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! 😬

New Home & (Lunar) New Year

Feb 3, 2025

Took me about a week to move in to my new place after its closing. It could have been sooner, but I didn’t want to move in before installing internet at the new place. Though I have restrained myself from buying many things during the 2.5 months of living in the short-term rental, it still took me many rounds of driving back and forth from rental to the new place to completely move all my stuff! It was a bloody process, literally, as my hand had blisters shredding blood and staining my jacket sleeve. Many of my friends offered to help, and it probably would have made it easier, but I tried not to disturb others if I can do it myself (albeit with more effort and time).

I was hoping to finish moving before LNY (Wed), but it started snowing heavily on New Year’s Eve, so I ended up finishing everything on (Lunar) New Year’s Day. I probably wouldn’t do this if I were in HK due to family and cultural customs. There was no LNY celebrations to speak of here, which I actually prefer more than the ubiquitous LNY festivities vibe in HK. I hate to pretend to be happy and joyous during LNY, the festival and customs is not friendly to those who are not happy and are truthful to their inner feelings.

All in all, I am grateful and happy that I have finally found and moved to my new home and that I am in Canada where it’s ok not to be happy during the LNY festival.

2 Months

Jan 20, 2025

Passed the 2 months mark of my return to Canada. Having a little time to spare before the closing day of my permanent residence, I finally picked up my calligraphy hobby again. Rushed to write about 20 fai-chuns and had them sent off to my family in HK immediately. Hopefully they’ll receive them before LNY. While I was at it, I wrote about 20 more for my friends here and had some fun drawing with brush and ink. I hope the fai-chuns will bring a little joy to the Hongkongers here who would probably be missing their family and friends and the festive vibes in HK during the LNY.

Closing day for my condo unit will be on Wednesday. If everything goes well, I’ll be able to move in immediately. With a permanent address, I’ll be able to move forward with many more important tasks like renewing my health card, setting up my social insurance, renewing my expired credit card, and registering for a business and start looking for a good location to setup a design studio here!

Grateful for God’s guidance in the past 2 months. Life’s pace should pick up soon and should get more interesting after getting the keys to the new condo this week. It’s good to have something to look forward to!

Holiday Meetups

Jan 8, 2025

Had a few more meetups with friends in the first week of 2025. Happy to see everyone staying healthy and well.

I’m now more or less settled in TO – got an old car from a childhood friend, made deposits to a condo unit that should be ready for me to move in in a few weeks, met and caught up with many of my friends. Pace of life is starting to slow down even further now that my main worry of finding a permanent residence is likely to clear up soon.

It’s not entirely easy to live a slow life, especially during the gloomy winter with little daylight hours. It feels like I’m simply letting time slip by and life toiled away. Hopefully, I’ll be more motivated to pick up my pace and spend my time more purposefully as the closing day for the new condo approaches.

I’m grateful for God’s guidance in helping me settle in this new (yet familiar) environment considerably quickly. May God continue to guide my steps forward, one step at a time, to settle in and to lead a new life that’s worthy of His praise. 🙏🏻

New Year 2025 🎉

Jan 1, 2025

Returned to TO for one and a half month now. Things are more or less settled now that I had finally found a permanent residence and made the deposit just before the start of the holidays. We had been to showings of about 40 condo units, it was a relief to finally found one with a convenient location, fitting size and budget, and meeting my parents’ requirements.

Having settled with a car and permanent housing, I began contacting friends more proactively to meet and catch up during the holidays. So far I had met up with a couple of families from my HK church, UW friends, ex-colleagues, high school friends, and a primary school friend. Grateful for the opportunities to meet and catch up with every single one of them.

On this New Year’s Eve as I write this post alone in this rental unit, I feel hopeful to starting a new life in this familiar and yet distant city for the year to come. 2024 had been too hectic and tiring, news (mostly bad) and changes happen at a rapid pace that it was almost impossible to think clearly and plan far ahead. And seeing the freedom, justice, and economy of the city continued to deteriorate turned the slightest hope I had into despair.

After retuning to this country for one and a half month, I feel more and more certain that I had made the correct decision to move back here. Many things have changed in TO – higher crime rate, poor economy, a disappointing government, etc. However, I honestly feel happier and less stressed, and more importantly, I can see hope for change in the year to come. And with that I’ll end this post with the wish that Everyone will have a Happy and Peaceful 2025 🎉

One Month

Dec 17, 2024

It has been just over a month since I returned to TO. So far I had settled in a temporary condo rental and quickly had a mini design studio set up, bought a very old car from a childhood friend, seen over 30 condo units and just nearly bought one last week!

Made considerable progress settling in and starting a new life here in TO. Highlights for last week included completing a 3DP project in HK (remotely from Canada), successfully transferring my friend’s old car to be under my name, and joining my friend’s fellowship Christmas party and baptism.

With the final 3DP project in HK completed, I can now shift my full attention to things here in Canada. The next big tasks for me now will be to renew my Health Card and to acquire a permanent housing according to my parents’ request and requirements. I’m grateful for friends and family (and God of course) for making my transition to a new life in TO considerably quick and smooth. May God continue to guide my steps forward, one step at a time. 🙏🏻

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