Happy Diwali 🪔 and Happy Halloween/Samhain 🎃
Highlights
October has been a great month; it’s my favourite month of 2022 so far, and here are the main reasons why:
🪔 ━ I celebrated Diwali with my parents, Fafa and my cousins. It’s our first Diwali as a family and with the extended family after so many years. Those two days were just perfect.
🛫 ━ Jakarta trip. The short trip was filled with hanging out with cousins (Ji took us to Egg Hotel, treated us to Nasi Padang at Kemang Pagi Sore and Tahu Gejrot in Menteng), Amma’s cooking (including Fafa’s intro to Tahu Isi), much-needed back massage and multiple visits to the mall where we got matchy batiks from Sejauh Mata Memandang.
🛖 ━ The few hours stopover in Singapore. I didn’t know how much I missed Singapore and needed it until I was there. With all the Covid and lockdown dramas, I had forgotten that Singapore is also home. I managed to squeeze in Chinatown, Tiong Bahru, Orchard, Raffles and The Jewel during those few hours. I slept off the minute the red-eye flight took over to Melbourne due to tiredness.
🍣 ━ Fafa took me to Ishizuka for a Kaiseki meal for our fourth wedding anniversary. It was so good, so fancy, so delicious.
🏴 ━ I completed my self-imposed challenge of writing 30 posts about London in 30 days (30daysofLondon).
Love and Found
🍲 ━ I have been playing the My Hotpot Story game on iPhone as a soothing mechanism. It works.
🏃♀️ ━ I just got Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. I have been on hiatus from running for more than a month and hoping this self-help book will kick me back to the road.
Media Watch
📺 ━ First, I am disappointed with the Halloween collection from the streaming services this year. Not one thing worth watching, except maybe The Watcher. On the plane to Singapore, I watched a Singapore adult animation TV series called Downstairs. It reminded me of some scenes from my life in Singapore years ago. I also recommend Luckiest girls alive and The Girl Before, both based on a book I read some time back. Aside from these, I have been side-watching derby girls, New Amsterdam, Millions Little Things and Veep.
🥻━ Oh, I also watched Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 of 2 in the theatre. It was good for the storyline, Aishwarya Rai and Trisha, but I am not sure I’d enjoy it otherwise.
Foodie Guide-y
🦀 ━ The best meal of this month was Amma’s freshly cooked crab curry which I had with dosa for breakfast.
🌶️ ━ The next best meal I had (aside from everything Amma’s cooked) was the green chilli pork we had in Chili Up, Singapore Chinatown, during our quick stopover there.
🍝 ━ Liz treated me to website-less Kaprica, a less-known Italian place on Lygon street. Delicious food, beautiful ambience and friendly hospitality, I am definitely going back.
🥟 ━ Fafa and I had the best all-you-can-eat Yum Cha at David’s in Prahran.
🍤 ━ Eating freshly fried prawn vadai from Hop & Spice is one of the highlights of WFH.
🍲 ━ When my cousin and uncle came to Melbourne, I took them to the Dainty Sichuan South Yarra branch, which used to be my favourite hang when we lived on Chapel Street, but the service was shockingly horrendous this time, and I don’t think I will ever return.
🍛 ━ I had a beautiful plate of Nasi Bali last weekend from the Indonesian restaurant Nelayan in Hawthorn.
Browsing History
My current favourite architecture blog to browse ♥ Van life is just ‘glorified homelessness’ ♥ A richly decorated flat in Notting Hill ♥ Delicious frozen Sushi ♥ Witches’ brew: Reclaiming the ancient craft of ale making ♥ Ramen soup in heated cans ♥ I am adding Yumori No Sato, Tokyo’s Black Water Onsen, to my ever-growing Japan travel list ♥
Tiny Joys
One of my favourite things on the internet, of the internet, is Journals Flip Through or Peeking Inside People’s Journals. It’s one of the things that restore joy in my life.
Fat roses from Fafa ♥ The smooth immigration process in Singapore ♥ Fireworks fiestas with nieces and nephew ♥ Ka In sent me off with two packs of my childhood snack: Superman (now rebranded as Superstar) chocolate wafer ♥ Fafa got me The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman to celebrate me completing the 30daysofLondon challenge ♥ The plants in my veggie crate are either surviving or thriving. I plan to harvest them by next month or early December ♥ The start of slip-on weather, I am tired of flannel Pjs ♥ Diwali at our neighbour’s, where they served the delicious paneer masala that I am obsessed with ♥ A colleague wished me a Happy Diwali ♥ My vision board is back on the wall ♥ Potted succulents Irina gave me ♥ Cotton On cat Pjs.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
💼 ━ I got a new job and will be joining the team in a couple of weeks, which is also one of the reasons why October has been great, as I was serving my notice period for most of it.
🍚 ━ We got a slow cooker. Here is hoping for more delicious easy, no-brainer home-cooked meals.
🎂 ━ It’s Jik’s birthday month, and we are celebrating with a week-long girl-bosses time, which entails me WFH from her place in Sydney and us getting drunk every night.
I know I started this post by saying October has been a great month, but I am looking forward to November to top it off.
Keep Kultured! ━ KK.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
