Written with photos curated by Markus The light was… too correct The day began so correctly that I knew something was wrong. Not dramatically wrong, not the kind of wrong that announces itself with broken alarms or late trains or a sky leaking sideways rain, but a quiet, polished kind of wrong, like a room that has been cleaned too thoroughly, where even the air seems arranged. I woke up before my alarm, which already felt suspicious. I lay still for a moment, staring at the

Written with Photos by Markus It was one of those mornings that didn’t feel like anything at all. No dramatic sunrise, no sense of urgency, no particular thought pressing at the front of my mind. Just a quiet, slightly grey sky hanging over the street, the kind of soft Dutch morning where the light never quite decides what it wants to be. I stepped outside, closed the door behind me, and for a moment just stood there, listening. Nothing much. A distant bicycle bell. The faint

Written by Markus with Photos by Markus Why the Dutch Love Second-Hand Things (And Why Singaporeans Might Secretly Love It Too). Every weekday morning begins the same way. A quick five-minute walk to the station, coffee in hand, bicycles everywhere, and commuters quietly settling into the train for the journey north. After living in the Netherlands for a while, I started noticing something curious. Dutch people are absolute masters of second-hand living. A colleague once prou

Written by Markus, with Photos by Markus From 34°C Shiok to 3°C Siao: How I Tried to Cook Like a Dutch Grandma While Managing 9 Fur Kids If you had told Singapore-me ten years ago that future-me would be standing in a freezing Dutch kitchen, mashing orange vegetables, surrounded by seven cats and two dogs judging my life choices , I would have said: “Eh please lah, don’t bluff. I still cannot even tahan the air-con at Don Don Donki.” Back then, “winter cooking” meant: Sitting