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The 'chicken' katsu from Vistro. My favourite vegan restaurant in Bangkok; everything on the menu is a hit and there's a great variety. Back when I ate meat, I'd have katsu at least once a month. So it was awesome finding a vegan version again. The vegetables were a pleasant surprise as well; perfectly roasted.

a collection of sharing plates from Na Aroon, a vegetarian and seafood restaurant. We got the mussaman curry, mango salad, and pad thai. I mostly ate the mussaman curry which had both veg protein and chickpeas in it. The 'meat' was perfectly chewy with a good bite to it. The mango salad was especially refreshing and had a light welcoming kick from the red chillies.

Some very dark pictures of the food I had at Earth House. This restaurant came highly recommended from two different colleagues of my mum's who aren't even veg. So we had high expectations! As a starter we got the cashew burrata. It was much more of a paste than a burrata, but very creamy and salty. I got the truffle pasta as my main. It was honestly just alright; I found it lacked a lot of flavour and definitely no truffle taste. Though the mushrooms were perfectly crispy. My parents shared a gigantic ratatouille.

A quick lunch from Getfresh with their spicy tempeh burrito. A casual cafe next to my parents' place, this is our default if we just want to eat something nearby. The burrito is pretty bland and you really have to dunk it into the sauces they give you for any flavour.

Found the one veg option at a restaurant in One Bangkok. It's hard to tell from the picture but this bowl was HUGE. This tofu mushroom dish was so salty and creamy I couldn't stop eating it even when I was full.

Dumplings and a grilled cheese from Broccoli Revolution. The sandwich has mushrooms and onions inside. I was promised grilled cheese but it was really just a spread. Still tasted good, but there could have been more seasonings on the mushrooms.

'chicken' rice from 33 Vegetarian. The flavour of the rice was perfect, but the chicken fell short. The texture was ok but very fatty and tasted pretty bland

laksa from the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple's basement foodcourt. Amazing!! The noodles were so bouncy and the broth was rich (and not too spicy). The beancurd skin and seaweed made for great chewiness. All for the sweet sweet price of $3

sweet and sour 'meat' from D'Life Vegetarian. Simple but well executed. The mock chicken tasted just like the real thing and the sauce was tangy.

cheese and plain prata from Casuarina Curry. A classic dish from a classic restaurant, no complaints (though my stomach is still crying out from all the oil).

mapo tofu & plant-based katsu from Chen's. The tofu was so spicy I was DYING, but I also couldn't stop eating it. I got this for takeout and by the time I ate the katsu it wasn't crispy anymore. It all just felt really greasy and fatty.

bak kut teh from Zhenyi Veggie Palace. Rich broth and all the mushrooms/beancurd skins were the perfect chewy counterbalance.

I took part in my school's Photography for Sustainability course this semester and thought I would share my final project on here!

As our cities and built environments expand, so do our embodied carbon emissions. Embodied carbon consists of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the production, transportation and use of building materials. Concrete, steel, and asphalt have the highest emission levels of all building materials as they require fossil fuel burning heat to be created, and are simply used in such large quantities. With the current total global building stock set to double by 2060, building emissions will become an even greater pressing issue.

Our current view of sustainable real estate is focused on operational carbon (the emissions generated from the operation of buildings – including heating, lighting, and elevators) where work has been done to electrify buildings and make them more efficient. Embodied carbon does not even factor into the Canadian government’s tracking of the real estate industry’s emissions. With most of a building’s emissions occurring at the beginning of its life during the construction phase, where embodied carbon can account for up to 90% of a building’s emissions over its lifetime, we need to focus on how and with what our buildings are constructed. We can create sustainable solutions, but only when aware of the mass of concrete we stand in.

Aggregates are mixed with water and cement to create concrete.

Concrete represents over 80% of a building’s embodied carbon. Canada alone produces 60 million tonnes of concrete every year.

After concrete, steel is the most used building material. Steel acts as the support beams and columns for concrete. One cannot exist without the other.

As we pour our concrete foundations and erect up steel bars, our manufactured materials take over the landscape.

Our buildings are a looming reminder of what we have emitted

-The male executive I was waiting with for the elevator in the office lobby who upon finding out I was the new Sustainability Intern proceeded to tell me "sustainability is bullshit"

-The rich business guy at my gym who laughed and also told me sustainability is bullshit and a fake major

-The 40 year old male coworker who asked me how much I weighed while we were in the elevator on our way to the staff canteen. I was 19

-The laundry lady at the hotel I used to work at who, when I spilled tea all over my clothes and asked if I could borrow a pair of the staff uniform pants, told me I should borrow a skirt instead because she was sick of seeing me in boy's pants all the time

-The head engineer who would lecture me about my own major for an hour every time he'd see me; and quiz me on my sustainability knowledge. Yes, I do know what greenhouse gases are. Who knew the four years of my life I've dedicated to studying the environment would help me answer that!

-The countless men at work who have explained and lectured me on sustainability upon learning I was an Environment major. Despite none of them being in the field. It is always men. I have never received this response from a woman. I once asked two of my male classmates how they deal with these responses and how often they get them. "Never" they replied.

I recently watched a YouTube video on the dangers of buy-now pay-later apps as they indulge people's instant gratification while concealing from them the repercussions of buying something without the guarantee they can pay back everything in full on time.

It got me thinking about instances in my life where I have succumbed to the all consuming need to buy something. Spotting an object for the first time and being struck down by a lightning bolt of want; the electrical current jolting one hand towards the product and the other towards my back-pocket wallet. These instances are few in my life, and have gone into hibernation in the new season as I start using my own money instead of depending on my parents.

My parents have very generously educated me on the sounds of the word 'no' throughout my childhood shopping trips. And so have taught me (to the very best of their abilities) what is worth pursuing to the end of the check-out line or not. Though please be reminded that these are the same parents whose house I returned to last Christmas holiday only to discover a new bronze statue of two plump naked ladies embracing, proudly displayed on the shelf next to the dining table (which my mum insists are just two sisters displaying familial affection).

A tactic I have employed in combating instant gratification is waiting. Giving the object time to place a hold on my mind. If I'm still thinking about the item months after first spotting it, then I buy it. All others I initially contemplated purchasing have faded away from my conscience. That's how over the course of this year, I have ended up with knee-length boots, a new silver belt, and a cropped fitted collared shirt in my wardrobe on my single shopping trip to North America's busiest shopping mall back in March.

It's the same way I decide on my new tattoos: thinking up new ideas, and whichever ones stick to my brain and spread their tendrils over my synapses gets cut out and transferred onto my skin.

But I am only human. Humans get impulses. Impulses are what have allowed us to survive the Stone Age by grabbing small morsels of food already in front of us instead of risk waiting for a bigger drop that might never come. Impulses are what makes us grab that new scented candle at the gift shop because who knows the next time we'll pass through this mall, and what if they stop making Ocean Breeze because beaches are out and pine trees are in?

So here is my practical advice to give into your need for instant gratification in a safe and controlled environment:

Go to your local public library branch and go absolutely fucking feral for the seemingly endless rows of shelved books in front of you. Grab down any colourful and eye-catching spine like the monkeys at my neighbour's banana tree. I get that sought after burst of serotonin spotting a title I've been craving to read "soon, I promise!" as I get from purchasing a nine dollar matcha latte from the first cafe I come across during my lunch break digestive walk.

The last time I went to the library, I ended up with a toppling stack of books. I plopped myself down in the sitting zone to sort through what I would take home with me, and what I would leave behind in the librarians' to-be-reshelved-bin. Like picking the lucky winner between two pair of jeans in a dressing room.

Every time I have attempted to spell 'millennial', I have to let autocorrect fix it somehow. I am decidedly Gen-Z, born in 2002, but am suffering from an affliction named after my brothers' generation so I'll be turning on autocorrect to survey my post.

I had high hopes for this blog, then started my job a week later; where my aspirations fell flat on the floor and turned into a puddle to be splashed in. The total mind and time-consuming nature of my internship has left no time for any form of artistic expression. The plight of every young person entering the work force. My symptoms include a general sense of emptiness, lack of creativity, and constant tiredness. The diagnosis? Millennial ennui.

I haven't found a good, or any real definition of millennial ennui yet (Buzzfeed's attempt certainly doesn't count). I would describe it as the disillusionment of starting an office job and realising this is your entire life now.

So instead of trying to run away from this feeling, I am going to plop myself down in my office chair and stare at this glowing screen for my contracted 9-5 hours. And get some recommendations out because my brain cannot form any original thoughts.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

Written in 1984, it's quite eery how spot on this book was in describing my newfound emptiness. We follow the main character as he drifts through the New York party scene while dealing with the loss of his relationship to his wife. The writing was surprisingly funny and self-deprecating. If you've ever looked forward to clubbing on Friday night after a long week at work, this book is for you.

Fan Club by Erin Mayer

The main character escapes her boring lifestyle website editing job by slowly becoming obsessed with internationally renown pop star Adriana Argento. From there, she falls in with a group of equally obsessed women. I've become the opposite, with all hours filled up with work I have not had the time to even contemplate starting a new interest. But listening to music on the bus ride to and from work has become one of the highlights of my weekdays. The ability to control my mood by swipping a song into my Spotify queue.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh

THE book. Another unnamed narrator. She has decided to spend the next year of her life cooped up in her apartment sleeping with the help of pills. Her want to simply stop existing and decompose into the earth to be returned to the worms is what got to me. I have numbed myself to most emotions as I work long hours. My strongest emotion has now become anger, and I actively choose to spend time eating with colleagues I don't like in order to stoke a flame inside me.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

Not the most 'relatable' out of the list, but it is the latest one I read earlier this week and what prompted me to make this list. A thriller, Jules has been hired to apartment sit in a luxury condominium. When another apartment sitter goes missing, she starts to uncover the strange history of the famous building. Jules was recently fired from her job, and living in a condo filled with the rich has made her distasteful towards capitalism.

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing

A non-fiction collection of essays on different lonely artists that lived in New York which Laing admires. I moved back to my hometown for my current job and was hit with the realisation that no one else decides to come back. I have been drifting from home to work without talking to anyone other than my colleagues and parents. This book reminds me that even in sadness and loneliness, you can create.

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My father is French-Swiss while my mother is Singaporean-Chinese. I grew up in Singapore for the first 18 years of my life, and went to international schools the whole time. I had never thought about my heritages or cultures much (though I cannot tell if that's a product of being young or growing up in a place that understood my mix). When I moved overseas to Canada for university last year, I felt confronted by race and perceived differently by others for the first time. Everyone was mixed where I came from, but now none of my roommates had ever had a bubble tea or raclette in their lives.

Ever since then, I have been slowly reflecting on my identity. Over the course of the past year I have sought out and read books (both fiction and non-fiction) from other Asian/White mixed authors to help me understand myself and my feelings. Here, I have compiled a small list of the best books I have read so far dealing with being mixed.

Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills

Though not technically mixed, Wills is Korean but was adopted by a Canadian family and grew up in North America. Most chapters don't run for more than a couple pages and read almost like poetry with the lyrical and metaphoric language. Reuniting with her Korean parents as an adult, Wills details the painful emotions of feeling like you don't belong to either culture you are from -yet yearning to be accepted as a 'true' citizen of both.

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong / The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian King

I am grouping these two memoirs together because of their similar topics and because I read them in close succession. Discussing being Asian-American, Hong and King also delve into the history of Asian immigrants in the United States and the community's evolution over the decades. I found the authors very angry and aggressive in their writing, but I have also not experienced the level of discrimination they have gone through as I grew up in Asia.

Parachutes by Kelly Yang

The only fiction book on this list, Yang tells the story Claire Wang who is sent from her home in Shanghai to attend a high school in the United States alone. Moving to Canada for university, I found myself relating to this YA novel a lot more than I had expected. How people around me treated me differently because I was an international student and the 'Crazy Rich Asian' lifestyle they assumed I have. The difficulty of trying to make friends with local students; finding myself gravitating to other Asian international students.

Small Bodies of Water / Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai by Nina Mingya Powles

Two books by the same author. Powles is the author I have enjoyed reading the most out of everyone on this list. She weaves her thoughts on being mixed (Chinese-Malay and New-Zealander) into stories exploring other themes: Small Bodies of Water is a collection of essays about her relationship with water, while Tiny Moons details the food she ate during her year abroad in Shanghai. Powles put into words my frustration at not being able to speak Chinese (my mother's language) while also celebrating the different cultures she comes from.

Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow

Much more of an exploration of grief with Chow writing about her mother's death. This was the first book I read where the author also called her grandfather the same name I call mine - Gong Gong. A deeply moving book, it deals with Asian families; the hurt and love they give you.