honeyandchaai

[honeyandchaai]

I grew up hearing the phrase “you never stick with anything, what’s the point” a lot. I’ve always been attracted towards seemingly disconnected interests, and gone through phases of being really into something. But eventually my interest would fade and I would move onto something else. 

Or at least that’s always how it’s been phrased for me, by others. Now I realize that my interest for the old thing didn’t fade so much as my interest for something new outshined it, and that’s vastly different. 

I was always made to feel bad about it, with every abandoned endeavour I was told I needed to stop starting things if I wasn’t going to stick with them. I was told I was wasting time and money picking up these random interests and abandoning them after a year. 

So eventually, I stopped picking things up. I told myself “what’s the point, I’m going to give up in a year anyway”. Even worse, I started dismissing every new interest, because I had no way of knowing if my interest was “real” enough or just another passing phase. I stopped trying new things, I stopped looking up stuff that piqued my curiosity, and having chronic depression made it really easy to leave everything on the dirty floor of neglected ideas. The more they piled up, the more depressing it was. All these things that could be nice, but I just can’t take care of them. 

I realize now how bullshit that kind of thinking is. So what if I stopped doing karate after a year? That’s one more year of karate than most people I know. And in that year I learned discipline, I learned to listen to a teacher, something I had never done before in all my years of private education. I learned the true meaning of respect, that it’s something you do out of faith at first and maintain as it’s reciprocated, not something you do blindly and regardless of how you’re treated. 

It gave me the foundation for the determination and grounding I needed to practice yoga. Another year. Not enough to be good at it maybe, but again a year more than most people I know and a year that is not lost, but gained. I learned balance, I learned to listen to my body, I learned how to let go of emotional tightness through physical stretching. 

And then iaido, only a few weeks because I couldn’t afford to keep going. The year of yoga I had done a couple years previous had given me a better starting point than the other newcomers to the class. I already had balance, I had strength in my legs and I had better posture. In those months I learned the importance of precision, the true definition of efficacy, the zen state that is incessant repetition. 

Did I practice long enough to get good at iaido, and yoga, and karate? No. Of course not. It takes years to become proficient and decades to master any of those things, but I learned other skills and those skills were an invaluable part of my growth both spiritually and emotionally. Likewise for my forays into painting, sewing, graphic design, film. I’m a photography student now heading into my second year of school, and every single second of practice I have in those other disciplines has given me more experience in those areas and made learning easier. 

Skills carry over. They intersect and connect in ways that are sometimes unexpected. Nothing is ever lost, experience is never a waste of time or worthless or stupid. Allow your focus to wander, reflect on what you learn, and consider how you can keep using it in other aspects of your life. Stop telling people their interests aren’t worth their time. 

[honeyandchaai]

Art by Shin jong hun

[honeyandchaai]

2020 in Docklands, Victoria, Australia 🌞⛴🎡

[honeyandchaai]

14 June 2021

submission is tmrw and i am still working on it 🥸 all i wanna be is this black cat !!

[honeyandchaai]

11 June 2021

realistic desk scene of grad student in final sem 🤎

[honeyandchaai]

7 June 2021

the horror is i am still working on my Master's degree for two and half yrs.... cheers to everyone who's working on their thesis 🙏🏼

[honeyandchaai]

5 October 2020 [7/100]

feeling hermione much? was attending 2 different tutorials simultaneously and then saw this holy holy sky

[honeyandchaai]

2 October 2020 [5/100]

when everything becomes too much then maybe start with a short reading? i had to give myself that little joyness from accomplishment!

[honeyandchaai]

How do you make your iced coffee if you don’t mind sharing? I’ve never been able to make it at home without it tasting awful. 😆

Of course not! Although I am not sure if it’d be helpful much as there’s no recipe but just my intuition for mixing ingredients. (I have worked for several coffee shops so I guess I could say that I got experienced some in making coffee)  

I think the secret for iced coffee is the proportion of coffee, milk(or creamer of your choice) and ice! Thesedays I use macademia/oat milk (though my favourite is almond I’m trying to use it less). The mistake I often made was putting too much milk or ice. Pouring milk/creamer until you think it’s a bit darker than you would normally like then mix with ice (I use no more than about 6-8 cubes of ice depending on the size of both cubes and the drink). So that even after the ice cubes are melted it wouldn’t taste too bland. 

and @gooddarkhuntress asked me about how I make iced mint mocha🌿 so I took some pictures while I was making the second cup of coffee today!

I put 1 tea spoon of macro cacao & mint lattee mix and 1 or 1 and half (depending on the amount of coffee you put) tea spoon of brown sugar into hot espresso and mix them until they are well dilluted. 

Then I put milk out of the fridge and poured until my coffee looks about this colour. (I used only single shot this time as I drank my first cup of coffee today already) And I put some ice cubes and stirred it until the drink got cold. That’s it! enjoy it while scrolling down Tumblr (or study!) ;)

[honeyandchaai]

1 October 2020 [4/100]

can't go to cafe to study so I made my favourite drink (iced mint mocha🌱) at home. who else loves not wearing bra all time in iso?

[honeyandchaai]

29 September 2020 [3/100]

My mind was literally elsewhere today. i woke up at 8am but didn't start my study until now. It became too hard to focus on study staying home all the time. (esp with my incredibly short span of concentration) so i made a cup of tea and put a light on crackling candle to relax a bit and spend the left hours productively.

[honeyandchaai]

28 September 2020 [2/100]

another reading for the horticulture subject 🌱

started to enjoy iced coffee again while Melbourne's weather is getting warmer but boy how i miss the northern hemisphere! autumn in SK is just amazing

[honeyandchaai]

27 September 2020 [1/100]

still at Williams et al 2010 but almost finishing! who else has more snacks than books on the study desk?

[honeyandchaai]

studying greens while sitting on urban concrete 🌱

[honeyandchaai]

🌱self-iso hobby kit : indoor plant edition🌱

I got Rubber fig, Monstera adansonii (swiss cheese ), and heart Fern I was little sad as Monstera came with black dots and torn leaf but we'll see how it goes

[honeyandchaai]

20 February 2020

University of Melbourne Student Precinct

[honeyandchaai]

19 February 2020

reading for the intensive WSUD