Downtime Diaries: November 2025
As part of my winter goals, I'm embracing the slowness of these shorter days, when the sun sets before 5 p.m. It's jarring to step outside only to be greeted with darkness before dinnertime, but such is life on the East Coast.
The past couple of weeks have been a rush to meet deadlines before everyone goes on break for Thanksgiving. I'm clocking in full-time hours to ensure that edits are at a minimum, which has come with a price in the form of tightness in my hips, shoulders, and lower back from hunching over my laptop for extended periods. Now that I'm done with my trend reports for the month, I'm able to rest easy and indulge in leisure time.
📚 Reading: Scythe by Neal Shusterman
After swapping my screen time for reading for a week, I'm exercising the stamina I've built by reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman. Lately, I've been in the mood for worlds that are vastly different from ours. The goal is escapism rather than a mirror reflecting our society.
Scythe fits that criteria extremely well. The world is a utopia where AI has reached a level of intelligence that has rendered governments obsolete. This intelligence has even found a solution to death, hence the need for scythes to glean people at random as a form of population control. I enjoy the reflections of post-mortality life, where everything feels flat without the unpredictability of death. People live up to the hundreds and are no longer limited physically, as they can easily rewind their biological clock to their 20s. Without the unpredictability of death and the utopian nature of the world where crime is low, there is a lack of zest for life. Youths are splatting, that is jumping off high areas to splat on the ground, as a form of entertainment.
I'm a little over 100 pages in, so I'm curious as to where this story is heading. There are some guesses, but for now, I'm enjoying the journey.
📺 Watching: The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 2
I'm a sucker for reality television. You'll often find me recommending dating reality shows at parties, citing specific instances as a social experiment that reveals so much more of the human psyche than most media out there.
My first foray into the Bravo universe was Below Deck. I remember picking it at random to watch as I unwind in bed. Little did I know that I would binge-watch the first season deep into the night, resulting in a lack of sleep the following day, because I needed to find out what happened next. Below Deck is a social experiment where a diverse group of people are assembled in tight quarters, the same space where they must work and live over the span of 6 weeks. It's a recipe for all forms of interpersonal drama.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is unique in that the women live in the Mormon state of Utah.
I've learned so much about the religion from this show alone. This season is especially spicy with the arrest of Jen Shah, which is the main reason why I started watching this show after seeing paparazzi shots of her kiki-ing with Elizabeth Holmes.
If you're new to the Bravo-Real Housewives universe, Salt Lake City is a great entry point because it's relatively new and has only 6 seasons.
🎧 Listening: West End Girl by Lily Allen
It all started with a friend and my sister recommending this album after its release. I have not looked back since.
West End Girl is a testament to the importance of vulnerability in the creation of art. I may not know what it feels like to be married to a sex addict with butt plugs in a Duane Reade bag, but this album captures the universal human essence of betrayal, grief, heartbreak, and loss. Lily Allen expressed her feelings with raw honesty in this album, to which I applaud her for, because it's not an easy feat to share the unpleasantness and dissolution of one's marriage with the entire world. She also made it pop in the way that only Lily Allen can.
I highly recommend listening to this album from start to end in chronological order. The entire album unfolds like a story, so skipping any track may result in missing crucial parts of the story.
Once you're done listening to this album, watch this concise but comprehensive breakdown of Lily Allen's relationship with David Harbour.
🎨 Doing: Coloring
As we enter my 9th month of living in Jersey City, I find myself yearning for the comforts of home. I miss having spaces where I can go that I have established relationships. I miss my comfort foods of pork soup noodles, chili pan mee, garlic cheese naan, and tandoori chicken.
After facing major uprootings in my early 20s, I am all too familiar with this feeling of having to start over. It always sucks in the beginning because there is discomfort in meeting new people, building friendships, and finding spaces to show up in as part of your day-to-day. It's even harder when there isn't a school or office to show up consistently and form those relationships, but that's where attending community spaces and events comes in handy.
During this period of adjustment, one of the ways I take care of my mental health is by coloring.
Last year, my partner bought me The Yumiverse Mindful Coloring Book by Yumi Sakugawa. My sister found this at Eslite Spectrum in Starhill KL, and I knew I needed a copy of my own. The illustrations are so wholesome with positive affirmations that remind me that everything will be okay.
It's also a nice screen break for my eyes after hours of using my laptop for work.
These are just some of the ways I've been unwinding in the evenings. I recently got some tools for crocheting, but I need a thicker yarn to practice with, so we'll see if I actually make something in December.
As we approach the end of the year, I wish you all cozy and restful weeks to come!
