Sundaze 99

Happy, happy weekend! It’s safe to say that autumn is in full swing and that all of my big coats have come out of hibernation. Q4 ain’t messing around. As I write this, I’ve just got in from a day in London, celebrating Hannah’s birthday in the glorious British rain. Note my dripping sarcasm…! Whenever I sit down to write these entries, I seem to completely forget what I’ve been up to in the week. It’s hard to work through the fog when you work, play, sleep from home and don’t I freaking know it. For example, Mum, Louise and I went to the cinema to see A Simple Favour this week and I pretty much forgot until I read back through my Tweets in a bid to remember what I’d been doing!

Also, can we talk about how this is the 99th edition of Sundaze?! Ninety nine. I’ve spent the last few days working on creating something special to mark a milestone, but can’t for the life of me work out whether it’s actually any good. (Cool story bro.)

Pilates for gym correction

Like every week, I started my week with a Monday lunchtime Pilates class.

I must admit I’ve never been a believer in ‘holistic’ classes like yoga or Pilates. I once famously fell asleep in a yoga class and have never quite lived it down! Pilates felt like something ‘not for my age bracket’, which is such a ridiculous assumption. At the start of summer, I wanted to change up my weekly workout routine and ended up adding in a Pilates class to my week… And my gosh has it made the world of difference. I’ve found that the classes have truly helped me to hit my gym goals sooner than I would have, and they’ve helped immeasurably with my form. I suffer with lower back pain on my right side, and my Pilates instructor has really shown me how I can aid it. October marks one year since I started my fitness journey (lol sorry), so expect a post v. soon documenting my current gym situation and main learnings.

Date night in Hackney

Harvey and I sandwiched in a mid-week date night this week. Granted it was for a blog event, but it was so fun to be out in our old hangs.

For the first 6 months of our relationship, we were based in Hackney, London. We took strolls around Victoria Park, ate delicious Greek food on Homerton High Street, grabbed coffee from Palm Vaults and bickered over groceries in the big Tesco opposite Hackney Central. And since his moving-home to our hometown, we haven’t been back.

So, we had fun reminiscing about all of the above before heading to Deviant & Dandy for the evening. I’ll share more in due course, but it was such a fun night!

On Chinese in the Western Media

This morning, I read an article on the Evening Standard about how Brooklyn Beckham was reportedly under fire for taking and uploading photos of Chinese tourists in Italy. The article piqued my interest not only for the headline (duh), but because I was curious as to how Chinese tourists would once again be portrayed in Western media.

Why are Chinese tourists painted in such a harsh light? Why did Brooklyn deem it appropriate and necessary to share such photos alongside the caption that he chose?

Of course it could be as ‘innocent’ as not expecting to see non-Italian people in Italy, but can you honestly expect to solely see Caucasian people in tourist-heavy locations? Does the significance change because of the caption chosen?

Personally I am nervous to draw attention to this case. As a British-born Chinese, I’ve been on the indirect receiving end of remarks such as, ‘this place is so overrun with Chinese tourists today, I remember when it was just locals’. I mean, that’s my hometown so where else would I be hanging out? I’ve heard comments like, ‘oh I bet they do it differently, watch them’, when out eating at Thai restaurants with my family. The generalisation and casual everyday racism I’ve experienced throughout my life is honestly something to behold. It’s usually obvious that it isn’t necessarily meant to harm and is often down to ignorance, but I don’t think it should be considered acceptable for that reason. I hate being the person correcting others that Thai/Japanese/Korean/Filipino/etc. cuisine is all ‘Chinese’ because, how ridiculous can you get?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think about Brooklyn Beckham’s controversial captioning?

Celebrating Hannah’s birthday

On Saturday, we headed to Silk Road in Camberwell to celebrate Hannah’s birthday a touch early. She’s raved about this place endlessly for months, so we were all incredibly excited to try the food. And I can safely say that it didn’t disappoint! The eatery itself is compact and is a cash only place, so be prepared with cash. Having said that, it’s also surprisingly affordable and we each spent around £12-14. I’ll share a full review on the blog soon, but it definitely gets the thumbs up from me.

Links I’ve Loved:

Although I personally choose to use an editorial calendar with set posting dates, this post by Lauren shares why it’s completely fine not to schedule posts and how it’s made her fall back in love with the process.
I absolutely LOVED Kelly’s post about how she feels like she’s missing the mark sometimes.
This post on Camille Styles shares how to curate your Instagram feed. I recently did a small clear out and refollow, and it’s totally changed the way I approach the app.
Lastly, how great does Supal’s Pico de Gallo recipe sound?