For Days Like These

Strange how the mechanics of how this world works.

Just when I thought that it is impossible to find a CDC ring in the store, I found it for sale in the Hermes store located at the Bangkok airport that very same morning.

A pity they had it in only one colour, black. But nonetheless, I bought what I could get my hands on. And was Jo super happy to see the orange.

So here is me wearing the CDC ring on my pinky. It still is the cutest thing ever.

I chose Saffron Red instead of Caramel thinking it would be a lovely coral red as seen from photos. However, it turned out to be orange instead of the imaginary coral red. Truth be told, I was quite disappointed when I received the package and actually considered returning it.  However, paying for shipping to return it and re-ordering a caramel one seemed too much of a pain. Anyway I was reminded by Travelpac that I do not actually own an orange clutch and the colour is similar to those happy orange boxes we love.

Plus points – it is gigantic which means it fits a long wallet, keys, 2 blackberries and sunnies, the leather is really quite soft and I always like the fabric interiors in MBMJ’s bags.

I heard all the problems about this – too big, too heavy, water stains on the lambskin. I am pleased to say that it is actually smaller than I expected but still extremely roomy. The lambskin  is not crazy heavy but pretty comparable to a Balenciaga. Water stains are inevitable on the lambskin but it can be solved by waterproofing and praying that it doesn’t rain on your bag!

I really love how the bag looks like a face.

I am in a hotel in Hanoi, lying under the comfort of the duvet, eating Hello Panda and watching TV and writing this at the same time.

Time flies. We’ve been back from Taiwan for 3 months. There was a night market that we both liked a lot. We liked it so much that we revisited it twice.

There was this particular stall along Shida in Taipei which sold these intricately crafted trinkets. And no, I wasn’t referring to the Tiffany. The Tiffany is for real and is one of the first gifts I gave to Jo.

I’m talking about the Peace bracelet. We thought it would go well with the Tiffany bracelet. And it did.

We also bought these funky skull & bone earrings from the same stall!

This a random picture I took some time ago.

Blackberry accessories in Singapore are very scarce. It took us an entire day to find out that to buy a cover, the best option is to go online and purchase it from Hongkong.

Hence this, our cowhide leather classy blackberry covers which flew over the South China Sea to reach us.

Its holding up real well. Check it out!

We were like people on a mission when we went to Taipei 101 and walked straight into Miu Miu to ask for this bag in Denim. After being told the price, I tried to do some mental calculations but we all know there is a reason why I’m not an accountant. The SA very kindly calculated the price we would be paying after the tax refund. She also showed us a list of the prices in Asia for comparison.

Suffice to say, my colleague is a happy person after saving some $250 for her new purchase. I don’t suppose the savings are as spectacular as buying it from Europe but the flight to Taipei sure is cheaper!

We were not the only ones in on this Miu Miu revelation since we saw 2 ladies boarding the same flight as us with four giant Miu Miu paperbags. I’m sure they were happy people too.

Instant.

Falling in love should be like polaroids.

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Jo and I spend our weekends sleeping in almost all the time. This is the bane of being such busy normal working people. We get tired at the end of a work week.

But on one unlikely Saturday, we were in town for something I can’t quite remember. But I do recall it as a super fruitful day of shopping.

Jo bought a pair of black heels which are never available in Ferragamo, and I bought this, a Longchamp passport holder.

It was by chance that we were walking pass the Longchamp counter at Takashimaya. Jo with a keen eye for details spotted this.

We stopped to look. They come in various colours but this orange shade stuck out as the one I liked best.

It was instant.

We bought it.

Am superbly pleased with it. It keeps my passport and cards in place much like how I want it to be. I’ve used it once going to Manila and it works great. And the most surprising bit is that its so inexpensive.

Awesome day it was!

Edit: Jo says it was my birthday that was why we were in town.

There’s nothing quite like a massive white box sitting in a massive white paper bag with 31 Rue Cambon and Camellias on it to greet you when you come into work. For some reason, everything was sold out while my colleagues were in Paris and I didn’t think they were going to be able to get this for me. Even the earrings I wanted were sold out.  It was perfect timing when my colleague happened to be in the store as they received a new shipment of the GSTs.

I’ve wanted this for a long time but somehow I always got distracted by some other bag. I’m glad it is here now. The 2010 version is pretty cool – instead of the double Cs being made of separate pieces of leather and sewn onto the bag, it is now stitched directly on the same piece of leather. Some people say it means Chanel uses less leather for the same bag but I reckon stitching the double Cs and quilting might actually be more work. They also engraved the famous address “31 Rue Cambon Paris” on the hardware.

Clearly, this is going to be the go-to work bag for some time.

I never knew Balenciaga existed until the girl appeared.

She carried this bright Fuchsia coloured bag with silver thimble like hardware which was studded on the bag. I secretly think, “Thimble bag!”

The girl has since introduced me much to the house of Balenciaga. But I still think the giant hardware on the Balenciaga look like thimbles.

So friend was in London and was on a much crazy shopping spree. Balenciaga had just launched their new palette of colours for their fall/winter 2010 bags just at that same time. It was a chance not to be missed.

The girl’s choices of colours were Blue Roi or Anthracite. Mine, Cypress.

After much, “I don’t know, we don’t know, you don’t know”, we went with the Cypress part-time with rose gold giant hardware. And of course it is the best choice since green is the most happening colour this season.

But deciding isn’t always the ultimate decision to buying the bag because Balenciaga sold that last Cypress part-time without informing my friend despite her putting a reservation on it.

We did think that was it. No more. Finished. Well, until she emailed us with much excitement pictures of the bag she had found at Selfridges.

So this is it. We love it. And it is so gorgeous, shopping frenzied friend bought one in the same colour for her iPhone, a tiny little Balenciaga jacket for the phone in Cypress.