This trip wasn’t part of my travel plans for 2026, but I needed to return to Taipei to sort out some paperwork. With heavy rain forecast, I wasn’t sure how much art and journaling material to bring. I wanted to travel light, so I decided to keep things simple. It was the perfect opportunity to finally use my Peerless watercolours, which I’d had for ages! Before the trip, I’d cut the watercolour sheets into smaller pieces to fit an accordion-fold palette for my Traveller’s Notebook. I also brought two Traveller’s Notebook inserts because, well, I couldn’t decide between them! 😂 One was the accordion watercolour insert, and the other was…
-
-
My first art retreat took me all the way to Porto, Portugal, for eight days of travel and discovery, including four days spent creating, experimenting, and sharing ideas with fellow artists. The retreat, Relics of Nature, was led by Jane Chipp, whose work I’ve admired for years. Although our paths had crossed through online art programmes such as Wanderlust and Fodder School 5, where we were both guest teachers, we’d never actually met in person. I was looking forward to finally meeting Jane and experiencing what it would be like to create alongside other artists for several days. Four Days of Making Together The retreat began with welcome drinks and…
-
This is the much-delayed second post from my Rome trip during the Jubilee Year last October. Life rather got in the way, so this one is fashionably late—but perhaps that’s fitting. Revisiting these pages has been a lovely way to relive the trip all over again. Rome in October was buzzing with pilgrims, tourists, and school groups (I realise that my photos don’t include any of the crowds! 😅). Exploring the city on my own during those first couple of days brought plenty of memorable moments—including accidentally letting myself into the wrong Airbnb building and then promptly getting locked inside! It wasn’t quite the start I’d imagined, but it certainly…
-
It’s been a little while since I last updated my blog. Life has been wonderfully full lately, so both my blog and Instagram have taken a bit of a back seat. But I wanted to share a recent trip that has already become a favourite in my travel journal. A couple of weeks ago, my team and I travelled to Singapore for our annual trip, timing it with a three-day public holiday to minimise time away from work. Before we left, my weather app insisted it would rain every single day we were there. Thankfully, the forecast was far more dramatic than reality, and we were treated to plenty of…
-
At the end of May, I made another trip to Jeju Island in South Korea. I’ve always wanted to see this place after a friend told me I should go. I organised our company retreat for a few days of team-building and relaxation. Another bonus was that it’s relatively cheap to fly there from Shanghai. This trip would be a great break to take before my kids return to Shanghai for their summer break. Let me take you on a trip around Jeju Island through my lens and my sketches. Day 1 Arrived in warm sunny weather. Immediately, we got a van to take us to the eastern side of…
-
Of all my December Daily projects, this one holds the record for taking the longest to complete! After 13 years of doing this, I usually finish by the end of December and proudly place the album on the shelf. However, this time, life sidetracked me—I only made it halfway to Day 12 before everything else took over. I’m sure many of you can relate to the challenges of finding time for our creative projects amidst the hustle and bustle of life. By November, I was finally determined to finish the album—and I did! The process was not just about documenting the days but also about navigating my emotions and finding…
-
The past two months have been a whirlwind of significant life events, including graduation and university preparations. The journey involved challenges but also moments of gratitude, connection, and reflection, documented through sketches and memories shared on Instagram.
-
-
GRATEFUL! That’s the only word that somehow keeps popping up in my head while I was finishing up my 2022 Project Life album. Honestly, there had been so many events that happened during 2022 that just made me feel so angry and frustrated and overwhelmed. But as I was going through our life in photos, I cannot help feel rather ashamed for letting all the negativity overshadow ALL the goodness of the past year. It had been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. You can read some more via this post. We had the most strict (to say the least) lockdown which was initially slated for 4-5 days that…
-
What can I say? December turned out so completely different from what I had envisioned to be and what I had hoped it to be. Things that were part of our everyday almost since 2020 like scanning QR codes, PCR testing at least every 72 hrs, checking of green codes in public places and other restrictions, were suddenly lifted. Suddenly, the COVID virus spread like wildfire and once again, Shanghai buckled down from COVID infections, everything (at least almost everything) went upside down fast. I was feeling like another lockdown (like what happened in March/April of 2022) was happening as the city suddenly went silent by mid-December. Schools had already…
