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Busy Week
It had been a busy week. Mon and Tue was spent mostly with my parents to renew IDs and accompany my mom to see her doctor. Squeezed in some adhoc time to work from home. The weekly seal carving class ended last week, but I found time to finish off a “masterpiece” that I started in the last class.
Went to a seminar on Friday afternoon to learn more about “co-op”, but it was really boring and it didn’t feel like it’ll have a future in the current local political environment. Decided to skip the Sat. morning session.
Without the weekly seal carving class, it felt like I had more time to allocate for the many Q2 projects I set out to do. Managed to finish the weekly 100 Chinese characters goal, but just barely, and it’s becoming more and more difficult as I move up to more complicated characters with increasing strokes. Also managed to do my running practice twice this past week. Was planning to run 10k yesterday, but the weather was too hot and muggy, I didn’t force myself to finish the run after completing 5k.
The evening 5k run last night altered my sleep rhythm. I slept for less than 4 hours and yet felt refreshed waking up before sunrise. Started my weekly art therapy painting session at home before joining the early morning Sunday Service at church. Returned home after church and finished off the last painting of the series for critically endangered animals (caricatures) that can be found in HK.
It was a pretty productive week, need to keep it up for the coming week, add oil! 💪🏻
Goodbye?
After 5 weekly classes, I said good bye to my seal carving teacher and classmate on Thur night. Though I probably wouldn’t recommend the instructor to others, I did learn from him what’s needed to carve my own seals for a recent project. During my calligraphy class that afternoon, my teacher said he’ll hand down to me a precious book on seals later. I said I just wanna borrow the book for reference, but he mentioned he’s over 80 years old and his son had no interest in calligraphy whatsoever. Felt like my teacher was preparing for the day to say goodbye to me, a student who had followed him for nearly 7 years.
Joined a community movie event for the first time on Friday to watch a local film A Light Never Goes out (燈火闌珊). The story was about “saying goodbye” to a loved one as well as the local neon sign industry. The movie was followed by a sharing session from the movie’s producer and someone from the funeral industry. Bidding farewell to friends and family had become frequent in recent years as many people left the city, the movie tried to put a positive spin to the sad situation, but I think it lacked a sense of hope.
Maybe there really isn’t hope for our deteriorating city, better to accept the sad reality than to believe in false hope? A famous artist reluctantly bid farewell to his 40 year career in drawing political satire comics after many open criticism from the government and police force. Sad, but like the neon signs, he’s just one of the many precious things being sacrificed in our deteriorating city.
I told my family my plan to move back to Canada later this year. Details and timeline is still very sketchy. Although reluctant to let me go, my understanding parents know that’s the right thing to do. I’m definitely not ready to say goodbye yet, nor do I know the exact date, could only take things one step at a time. May God continue to guide my steps ahead. 🙏🏻
Back On Track
After a bit of struggling with my own will power, and when I was just about to leave home for my second weekly running practice yesterday evening, my Fitbit watch couldn’t be turned on. I didn’t want to run my planned 10K practice without the watch to track my time and heart rate, so I took it as a sign that God wanted me to skip the much anticipated long practice.
With time to spare, I continued on with my Q2 calligraphy projects. Of the 1000 Chinese characters I planned to complete in Q2, I made it pass the mid 500 mark! It was a happy realization of hitting the milestone and knowing that I was back on track again.
I took a day off on Wed to have lunch buffet with my parents and a dinner meetup with an old CUHK classmate. To make up for the day off, I spent the public holiday on Mon working from home.
Instead of busy playing catch-up with my Q2 goals the week before, this past week seemed like a better balance of work and play. Besides calligraphy, I also started getting back to doing some 3DP work in the studio again. My seal carving course was also on track, will be finishing the last class this Thur.
With my projects back on track, I managed to even find time to join my fellowship for a casual evening outing to a park I had never been to even though it’s only 15min walk from home. Besides the occasional caring group meetups, I haven’t been to any fellowship gatherings for many years. The years of pandemic didn’t seem to have made any mark on our fellowship, b&s were still singing the same hymns and playing the same games as though time hadn’t passed and we all hadn’t aged. I still find it difficult to fit in.
All in all, this past week was a good week. It was good to be able to keep myself busy and yet keep my head above waters to take some breather and think about things, even though there’s no obvious answers to most of them.
Catching Up
Made the extra effort to catch up with my 1000 calligraphy characters goal for Q2. Completed the 100 weekly characters target plus an extra 16 to make up for the 12 I lack last week.
Had quite a few meetups this past week including dinner with family on Mon, calligraphy class on Tue, lunch and Yuen Long visit on Thur to see a friend’s 3DP filament manufacturing facility. Highlight was the Fri dinner meetup with a couple of beer buddies. The vibe was good and we admittedly drank a little too much. Had a little “accident” while leaving the restaurant, but we all got home safe.
Picked up my running practice again after missing a week due to rain. Only managed to run once as the second time was cancelled again due to rain. Will try to pick up the slack and run twice this coming week.
Slowly catching up on my weekly goals for Q2, which had already passed a third. Seems like I have been keeping myself busy playing catch-up since setting up my Q2 goals a few weeks ago, hopefully I’ll be able to reap some fruitful rewards that’s proportional to the effort I put in by the end of the quarter! Add oil! 💪🏻. May the Spirit continue to guide my steps. 🙏🏻
Hiccups
After making good progress last week on my Q2 goals, this week was met with many hiccups.
Even with many morning efforts, my weekly calligraphy goals was still 12 short of my weekly 100 characters goal. Studio work was met with some unknown 3DP hiccups which I’ll need to troubleshoot this coming week. Running practice was cancelled due to rain. Even my scheduled social meetups was not completely smooth as one of the meetings was cancelled due to heavy rain.
Main achievement this past week was completing my seal carving assignment and making considerable improvements on my skill towards this new art form. Also managed to put in some time to tend my home garden on Earth Day yesterday.
Will try to put in extra effort to catch up on my Q2 goals this coming week. Add oil! 💪🏻
