It’s usually around my birthday that I try to publish the annual Things I Want list. This time I’m about a week late, which is pretty good by my standards and releases everyone from the pressure to actually get me anything that’s on the list. Wanting material things these days seems vaguely embarrassing, considering everything else that’s going on. Then again, it’s the ‘everything else that’s going on’ that makes me long for pretty/fun/useful distractions. So be things as they may, here’s this year’s list.

Christian Louboutin feather sandals. Now, technically, these don’t belong here, as I have bought them already. But I wanted to include the Miss Z Poupi (seriously, Christian, we are grown women!) sandals, because they are a quintessential ‘want’ rather than a ‘need’ item. There are very few people in the world who NEED a 10-cm-heel open-toe pair of red sandals with feathers that drag on the ground and can easily come off when someone steps on them (no points for guessing how I know). It’s been years since I’ve bought anything as impractical as this and I am very happy. I wore them to work last week.

The Row bags. Last year, my biggest purchase was the XL Park Tote by The Row. It turned out to be a great purchase, as reported in my 2025 best-of post. The problem is that now I want the same bag in brown and black and ideally in beige, although that colour-way doesn’t even exist. Realistically, buying one The Row bag a year is the absolute maximum I can do. I might also go one size smaller, considering that the XL is ludicrously capacious, meaning that L is still a very roomy bag. A little less crazily, I am also interested in this Lie tote (there is also a beautiful, slightly smaller blue version) and a couple of Verafied bags.

Eshal by Neela Vermeire. I was complaining in the previous post that I don’t find the current scent trends and overall perfume landscape very exciting – everything seems to be vanilla and extremely expensive. But it is also my own fault not to seek out the things I’m likely to enjoy. Enter Neela Vermeire’s Eshal: a tuberose perfume in the extrait format. There is no scent in Vermeire’s very tightly edited collection that I don’t like and her Trayee and Mohur are among my favourites of all time. I haven’t been wearing white florals much in recent years, but I miss their unabashed glamour and beauty.

SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic. I have been pretty happy with my Medik8, Murad, Ole Henriksen and Drunk Elephant vitamin C products. But C E Ferulic has been the Holy Grail of antioxidant serums for years, so now that my skin could use all the help I can get, I am planning to try it out. I think I’ve had samples in the past, but that’s not enough to see long-term effects. As it’s quite an investment to use regularly, I want to test is properly, going through a full bottle without using any other vitamin C in between.

Rhode. It’s available in France, it’s available in Germany, but it’s not available in Luxembourg. I’ve been feeling left out for years. Please, Rhode, fix this.

Yamaha YFL-222 flute. I used to play flute as a child and young teenager but haven’t touched the instrument in decades. Or, more accurately, I did try last year, but learned to my dismay that I cannot handle a flute with open-hole keys. (This should not have been a surprise, considering it’s been so long and that I never played with an open-hole flute anyway.) But I’m not giving up yet, as I feel there is still some muscle memory left from my flute-playing days, and I don’t want to lose it entirely. That’s why this Yamaha flute is on my list, as it’s considered one of the best student flutes out there.

Oura ring. I am not a big fan of monitoring one’s health at all times, it is way too Bryan Johnson-coded for my taste. However, as I seem to be incapable of having any sleep discipline on my own, I am hoping that if a device screams ‘THIS WAS VERY BAD!’ at me every morning, it’ll motivate me to do better. I have gotten too little sleep most of my life; not because I’m unable to sleep well, but because I have prioritised work, study, reading, partying and every other thing over sleeping. This kind of worked in the past, but now that I’m 46 I really have to change things if I want to be able to operate at the level I’m used to.

A turntable. No, I have not become a vinyl snob, although I do like old school record players and records as objects. But as my mother was organising things at our childhood home, she found the old Estonian recording of Alice in Wonderland that only exists on vinyl. I used to know the entire thing by heart and still quote it often, but it’s been more than 30 years since I heard it, so it is fading a bit. As half of my identity is based on my ability to quote things correctly, I cannot let this happen. So if you know of a turntable or record player that looks good but doesn’t cost millions, I am very open to recommendations.

KAI Shun knives. I have a weakness for Japanese knives and have been using Shun knives for years now. I particularly love – for aesthetic reasons – their classic white line with pakkawood handles, which isn’t easy to find. I used to own the Chef’s knife from this series, but HAVE LOST IT. How it’s possible to lose a more than a 30cm knife at home, I do not know. But the fact is I haven’t seen it for months and really miss it. I am also tempted by the Santoku and Utility knives, the 9-cm one I already have. I also must get a good sharpener and take better care of my beautiful, expensive knives.

Lords of Earth and Sea by Anirudh Kanisetti. When I want a book, I usually just buy it. And I have been on a Indian-history buying spree, from Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands on the more popular end to Nalanda by Abhay K on the less-known-in-the-West end. But I have not been able to find this history of the Chola Empire in my usual bookshops and while Amazon has it, it cannot be shipped to Luxembourg. So the hunt continues, although I have more than enough Indian history books to read in the meantime.

So this is the list, a bit less style-focused than usual, which just reflects how my life is these days. What about you? Anything specific you really want?