Word of the week: pi seht - special
In my life: It's been a mixed week for me this time. Work was mostly quiet until Wednesday afternoon when we had a three-hour call to decide how to deal with a defect identified by another team. I think I finally understand what Sathya meant when he said that insurance is complex.
Food wise we had a mix of eating out and cooking at home. I made Chicken Adobo after seeing it talked about so many times by following this recipe. It was easier than I expected and that last tip to crisp up the chicken skin (I did this in the air fryer) after cooking it down makes such a big difference, that I’m sure I will use it for other recipes as well.
I want to see if I can find some good low-carb, savory baking recipes over the next few weeks. I miss baking but my usual recipes are pretty high on carbs and sugar and they’re a no-go with my current dietary requirements.
My trainer had a look at my food logs from the last few weeks and suggested I add some protein powder. I initially didn’t want to do that as I wanted to get most of it from diet, but I realized that I’d just be hampering myself if I didn’t. I’ve been only getting ~60 grams from food vs my target of 100-120 grams - so I finally bit the bullet and bought some Protein Water from Musclenation. It tastes pretty decent, but I have to see if I can tolerate it as I’m lactose intolerant.
On the exercise front, I’m still going for walks (and Jump by P1Harmony is such a perfect companion for this) and lifting higher weights but did not go for any proper runs this week. There’s a bit of a mental block after the health issue flared up - my mind keeps telling me I’ll have to deal with cramps/bruises again if I run - and I haven’t been able to push through it this week.
My step-grandfather passed away on Wednesday at 97. It wasn’t unexpected considering his age and I wasn’t very close to him as he used to mostly live in Mumbai, but he’d always been kind to me, treating me the same as his other grandchildren and was a pillar of my stepmom's family so he’ll be missed.
Lavender Bay walk
I did the Wendy Whitley Secret Garden/Lavender Bay walk this Thursday as I wanted a change from the park. This has lovely views of the Sydney Harbour at the end but involves climbing 110 steps while coming back. The first few times I did this, I thought I was dying. It’s a bit better now, but honestly not by much. How do people live here and do this daily?
Friday City walk
I popped into the city on Friday evening to collect a screen protector from the Apple Store, the one I had was cracked in several places and in dire need of replacement. As I was about to leave, one of their technicians started talking about Apple Intelligence so I watched the session. It’s pretty interesting what can be done with it, the cleanup feature works pretty well on my photos. I have to see if I can get others like genmoji to work.
I had some time to kill before dinner, so I decided to visit a bookstore & do a small photo walk. I popped into Dymocks and browsed for a bit - was sorely tempted by all the book accessories but managed to resist the urge to get them home. I then went to the QVB building to take some photos. The building has a public piano on the second floor and someone was playing, so naturally I was drawn there for some time.
I walked around for a bit after that, trying to get some photos of the rainy city and was hit by the sudden notion that now this gentle, in-between-seasons, Sydney rain is what I think of when I think of rains. I can’t remember what Mangalore in the monsoons feels like. There are vague memories of sleepily reading a book on the verandah during rainy seasons, but I can’t remember the smell of the rain on the soil or how the rain felt pattering on my umbrella. I guess this is what it means to make a new city home - making new memories that slowly overwrite the old till all you are left with is just a sense of loss and nostalgia when you think of the past.
I walked down to Town Hall and decided to take the metro home. It wasn’t very crowded at the station, so I walked up to the first metro car. The metro uses driverless trains, and you can have a nice glimpse of the metro tunnels if you are in the first compartment. It was fun to check it off my wish list.
On Saturday, we had our second guitar class. We learned another Blues song and practiced some songs we had learned in the previous term. We grabbed coffee and a wrap at our local cafe after and then came home and caught up on chores.
I also finally opened my camera and took a look at the photos from New Zealand. There was always a sick feeling in my stomach when I thought of doing this before, but knowing my dad was getting better gave me the strength to finally take a look at the photos. There was a nice one of my sister so I edited it and sent it off to her.
In the evening, we took the bus down to Kirribilli and took a walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a nice albeit windy walk and we stopped many times to get some pictures. At the other end, we walked around The Rocks and decided to grab dinner at a German restaurant there. We had some beer and some sausages before taking the ferry back home. I love that I get to live in a city with a ferry system, always such a nice ride back home.
We went out today (Sunday) to get some coffee and some brunch in the morning and then popped down to the stores to get some necessities. I came home and caught up on my watch later playlist which had about 190 videos or so. Didn’t watch all of it of course but caught up with some vlogs from my favorite ASMR vloggers and culled the rest. I went looking for a video on Lightroom masking (was inspired by this thread) and then went down the Photography section of YouTube after that for a bit before finally turning to LYKN music videos. Nice lazy Sunday in and with that the week comes to a close. Time flies, the older you get.
On my screens:
- ThamePo (Thai, Queer, YouTube, Ongoing) - We had the dreaded episode 11 breakup this week, which was made worse by the fact that the band was broken up despite that. I went on a good 5-minute rant to Sathya after I watched it.
Sad though they may be, the MARS bandmates all get the roles they wanted, Po gets a promotion to director, while Thame is shoved into a car and separated from all of them and forced to go to Korea to uphold the contract he didn't want to sign in the first place. Does nobody feel bad for him? They better fix this without a time skip in the next episode or the show will have a terrible ending as far as I'm concerned. - My Dearest Nemesis (Korean, Viki) - This (the last bit from the video) popped up on my Instagram feed and after I realized the lead actor was from Twinkling Watermelon, I went looking for the show. A noona, enemies to lover's romance, the first two episodes were a lot of fun to watch.
Summary: A high schooler falls for a video game player who turns out to have lied about his age and is a middle schooler. Public confession by the male lead is followed by a declaration of enmity by the female lead. Sixteen years later they meet as coworkers. Will they resolve their issues before disaster strikes? - NCIS Sydney (S1, Australian, 10Play) - Finished this, rather Sathya finished this as I accidentally fell asleep during the season finale (hey it’s hard keeping awake when you are up at 5.30 most days). As he said it ended on a cliffhanger I’m not keen to go rewatch it.
On my bookshelf:
- ThamePo (English translation): I was so frustrated by this week’s episode that I went looking for the translated novel it is based on just to see what happens next. The show is a pretty faithful adaption of the novel and thankfully it’s an ending that I don’t mind so I hope they keep that in for next week's episode.
On my playlist:
With how much ThamePo has dominated my mind this week, it's only natural that the song on my mind this week is the show's OST.
Even a moment apart feels like I might die,
Just a second away I can't even try
So could you stay a little longer by my side.
On my camera: I posted this image on Instagram earlier this week, but I love it, so it goes in the weekly notes as well.
Thanks for tagging along!
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