September 2026
This isn’t just a glimmer - this is a huge THANK YOU, LORD! T tore her ACL (again! right leg this time around) and her meniscus, and we’re just really grateful that she has one of the best orthopedic surgeons at St. Luke’s looking after her. Grateful as well that A, her partner, has been taking real good care of her, gamifying their routine and staying home with her while she’s still bedbound after her surgery. This actually deserves its own blog post so maybe I’ll get around to writing about it.
Before my parents left for the province, of course they had to eat at their favorite restaurant, the only restaurant that they missed during their year-long stay in Australia, Nanyang. And the entire time they were away, we never ate here so it was a sort of homecoming for us as well.
I bought these shoes online from Hush Puppies and there were no half-sizes (I’m a US 7.5) so I got a size 8, which was a tad bigger. So I didn’t get to wear them for about two months until I decided to wear them with socks and voila - perfect!
A room with a view. C and I had to book an Airbnb for a couple of days as there was a scheduled power and water interruption in our condo and we both had to work. The condo unit itself was meh, and although we couldn’t wait to get back home, it was still a refreshing break from our usual routine
And because we were staying just a few meters away from my favorite mall, I had to get some chirashi don from sen-ryo. This and some Japanese goodies from the mall’s supermarket had somehow made up for that disappointing Airbnb unit.
My card-sized TN is finally complete lol! My friend, T, introduced me to the Mahjohn Wancai Mini fountain pen and I’m in love! I’ve been using the Swarovski mini pen with it and I needed a different-colored ink for highlighting some of my notes and that’s what the Majohn is for. (NTS: write a longer blog entry about this!)
T and I spent a bittersweet afternoon/evening together, talking, laughing, crying. Eating too. And I found out that we share the same stationery obsession. I promised to give her some ink samples so she can try them before she commits herself to buying a bottle and this Platinum Carbon Ink was the first thing I looked for when I got home as she’s been doing a lot of urban sketching lately.