Blessed HK Trip

May 10, 2026

Managed to pull off a month-long trip to HK to see my parents before getting busy with setting up a studio in TO starting May. I was worried at first about needing to stay with my parents and causing all kinds of unnecessary conflicts during the short stay. To my surprise, my parents didn’t nag me at all this time around about finding a gf and getting married. I guess they were trying to avoid the unnecessary conflict as much as I did, or maybe they had simply given up nagging altogether which is good because I can’t see it helping one bit.

I also managed to stick to a rather strict routine of sleeping and waking up early during the entire stay. In most mornings, I left home for the studio at 7-ish before my parents even woke up from bed. This of course helped with avoiding opportunities of being nagged unnecessarily. Even though I was out and about during the day, I had dinner with my parents almost every other day, most of the time in the neighborhood restaurants near home with my sister and brother-in-law. My parents moved back to the WTS neighborhood before LNY and we all agreed that mom seemed happier in this new environment.

Besides seeing my parents, I accomplished a few less important tasks which included helping a friend bring back her passport and (unknowingly) celebrating her birthday, moving out some old stuff from my previous home in Kln Tong, completing a few adhoc projects at the studio and settling its finances, helping my mom with some online banking issues, drafted the annual report for my church, and meeting and catching up with some good friends.

The month-long trip was also blessed with good weather. Aside from a little rain, the temperature was mostly comfortable enough that I can wear shorts without sweating and didn’t need to turn on the AC during sleep.

Unlike my earlier trip to HK in December which felt drained to the last drop of energy, I felt re-energized and ready to start things anew here in Canada this time around. I am thankful for this blessed month-long trip. 🙏🏻

Wrapping Up Q1

Apr 5, 2026

Time really passed by too fast, just realized it had been nearly a month since I last posted. Many things, mostly happy things, happened in March. A friend was in town for work and I had a chance to meet some of her close friends here, it brought back some fond memories of my UW days. Finished the last class of a month-long weekly linoleum printmaking workshop, didn’t acquire a lot of new skill set, but it did trigger some new 3D printing design ideas. Had a couple of birthday meetups with a couple of friends separately, the meetups were a good reminder of how long our friendships have been as well as how old we have become all too quickly.

3 families (7 adults and 6 kids) visited my tiny condo one Sunday afternoon. It took me a few days to rearrange my home furnishings to comfortably fit all 14 people in such a small space. Everything seemed to have worked out at the end and I was happy with the newly reorganized living space setup which I would never had put in so much time and effort without the challenge.

Assessed my investment performance for Q1, despite a drop of about 1% in March, I still had gained more than 6% overall. That’s more than double my target of 1% gain monthly. I attribute the decent performance mostly to luck and grace from God as I still am very dumb regarding economics and finances and I don’t think I’ll be interested in learning about it any further at this point.

One of the happiest news for me in March was being approved to lease a subsidized studio space that I had been eagerly wanting for a long time. That will be a great stepping stone for me to establish and grow a creative career here in Canada. I thank God for the opportunity and pray that He will continue to guide my new life here.

Fresh Start

Mar 9, 2026

LNY had quickly come and gone. Temperature returned to double digits last week and the clocks had just sprung forward for an hour overnight. It felt like Spring has returned.

Last Monday I started the first class of a workshop focusing on linoleum relieve prints using a Vandercook press. I enrolled in the course to motivate myself to get out of the home to do something creative and social. On my TTC ride after class, I took out my sketchbook to sketch some travelers busy staring at their phones. It felt good to be picking up some art again after a long time.

Met with an Art group on Friday to discuss about an opportunity to lease a studio space they’re making available for local artists. I brought along with me some of my past projects and my vision for utilizing the space. I hope I had properly conveyed how much I wanted to lease the space without being too pushy. Leasing the space will certainly be a big step forward in kickstarting my creative endeavors in Canada.

It certainly felt like now is the ripe time for a fresh start in life. May God continue to guide my steps forward to live a meaningful life that’s worthy of His praise. 🙏🏻

LNY 2026

Mar 1, 2026

One of the perks of being Chinese is that you get to celebrate New Year twice annually. However in recent years, in midst of all the political persecutions happening in HK, I find it difficult expressing joy during festive days when I know so many people are imprisoned unjustly and are separated from their families and friends.

LNY is the biggest celebration in Chinese traditions each year. We are supposed to greet family and friends joyfully and wishing everyone good health and wealth for the year to come. I find it especially tough to be in HK during this time. I’m no good in pretending to be happy and greet people unanimously everyday during the long holidays. In that respect, I feel much more comfortable to be alone in Canada where LNY celebrations are much toned down and I can genuinely be myself and not be caught up by the many Chinese traditions.

Aside from the LNY celebration I was invited to from my church, many of my friends decided to meet up in February. It was good to see and catch up with friends without being tied down to the many traditions. Now I feel ready for a fresh start in Canada for the second year of returning, may God continue to bless my journey ahead.

Art

Feb 8, 2026

After moving back to Canada for more than a year, I finally started picking up doing some art again. The Print Studio 101 course I enrolled at the beginning of the year did provide the motivation I was hoping for. Weekly class and assignment was of great help to move my lazy butt away from the couch to do something creative.

I also unpacked some of my Chinese calligraphy supplies and started practicing and writing LNY fai chuns. Felt a bit rusty at first, but slowly got back my touch for the art medium after writing ten or so fai chuns.

Was asked to help design a poster for my church’s upcoming evangelical meeting which led to an opportunity for me to pickup some cartooning again. I decided to invest in a Wacom drawing tablet (MovinkPad 11) to further motivate myself to learn doing some digital art.

Doing art also seems to be helping me move away from my stocks investing addiction, I was able to focus on carving out my linoleum stamp for hours without feeling the urge to check on my portfolio performance during market hours. Art is good and I should do more of it in 2026!

One Month Back

Jan 26, 2026

More than 3 weeks had passed in 2026 and I had returned to Canada from my HK trip for about a month already. Time flies.

I started picking up doing some art and design again in the past couple of weeks. Spent a lot of time on the second week of January to work on a proposal for a temporary sculpture. Rushed till the last minute to submit the work before the midnight deadline and didn’t have enough time to do a rendering of my proposed CUSMA Ball. I only found out afterwards that the deadline was extended for an extra week.

Enrolled in a 5-week Print Studio 101 workshop. My hope was to motivate myself to pickup doing some art again. The travel to downtown for the class once a week was a bit of a pain, but it did push me to finally pickup doing some art again. There was heavy snow all day today, I decided to stay safely at home to participate my church’s Sunday worship via a livestream. The extra time at home on a Sunday afternoon got me to pull out some inking accessories and do a little cartooning after more than a year. I hope to pick up doing more art in 2026 now that I have more time and am not too concerned about my finances.

Tagged along a friend to see my first ever live concert on Friday evening. It was quite a refreshing experience. I started to get into the vibe about 3 songs into the concert and enjoyed it till the end.

First Week of 2026

Jan 12, 2026

Trump’s administration surprised the world with the capture of Venezuela’s dictator last weekend. I had been pouring a lot of time watching news trying to grasp the implications for Canada, HK, and the entire world’s geopolitical environment. I feel worried and couldn’t quite know how to react.

The stock market reacted positively and the TSX index continued to break new record highs. My portfolio did exceptionally well because I didn’t hold any petroleum related stocks which took a little dip after the weekend Venezuela raid. The optimistic stock market outlook without much positive news to back it up made me worried even more. I really don’t understand how the economy works and really should spend less time messing with my investments.

Bought 2 cases (6 blind boxes each) of a new Lego minifig series that I really liked. Was worried that there would be repeats in the blind boxes and that I would have to waste extra money trying to collect all 12 figures. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single duplicate in the 12 blind boxes! That brought me a little delightful moment amidst the tumultuous times.

Started playing pick up bball again on Saturday with my friends. Felt good to start exercising once again. Felt just a little sore in the muscles waking up this morning, and that’s nothing to worry about because I have the entire week to recover.

New Year 2026

Jan 4, 2026

Returned to Canada for just over a week, I’m slowly adapting to the slower and quieter life here once again. Started meeting and catching up with some friends here. Seems like not a lot have happened in Canada while I was away for a month.

My friend gifted me an air fryer and taught me how to bake yam that taste extra sweet. I finished a whole bag in one week and bought another bag yesterday. I also tried air frying some chicken wings, they tasted pretty good with sriracha sauce. Really loving the convenience of the air fryer. I’ll likely be experimenting and cooking much more at home this year.

I’m starting to cut back on my time on trading stocks. Even though my investment earnings for the past 5 months was more than enough to cover my expenses, I feel a lack of meaning and purpose. This year I hope to restart the plan to setup a satellite design studio here in TO, may God continue to guide my steps ahead.

HK Trip Review

Dec 28, 2025

Returned to Canada early yesterday morning after a month-long trip to HK. I relied on my good old friend who dropped me off the airport a month ago to pick me up again in the cold early Saturday morning. Felt good to be back to my familiar quiet home and finding everything just the way they were when I left them a month ago. I had breakfast, took a shower, caught up on some news, and had a deep sleep from around noon to past 9pm!

The refreshing sleep kickstarted my process to recharge after depleting much of my energy from the month-long trip. The trip was exhausting mainly because of the unexpectedly frequent meetups with family and friends. There was only a handful of days I was given the opportunity to spend time alone and away from engaging in any social activities. The trip made me realize even more how much I needed my personal solitary times to be a happy living being.

Having said that, I did enjoy meeting and catching up with friends every now and then. Perhaps I can try staying in HK a little bit longer for my next trip and have the meetups more spread out across the days. And hopefully by then HK will be able to come out from the lingering gloomy atmosphere caused by the Tai Po fire tragedy. I continue to pray for God’s grace and mercy on this once glorious and free city where I was born and loved and now had to flee from to catch a breath of freedom and to see a glimpse of hope.

Back to Designing

Dec 22, 2025

Had meetups on Tue, Wed, Thur, and Sat this past week. Also had 3 family gatherings on top of that. I did enjoy seeing and catching up with friends, but the frequent meetups in the past few weeks had exhausted much of my energy.

After my lunch meetup with a friend on Tuesday, I visited a letterpress museum that’s not too far from my friend’s workplace. Bought one of the capsules with a 3D printed letterpress inside. The design and print quality of the letterpress was poor, not to mention the expensive price tag. I went back to the studio afterwards and immediately started designing and prototyping some better letterpress products.

It only took me a day or two of focused design time to come up with some satisfying prototypes. Now thinking I can leverage the hundred surnames calligraphy project I finished more than a year ago and turn them into letterpress stamps!

Didn’t expect to do any design work during this month-long trip in HK, but the spontaneous project sparked a sense of purpose. It was a spontaneous “see a need, fill a need” kinda meaningful work which I should dedicate more of my time to do in the future. Now with less than a week left in this city, I’m currently thinking of ways of bringing the project to fruition remotely after returning to Canada.

I feel more at ease spending time alone (working or not) than socializing with friends. Will be able to have a lot of quiet solitary time alone to recharge when I return to TO shortly. I just need to make sure I don’t totally deplete all my energy here in HK before the opportunity to recharge in Canada.

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