I am writing this to you from the dock houseboat somewhere in the Kerala backwaters. It’s raining outside and serene inside, a complete zen vibe, which was the complete opposite of the first 29 days of this month. August was a busy month. Work stuff, fun stuff, being sick in between stuff, mental health tune-up stuff, friendship and gathering stuff. It was filled with everything and everything.
Highlights
🍶 — Soju girls dinner. Jen and Aina came over with the fam, and I cooked Japanese. Everything made it to the table except the Tamagoyaki, which I spent an hour and a half on and then forgot to serve. Edamame two ways, sashimi, miso salmon in foil, tempura prawns off a semi-failed batter, all out and eaten. We had it all with a fizzy plum wine Aina brought, and Jen’s homemade apricot cake (from her friend’s tree), which was absolutely delicious. The night carried on with Iz making friendship bracelets for every one of us, and finished with a locked-in date for the next catch-up.
🥂 — Jik came for work and stayed for the weekend for the annual GGP weekend.
🍊 — The day after, once I had waved Jik off, I went on the Tony Trail food tour at QVM and came back with a single white strawberry that cost more than a box of strawberries; a new love for citrus, specifically navel oranges, and a bag of fresh mushroom ravioli, which I cooked over the weekend.
🌸 — We celebrated Onam at our friend’s place. My first-ever Onam and my first-ever proper Onam sadhya, and oh my gwad, it was so good. I need to write about it properly. Onam sadhya, Onam games, mango wine, the lot.
🌼 — Asmi and I got daffodils for Daffodil Day. She’s decided daffodils are now our tradition, since last year, and that we have to do it every year, wherever in the world we are.
💆 — I went for an impromptu massage after an impromptu tarot reading by a ex HR manager. The Chinese acupuncture lady told me I am stressed and sit too much; tell me something I don’t know, lady! Still, both were healing moments.
Culture chat
🎭 — Two plays in one month, which makes me practically a season subscriber. Cut Chilli in Northcote with Fafa and Jik, then The Jungle and the Sea. I came out of both wanting a post-show discussion; maybe there are forums or gatherings I can check out?
Bingo
🏟️ — One main square this month: AFL. Done at the MCG, or the G as my new friend calls it, with the jacket I have had ready for months finally out of the wardrobe. It started with a lazy morning and some pottering with the laptop, then lunch at Yoon Kitchen for Bibimbap (I am teaching myself to love bibimbap pre-Korea). Then the MCG, and my first ever AFL game. I met Nikki’s whole Irish fam. I hung out with Christina. Asmi fed me the chippies. I got comprehensively drunk during the debrief in the bar afterwards and passed out immediately once I reached home.
Foodie Guide-Y
🍷 — New to me: mandi and suqaar at Hoyo’s Cafe on Ashley Street, my first Somali food and a bucket list line I had been carrying for a long time, knocked over on an ordinary weeknight. The Sizli at Mesob, also a first. And a spicy olive spread from Greece that Jik brought over, which I demolished within days on toasted bread cut into four and drizzled with chilli oil. Heaven.
🍣 — Fafa took me on a fancy date at NoriMaki. It is a repeat for us, but the food was as fresh and exquisite as ever. I ordered my usuals: tuna, snow crab, then Hokkaido scallop. Agyu, the sea eel. An ebi taco. A wagyu taco. Mio sparkling sake. My favourite was the Mio, and the thrill of eating a taco in a Japanese restaurant in Melbourne served twice (the first one was dropped on the table and immediately replaced) by an Indonesian.
🍳 — Fafa requested the Waroeng SS sunny-side-up egg sambal, which I somehow interpreted as telor gobal gabul, Yogyakarta style. Probably because I had just been talking to Amma about sayur lodeh ala Yogyakarta, which she just made at home in Jakarta after her recent visit to the city.
🥘 — Honouring a winter-month tradition, I went on a solo hotpot soup bowl date at Divine Hotpot, because one has to have hotpot at least once in winter; I had the fish maw chicken soup and the hot and spicy, and I mostly loved the crab cakes and the rice crackers.
🍲 — I had Ilza’s grilled chicken udon two weeks in a row when I was sick, which I wholeheartedly believe has healing powers.
🍜 — My Indo food saga: nasi pedas ayam suwir and Indomie geprek. Kerupuk while forcing myself to work. Teh botol. And leftover nasi goreng that tasted fine going down, but not so fine afterwards.
🍞 — Foodie moments: poke lunch with Nikki. Lim Kopi with Thu, T and Nikki, which was fun. Impact frozen meals. Doro tibs chicken and rice. The Japanese Maple treats from Luke, where the OG is my favourite; the custard one is very good, and the chocolate one is not for me. A Sri Lankan lunch. A mushroom Guzman. Hangover noodles. Pho. Flatbread and flat wine at Harley and Rose with Fafa. And Ilza’s grilled chicken udon, which I wholeheartedly believe has healing powers.
Read, Watched & Browsed
📱 — I joined StoryGraph because I am cool now.
📺 — Shrinking. One of the best TV shows I have watched lately. I wonder whether watching Shrinking makes me want to get shrunk. Law & Order SVU season 2. Slow Horses, newly started. And Ted Lasso, on a date night where Fafa fed me Harvest Snaps in chilli lime, and where the internet apparently cannot forgive that joke in the last scene of episode 3.
👻 — I watched The Last House, which was hated by the whole internet, but I kinda liked it. What was disappointing was Passenger, the horror one, which I watched with Jik and Fafa—too much religious symbolism. I also watched Bone Keeper, which was meh. Lastly, A Child of My Own on Netflix, a true-crime doc revisiting a sham pregnancy, was good.
📚 — The general book club read Villa Coco, and I left it far too late. My whole mind was on finishing it in one day. I read downstairs after my lunch break for an hour, then finished the last sixty pages over two mulled wines and a dozen oysters, which was truly the highlight of that day and possibly of that week. At book club, most of us liked it. I gave it 5 out of 7, but I didn’t say much, partly because I had speed-read it and had no time to process it, and partly because of the two mulled wines. Then, at the very end of the month, my first-ever Mystery Book Night at Harley & Rose.
💬 — A moment for Hayden Panettiere, who was low-key my hero and is such a good actress.
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween
🎉 — Kulture Kween turns 12 (14 or 19) years old this month.
Tiny Joys
Artisan grocery haul ❤️ frequency theory ❤️ Being asked to be a friend’s referee ❤️ The blue top from Asmi ❤️ Greeting everyone ❤️ Browsing the witch store ❤️ Buying oleh oleh for the Indian fam ❤️ Calling Amma for no reason at all ❤️ Camera club night ❤️ Free service ❤️ Coming home knowing I did not have to travel that night or the next ❤️ Compliments ❤️ Half hugs ❤️ Fafa praying for me ❤️ Madeleine ❤️ The fancy bottle opener, same as Jik’s ❤️ Athena ❤️ Flowers ❤️ The friendship bracelet ❤️ Friendship with the skin technician ❤️ Googling the most mentioned countries on the blog ❤️ The green fish water pitcher ❤️ Journalling at 6.47am ❤️ A little more positively ❤️ kutti progress book from Athena ❤️ A lady on the bus shuffling over so I could sit down with my heavy bags ❤️ The long drive out to Narre Warren for the ring ❤️ A magic with extra magic ❤️ Making plans for next month and the month after ❤️ Watermelon Cadbury ❤️ Morning pages ❤️ The Muji journal bag in black ❤️ Nikki treating us coffee ❤️ Oleh oleh from Amma, from Malaysia and Yogyakarta ❤️ Pasta for $1 ❤️ The photobooth strip with Jik and Fafa ❤️ Playing with Lachie ❤️ Quality time with Jik ❤️ chocolate cake from my neighbourbor ❤️ Soy chai with honey ❤️ Taking random pics ❤️ Tax prep with SVU on in the background ❤️ The tax return ❤️ Tir Tir powder from ❤️ Trip planning ❤️ Vanilla body wash from Body Shop ❤️ Writing an honest letter ❤️ Being picked up by a bookclub friend from the wine bar to walk together to our bookclub ❤️ local gym doing a Dignity Drop charity collection ❤️
Time Machine
🌴 — The happenings of this time last year and last decade.
Thank You, Next!
🃏 — Card of the month: the King of Wands. Pepper. The Leo of the deck, which feels a bit pointed in a month with a Leo new moon in it. He is charisma, vision and nerve. As a card of the month, it reads like a nudge to lead instead of react, and to stop waiting for permission on things I have already proved I can do.
✈️ — I am in Kerala right now, quality-time-ing with the in-laws. We are off to Kochi on the 1st, then flying to Sri Lanka to celebrate my birthday. Fun trip aside, the crazy busy I expected in April turned up in August instead. So, aside from milking “it’s my birthday week/month” to my loved ones, I’m wishing for a low-key AF rest of September.
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