Good things do take time: fine food, well-made footwear, and Aesop retail spaces. This month, we invite you to visit our newest store, in Greville Street, Melbourne. This store will serve as the nerve centre for processing our online sales, with a room dedicated to that ever-growing activity. Soon, too, we will be opening our Tokyo store in the Omotesando district next door to the wonderful Maisen restaurant. And design work has begun on our third Hong Kong store and office in Sheng Wan. Should all this talk of shopping be of no interest, we refer you to two excellent sources of brain food: the clever cultural clarifications of the lawyer on Ask a Korean, and the October event at the Freud Museum in London, 'Spaces of the Unconscious'.

DRINK
Pyramid Valley's 2007 Kerner Estate Pinot Blanc. For those jaded drinkers who are all-too-quick to dismiss New Zealand as being Sauvignon Blanc central, a glass of this Pinot Blanc should set you right. Pale straw in colour, full in the mouth, and generally something to get excited about, it comes highly recommended. We also took great pleasure in reading the producer's description of the wine as 'built like Mae West, and may age as conspicuously well'.

APPLY
Aesop's Sage and Zinc Facial Hydrating Cream – SPF15 to your skin. Ten years in the making, this lightweight, mineral-based moisturiser offers broad spectrum SPF protection. It contains Micronised Zinc Oxide to coat the surface of the skin and reflect sunlight, Tocopheryl Acetate (a form of Vitamin E) to assist with hydration and anti-oxidant protection, and Sage Leaf extract to calm the skin. Sage and Zinc Facial Hydrating Cream – SPF15 is available in a 40mL screw-top tube or a 60mL glass jar.

SUPPORT
Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, who has, since 2002, run the remarkable inner-city literacy centre 826 Valencia, in San Francisco's Mission District. Here, local scribes and teachers volunteer to help underprivileged children with their writing skills. This inspirational and vibrant school is nestled behind a pirate supply store, while his New York venture (one of Eggers' seven centres) is fronted by the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company. Hear Eggers explain why at his 2008 TED lecture.

EAT
At Fong Lye in Kuala Lumpur for some of the best Taiwanese food outside Taiwan. Sample the exquisite fish dishes, wine-marinated crispy pork, and bouillabaisse-style hot pots. The restaurant is small and a local favourite, so book in advance or be prepared to wait. Fong Lye has two other branches in The Gardens, Mid Valley City and Desa Sri Hartamas.

LISTEN
To Geoffrey Robertson speak on the theme of legal accountability at Sydney's second Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which is held on the first weekend of October. Anne Manne will discuss Are Children Worth It following in the wake of Jennifer Senior's New York Times article which addressed the same contentious topic. Last year almost 9000 tickets were sold to this festival, which suggests Australians may have a taste for danger.

ENJOY
A sojourn at the modernised Hotel Almhof Schneider which sits at base of the Schlegelkopf Mountain in the impossibly picturesque village of Lech, two hours' from Zurich Airport. The Schneider family has offered accommodation here since 1929. The restaurant is extremely good – both service and food are flawless – as is the hotel's cultural centre. Loyal patrons return year after year.

DISCOVER
Designer and artist Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. Perriand is known for her furniture and photography, including the steel pieces she crafted while working in Le Corbusier's studio. Perriand's later work was influenced by her love of the countryside and natural materials, a legacy of childhood trips to Savoy and Burgundy. The hefty price tags now swinging from her work may not have been pleasing to Perriand since she intended her work to be accessible and was known for her social conscience.

WATCH
French writer and director Jean Cocteau's 1946 La Belle et la Bête, a film based on a fairytale, and famed for its crisp black and white imagery, visual and emotional sensitivity, and the fact that it was Cocteau's first full-length feature film, even though he was almost sixty. The beast's magical gothic castle is the setting for much of this tale of unlikely love brought to life by Jean Marais and Josette Day.

ATTEND
New York City Ballet's 2010–11 season, which opens on September 14 with performances of Serenade, Grazioso, and The Four Seasons. Read here about the shift that's occurring in the highly respected company known under founders Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine for its artfully restrained aesthetic. New York City Ballet formed in 1933 and is the resident company of New York's David H. Koch Theater. Prior to attending the ballet, visit Barneys on Madison Avenue where a new shipment of Aesop has recently hit the shelves.

HEAR
Professor of Social Psychology Jonathan Haidt speak at Edge.com on the Five Moral Senses. His witty and insightful lecture suggests we have moral senses much as we have physical senses. He examines the development of these senses into 'moral cultures'. His controversial emphasis on the emotional rather than rational aspect of morality, and the political power of moral reasoning, make for compelling listening.

'Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.' F. Scott Fitzgerald