Girl Chat

this is just a chat: why everyone plays tennis now, make-up and books, kale pesto pasta recipe and a supper club invite !

Welcome to the dinner table

🍓 SERVING TODAY

• Girl Chat // <3 dinner and supper clubs, why everybody plays tennis now, my birthday!

• January month-in-review // make-up, podcasts, books on yearning, mouth-tape

🍦 INVITE LIST

• GIRLS and ITs

⏳ ICYMI // btw, friends should actually be nice to you _ The Rat Girl Winter Survival Guide

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Girl Chat

How the year started

Hi, We are 6 weeks into 2025. My mind has been surreptitiously, blissfully clear through it all. I’ve been following my own advice (The Rat Girl Winter Survival Guide here) - seasonally depressed me of yesteryear would have been agape to incredulous at how happy she could have been too with just a little bit of exercise and vitamin D. It probably wouldn’t have been that simple for her tho.

Anyways. Happiness is the brightest of feelings. When happiness is happening it feels as if nothing else happened before it, it is a sensation that happens only in the present tense, Deborah Levy said that.

And that’s why I haven’t written, sorry, I’ve been out here having a life. 😊

Happiness has been light as a fairy too: I haven’t bothered as much with Serious Business™. I haven’t been a Serious Person Doing Important Things. This hasn’t been a new year of optimising my routine or plotting My Dream Life. It’s been a new year of slow mornings, wine and TV after work, long, meandering walks and runs in the woods, all day long tennis sessions with friends over the weekends. It’s been a year of actually enjoying My Dream Life. YOM

AND SO, HELLO, Welcome to another dispatch of The Dandelion Tiger - I just want to chat today ! Consider this your winter season beach read. Come on in, meander, scroll, hang a lil, grab a wine, throw your phone and the whole newsletter away, whatever ! Let me tell you about the spaces i’ve been off frolicking about in! enjoy !

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I had a birthddaayyyyy

I’ll start by letting you know that I had a birrrthhhdaaayyy two weeks ago. I am in my Late Twenties now, a fully fledged Adult Teenager. It was the most incredible evening. My flatmate boyfriend planned a surprise dinner, beautiful people sent flowers, there was cake, there were cats, we had 12/10 company. Over the weekend we did crafts, had pizza, there was wine, it was yummy af

A Tennis Star

2024 was a break out year for tennis. A lot of normies (me included) started getting into it. Wonder why? Before I tell you why let me tell you that when I was at the Taylor Swift concert in Zurich, Roger Federer was there too. I had no interest in sports back then though, so was utterly unimpressed

Anyways. Three reasons I think tennis saw a spike in new interest last year, but I wont offer explanations because my ADHD is on fire rn:

1. Athleticism is now a Status Symbol. it’s true, supporting evidence being: Novak Djokovic being newly appointed Aman’s wellness parter, increase in general of high fashion and sports sponsorships, and Zendaya on the Challengers promo tour

   and btw people never stopped being obsessed with skinny; but now it’s not just about being skinny it’s about being Healthy and Well too. I suggest you read

   Nadine // The Stanza
   ‘s reporting on the rise of wellness clubs. The skinny obsession part sucks but is true, cases in point: ozempic, skinny jeans being back in style (gross).

   Speaking of status symbols and skinny, Tennis specifically has a high-society cachet to it; it’s not as inaccessible as riding or golf but is a sport that takes some investment to get good at (implying need for expensive coaching and/or a lot of free to time to practice). In some areas tennis courts are notoriously expensive to book, a friend has quoted $200/hr courts in NYC. Caveat, it isn’t always like this: my personal experience with tennis is anything but ‘exclusive’ or inaccessible, our courts are free and the community of people we’ve built around it are some of the most inclusive and welcomingggg <3

   I think having hobbies in general or any interests outside of scrolling on your phone is increasingly becoming a marker of ‘coolness’. The algorithm is making us all a little brain dead and our culture slightly homogenous, so being around people who spend any part of their time not soaked in it is a rarity

   Potentially unpopular opinion, i don’t count ‘traveling’ a hobby, it is more a part of life - but this feels like a rather privileged perspective. sorry

2. Loneliness in the age of digital, and wanting to do something about it. People are craving a different form of connection. Applies too to the rise of different format social clubs we are seeing: run clubs, chess clubs, sauna clubs, supper clubs. I have an invite to a supper club at The Dally in Islington (London), I’d be open to meeting and bringing an interested reader :)

3. Tennis Skirts.

I love tennis. I suck tho. But when summer comes around, there will be no better dressed person on the courts. Subscribe now for the summer outfit pics, they’re gonna SLAP.

May I also invite you to read one of my favorite (visual) substacks to date?

• Après Tennis Club by

  You've Got Lauren

If u’re based in London and you play, Let’s Go.

Speaking of Dinner!,

We’ve had loads of good food this year, already. Let me share a recipe for one of our new weeknight staples,

Kale Pesto Pasta (10 mins)

1. Boil pasta and set aside

2. Fry up some garlic, shallots, spring onions

3. Add kale, (boiled) broccoli, frozen green peas, baby spinach into the pan and cook

4. Blend in a nutri-bullet or blender the cooked vegetables with some milk, basil leaves, rosemary, and some parmesan cheese

5. Bring back to pan, stir in your pasta, et voila, a cheap healthy delicious 10 minute meal!

In my new hormonally balanced state I have been enjoying kitchen time more and more, so I’ll be better at documenting and sharing what I make too.

Tai Hao Chi Supper Club

Went to Tai Hao Chi’s first supper club last week… it was yom!

Chantel is a Singaporean multi-hyphenate whom I think has been in London for some time now… her cooking brought me back home but showed me a glimpse of the life she has built for herself here too. Does that make sense? Her food spoke of her inner world. To me, that’s art

The first course was a cold silken tofu lovingly topped with a creamy century egg sauce… it was divine. We brought home three jars of her homemade Kaya, intending to gift them… after cleaning out a whole jar in one day, we’ve decided to keep them all. ha

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Month in Review // January

Wearing make-up! One thing I want to do this year is to put a bit more effort into my looks / how I present myself day to day. So far I just do a blush and mascara but may try to add a tinted sunscreen or something.

I’m a bright winter according to my korean color analyst so bright / skiny make up looks best on me (just quoting the experts here. I really like this bright pink powder blush. And swear by this hourglass mascara for asian eyes with droopy lashes, they are first i have used that do not smudge.

What does your daily make up routine look like? If you know how I can achieve Jennie from Blackpink level make up please let me know…

Have been on a new journey to sort my skin as well because I’ve been neglecting it a bit… I’ve been using retinol and bought some new Biologique Recherce products to try... will report back

Reading Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux, an account of her situationship with a Russian diplomat. She is nearly 50 at this point. Her desperate, helpless yearning for him feels too similar to the way I’ve felt about certain boys at different times of my life… glad to know men never stop driving you insane lmao.

I’ve started Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros! (

The Sunday Reads

will approve of this one). It’s been recommended so many times by people i hold in high regard so! Am excited to get lost in a good fantasy enemies to lovers trope. that’s High Literature

Loving… mouth-tape. What you’ve heard is true… i sleep better and breath better and feel overall better… Think my face is more snatched too.

Planning three weeks of travel! woop. I am in paris next week for work… slight dread, but I’ll document the packing for a work trip because i’ve developed a lazy girl formula haha. and THEN, after right, 2 weeks in Japan!!! woop!

Eyeing Glossier fragrance … I’ve always had a bit of an individuality complex and always needed to be the person using different fragrances and things. Something’s changed tho and I just want to smell like the rest of the girls now, and the Glossier You smells really lovely! Might see if I can pick something up from Japan, we’ll see

Listening to The Matcha Diaries podcast loads… it’s just two bestfriends chatting essentially but I’ve developed a parasocial relationship with Cara and Leo now heh and they seem like really sweet people. I love putting on an episode to keep me company when cooking dinner.

Leaving you with some valentine’s tulips… taaaaa speak soon lmk if u enjoyed this format