I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

Emporium Launch – Baku, Azerbaijan

Coat – Zara, Dress – Christopher Kane for Topshop, Shirt as skirt – Uniqlo men’s plaid, Shoes – Primark, Clutch – Chanel

I may have once or twice placed a pot of boiling rameon on my geography textbook, but at one point in time I could rattle off the countries in Africa and their capital cities, courtesy of my nutcase middleschool geography tutor. I would thank her for the education but then again I’ll wait till I save a baby from a burning building with ‘Libreville is capital of Gabon’. Speaking of which, I’m still yet to thank my math teacher because I’ve also yet to solve the unemployment crisis with the quadratic formula. Sorry, this paragraph just reads stupid, I should’ve been born a marshmallow. But if you just thought isn’t Africa a country I might as well get a cardboard box for your belongings and walk you to the door.

So, despite the fact that I thought I was pretty well-versed with the lumps and slumps of this planet and their respective names, Azerbaijan might as well have been a country only accessible through a wardrobe when I first read it in the invitation email. I simply did not have a single reference to form a sort of expectation when getting ready to travel to Baku, except perhaps vaguely remembering something in one of the 007 movies from back in the days when red leather jumpsuit with lumps spilling out meant you were a bond girl. When I landed and the cab weaved through the city towards the hotel, to put it blunt, it was HOLY LLAMABALLS WHERE AM I. I’ll show you more about the city later, but just from the Emporium store launch you can tell it’s been one very very well-kept secret.

Huge thanks to Emporium for the invitation and Andy & Pelayo for a great time.

Jacket – Gmarket, Scarf – 1m cloth from Cloth House, Pants – H&M, Shoes – ZARA, Top – Christopher Kane for Topshop, Bag – Etsy. Photos by Susan Falkenas.

Somehow I’ve managed to spin back into the damned routine that I remember banishing out of my system at the end of my second year, where work of all sorts mutate into triple-eyed beasts that follow me into my dreams and knock down perfectly fine potted plants from my ledge of sanity. This routine that involves taking in webdesign jobs on top of schoolwork and existing unfinished jobs. I line them up perfectly time-wise which is probably why they tumble like dominos when one goes wrong. So I had a breakdown, I confess, but thankfully snapped out of it seeing that the work wasn’t going to do on its own. And here I am, worried about whether my concept for a school project will tickle the tutor’s fancy, yet there are more and more bodies (and survivors! thank God) being pulled out under rubbles in Haiti. Gotta be ashamed of myself. Thank you God for allowing me have a frickin higher education and a job as a candy bonus, and I’m so sorry.