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. šš»
Itās the flowering season, cherry blossoms, lilacs, tulipsā¦ I donāt 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 monthās 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 churchās 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. šš»
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 didnāt 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.
Writing this blog post at the airport waiting for my very early morning flight to HK in a few hours. Itās just a four week trip mainly to see my parents. Iām 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. Iām 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 parentsā 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 Iāve successfully turned the new place into my new humble home. Iām 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. Iām grateful to have my elderly parents eagerly waiting to welcome me home.
Iām grateful for my friends and my God for a blessed 4.5 months trip. Iāll return to this newly established home after a short 4 weeks break. Please take care my friends. šš»
After days of unfamiliar boredom, some drama by the head in chief of Canadaās southern neighbor and by my studioās 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 shouldnāt need to worry too much about it.
I finally started picking up some exercise again two weeks ago. Began hitting the treadmill at my condoās 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 thatās happening around my country and my studio in HK!
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 wasnāt much to do at home. I applied for an address change for my driverās license shortly after I moved into my new place, but I still hadnāt received the updated license in the mail after 2 weeks. Without the updated license I wouldnāt 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 hadnāt experienced in years – boredom. It felt uneasy letting time just slip by, but at the same time, I couldnāt motivate myself to do anything at all. It was a strange and unfamiliar feeling. I tried to make sense of the feeling, it wasnāt too negative like someone experiencing chronic depression and yet I wasnāt feeling too positive and motivated either. At the end, after a week or so of feeling āmelancholyā, I concluded that I should be grateful for experiencing boredom because not many people in this world have the luxury of this weird sensation.
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. Couldnāt remember the last time I got sick, but living alone and still hadnāt 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 hadnāt been taking any counter drugs for years. The side effects made my initial symptoms even worse. I felt so weak that I couldnāt 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, Iām 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! š¬
Took me about a week to move in to my new place after its closing. It could have been sooner, but I didnāt 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 Yearās Eve, so I ended up finishing everything on (Lunar) New Yearās Day. I probably wouldnāt 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 itās ok not to be happy during the LNY festival.
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 theyāll 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, Iāll be able to move in immediately. With a permanent address, Iāll 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 Godās guidance in the past 2 months. Lifeās pace should pick up soon and should get more interesting after getting the keys to the new condo this week. Itās good to have something to look forward to!
Had a few more meetups with friends in the first week of 2025. Happy to see everyone staying healthy and well.
Iām 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.
Itās not entirely easy to live a slow life, especially during the gloomy winter with little daylight hours. It feels like Iām simply letting time slip by and life toiled away. Hopefully, Iāll be more motivated to pick up my pace and spend my time more purposefully as the closing day for the new condo approaches.
Iām grateful for Godās 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 thatās worthy of His praise. šš»
