Apart from 13 hour workdays, I spent the weekend working on my own projects doing things 'for fun' which my colleagues consider a waste of time. Saturday is one of my best friend's birthday. He's a fellow canadian writer and we met in the creative writing department at Fabrica and became best of friends almost immediately. Since he doesnt know of this blog- as yet, I can safely announce that im sewing a puppet caricature of him. i'm not halfway through and need to go to the art store to buy more felt colours over the weekend for some cool design for his 't-shirt'. i hope he'll like it.

Yesterday, i managed to slip into borders before closing hour and had a short browse through horoscope books (yes i am a sucker for horoscopes, tarot reading, palm reading and fortune telling). The year of the pig which we will welcome this Lunar new year- in 3 weeks, is said to bring me great developments in career (i really hope so) and apparently a love life as well. The latter I'm not bothered, but i really hope for an exciting year in terms of work, whether it's here or where i'm dreaming of heading at the moment.

This weekend, i worked on some new stories for my chinese idiom project. An italian publisher has expressed interest in an unfinished project i had proposed in italy, so it's been late nights of work after work as i churn out more writings for an american art director, alex purdy, who is illustrating for my stories.

My mother is going insane with Chinese new year round the corner, but i am mighty pleased as she bought me new 'Hello kitty' pjyamas that will only see light of day while I'm still single (how unattractive at 25!) and I've got new doraemon bed sheets in green! (my favourite colour) i will post a photo on the eve of the new year's to share my wonderful new stuff as it's forbidden to open them before the eve!

T: do your parents obsess about the new year's? My parents are very traditional and i still have to sleep with two oranges and one dollar coins wrapped in red paper at the head of my bed, wearing my new pjs and sleeping on my new bedsheets. we do that every year.

Now, at 25 without having teenage angst and visions of trying to be 'cool', i actually really like the explanations and stories behind everything. Like how every red packet from my parents will contain an extra 10 cent coin, in cantonese we say 'chut tao' or in mandarin :'chu tou', meaning to rise ahead, or literally to have your head out. Metaphorically meaning to get a headstart in everything we do- be it in our studies or career.

I tailored made some new clothes in vietnam while i was there last month; i know i will pay the price for my vanity by requesting an extra high collared qipao (traditional chinese dress) for the maggie cheungesque effect à la Wong ka wai's 'In the mood for love' when i have to wear that to go visiting for the entire day.

But well, i think vanity isn't a bad thing. it's an effective demonstration of self love and oh so many women suffer for it.