We’re only five months down in 2017, but it’s safe to say that April was the chillest, most fun month this year! A big birthday! A family holiday! A fun + new cultural experience! April had it all, even the tropical summer weather couldn’t get me down.
Join me as I take a step back & try to recount what April was like.
The Creative Break
A series of tech misfortunes (which I discussed in this vlog) lead me to go into April feeling burnt out. It was obvious that I needed to take a break. Since December, I felt like I had such a good momentum with work & not keeping up with my YouTube schedule felt like I was letting you guys down.
I did a little soul searching & realised that I’m terrified of being perceived as lazy – sure, in real life I may be kind of a slacker & a slob but I take pride in my work. Taking down time always made me feel guilty & I found myself constantly justifying why I needed to take a break & feeling pangs of guilt after.
As a creative (at least I like to think that I am), I can only create good work when I’m really into it. When I’m brainstorming, when I’m enjoying what I’m doing. It’s not the kind of work I can just go through the motions with. So my new mantra is balance – work hard but take time to just do nothing. The aim is to be regular with blog posts, videos as well as all the other backend work (communications, paperwork), to have me time, a social life & more! And it seems even more unattainable when I write it all down. And I’m self-employed, I’m supposed to have it easy, right? I guess the biggest lesson from this is – it’s ok to feel overwhelmed. I may not always have it together. But everyday is a learning experience.
The Family Vacation
When mom & I were in Bangkok this Feb, we loved it so much that we decided to come back – we paid a deposit on our favorite hostel & booked flight tickets soon later. Since we just missed the Kochi Muziris Biennale by a few days during our Fort Cochin trip last December, we’ve been trying to plan travels that coincide with interesting local festivals or cultural events. We got to see celebrate CNY (Lunar New Year) during our Jan / Feb trip to Bangkok, so we decided to come in April, to celebrate my birthday & Songkran (Thai New Year).
While most of my recent trips with mom have been travel + work (creating content through vlogs & more) this was more a vacation in the traditional sense. Even dad came along! All of my most memorable childhood trips were taken as a family, but since we adopted the cats, he’s been skipping out on travels to take care of them. It was nice to relive old times, just chill out, eat my favorite Thai snacks & take it easy.
My parents at Ratchada Train Market, my favorite night market in Bangkok
Of course we did create some content, but at a slower pace than usual. Another lookbook is coming early next week, & I’m pretty excited to share it with you. Also here’s a bonus, super tipsy selfie with my parents. Dad has a serious case of resting bitch face, hehe.
Turning 25 🎂
Turning 25 is weird. I’ve had older friends tell me about it but I never understood it until a few months ago. The closer I got to my birthday, the more I was filled with existential dread. 25 is big. It’s a quarter century. It kind of makes you take stock of your life. So yeah, I was anxious before the 9th. But the day itself turned out to my one of the loveliest birthdays I’ve had in a while. I put on a new pair of pyjamas, slept in, & had the delicious brunch at Luka Bangkok (a chic little find just about 200mts from our hostel!)
We had planned an evening outing but decided to postpone it to later in the week. 9th April 2017 was a super relaxed day & if it set the tone for birthdays to come, I’m a happy girl.
I wrote about my 20th birthday back in 2012 & it was quite like this one, in some ways.
25 Facts About Me
I really wanted to make a Birthday Special video, so I thought of making a 25 Facts About Me video with the facts filmed in different spots as part of my day to day life. It was kinda nuts to start doing this just a few days before – we filmed between events, at the airport & throughout Bangkok. I probably could’ve planned it a bit better but I’m happy to say we pulled it off! We may or may not have been running around to film the last few on my actual birthday.
Nonetheless it was a lot of fun to put together.
Etc.
Watching… I finally started Community during my vacation & it quickly became one of my top three comedies (along with Seinfeld & Arrested Development). I’ve only watched the first three seasons, but I’m saving the rest for later. Since returning home I resumed hate watching NCIS & burnt through three seasons of a network TV show in a fortnight. It’s pretty campy, but good enough to wind down to after a long day.
Listening to… Jamiroquai came out with a new album after a few years. It’s called Automaton & it’s less acid jazz & a bit more Daft Punkesque but it’s peppy – mostly dance music, but good for some cardio too.
April Favorites
As always, I made a chatty video discussing my favorite things (makeup, personal care & tech) in the month of April. Details + links are on the video page.
And with that, we wrap up my fourth monthly Looking Back post. I throughly enjoy writing these & I do hope you like reading them as well. They’re long, rambly & very stream of consciousness but they allow me to write from a very honest place & discuss everything from professional epiphanies to interesting life experiences & more.
I’m looking forward to the rains (for now, I know I’ll be complaining in a week’s time), working on some interesting things for the rest month of May & trying to prioritise better too. What are you up to, today? Let’s chat in the comments! x
