More herbalism! The sachets of scented herbs (I brought one back), and also the drink made from blue pea flowers and dried lemongrass! The tea here was nicely floral (not at all the syrupy stuff you'll find in, I'll be unkind here, many LARPy faux-heritage eateries) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterf...

Back in the main hall, there were also table games of other sorts, what we call here in our part of the Malay-speaking world, congkak, and five stones. Happy to see students and young volunteers playing these traditional games!

And outside, the Kebon Dapor garden... With the chicken coops, flower pots, vegetable plots, ginger lilies and banana trees... It's really quite a nice vibe.

The painting supplies and station were graciously set up and provided by Kebon Dapor, who have a farm-to-table and garden next door in the same City Sprouts community garden! Their events and stuff are all seriously cool, check them out at: www.instagram.com/kebon.dapor?...

I made some mistakes (I was very happy to see my old friends, artists I had worked with many years ago.. who showed up, and so I lost control of brush for a moment) but we laughed as artists do when we're happy and we decided to blend mix together to see if we could work with smudges, turned out ok!

I took the time instead to do quiet spot of batik painting; I used to paint more, but with my exceedingly poor health in recent years, I kind of lost energy to do many things which I had previously found joy in. Something simple to get back again into the, well, "angin", the wind, feeling of things.

Ketupat is a compressed rice cake wrapped in leaves we eat across various parts of Southeast Asia, often found in the Malay world. It's an important part of festival life, religious celebrations, everyday dining. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketupat So we had a "weave-off", and I wisely abstained.

A big highlight of the event was a competition leading to a "ketupat weaving" election. candidates are Syazwan (main organiser of this event; a descendant of the Orang Pulau, who runs www.instagram.com/wansubinjour...) and, well, his mom. (It's not really going to be a fair competition huh...)

I also enjoyed the concoctions of the artists and ecologists over at Wild Dot, who use art and science to reconnect people to water and land. I'm a big fan of jamu (Indonesian herbal medicine, unique due to Indonesia's proximity to Wallace Line); check them out at: www.instagram.com/wildd.sg?igs...

You can find out more about the Orang Laut project (they do intertidal walks, coastal conservation, and other cool stuff) at www.instagram.com/oranglautsg?... You can find out more about both beliefs and practices of the indigenous sea nomads, as well as interactions with economies and ecologies!

So at Ambin Ubin Open House, various community groups gathered (descendants of Orang Pulau/Orang Laut, as well as artists, farmers, volunteers, scholars etc) to celebrate culture of Singapore's indigenous Malay peoples. e.g. here I'm using mortar and pestle to make some Orang Laut herbal medicine.

I'll be talking more about Ambin Ubin Open House, as some of what I'll be discussing there also involves tabletop gaming. This is the third year of the Ambin Ubin Open House, and this year's event was held at an urban farm/community garden in Punggol East, run by a social enterprise, "City Sprouts".

Over last weekend, visited 2 events; first was Ambin Ubin Open House, a festival to showcase and celebrate the lives and lifeworlds of the Orang Pulau (island people) and Orang Laut (sea nomads) of and around Singapore, and the other was Table Con Quest (TCQ), a convention focused on tabletop games.

Just got back from the United Kingdom, happy I could see the cherry blossoms in London and pass some Chinese New Year/Ramadan festive cookies to Kellynn, as well as @babblegumsam.bsky.social and @pixelgrotto.bsky.social! Truly happy to meet and reconnect with my TTRPG family everywhere in the world.

Happy to hang out with my fellow bald bearded Asian game writer @pixelgrotto.bsky.social in London! I think people might have mistaken us for brothers at some point LOL. Saw a copy of Hellbreakers in Orcs Nest and was tempted to buy it but I remembered my copy should be flying in to me anytime now!

Da Xia is in many ways inspired by events and stories like these; Shuang Lin Monastery's full name is "Lian Shan Shuang Lin Shi", 莲山双林寺, or Lotus Hill Twin Grove Monastery... Hence, "Lotus Hill". And Venerable Pu Liang's Buddhist name, 普亮法师, has the word 亮，or "Light"; hence Light on the Lotus Hill.

Venerable Pu Liang was the abbot of Shuang Lin Monastery (双林寺), over in Singapore's Toa Payoh, a beautiful temple. He opened the grounds up for the Volunteers to train. For his contributions against the Japanese invasions of China, he was arrested, executed.. biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-3/issue1...

Working on Da Xia agIn, caught ast screening, "Light on the Lotus Hill", about Venerable Pu Liang who supported Nanyang Volunteers (SEAsian Chinese auxiliaries during Sino-Japanese war). He was executed by Japanese imperial forces occupying Singapore, during the Sook Ching （洗清） massacres of Chinese.

My work's wages: a box of Boney Bois from Age of Sigmar ahha. I used to collect and paint what we now call the Deathrattles, mostly for my own RPG sessions. For the Epic I played one of my favorites for such community events, a paladin/undying warlock whom I represent on the table with a Wight King!

That's The Legitimate Business and @telehax.bsky.social doing the good work of running community DnD games across Singapore, across hobby shops and even at public libraries! Check out Jeremy's work: www.dmsguild.com/en/browse?au... And The Legitimate Business too, at: thelegitimatebusiness.com

Great time at Singapore Comic Con (SGCC); helped old friends at Gamersaurus Rex with sales, played a D&D Epic organised by @telehax.bsky.social and The Legitimate Business (the module was Enemy of My Enemy by @the-i-of-qing.bsky.social!), and visited @munkao.bsky.social and @ehronlime.bsky.social!

The kind words of one of our students lol and their amazing photos that I didn't know I was in cos we were so knackered (I did a lot of joget that night and got called up to make many random speeches lol). As I like to say, no matter how much I grumble at their assignments; the kids are all right.

The students also prepared traditional rewang (gifts) for wedding guests, paper flower bouquets with hard-boiled eggs wrapped within... as a symbol of good fortune and thanks for their attendance! The feast was also great. The two of us got exclusive dishes because we are the wedding couple haha!

We also had kompang performances and some students learned to play kompang! The silat school also sent in their rebana, gambus, and nafiri players which were pretty amazing but I couldn't take videos or photos cos I'm supposed to be stately and distinguished okay! www.esplanade.com/offstage/art...

So that's us in Malay traditional Baju Pengantin (wedding clothes) the kampung elders had prepared for us; it was a privilege to get in touch with our Nusantara heritage, no matter how faint (I have Indonesian relatives on maternal side; beyond that, we both ascribe to a SEAsian Chinese identity.)

Our students participated as part of the procession. They had fun, I think it's the first time they consciously participated in rituals in this way; for the Malay students especially, it was a chance to practice traditions we don't do much in SG. (I gave some anthropology homework that night of cos)

So one thing led to another and my wife followed me on the trip, where we took part in the traditional Malay village wedding ceremonies, where we are treated as raja sehari (royalty for a day). We had palanquins, spear and Kris Silat guards, gifts, torchbearers. The works haha.

We also ate a lot. Damn, that Kedah laksa was good. The cempedak fritters also disappeared almost instantly! for some of our students, it was also the first time they had traditional Malay food (both commentary on Singapore foodways as well as some sociological issues but that's for another time)...

You can also see a particular example of my teaching style here lolol (the students are mostly Gen Z kids so I find it easier to go online and be "hey what's up chat" than to talk to them in person most times hahaha)

Because we couldn't trek, this gentleman (it was also his birthday ytd!) took it upon himself to forage jungle durians for our students, most of whom really liked durian (the ones who didn't instead could enjoy jackfruit, papaya, and cakes, and I sat them apart from the durian area). What a sweetie.