Canada Day Week

Jul 7, 2025

Finally completed the “bunk bed” and put in the finishing touches to conclude the den renovation project. That was my major accomplishment during this past memorable Canada Day week.

The week was made memorable without needing to leave the comfort of my own home. First came a full rainbow after some light rain the day before Canada Day. Then on the night of Canada Day, the same balcony view was transformed into a hodgepodge of small scale fireworks show from different corners of the city. And as though that wasn’t memorable enough, my condo building together with a few other buildings in the neighborhood was blacked out completely for a few hours after a crazy flash thunderstorm the next evening!

Even though this was the first black out I experienced since moving into this condo about half a year ago, I wasn’t scared at all. As a matter of fact, I feel at peace and happier in general since moving back to Canada. This is a good sign that my decision to move back was correct. I’m grateful.

June

Jun 30, 2025

Have been continuously working on renovating the small den at home. The DIY “bunk bed” I imagined had a little stability issue and I had to design some new custom 3D-printed components to strengthen a small cantilevered cavity. The issue had now been successfully overcome and I should be able to put in the finishing touches of the den renovation project this week.

Also managed to register for a company on my birthday and had a business bank account set up. Setting up a sustainable design studio here in Canada will be one of my main focus now that I’m more or less settled here.

I had been spending a lot more time by myself at home nowadays. It’s an unfamiliar feeling that I’m still trying to get used to. But I think the increased quiet time is a positive thing as it had led me to pick up reading and learning again. Also, I now cherished more the relatively fewer social meetups such as welcoming a childhood friend back to the city and occasionally joining my friends for pickup bball games on Sat mornings.

Home Studio

Jun 9, 2025

It has been about a month since the site visit, but I still haven’t heard back from the owner of the studio space I hoped to rent. I started designing and renovating the small den in my condo. It will eventually be transformed into a space for work, storage, and a second bedroom for myself at times when my parents or friends decide to come for a short stay. The space may actually be sufficient to be used as a small home studio and help me save some money in the meantime. Will officially register for the company this coming week and start hatching out a simple website for it.

I never stopped following the news from HK, even though the sources have continually been diminishing under government control. Most of the news this past week centred around the annual memorial of the June 4th Tiananmen massacre 36 years ago. I see and admire the persistence of Hongkongers in attempting to carry out the annual candle light vigil in Victoria Park despite it now being illegal under NSL. At the same time, I’m saddened to see my birth city deteriorating to a point where the freedom of merely commemorating for a tragedy cannot be exercised. This also made me feel even more thankful (with a bit of survivor’s guilt) for the vast amount of freedom I now have in this enormous country.

Starting New

Jun 1, 2025

Had a somewhat productive week. Finally started my plan of setting up a sustainable design studio here in Canada by registering for a new domain name. Will officially register for the company once I have my business email and phone number ready.

Besides the domain name registration, I managed to do a few other things:

  • Renewed my old health card
  • Applied for the Artist Project 2026
  • Started running on the treadmill again
  • Started reading and learning new things again
  • Started cooking at home again

Hope that these new healthy habits will stick while I continue to find my way in setting up a sustainable design studio here. May God continue to guide my way in this new and yet familiar environment, one step at a time. 🙏🏻

May in TO

May 25, 2025

It’s the flowering season, cherry blossoms, lilacs, tulips… I don’t remember Toronto being so beautiful before! Temperature is slightly on the cool side, but still much more comfortable than the hot and humid weather in HK.

Been back to this free and beautiful city for nearly a month already. Life is lived in a relatively slower pace here. Nonetheless, I did manage to do a few things in a month’s time:

  • Filed my tax
  • Visited a studio space which I hope to lease for my sustainable design work
  • Setup my work area at home
  • Finished reading the ~400 page Economics for Dummies book
  • Joined my church’s annual retreat

With my tax and finances more or less sorted out and my home studio more or less ready for work, I hope to finally start my plan of establishing a sustainable design studio here in TO. May God continue to bless my new life in this free and beautiful country. 🙏🏻

April in HK

May 7, 2025

My month back to HK just flew by as I anticipated. Before I even got the chance to acclimatize to the warming temperatures, dirty air, and noisy environment, I already flew back to TO and settled back in my comfy humble condo for about a week!

The main purpose for my trip to HK was to accompany my parents to go grave sweeping in Mainland on Ching Ming Day. We also visited our ancestral house which I still have recollections of from memories of childhood visits. I found that unexpectedly interesting. With my accompaniment, my parents seemed especially happy for the one-day trip too.

Besides accomplishing the grave sweeping mission, I managed to meet and catch up with many of my friends, with special emphasis on those I didn’t have a chance to properly say farewell to back in November because of my rushed leave. Grateful to be able to see most of them despite their busy schedules and Easter vacation plans.

Despite the noticeably dirtier air, noisier environment, uncomfortable warm temperatures, and the uneasiness of staying with my parents and their domestic helper, the near month long trip to HK in April was all in all a blessed trip. It would have been a lot worse when the temperature gets hotter and I had to stay longer.

Blessed 4.5 Month Trip

Mar 31, 2025

Writing this blog post at the airport waiting for my very early morning flight to HK in a few hours. It’s just a four week trip mainly to see my parents. I’m not moving back to HK.

Looking back at this 4.5 month trip back to Canada, I feel grateful. Grateful that a friend helped me find a short-term condo rental and another couple of friends helping me set up the unfurnished place prior to my trip. Grateful that another friend picked me up from the airport and had dinner together with yet another friend. I’m also grateful that a childhood friend gave me his old car and that it managed to survive the harsh winter without maintenance.

One of my main goal for this trip was to find a permanent resident according to my parents’ requirements. After seeing about 40 condo units with my agent friend, I found a decent place and managed to complete all the banking and legal matters to acquire and move into it just before my short-term rental lease ended. Mission accomplished!

After two months of DIY renovations (minus a couple of weeks when I was sick), I feel that I’ve successfully turned the new place into my new humble home. I’m tremendously grateful for that.

Next step for me is to set up a studio here to do sustainable design work. But before I embark on that journey, the time seems right for me to first take a trip back to HK to see my parents. They really wanted me to return for Ching Ming festival this year and sounded very happy when I confirmed my flight back. I’m grateful to have my elderly parents eagerly waiting to welcome me home.

I’m grateful for my friends and my God for a blessed 4.5 months trip. I’ll return to this newly established home after a short 4 weeks break. Please take care my friends. 🙏🏻

Exercising

Mar 11, 2025

After days of unfamiliar boredom, some drama by the head in chief of Canada’s southern neighbor and by my studio’s neighbors in HK stirred up some ripples in my quiet and unproductive life. The sudden and chaotic trade war that was unjustifiably initiated by Mr. Trump in the south made news more entertaining while hurting the economy on both sides of the border. And for my studio in HK, a recent drama caught on the entrance webcam had worsened our already bad relationship with the two neighboring units. As I explained to my colleague, I believe we did the right thing, so we shouldn’t need to worry too much about it.

I finally started picking up some exercise again two weeks ago. Began hitting the treadmill at my condo’s gym two times a week and joining my friend for some pickup basketball on Sat. mornings, I even managed to play a little badminton yesterday after many years of leaving my racquet to dust. Felt good to be active and exercising again. Sleep quality and energy level in general seemed to have improved. The recent spring-like weather seemed to have helped shake off some winter blues too. Hope seems to be in the air once again despite everything that’s happening around my country and my studio in HK!

Boredom

Feb 27, 2025

It took another week or so for me to fully recover from the cold/flu. Toronto had a week of heavy snow and cold weather. Report said that the total snowfall in just one week equaled that of the entire Winter last year! And because of the snow, I stayed home and had my first Sunday worship online.

Staying home for much of the week amidst the gloomy weather was rather depressing. It must have been more than 10 years since I last endured the Canadian winter. There wasn’t much to do at home. I applied for an address change for my driver’s license shortly after I moved into my new place, but I still hadn’t received the updated license in the mail after 2 weeks. Without the updated license I wouldn’t be able to renew my health card or apply for a library card, so I just waited. Staying in a little condo for so long with no important errands to run allowed me to experience an interesting sensation that I hadn’t experienced in years – boredom. It felt uneasy letting time just slip by, but at the same time, I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything at all. It was a strange and unfamiliar feeling. I tried to make sense of the feeling, it wasn’t too negative like someone experiencing chronic depression and yet I wasn’t feeling too positive and motivated either. At the end, after a week or so of feeling “melancholy”, I concluded that I should be grateful for experiencing boredom because not many people in this world have the luxury of this weird sensation.

A Little Pause

Feb 14, 2025

Not long after I messaged my mom that I have been staying healthy and never got sick in the past two or so months since returning to Canada, I started feeling unwell on Monday. Couldn’t remember the last time I got sick, but living alone and still hadn’t had my health card renewed with the new address made this experience felt especially vulnerable.

Good thing there was a drug store in the mall just across the street, but going out in the cold was still a drag. I tried the counter drugs I used to take when I was living in Canada. They seemed to be too strong for someone who hadn’t been taking any counter drugs for years. The side effects made my initial symptoms even worse. I felt so weak that I couldn’t exert a drop of energy to do any work other than sleep, drink plenty of fluid, and simply try to survive.

Eventually and thankfully, after 3 or more days, I’m now more or less recovered, although still not feeling 100%. This episode had forced me to put a pause in life for a few days. Grateful that this happened after I finished moving and was more or less settled at my new home. I now feel even more grateful that I am alive and breathing and not to take that for granted. And as an added bonus, I finally tried using a new rice cooker my friend helped me buy and successfully made congee in my first attempt! 😬

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