Word of the week: ron - hot

In my life: It’s been a quiet, hot week here in Sydney. I’ve had to put a pause on my C25K program as an old health issue I had as a child - bruising and severe leg cramps whenever I run/walk a lot - has flared up again after the last few weeks on the running program.

I met with my GP who thinks it might be related to my previous low iron levels. She suggested getting some blood tests done to pinpoint the cause but one of those tests required me to not do any workouts for a few days before it. It felt extremely weird not to do my morning walks/runs and it just feels like something was off this whole week. Hopefully will be back on track next week.

I've subscribed to many newsletters related to concerts/plays/musicals in Sydney, and it looks like this might the year of musicals for me. A bunch of musicals that I've been interested in will be in theatres over the next year and a half and I'm hoping I get a chance to catch all of them.

When we think of Karnataka and food, what usually comes to mind is the Udupi/Mysore style vegetarian food - the idlis, dosas, akki rotti, the rice baths - or the seafood/meat from the coastal region. But Karnataka also has a distinct non-vegetarian culinary tradition outside these.

This week I was suddenly reminded of a hotel opposite my old workplace (sadly shuttered during the pandemic) that did these beautiful Karnataka style dishes - raggi mudde meals, mutton biryanis, and my favorite the chicken meals. The highlight of the meal for me was this incredibly spicy, rich Naati Koli saaru. After some frantic googling to see if there were any such restaurants in the Harris Park area, and determining that there were not, I decided to make this at home by following this recipe. It took a long time to cook, and I had to make some minor modifications, but it turned out quite nice and my cravings were satisfied.

As I was writing the weekly notes and thinking about all those visits, I thought it would be nice to have some mutton biryani for dinner. Sathya went off to Coles and bought the lamb and I followed other recipes on the same site for the biryani and pepper chicken. I still haven't figured out how to get the biryani rice right in the Instant Pot, so it wasn't as fluffy as I'd like but the pepper chicken turned out well.

Steppenwolf album

Sathya told me that Civ 7 was coming out this week and he had plans to play with his friends. I figured it was a good time to go record-hunting/op shopping by myself while he was busy.

On Saturday we had breakfast nearby and then I went off to Surry Hills, our old suburb, and walked around for a bit, exploring the music stores and the op shops. We have a list of records we want to find and while I know we can always order them online; there's something to be said for doing it the old-fashioned way. I managed to find a Santana album (Sathya's choice - I hadn't really heard much of their music outside Black Magic Woman) and a Steppenwolf album (picked this up as it had Born to Be Wild but loved the album when I listened to the rest of the songs at the store) and got them home. I also found a copy of Sound of Music and was sorely tempted to get it, but I knew that was mainly for the nostalgia factor so skipped it.

Le76 Patisserie & Bakery

Today (Sunday) I went to Neutral Bay, a nearby suburb, just to get out of the house for a bit. I walked around for a while and then went to Dymocks and spent some time browsing books there, the store is tiny but had a nice selection. Then I went to Le 76 Patisserie & Bakery for a coffee and a quick snack. They had a large selection of breads, sandwiches and desserts. I had the mini chocolate croissant, a great cappuccino and got a takeaway Portuguese chicken baguette sandwich for Sathya.

On my screens:

  1. ThamePo (Thai, Queer, YouTube, Ongoing) - Secret boyfriend era broke me, the boys are so cute together. Also, jealous Thame is adorable, and it's no wonder Po was grinning ear to ear. Looks like there is some drama next week though.
  2. Squid Game (S1, Korean, Netflix) - I know what seems like the whole world seems to have watched this, but Sathya and I just started watching it this week. A tad too much gore for me at times but I'm curious to see where it goes.
  3. NCIS Sydney (S1, Australian, 10Play) - I watched the original NCIS for a few seasons and thoroughly enjoyed the show but never really watched any of the spin-offs. As I was browsing through shows, looking for something to watch this showed up on my screen. Reviews are all over the place and it feels odd to see Sydney sound like Murder Central but eh, it's a bog-standard police procedural, the actors are decent and it's kind of neat to watch the show and say ooh we've been there, so will likely continue with it.
  4. Dear My Secretary (Thai, Romcom, Grey) - It's a bit too similar to the Korean version. Giving it another week to see if anything changes before dropping it.
  5. The Boy Next World (Thai, Queer, IQIYI) - DNF as there's no actual parallel world. Where are all my fantasy romances (or just fantasy shows) dang it?

I also found out that Murderbot is getting an Apple TV adaptation this year. Can't wait to see what they do with it.

On my bookshelf: Didn't really read a lot of long form this week, mostly some translated manhwa but nothing that I continued with.

On my playlist: I discovered Pun's music randomly at a cafe in Thaitown. This melodious voice came on as we were waiting for our food, and I was hooked. Immediately used Shazam to find out who the artist was and have been following his work ever since. This is one of his latest songs and it's also a collab with PP Krit, another T-pop artist I really like.

On my camera: I'm always surprised by how many stores around the city are still vacant - not entirely sure if that's the work of the pandemic or if it's just not a popular area. I was walking on Cleveland Street on Saturday and saw a lot of shuttered stores, homes and then this closed Victorian Gothic church caught my eye. Apparently, it has quite the storied history and was the location where AC/DC shot their song Let There Be Rock. It's now getting a new lease of life as a dining and office precinct.

Thanks for tagging along!