For the days nostalgia arrives uninvited. Essays about expat life and the places that shaped you.
It began with the wrong MRT station. We were staying on Orchard Road. Dhoby Ghaut was two minutes away. Instead we walked ten minutes in the wrong direction and took the longest route possible. Not one person told us. Every time we passed that Holiday Inn for the next four years I laughed.
When the lockdown began I sent my maid and nanny home with teary eyes, told myself it would not be long, and began the season of doing everything myself. Months later I discovered K-dramas — and something closer to restoration than I expected.
On coffee without sugar, a wok full of vegetables, and the city that quietly changed me
We arrived in Sydney in 2015 and I bought a second-hand fridge that had its own philosophy about temperature. What it taught me about improvisation, adjustment, and making a home somewhere new.
A 90s Animax kid and lifelong Ghibli fan reflects on why AI-generated Ghibli art feels like an injustice to Hayao Miyazaki and the artists who inspired us.
