Thus friends absent speak

Friday is my default day off.  I like waking up early in the mornings, taking walks, dawdling over breakfast.  Some Fridays though, when my mother asks me what my plans are, I put on my haughty Downton Abbey voice and say, "I will now be taking care of my correspondence."

I'll be the first to admit, it's romantic to think of sitting at a desk on a windblown weekend and penning elaborate missives to various suitors (hah!), but the reality is that I also just really enjoy writing letters to friends.

There is something deeply exciting about receiving letters, postcards and packages from friends.  I love guessing what's inside, opening them up and noticing all the little personal touches like comics, drawings, stickers, the quotes that have been chosen, even the paper they were written on.  One of my most treasured letters comes from a cousin who wrote it from a cafe in France, in flourishes all over sheets of thick cream paper studded with lavender petals.  In contrast, another was mailed halfway across the world by a friend and is hastily scribbled on a torn sheet of notebook paper and covered with scrappy cartoons.

In return, I love writing letters, thinking of the surprise that people will get when they shuffle through bills and flyers.  The time delay aspect of it is exciting and I like to put a little bit of effort into the kind of stationery I use.

Previously, I would buy expensive stationery from places like Artbox or Stationery Island.  Don't get me wrong: the paper quality is delicious and the designs are ridiculously cute, but I've recently discovered that in terms of value for money, you absolutely cannot go wrong with Daiso.

I recently popped into the Plaza Singapura branch with Ann-Marie and was pleasantly surprised to see that their stationery selection has increased exponentially.  An entire aisle was devoted to letter paper and notecards and at $2 for 10 to 12 sheets of paper and envelopes, the stationery is definitely more wallet-friendly than, say, Artbox's $4 for five sheets or so.  Some of the packages even come with stickers to seal the letters with!

Needless to say, I quickly stocked up and now have enough paper to correspond with half the world. 

The designs are pretty cute if you can ignore the ridiculous Engrish.  (Actually the small ladybird notecards are cracking me up because they rather ominously warn "There is a person who wants to inform..." and I want to give them to students as encouragement for their exams.  I sometimes pretend to be menacing in class, so I know they'll get the joke.)

The paper quality is rather uneven.  I've already sent out several letters - the adorable rabbit paper, which is my favourite design, is thin though not offensively so, but the floral blue paper is actually thicker than a normal sheet of A4.  I guess it's a little bit of a gamble, but as long as you write with a ballpoint, it should be all right.

I broke the paper in by putting together a package for something that I'm doing with my colleagues, Amanda and Rebecca, called Project Box.  The idea is that every month, we'll post a package of stuff to each other based on a theme that we've picked.  The theme this month was "Greed" and we were free to interpret it as we liked, through photos, articles, snacks and so on.  My version involved collecting a bunch of things that I was feeling greedy over and paying them forward to someone else (washi tape!). 

If you like writing to friends and are not too fussed about paper quality, I highly recommend a Daiso run. 

I'm also already planning the next batch of letters and if you enjoy receiving random letters and don't mind participating in some old school conversation, I would be happy to add new "penpals" to the list!

On a sidenote, Ann-Marie and I really enjoyed lunch at Hoshino Coffee that day.  The food was simple and tasty and I was so enamoured by the way this cheesy, fluffy, golden souffle looked that I had to take a picture.

I was also in the mood for a good coffee (Ann-Marie said, quite rightly, "When are you not?!") and the latte was not foamy but quite nicely balanced. 

The rest of my weekend is aimed at wandering around and taking some photos for practice.  I hope you enjoy yours!