Ologies

I stumbled upon Ologies on Spotify today while looking for something to keep myself awake in office. Oligies is a podcast hosted by Alie Ward, an actress / writer / artist and a wholesome human being. Each episode looks into a particular -ology (for example, entomophagy anthropology), in which Alie interviews an expert from the field and we get to know them and their field of expertise.

I was immediately captivated from the first episode. Alie leads her interviews with a delightful sense of wonder and curiosity and humour. The conversations seem to wander and carry you with it but still contained neatly within its topic. The podcast reminds me so much of my university time, sipping wine and having long thoughtful conversations with my housemates late into the night.

Yet Ologies is so informative and full of interesting thoughts and ideas that I actually took notes. Below are some notes of (in my opinion) important things I scribbled down from the podcast.

Entomophagy Anthropology

Professor to his student who is struggling to find a specialism:

“You’re interested in everything but you don’t know what you want to do – let’s throw everything at you and see what sticks.”

Ornithology (Birds)

Find and watch a video of a horned screamer bird.

Mixology

Ratio for a good cocktail – 2 (alcohol) : 1 (sweet) : 1 (sour)

Ratio for perfect party punch – 4 (hard liquor) : 4 (soft drinks) : 1 (sweet) : 1 (sour)

There’s no such thing as 2 drinks that do not mix well. Everything goes together as long as they are balanced.

Fallingfruits.org – A world map of where you can find trees with edible fruits.

Note to self – must try Seedlip.

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I highly recommend Ologies to every curious minds out there. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

The little book of Hygge – the Danish way to live well

It’s been a long break from blogging. I recently re-read my old posts and realised how important it is to record down memories and thoughts because of my tendency to forget things, even those really worth remembering. The past year just whizzed by so fast and I was always in such a hurry that I barely had time to sit down and think about what it all meant.

Among other things that I managed to check off my list in the past year, I’m particularly pleased that I surpassed my Goodreads reading challenge (24 books, 4 more than the goal I set for myself). Sadly, I was not able to retain much from those 24 books due to the afore-mentioned forgetfulness. Thus I’m making a comeback on the blog and will try to make it a habit to record down my thoughts every time I finish a book. This is for my own reference and who knows, maybe it can grow into something more?

I’m starting the year off with an easy one: The little book of hygge – the Danish way to live well. I finished this book within 1 day and in the most “hyggelit” setting. My day was the definition of hygge:

• Cold and gloomy London winter day
• Brunch in a small cosy cafe having avocado toast and poached eggs
• Afternoon in with friends, wrapped in a thick blanket re-watching Scrubs and sipping rose tea (while reading)
• Friends made roast meat and vegetables for dinner, we ate in the living room while watching some old school Goku Super Saiyan movie
• After dinner lazing about the living room talking about Harry Potter while watching each other play Wii
• Friends made pizza for supper
• All in all a warm cosy day with good company and simple comfort food and wandering conversations

It was the perfect day and perfect setting to read about Hygge, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is no wonder that the Danes are the happiest people in the world as hygge is so well embedded in their culture. Yet I feel it is only in Denmark that people are able to lead such a lifestyle. I can hardly imagine myself doing the same in Singapore, or anywhere else for that matter. I simply can’t afford to and can’t see myself living so slowly for such a great part of my day.

Nonetheless, this book reminded me to at least inject more hygge time into my life. As of right now, I’m thinking about chilling in cafes with friends more and going to the beach more often. I hope to have more chill days like today, more warm tea and more wandering conversations in the coming year.

And I hope you, too, will have a year full of hygge ahead!

Cheers,

Thu