Lounge Loves: Vodka sodas, a musical time machine and more

Mint

16-06-2025

Afew weeks after my dog passed away, a gift mysteriously arrived in the mail. It was an adorable ceramic coffee cup featuring a dog with a scarf. My partner appropriated it from me and a short daily struggle ensued over who would use it first every day. Now we share Chef Puff, as he is named by The Strange Co., where the cup is from. Chef Puff is no longer available, but other objects with original and very cute characters are there, including dogs named Joy and Judy, and a chubby feline named Mr Chonk—some of which I have gifted to others. Chef Puff doesn't really look like my own dog, but sometimes while I'm furiously typing away on a busy day, if I glance over at Puff, I can't help but smile. It also helps that the cup is the perfect size, allowing me not to overdose on caffeine through the day.
— Dakshayani Kumaramangalam
It feels entirely fitting to write about this book in an issue where we look at Jane Austen's legacy 250 years after her birth. The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker is an out-and-out romance between a London stage actor and a theatre critic against the backdrop of a play being staged that sounds deliciously intriguing—iconic characters from various Austen novels come together in one script that hinges on a murder mystery and is interactive to boot, with the audience getting to choose the course of the narrative and its outcome. The romance is nice and all, with zingy dialogue and tingly chemistry, but I wish the author had written the play instead (or at least included it as an appendix). Lydia Bennet as unhinged murderer? Oh yes.
From vodka vixen to gin enthusiast, my drink preferences have evolved greatly since I was 21. I still adore Cosmopolitans and Resolute pink vodka, but I can't keep up with the hangovers. So I tried hard seltzers, for a light buzz akin to beer but without the calories and the bloat. The aftertaste of most seltzers was rather off-putting. Recently, I chanced upon Everyday Friday, a premixed vodka soda with 5% ABV, a nice change from a regular vodka cocktail's 40%. I like the peach lemonade flavour the best. They also have a cranberry lime and a cold brew caramel for the more adventurous palette. The brand's typography and design make my fridge shelf look so aesthetic.
These days my work hours have me singing along loudly to songs playing out of my TV—from George Michael's Father Figure to Duran Duran's Come Undone and Britney Spears' Toxic. All thanks to Music Box Classic channel I discovered recently. The channel plays hits from the 1980s to the 2000s. Sweet, sweet nostalgia indeed. I don't know if there's an algorithm at the channel's HQ picking the songs but whoever's at the helm is doing a banging job. The hits come non-stop and in no particular order—Army Of Lovers' campy 1993 song La Plage de Saint Tropez is followed by Nelly Furtado's 2000 hit, I'm Like a Bird and 1979 Disco number, Boogie Wonderland by American band, Earth, Wind & Fire. From discovering less-known singers to the fashion of those years, the channel is my time machine to the good ol' times.
— Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran