month, so my experience likely lies on the positive end of the spectrum.