I’ve actually had this sitting as a draft since January. At the time, it was titled “A year in review” for 2015. But I never ended up completing it. However, I’ve had two amazing years in a row and some of the most enjoyable moments of 2016 were offline in my newly acquired hobby. So I figured I may as well put this all somewhere so I get to look back on it one day. So here it is starting off with last year’s stuff.
I never usually write one of these, however 2015 has been a particularly epic year, spanning several countries and states. Plus it’s nice to be proud and reflect on achievements made in an entire year, so why not :)
First of all, Cape Town. Never had I actually thought I’d visit such a place, and I ended up spending three months there. Made some work friends, made some barista friends too. Sure I had a cushy experience since I didn’t have to worry about accommodation, bills or transport, but I did do a fair amount of exploring on foot, which I’m really proud of.
While I missed out on a San Pellegrino Top 50 restaurant there due to me underestimating the potential quality of food there, I made up for it in volume – 84 unique cafes and restaurants visited in 84 days. I also managed a few physical feats – climbing Lion’s Head, something I wouldn’t have even tried had it not been for the encouragement of workmates. The view was absolutely breathtaking. I also managed to get sunburnt quite badly and I still have the tan line to show for it!
I managed to visit a shanty town and survive (even though I accidentally hit a local when I was wildly flailing my arms to emphasise some exciting thing; he stared me down for a whole few minutes while I maintained my “touristy ignorance” before walking off), and ate some weird stuff – including a sheep’s head, a mopane worm, and having some super authentic local fare (some spicy soup with knuckle, tripe, tendon with a side of paap) and found out that chicken livers are actually delicious.
I had my first tasting of kombucha there and realised there are some wonderfully beautiful hipster things in Cape Town – my favourite being Oranjezicht City Farmer’s Market, a real slice of paradise tucked away from the messy city sprawl, yet only a short walk from the hotel I was staying at.
Following this adventure, I’d also essentially stayed awake for about 30+ hours (unless you count successfully sleeping for a little bit on the plane as actual sleep) upon waking up in Cape Town, then flying into Dubai and making the most of a 22 hour stopover.
It was the first time I’ve been in an entirely foreign country all alone – and I fared pretty well apart from fumbling with their public transport system. I dined at Fortnum & Mason for the first time ever, and also managed to successfully stumble upon a “coffee office” and behaved appropriately in order to sample some coffees that they had. Then, managed to go up the Burj Khalifa – the views weren’t too great since it’s in the middle of a desert, however it was still quite an experience, then descending to watch the water show from the ground up. It was great seeing just how international and how culturally different the place was. While I loved the experience, when I was relaying this to others once I got back, it was interesting to see the varied opinions people had on Dubai as the tourist areas were highly manufactured and did not represent the UAE accurately at all. Those different points of view all added to my worldly experiences.
I also took up dancing – ballroom and latin – after years of thinking about some sort of physical activity, plus the fact that I’ve been interested in dance ever since high school (possibly even before – I actually still recall being part of a dance group in primary school, so I guess it was always in my blood). And when I started, I loved it! I actually never though I’d love it so much that I attended as much as I could.
For the first time, I was also asked to be a bridesmaid for a friend’s wedding. Turns out it’s the first friend’s wedding I’ve attended, and that was lovely as we ended up having a house in the Hunter Valley for two nights. The makeup and dress process was super daunting, but the whole event was wonderful and I loved the time away in the wine region.
I also managed to finally find my coffee tolerance limit, as returning to Sydney in a booming cafe bloom resulted in mass dehydration, where I physically felt ill and made a bad decision to travel further from accessible infrastructure, leaving me near incapacitated on a bench at a bus stop where I sat, drank water, and very luckily managed to recuperate without having a heart attack. I had lost my appetite for the next few days as well as my ability to drink pretty much any coffee, and I think my body is still sensitive to this – with my coffee and food limits being greatly diminished now.
If that wasn’t enough, I also managed to end up moving to Perth! After living in Adelaide for 2.5 years, watching my local cafe come to life and grow, with the baristas there becoming friends with me, it was time to bid them farewell and enter the next stage of my adventure. And I’d only just started learning how to dance too! So, packing my things and shipping my unexpected wine collection back to Sydney, I began my journey westward.
Perth, a place as dodgy at night as Cape Town. It felt remarkably unsafe at night, but I had to continue my dancing. I also had to navigate a limited transport system to a city that sprawled as much as Sydney to continue my coffee adventures. There was also the added difficulty of needing to find accommodation, for unlike Adelaide, I was relying on just myself. With the most amazing luck, I found a place that I could share that was close to everything I needed – most importantly, a cafe! It’s not the best specialty coffee shop, but it’ll do. I was so used to the warmth and hospitality that Exchange gave, that I had to reset some expectations of what “just another specialty coffee shop” would be like. Only one cafe since has responded to a coffee geek in the way I’d expect them to (recognising the type of order immediately as “not just another coffee drinker”) – opening discussion about coffees, regions, brew methods.
I also managed to very quickly make a friend through my continued interest in dancing, and realised there was a whole dancing world out there where every different state and studio had different moves, and that was further motivation and inspiration to continue learning. Though, admittedly, having been very comfortable in doing things by myself for so long, I was unsure as to whether offers of friendship were normal or if people had ulterior motives! I’m still not sure… so I’ll simply let my social ineptitude weed out people I don’t understand or have the patience for.
So much physical change, yet I still maintained my creative passions.
I’ve still been drawing and working on my story all this time, albeit at a significantly slower pace. I still have new characters, new plotlines for existing characters, and working on designs for all. With so much moving, I also managed to bring my story online, which was very fortunate, for somehow my portable hard drive has gone missing. I hope that I continue improving and updating my cloud version, so that I can access it anywhere – I’ll need it for the near to mid future.
Cooking, cafe-ing, fine dining. Still doing all of that too. It’s more difficult to obtain inspiring ingredients, especially at affordable prices, but every now and again, there’d be something special like a whole pasture raised duck.
2016 was a year where I really started learning what dancing was, and immersed myself in it. Lessons 4 days a week, dancing 5-6 times a week. It almost felt like a second job! The funniest thing was, it reminded me of my World of Warcraft days. A lot of the same learning process applied and I was spending a lot of time and money on it.
I made even more dance friends and even had some outings together, which was nice. What’s interesting though is that I still feel out of place, since my previous hobbies/demographic has nothing in common with my newfound friends. So I’m still looking for a coffee buddy (I’m too poor for a food buddy now).
Drawing and story creation pretty much fell off the radar, but it was always in the back of my mind. My story is definitely still alive and kicking! I’m going to state here that it’s probably almost 15 years old now, and I still love it so much.
Back to my primary passion of food and coffee, I was so very incredibly lucky and managed to get myself a table at Noma Australia. Wow. I actually made it. Sure, not to Noma itself, but I met Rene, saw his interpretation of native Australian ingredients, made a personal record for highest amount spent per person on a restaurant outing (over $500 per person for food, drink, tip).
Another friend got married, and being only the second wedding I’ve been to, saw another perspective – a budget wedding. Just as beautiful as the first, and they were so happy – and it goes to show that money really doesn’t buy happiness. It was great to see.
Which then lead to me impulse deciding that Melbourne would be a cool place to revisit. And not blog about. And doubly lucky, I managed to book a table at Attica. The best restaurant in the world, and the best restaurant in Australia? You bet I had a good year. I also went to many new cafes and met a geeky barista who wasn’t fazed by my dvorak keyboard on my mobile – he simply started typing away like it was nothing! (He was adding to my list of cafes to visit). I also lined up for an hour at Lune Croissanterie, and that was one tasty croissant. Wasn’t quite worth an hour wait but definitely worth it for a 40min or under queue. After a run like that, I couldn’t really say I was disappointed that I missed out on dining at Tipo00, but there’s always next time.
Last of all, back to dancing. I entered my first competition (sure it was individual recreational, which means dancing with an instructor and no costume requirements) and won! I was so impressed and never thought I’d be able to be decent at anything, so again, I feel so lucky that this year (and last!) have been such a good run. It’s made me hungry for more, and I want to be better, at a faster rate than ever before!
One drawback is that this year has cost me a lot of money. Dancing has taken a huge chunk of my income, so I’ve had to cut back on other things, such as cafe visits (specifically I don’t really get to eat food there anymore and stick with just coffee where possible) and having simple dinners (less meat, same veg, more staples/carbs). I finally worked out exactly where all my money was going, so hopefully I’ll be back on the path of saving and be able to continue travelling, eating and drinking next year.
I look forward to what 2017 brings!!!