Leftovers #81

Bumper edition of: Korean skincare, Seoul neighbourhoods and autumn recipes

We landed at Heathrow around midnight on Wednesday night after 26 hours in the air. It was my first (and likely only) time in business class, so I insisted on arriving at Incheon airport four hours before our flight so we could make use of the lounge where you could get ramyun noodles on tap, all-you-can-eat crispy soup dumplings and a go on a very high-tech massage chair. It was bliss. On the plane, I drank three glasses of riesling, slurped on the ramyun noods I stole from the lounge, re-watched Closer, Blue Crush and The Holiday whilst pressing every button on my chair and not sleeping even though it was the most comfortable long-haul flight I’ve ever taken.

Happy to be home and ready to return to routine. Taking a few things back with me into daily life: morning workouts thanks to my friend and supreme Pilates instructor, Nat Kunz, who has developed this brilliant 7-day snack-sized Pilates programme which you can buy via Vimeo. I’m doing it on repeat every morning and it feels so good (plus her playlists are fire). Also more tofu for breakfast (see this week’s recipe-not-recipe) and a rigorous Korean skincare routine that isn’t quite the 10-step behemoth but it’s close and it’s working. I’m continuing to educate myself about the occupation of Palestine, so for the rest of this year I’ll be using the ‘thinking’ section to post any resources I’ve found which will not be behind a paywall.

Thinking –

– Noam Chomsky on the role of the US media and its bias towards supporting Israel.

– Bobo’s Void is one of my favourite podcasts and they delivered such an interesting conversation about the philosophy of war (war as a drug, the conflict between collectivism and individualism). The hosts have a unique and storied perspective as Black people living in South Africa in a post-apartheid state, which they briefly touch on.

– This Guardian piece is from 2014 so it isn’t a current address of what’s been happening in the past month, but I think it’s an interesting read about the media’s use of language and visual content that we need to be aware of when reading any publication, so we can really dig into what is fact and what is spin.

– On that note, there’s another Guardian piece about the Palestinian author of Minor Detail, Adania Shibli, whose recent award was rescinded “citing the war between Israel and Palestine. She writes of the power of language: “In Palestine-Israel, I, like many others, grew up realising language is not merely a tool for communication. It often hides rather than articulates, holding between its silence endless possibilities not concerned with expression. Language can be attacked, abused. It can still offer the ultimate freedom of being and love you don’t have access to in reality.”

– I love

Noha Beshir

’s Substack, Prone To Hyperbole – I find a lot of solace in her words. This is a beautiful newsletter she wrote about coping with conflict.

War and the Splintered Mind - How We Cope

– Once again sharing

Tahmina Begum

’s newsletter which includes an extensive list of resources to explore. One of the best pieces I’ve read on the list is this opinion essay on The New York Times that frames the question: why do Palestinians have to audition for our empathy?

The task of the Palestinian is to be palatable or to be condemned. The task of the Palestinian, we’ve seen in the past two weeks, is to audition for empathy and compassion. To prove that we deserve it. To earn it.

On Rightful Rage About What's Happening In The World Right Now