Happy Halloween! 🎃 or Happy Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere. I got UberEats Indonesian Spicy Rice tonight on the theme of the fiery Beltane festival (and to bribe myself to write this post from scratch).
Highlights
💍 ━ We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a Srilankan banquet at Many Little, Red Hill. We ate, talked, and (I) drank a lot.
🦘 ━ My trip to Sydney, followed by the #GGP trip with Jik to Canberra.
📷 ━ On a weekend, I went to a photo walk with street photographers. I used to do this semi-regularly during my earlier years in Melbourne, but then I stopped because life happened, and then it was stopped for me because Covid happened. I am so glad I picked it up again; it combines several interests: photography, people-watching and Melbourne culture. The photograph featured in this post was taken during the photo walk. It showcased The Pedestal Project — VOW (Visible Older Women). This project places older women in view, addressing the invisibility experienced by many older women while highlighting the absence of female statues in Melbourne (source).
🫳🏾 ━ Speaking of things of interest, I attended the Palmistry 101 class at Spellbox. It was a great class with a fantastic teacher, Gilly and a group of fun classmates. I learned a ton and now have a newfound fascination with people’s palms.
🎅🏾 ━ We hosted my Singapore-Uncle for a week. I cooked and accompanied him, watching Tamil movies on Netflix. Meanwhile, he watered all my indoor plants and stole Curry Leaves from his friend’s garden for me.
🃏 ━ On a rainy Friday night, I went to the Tarot Community Club in Brunswick, which I genuinely believe I manifested. We did some readings, discussed some tarots and ate some cakes. It was joy, joy, joy!! I can’t wait to attend the next gathering.
💇🏽♀️ ━ I took a self-care day off from work and got a haircut from my fave hairdresser, followed by a Lobster Linguini lunch from my favourite Italian place in South Yarra.
🎃 ━ We got some Halloween candies to give to the little trick-or-treaters on our streets, and it was so heartwarming to see them getting all excited, crossing our lawn to grab some goodies.
Read, Watched and Browsed
📚 ━ I read Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens for the book club, which rated 5/6. I also read Think Like A Street Photographer by Matt Stuart and The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai – both were easy to read. Currently, I have The Thursday Murder Club on Audible, The Radical Tarot on my work desk, and The Street Photographer’s Manual on my nightstand. I also bought heavily discounted Travels Through South Indian Kitchens, which reignited my love for sketching.
🎙️ ━ I, together with millions of Indonesians, am hooked on all kinds of local true crime news and podcasts featuring the cyanide murder case recently brought back to the surface by Netflix’s Ice Cold.
🎙️ ━ I have been playing Landlord Sims on my iPhone every day this month. I’m not really proud about it, but it seems like something some of you could relate to. You are not alone. We are not alone. RPG FTW!
📺 ━ A must-watch on Netflix: Ladies in Black. On a separate note, how satisfying was the Billions ending?!! I loved every minute of it!
Foodie Guide-y
🍩 ━ On a Sunday morning, Fafa surprised me with Hot Jam Donuts from Queen Victoria Market. It was a beautiful moment in my life that I wish to remember forever.
🥟 ━ My work colleagues made us some Nepali Momos, easily the best Momos I have ever eaten.
🍲 ━ We went to the Divine Hot Pot in the West for a Friday dinner date. It was our first all-you-can-eat Sichuan hot pot with an individual soup base. It was an excellent alternative to the traditional style like Hai Di Lao, especially since we didn’t have to travel to the city or the East.
🥑 ━ While in Sydney, Jik made me avo-toast with generous sprinkles of Guwerhauz Everything-Bagel blend and a drizzle of chilli oil. I couldn’t stop thinking about it ever since and recently convinced Fafa to make it for me every Wednesday morning.
🥣 ━ During the Singapore-Uncle’s visit, I cooked Chicken and Rassam for him, which he found too salty and not salty enough, respectively.
Tiny Joys
Onigiri bread ❤ Pink lippies from Morphie ❤ Single sachet honey ❤ Looking back at Kumano Kodo pictures ❤ The Alaya Bar earrings Fafa got me for the anniversary ❤ Spring flowers ❤ Kariton ice cream ❤ warmer days ❤ Japanese bath salt ❤ Bad Writer Club ❤ Passion Fruit ❤ Glen’s cooking ❤ Tax return ❤
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
I wrote about the short version of our Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage, including soaking in Tsuboyu Onsen, the UNESCO hot spring and eating Onsen Tamago at Yunomine Onsen. I also wrote a few things about Canberra, from riding on a first-class train cart to the Indonesian food there.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
🪔 ━ We are off to Jakarta to spend Diwali with the family. There’ll be lots of food, colours and kids pics on the Insta.
⛪ ━ I pulled Five of Pentacles for the card of November and almost shoved it back into the Fifth Spirit Tarot deck. It’s one of the very few cards in Tarot that I need to dig deeper to find the good side of it. Five of Pentacles is a card of worldly challenges but with help and support clearly on sight. And if November is going to be like that, so be it.
Keep Kultured! ━ KK.
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