I am reinstating the semi-regular not-really-travel-culture-related life updates here on the blog. Also, I am (once again) changing the series name; it’s now called Not A Newsletter. One more thing ━ I genuinely am unsure whether this is interesting to anyone else but me, but hey, I like to entertain myself, so here goes nothing; I mean NoNe:
I started the month by taking a much-needed mental health-related week break from work. During which I planned to start and finish 500 pieces of a jigsaws puzzle, do a bit of gardening while wearing my yellow gumboots (bought purposely for such reason) and build a Harry Potter lego set; instead, I drank eight bottles of wine, rewatched cult horror movies and mopped around the house in robe.
Being in lockdown for this long is hard. Not being able to do much, let alone the things we enjoy for weeks, nay months, is hard. Not knowing when we can squeeze the bodies of our favourite people again is hard. Break or no break ━ lockdown has proven to be consistently challenging.
At least for me.
The only good thing I did during the week-long break was sending Gwen, the heir to Villa Maggiore, off to the afterlife ━ that’s a Spiritfarer reference for those of you who are non-RPG-gamers.
I also celebrated my second lockdown birthday in lockdown. Nope! Don’t you tell me that lockdown birthdays don’t count! My exceedingly pricey eye cream and frequently appearing backache prove that it’s not true.
No complaint on the actual birthday day, though; I had a good celebration with a gorgeous pastel cake Fafa got me, a facetime sesh with my parents and Jik and plenty of gifts (most of which I got for myself – which may or may not include a few tarot decks).
Mid-month, I started a new role at work, and the unexpected 6.0 magnitude earthquake on the 22nd helped me bond with my new teammates over Zoom. I also got my first dose of Pfizer, which had me feeling blah the day after ━ still super glad that I am halfway there and minuscule-y contributing to the world going back to (the new) normal.
The 5km travel ban has been lifted here in Melbourne. First to 10km ━ , which had us visiting the South Melbourne Market on a Saturday, where I stuffed my face with the famous Agathé croissant, hot jam doughnuts and dim sim. Then, 15km from a couple of days ago, I get to meet Liz for at least a coffee walk soon.
Happy to report that we have semi-settled in our semi-furnished house. I have also unintentionally turned our backyard into a bird sanctuary after hanging a seed feeder on the lily-pilly tree. I thought it would last at least a month, but it looked like the few birds that would visit us regularly shared the buffet news with their extended family, friends and frenemies. The whole thing was finished within a few days. At least my bird-loving late-Patti would approve.
Lastly, after five years of living in Australia and two years of being in lockdown, I have finally chosen my AFL team. Overdue cultural assimilation, I am well aware; let’s blame it on my old age. The team ━ the Melbourne FC. The reasoning ━ because Fafa already chose the Western Bulldogs, their opponent, in the grand final. They proceeded to win the premier title this year, and I celebrated them by buying the blue-red Demon beanie (my first AFL apparel!!) from the money Fafa had to pay me for losing the game bet.
More This and That…
👩🏽🍳 ━ I cooked Ayam Tangkap, an Acehnese cuisine, based on the recipe I found in Coconut & Sambal: Recipe from My Indonesian Kitchen By Lara Lee. It’s a dish I had never eaten, let alone cooked before. However, it was relatively easy to make and delicious to eat.
🥮 ━ Mooncake festival was one of my favourite things about living in Singapore. So this year, even though I couldn’t celebrate it with friends, I made sure to order it in advance and proceeded to eat two double-egg yolk mooncakes on the day 🥮🥚🥮🥚. Later I discovered that it’s equivalent to eating five servings of McDonald’s fries or two plates of Nasi Lemak accompanied by two glasses of The Tarik. But all I can say is that it was worth it.
Love and Found
📚 ━ I am in the middle of Eating With My Mouth Opened by Sam van Zweden, which I got from The Chesnut Tree, the neighbourhood bookstore, and Slow Travel by Penny Watson from the Click & Collect library service.
📺 ━ Click Bait (Netflix), L Word: Generation Q (Stan) and Superhost (Shudder).
Browsing History
Learn to unjudge someone with The Human Library – a fit learning for the Virgo in me.
Woman on a mission to show Kiwis there’s more to Indian food than butter chicken.
Meaningful food traditions are passed down in families.
Fan Ho’s beautiful photos of Hong Kong
Edible tear gas ramen.
Bakery owners add crocodiles to the pie menu.
Carnitas Don Lucho’s morning rush keeps this 70-year-old going.
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
I wrote about being back on the blog 📝 started Project Rice which birthed Nasi Lemak and Nasi Padang posts 📝 Ventured virtually to Mongolia, and learned about the Mongolian tea-making tradition and its’ ancient culture of fortune-telling using knucklebones.
Tiny Joys
Musubi from 279 Victoria St 🌟 F@ck Covid balloon from Jik 🌟 Money Plant from Manda 🌟 Finding joy from this blog again 🌟 House Party 🌟 🛀🏿.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
🧡 ━ KK
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
