At the Hive Collectors hub, @mipiano asked us to show our tote bags collections. We do have some! As an obvious collector in my heart, I couldn't refuse to such an offer. Especially since my wife is obsessed a lot with exactly this kind of stuff (and, of course, in the family we all use part of her collection).

Would be cool to stumble on a street with a fan of the same dorama. Needless to say this is a very very very exclusive stuff and there are maybe only few dozens of such tote bags out there... in the scale of the whole country - not speaking about the certain city I live in. So, the probability is even likely to be less than zero. 😄 This is more of a thought, a fantasy, a speculation on the topic of probability and the game of chance, which I play with in my mind. And this is certainly also one of the aspects of collecting - a thing can be ugly, useless, but rare or even unique, existing in a single copy - and it will be loved precisely for this!

We keep two more bags - to be precise, these are not tot bags, but a simple paper packets, which better suit for wrapping/housing gifts that you are going to give to another person. This is certainly not something you will take when going out for shopping.

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The next two pieces continue and complete the Chinese section of our collection.

First, I need to make a step back here. Does the name 'Nirvana in Fire' tells you something?

Nirvana in Fire, or Lángyá Bǎng in pinyin, was a 2015 Chinese historical drama and political thriller based on Hai Yan's book 'Lang Ya Bang'. The series tells the story of Lin Shu, who, under the alias Mei Changsu, enters the capital of Liang to seek justice for a conspiracy that labeled his family as traitors 12 years before. (It topped the list of best historical serials back in 2015, if my memory doesnt fail me). Be became obsessed with this serial (not - it was huge... 58 series! not something mini- or light in any way), and watched it twice from the start to the end, and afterwards continued to watch different series from time to time.

My wife even obtained the comics book based on the same novel (you see it in the photo), trying to clear out the differences between the original novel and the film. The book came together with this nice ad thing, tot bag that we never used. We prefer to keep it clean and shiny, as new, a perfect collectible memorabilia item. 😉 Thanks god - we have other bags to go for shopping

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I have absolutely no idea where this Italian bag came from. (Never have been to Italy myself). Not the most memorable piece of the collection, but nice and bright enough not to get rid of it. Most likely, someone some day used this bag to pass us something, but thats not fore sure :)

Our memory does not store information as accurately as records - if we do not use something and do not remember it for 5-10 years, then memory helpfully erases it from our head. All that remains is to scratch our heads and ask ourselves - was it true? was it me? and make guesses...

But if a strong emotional outburst have been associated with some experience / event / thing, then we remember all the details of it much better... for years... sometimes forever. Here are a few tote bags my wife was presented with. (Well, they served as containers, the bags housed other nice gifts, werent a gift itself).

A wonderful bag with a picture of Moomin trolls probably does not need to be introduced, I am sure that everyone is well aware of who the Moomin trolls are. A friend of our family brought my wife a gift on the way back from Sweden, where he visited the Moomin Museum...

It is very nice to go outside for a walk with such a bag hanging on your shoulder - to please the eyes of passers-by with a cute scene of hugging, to send them smiles and rays of love.

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Next two bags decorated with winter visuals came from the Russian online bookstore Labyrinth.

No, they used to ship orders with ordinary cardboard packages. (In the 2010s, we bought a lot of books from this store, especially kid's books). The thing is, that for several years I worked at a publishing house that collaborated with Labyrinth; for Christmas everyone in the office were getting symbolic branded gifts from this company, an illustrated calendar for the year, etc., packed in such cheap tote bags. They indeed cheap but very good and durable, convenient for storing all sorts of household medley. I have more fancy bag stuff from Labyrinth in my collection, just didn't have them at hand to take pics... they are sitting somewhere in the closet at the far shelf, doing their jobs. 😉

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And of course, I could round up my post here, but... The thing is that I did not show you even the half of our collection!

LOQI BAGS!!!

Are you in the know of this brand? As their site states, LOQI bags are...

Strong like a person. Loyal like a dog. Super-strong, long-lasting, water-resistant and extremely good looking. No, it’s not too much to ask. You can have your cake and eat it too.

I made a screencapture of the display, just that you get an idea of how attractive and fresh-looking their designs are.

Perhaps, most of the pieces in our collection are 'dupes', fake analogues, illegal copies 'made in China' - you name it - but we like them not less.

One of the most popular (or maybe strictly: the most popular) visual in the world, used so many times everywhere, of course found its way onto a tote bag too. 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' by Hokusai, is in our hears forever.

I dont want to unfold each bag to show you its design, I guess you already have got the idea: they are irresistably nice! Everyone will be able to find something very beautiful and attractive for themselves.

I don't want to repeat the ABC truths: our world is mired in the sin of consumption and advertising, a huge amount of packaging materials and plastic is sent straight to the trash after the act of consumption, in order to further pollute and deplete the nature of our planet. If you can pass by - don't consume! If you can't, optimize it, make purchases, if possible, using less plastic and other advertising garbage. Carrying a small lightweight package with a cloth bag in your backpack, which in case of emergency can be unfolded and used to carry something bought or found - this is a great option. Very eco- and resource-friendly!

As a little coda to my post, to give you more LOQI aftertaste... a short 30-sec video I found on Youtube: 'How to keep your LOQI bag neat and organized?' Hope you like it!

All images taken by me, copyright (c) @qwerrie

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