February 2026

Hi internet strangers,

As promised, I'm back with another post. This monthly blogging might just work out...

February went by so quickly. You'll probably know it's the Year of the Horse (fyi, Feb 17 2026 to Feb 5 2027) and it's the Fire Horse this round, not that it means anything. The Fire element and Horse zodiac occurs once every 60 years. It's Hub's year. The next time a Fire Horse year comes round, hubs will be 120 years old.

Remember the last time I travelled with my fam to Bangkok, and there was a big fight between my daughter and hubs involving a coffee drink and digging through a rubbish bin and I swore I'll never travel with them again? Well, seems I forgot all about it and we all booked a trip to Japan (Okinawa and Tokyo) to escape Chinese New Year. Lol, I hate Chinese New Year celebrations so much that travelling with family who are constantly arguing didn't seem so bad. 

We were away for about 12 days and we only blew up at one another once. When we returned to Singapore, we were still friends, lol. 

And we did have a small belated reunion dinner + mahjong with hub's fam because hub's mom would move heaven and earth to get her reunion dinner.

Okinawa

We went to Okinawa first via a layover at Fukuoka. From Singapore, we took a SQ flight. Service is usually good although I can't say the same for the seats. Always too little legroom. We didn't take a direct flight to Okinawa because the airline that we were considering - Scoot is miserable for long flights. Anyway, I discovered my body wasn't designed for taking 2 flights within a day. And to make matters worse, the domestic flight from Fukuoka to Okinawa was extremely shitty. It was only around 2 hours but 3/4 of the flight the airplane was rattling and shaking. I honestly thought I was going to die on that flight. I had this strange feeling on the flight - like my entire body disappeared and then reappeared as if I was put back together again. Anyway I've learnt my lesson. I'll never take 2 flights in one day again.

We stayed at Naha City and you see 2 things everywhere - Shisa statues, Shisa merch. Shisa are traditional Okinawan lion-dog statues which comes in a pair with one open mouth and one closed mouth. The stuffed Shisa I bought is open mouth so it wards off evil. If the mouth is closed, it keeps goodness inside. 

I regret both the tongue and the hat

We even ate Shisa pancakes. It wasn't very good. The "official store" selling it was closed and we bought from another one not knowing better.

Another common thing I saw was the hibiscus. Even though hibiscus is also found in Singapore, I couldn't resist buying a fake one from Donki. (it's a hibiscus hair clip)

Hubs and daughter went on a boat humpback whale watching out on the Pacific ocean. I slept in because I was recovering from the 2 flights and also I don't do well on a boat. 

In Naha City, the main transport system is monorail and buses. The monorail is constantly crowded especially when there are tourists likes us with our luggage. The locals must hate us. 

The temperature in Okinawa wasn't low but strangely I felt very cold probably due to the wind. I had to wear Uniqlo's heattech innerwear and my down jacket for god's sake and hubs was wearing short sleeved shirts.

Us doing the Shisa pose

We took a very long bus ride to the aquarium. It felt like a day but it was just a few hours. Aquariums are boring to me but my daughter loves them. At the end of our visit, we accidentally stumbled on a dolphin show. We got to see the entire show and it was really entertaining despite the cold.

Food

While my daughter's goal in Japan was to acquire all her favourite character's and favourite celebrity's merch, I had nothing specific I wanted because I have so much stuff at home already. So me and hubs just tagged along with daughter wherever she wanted to go. One thing I like to do is to enjoy the food and I think I managed to achieve that somewhat.

My first meal at Fukuoka airport was a bit disappointing. The taste was alright. The rice perfect. But there were a few bones in the salmon. The bones made me jittery and lose my appetite.

The first meal at Naha City was burger and fries + ginger ale. The burger was amazing and the fries were amazing. Strangely the cook only gave us a handful of fries. Literally a handful. And the ginger ale had cinnamon in it. So weird. But the food - amazing.

We came across Hands Cafe and we had to eat there as we often go to Hands (the shop). However, food is not their forte. I had curry and much to my surprise there were only tiny bits of meat in it. Like really, really tiny. I did enjoy the side dishes.

The day we went to the aquarium, we had buffet at a restaurant before we entered the aquarium. We were starving and at first the food was really good but after a while, all the food tasted the same.

I ate twice, the same amazing onigiri from a stall at a supermarket. The taste is very simple but the addition of a vegetable in the salmon made it heavenly.

We ate a lot of food in Okinawa but these were the ones I remembered.

Hotel

We stayed at Hotel Azat Naha and it is a basic hotel. I think only green tea and coffee and a few basic stuff were provided. There was a place where you can get water. 

We stayed on the second floor and we had a "river view".

The Okinawan weather was not very kind to my nose. The air was not very dry though. My skin wasn't super affected. No cracks and just the usual amount of dry skin.

After a few days in Okinawa and honestly by then I had grown bored already, we left for Tokyo. Yup, via domestic flight but this round, we got a better plane and the flight was smooth. 

Tokyo

Tokyo was very cold but less windy than Okinawa. My nose got better although my skin felt drier so I had to apply vaseline on weak points on my face throughout the day. Since we had been to Tokyo a few times already, my daughter who's our tour leader decided to go to the less touristy side of Tokyo plus we did 2 day trips out of Tokyo. 

Hotel

Believe it or not, we stayed at Asakusa again. This area is very crowded during the day. Fortunately most of the time, we're somewhere else.

Lol, trying to look sexy

Our hotel was Hotel Gracery Asakusa. It was a bit nicer than the hotel at Okinawa. There were lots of freebies and many types of tea. For water we had to get it from the water dispenser. Our room was on the 13th floor and we did get a view, except it's of another hotel - APA hotel which is directly opposite.

Food

I got lucky I found food I like. I loved the curry soup at CoCo curry house. I love it so much I want to make it myself.

Once we were very tired, cold and needed food. We saw a Hoshino Coffee and got a table. We hadn't realised this particular outlet was a cafe, not a restaurant. Still we made do and I ordered hotdog with fries and a pot of hot tea. The hotdog and fries turned out to be so amazing. Maybe I was very hungry. And the mustard? I'm really not into mustard but suddenly I love mustard. In fact, now I'm thinking I need to buy mustard so I can eat my food with mustard. How have I lived my life all these years without mustard?

One time we were at a mall and I was asked to pick a restaurant. So I went to all the restaurants on the floor and I looked at the menus. I picked Olive House because I wanted to eat Clam Japanese Style Spaghetti. It turned out to be so, so delicious. 

Very small space

Another time we were super tired again and my daughter saw on google 2 possible restaurants. I picked tempura and we went to the restaurant (Tendon Itsuki Ginza) which had a queue as it wasn't open yet. When the restaurant finally opened, we were the last to be let in and after us, there were more people waiting. The restaurant only hires young female staff and it has a tiny space. We all sat at the counter. The tempura was cooked fresh and there's just one cook so there's a bit of waiting time. The food is good. It's just a lot. Way more than my stomach could hold.

We went to a place outside Tokyo called Kawagoe where you can find many characters' merch. The architecture reminds me of Kyoto. It's very touristy and we went from shop to shop trying the food. I had the most amazing grilled prawn for 300 yen. It was so amazing I wanted to cry. It was also ginormous. Yum, yum, yum. How do I get to eat it again, lol.

hubs posed in front of the Singapore Chicken Rice stall

One time we went to Yokohama and we ate at this food court which strangely had Singapore Chicken Rice. It tasted quite good and very close to the taste of Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore.

I love carrot cakes but I'm always scared to order from cafes I've not tried before because there are so many variations of carrot cake and my taste is so specific. After visiting a craft market, we took a short break at Bless Coffee and the carrot cake was really good. Exactly how I like my carrot cake. We had a nice time people watching outside the glass window and also escape the cold.  

My good luck with food was on a roll. Even the tacos at a random cafe were good. Of course not everything we ate was good. Some were ordinary and the only bad food I felt we had were Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant close to Ueno Zoo. It was oily and over flavoured. (hubs chose it, lol)

Craft Markets

We went to 2 craft markets, one was at a shrine. There were a number of handmade stalls and I really enjoyed looking at all the cute handmade stuff. I only bought one thing because I own so much stuff already. I felt so inspired after visiting the markets I wanted to go home and make stuff right away.

Ueno Zoo

Gentaro

Of course we visited Ueno Zoo because my favourite gorilla family in Kyoto Zoo had sent their young Silverback Gentaro to Ueno Zoo to live and also to mate with another young gorilla, Annie from Higashiyama Zoo. Both get a very small outdoor space to roam about and honestly when I saw how small it was real life I wanted to cry. It's smaller than my flat and my flat isn't exactly big. I managed to see Gentaro but there was no sight of Annie. Later I found out that Annie was bitten by Gentaro after both were allowed to be in the same space together. Currently both are in "training" to learn to cohabitate. Looks like it's not going well. In previous training sessions, Gentaro had also attacked Annie. How long will it take before both can live together in peace and get it on? 

Flight Back

Our flight back was via ANA/Japan Air. The legroom was good. We had chosen our seats such that hubs sits in front of me, both aisle seats. My daughter gets the window seat. So there's a stranger between me and my daughter. I know it sounds strange to choose such seats but I often get the worst person on earth sitting in front of me who insists on reclining all the way throughout. The boy between me and my daughter happened to be travelling with the boy sitting in front of my daughter. Throughout the flight, they kept ordering alcohol. They looked like minors but the stewardess kept giving them drinks. After we were up in the air for a while, the boys asked if my husband could swap seats with the middle boy. I was really pissed off with the request and I wanted to explain that we had paid extra to select our seats but in the end I realised I could just say no. Both boys accepted my decision graciously. It was strange that he didn't try to swap seats with the person sitting in front of him.  

Knitting

I didn't finish making anything in February. I did attempt to knit myself a beanie for my trip innocently thinking I could complete it in time. But I had started too late and since the trip is now over it seems pointless to continue. This is the current status of the beanie. Should I continue? I'm not even sure it'll fit me, lol.

Swimming

I was very diligent with my swimming. In fact, the day we came back to Singapore, it was very early in the morning and after a good sleep, I went swimming in the late afternoon. Since then I've been able to go swimming at least once a week. I'd like to go twice a week but the bad weather is a deterrent.

See you in my next post, first week of April?

January 2026

Hello,

It's weird to see me here so soon after my last post in December 2025. I'm just as surprised as you are. It has become normal for me to ignore my blog for a whole year. So why am I here? Well, I thought I'll try this blogging thing more regularly for a change. Maybe monthly? I think I can do monthly. I'm a bit disappointed though because my last blog post was barely read by anyone. My previous post before the last one was written in November 2024 and that one had 12,488 views. The post I wrote in December 2025? 126 views. I know I'm not comparing it fairly but still, 126 views is like how many readers? What happened? Where have all my blog readers gone? No one cares if I'm dead or alive anymore? 

Since I'm not a logical person, despite the poor views, I decided to go ahead with blogging more regularly. 

2026

So how's the year going for everyone? Is it just me or does it feel like a whole year has gone by since the new year started. Like wasn't January a super long month? With so much that has happened around the world, it really feels like enough already. Let's skip ahead and end the year and try for another new year.

MPS

For me, I didn't start the year well. Since last year I've been getting hints (which I ignored) that my myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) may have returned. In MPS, you get pain in your muscles and surrounding tissue. There are trigger points which are usually knots in the muscle. The pain can go from a deep relentless ache to burning and is often accompanied by fatigue. If you've never suffered from MPS and I hope you haven't, you won't understand how awful it is. It's no ordinary muscle pain I can tell you that. I have many, many trigger points on my neck and shoulder and sometimes the upper back. Now and then my jaw gets it too. It's horrible. The trigger points feel like the day after someone had taken a bat and beaten the crap out of me. 

I suffered from MPS in the early 2000's for several years and it was really bad for a couple of years. I lost 10 kg. I had to take medication as well as go for physical and mental therapy. Those years were a blur due to the medication I was on. After I recovered, I would get brief periods when the pain would re-surface but each time I managed to recover. 

This time around, the MPS looks set to stay. Of course I'm totally to blame. Last year I completely did not exercise. It was really stupid of me because it's really crucial to exercise, to stretch my muscles to ward off MPS. I kept saying I would exercise but the small little attempts weren't enough. I made a feeble attempt to find my old Pilates teacher but couldn't locate her. And that was it.

Well, the MPS finally got so bad I needed to take action. Since the new year, I've started going swimming weekly. Last week I even went twice. What I dislike about swimming is I get new brown spots on my face afterwards. Yes, I do apply sun screen but some of it gets rubbed off during swimming. Have I considered swimming at night? No, because the water would be cold and cause my muscles to tighten and knotted up. Can't have that. Plus, I don't feel comfortable walking about in the dark by myself. I guess I have to live with brown spots and whatever the sun does to my skin. We'll see how much damage the sun does to my face in a month and then I'll decide if risking night swim is worth it.

I also started doing yoga and pilates watching youtube. Is it too little too late? The thing with MPS is it's not like you can exercise a lot and it will fix everything. No. Once MPS is triggered, overdoing exercises or even just doing nothing even keeping still can cause pain. The pain just comes when it wants to come.

When the pain is bad I have no choice but to take painkillers. Of course I don't want to depend on painkillers but enduring the pain is out of the question as it could worsen. Fortunately (??) MPS waxes and wanes. So I have good days and bad days. Sometimes the early part of a day is good while the later part is bad. Thank goodness or I would go mad. I have to fight off anxiety and depression as well because MPS just does stuff to your head. The fatigue is the worst though. You feel weighted down for no good reason.

Right now I'm coping without going to the doctors. I've been down this route before and I really don't like the medication the doctors ask you to take. In the end the medication doesn't cure MPS. Changing my lifestyle is the best thing I can do right now. More gentle exercises and later on I might have to look for a physiotherapist to unknot my knotted muscles. I also started taking magnesium glycinate (supplement) which boasts supporting muscle relaxation as well as support sleep quality. Honestly, I can't tell if the muscle relaxation part works but the sleep part sure doesn't.

Yes, that's me and my tragic chronic muscle problems. Wish me luck in my recovery and sorry for the moaning.

Solo 

If you know me, you'll hear me say this often: I like being alone. I like to do stuff alone. I enjoy alone time. But you know what? That's true only for a few hours. I'm actually a social being. I don't mean I'm a sociable person. I mean I need company. I need other beings who are known to me to be around me. I'm in all honesty pretty bad at solo living.

Like this year was the first time I went swimming on my own. Hubs did a trial run with me in case I couldn't find my way. Am I too reliant on hubs for direction? Hubs also showed me how to use the locker which required an online payment. I'm ashamed to confess I'm one of those folks who still pays with cash. (I have a coin pouch in my bag) Well, I've now become quite comfortable with using my phone to make payment even though I find it troublesome.

What other things can't I do alone? I've only gone to the cinema alone once. It was terrifying so I never went again. I've never slept alone so it's not possible for me to travel alone. I can sleep alone in the daytime though. But once night falls, my family had better get home or I'll lose my mind. Of course living alone is out of the question. 

When travelling, sometimes I get left in the hotel room by myself for a couple of hours. Believe it or not, it's horrible for me. I cannot enjoy the alone time. I don't know what's wrong with me. Why am I such a scaredy cat?

I can dine alone at food courts or even restaurants. I can shop alone of course. I can take the train on my own. But I don't think I can handle taking a flight by myself. In fact, I hate going through immigration counters alone. So yes, I'm pretty useless doing solo stuff. 

Stuff I Made

I showed you the Library Bag in my last post. Here's the video.

I made a single layer wrap using Batik fabric scraps. My daughter bravely used it in public. Video here. The Batik scraps were from my craft market days. They were very expensive fabric so I've always felt it's a waste to see them unused.

Bear is modelling 3 brooches I made from scrap fabric. Video here. I know I'll never be able to get rid of all my scrap fabric but it's fun to see what I can make out of little pieces of fabric from previous projects.

And lastly, a few water colour paintings. I'm thinking maybe flowers aren't my forte.

Etsy

Hey, anyone has Etsy shops? Since the new year I've noticed my Etsy sales have PLUNGED. Like suddenly zero sale for days and days followed by one or two sale. Then zero again. I don't even know what I need to do to revive traffic. Can anyone enlighten me?

Affinity

Do you guys use Affinity? It's a design app for photo editing, vector design and page layout. Last year I think around October Affinity announced Affinity Studio would become free forever. No subscriptions, nothing. Free to use. The only thing you need is a Canva account which you can also get for free. 

I've already downloaded it but I've yet to switch from Adobe Creative Suite. The reason is I'm using the older version which doesn't require a subscription, just a one time fee. However Adobe no longer supports it (the bastards!) to force me to use their very expensive subscription based Creative Cloud. Once my very ancient desktop dies, I won't be able to install the Creative Suite to my new desktop. All my patterns, templates are done using Adobe Creative Suite. So at some point in the future, I'll probably have to switch to using Affinity. I don't look forward to switching software and learning a new interface. I'm old now and it's hard to remember stuff.  

I'll see you end of February or first week of March. Take care.💕

Taking Stock 2025

Hello friends and Internet strangers,

It's been a whole year since I last wrote. Not much has been happening around here. How about you? 2025 went by really fast. I mean it's good right? If time passes slowly, it would be awfully boring.

Want to hear something funny? I spent nearly the entire year thinking I was a year older than I am. It was only recently that I realised my mistake. What a nice bonus. Suddenly I became a year younger. Also a bit worrying. What's wrong with my brain?

It's that time of the year when I feel a little blue. Maybe it's the end of yet another year on earth. Maybe it's taking stock of what I've accomplished the whole year and realising I haven't done much. Could it be the increasing amount of scrap fabric I've accumulated? Or maybe it's the weather. The endless December rain due to the wet North East monsoon. Clothes not drying well, contemplating buying a dryer but knowing I won't because there's no space for one.. the usual year end blues thinking about my purpose in life, laundry and how to look forward to another year of the same.

There were a number of things I wanted to achieve this year. Did I achieve them?

Youtube

Amazingly, I kept going with my youtube channel. In all honesty, my youtube channel isn't very successful as I've not managed to get a big audience. Youtube is flooded with sewing tutorials so it's not a surprise. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and stop making videos. But at the moment, the motivation is still strong. If you would like to send some love, subscribe to my channel! (I beg you)

These are the stuff I made for my youtube.

Digital Art

Last year I got into digital art and man, the progress was slow. I kept learning and forgetting. Re-learning and forgetting all over again. Now I know the basics well enough. As for the advanced digital art techniques, it's too hard for me to remember. What I hate about aging is you forget stuff very easily. 

This was my first piece of digital art. Is it horrific? 

I tried to improve it. Or maybe it wasn't worth improving.

I'm quite pleased with this one even though everything is very flat.

I liked it so much I made a free-motion quilt version, lol. It's quite scary to look at, isn't it? I don't know why I'm so attracted to it though. It's me, by the way. 

When I started drawing digital portraits, I didn't want to draw other people in case they get offended by how the drawing turned out. So I chose myself as the subject. I mean, how am I going to get offended by myself?

Here's another portrait I did. I actually LOVE this version even though my lines were shaky and my knowledge of Procreate was very basic. 

Here I improved on the drawing technically but I didn't like it as much. Kinda creepy.

I tried to go back to a naive style of drawing.

I made another attempt and here I tried not to get the flat look by adding shades. As you can tell, I haven't quite learnt how to draw hair yet. I also generously added brown spots to my face to make it more realistic.

This is the last portrait I did because I got sick of my own face. Here I wanted a more cartoon look and I think I succeeded! I drew my face super long because people are always reminding me that I have a long face. 

"You have a very long face." 

"Wah, your face very long."

"You know your face is very long, you know? You know?"

I doubt I'll ever forget I have a very long face thanks to the constant reminder.

What do you think of my digital art? Should I stop scaring people with my drawings or should I continue?

Comics

Last year I told you I have a vague dream to create comics. I was actually interested in a Far side style of comic - a one panel thing. Realistically, I don't think I have it in me to make any comics. I may have the humour bit but the execution of the humour in comics is truly hard. Not long ago, I came up with a few ideas for a one panel comic. Then, believe it or not, I completely forgot everything and since I did not write it down, I couldn't recall a single idea. So until I get another idea, this dream may be over.

Painting

I've not made much progress in painting. Before I could master water colour, I started trying out another medium - gouache. My god - this is such a difficult medium to handle. I think I'm way better at water colour. Gouache is not a forgiving medium. The mistakes are very glaring. I'm very close to giving up. I mean, painting isn't something I'm good at in the first place. On the other hand, painting gives me a lot of peace. It frees my mind of my worries.

These are some of the stuff I've done. I'm learning from books and Skillshare. (if you use my link, I get 1 month free if you get a subscription) To be honest, Skillshare is hit and miss. There are lots of video classes but you need to go through a whole bunch (of mediocre) to find the good teachers. The plus side is the subscription is very cheap. I got mine at 50% discount. 

Free-motion Quilting

As you know I fell in love with free-motion quilting last year and yes, I'm still in love. But I didn't invest in much time on it in 2025. Just a few small quilts for my home, nothing worth showing. 

Health

Overall, I thought 2025 was pretty good for me health wise. I managed to overcome my hives problems as in I can live without taking hives medication anymore. It's getting better and although it's not completely gone, I don't stress over it anymore.

I've also gotten better with my digestive health from following the Fodmap diet. Now and then I still get into trouble eating something forbidden but honestly, I've improved so much it's unbelievable.

Unfortunately, I completely neglected my physical fitness and didn't exercise at all. I'm likely paying for it now. Lately I noticed old problems like neck pains (myofascial) have come back. It's sending me into a panic and now I've started doing light pilates at home. I'm starting swimming as well. If all goes well, as in, I don't give up, I aim to swim once a week. Today was my first swim and luckily it was a non-rainy day. As hubs was off, I made him go to the pool with me. Having not entered a pool for so long, it was really refreshing swimming in the water. It wasn't cold and my old bones creaked (or cracked) here and there. I stopped swimming a few years ago because my skin got very dry. But now I have to choose between dry skin and debilitating muscle pain. Anyway, I've no one to blame but myself. I kept wanting to exercise and I never do. Yes, this is the kind of person I am. Procrastinate until it's too late.

I finally did my Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). It was on my list and I got it done. Never got around to doing my will though so I'd better stay alive until I do.

Travel

Yup, my family is still on a travel kick. One day we'll run out of money and it'll stop. So I should enjoy it while I can. This year we travelled to Osaka, Melbourne and Bangkok.

You probably know we heart Japan. But Osaka? I LUV. I don't even understand it myself. I mean Osaka zoo doesn't even have gorillas. What kind of zoo is that? But Osaka feels more like Singapore and is less crowded than Tokyo so that could be the reason. I guess I feel more at home in Osaka. Also Osaka is close to Kyoto where my gorilla family lives. We went in January and it was cold. 

My daughter booked us a fantastic room with a view. (Hotel Hankyu International)

I've yet to visit a good flea market

Kyoto zoo

Nagoya

In July we went to Melbourne so my daughter could see her penguins. It was also cold and super windy. The day we arrived while looking for our hotel, we found ourselves on this long stretch of road with nothing to block the wind. And believe it or not, we nearly got blown off by the wind. We hurriedly dragged ourselves into an alley. I thought it would be like this throughout our visit but it only happened that one time.

After our spectacular hotel room in Osaka, the one in Dorsett Melbourne was rather disappointing. The service sucked too.

Hubs said with my grey hair, I blended in with the locals in Melbourne. Also, we were browsing at a craft market and it was partly outdoors and cold and suddenly we realised the true meaning of Christmas in July. Lol. 

Food in Melbourne is very expensive. Like $17 for fried rice at a food court? Are they mad? How do the people in Melbourne survive? Once I bought kimbap and I was told to pay a weekend charge. I paid. The kimbap wasn't very good. One time we had pizza at a place we walked past and it was sold by the slice. Very expensive as well but omg, such mind blowing delicious pizza. So worth it. 

Another thing I observed - Melbourne buildings are full of graffiti. Awful ones not the artistic kind. In Singapore we cane people for vandalism regardless the artistry.

In October we returned to Bangkok to keep my daughter company as she was there for a concert. Nothing much to say about our return to Bangkok except that I bought more elephant pants and on the day we returned to Singapore, hubs and daughter had a big fight at the train station. Needless to say, I swore I'll never travel with them again.

And how was your year? See you some time in 2026.