picture in my mind

 Datin S has returned (albeit briefly), and I feel like I've been hit by an incidental bout of nostalgia.

Having a really good friend in the same profession is a precious thing.

It's a Monday, and I haven't had any blues today, and truth be told, 

I don't really have Monday blues anymore, do I? Not for a long while.

It is often that I reflect on this, because I'd feel surprisingly good despite the start of a work week. I'd think, wow, and recall the dreadful mornings dragging my feet to the hospital and fervently wishing or ranting how a work week should be only 3 or 4 days long, or how our lives should be more balanced. Or not have me zombified from a lack of sleep or burnt out from exhaustion. It's nice how I've somehow managed to live the way I want to, mostly, and I hope to keep carving out my life this way, insyallah. I'm big on so many other things besides my work (like my reading and my book clubs for example, that I'd hate not being able to exert adequate energy to them). People like to think, oh you don't have kids or a family surely you must be bored and have nothing better to do apparently -- I typically feel stunned by people who say such things (and previously more incensed), because what narrow lives they must live. Children would certainly take up a lot of my time when or if I have them, but my god, my life is currently rich with a lot of events and activity and creative dreams. I don't need official work to keep me occupied.

Anyway, I digress, because I just wanted to report a happy day revisiting some happy things,

like this song! which came on as I journeyed home

(although it isn't exactly a happy one)

this is just a stunningly emotional song and performance; love this.

happy cafe food from recent days; 

part of the nostalgia with my ever-favourite sticky toffee date

and dalkomm! a cafe I often wish I had more easy access to:

And just now, as I was having my usual ball of a Monday night watching Runningman,

I also stumbled on BTS's performance of Permission To Dance at the UN.

I am so proud and thrilled, oh my heart.

It's another project and another year at the UN.

I haven't been partial to this song at all...

(I am secretly resentful of BTS's repeated English song releases, because it appears to me to be company or corporate demand or something, especially since they joined these big Western conglomerates; and it all seems to chip away at BTS's authenticity and true artistry.)

But! This performance lights up my fangirl fire.

This emoji truly sums up how I feel when I watch these boys, hehe.

😍