Hello from the last day of the year! It’s nighttime in Fukuoka, hours away from 2026, and snow is falling outside — romantic, eh? But I’m too nervous to write by the huge hotel window, since the view is directly of a massive cemetery. To avoid the risk of being waved at by Juon from downstairs, I’m tucked under a blanket, drafting this. Helloo…
Highlights
🎄 — Office Christmas Party! This was the second time we’ve had an office Christmas party, and, like last year, it delivered! First, the girls and I got matching Christmas shirts. By midday, everyone had stopped working to gorge on freshly made pizzas. Then, during the Bad Santa gift exchange, I gave a Labubu wrapped in Kmart Christmas paper (so economical — highly recommend) and, in return, stole a dog robot pet from someone else. The evening continued with karaoke, which I documented with plenty of blurry pics. Still on Christmas: I gave the team spicy sauce and, in return, received Christmas cards, a Frank Green drinking bottle, Ferrero Rocher, a coffee voucher, and homemade mint chocolate cookies — recipe included.
👶 — I finally met Baby Lucy!!!!!! She is tiny, adorable, beautiful — all the best things in the world. I can’t wait to see her (and her mum :)) again.
📖 — Aud, a writer friend, let me read their queer fantasy short story draft set in Java. It was amazing — I absolutely loved it.
✈️ — I finished working for the year by mid-month and started my vacation a week earlier than usual.
💌 — I’ve been quite active on Postcrossing this month, sending postcards weekly. It’s been a fun, weirdly fun pocket of the day to detach from reality and adulting responsibilities.
⛩️ — Japan trip, which I named Onsen and Onigiri. As always, I promise to write more about it soon.
Foodie Guide-Y
🍸 — December was filled with food-surrounded celebrations. First, Fafa took me to Soi 38 to celebrate passing the CPA, where I had the delicious Mango Sticky Rice cocktails. We also had a work celebration lunch at Red Spice for the successful implementation of TPM. Lastly, we had a K-BBQ buffet lunch with the team for Christmas.
🍛 — I visited Villas, a South Indian restaurant I pass almost every week while WFO, but had never tried. After the work Christmas party, I was so hungry that I stopped by and polished off a chatti mutton curry—it was unbelievably delicious.
🥢 — I finally checked out Supernormal, which Shiv suggested for a double date with them. Beautiful ambience, solid food, delicious drinks, and impeccable service even during the peak Christmas season. We then went for drinks at June. I had never been there before, but since I have an MFWF booking there in March with Liz, I’m even more excited now.
🍷 — Sonal and I went to Manse for a girls’ night out. We got a Mauritian cuisine set menu, loaded up on orange wine, and had so much fun that we kept going to Willow & Wine Café until closing time.
🛒 — We found an artisan grocery store in the next neighbourhood — Gertrude Grocery in Kensington. It’s still far compared to Prahran Market, which was a stone’s throw from our Simmons St apartment, but it was nice to stock up on homemade pasta, different types of anchovies, and freshly baked sourdough that doesn’t taste like cardboard. Small wins.
☕ — Toffeenut latte is back, and I’ve treated myself to plenty of it, along with Purple Haze, Ube Matcha, Somersby, Limoncello, and occasional bubble tea — all necessary for mental health maintenance in the Summer.
🎄 — Our next-door neighbour invited us over for an early Christmas and an end-of-year gossip session. The food was great as usual, and it reminded me that I really need to learn to cook something nice so I can return the favour, soon!
🥘 — Despite the story arc which made me “errr” too many times, Thalaivan Thalaivii is easily my fave Tamil movie this year, partly because it’s genuinely funny, but mostly because it’s a love letter to food. The way it showcases the beauty and joy of South Indian cuisine is just gorgeous. It also introduced us to Chicken Chintamani, which led me to cook it. Was it good? Honestly, no idea – we’ve never tasted the OG version… so Fa it’s on u to take me to Coimbatore for some taste testing.
🍜 — I made Soto Ayam for Manda and family for an early Christmas dinner at ours. It was the wrong choice for the weather, but it was the first time in a long while that I cooked properly instead of whipping something up quickly, which made me feel light and happy — a feeling I hadn’t had in a while due to the hecticness of the past weeks. Also, we lived on leftover soto, fried chicken wings, and potato perkedel for days.
🥧 — Manda also brought a box of Lemon Tarts, which was such an Aussie summer thing, and I finally get to tick it off — I love it!
🍡 — A colleague brought Mini Yakgwa, a traditional Korean deep-fried honey cookie made from wheat flour, honey, and sesame oil — dangerously addictive.
🍫 — My biggest food pride this month is finally ticking off the Tim Tam Slam. After Oprah did it during her few days’ visit to Australia, it felt like a personal insult to my bucket-list-obsessed personality that I hadn’t done it yet.
🍖 — After a last-minute haircut, I made another last-minute decision to try a Sichuan restaurant in the city to expand my Sichuan food horizons. I ended up at Sichuan House, hidden in a Chinatown alley, and ordered Lamb Cumin — supposedly their best dish. It was good, but too much for one person and probably best eaten while drunk. Takeaway for another time.
🍱 — I was on and off sick throughout December, so here’s the comfort food that got me through it: Indomie, far too much kerupuk udang, Oxtail Soup, and a $35 bento box because #selfcare.
🐟 — The day we got back from Sydney, I made my ultimate comfort combo: Fried Anchovies and Rassam.
— At the BWC Christmas gathering, after polishing off two dozen oysters, I tried beetroot croquettes for the first time. Not something I’d normally order, but it’s been more than two weeks, and I still keep thinking about it.
Read, Watched & Browsed
☕ — I’ve started reading Simple Pleasures: Life’s Little Joys by Clare Gogerty. At this time of year, my brain is no longer braining, so when I saw this book at Hills of Content in the city, I was reminded of Jik’s advice on reading: to pick up books with lots of pictures if you’re in a reading rut. This book feels like one level above picture-heavy books, so why not?
🎙️ — On the train to Kinosaki, I started listening to Beth’s Dead podcast, and finished it on the train to Fukuoka. Give it a listen — it’s genuinely interesting. In one word, it’s about *mini spoiler alert* catchfishing, and it’s topped off with an unexpected but interesting ending.
👻 — Horror movies of the month: Together — easily one of my favourites of 2025; Followed, a solid rewatch; a Malayalam horror “masterpiece,” Dies Irae — intriguing but with too many plot holes, IMO; and Home, another solid horror starring Pete Davidson.
🏠 — Now that I’ve shared the horror movies I liked and somewhat okay-ed, let me share the great grievance of my horror-movie-fan life: Hell House LLC Lineage. Hell House LLC is one of my all-time favourite horror series — it beats Paranormal Activity, Mansfield Street, and any other found-footage franchise. So saying I was waiting for Lineage would be the understatement of the year. Then the movie finally came and turned out to be the biggest movie letdown of the decade.
I tried to understand it and gave it my full attention twice, but I still didn’t get it, so I went to YouTube to see what I’d missed — and apparently, the majority of the horror community agrees. It was only then that I realised Lineage isn’t even found footage (!!!). It was so bad it genuinely made me sad, but not all was lost — I fell into a YouTube horror-review rabbit hole, which at least saved me money and time by skipping Shelby Oaks, since the reviews are tanking as well. The small mercy of the online horror community.
🍿 — Non-horror movies of the month: Wake Up Dead Man and The Last Breath, both on Netflix and both worth watching.
📺 — December has been generous with new seasons of my favourite comfort TV shows — Fisk, Matlock, and Elsbeth — blessed television times.
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
This month, I wrote about eating Mauritian Cuisine in Melbourne: A Summer Night at Manzé.
Tiny Joys
Fafa referring to the “Gingerbread Man” as the “Muffin Cookie Boy” ❤ Fresh bedsheets ❤ Having leftovers for the next day ❤ Australian bush drops ❤ A one-hour phone call with Jik to gossip and chit-chat ❤ Pāua stone earrings from Lisa ❤ Good facial session ❤ Post facial skin ❤ Healthy skin ❤ The office being quieter in the second-last work week of the year ❤ Quiet days in the office ❤ Having a peaceful lunch in the pantry with my team ❤ Fun Australiana pants ❤ Nikki’s birthday celebration ❤ Scoring the 2026 Melbourne pubs calendar by LudzDrawz at New Hills of Content ❤ New haircut ❤ Supermoon ❤ The joy of being fit ❤ Gloomy, rainy day ❤ and comfort food ❤ Other people’s blogs ❤ Slowly getting back to Virgo-ing ❤ our pink Christmas tree ❤
Time Machine
🌴 ━ The happenings of this time last year and last decade.
Thank You, Next!
🍞 — I pulled the Page of Pentacles for January, Bread in the Magic Pantry Tarot, depicted by hands massaging a dough, and that’s exactly how I’m feeling about the upcoming month. It will be a month of planning and “table-of-contents-ing” 2026 — something I usually do in December, but due to the hecticness of the month, everything was pushed to January for me to circle back to (mini ugh!).
✖️ — It also means I’m preparing a brand-new 2026 bingo (after failing to tick off more than three boxes on my 2025 bingo); alas, when I’m done, I might share it here.
✈️ — I’m off to Jakarta for Jik’s Indian wedding next week, and I’m looking forward to celebrating her and hanging out with my cousins.
🧘🏽♀️ — A few days after, we will be back in Melbourne. I have yoga, writing, and tarot workshops lined up throughout January to fight the post-vacay blues.
🎾 — Lastly, AO! It’s now a (newish) tradition — we’re going on Australia Day weekend, and I might just write something about it if I’m not too lazy.
And with that, Happy New Year, evvrrryyybody!! See you on the other side of the calendar.
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Chicken Chintamani was soooo good 😍
<3