This year’s Marathon Staycation has been… a thing. This was the first year that the Running Show was staged at Olympic Park. Apparently, I was not the only person who wasn’t particularly thrilled with the change of location (if the tea spilled by several Uber drivers was anything to go by). Yeah. It cost me 2 Ubers to collect my race bib and make it back to the city in time to get to my dinner reservation. The race itself wasn’t too bad. Considering how there were 10,000+ entrants in the Mini Marathon 2026, I had no objections to the starting times being staggered. It also meant that I could show up to the assembly area much later than the Elite Runners and the Group A starters. Even though I had originally envisioned myself slow jogging for half the route, I ended up power walking for the entire 5km, and…
I have what can best be described as an ambivalent relationship with cooking. I’m not wholly opposed to it, nor am I that person that loves spending every moment of their spare time either looking up new recipes to try and eventually trying those recipes. I will look up new recipes when the mood strikes and, only after doing my due diligence, will I even think about buying the ingredients to try it. If it works out, then it gets added to my meal prep plan. Having said that, when it comes to day-to-day meals, I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen to create something that tastes ‘fresh off the stove’. This has led me to what I’ve heard described as the ‘ingredient prep’ style of meal prep, where, instead of prepping whole meals or meal components in advance, you prep ingredients and just use what’s…
It’s no secret that I love a good fine dining experience. Whether I’m treating myself to my monthly fine dining experience or going all out during my birthday week in Melbourne, sitting down to that beautiful plate of food has never lost its appeal. After more than a decade of getting to know Sydney and Melbourne’s food scenes, I feel like there’s always something new to discover – not to mention a few old favourites that deserve another visit. My birthday week has become the perfect excuse to explore Melbourne’s dining scene, while the rest of the year is all about making the most of what’s on offer in Sydney. I don’t necessarily feel the need to try every new opening or every hatted restaurant. Sometimes a restaurant stays on my radar for years before I finally make it there. Other times I find myself thinking about a particular dish…
One of the perks of being a developer for over a decade is hindsight. I can look back and say things like: And then there’s a fourth category:”Why did nobody tell me this?” These are the lessons I wish someone had shared with me when I was new to web development. Google Will Become Your Programming Sidekick Contrary to popular belief, developers do not know everything. In fact, a surprisingly large portion of software development involves staring at an error message, sighing dramatically, and consulting Google. Whether it’s a runtime error triggering the dreaded Yellow Screen of Death, a mysterious build failure that worked perfectly five minutes ago, or a debate about whether a HashSet or a List is the better choice, chances are that someone else has already run into the same problem. Learning how to search effectively is a skill in its own right. Knowing what keywords to…
No matter how old I get, nothing completes a meal quite like nuoc cham. Drizzling a little over each spoonful of rice just hits right. I only started making my own nuoc cham (or nuoc mam as my late mum referred to it) in the last year. I’ve cycled through several recipes and my most recent attempt used Khanh Ong’s recipe, which he featured on his Instagram. Acceptance Criteria According to Khanh, the ideal nuoc cham should be a balance of sweet, sour, salty (and spicy if you’re that way inclined). What Went Well Khanh’s instructions were easy to follow. The end result hit the sweet and salty marks pretty well. What Could’ve Been Better The resulting nuoc cham was a tad more sour than I would’ve liked. Possibly due to juicier than average lemons. And the spice. I definitely put much more chilli paste than I should have. I…
If you’d like to see the original list, you can find it here: 26 Things To Do In 2026. This year’s Things To Do list was part-continuation, part re-attempt of last year’s list. Back in December, I felt cautiously optimistic because I’d picked things that actually felt achievable. Fast forward six months into 2026, and a lot has happened—from trying to rebuild my savings to staring down the very real possibility of re-entering the job market. Looking back over the list, I’ve realised that some goals were more important than I expected, while others have quietly morphed into something else entirely. Figured it was as good a time as any to fix up a pot of tea, open the list, and see how things are actually going. What Went Well 8. Check the fridge & pantry before going grocery shopping (and stick to the list). This one has been more…
I think that it goes without saying that my holy grail cardigan pattern is PetiteKnit’s April Cardigan. I’ve made so many of them that I’ve had to put a few of them into storage for the time being. Even though most of my outerwear knits have been cardigans, I’m not entirely opposed to trying the odd sweater pattern. Over the years, I’ve become very particular about sweater patterns, favouring those with a v-neck. Yet, for all of the sweater patterns that I’ve pulled up, there haven’t been too many that were simple (a la PetiteKnits) and featured a v-neck. Then it occurred to me: why not try modifying a pattern I know and love? The April Cardigan already ticked most of the boxes. I knew the fit suited me, I liked the construction, and I’d knitted enough of them to feel comfortable making adjustments. Converting it into a sweater seemed…
Life was never meant to have a template. Pretty ironic coming from someone who writes code for a living. For the longest time, my life ran like a very predictable script. Wake up, open the work laptop, code, close the laptop, make dinner, sleep. Saturdays were for heading into the city. Sundays were for life admin. Even my workweeks had a strict rhythm: Monday meetings, daily standups, code, test, review, repeat. It was comfortable. Predictable, even. Then, in my mid 30s, plot twist: I was suddenly staring down the barrel of re-entering the job market after spending well over a decade at the exact same company. Cue the existential spiral. What did I actually want to do with my career? What kind of developer did I want to be now? And who on earth am I when I step away from the IDEs and build servers? I did a quick…
2025 was something. Between major household upheavals and everything else in life, sticking to my goals has take a backseat.
With 2026 on the horizon, it’s as good a time as any to set my goals for 2026.
So, without further ado, here are 26 things I want to do in 2026.
You know how you have that itch to retry a project when the previous attempt doesn’t work out the way you want it to? Yeah. This iteration of the Moondancer Shawl by Dominique Trad was one of those projects. The very first bash at the project was a yellow-and-grey number, which was made so I could wear it to the Harry Potter Feast event. Yes. I was a Hufflepuff at the time. And no, it was not worth the money I shelled out for the ticket to that event. Since then, a couple of things have happened. Firstly, I found myself in posession of more yarn than I had proper storage for (and needed to use up). Second (and most importantly), I am no longer a Hufflepuff. Yes. I am now rocking the red and gold of Gryffindor house. Which means that a) the Hufflepuff-inspired shawl is no longer appropriate…