woke up at around 10:30am and lazed around until about noon, spending too much time on my phone.

went to mereme, the new cafe down the road, for coffee and a light lunch. according to the barista, they only opened up three weeks ago, and the other barista said they were planning on starting evening service soon, small plates and funky wines – very hip and happening.

figures they would open up a new trendy coffee spot in the neighbourhood just as i’m about to leave. it’s literally a five minute walk from my flat, would’ve been such a great spot to chill out and read.

i had “hooked” (the book i’m reading) out and a woman at the table next to me struck up a conversation because she’s just started reading it. we extolled the virtues of the author’s writing style (i find it insightful, incisive, and exacting, able to articulate nebulous and complex emotions we all feel but often fail to put into words) and bonded over our love for her first book, “butter”.

her friend came back from the bathroom, and apparently she’d read butter as well and was also planning to read hooked. i love being able to chat with strangers about books. that’s one of the fun parts about reading the trending stuff.

went home for a 1pm flat meeting to finally delegate cleaning tasks. perfect timing considering i’m about to move out. i’d already given my notice to my (live in) landlord a couple of days ago, but i announced my impending move to my other two flatmates at the meeting. still got assigned some cleaning tasks though.

after the meeting, phil (one of my flatmates) came with me to bookbar so i could pick up the new paperback version of “heart the lover”, another trending book. saw a youtuber recommend it, saying it’s all about yearning and heartache, and everyone knows i’m a sucker for that. ended up picking up a copy of “we do not part” by han kang while i was there because why not. i enjoyed her other book, “vegetarian.” thought it was creepy and weird.

we went to a pub after (phil only really came with me to the book shop knowing we would end up at the pub) and everyone was out for the arsenal game. we managed to time it so we snagged a table in the beer garden before it got packed.

at one point a guy at the table next to us asked us to guard his table while he went to the bathroom.

“i know it’s a shit job right now but i’ll give you a slice of pizza,” he laughed.

we never got that slice of pizza.

and for dinner, because reading “hooked” made me crave japanese food, i walked 20 minutes in the rain to a japanese restaurant and had a huge bento box with miso soup, assorted tempura, nigiri, sashimi and maki. i was so full by the end that i was grateful for the long-ish walk back.

watched the latest episode of the boys and finished “hooked” in the evening. honestly, after how harrowing a lot of the book was, it ended on a relatively hopeful and optimistic note, which i love.

all in all a good day!