When rereading my old diary entries, I noticed that I had more than a few entries in March that I titled “March Madness” or some version of it. This month, it finally clicked ━ that March will always be a charging month because we enter the Aries season! Duh!!
This March has been a full-on madness ride too, but I am not complaining; far from it. The month brought an expansion in life. I travelled from India to Singapore and back to Melbourne before flying to Auckland the week after ━ , with two sick days in between. And despite not touching my book at all this month, I feel like I have done plenty of other things, and I am still super grateful for it.
Highlights
👩👧 ━ Hanging out with Amma during the short Singapore stopover. I also spent an evening with my cousin and her family, visited the temple in Little India and had a lunch date at our fave place in Chinatown.
👯♀️ ━ Jik came to Melbourne for a day. We LOL-ed, cried, hugged, posed, did Yoga, binged on snacks, feasted Thai food (Yarraville’s Smiling Buffalo) and planned our girls’ trip this year.
🧡 ━ Barkley Street was closed for an afternoon to celebrate Holi Festival. I am not writing another post about it, but if you want to see the pictures, it’s on my Insta.
🍽️ ━ I celebrated my seven years migrating to Melbourne with a Westside Wanders’ three-course in three-restaurants dinner in Sunshine. It was an event by Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF). I also attended another MFWF event in Robata called The Heart Inside Night. The best part of the night, even more than the Ghibli-themed food, was witnessing a real-life proposal (a bucket list item).
🛥️ ━ I was in Auckland for a week for work and learned tons of new work-related stuff. Also, despite being busy, it felt like a nice break from normalcy to experience new things (hotel, food, route, colleagues, etc.) while pushing myself to find ways to stick to my habits.
🏉 ━ AFL season has officially started!
Love and Found
📚 ━ I saw an Indonesian folklore-themed artwork by a local Singapore artist, Weng Pixin, titled Sang Nila Utama. It was love at first sight, and long story short, it’s now mounted to our library room wall.
A snippet from Weng’s website about the art:
“The year was 1299 when Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from South Sumatra of Indonesia discovered the island of Singapore while he was out hunting a stag in the forested areas of Bintan.”-taken from someplace on the internet.
📚 ━ A poetry book to add to your empowering self-care arsenal: Maxine Beneba Clarke’s How Decent Folk Behave. Reading her poems reignited my love for reading poetry; hence I just downloaded Artemis Made Me Do It for before-bed reading. The online short story I recently read and enjoyed: Osaka Calling.
Media Watch
📺 ━ I watched plenty of good TVs recently; Inside Amy Schumer, The Last of Us, Ticket to Paradise, The Visitor, The Stray and The Invitation.
Foodie Guide-y
🍡 ━ Chris, my colleague, introduced us to KorChi, a Korean Chinese restaurant in Melbourne CBD. The Tteokbokki was on point – spicy and comforting.
🍲 ━ We celebrated Liz’s birthday at Aru 🙂
Speaking of k-food, I had Bulgogi Spaghetti at simonandlee while in Auckland; it was a fusion done well.
Another k-food-related highlight: our neighbour invited us for a k-bbq arvo. It was a boozy-long lun, after which I spent the rest of the day passed out. Good times!
🍝 ━ While in Auckland, I had a fancy and delicious paid-by-work Italian meal at Badduzi and a self-paid Japanese buffet at Katsura.
🍲 ━ Fafa and I went to an impromptu dinner at Thai Baan after watching a comedy show in the city. The pork-bone soup was perfect for the starting-to-get-chilly weather in Melbourne.
🍗 ━ I cooked both Chicken Chettinad and Kadai Chicken this month. If you wonder why I tend to cook chicken dishes, that’s because Fafa loves them, and I love him — saying that I want to cook crab curry and tempe-based dishes next month. And maybe baked banana bread if I manage to find the time. Wish me (and the kitchen) luck!
🍷 ━ Wine recommendations: any Penfolds brand and my go-to: almost any blended wines that cost $16-$25 in Dan Murphy’s.
💸 ━ We had the most underwhelming, uber-expensive-not-worth-the-money dinner at Firangi Superstar: Modern Indian Restaurant and Bar in Singapore. We went here because a friend recommended it and also because I have heard strangers rave about it. It’s a NO NO NO.
Browsing History
Why Auckland Sucks ♥ The best Auckland eateries for solo travellers ♥ Winner of Australia’s best vanilla slice ♥ Unconventional Writing Habits ♥ 101 Very Simple Habits That Will Improve Your Life ♥ Ways to Start Journaling and Feel the Emotional Benefits ♥ Food That Can Be Regrown from Scraps ♥ The 21 things you learn in your first year in Melbourne ♥ 37 things that make you a true Melburnian ♥ 35 incredible facts about Melbourne that you probably didn’t know
Tiny Joys
UberEats-ing Sumthin’ Dumplin’ again and again while in Auckland ♥ Indian kurtis with pockets ♥ Bookclub ♥ Friendly Singaporean waiter ♥ A sneak peek to Crown Hotel suite ♥ Sauna ♥ Smooth and safe flights ♥ Early hotel check-in after a tiring journey ♥ Hanging out with my cousin who came to Melbourne for a hot minute ♥ Sharing $1.5 fish curry meal with Amma in Little India Singapore ♥ Nutella cookies ♥ T2Tea’s Gone Surfing tea is back on stock! ♥ Yoga while travelling ♥
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
Sushi, Sashimi and Sake – Japanese Cooking Masterclass in Robata (another Robata post is coming up soon) ♥ Tasting The Best Dumplings on Melbourne Dumpling Walk (stay tuned for the Auckland version) ♥ Toddy Shop in Kerala An Authentic Mallu Experience ♥ Chai Wallah Semi Authentic India Roadside Chai Stall ♥ Qantas, You Owe Me $53.23! ♥ A Not Really Typical Auckland Sunday ♥
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
I’ll let you in a lil’ secret, this is the section that I usually start with when I write these monthly newsletter posts because it’s the easiest to remember 😛
🍲 ━ Fafa’s birthday is this weekend! And we have Fafa-weekend-of-fun planned 🙂
🤣 ━ I have two more comedy shows to watch, which I hope will serve as a good midweek work-stress (year-end + audit) release.
📘 ━ Exam. Ugh!!
🛫 ━ I am doing Run The Tan at the end of the month and babysitting our friends’ daughter (my first babysitting gig!) on the same weekend. #adulting.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
Keep Kultured! ━ KK.
