Currently Loving: Instant Coffee

My morning doesn’t start until I get my first hit of instant coffee. Inhaled through my nose. I never actually drink the coffee, I just think about it and enjoy the idea that I might eventually get to drink it. Then it sort of  sits on the kitchen counter and becomes a really faint aroma in the background of the chaos of my mornings with a two-year-old. My go-to is an instant cafe latte because it curdles just the way I like it by noon.

Currently Watching: Beyond the Bar (에스콰이어: 변호사를 꿈꾸는 변호사들)

I'm watching the new Netflix legal K-Drama called 'Beyond the Bar'. It's cute, clichéd and chocka-block full of sponsored ads. I really admire how creative Korean TV shows are with their very chalant ad placements. New episodes are still being released weekly, and I have to say, I have no clue where this drama is going, but I'm down for the ride. I'm enjoying the feeling of waiting for new episodes to be released. And letting go of the comfort of binge-watching an entire series in one sitting (along with a lot of shame and guilt).

I also recently finished watching And Just Like That Season 3 — another show I enjoyed watching weekly as new episodes came out. It reminds me of being in high school, watching one episode a week of a new show on TV and talking about it with my friends at lunch the next day. We were all on the same page, and nobody had skipped ahead to the season finale because they were watching it on 1.5 x speed. Life was simple, the most popular phone app was 'phone', and my brain didn't feel like it was rotting from the inside out.

Currently Thinking: How did I live without seasons?

It’s the first week of September in Seoul, which is sort of an unofficial funeral for summer. The weather is going to switch to autumnal mode really soon, without so much as a hint of a whisper of a warning. It goes from hot, hot, sweaty yuck must shower to oooh orange leaves and light cardigans and trench coats in a flash.

I’m saying goodbye to every flower I come across on my daily walks

Mourning the empty pools at our local swimming haunt

Soaking in the magical green forests and lush gardens in my neighbourhood

And trying to hold onto each summery detail so I can remember that such joy and happiness exist while I’m in the depths of winter.

I never really had this mourning or longing for seasons when I grew up in Melbourne. Winters are green, summers are hot but bring welcomed cool breezes between waves of unbearable heat, and snow is not a thing. There is no drastic seasonal shift in Australia like there is in Korea. It makes me feel so lucky that I get to embrace new seasonal weather patterns, rituals, and the excitement that comes with a new season arriving. Come February, I will be laughing out loud on the floor while reading this. While I do miss winters with bare legs, I love that each season in Korea is so firmly sure of itself. It also means seasonal fashion is serious business, and I cannot wait to pull out all of my cosy clothes in the next few months!

Currently Reading: How Catriona Drummond Built Bluey’s World

I’m a big believer that anyone who creates things in the world — art, music, humans, food, vaccines, confetti, tiny furniture for forest creatures  — is a true gift to this big old blue and green space blob. It’s just a fact. And the even bigger gift is when they share with the world how they do the thing that they do and what inspired it to be so. That is why it is such a joy that the lead art director for the critically acclaimed children’s animation slash my emotional support show as an Aussie expat parent shared how she designed the world of Bluey. It is a wonderful, gorgeous, beautiful thing that we are lucky enough to be able to read for free. On the internet. Whenever you want. Read it. Read it again. Cry. Laugh. Feel inspired.

I found the article on this website, but Catriona Drummond posted the content on her Substack, so go and check it out if you are interested!

Currently Listening To: Amy Poehler and Judge Judy Collab

Like everyone between the ages of 20 and 85, I’ve been live laugh loving along to episodes of Amy Poheler’s Good Hang podcast since it launched earlier this year. Recently, Dame Judge Judy Sheindlin herself was a guest on the podcast, and it was one of the most glorious episodes yet. You get to peek at an unlikely friendship between a comedy legend and a family court TV lawyer slash fashion icon (who knew?), and also my favourite TV personality as a child. Judge Judy offers so many insights into her life and her views on the world, which are quite refreshing when we’re always being told to do more therapy, care about everything, and do all the other things. Listening to these two gals chit-chat makes me want to be a powerful, mature woman with a chic hat collection and spend time with other funny women who make me feel as powerful as Judy looks in a red blazer.

And no, it is not lost on me that Amy is cosplaying as Judge Judy in this interview. Whether or not it was intentional is for the court to decide.