We're back now
Hello!
We’re back from taking a very unplanned hiatus. Basically, we were Living Life Large (TM) and then lost track of the passage of time. What’s happened since our last edition:
We cat sat for a week and fell in love (still miss you Fatty Chonk)
We went on a nice little island getaway
and here is an obligatory sausage leg photo
Watched Hamilton again (Warning: Dangerously addictive)
Got together with friends for some super awesome high tea (PSA $59 for 2 at Violet Oon is very hard to beat in Singapore)
We fell sick one after the other (and are much better now, thanks, no pix though)
Anyway, today’s an extra long edition to make up for the silence lately, enjoy!
- Yuni
5 Learnings about Friendship
It might have been a friend’s recommendation, followed by a Goodreads rabbit hole? Now I have inhaled in two long but compulsive sittings Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, as well as Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict by Elizabeth Day.
Though our culture focuses a lot on how to build a strong healthy marriage or relationship with your family, it sometimes treats friendships as more disposable — yet it’s one of the sources of joy and vitality in our lives. Here are some takeaways about friendship, mixed in from both of these books as well as my own life experience.
Friendships don’t have to come only in one form: It’s just simply not true that you can’t make new friends as you age, or that everyone must have a big friend group or have a BFF, etc.
Practising “stretching” in a friendship is key for long-term resilience — through the difficult times, being willing to adapt when the other person can’t give as much as they usually are. Too many people let go at this crucial stage and nuke otherwise precious friendships!
If something feels wrong, it’s much better to speak up quickly and fix it than to make assumptions and try to move on.
Denying a former friend a sense of closure as you end things is one of the cruelest things anyone could do and can lead to feelings of hurt — and even trauma — that can last years.
Friendship really holds a mirror up to yourself, but great friends accept each other for who they are, genuinely, and that can be a great salve in a tough, rough world. (but on the flip side, never lose who you are, your self-respect or your values for another person.)
To all the people nearest and dearest to us in our lives, thank you for journeying with us! We love you. - Yuni
4 Tips n Tricks
Wordle, decoded. As someone whose strategy is to start with ADIEU and make pure vibes-based guesses from there, this was a useful read about common strategies and good words to try for my next Wordle game. Plus, if you haven’t tried Wordlebot, it’s a genuinely wonderful coach that has helped me level up in skill.
Should you chuck all your spices into the refrigerator? and all the answers to how to store things in the kitchen. (P.S. Yes, DO THAT IN SINGAPORE)
So many of big career pivots just come from one little exploratory step, then another.
Pimple patches are awesome, everyone knows that, but how do they work? Well, they are just tiny hydrocolloid bandages, which means that pimples are just tiny wounds.
- Yuni
3 Great Reads
There are nine kinds of foie gras on offer, and five pâtés en croûte, including one known as Sleeping Beauty’s Pillow, which involves a panoply of meats (chicken, duck, wild boar, hare, quail, sweetbreads, ground pork) and is considered by connoisseurs to be “charcuterie’s holy grail.” The chef Michel Guérard has called Les Grands Buffets “the greatest culinary theater in the world.” Guinness has certified its cheese platter, featuring a hundred and eleven varieties, as the largest known to restaurant-going man. It’s more of a cheese room.
On this livestream, you can help to ring the doorbell for fish
For passengers on the first bus, a unique bond forms between driver and rider
- Werty
2 Things to Watch
1 Recommendation
Late to the party but I recently got around to watching HBO’s Succession - siblings scheme and squabble for control of their father’s media empire. Who doesn’t love family dynasty drama? (see: Game of Thrones / House of the Dragon, any Asian TV drama, and also real life) - Werty
Signing off for now,
Yuni & Werty