Hola friends, twenty-six-year-old Sav reporting for duty with my supposed fully developed prefrontal context yet teeming with more career and lifestyle uncertainty than ever.

I had a wonderful dinner with my partner at Eleven Barrack at Wynyard, attached to this apparently super exclusive business club called The Pillars, alongside some good + questionable meal deals with family.

My present is still coming, which is known to me, but I need to sort out the sizing for it because you never know whether a shoe runs small or large or true to size without trying the exact item. I have a few angpaos and pre-paid gift cards to burn on… I’m not sure really. I’ll probably hold onto these with the intention to get a gift for myself, forget them for two months, and decide it’s far too late and have them roll into next year.

In the meantime, you can gave me the greatest present of all by subscribing to choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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🎊 My health, or more particularly my partner’s health, may not have fully recovered from the hardstyle pinkfest moshpit that was Porter Robinson. I want to blame my sleep schedule on him but that is admittingly entirely me.

🌠 Via last week’s show, I’m thrown back to my teenagehood EDM era and somehow introduced to Ninajirachi, an EDM producer from Central Coast via the B2B set at Chinese Laundry, a surprise rave taking place at a small club the day after the show. She’s got a really interesting noise about her and I’m reminded once again the intriguing, genre-bending niches within the EDM.

🎸 I developed a sudden gotten nostalgia towards Indonesian songs, which is weird, because I’ve never felt nostalgic to Indonesian songs. I know the melodies of many songs but pretty much none of the artists and today in particular, I’m captivated towards Sempurna by Andra & The Backbone.

🦒 A friend of the newsletter, Gaby from , has just announced she’s putting her newsletter on hold to focus more on her Sydney-based counselling and therapy business. All the best Gaby and I’m sure to hear from you again another day!

🧾 My partner has started taking her Chartered Accountant courses and had one of those all-day workshops this weekend. I’ll be supporting her all-throughout the best I can and lowkey I do miss the learning that comes with structured education and believe it’s particularly fruitful once you’ve gone through a bit of the real world. It makes so much more appreciation for what you learn. I don’t think she likes it though. She’s been pulling a lot of her hair out.

🍉 Got over my career crisis (this is a lie, obviously) and decided to talk about food again, this time highlighting cool ass bread spots. Headed to Pantry Story at Stanmore to try out their new flavours like the dragon boat puff pastry and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that… it’s not as expensive as I remember?

💀 Queued about 45 minutes for buy one get one Heytea at the reopening of their Hurstville store.

🪻 Downloaded Obsidian as a PKM system with the intention to encourage notetaking and more active engagement with whatever I’m reading or listening to. I didn’t want to pay for Obsidian Sync so I frankensteined together my devices via Dropbox and community plugins and built something like ’s Noticing button for Obsidian instead. Let’s see how we go.

📷 An action item for me is to update my Now page as I am no longer twenty-five so if you’re keen to snapshot what’s on my mind and what I was focusing on from 10 April 2026, take a quick read before I wash it with a mop.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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It’s 11:22pm on the 14th of June as I type this1, rushingly so, with the intention to draft, edit, populate with pictures, and slap publish before my much larger post goes live at around 9am AEST where I talk about turning 26.

Otherwise, it’s been a solid set of days featuring a much-needed public holiday, home grill barbecue, and my first concert of the year2. Not a bad way to close out twenty-five where I’m meant to be rewarded with a fully-developed frontal lobe with established interests, skills, and curiosities.

If this is it, then I sorely demand a refund.

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• Did absolutely nothing at all this King’s Birthday, which isn’t even his birthday, but just a conveniently placed public holiday for Australia. Homemade pancakes and matcha for breakfast, a makeshift KBBQ into the evening; the people yearn for a slow lifestyle where you wake up whenever you’d like, practice your art of choice, and eat good fuckin’ food. That’s all I want, really.

• I know I said I was going to be a food blogger but had deviated ever so slightly from this to talk about career, or rather the opposite of it, namely imagining how life would like if I was suddenly laid off. It’s a messy and unstructured post but I actually really like my honesty within it, much more than the brutal formulaicness I had when I talked about career normally.

• For the last year and a half, I barely knew any Australians on this godforsaken platform other than the very cool . After highlighting Sydney-based Asian restaurants and study/work cafes, I have suddenly been brought to the attention of a ton of amazing, talented, successful writers from just over the pond and am very happy about these new names on the feed :)

  • Now I just need to find the even more niche archetype of Indonesian writers in Sydney, of which I only know two (hi and )

• My partner just passed her Drivers Knowledge Test and got her learner’s license! This is a massive milestone because now she can now legally practice instead of illegally practice, which has been the case the last two months.

• Had an impeccable Saturday night at the Porter Robinson concert at Carriageworks, the only time Vivid Sydney has ever been worthwhile. Porter Robinson is one of my favourite artists of all time who I’ve followed since Language to Worlds to Nurture to SMILE, with many of his lyrics forming the basis of many retrospectives (2023, 2024) and even my 2023 NaNoWriMo project, titled Nurture. Finally seeing him this year was an extraordinary meet-your-heroes moment.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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Greetings ladies and gentlemen, buckle up your seatbelts and kick back on your seat, we are almost at the halfway point of 2026.

My birthday is coming up, alongside a concert, and a couple of packages, and a public holiday next Monday1 too but somehow, I don’t seem to be looking forward to it.

If we exclude that searing desire of going back to bed the second I wake up on a Monday, I don’t recall the last time I looked forward to something. I haven’t figured out whether this is a known phenomenon or a seasonal trend combined with short-sightedness, but it does feel a little bit like what I chatted about last retrospective where regardless of whether I’m doing routinely or exceptional things, I kinda wish things were the other way around.

It’s not infinite wants with limited resources, but more like infinite resources with consistently changing wants.

June tends to be one of the more eventful months of the year for me, resulting in a bit less writing than usual unless I’ve got a plan, so let’s make sure I get one instead of leaving things up to chance2.

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• My stove has been fixed. Thank goodness. It’s fresh and new and I promise not to blow it up again, even though the damage was not my fault whatsoever but instead wear-and-tear and external parties who happen to live under the same roof. I will not disclose the ratio of fault, for I cannot prove it, but only believe it.

• In a surge of wanting to feel like a child again, I fired up a new save file for Bravely Default 2 for the Nintendo Switch - a classic JRPG which I unfortunately never finished since starting work in 2022. I miss these four-man adventures with highly-customisable job systems with multiple ways to break the game yet overpowered bosses that run your over anyhow. This has taken some space in my dopamine menu so if there is less publishing this month, this is partly why.

• Only two gym sessions this week but had a more intensive badminton session due to less people showing up, so I’m considering this week a fitness win. Next question, please.

• I want to write a birthday post of some kind but haven’t figured out what it will be about. If nothing else, a casual 26 lessons/reminders would do, similar to but not as all-encompassing as last year’s 25 by 25 series. I want to say I’ll cross that bridge when I get there but this damn bridge is approaching me. What I have previously called a quarter life pickle is becoming more of a quarter life… cucumber. Something unobtrusive, neutral, plain, vanilla… not radical or chaotic but definitely not in any way accepted. It’s weird, but I suppose that’s what reflection and conversation is for. Hang around friends and you may see what atrocities come out of my mouth.

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• Spent a serendipitous Tuesday afternoon gunning for BTS tickets only to find out that not only did you need to buy an ARMY membership, you also needed to register separately to be eligible for pre-sale tickets. This is a little unfortunate because even though I was able to enter at around the 10,000th spot (which is great), I only ended up getting good tickets instead of VIP tickets. This, however, continuous my blazing trend of getting 100% of the concert tickets I try for.

• Rediscovered a little something called Taobao where I’ve ordered a bunch of clothes from because 75 dollars gets you 4-5 pieces there but only one mediocre top at best from Zara — why would anyone purchasing anything here? I love (hate) currency arbitrage and yes, I do participate in fast fashion3 because I care for the environment about as much as the next person, meaning, as long as it’s sustainable for my pocket first.

• In light of the public holiday on Monday, we went out on a day trip this weekend to the Central Coast with two key destinations. The good pictures are in my girlfriend’s camera so you’ll have to make do with my okay ones.

  • Painter’s Rock in Marlow, which is an off-the-road lookout point with a view of Hawkesbury River. Very beautiful. Astonishingly quiet. Only one black-and-yellow spider the side of my hand that I thoroughly avoided.

  • Galleria at Ettalong Beach was not on the itinerary but a brilliant detour. An indoor market and shopping arcade with specialty shops, secret cinemas, and one hell of a European vibe.

  • Edogawa Commemerative Garden in East Gosford, sporting a duck pond, tea house, and regional gallery of sorts representing Gosford’s relationship with sister town Edogawa, in Tokyo.

• We’ve had a surprising number food places this week but special highlight goes to Sunday Seoul in Chatswood which is a vibey Korean bar & diner like no other and Ishiyama Ramen in Campsie run by ex-Nobu chef Koji Ishiyama.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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Hi friends, we are an astonishing 5/12 through the year.

I had spent the last hour or so writing my May retrospective, which is my ever-present monthly recap, and so I don’t really feel the need to do a weekly recap — or at least, the need for a convolutedly reflective introduction.

Despite a ton of movement and chatter and whimsical little activities, it hasn’t been the most restful weekend. I’m not too sure why.

Anyhow, while I do my edits on said May retrospective and figure out what the heck I’m writing about next month, here are my highlights, lowlights, and strobe lights that I can foreseeably remember

You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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• Queued about one hour at Messina, Martin Place as part of their Messina Mondays promotion. Unfortunately, they had completely run out of tubs, so I only got a heavily discounted three scope which was… while pleasant, made me gag at the taste of milk for the next two days.

• Changed my phone plan after discovering I had used one year of data in six months, and my internet plan too, because I wouldn’t have smashed my data if my home internet didn’t run like an upside-down snail. I had to get a new modem because of this, and I am learning time and time again that my frugality on important things very consistently bites me in the ass.

• Went to Mascot Kebab & Deli. It is the goat of kebabs in Sydney. No further comments.

• You can hear about my Sydney cafe goats in my last post. I don’t know if I should be surprised or not but my posts about Sydney and great restaurants are some of my best-performing pieces to date.

• My three gym sessions and one badminton seshes have held strong. I’m getting less tired from each of them, which is good, though it may just be because I’m not engaging in progressive load and trying to cram workouts in a shorter time with invariably leads to cutting corners. I blame Messina Monday.

• The cafe run for the week was Single O. Went for the matcha butter banana bread, stayed for their yuzu eggs benny with smoked trout. That shit was expensive as balls but fuck it’s a certified Aussie classic.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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Hi friends, I’m a little late to this week’s choccy run but better late than never.

I’ve made many attempts to draft this, and when I say attempts I don’t mean opening up my word processor, I really just mean thinking about opening up my word processor in a multitude of impractical locations (see: at the side of a badminton court, while standing in-line for heavily discounted ice cream, when succumbing into a fit of rage at my home internet provider).

Procrastination is a funky little dirtbag, isn’t he?

Before I continue, a quick note to myself and anyone else of note — If I miss choccy run by a whole week, I consider it a write-off. Now, I don’t really like that, because if it happens it would set the precedent that it’s okay for me to miss out on my arbitrarily assigned timelines and punch in a hole in my trustingness of myself; However, the alternative would be to allow missed choccy runs to clog my to-do list and make me feel like I’m constantly playing catchup which historically been the great bludgeoner of my personal passions and writing habits.

My memory is as fuzzy as a beehive by virtue of, you know, not writing things down. It’s a good update, anyhow. Here’s what I got:

• Journaling in Public is now a food blog! Or rather, it’s the topic I’ve chosen for myself these next couple of weeks — highlighting why Sydney is actually a culinary powerhouse by covering the lesser-known spots who won’t find their way into major publications. I want to cover spots that not just the locals, but my kind of locals would go — like restaurants your Asian parents would appreciate which trust me when I say this, is a strikingly challenging question.

• Despite getting onto and declining a call with a personal trainer1, my fitness journey has very much continued. Three strength days — two torso, one leg; and badminton towards the weekend. This will be a recurring bullet point until I fail it, and I’m quite adamant as to not failing it, despite having the conviction of a wet sock at times.

• My stove is not doing too hot. Literally. A repairman came around, gave it the best shot he could, and said yeah, it’s (un)cooked. Not to be a sore loser but it’s literally not my fault — but at the same time, I do run on the belief that while not everything is your fault, everything is your responsibility, if you actually want to make it better.

• My current read is What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, which I picked up on a whim after reading ’s post about the second pop-up for his clothing brand, Flores de Oro.

• I have made some grave miscalculations on my phone plan which I will pay dearly for, namely 1) running out of my annual data quota in six months 2) changing my internet provider 3) not having a modem that is compatible with the new provider. Alas, my fuse for patience is short, my girlfriend’s is even shorter2, and I’m nervous of even uploading pictures onto this post in fear it would kill off my backup data.

• Listened to Substack’s first Open Tab episode featuring and very glad that I did. is without saying the most prevalent publication on this platform which I was, full disclosure, very quick to click away from — I assumed that Emily was already transferring an audience from other successful platforms and found its content rather pretentious, overly seasonal, and talks about technology and culture and New York with the same self-importance of an Australian growing to Bali for ‘self-discovery’3. I’ve learned, thankfully, that this isn’t true at all, and that Emily really is just a regular person like you and I who is driven and talented and fortunate and played the cards she was dealt exceptionally well, becoming a real successful publicist. It humanises her far more than the snake ouroborus and her online persona — at least the way I was introduced to it — ever has.

  • This is a reminder to myself that as much as I say that it’s the idea not the person that I care about, my perceptions of the person will heavily influence my opinion of the idea. Who says it and how they say it is just as important, if not more, than what is said. Even though I still don’t care very much for Feed Me, I can very much respect Emily and the empire she has built.

• On my mind: This week and the last has been very routinely. Right now, that’s a good thing, but I’ve realised how quickly that thinking can shift. Some weeks I am routinely and satisfied with my consistency, others I am routinely and feel stagnant and sticky. Some weeks, I do new things and get that surge of merry progression, while other weeks I do new things and get overwhelmed and/or nihilistic. It’s as if I’m always searching for that happy medium but the goalpost for said medium transforms each time I kick the ball, going from a soccer net to a basketball hoop to a set of ten pins down the alley. This conflict is an odd one, but I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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This week, I listened to a podcast episode by heart2hearts called things to never forget, an 18-minute video shot at the back of an American Express airport lounge where host Annie Manora talks through life lessons she would like to hold onto forever.

Surprisingly, many of the things mentioned are things I would have said myself. Annie’s proclamation that life is long is surprisingly similar to the way I had written about it, which makes me wonder whether I had heard it from her first.

I wanted to say I liked her first point the most of how there is abundance in life, and wish that I spoke the same, and then realise it’s one of the very first things I had written about on this newsletter on putting my scarcity mindset in the shredder and believing in a world of abundance.

I’ll write about this very topic one of these days, but not today, because I had just gotten back from a two-hour badminton session and sitting in a rowdy Hong Kong restaurant where myself & co were sandwiched together by the knees and got served the wrong dish on at least three occasions.

Instead, I’ll drop one tidbit that I had put on my notes app recently and thought of in the shower — Life happens everywhere.

It’s not only the evenings after work. It’s not only the weekend. And it’s certainly not a vacation by the sky or sea because unless you’re a pilot or princess or pirate, that’s literally the exception.

Life happens on your morning commute. Life happens when you’re picking a YouTube video. Life happens when you crank open a new television show or a video game you’ve played a thousand times. Life happens when you’re on your lunch break, when you’re sitting in traffic, when the half-gigabyte spreadsheets chugs at your work-mandated ThinkPad; when you meet with your friends and your parents and your manager and your partner and especially somebody new.

Life happens when you’re at the water park, with your clothes drenched and salt in your eyes and still a wide smile plastered across your face because you just can’t help the joy. Life happens when you’re in the waterworks, when your beliefs are challenged and crumpled and torn, when even just crawling out of your tear-stained pillows feels dreadfully insurmountable.

You won’t love one hundred percent of your life, just make sure you love, say, 75% of it. Make sure it’s something you broadly like, or more particularly, something you had chosen for yourself.

I don’t want to long-crawl to the weekends. I don’t want to space out for eight hours a weekday. I don’t want to wake up and think how wonderful it would be to go back to bed because that’s attestation that I’d rather be dead, which is far from the case.

I want to do new things. I want to run similar routines. I want to take the stairs when I can and the elevator when I can’t be fussed. I want to live my weekdays the same way that I live my weekends, my mornings the same as my evenings, with love and heart and an impeccable little joy. I want to choose the life I already have, cause that way, I will always be winning.

That’s a long ass intro. Anyway, here’s me for the week:

• Just finished The Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins which follows Haymitch Abernathy and the 50th Hunger Games. It’s centred around propaganda and control of the narrative which makes me wonder… did Suzanne Collins already have this in mind for Haymitch when writing the original series? I blitzed through the book really quickly and discover once again that if I’m in a reading block, the best thing to do is pick up a YA novel.

• For the first time in a long time, I went to gym three times in a week, which plus today’s badminton, makes four sessions! This is a massive win and I’m determined to get my money’s worth, even if (or rather, especially because) it wrecks my body.

• Tried out brunch spot Angus in the hip district of Marrickville which specialises in foccacia, particularly this scrumptious fish sandwich. It’s super solid but not as good as ellen in Alexandria and roughly tried with legendary Kosta’s Takeaway in the city. Their brekky pasta though, in this suspicious green sauce, was surprisingly solid.

• Much to her dismay, my partner is learning to drive again starting with the large empty area outside Accor Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park. Maybe this time next year, when we head to the Westlife concert, she can drive us there!

• Published the final part of my three-part series on writing good ass reports, starting off a piece about mindset shifts and turning into a manifesto for being human. I got tired of writing about writing really quick, but this is, I’d like to think, a great set of work.

• My next mini-series will be about food places in Sydney because I think I’m oddly equipped to answer this in a family-like way. I don’t know the underground spots. I don’t know the high-class bistros. But I do know locations for your day-to-days, whether it’s the bite to grab during a lunchtime rush, easy first date joints that won’t rip your wallet in half, or where to bring your hard-to-please Asian parents. Sydney is a premier food capital and I’m tired of pretending it isn’t.

• Played sushi battleship for one of the week’s date nights which was… more work setting up than actually playing. I think it would be more fun if we were hungry and stayed hungry, but I decided to serve something before it because if there wasn’t food in my girlfriend when we started, my sushi wouldn’t be the only thing getting fried at.

• Finally got around to selling my old clothes on Depop, meaning, my girlfriend went ahead and setup a store for items we planned on throwing out. Here, I relearn once again that shipping items via Australia Post is a minimum of a ten fucking dollars. I did not know this and ended up selling cargo pants and a jacket for literally less than what we had spent on shipping. How do small businesses with low value products survive in this economy? I guess they literally don’t. If you’re in Australia, you can visit the store here which is mostly M/L male stuff and XS/S female stuff.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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If you’d like to unsubscribe, I’ve attached a guide here.

It has been a fattening and full-on last couple of days.

Only in the best ways though.

It’s 8pm on a Sunday as I draft this, the Sunday Scaries seeping in like a rolling ball of anxiety, and I’m exhausted.

Yes, it’s been a haphazard turn of events but trust me when I say I do hope more of my weeks turn out this way — with tons of activity, a whole lot of movement, and many, many scenarios where I should honestly whip out my phone to take a picture and yet completely forgetting to.

• One of my most played games is Final Fantasy XIV who have just announced the next expansion, Evercold, releasing January 2027. Seeing the trailer reminded me of simpler days where I could throw myself into a fictional world, beat up big bad bosses, and hop around virtual towns with friends which I can highkey still do! My graphics card is locked inside my PC which I actually don’t have enough cables to plug in at the moment, but I’ve just ordered a dock and may or may not decide to become a Warrior of Light again1.

• Like I said, tons of activity this week-round which I’ll admit is not something we normally do. Catching up with some of my partner’s friends, catching up with high school friends, and restarting my very affectionately named cock-hitting exercise2.

• I made the mistake of doing two hours of badminton on Friday night and a 5km jog (but really a 4km walk) on Saturday morning and my Sunday self is paying dearly for it. Add me on Strava!

• Still reading: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Happened to see a trailer for it, which I’m grateful I only saw once I’m about 70% through because I already have my own headcanon on what everyone looks like.

• Talking about what people look like, why is it that the four leads of The Devil Wears Prada 2 look exactly as they did twenty years ago? It’s either a ridiculously harmful diet, Hollywood magic cast by underpaid interns, or the drunken blood of English poets. Great movie though. A good time. They don’t make films about journalists anymore.

• Went on a day trip to Cronulla Beach, which is extremely south of Sydney. What a great place to live — if only it wasn’t exceedingly unaffordable and took 1.5 hours to get to the city. I can see the vision, though, which coincides much more with the Western thinking of residency3 and why there were so few dark-haired folk.

• Went on a work visit to a client at Mona Vale, which is extremely north of Sydney. It has the same problem as Cronulla; except they’re served by a highly frequent but highkey uncomfortable bus4. Halfway through the meeting, we were interrupted by a parade commemorating one of the blokes who lived in the area who passed away recently. It seemed everyone knew him. It’s apparently that kind of community.

• Side note: So glad that fuel in Sydney is back down to normal levels, acknowledging it’s a government subsidy. At least taxpayer money is going somewhere.

You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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After about four months of the year and perhaps thirty-two months of telling myself that I wanted to do so, I finally did my first 5k run.

This Saturday, I joined Rhodes parkrun at glorious 8 in the morning. This was already a shockingly improbable event because 1) I’m not a runner 2) I’m not usually up at 8 on a weekend but against all odds, my ass cheeks were there at 7:58am, joining a mob of 724 runners1 at a venue that was once used for the 2000 Olympics.

My goal was to keep up with the 40:00-minute pacer, managed to catch up to the 35:00-minute pacer, and subsequently lost him towards the end. According to the results scan I’ve got a time of 37:09 minutes which you know what, that’s a fair enough benchmark for someone who hasn’t ran very much and couldn’t go to the gym these last two weeks due to renovations.

That’s enough of a win this week. Other cool things include:

• Published my piece on presenting data in a senior leadership setting which is a continuation to writing good ass reports. My honest disclosure is that I’m growing weary of career-based topics but I’ve still got one more in me to make a nice, packaged trilogy.

• Walked from home to a shopping centre a few nights ago (~35 minutes, a route I’d normally drive) with grey sweatshorts and an ugly maroon running shirt and I only realised upon getting there how stupid I looked. This is interesting because I don’t normally feel that. What am I becoming? Since when did I give a shit?

• I’m really feeling like making a Sydney travel and food guide. I feel like I’d be pretty decent at it other than the taking of pictures. This could be a far more Insta/TikTok-friendly series, but I’d like to post it on Substack too — the only caveat being it’s not a general guide (of which we have an abundance of creators already) but an oddly specific one (for example: Sydney restauraunts and cafes your Chinese-Indonesian parent who thinks all non-Asian food is dogshit would appreciate)

• I want to start writing on Substack notes, meaning, very short snippets and observations that aren’t chunky enough to make a full piece. I keep adding topics to my notes app but perhaps the best way to do so is to just… type and post, isn’t it? The more I stop to edit, the less I’m likely to move on with it. I posted about running out of facial cleanser, a bit self-masturbatory I admit, but thought it was cute insight.

• A new Kinokuniya opened at Chatswood Westfield recently. It looks like they’re building a Japanese corner with Daiso and Standard Products and highkey, it’s about time. Part of me wants to buy a physical book, but I also do all my reading on Kindle so it’s really not that necesarry.

• Visited Ena, previously called Moon Phase, previously called Layers — and despite rebranding to coffee production, they are still the goat of croissants. If you like literally anything with flour in it, you should make the trek.

• And finally, published my April retrospective where for once I’m on the front foot and did so earlier in the month rather than the middle. I realise that the choccy run series invalidates these somewhat, which is why I’ve found myself telling a bit of a story in this one and perhaps that’s a good thing!

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

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Hola friends, it’s been a busy week yet I actually couldn’t tell you what it was about.

About three minutes before I write this sentence, I had been pacing back-and-forth the entrance of an apartment unit, considering what to order at this cafe, considering whether I even had enough time to sit down, considering whether it was worth the 15% holiday surcharge it would hit me with —

Considering and considering and considering and taking sweet time away from strategy and action.

Anyway, considering that choccy run is a weekly review series (of which this is number four! good consistency mate) — I want it to be as easy to create as possible, with minimal activation and energy, executable with Substack’s new template button and some semblance of focus. I’m worried though that it could haze the casual, conversationalist vibe out of it, which is a somewhat unfounded fear really because, creativity often comes from confined spaces, leading to wonderful out-of-the-box thinking.

Anyhow:

• My girlfriend’s partners were in town this week, so alas, the evenings have been of events that are not too atypical to, well, your typical Chinese-Indonesian household when going overseas. I’m Chinese-Indonesian too so this dynamic fits fairly comfortably to me aside from the cramps in the right leg from driving too much.

• I have very few pictures on my phone this week which is really unusual because I almost always take a picture of what I’m eating. It’s just that, when in a family or group setting, I really struggle to do so — and I know exactly why that’s the case. This could be something I write about in the future but I’m kinda over the overall topic of pointing-fingers-at-upbringing-at-best and generational-trauma-at-worst i.e. the plot of most Asian-American coming-of-age stories.

• Just uninstalled Instagram1, TikTok, and LinkedIn and moved Gmail2 to a more difficult to reach location. These colourful orbs have been massive distractions recently and I’m sick of them.

• Which is a little troubling because as shared throughout this year, I actually do want to be more online in terms of creativity and storytelling. Can you create good social content without being on social media?

• Churned my first credit card to get a $250 Coles gift card, but it did come with a $99 card fee, so was it really worth it?

• Hit an investment milestone that I’m quite happy for! Next one is either tying myself to a 50-year mortgage or putting it on a single Blackjack hand.

• Less than expected writing this weekly unfortunately but worked on a few cross-posts for my recent how to write good ass reports piece, which is creation in its own right! Slowly working on the next piece which is about presenting numbers in an accurate, compelling, and most importantly relevant way.

• My Morning Pages exercise is my favourite part of my morning, though I’ll admit that it’s because the rest of my morning is usually dogwater. On morning, when I saw these heavily-ghosted pages, I was suddenly reminded of how wonderful it is that what happened to us yesterday has firm, persistent impositions on who we are today, that we’re always learning, and building atop ourselves. Something to keep in mind!

• Tried Franca in Potts Point — which was decent. I probably should have known this considering I was able to book this upscale restaurant on the same day for 6:30pm but… I don’t regret it (mainly because I didn’t pay for it).

• Finally finished Katabasis by . Solid read. Hits that dark academia craving like a hammer to a nail though in a really on-the-nose way. Very similar undercurrent to Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern series and Olivie Blake’s Masters of Death (almost as if all three of these authors have the same target audience).

• Next in line: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins — to revitalise the much simpler world we had when The Hunger Games was first made into a movie, where mass-murder dystopias were very much fiction and now a lowkey real possibility on an island off the Caribbean.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

Buy me a choccy!

Subscribe now

You’re reading choccy run, a sub-section for weekly recaps, assorted links, and out-of-context insights from my notes app — usually written alongside a cup of hot choccy. So glad you’re here.

Subscribe now

If you’d like to unsubscribe, I’ve attached a guide here.

I can’t really name the turn of events this week and I’ll admit that it’s going to be one of the more forgettable ones in life.

There is a mild undertone of frustration brought about by my desire to shove everything I can into a day — and this isn’t the stupid I-must-be-productive-constantly thing but the you-see-I-agreed-to-myself-to-do-this-thing-and-it’s-important-to-me-but-other-things-had-eaten-the-time-I-reserved-for-this. Alas, I allow it to take my sleep time.

Surrendering your sleep and leisure in the name of your job is not particularly supported and will get you a few eyerolls… but giving it up in favour of the things you love and genuinely want to do?

That’s an acceptable use of your time.

Unless you’re an Asian parent, I suppose. How dare you focus on your dreams!

Anyway, I’ve got some bullet points in my notes app and photos in my camera roll. Let’s see what they say:

• The biggest win of the week is publishing one of my longest pieces here: How To Write Good Ass Reports. At this stage in life, career is one of the things I really do care about, and I’d like to document my story and limited knowledge of it somewhat.

• I’m a words-of-affirmation lad. I need reminders of what my competitive advantage is on the professional sense — in talks with the boss, my most common complaint is that I’m unable to recall progress made in the last week or even month. This isn’t a skill thing, more of a documentation and appreciation thing. I suppose choccy run loosely helps with this, but on a personal sense.

• Updated my LinkedIn page LOL. I’m not looking for a new job but was recently drawn to articles chatting through the ‘career web’ instead of the ‘career ladder’ so I’ve opted to throw keywords and storytelling in there instead of JOB at COMPANY.

• In the same vein, gave ’s online assessment Rumbo a try which is an AI-based career assessment tool. It called me an Architect, meaning I like structured creativity and problem-solving with artistic solutions. I think I agree with that.

• The Anytime Fitness branch near me has closed for renovations, right when I want to get back into it. This is a loss. Fuck me.

• Won a $50 voucher for doing a company survey. That’s a win. Fuck me.

• To no surprise, waking up continues to insurmountably suck balls. I want to do something about it; either finding ways to make it less bad or contribute to an initiative to which I can eventually break away from needing alarm clocks on most days.

• Made mushroom soup with far too much cream. It’s still a very velvety breakfast though. A hotel would charge me $18 for this — I have it for $1.50 on my office desk.

• Had a chicken sandwich from Belle’s Hot Chicken but when I plopped it out of the wrapping I realised it was rectangular, as in, about 60% of the size it would have been if it were a circle. This has gone too far.

• Almost done with ’s Katabasis… literally the last chapter. Not sure what to read next.

• Saw a Yoshi egg in the middle of the street…

• Took a picture of all my old clothes and ready to post everything online and/or the recycle bin. If I can make just 20 dollars from this it would be a success.

• Been using a Claude for content planning… I may or may not be increasingly obnoxious these next few days. Consider it my climbing of cringe mountain.

• Podcast listen of the week: The Hop Pod — Adulting 101: Can You Have FUN and SAVE?

• Listened to Never Say Never for the first time in about fifteen years and immediately felt like a child again. I’m sorry for ever doubting you Justin — though, I do remember the exact moment I decided Justin Bieber was cool and it’s at the bass drop following the first chorus of Beauty and the Beat (thanks Zedd).

And then just some intention setting for the week ahead:

• Hoping to create and post one item per day (not on here — on other platforms) for the marketing and distribution of How to Write Good Ass Reports

• And while that’s happening, make edits for the next piece which is about how to present data and numbers.

• If gym is closed, I will simply walk and run… a lot. If I get to nighttime without 10k steps, I will run circles around the block.

• Put away literally just fifteen minutes thinking about career and/or entrepreneurship, not because I’m dissatisfied, but because I’m getting real nervous at house prices. This will take place during workhours.

• Make pasta. I haven’t had pasta in a while. I kinda want pasta.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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Hi there, welcome to the first rendition of choccy run, a weekly newsletter running down high, lows, and buffalos in my life from the week prior for any poor soul who had declared interest in my broader blog Journaling in Public.

It’s technically post two because post one is an introduction and guide to opt-out if you’re not interested. If you can’t be fussed following the steps but don’t want to hear from me on this — feel free to send me some hate mail — and I’ll manually remove you. No hard feelings!

We’re yet to land on a format that I like but for now, I’ll settle for bullet points with minimal editing other than typo fixes, so without further ado:

• Did some travelling to a very sun-kissed destination this Easter holiday and enjoyed a three-day work week — which somehow felt like a full five-days anyhow so what’s the damn point.

• Had rainbow ice cream for the first time in like fifteen years. It tastes like caramel.

• Revamped the Journaling in Public page substantially — updating the logo and colour scheme, making my very own wordmark, deciding on a new tagline, and developming a bit more clarity on how I’d like to present myself. I haven’t felt this writer’s high in a while.

• On that note, for the next 4-5 weeks my central writing topic will be on surviving corporate and early career. If you’re into that, awesome — if you’re not, so sorry!

• I’m investing more time and effort into my short-form social accounts: see TikTok/Instagram. I’m taking on a content repurposement strategy and want to see how I go with it.

• Encountered this very interesting website called nametag.live by which is such a fun little thing! Names have so much power and honestly, I’m not sure if I’m doing it write with this newsletter but have decided to stick with it for now.

• Spring-cleaned my Substack subscriptions and wrote about some of my favourites. My money-related subscriptions are due for a review too…

• Built a Lega orchid with my partner before I sat down to write this post. It’s getting very, very late but I’ve been waking up suspiciously well this week which certainly has something to do with coming back from holidays AND doing more writing than ever before.

• I try to scour through a new book during holiday and opted for ’s What’s Your Dream? Unfortunately, I stopped halfway; not because it wasn’t good but because there is a warning that states that if you can’t yet clearly define and articulate your dream, the rest of the book wouldn’t make any sense for you. Alas, I’ve put it back on the shelf. I hope to come back to it soon.

• Oh, but I did end up finishing It’s Not About You by Tom Ruth which is a simple 40-page booklet.

• Trudging through Katabasis by which is an oddly relevant parallel to the show I’m watching, The Good Place; one depicts hell as a dreadful, chthonic landscape with monsters in the shape of sin while the other is a Yo-Chi.

• Updated my Now page. Take a peek here.

• Rediscovered how wickedly affordable Flemington Markets is where we got mushrooms, green beans, broccoli, ginger, shallots, apples, beetroot and peaches for about 44 dollars. This would have costed close to 100 dollars in the supermarket. Free market and perfect competition outpace economies of scale.

• And finally, saw a sunrise by the beach for the first time in a while — what a warm wonderful sight that will shine upon us again.

An anonymous friend had recently purchased a coffee for me on buymeacoffee.com with the request that I use it for Kopi Kenangan so I very much will — thank you friend, your support means a whole-whole bunch. Hope all is well.

Thanks for reading. Until next week!

Sav, Journaling in Public.

Thank you for reading Choccy Run, sub-section of Journaling in Public. All my posts will be free in the foreseeable future but any forms of support — likes, comments, messages, free/paid subscriptions, coffee donations — are so tremendously appreciated. Yours truly, Sav.

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Hi everyone, welcome to choccy run — a sub-section of my main newsletter, , intended for weekly recaps, low quality pictures, and insights slash observations slash unnecessarily collected quotes that don’t warrant a full post but prefer more longevity than a note.

The primary purpose of choccy run is for documentation. It’s to make sure I am accountable for my actions, function with intentionality, and take consistent steps to make magic of the mundane. This includes but is not limited to; writing down interesting concepts into my commonplace notes app, progress on reading and video games and big picture projects, taking pictures of sandwiches and sunsets and Saturday afternoon fits.

Since the primary audience is, well, yours truly — I completely understand if you don’t want to see this in your inbox every week. Alas, I’m attaching below a guide to opt-out of this spamfest before I start blabbing into your inbox every Sunday evening.

I don’t want to receive emails from choccy run

1. Access your My Account page

2. Uncheck the choccy run box

3. Optional: Have an actual hot choccy

If you’ve decided to stay, a huge welcome from me to you! You can expect to find weekly recaps published either Sunday evening or Monday morning sharing the highs, lows, and buffalos over the week prior; I haven’t figured out what it will look like but let’s just say it’ll become clearer as we go.

Here’s to a choccy or two together!

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