Hello… I am back and writing to you from my study. I only realised that I have been home (as in Melbourne home) for weeks now, and it felt like I came back only days before. Oh well.
August started with a full moon and soon will be ending with a blue supermoon, and we are officially in the middle of Virgo season. If you are on the planning roll, you are not all alone, my friend. I have sorted out the rest of the year’s travel plans last week. What’s left is the executions and paying off the credit card bills.
Highlights
🏡 ━ Going home. It’s interesting to leave your home to go to your other home or return to your home. I have always referred to Indonesia as home, and as long as my parents are there, it’ll be home for me. So is Melbourne because, you know, my actual home, the one I am paying the mortgage on, is here. I also made a short pit stop in my second (step?) home, Singapore.
🛬 ━ Japan (yet another home!) trip with Amma. It’s too much to share in just a paragraph, so more on it later on the blog.
🎊 ━ I celebrated Kulture Kween’s 11th Blogiversary with a piece of Prawn Vadai. Fafa then took me out for Bakmi (Indonesian noodle) and Mertabak (Indonesian pancake) to extend the celebration. He asked me how I felt about the blog turning eleven. I told him I was not sure how I felt. The blog has been an integral part of my life that I couldn’t see and reflect on separately.
🏕️ ━ Finally, after two months of crashed schedules, I attended Bad Writers Club. We met after work and were given some prompts to do 5 minutes of writing before being left alone to write our hearts’ content for the next two hours. I wrote plenty, drank wine, met a book club friend and made new friends. I loved it!
🥾 ━ IDK whether this can be considered as a highlight, maybe in time, but I am now the proud/anxious owner of hiking shoes, water-absorbent socks, a 50L water-resistant backpack, a quick-dry towel, a first aid kit and a hydration pack. All in preparation for the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage next month.
Culture Chat
Qixi Festival and why people celebrate it ✾ August is Bon season in Japan, and Tsukiji Hongwanji Bon Odori is definitely something to check out ✾ Stardew Valley Official Cookbook ✾
Read, Watched and Browsed
📚 ━ Speaking of which, I have been reading one topic and one topic only this month: Kumano Kodo, including Lonely Planet’s Kumano Kodo guide.
🎥 ━ I watched the much-hyped Talk To Me in the cinema but found it to be just okay. I also watched the much more hyped Jailer in the cinema and loved it! Finally, Rajinikanth starred in a movie worth starred by Rajinikanth.
💃🏾 ━ I paid a Binge subscription to watch And Just Like That, and it was worth it. SATC brought me up, and it’s like doing a virtual reunion with my old friends. Main thoughts: I love Shoe, the kitten, for Carrie (maybe I should get one for myself); I also want to host a Michelin star dinner party; Lisa is so pretty; I admire Shima’s style and attitude; Carrie shouldn’t have 1) sold THE apartment for cheap 2) rub it in that she sold it cheaply 3) sold the apartment – PERIOD! She can afford both properties; I love Stanley being a monk in the Japan storyline and Charlotte for yelling at Harry in the last episode. Also, I quickly realised that my life is still very much dictated by SATC when I made a note to throw the wire hangers and buy a pepper mill after seeing Carrie and Aidan make fun of Che Diaz for having and not having it, respectively.
📺 ━ I watched, very much loved, and highly recommend Netflix’s Happiness For Beginners, just in time for my hiking trip. I also watched Hijacked, Mind Cage (I recommend both!) and Who Invited Them.
Amma and I also did The Blacklist marathon when I was in Jakarta. She kept going and is on Season 5 now. I have to catch up.
🔖 ━ A new blog I have been enjoying: What An Amazing World! by Harinda Bama ❥ 12 Secret Ingredients Celebrity Chefs Use In Their Chili ❥ Super Blue Moon ❥ Making more incredible and life-changing decisions every day! ❥
Foodie Guide-y
🍽️ ━ We went on a couples-lunch-date at our next-door neighbour and had the yummiest food. From Onion Pakora, which has never been my thing until that day when I had seven of them as appetisers before moving on to lamb shank for the main together with a new-to-me-but-now-my-fave Malai Kofta. We spent the rest of the day getting drunk and talking about the neighbourhood and Ye (Kim’s ex).
🍛 ━ I made Kerala Chicken Curry that involved multiple spice tempering steps, and we both agree it was the best of my efforts so far.
🍜 ━ One of my most memorable meals of the month was a bowl of Kakiage Tempura Udon at Avion, Narita Airport Terminal 1. It was Amma’s, but she saw me eyeing it, so she offered it to me instead, which I, of course, shamelessly took it. It was oh-so Oishi!
Tiny Joys
Folded laundry ❤ Chia Pudding ❤ Small towns ❤ Warm Onigiri ❤ Amma and Appa ❤ Scheduled phone calls ❤ Yoga Nindra ❤ Longer days ❤ Kue Salju ❤ Gourmet Popcorn in the cinema – I had Spicy Balado in Cineplex XXI Jakarta and Nachos Cheese in Hyots Docklands ❤ Cat nail art ❤ Train rides ❤
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
I am taking a break from blogging regularly for one more month. Still, I managed to squeeze in some posts to memorise Tahu time with Appa, complain about ANA inflight dining, and praise the SQ HNML inflight dining experience.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Things on My Mind
😺 ━ An article about being a happiness chaser I read weeks ago stayed with me. It’s hard to admit I belong to the same category. I chase goals/things-to-do to catch up on life (it’s even on the line of the blog “SERVING BITE-SIZE WORLD CULTURE WHILE CATCHING UP ON LIFE”). And if I am honest, it can sometimes be detrimental to me. I have considered whether I can take a more minimalistic approach to this happiness-chasing business.
🐻❄️ ━ I always thought Japan would always be the answer to the “If I could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?” question. But Artic has been in my mind lately. I wonder whether Fafa would move with me to Artic.
Thank You, Next!
🗻 ━ September is my birthday month, people! I celebrate it with the four years-in-the-making Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage in Kansai and Photowalk in Tokyo. I’ll write more about both and Japan once we are back.
🚶🏾♀️ ━ The card for September is Four of Light (traditionally Cups) from The Literary Tarot deck. Four of Cups is a card of daydreaming and “disconnection” from the “real” world. After a go-go-go month of August, I’ll welcome the card’s nudge to contemplate, with a dose of shinrin yoku along the way.
Keep Kultured! ━ KK.
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Thanks for posting these , this is one of the posts I look forward to the most.
Also happy to move anywhere with you but have you thought of the cold 🥶??