Weekly Notes - 20/2025

Word of the week: dao - stars

In my life: We’re now well and truly seeing the end of Autumn here in Sydney. It’s extremely cold and we often have very rainy, foggy days. My walks haven’t stopped though. I read a weekly note by someone (can’t find the link now unfortunately) who was trying to walk daily and wanted to skip a day as it was raining. His son reminded him that umbrellas exist and he could just use one for his walk.

So when Tuesday dawned grey and rainy again, those words played in my head and I took out the umbrella, popped on the rain parka and went for a walk. While it was a bit annoying the first day thanks to the wet roads and puddles everywhere, by the end of the week, I had actually begun to enjoy how quiet it was on these walks. I did try out some new coffee shops on these walks and found one we revisited over the weekend.

I use YouTube a lot and there were several channels that had stopped posting or were talking about things I was no longer interested in, so this week I spent some time and cleaned it all up.

I‘m not usually someone who calls and texts people because I never know what to say, but I saw that it was creating a lot of distance in my relationship with my sister as she’s also the same. I wanted to fix that and realised that I didn’t really need to say anything big, she’s happy to just hear normal stuff from me. So now I send her photos of what I’m eating or what I saw on my walks and it feels like we’re there for each other everyday.

I also finally got my eye checkup done this week after delaying it for months - I felt the power had increased as I was having trouble reading again. Due to the family history of diabetes this involved two visits - one for the regular checkup and one a screening test for diabetic retinopathy. Sathya joined me on these visits, one just to join me for lunch and the second one for company as they’d told me I’d have blurry vision after the test. Happy to report that while the power has increased in one eye, it otherwise looks all good.

On the second visit to Chatswood, we also did a bit of grocery shopping and bought some silver pomfret and some lamb shoulder. I made a tawa fry for the fish and it turned out pretty well.

Saturday started with gym where I am trying to get used to the push press movement. We then went to guitar glass where we did some more music sheet reading, some chords and melody practice and then improv. Slightly getting used to it after practice last week but clearly still have a long way to go. Afterwards, we browsed the produce market and bought some fruits, vegetables and also bought a cauliflower, pumpkin and chickpea tahini salad which was pretty nice.

We then walked down to a cafe I had seen on one of my walks. There was a bit of a wait but both the food and coffee didn’t disappoint. On the way back, Sathya also picked up coffee beans from another store. I went into the city in the afternoon to watch a movie, discovered Suitcase Cult who were busking that day and then Sathya joined me for dinner at a Nepali restaurant.

On Sunday we woke up early and went to Parramatta to have Maharashtrians breakfast. I mainly wanted to spend some time with friends and this was a good way to do it and the food was excellant. On the way back home, I continued on to Chatswood and picked up my new glasses. Then came back, went to the library to get some books, stopped for some chocolate chai for the rainy weather before ending the week catching up on my shows.

On my screens:

1. The Red Envelope (Thai movie): A remake of Marry My Dead Body, the premise remains the same - A homophobic man gets trapped into a ghost marriage with an out and proud gay man and has to help him find out why he hasn‘t reincarnated yet. This movie was a part comedy part tearjerker. I watched this in the theatre and everyone seemed to enjoy the comedy bits. Bilkin & PP had previously done an excellent job in ITSAY and this comeback project was well worth the wait. The possession scenes especially were so funny and well acted.
2. Murderbot (Apple TV, Ongoing): Ah, it’s finally out and so far it’s so good. I love Skarsgard’s part awkward, part murderous portrayal of Murderbot and can’t wait for the next episode.
3. The Next Prince (Thai, Queer, Ongoing): They’re finally safe in the palace and the costumes and sets are stunning. Kanin and Charan are doing whatever they can to find out who attacked them. And the preview seems to indicate we’ll see more of this world than we did in the book.
4. Foundation (S2, Sci-Fi, Apple TV): Where is this show going? While I finally understand what is happening, the why still feels nebulous.

On my bookshelf: I got frustrated by Foundation and started re-reading the book to see if I can get some additional insight into the TV show. Had forgotten how good it was.

Spy fanfic rapid updates continue, we are finally at the Dumbledore death scenes and they were as over the top as expected.

On my pages: I actually managed to write the first chapter of a fanfic story - the first time I have actually managed to write fiction in many, many years. I was inspired after reading a story with a sad ending, I wanted, as most fanfic writers do, a do over and a happy ending instead.

I won’t be linking it here as I prefer for it to be anonymous but yay for no more writer’s block. Wonder if making a habit of writing these notes helped with that or I just wanted that story written that badly.

On my playlist: Two of my favorite bands have released new music.

P1Harmony released their album DUH and I really love the songs - they’ve been added to my morning walk playlist. Pretty Boys is my top track from the album.

LYKN released a new single from their upcoming album as well and it is a brilliant return to their characteristic style after all the music they created for ThamePo.

On my camera: All the rain meant photography was limited to my phone camera, here’s a picture of one of the last few days of autumn in Sydney.

Thanks for tagging along!