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. 🙏🏻

Sketch… Sunday Service

Dec 17, 2024

Got My Ride

Dec 9, 2024

One of my biggest accomplishments this past week was getting many issues related to my borrowed car resolved. Got the garage remote from my landlord on Monday morning. Got the car’s safety inspection done on Thursday. And it was only after completing the safety inspection and talking to the friend who lent me the car that I realized he didn’t just want to lend me his car, he actually wanted me to keep it! According to my friend, the car is very old (17 years) and of zero value even to the dealership. Even so, having access to a functioning car in this vast city will be of great help for me at this point, especially when the temperature continues to fall and snow starting to accumulate! I’m truly grateful to this childhood friend.

Over the weekend, I scrambled to buy auto insurance online, this was done so that I can complete the official vehicle transfer process in coming days.

It’s kinda funny that I actually “bought” a car before I have permanent housing and parking. This was unplanned, but worked out perfectly. My friend was happy that I can keep his old but cherished car alive, and I was happy that I didn’t need to pay expensive car rental until I’m settled with permanent housing, win-win!

With the access of a car, I started going to Sunday Service again this morning. Went back to my home church in TO and was happy to see many familiar and welcoming faces. And the happiest of all was to be able to meet and chat with an old fellowship brother who had a serious stroke early this year. I had been praying earnestly for him nearly everyday in HK since the incident, and I was quite relieved seeing him being able to walk (with a cane) and talk (legibly) today. Thank God!

Sketch… Sunday Service

Dec 9, 2024

Two Weeks

Dec 2, 2024

Just a bit over two weeks had passed since I returned to TO. With the help of many friends here, I had quickly settled in. I had quickly set up a mini studio in the condo after one week and had started working on some 3DP projects remotely in the second week. All this was done without a car and mostly relying on friends to lend me their resources and time. I’m very grateful.

Two weeks had quickly gone by and I’m now left with 2 months left on my condo rental. A childhood friend just lent me his old car tonight, that will certainly help me with many everyday tasks as the temperature here is starting to get cold. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a permanent residence in two months time. May God continue to guide my steps ahead. 🙏🏻

It’s DONE!!

Nov 19, 2024

Last week in HK was super hectic. Had a friend visiting the studio on Monday to pick up some old boxes for reuse. That was followed by a small farewell gathering of eco-conscious friends. My brother’s friend who is visiting town stopped by my studio for a visit on Tuesday afternoon, had a quick coffee with him and my brother afterwards. A childhood friend who just got off the plane from YVR in the morning came visit me at the studio on Wednesday afternoon, chatted and caught up with him over coffee nearby for an hour or so. Stayed at the studio till around 9 pm to finish cleaning up and fixing a security monitor system for my colleague. My brother and father drove me home afterwards because I needed to get the newly bought luggages from them.

Thursday was unexpectedly crazy. The typhoon signal no. 8 was dropped at around 10am. I decided to go back to the studio to finish off some minor tasks and farewelling my colleague. A friend made it to see and farewell me at the studio, she was considerate and thoughtful and brought me a Canada-roaming SIM card with unused data, that saved me time in searching and buying one myself. Had afternoon tea with her at a restaurant in my studio building. We both tried to pay the check, but the restaurant staff treated us the meal and wished me farewell. Just when I thought I can finally go home and start packing, the security monitor system stopped working. I tried many ways to fix it but could only resolve the issue at the end by powering off and on the security camera. After the issue was fixed, I went for my last dinner with my family while picking up something on the way to bring back to Canada for a good friend.

After dinner, I went home and packed my luggages till around 4:30am. My brother-in-law next door drove me to the airport at around 6:30am, I slept the entire way to the airport.

Amidst the crazy schedule in the last few weeks, I’m grateful to be able to meetup with so many friends one last time before leaving the city. Felt complete and ready to finally start my journey back to the country that had nurtured me for 15 or so years. May God continue to guide my steps into the unknown future that is awaiting me on the other side of the world.

5 Days Left!

Nov 10, 2024

A week had gone by swiftly and exhaustively and I’m now left with less than 5 days in the city.!

Except for Saturday, I had been meeting and farewelling family and friends every single day, sometimes even more than one meetups in one day! And many things at work and at home are still unfinished.

Less than 5 days left now, still have friends I need to see and say farewell to and things to be finished at the studio and at home. May God help me in my remaining days in the city. 🙏🏻

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