I found a collection of Kwong Sang tea tins in my local Sun Wah branch (the Asian supermarket which is the main store in Antwerp’s Chinatown) and I couldn’t resist the weird flavours. This is just black tea flavoured with coconut oil (at least that’s what it says on the label). It smells heavy of coco, but tastes a little more bland. It also made my tongue slightly numb, which was odd. Ah well, I’ll give it another try, and if I really don’t like it, at least I have the nifty little tin.

3 years I lived together with a boyfriend who collected Bande Dessinées, the European comic books (also called Franco-Belgian comics). So BDs were always lying around, especially in the bathroom, and I ended up reading some of them. He particularly liked Jodorowsky, Moebius and Enki Bilal, and The Incal was kind of the holy grail of sci-fi BDs to him. Reasons enough for me to read it.
The Incal tells the story of anti-hero John Difool, who’s a private detective in a dystopian world. Together with the metabaron, a concrete bird, his psychic crush and her rebel leader sister, a messiah and other diverse weirdos he goes (or better: is forced) on a quest to join the Incal of light and Incal of darkness.
I must admit I never got to the end of the story, it was just too sci-fi for me, if that makes sense. (and it’s not like I dislike the genre)
The Incal has a cult following, and those who are looking for hard sci-fi with a high dose of sarcasm and great illustrations probably will love this.

This was the perfect Christmas gift for my moody pre-adolescent brother :) And I of course read it myself before wrapping, and laughed all the way through. Although a bit cruel, it is very clever and funny. We did have to put it away during the Christmas party, as my little nieces (5 and 3) wanted to have a look at the bunnies too… let’s not ruin their innocence yet.

I borrowed this Asian cookbook from my local library, and on returning it I got the nice librarians to look it up for me to see if it was still in print. Next day I ordered it from Fnac, and am very happy with my own copy, which is very complete (of course I have virtually no knowledge on Asian food, so it is complete as far as I know), covers several Asian areas/regions and explains the different ingredients and tools as well.

Another BBC Jane Austen miniseries, and with their Pride & Prejudice series being my all-time favourite adaptation of one of my favourite novels, I couldn’t skip this one. I had previously seen and enjoyed the Kate Winslet movie version. This miniseries stood out for me thanks to the two leading ladies, both Eleanor and Marianne were well cast and well portrayed. It was a joy to watch. Even though I know the ending by heart, I still cried when Eleanor finally got her guy.

Also featured on this DVD is “Miss Austen Regrets”, which I’ve watched last week. It wasn’t bad, but the portrayal of Jane Austen’s character didn’t really match with the image I had in mind. The movie pictures her as a ruder version of Lizzie Bennet. I disliked her niece Fanny, who behaved like a flirt, which I don’t think she would have approved of, nor encouraged. I guess we all have our own idea of what Jane Austen would’ve been like.

Great collection, but (as with most compilations) still missing some of my favorites: Baltimore, Black is the color of my true lover’s hair, Wild is the wind and You can have him (I don’t want him) should have been on there as well, to suit my personal taste.

I really liked this movie as a teen, but the best part may have been the reaction it triggered in one of my friends. She lived next door to me and had been my friend since we both moved there as kids, but she was 2 years younger than me and we went to different schools. As we got older, I saw the insecure sweet girl turn into a mini-diva: the stuck up snobby bitchy kind. We still hung out from time to time though, and one afternoon we watched this movie. I expected her to hate it, or to just make fun at the main character. But not only did she watch the entire movie (she has a short attention span), she actually loved it, summed up by: “Damn, I want to smack her and hug her at the same time”. And that to me was proof that she wasn’t as shallow as I assumed she had become.

An observation on how good intentions can turn out badly soon due to ‘human’ nature. I read this in a couple of hours on a parkbench in the sun. It’s an easy and quick read. Not as dark and as deep as Orwell’s 1984, but very well written too. You could even read this to kids, and I’m sure they’d get the point the author is trying to make as well.

If I was forced to keep only one cook book, it would be this one. These 400 pages filled with recipes accompanied by scrumptuous pictures are a real inspiration for a beginning cook like me. Every time I flip through it, I say to myself that I should cook more often (and the pictures always make me hungry…).

Most of their stuff is good to very good. I have come across a few crappy exceptions though.
I think about 85% of my furniture is from Ikea, only exceptions being my bed (ex-boyfriend had a lousy Sultan matrass) and my coffee table. Luckily the lot doesn’t scream Ikea, some people have the obvious Ikea look in their home, and in the end all their interiors look the same, which is awful.

My favourites are my cream leather couch and my amazing PAX wardrobe (which you can design yourself to fit your needs). I really like their Christmas stuff as well, and they are very flexible when returning goods.