recently; early june
catching up on things thrown, food eaten, content consumed and a whole lotta hotpot
Hi friends.
Sav here.
With my recent intentions to transform this newsletter into a format better suited to be transformed into Instagram carousels and how turbulent my schedule had been with work + life + the battle for the centre of my headspace, I haven’t really given myself a time to pause — to check the pictures in my camera roll, the sentences penciled into my notes app, the unnecessary lines of spending on my bank account (oopsie).
Alas, let’s do a quick check-in friends, to catch up on the many things that happened as we transitioned into early Australian winter.
(Which, mind you, is also a great subject matter to turn into an Instagram carousel.)
🪓 Axe-throwing is awesome but only when you get the hang of it: At the very start of the year, my partner and I loosely agreed that we’d do something interesting roughly every fortnight and we’ve admittingly let that initiative linger for a bit. In a bout of bringing the madness back, we picked axe-throwing at a rustic, pub-like venue called Maniax where we lodged a handful of hefty tomahawks into a wooden board about ten metres away. Something new I had learnt from this experience? Heavy axes are easier to throw than small axes. It’s pretty satisfying and empowering, especially when you get it lodged into the target a couple of times in a row — but holy shit is it an expensive activity to chuck heavy bits of metal against a flaky wooden-chip board, all to prove that we are muscle-big, stoic-brained, hunky hoomans.
🎳 Bowling is always a good time: Bowling is like, the ideal corporate team-building slash middle school end-of-year event. It’s safe. It’s consistent. Greasy finger food and soft drink/booze is always provided and there’s always that one person in the group, which I’ve noticed is almost always the Chief Financial Officer or School Principal, who seems to be monstrously good at bowling. Not this time though — just went with my partner this time around to the classic Kingpin at North Strathfield. My highlight was hitting two consecutive strikes at the very last frame. Side note: unless you are playing in a competition of some sort, there is ON SHAME in having those safety bumpers on. Bumpers have no influence on good players and helps prevent bad players (i.e. me) from having an awful time. It’s a net positive for everyone.
🍇 Food! Food! Food! Despite how much we’ve been having dinner at home recently, or perhaps because of it, we’ve tried a ton of new culinary joints throughout Sydney recently. Both my stomach and bank account are oddly well-satiated.
Ona Coffee: My partner says Ona is the best coffee bean provider in Sydney so we visited their flagship store in Marrickville which had like, a twenty-page bean menu that I literally could not understand. I got a Maguta Estate from Kenya in the form of two flat white, she got Tributos Del Ota from Costa Rica in the form a filter coffee, and together we shared a tteokpoki-imbued french toast.
Bella Brutta: One of the most iconic pizza joints in Sydney nestled at the heart of Newtown serving an incredible clam pizza with pecorino and fermented chili + a potato-based pizza with pristine pork guanciale and gorgonzola. An old lady on the adjacent table how us two were going to finish everything and I said she’d be surprised — spoiler: we did not finish.
Cabramatta: No exact location, but we took the long drive out west to the incredibly Vietnamese suburb of Cabramatta for 1) a classic banh mi 2) vietnamese iced coffee 3) a fried banana fritter 4) a sizzle steak with egg and pate which I learnt is called a bo ne.
Bistro Kai: A modern, hip bistro in the otherwise Asian suburb of Chatswood with a Japanese-inspired drinks menu and classic Western dishes — a marinara-based spanner crab pasta and a wagyu burger that was like an upscaled McDonalds Cheeseburger which I say as a genuine complement; McDonalds burgers are not necessarily better, but are unlike anything else. That being said, this spot was a little underwhelming.
Bar Luca: Big fat burgers, chicken-loaded fries and spiked thickshakes in a rowdy, underground venue. Need I say more?
Kombu Lab: From the creators of Sydney’s famous Kuon Omakase is a temporary ramen pop-up bar served like an omakase/teppanyaki restaurant. With only four items on its menu, you know each bowl of ramen/tsukumen is served with precision and artistry.
📝 All the writing I’ve done deserves at least a bullet point of attention because I’m very proud of its progress. I’ve got my content calendar set out for June which includes my 25 by 25 series where I recollect numerous lessons throughout my life leading up to my 25th birthday (on the 15th), an exploration of what this newsletter means to me from a business/growth/artistic standpoint, and of course posts like this one where I put a pause and look on how it’s been recently. I’ve been doing a ton of extra writing but waking up early and immediately getting started on the laptop, which reinforces something I already I already know but constantly need to internalise to myself: life is better when I wake up earlier and do the thing I want to do.
🎬 Currently watching: Interestingly, my partner and I have been watching a lot of part ones and part twos recently. It started with Anna Kendrick’s and Blake Lively’s A Simple Favour (2018) into Another Simple Favour (2025), followed by Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023) into Mission Impossible - Final Reckoning (2025) at the cinemas, and Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan comedy classic of Rush Hour trilogy (1998, 2001, 2007). Man, are there any good modern movies that aren’t sequels or remakes of movies/series that were already big before? In the same vein: Resident Playbook (2025), followed by Hospital Playlist (2020).
📕 Currently reading: Most recently finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, a re-read of probably the first ‘real book’ I’ve ever read. It was the first book I remember being assigned to me in a school setting and obviously didn’t appreciate it at the time and had zero recollection about it. It’s a strange experience re-reading it in today’s social media environment because it really feels like one of those stories where the author intentionally created a book to house as many inspirational quotes as possible in order to be well-referenced and easily-backlinked on motivational quote pages — the kind of writing a lot of Substack and Medium articles try to go for. It’s even funnier that Paulo Coelho has literally stated that that was his intention, that The Alchemist was a narrative designed to insert everything he had learnt throughout his lifetime. With a release date in 1988, Coelho is a real O.G. influencer.
🌶️ In other news, went to a mate’s place for hotpot! I want to say that hotpot is the perfect communal meal, however it’s one where different people have different views on common hotpot etiquette. For example: Is there a certain order that vegetables, fresh meat, processed meat and noodles should go in the hotpot? Is there a temperature that the broth needs to get to before putting something in? Is it okay to put in frozen meat if there is no hope for it to defrost? When is an acceptable time to start taking the dried shiitake mushrooms? That’s not to mention conflict regarding meats that go in — I think chicken has no place in hotpot, and that fish pieces must be worked on very carefully, and that one must be very careful with polarising ingredients like lamb and coriander. But alas, it’s never black and white, and it always, always, always depends. There is what’s correct and there is what’s fit-for-purpose and they are not always the same.
👑 And finally, in terms of headspace, I like to think I’m feeling healthy. I’ve woken up at good times. I’ve found bits of writing and creativity throughout the morning and my day — it’s healing to sit across a sky that goes from pitch black to warm and bright. I’m building rapport and familiarity in my new job and have been using the sit-stand desk more than usual because… well, there’s been an admitted lack of movement in my body. We’ve recently set out some KPI development goals which is a very standard corporate thing and, on a whim, I scrapped what I had originally written for development goals to go for something completely out of my wheelhouse — which I might even chat a bit about later on. We’ve got a long weekend this week in Australia to celebrate the King’s Birthday (9 June), which literally doesn’t even take place on the King’s real birthday (14 November), but I appreciate it, nonetheless. Thanks, King Charles.
posts i’ve liked recently:
Stop Romanticizing A Quiet Life. - by
things i hate - by
🔥How to start posting content without wanting to die by
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