faut-il trancher ?

i really like cooking, and while i enjoy the concept of making do with what is available to me, i also very much appreciate having the right ingredients and good tools. some of the favourite things i've bought or been given are things like a huge cutting board, an excellent knife, large pans, a rice cooker, but even small stuff like comfortable chopsticks or a simple wooden spoon. however, i don't have a large home and i'm trying not to spend too much money on kitchen equipment that i don't strictly need. but it's hard.

caidaos look so cool. i really want a caidao! but i don't need a caidao, i already have a perfectly good santoku so i have no need for another all-purpose kitchen knife. but they look so nice... and yesterday i saw caidaos in the Asian supermarket! there were €20 ones that may be cheapo knives, but also €70 CCK knives!! that brand is so famous that even i recognise it.

€70 wouldn't be that expensive for a high-quality knife, if i needed one, but since i don't need it, it is kind of a large sum. €20, on the other hand, is less than two paperbacks so not as big of a deal, but i don't know if i want to spend money like that on something i don't need and don't know if it's even good quality...


edit: i saw a 6-piece knife set in lidl for €5.99 so i guess €20 isn't quite a cheapo knife after all

the ties of fate

the two cities where i spend most of my time are the one where i study ("Student City") and the one where my parents live ("Hometown"). today i traveled to Hometown for the weekend.

it feels kind of good to walk into the centre of Hometown. maybe because it's so familiar; i did grow up around here and always liked visiting the centre. but i think there's more, like a sense of belonging. i don't really feel like i belong to Student City. Student City belongs to the students, and i don't feel like a real student (then again, i don't feel like a real anything - fake student, fake ace, fake human, fake living being...). Hometown isn't as overrun with students.

and also... it feels not just like my home of the past, but also my home of the future. i have plans to move back in with my parents after i finish my degree for sure. that's supposed to be temporary, but i'm not too optimistic since i will be unemployed and chained down by a massive student debt.

maybe Hometown feels like the place where i belong because i can sense my fate. i would love to live in Brussels and in Finland and in some other places too, but i am fated to wash up in Hometown.