This recipe was adapted from Ben's Chargrilled Seafood Spaghettini Ingredients - Spaghetti or spaghettini- Chilli flakes- Wedge of lemon- 1 garlic- Prawns- Squid- Baby spinach Method Using a frying pan that is deep enough, add some water, a teaspoon of sea salt and the spaghettini. Bring to a boil on medium heat. The water level… Continue reading Minimalist Recipe #4 – Sub 15-Minute Seafood Spaghettini
Woodblock titled Mt. Fuji #2 by Azechi Umetaro (1979). Image from ukiyo-e.org Azechi Umetaro knew from a young age that all he wanted to be was an artist. However, he was born to a poor farming family in the remote village of Uwajima, about 900 kilometres (559 miles) from the city of Tokyo. Ordinarily, this… Continue reading Against All Odds – The Life & Times of Azechi Umetaro
Cooking for one person is generally not very efficient, since there is already a minimum base effort required to prepare ingredients and also cleanup. So I modified this quickfire recipe to solve all that. The key ingredient. Ingredients- Vietnamese rice paper (normally used for their spring rolls) I ordered mine off Lazada here- Mixed vegetables,… Continue reading Recipe #3 – Six Minute Rice Paper Pizza (Minimalist Solo Lunch)
Found a text file I archived with some poems I wrote circa 2000. They could be classified into two genres, love poems and....depressing emo minimalism (LOL). Some didn't age well, but some I'm still quite happy with, despite the melancholic vibes and Robert Frost homages. I think that some of them have never actually been… Continue reading Found Some Poems I Wrote 20 Years Ago.
Caution: For serious book lovers only; otherwise you might be extremely bored. What is an Ex-Libris? The Latin phrase means 'From the library of...'. An ex-libris (aka bookplate) is a printed label that people stick inside the front endpage of their books to indicate ownership. This was a practice in Europe as far back as… Continue reading Make Your Own Ex-Libris
Once you are familiar with the previous lessons, and you are playing a lot (and hopefully winning!), it's time to skip ahead to self-learning via a few of my favourite Youtubers. Understand that playing without analysis is very poor quality practice. Unlike other video games, anyone can play for 12 hours a day but only… Continue reading Mastering Chess Part #4 – Three Great Youtube Channels
Seneca has some of my favorite quotes about time. If someone throwing money away could be considered insane, then shouldn't someone throwing time away be similarly judged? Because unlike money, wasted time can never be recovered. I'm no different, and even extremely guilty of this, even if my blog deceptively presents the best version of… Continue reading How To Get Back 100 Minutes Per Day.
One day in 1988 when I was eight, my dad gave me a book with this inscription. It helped to kick start a lifelong love of reading and completely changed my life. And although all my childhood books were later donated to my younger cousins once I outgrew them, this special Enid Blyton Famous Five… Continue reading Do For Your Kids What My Father Did For Me.
We used to go to Aussie inspired cafes like Feeka or VCR on the weekends. Sometimes with friends or family, sometimes just the two of us. Nowadays it's a lot tougher with the arrival of our boys and social distancing. So, for Mother's Day, I decided to make a minimalist version of what we used… Continue reading Recipe #2 – Mother’s Day One Pan Brunch (Minimalist Recipe)
The Great Wave......arguably the most famous Japanese vintage woodblock of all time? I used to have an Etsy store. Well, still have, actually. It was only active for a year plus and I sold digital reprints (giclees) of vintage woodblock art from Japan (shin-hanga). These reproductions were for the purpose of displaying on walls, which… Continue reading Resurrecting My Old Etsy Store
