in brief, as the season turns

Late summer through fall has been a breathless dash toward the finish line, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a quiet and largely empty afternoon to write. This cloudless, leisurely Sunday has felt very much like a treat — so here are some updates from the past few months, if for no other reason than I really hope to remember these moments for much, much longer.

1. All Points East at the end of August was a sticky, sweaty blur of jostling between crowd and barrier for everything, unexpectedly making new friends in the toilet line (!), shimmying to Bicep's new song live, sitting on Piers’ shoulders while Bombay Bicycle Club had confetti rain down on the crowd, sitting on the ground eating soggy fries in the middle of Maisie’s set while the grass tops pricked the backs of our bare ankles, shivering too much on an inexplicably cold last day and ending up with merch hoodies as a last-gasp attempt to stay warm. Such a good weekend, that — short on sleep and long on the fun.

2. August also saw us going to Balham for a (wait for it…) secret Singaporean supper club. How cool is that?! I never thought I would get to taste pandan leaf chicken outside of Malaysia/Singapore, and yet there it was, the second course in what turned out to be an amazing menu full of flavors that made me miss the other side of the world extra hard that day.

3. Halloween 2021 was a success — we went to a party, got maaaybe a 80% identification rate for our costumes, had good fun meeting old friends and making new ones, slept way too late, woke up to the afternoon sun high in the sky, and made 红枣炖鸡汤 together.

4. Yesterday I baked Yossy Arefi’s chocolate gingerbread cake and the house smelt like the first hint of Christmas — warm, spicy, ginger notes blended into a rich chocolate cloud that wafted out of the oven door each time I opened it to check the rise. So nice to be back in the kitchen again, folding things into dough, watching through the oven window for that first rise.

For writing-specific news:

1. I have a poem nominated for Best of The Net :-)

2. Contributed a brief vignette about batik/sarong to the Beauty of Batik exhibition in Hackney!