Sundaze 248: Cold Snap, Mildred’s and Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year, my loves!

This is a scheduled Sundaze, as I’m spending my day celebrating both Chinese New Year with my family and Tết with my boyfriend’s. After a busy and fulfilling start to the Gregorian New Year, I’m excited to be embracing another one – an important holiday for my family. Our celebration is small this year, as it falls on a Sunday and we all have work tomorrow. But we’re enjoying a family dinner stacked with the symbolic dishes and, as I’m unmarried, receiving 利是 (red envelopes) aplenty! Other traditions that we’ve already enjoyed include decking our home in inverted 福 decorations, buying a new outfit for good luck, and having a bath/shower with tangerines. Ah, I love this holiday so much!

The cold snap in England

We weathered yet another cold snap in England this week. While the frost is undeniably beautiful, I really can’t wait for milder weather to come in spring. Alas, gym sessions, commutes, dog walks and everyday errands have all been conducted with a backdrop of -5˚C temperatures. Thank God for my TALA Polar Puffer Coat!

A Mildred’s dinner date with Ria

Popped for a very overdue dinner date with fellow blogger Ria on Wednesday night, which was just the tonic I needed for the mid-January blues. I’ve been very disciplined with minimal spending and eating out this month (largely helped by the fact I now don’t drink coffee…), but it’s nice to change things up when seeing a friend! We ate at Mildred’s in Kings Cross, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant that I’ve loved for ages. There’s a Lunar New Year × Tết Veganuary menu at the moment, if you get a chance to visit! I opted for the Mango Chi*ken Kebabs and Ria went for their bokkeumbap, both of which were delicious. And we had such a great time catching up about everything from boys to blogging, books to manifestation.

Currently reading and watching

Hand in hand with the cold snap and my minimal spending and eating out, I’ve spent a lot of time cosied up indoors reading up a storm and making good use of my Disney+ and Netflix subscriptions. I finished reading Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and started on the much-hyped and -adored Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin this week.

I also finally started Snowdrop on Disney+ after I kept forgetting about it! I’m halfway through and really enjoying it – Jisoo is SUCH a great actor! Then there’s The Vatican Girl and Single’s Inferno that I recently watched on Netflix. I’ve been taking winter hobbies very seriously indeed.

Links I’ve Loved

This recipe for Vegan Sticky Marmalade Tofu on The First Mess intrigued me, and I’ll definitely be giving it a go soon.
Seeing other people’s journalling habits always fascinates me, so I really liked discovering Michelle’s Llewellyn’s Witch’s Datebook 2023. I prefer the freedom of setting my own journal up, but magickal people might enjoy this one!
On the topic of journalling, I LOVED listening to Franky’s Friends with Business Benefits podcast episode all about techo kagai – the art of reviewing your previous year’s journal to set up your next.
I also loved and appreciated The Evening Standard’s round-up of London’s best Chinese restaurants and can vouch for many of these being excellent.#