I recently read the latest TAon, one of my fave newsletters, in which Rob Walker mentioned the Six Word Memoirs website, essentially describing a topic such as life, pandemic, etc., in six words. So here is mine about August:
Hectic, semi productive, well worth it.
Highlights
🏡 ━ Fafa got me a tiny house stay voucher for my birthday last year, and I finally cashed it this month. We started with Shakshuka breakfast at Tall Timber as a part of our weekend getaway traditions. Next, we stopped at the Borough Dept Store cafe in a town called Korumburra for hot cocoa before heading to Dumbalk, where the tiny house was located. I spent the rest of the day chilling, drinking and enjoying the beautiful view while Fafa made the yummiest steak for dinner.
🃏 ━ Natta Jain’s 10-week online Tarot class, we are entering week 4, and I have been learning tons of interesting tidbits about tarot.
💇 ━ Finally, I got an appointment at Neel Loves Curls (I had been trying since 2017) and got a lovely curly hair-specific haircut. Unfortunately, I am still struggling to find the proper styling practice and products; adjusting to the whole routine will take some more time.
🚶♀️━ I use the time I have when taking mental health walks to either catch up with Jik or listen to Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith on Audible; both have the ability to refresh me.
💻 ━ I celebrated a decade of blogging – the 10th Blogiversary.
Love and Found
📚 ━ We went to watch Nope by Jordan Peele in Lux movie theatre. I loved his previous two movies and thought this would be another excellent movie worth a fancy-ass movie theatre, with a reclining chair, a cheese platter and a copious amount of wine. Ironically, the chair and the food helped me endure this boring AF movie. There is no storyline, only cool effects and a few cool moments, which happened in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Here is a snippet from a review that I relate to 100%:
Peele ventures so far into Tarantino land that he brings in a spaghetti Western-style soundtrack. But “Nope” ends up nothing like a Tarantino movie and everything like something by M. Night Shyamalan.
In short, don’t waste your time/money/attention on this movie.
📚 ━ I finished The Dinner by Herman Koch over a weekend. It might just be my favourite book of the year. Also, thanks to the writing style, I have added a new fave reading genre to my list: unreliable narrators, and I am here for it. I equally love 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. While writing this paragraph, I discovered these two books had been made into movies. So I am adding it to my watch list.
🎁 ━ I also treated myself to Kinfolk Travel Slower Ways World after months of contemplation. Let’s call it an early birthday gift for myself. And am currently reading I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki for September bookclub – in paperback because the Kindle version won’t be out til end of the year.
📺 ━ One upside of all the busyness is no TV time which was fine as my late nights had been accompanied by the Halderson case court videos and analysis on Youtube. Oh, actually, we also date-watched a few episodes of The Resort but stopped as I had been too busy.
🎙️━ Best podcast episode I listened to this month: Why North Sentinel Island is Forbidden.
Food
🥠 ━ I finally had my first Hong Kong-style dim sum in Melbourne with a few colleagues-turned-friends in Kingsway, Glen Waverly. No booking was allowed, and the service was atrocious, but the food and the price were worth it. Highly recommend it and definitely coming back.
🧀 ━ Had an impromptu date with Fafa and Liz at Milk The Cow in Carlton, where we feasted on raspberry cheese and mulled wine. Liz also treated me to Korean army stew and too many bottles of Soju on a weekday.
🍛 ━ I hadn’t been cooking much, so there were multiple Indonesian takeaways from Tambo Ciak. Speaking of Indonesian food, we also tried two new places, Kenangan in Queen Victoria Market (recommend) and Garam Merica beside Indonesian Embassy (skip it).
🥘 ━ Crispy Goat from the Dosa Hut had frequently appeared on our dining table since our neighbour mentioned it to us.
Browsing History
Love these simple self-care ideas: 27 ways to *slip* into some self-care…
Shaking my head while reading this article because there is nothing “uncommon” about adding soy sauce to scrambled eggs, especially for us Indonesian.
The evolution of South Asian tattoos 🔗 As a Child of Immigrants, I Feel Guilty for Embracing the Minimalist Aesthetic 🔗 Kat’s Gone Global has been my go-to blog about London and England.
Tiny Joys
My workmates 🧡 Fafa getting me with furikake 🧡 soaking in the bath marking the end of a long week 🧡 Swedish bakery’s chocolate croissant 🧡 useful freebies 🧡 clothes ironing service 🧡 soy yogurt 🧡 98% 🧡 Author pin from Jik 🧡 Ayam Mercon at Ate at DpenyetZ Carlton 🧡 Pink nail polish 🧡 low-key hangouts with our neighbours 🧡 crawling to bed at 6 PM after a few days of late nights at work 🧡
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
I interviewed Nila of The Nila Extract podcast as a part of the South Asian Heritage Month celebration, wrote about Merkado market: the Pinays pop-up market in West Footscray, took a self-care day that involved North Indian cuisine and shared my two cents about Bali vs Fiji. Speaking of Fiji, I also wrote about m hot spring and mud bath there. I then pondered about my blog and whether I am too old to travel and came to the realisation that passport is my parents’ love language.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
🏴 ━ London baby! Fafa and I are travelling to England. Actually, by the time you read this, we would have landed in London and hopefully in the midst of ticking off my England travel bucket list.
🎂 ━ September is my birthday month ━ and I have chosen a word to focus on this birthday and, possibly word-of-the-year for 2023, wellness. I haven’t thought much about the details of “wellness”, but it was the word that came into my mind when Jik asked for my birthday theme ━ and it felt right that Imma stick with it. Aside from it, next month will be about transitioning into a new team at work. Not really fun stuff, but such is life, I guess.
Keep Kultured! ━ KK.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
