What I’m Doing Now

inspired by this. Last updated 28 Dec 2025.

Beautiful things I’m enjoying

The Monocle Guide to Good Business (Monocle): Book, non-fiction. Many signs have pointed to me being an ‘entrepreneurial’ person, but I have not been inspired by much ‘entrepreneurial’ content, and so I inferred that starting a business was not for me. This book is what I was waiting for the whole time. It has a focus on more brick-and-mortar, craft-based businesses with heart.

Conversations Around Food (Stephanie Peh): Book, non-fiction. A series of thoughtful interviews with chefs and restaurant owners in SEA who love making good food. I’d read her book Self-Made, on creatives in SEA, which was just as inspiring. You can buy the books here.

Magic, Alive! (McKinley Dixon): Music, jazz hip-hop. This is a ride! It’s exuberant and dark and jazzy and rap! I love it!

I am also enjoying NOT SCROLLING! At the recommendation of a life-hacker friend, I downloaded an app called SocialFocus, which lets you selectively remove elements of social media and browser apps. I now do not see any shorts or thumbnails on Youtube, so the homepage is text-only. I also do not see my explore page on Instagram at all. The quality of life improvement has been immense. Life is beautiful!

Subjectively beautiful things I’m making

I ran Teck Whye Convention’s 5th edition, which was not in Teck Whye, but instead in a big Changi chalet. It was a 24-hour affair that gave me three stress nightmares leading up to it (oh no, it’s the day of the event and nothing is planned!). Thankfully, all went well. My proudest achievement creatively was the interior design – we put in a lot of effort to shifting furniture for the optimum user flow, partitioning the gaping spaces using tension rods and layers of cloth, and bringing our own lamps to create mood lighting.

My friend and I were inspired to make our own renditions of The Sun by Edvward Munch, a gigantic 4.5m x 7.8m oil mural that serves as the backdrop for the University of Oslo’s lecture theatre. “The university’s fundamental task – enlightenment – expressed as a majestic sunrise.” I used oil pastels to recreate it and was quite happy with how it came out. I’m trying to experiment more with colour and this was a great artwork to reference for this.

I roasted the turkey for Christmas with the same gorgeous recipe I used last year, and it came out juicy as ever. Thanks Sohla!

I bought a copper pot for my Dad for Christmas, and spent a while learning about how to treat it and polishing the outside. It went from rusty tarnish to bright pink (with streaks of tarnish). I also built some bouquets with magenta orchids for my mom’s present. I have been putting a lot of effort into wrapping presents well.