What would Tolstoy do?

So a package came for me in the mail a few days ago.

What ever could it be?!  (Well, duh, I knew cos, you know, I ordered it.)

The cutest initial necklace ever known to mankind!

Okay, rewind about a month, and there's me, sitting at my computer, contemplating getting an initial necklace.  I've never been one to fall prey to necklace fads.  I didn't really fancy the glittery gold ones that spelt your entire name complete with random doves twittering on the end.

And unlike many girls who've turned 21, I've never owned one of the Tiffany's keys.  I even thought initial pendants, those which were literally cut-outs of the letters, glittering with rhinestones, were pretty tacky.

But when I looked on Etsy, there were tons of golden and silver disc pendants with initials or names on them and they were seriously cute.

Is there anything lovelier than a simple, shiny disc glowing softly on your collarbone with a discreet initial stamped into it?  I think not.

So I hunted about and found this vendor, Stephanie McAdam, who goes by the user name StephieMc on Etsy and seems to have a whole host of metal goods personalised by handstamping.  She also has over 300 positive reviews, so I decided to chance it.

I fell in love with the simple 1/2 inch gold-filled pendant and so decided to order it with a discreet S hand-stamped and oxidised on it.

My only qualm was that postage took a long time, but I was thrilled when it finally arrived because, I mean, LOOK AT IT.

I just about died.  Dhany will testify that I danced backwards all the way to the taxi stand with the package clutched feverishly in my sweaty paws.

I also really like that it is gold-filled, because, according to Wikipedia, that epitome of accurate information, gold-filled goods have a thicker coating of gold than gold-plated ones and thus take longer to wear out.

I built a whole outfit around my new necklace the next day, when I went out for dinner with Sook, Dhany, and my brother, Hanwei.

(Dhany and I ended up doing some work at Starbucks for a couple of hours before that.  Reading and writing at my leisure with a beautiful, steaming latte before me is a luxury that I have sorely missed.)

Shirt - Dhany's.  Studded tights - Uniqlo.  Flats - Mimosa.

Hairband - Baybeats.  Necklace - Etsy.  Tote - Rootote.

I wore this fascinator-cum-headband because Sook had decided we would all wear stripes and some kind of head gear for our meeting.

I just love it, the rich greens and browns AND, while something like this would cost up to $100 in stupid Evita Peroni ( a. what kind of a name is Evita Peroni and b. who died and gave you the authority to charge exorbitant fees for a bunch of chicken feathers tacked to a plastic band?) this one cost me only $10 from a stall at Baybeats.

The others wore stripes and headgear too!

And Sook quickly got busy immortalising the Portobello mushrooms...

.... and the pizza.

It was a awesome, awesome night.

Oh and, if you're wondering what I'm currently reading?

This is Christopher Booker's massive collation of the hundreds of books he's read over the years and how he argues that they can fit into seven basic plots, all of which show something about human nature.

It's fascinating not least because it successfully compares Beowulf and Jaws but also because of the sheer amount of interesting fiction Booker summarises for the reader.  

My main complaint is the sheer freakin' size of the book - at a whacking 730 pages, sheets have already started coming loose because a spine that fat cannot take too much torsion.

And here at last, after repeated scrolling and clicking comes the main point of my post:  If the Russian authors taught us anything with their work, let it be these words which you will all say together with me now, a hymn to the golden rules of literature:  TWO SEPARATE VOLUMES.

The End.