Aloha, !

That's a "hello" in Hawaiian. Thanks for people who emailed the last few weeks. Sorry I haven't replied - I had an issue with my email server so I didn't actually receive it til recently! I'm always curious as to what you, dear reader, are up to. Send me an email and let me know! I love hearing back!

As always, a quick favour? Could you forward this newsletter to just 3 people that you think would like one of the articles? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

Weekly Summary

It's been a week of chores more than anything else. These weeks come by once in a while where all the piled up things eventually topple so you have no way NOT to do what you had been putting off. In our case, it was moving more and more things into the new apartment.

That's not to say interesting things didn't happen. Just look at this email that got sent to hundreds of thousands of people in Australia. It starts with my reply to the previous one!

All of that over on the blog...

Continue reading on the blog

Creative update

Melbourne timelapse

Haven't been super creative this week since it's involved moving things into the new place most of the time. I did, however, do a timelapse I was quite proud of the week prior just on the phone.

Here's a link to that on Instagram

Watch now

Brought to you by...

Skillshare

Instead of just cool new tech and gadgets, I'm adding this to highlight affiliates a bit more obviously to the newsletter but also for products/services that I routinely use. I've mentioned Udemy in the past which has amazing specific classes on a topic, but I also use Skillshare as a "Netflix" of courses to get an overview of a topic that I'm unfamiliar on. Most recently, I did a course on typography and design to get a handle on the basics. In any case, you can try them out for FREE and see if it has something that you'd like to learn (they almost always have something on a topic).

Free Skillshare Trial

Read

How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japan

I've always found it fascinating how traditions end up developing and this one was one of the more surprising ones of late. When I think "Christmas" I don't usually think "Japan" or "KFC"...

Read now

Quote I'm pondering

'If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?'

— Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (aka Rumi)

I had a totally different quote for this week's newsletter however, I stumbled across this one in my little collection of quotes. Today was one of "those" days where all these little annoyances had built up. Even though most of the day was actually quite pleasant, it was these little rubs that had me in a less than ideal mood.

I read that and it's a bit trite to say it did change something, but the subtle reframe has actually made me way less annoyed by the day. Strange isn't it? Your idea of how good or bad a day can be changes purely with 1 sentence...

Hope this one helps you too! With that, that's all for this week! Hope you have an amazing week ahead!

- Raffy

PS - You've read til down here?! Thank you! As a superfan, I'd love to know your opinion. Let me know with 1 click!

Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. This does not change the recommendation/verdict but may result in Photos by Raffy receiving a small commission and will be marked in orange. Non-affiliate links will appear as blue. Prices recorded may vary.