Word of the week: nák sà-daeng - Actor
In my life: This week mainly revolved around Sathya's big 4-0 birthday. He didn't really want to do anything special - we're not big on birthdays and such preferring quiet dinners on those days - but it's such a milestone birthday that I wanted to do something to ensure he had a special day. So, I asked him to take the day off and planned a few things.
We woke up early and caught a pretty sunrise from the terrace. We've been recording videos of us being silly since we moved to Australia, so I picked the best of them and made a birthday video for Sathya which he seemed to enjoy watching. We then went to Crow's Nest for brunch, grabbed some cake from Kurtosh and came back home to relax to some RHCP. His birthday gift of a coffee machine & grinder also arrived, and we spent some time unboxing and setting it up.
After a short rest we went to Pyrmont to a Taiwanese restaurant for a pre-show dinner. We then went to Sydney Lyric Theatre to watch MJ the musical. I hadn't really read anything about the show and I'm not very familiar with his music outside the more famous ones - but I had a good time, nonetheless. Sathya said he enjoyed it too which made me happy. We took the ferry back, ending the day with those iconic Sydney Harbour views. I'd taken some videos throughout the day, so I compiled them into a bit of a 40th birthday vlog for Sathya.
The next day we had our King Stingray concert at Enmore - which was the initial birthday plan that Sathya said he was happy with. I love visiting Enmore for its art deco features, but the music is always too loud there. This time I took a pair of sound dampening ear plugs just to spare my ears, but surprisingly I didn't need it for the King Stingray set. They played some of their most popular numbers, including my favorite Get Me Out, and I had a blast.
Saturday, we had our guitar class, grabbed brunch and came back home. I kept trying to practice Smile and Redo but it's still so hard to do chords and melody together.
I had come across this Youtuber who takes these stunning videos of Japan a few weeks ago and wanted to attempt to film Sydney in a similar way. So, we went to the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour and spent some time taking photos and videos there. Then we went to Yang San Park and had Korean BBQ for dinner.
Today I had a bit of a lie in before waking up and catching up on chores. I spent some of the afternoon watching videos on color grading. Went down that rabbit hole for a bit but the Chinese Garden video is not done yet. I went for a walk in the early evening and grabbed groceries before coming back to watch the race. Closing off the day with these notes.
On my mind: I mentioned earlier that we tend to film some of the goofier moments we have. I enjoy looking back at those videos from time to time, so I want to try documenting more of our life together.
We created a YouTube channel last year, but we've not really posted much on there. I like filming the videos but putting it all together to match the idea in my head is time consuming and difficult, so it fell by the wayside. It's also a question of balance - every time I film our outings I tend to forget photographing them. And as photographs tend to have lesser editing time involved, I tend to prefer working with them.
I saw some vlogs by LYKN pop up on my feed and noticed they used CapCut to create them, so I downloaded it to try. I used it to make videos this week and it was a breeze to use. We also have an Adobe subscription, so I'm curious to see how the editing process is in comparison.
All of this to say, I want to give vlogging another try if possible - while ensuring I take photographs as well of course. Let's see if anything comes out of this or it remains another idea in my head.
On my screens:
- Wheel of Time (S3, Prime, Ongoing): I enjoyed episode 4 and loved the way the trials were filmed. Getting to know the history made me want to read the books again. The show has truly come into its own and I really hope it finishes strong and does well enough to get a season 4.
- My Golden Blood (Thai, Queer, Supernatural, Ongoing): Still watching it, I'm not sure if it's the direction (depicting a vampire as emotionless like in the novel) or if his usual acting is like that but Joss seems very stiff in his depiction of Mark. Gawin is doing much better as but both need to be good to carry the show. The plot is still wild and wacky though - including one scene where Gawin throws garlic bread at the vampire because he reads it will repel them - so will definitely continue watching it.
On my bookshelf: Read a ton of fanfiction this week but nothing recommendation worthy.
On my playlist: What happens when your favorite YouTube guitarist meets your favorite YouTube classical pianist for a collab? This amazing version of Stevie Wonder's hit song I Wish.
On my camera: The Darling is a hotel building under the rather controversial Star Casino. Noticed the interesting shape of the building facade on our way to Sydney Lyric.
Thanks for tagging along!
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