240 - life update🐈⬛
Hey there, ! It's every 4 weeks, on the dot, we ain't missin' it now.
-
Work has been taking me up and down from Sydney, and sucking up a lot of time from my weekly life. I've missed meal prepping a bit because I'm in and out of home, which means my fridge gets empty of fresh food, which means I get to rely on my parents for food (💖💖💖). But at least I get some lovely shots of the Opera House:
-
Gandalf is going GREAT thank you for asking. He is a big ball of fur that begs for food whenever he can - even when I've given him extra food! What a food motivated cat - as soon as I get home it's all 'hey come and look at this TRAVESTY OF A FOOD DISPENSER WHERE IS THE FOOD' and meows at me incessantly. And then I meow back trying to communicate that 'hey you already ate so it ain't coming'. Which works to various extents (read: not at all).
-
The celebrant course has been put a bit on the backburner while I work takes up my time. I was a few weeks ahead, but now I'm a week behind; so hopefully I can catch up over the long weekend. Aiyaaa where does all the time go?
-
I'm enjoying my habitual nature, the routines that I'm just living in at the moment, but I notice that as I get more busy, and things fall by the wayside, that progress at home stagnates. I don't have time to think about upgrading anything, or working on home projects, or cooking, or planning to cook - the energy goes straight to just thinking and working, and then resting as I get home. I play with Gandalf, I decompress and destress, but all that takes time too. Even sleep takes time! I'm trying to keep some things sacred (the ever elusive boundaries to be set) like this newsletter to make sure I stay sane; it's just something that helps me fill my cup and keep me going for the week.
-
It's weird to feel caught between feeling so purposeful at work when I'm busy, and wanting the downtime of not having to do anything at all. It's so...fulfilling to be able to get good work done, but it's also so effortful. I wonder what it's like to have a clear ambition sometimes - a goal that is so crystalline and clear...like a window that's so clean you hardly notice it's what you're looking at. Anyway, first world problems, hey?
-
Anyway in other news, I recently got The Wok by Kenji Lopez-Alt (writer of the Food Lab) and it is super fun to read the science behind how to make wok hei and how to use a wok properly (though I will say that a lot of it was just osmosis learning from my dad anyway). Still, nice to see the data. Been having a lot of fun with the wok, a new claypot and a new soup pot. Bring on more Chinese cooking hehehe.
P.S. anyone notice that my previous newsletter was 293?! Cos I only realised when I went to post this HAHA
Chat soon :)
Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!
✔️Real Life Recommendations
- Lee Ho Fook - surprisingly great. A Melbourne institution, apparently, but I hadn't ever been and thought it would be good to go to for my birthday. It didn't disappoint! It's a Chinese fine dining place that kinda caters for white people (the waitress saw we were Asian and recommended we don't get the tea pairing because it was supposed be more 'wine-like' - great recommendation), but the flavours and dishes were sublime. Highlights were some cucumber/cashew cream/chilli crisp entrees, a fish dish with soy sauce cream and spring onion oil, and the wagyu steak. DELICIOUS and highly recommended for Chinese fine dining.
- Godzilla Minus One - story sucked, acting was good, visual effects were STUNNIN'. Well deserving of the Visual Effects Oscar. The story was very mid - but you don't expect that much from a Godzilla film I guess - and some of the acting was a bit wooden to me; very overacted in terms of grief. However, even without the Godzilla part of the movie (which was fantastic), it at least had a good message and allegory to PTSD and being able to overcome your demons and move on with your life after war. Recommended (it's just come out on Netflix!)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
-
AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd, by looking at them just once - I honestly hope that these things become miniaturised, updated, upgraded, normalised etc. while I'm still alive. What a wonderfully cool invention. IT smacks a little of Black Mirror (since you can filter people out of what you are hearing) - but it would help this poor ol' Vince to hear people when they whisper at him and he can't hear 'em.
-
Sorry, wrong number - not what you think it's going to be about. Once again, a most random article to tell us why motorways in the UK are numbered weirdly (sometimes).
-
A California man hid for 6 months in a secret room inside Circuit City - fascinating, fascinating, fascinating. Trading a prison cell for a small hideaway room in an abandoned Circuit City - I don't know if I'd be able to do something like that!