Mondays

Not well enough to go to work, but not sick enough to spend the day in bed.

So I worked (I was actually on sick leave), but wasn’t compelled to stay on my desk. I did laundry. I made arroz caldo for dinner using chicken drumsticks. I made pork ribs pinapaitan-sampalok for the next night’s dinner.

I did some bench presses in the garage. I did dishes. I finalised what I needed to make for Sam’s birthday. I shaved my head with the new replacement head-shaver (and still marveling how you can get a replacement without any questions asked, by simply returning the item and them finding the receipt in the system). I kept the receipt of this new one in a safe place and took a photo of it for good measure.

I thought I was feeling funny at around 3pm so I went to bed, but ended up watching Tron:Ares on Disney Plus (how can I get Jared Leto’s taut, poreless face??).

It started raining at 5pm and I didn’t bother taking the socks and the houseclothes in from the line.

Scanned for life

Every time I visit, I go through a never-ending pile of photos which I bring home and scan. Some are so damaged that it’s a painstaking effort to clean them up and fix them; AI can only do so much. I should seriously start to think about how what happens next, otherwise, they’ll end up joining 40,000 other digital images in my cloud account.

Christmas 2025

I started this post with, ‘after the gifts have been opened and the food eaten..’ but then stopped myself. Don’t overthink it. The question is very simple- did you have a great Christmas? And if the answer is yes, then that’s all there is to it.

For better or worse, through thick and thin, you should be spending your life with only those who truly matter.

The Weekend

Such a struggle to find JUST protein. And the cravings. The depression (!). The falling off the wagon (who knew the Chinese bakery made really good pork buns, well-seasoned filling, really fluffy dough).

And then we found high-protein pasta! (will try it next time for sure).

I’ve always liked tofu, but I never really went out of my way to buy and cook it. I tried it on Friday and just free-styled it with shrimp, butter and gochujang- sort of like this recipe

The week that was

  1. I’ve been mulling a four-day work week, convinced that it will dramatically change the way I work and live. I’m already envisioning Fridays when I can finish chores (leaving the weekends free), bake (but then I have to eat the darned things), cook (more eating!), write (more staring at an empty screen), draw (why is Procreate so hard??). The possibilities are endless, or I could possibly end up in bed the whole day, exhausted from the previous four days.

  2. Speaking of Procreate, tackling it is the same as going into an Indian supermarket. I want to buy a little bit of everything, attempt to do something, but then realise that I have little to zero knowledge of the ingredients, the culture and the history. Knowing how to cook (or draw), is simply not enough. Where to begin though?

  3. I hurt my shoulder and I don’t know how or where. I thought it was the same shoulder that I injured nearly two years ago but at the physio, it turns out that now it’s the other shoulder (my right). How do I even forget something like this? There’s a sliver of pain with such actions as raising and fluffing the (heavy) winter duvet blanket, or soaping my back with the $2 back-scrubber that I got from Temu. I could’ve ignored it. I could’ve brushed it away as something part of aging (and not necessarily an injury). It could have gone or it could it have gotten worse. But I didn’t let the chips fall where they may, which I used to do a lot in the past. I’m at a point in my life where I marvel at my capacity to be responsible for myself (because who else would??), to know that an intervention is the logical choice. Have an appointment this week for an ultrasound to see what’s up.

  4. I used fresh pasta the other day and didn’t realise how delicious it is. It’s something I normally shy away from. I would rarely ever pick an Italian restaurant - if I wanted to fill myself with carbs, I’d just get a double Quarter Pounder from McDonald’s or get a pizza from Pizza Hut (with two sides of chicken wings). But fresh is something else isn’t it?

  5. I love winter. It makes spending $7 for a coffee every morning at the petrol station justified and necessary.

The Weekend

  1. Every year on May 10 (Matt’s birthday) is Sisig Day. Boil it, season it, grill it, chop it, season it and Uber deliver it.

  2. Sisig is a treat, eating it with rice (as if there’s any other way) is a treat.

  3. I love the Auckland CBD. On a Saturday (or any other given day), it’s like being in a world where none of the real world’s problems exist, because who cares? Queen Street is so tiny with traffic controlled so you can sit at one of the benches and not feel that you’re in a city.

  4. I would love to live in the city; if we didn't have Lily the cat, we probably would.

Christmas 2024 photo dump