#80 Ramen, LEGO, and colour pencils.

This past week or so I’m all about little snippets of joy, art, culture, anything to snap you out of your routine. I don’t know about you but I often dread planning bigger things (it takes time and resources, and sometimes it just seems too overwhelming), whereas shorter moments of [something] recharge me just as much, if not more.

Here are some of the things that made me smile recently (and a reminder for you to seek out these mini snippets of joy, too):

My friend recently photographed food and venue for the newly-relaunched Japanese restaurant Fuji Hiro in central Leeds. If there’s one thing we like it’s Japanese food, so we had that to look forward to. It recently underwent a change of ownership and admittedly, I hadn’t known about it before.

We got there just as it opened (yes, we were keen). While it was still quiet, it was lovely—as soon as groups of people started coming in, it was a bit of a squeeze, but the food was just perfect so I didn’t mind it that much. AND refills of green tea? My ramen was just perfect (not too salty), I burned my mouth a little with the takoyaki (octopus balls—as in, fried balls of octopus), but definitely a 5/5 overall.

And the tea was soooo good. Not too strong or bitter, just perfect.

We also had some time to kill earlier, and quickly checked if the Kitty Cafe has any tables free to book online (it did), so that was us sorted for a while.

It’s one of those places where you can hide away from the city a little, because the place feels so enclosed and removed from whatever is going on outside. It feels like a little magical cave within the city.

I think it has time limit per table but it’s still nice to sip on a nice ice coffee while watching cats run all over the place (and try to steal your food). Would I adopt any of them? Of course, I’d happily take home all of them, but for now we just enjoyed watching them.

If you think LEGO is for kids, you’re right, but aren’t we all just grown up kids? We spotted a travelling LEGO exhibition pop up in the city (I had bookmarked this to book for a birthday but my other half booked it before I managed, so I guess great minds think alike?), and we’ve had a fair share of things we’ve built (mostly with nano blocks), so thought this will be a nice day out.

Called ‘The Art of the Brick,’ the exhibit has been created by a pro LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya who has built numerous sculptures consisting of thousands of LEGO pieces. We tried finding the biggest one (and we did), but of course I’ve since forgotten how many pieces it was.

Some of the exhibits took him months to create. I can’t imagine the patience and the planning that goes into something like this?! If you’ve ever put together anything with nano blocks in particular, you know what I mean—it’s not a quick process.

Coincidentally, I recently watched a video on YouTube about how LEGO has capitalised on its adult audience (the prices of some of the sets are eye-watering) just like Disney has, but maybe it’s just another reminder that many of us want to live out our childhood dreams (or things we didn’t get to do/have as kids) now in our adult years—and companies know this. Especially, when there’s so much gloom and doom around.

I have this netted (is that even a word?) cardigan—well, cardigan is too strong of a word because it just about barely covers my shoulders and doesn’t really hold at all. So, before I gave it away, I thought I’d do a quick self-portrait session while I have it. Sometimes, you just need a teeny, tiny spark to give you inspiration.

(I had to wear it on the front and hold it tight before it falls off—it’s the least practical piece of clothing I’ve owned, but I liked the little white rectangles against skin creating a nice contrast)

This week on LinkedIn, this post by my fellow Notion Ambassador Alejandra Cienfuegos caught my eye:

I actually have one small notebook just like this, with plain paper and no lines, so might give this a go. Not giving myself permission to go out and buy a ton of pencils just yet, but will see if I can create anything with what I have on my desk.

There’s something so nostalgic about this? When I was a kid, my step-sister and I used to draw and colour all the time. We’d draw different dolls or animals, make outfits for them, and create little scenes of cities or houses.

And you should definitely check out the artist Alejandra mentions—Annelies. How cute is this??

If you’ve not done anything like this in a while (or ever), I feel like this is such a low-cost activity to try. Doodling with a black pen/pencil is soothing, but there’s something about the use of colours that make this feel so much more therapeutic.

That’s all from me this week—if you enjoyed this newsletter issue and haven’t subscribed yet, you can click the button below. I’d love to have you here! Hopefully, catch you next week.✨