Channels of Curiosity

The detours that add up to a life.

Breakfast in bed with pancakes, bacon, poached eggs, berries, coffee and cream on a tray with patterned dishes and salt and pepper shakers.
Gourmet dish with sauce and garnish in white bowl, with glass of white wine above, on a dining table set with glasses and utensils.

Drinks

As basic as it may be, I do love sharing a bottle of bubbles, especially in a booking, it adds to the celebratory, slightly decadent tone to time together, a secret toast only we know. Krug is my favourite, (though hardly expected), but I’m equally happy with English sparkling; Roebuck is excellent, and I enjoy being introduced to anything you love too. I also love a good cocktail, anything involving lychee, or sometimes I go herbaceous or smoky when I want something moodier. I drink too much coffee (and tea). An espresso machine keeps me over-caffeinated most days (thank you N!), but what I love most is the ritual: a hot drink in the morning, steam rising, anticipation building.

Food

Food is one of the most intimate experiences: sharing flavours, slowing down, telling stories over plates. I’ll happily eat almost anything, and London’s diversity makes it endlessly exciting. At the moment I’m obsessed with hotpot (火锅); so far I’ve only explored Sichuan’s spicy depths, but I’d love to try other provinces. Michelin-starred dining is an exquisite love, but I’m equally enamoured by overlooked gems where the food is brilliantly simple. I also love to cook and bake, lately experimenting with fermentation (my kitchen smells strange). Restaurants I love or long to try include Kiln, Barrafina, The Smoking Goat, Brat, St John, Sabor, Noble Rot, Bouchon Racine, Bubala, Rochelle Canteen, Zedel’s, and a really good Ethiopian spot. For something more lavish: Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Kitchen Table, Restaurant Story, Anglothai, Cycene, Ikoyi, Endo at Rotunda, The Ledbury, and especially Core by Clare Smyth, which I’m dying to try (update: I went and it was everything I hoped for). But names aside, what I value most is discovery, sharing, and the intimacy of eating together.

Interior of a rustic room with wooden flooring, a chair, a painting on the wall, and a circular wooden table with decor items. A cabinet displaying plates and a side of a couch are also visible.

Turn-ons

My turn-ons are simple: kissing, the build of anticipation, soft touches drawn out until they spark that delicious sense of surrender. I like feeling safe enough to lose myself with someone, for time to blur while we stay present. Connection and intimacy matter more to me than novelty, without them, even the most decadent encounters feel hollow. Tantra deepened that for me: it taught me that desire is richer when it unfolds slowly, without rushing toward an ending.

Silhouette of palm trees and a bridge at sunset with a crescent moon in the sky.

Destinations

I love city breaks, wandering the streets, admiring architecture, stopping to eat, people watching. My favourite cities each gave me something different: Melbourne’s ease, Barcelona’s culture (Gaudi♡), New York’s buzz, Lisbon’s saudade, San Francisco’s contrasts, Amsterdam’s openess, Stockholm’s clarity, Bangkok’s craziness, and London…eventually, its contradictions, which I’ve grown to love. I don’t travel for landmarks, more for atmospheres, finding a city’s rhythm and letting it temporarily become my own.

Perfume

Perfume is memory you can carry. My collection keeps expanding, with favourites shifting depending on the season and my mood. Diptyque’s Orphéon is the current reigning fave (I often get stopped in the street when I wear it), and Le Labo’s Ambrette 9 is another. I go for scents that sit close to the skin, something that is only noticed when you’re near enough for it to matter.

A person with long hair wearing a striped shirt and socks is sitting on a bed, reading a book.
Bookshelves filled with a variety of old hardcover books, with a leg and yellow shoe visible in the foreground.

Writers

These days I mostly read non-fiction, though novels still pull me in. Authors I return to include Nabokov for his precision and beautiful, beautiful prose, Kundera for his profound melancholy, Joan Didion for her concise clarity, Ha Jin for subtle tenderness, James Baldwin for his searing truth, and Virginia Woolf for her luminous moments of being. I love Wilde’s wit, Audre Lorde’s fire, Oliver Sacks’s curiosity, Donna Tartt’s intricacy, and Cormac McCarthy’s uncompromising intensity. Lately I’ve been exploring poetry: Mary Oliver, Sappho, Robert Hass, Naomi Shihab Nye. I love when a line distills something I’ve felt but never found words for.

Directors

Cinema is another great love. I love Kore-eda’s subtle revelations (After Life remains an all time favourite), Kenji Mizoguchi, Pedro Almodovar, Michael Haneke, Nicole Holofcener, David Lynch, Alexandro Jodorowsky, Asghar Farhadi, Lynne Ramsey, Werner Herzog, Wong Kar Wai, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Juzo Itami, Hayao Miyazaki, Jia ZhangKe, Celine Sciamma, Wes Anderson, Agnes Varda, Erol Morris, The Coen Brothers.

Art & Photography

I’m pulled to art that exposes truth rather than smooths it over, the tingle in the spine Nabokov spoke of. Amrita Sher-Gil’s luminous bodies, Jenny Saville’s audacity, Lucian Freud’s ugly yet compelling intensity, Marlene Dumas’s atmosphere, Francis Bacon’s unease. I admire the strange, the sensual, and the unsettling: Aleksandra Waliszewska, Egon Schiele, Ren Hang, Nan Goldin, Nobuyoshi Araki. Someone once summed it up as “all the perverted stuff,” and I couldn’t entirely disagree. For me, art is intimacy translated, sometimes luminous, sometimes raw, but always deeply human.

Person viewing sunset over coastal landscape from balcony

Hobbies & Interests

Beyond food, art, and film, I stay curious in other ways: cooking, gardening, fermenting, photography, hiking, volunteering, and being more involved in my community. I love exploring both with my mind and my body, aimless walks that turn into discoveries, languages that reshape how you think. I’ve been learning 普通话 (with a probably over ambitious eye on Arabic next), and I’m endlessly intrigued by how language opens new windows into being human. My interests circle around the same thread: how the world works, how people move through it, and how intimacy and attention make everything feel better.

TV

I try not to binge, but when I do, it’s because a new world has pulled me under. The Wire is my gold standard; DENSE (caps required), humane, and endlessly rewatchable. Mad Men I’ve returned to most often, its subtle melancholy is strangely comforting. I’ve binged The Sopranos, Atlanta, Succession, Twin Peaks (uncanny in the best way), and The Thick of It for its hilarious yet truthful satire. I like when comedy cuts deep: Chris Morris, Alan Partridge, Mike Judge. Humour that unsettles even as it makes me laugh.