I am writing from the Purple Room in Jakarta, accompanied by the heavy raindrops hitting the trailed window above my bed—well, my parents’ bed that I inherited. Today is the leap day of the monsoon season, and I can feel the magic in the air.
Highlights
🎂 ━ Appa’s 70th birthday! I feel so lucky to be able to celebrate his big milestone birthday together as a family.
🫶 ━ Inspired by a random reel on IG by nicolescrouther, I wrote a Leap Year Letter addressed to my future self. I can’t reveal too much about it for fear of spoiling the surprise for my future self 🙂 But if you are even slightly intrigued, I urge you to try it! And if you feel like writing and keeping an actual letter is too much work (though I prefer it), you can open FutureMe on another tab and start immediately. If you need inspo – check these open letters.
🚗 ━ Fafa and I had a low-key Valentine’s Day celebration – we exchanged cards, and he took me out to eat delicious Sichuan Crab at Shanghai Street restaurant.
🌟 ━ On a random Wednesday, I went to a Poetry and Wine event in the neighbourhood and got to see one of my favourite local essayists, Shu-Ling Chua, read some of her poetry.
👯🏾 ━ The weekend Jik visited Melbourne, we went to SOS, the bathhouse in Collingwood. We took the Sud & Mud package and spent the whole morning co-self-caring and gossiping in the lowest voices so not to disturb other patrons. It was so much fun. Then we went to CIBI before going to our neighborhood pride, the Chestnut Tree Bookshop for a book haul. After dark, we went to Werribee Park Mansion for an immersive night theatre titled What was that! – 10/10 recommend.
Culture Chat
🚂 ━ Recently, a conversation with our new neighbour reminded me of the Food for Everyone project. They convert cooks’ recipes from diverse cultures and turn them into posters. For every poster purchased, they donate ten meals. I am still waiting for them to make an Indo recipe poster. Still, I can also be easily persuaded by the beautiful Baba’s Place Summer Tomatoes by Rahma Soliman. I plan to visit Baba Place the next time I’m in Sydney and maybe get it afterwards.
Read, Watched, and Browsed
📚 ━ My reading streak continues. I started with Do You Have Anything Less Domestic? by Emilie Collyer. I had the privilege of listening to her read a few poems from the book (as a fellow WeFo resident – Jim Wong was my favourite) at the Poem and Wine night. I purchased her book that night and regret not asking her to sign it!
In Jakarta, I read Trinity’s The Naked Traveler Farewell and Self-Love for Small Town Girls by Lana Lang Leav. I just finished At The Pond, which inspired me to add swimming in Hampstead Ladies Pond to my bucket list.
🎧 ━ I always wanted to be the person who listens to audiobooks – I feel like it’d make my life so much easier. With the time I spend listening to YouTube all day, every day, I thought it would be an easy (and healthier switch). Still, this month, after forcing myself and failing to listen to the FantasticLand I cancelled my Audible subscription. It’s time to admit I have lost the audiobook battle.
🔖 ━ Still on modern media update, I have finally subscribed to a paid Substack, ticking off my wishlist to support a writer’s work online. It took me some time to decide which Substack to subscribe to. Somehow, the first time, it felt sacred. Ultimately, I went with Caroline Cala Donofrio’s Between a Rock and a Card Place.
If you like reading and writing and have the means, I recommend supporting one of your favourite writers on Substack. Here are more recommendations: Austin Kleon, Nina Mingya’s Crispy Noodles, Amy Key’s So Glad I’m Me (I followed her after reading her piece in At The Pond), and Ella Risbridger’s You Get In Love And Then.
🔖 ━ I feel like I must have recommended Tynan‘s blog before – it’s one of my favourite personal but inspiring blogs to read, as he leads by example. I can relate to his love for Japan and aspiration of owning an island and buying a tea house. One of the things he said that stuck with me the most is:
Years ago, I had the revelation that if you aren’t grateful for the things in your life, you shouldn’t bother getting more things in your life because you also won’t be grateful for them.
I like this point a lot. His latest post was about the predictions he made for himself ten years ago. It inspired me to write my own on a Post-it note and slip it into my Leap Year Letter envelope.
❄️ ━ I enjoyed EVERYTHING about The True Detective Season 4, from culture-infused mystery to the dynamic between bitchy Jodie and kind-but-no-nonsense Navaro’s (or, as better described by Samanta Irby, Cold Lesbian), the side story, including the polarizing ending. Thanks to the show, I have been dreaming of spending a snowy night in a fishing cabin somewhere in North America – if only Ennis were a real town.
👻 ━ With the exception of Horror, I don’t watch Indonesian movies. The last I could recall watching in the theatre was Bangsal 13 in Blok M with Jik in 2004. But last week, I took Amma to watch Agak Laen after multiple recommendations by multiple cousins. It was really good, and I hope more Indo creators follow this refreshing path. Another horror movie I watched was Bridge Curse 2: The Ritual. Unlike most horror movies on Netflix that are either too complicated, boring, repetitive, or too dark (literally) to even see, this movie delivered.
📺 ━ Fafa and I had Queer Eye episode weekend dates. My favourite so far was the Denton Mallas episode. If you watch and want to support the ASL cause – here is the link to donate. I also spent too much time guessing the beef between Tan and Bobby and worrying about how the show would be without the latter.
📷 ━ As a huge fan of Annie Leibovitz‘s work (well who isn’t?), her latest collab with IKEA, portraying different family lives around the world, brings me so much joy.
Foodie Guide-y
🦀 ━ I had been wondering why no one makes crab curry pasta for weeks before eventually taking the task up myself. I got fresh Sri Lankan crab, turned it into curry, took the meat out, and recooked it with pasta. The whole thing took hours, and it didn’t turn out great — maybe that’s why it’s not a thing — but most likely because I don’t know how to cook it right.
🌟 ━ Post semi-failed crab curry pasta saga, I tried Basic Brown bachelor rice all within 15 minutes, and that one was good enough that I took it to work the next day. The star of our kitchen this month, though, was Idli. Never in my life did I think I’d make idli, but I did — tweaking the batter with sea salt and chopped green chilli before placing a dollop on a greased idli maker cup, which I got from the neighbourhood Indian grocery store.
🥮 ━ When I got inside Melbourne Airport International Terminal, my feet automatically walked to Brunetti for a piece of Ricotta Cheesecake and a pot of chamomile tea. Without me knowing, it has become a tradition — like eating a set meal in Hoka Hoka Bento near the entrance of the old terminal Jakarta International Airport or half-boiled eggs during stopovers in Singapore.
🍵 ━ When Jik was here, we went to have Ochazuke (green tea poured over rice) at Fafa’s current favourite breakfast place, Chi A Ki in Collingwood. We also went to Coracle for a brekkie date before she flew out. This place has good food — albeit a bit pricey because of the postcode — but the best part of Coracle is they are strict and have many dining rules that we had a good laugh about. This place can be a low-key tourist attraction in the West for me to bring my out-of-town friends to.
🥛 ━ At work, as part of a work task, I spent a good chunk of time trying 40+ milk-based drinks, which led me to conclude that I like banana-flavoured milk and lemon yogurt.
🍛 ━ In Jakarta, Amma made Nasi Uduk, Upma, Prawn Tauco, Crab Curry, Chicken Soup, Squid Tauco, and Bakmi. My cousins also introduced me to a few new foods. Some I loved — like Nasi Kendi, Sea-salt coffee, and Avocinno — and some not so much — like Oshusan Onigiri, Tahu Berontak, and Balado Popcorn. I also had plenty of Roti Bakar and repeated orders of Golden Pearls KOI bubble tea.
Things In My Mind
I am contemplating taking the Melbourne-Sydney train one way, an 11-hour ride. I can leave early in the morning from Southern Cross, work remotely, rest, and be at Jik’s by dinnertime.
Tiny Joys
Handmade ceramic ❤ Messina Pandan ice cream ❤ Charms for Crocs ❤ Amethyst chain from Sweden-based Dark Tales ❤ Elumbu (bone) soup ❤ Crab Musubi ❤ home masseuse ❤ Haigh’s heart-shaped chocolate ❤ A new friend who’s obsessed with salt as much as I am ❤ Kind Apple Genius tech support ❤ Valentine’s Day card ❤
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
This month, I wrote two articles about my Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage: Kii Katsuura and Chikatsuyu Village. Additionally, I interviewed Heather of 2Summers about crossing continents and cultures, as well as her life in Joburg, South Africa.
💻 ━ Unrelated but still related to blogging, I recommend Serena on Fiverr for all your technical blog-related needs. She saved my sanity, which was ruined by days of communicating with below-par Bluehost customer service.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
🌈 ━ The March card is the Ten of Cups from Midnight City Tarot deck, which I kept at my parents’. It symbolises completion, happiness, harmony, and joy – emotional fulfilment. To be honest, I don’t see any of these things as a theme for March; quite the opposite, actually, as I am gearing up for March Madness. Perhaps it’s a nudge from the Universe to remember that all my problems are good problems, and there is a rainbow waiting at the end. Fingers crossed.
🍽️ ━ The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is back! And this time, I managed to book a few dining experiences in the West that were sold out last year. To say I am excited about this would be an understatement. And yes, I will write about it, but you’ll have to wait for at least a few months. So, if you are a local, why not treat yourself?
🎂 ━ We are off to Singapore to celebrate Fafa’s big birthday. At first, I questioned his decision to choose Singapore, but now, with precisely a month to go, I am excited to write a list of things to see and eat – to revisit for the first time.
🏮 ━ Lastly, wishing everyone a very Happy Easter! Enjoy your Easter break!
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We will miss you Kulture Kween!