In which I tease you with photos of sweets and books.

I don’t know about you, but when life stresses me out – and it has been doing that a lot lately – I find the best way to unwind is by spending a little money on things that make me happy. Well, all right, I’ll come clean; I spent more than a little, but today’s retail therapy did wonders to me. Wonders I tell you. With the overwhelming amount of work at the office, my recent escapade of paranoia, and my still-persistent headaches, it was nice to go out and have fun… and celebrate my recent Freshly Pressed status (I may sound all casual about it now but I was squealing my head off when I found out!).

So yes, retail therapy! What is it without sweets? 😀 If you’re on a diet the following pictures may be bad for you. I should know. I’m on a diet. But I do not regret what I ate! No, every single dish was completely worth it. I took my sister with me and between the two of us we shared three desserts, the first being a delectable (and extremely rich) Nutella pie.

I have never eaten so much Nutella in one sitting!

After that we both shared a blue velvet cake topped with white fondant and blueberry jam.

Just look at how blue it is!

I’ve never had anything like it, and I was absolutely delighted with its colour! I was like a five-year-old, gushing over the blueness of the cake and its general appearance rather than its taste, haha. I was almost afraid to sink my fork into it and break the whole appearance… but of course I ended up doing just that, and it was tasty. Oh so very tasty. I liked it a lot more than red velvet cakes!

Finally, we had crème brûlée. I’ve actually never had this dessert before. I’ve always seen people in movies raving about it, but never had it myself so I simply had to try it. I was surprised by the hard layer on top, but once I broke into it… oh my. Absolute heaven. Seriously, if you’ve never tried it before and are planning on going out to dinner soon, I suggest you order it for dessert. You will not regret it! But you will have to exercise a lot to burn off all those calories (I actually walked for nearly three hours today, haha).

Maybe it doesn’t look all that special, but it tastes divine!

And if that wasn’t enough I stopped by a store and bought some snacks as you can see below. I also bought a tub of Pringles, but you can’t see it here. Bye bye, diet.

I will try to eat these in moderation, but I promise nothing.

A day of relaxation and celebration is not complete without books. Again, Zen? Yes, I’m afraid so. Just show me a library and I will dry your wallet and squeeze it for good measure. I bought five books today. I was about to buy a sixth one, but I held back. As of date I have 40 unread books on my bookshelves, and that is kinda overwhelming. I figured I should try to finish them first before I get new books… even though I’m practically itching to buy Khaled Hosseini’s new novel. Still, I’m quite pleased with my haul! I have Becky to thank for suggesting Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel!

I absolutely cannot decide what to read first.

The icing on top of the metaphorical cake was catching Finding Nemo on TV a couple of hours ago. I still manage to cry over it even though I’ve watched it many, many times. But that was my day. 🙂 How has your day been so far? Did you buy any new books recently? Have you tried créme brûlée and loved it as much as I did?