sydney, paris, tokyo

what I watched, read, listened to and ate, recently

A few favourites and links, from the last week or two.

Because you keep asking! And I’m happy to share!

🦪 Watched

Picnic at Hanging Rock.

When a friend of mine told me she watched a remastered version of Picnic at Hanging Rock here in Shibuya last week, I had a flashback to high school so extreme it nearly knocked me off my feet. Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian film from 1975 that has visually inspired more fashion campaigns and Sofia Coppola films than you could ever imagine. Watching it at a Parisian themed tiny cinema (truly)(complete with tiny ‘french’ cakes and coffee instead of popcorn and frozen coke) in the middle of Tokyo (literally a stones throw from Shibuya crossing) felt like a trip I was glad to be on.

Living in the biggest city in the world is at times, breathlessly intense, and others, like the sweetest, softest hug. No matter what you’re into, there’s always something happening here, be it a festival for Laotian food and music, a market specifically for dog treats and accessories or a night of ambient music where you will eat some of the best curry of your life (I have been to all of these recently and no, I do not have a dog) Tokyo always has something happening to indulge your latest micro-interest or life long obsession. I also watched The Idea of You (thoughts, anyone!?) and the recent season of Heartbreak High.

🦪 Read

Writers & Lovers by Lily King.

At first I wasn’t fully convinced by this one, but two chapters in I was hooked. Writers & Lovers is a romance(ish) novel about a writer in her early thirties navigating the recent death of her mother, working in hospitality, facing romantic and creative rejection, debt and choosing between two men: one who looks good on paper, one who… doesn’t.

Honestly, I think get more out of fiction books and films exploring the non-linear, unpredictable, complicated nature of love than I do from consuming non-fiction about attachment theory and so on. Also - it’s just more fun. I recently finished The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, which I loved too.

🦪 Ate