A Reset: When senses come alive and it feels good, without trying
A Reset: When senses come alive and it feels good, without trying
Chapter I
Chapter I · At Sea
Super-tankers are the largest ships that navigate the globe.
Months at a stretch. 22 people, different nationalities, with no internet. Dark ocean in every direction and the constant hum of heavy machinery. Your mind never quite leaves home, but calling family is a rare luxury because of exorbitant satellite charges. The loneliness is intense.
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Chapter I · The Fog
As Captain, I often watched a lonely isolation settle over my crew. It was like fog rolling quietly across open water… until it was everywhere.
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Chapter I · The Common Room
But I noticed something else. Many of them turned to hands-on distractions in their off-hours. Some carved wood. Some painted. Some built models. It was their quiet anchor.
I encouraged them to bring their work to the common room and sit alongside others. The shift was dramatic. The silence broke and laughter found its way back.
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Chapter I · Grounded
We weren’t artists.
Just humans at sea finding
our own ways to stay grounded.
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Chapter I · Aregius One
Years later, ashore, I built the Aregius Maritime Group. And then the pandemic arrived. Once again, I saw the fog drifting in.
Leaning on my experience, I converted half the office into a studio. We called it Aregius One.
The rules were simple. No pressure. No expectations. No judgement. Just fun.
Nobody was asked to stay late, but they did. Then their spouses joined. Then our clients.
That’s what sparked the idea of artwerkx.
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Chapter II
Chapter II · The Werkx
In February 2023, I opened The Werkx, a café for coffee and creativity.
The excitement was short lived. Sales were negligible and problems emerged where I least expected · supplier issues, never ending bills and overheads. My lack of knowledge and experience in this specialised industry was proving costly.
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Chapter II · No Playbook
Along the way, I brought in some consultants. But their expertise was limited to F&B and their solutions kept squeezing out our hands-on experiences. There was no playbook. We had to write our own.
Within six months, I found myself running to raise funds. Family, friends, anyone who believed in me.
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Chapter II · Art Werkx
We renovated, repackaged and relaunched as Art Werkx, a café for hands-on fun.
This time the excitement lasted barely fifteen days. And we were back struggling.
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Chapter II · What Kept Me Going
More than once, I questioned whether I was chasing the wrong dream. What kept me going was a belief that in a world of endless screens, playfully busy hands could bring people back to each other.
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Chapter III
Chapter III · Woofie
Woofie was my little dog. She was never just a dog. She was the pulse of my home, her tiny footsteps following me from room to room.
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Chapter III · The Guide
Through those years, when I came home carrying the day, she would settle beside me and lick my hands. It was as though she understood and had simply come to sit it out with me.
At night she’d crawl up to my pillow and sleep close, as though reading my mind and trying to show me the way.
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Chapter III · Goodbye
When I lost her after nineteen and a half beautiful years, the weight was hard to carry. Coming back after saying goodbye, I didn’t want to go home. Instead, I went to artwerkx.
I started doing Texture Art, something I’d been wanting to try for a while. My girlfriend joined me and we sat silently till late.
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Chapter III · The Ritual
Over the next few days this became our ritual. We would make a mess of texture, pour-paint, or whatever was on the table. Gradually, wine and tapas found their way to us.
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Chapter III · The Turn
By Friday something had changed. Over the scrape of the palette knife on canvas, as I fondly talked about Woofie, she remarked “I’m glad to see your smile returning”.
I was celebrating Woofie’s beautiful life and learning how to live with her absence.
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Chapter IV
Chapter IV · The Drift
It was during a talk show on our third anniversary, just a month before Woofie left me, that I realised how far off course I had come. In my quest to break even, I had drifted from my original dream.
A month later, Woofie was gone. I still find the timing difficult to explain.
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Chapter IV · artwerkx
We stopped selling activities and focused on the experience.
We re-renovated, repositioned and relaunched. This time as artwerkx, a restaurant where you eat well, get your hands busy, and leave lighter.
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Chapter IV · Three Years
Three years. Three names.
That’s what it took us to learn
what it takes to Get Reset.
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Chapter V
Chapter V · Get Reset
artwerkx is not about art, craft or coffee. It’s the playfully busy hands, the slowing down and not reaching for the phone. A place where you can sit down and simply be human, where laughter finds its way in when no one’s trying.
That’s how we Get Reset.
Slow Down. Make a Mess. Get Reset.
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The sea, the struggles and Woofie
Slow Down. Make a Mess. Get Reset.
