Notebook

If there is something I am doing consistently, it’s writing on my 5-year A5 Hobonichi Techo. It’s a 5-year diary starting this year 2025 until 2029. It is made up of Tomoe River Paper but the batch they used is not good at all. Lots of bleed through. To think that I have to use it for five years. But I have decided not to waste this notebook. I decided to just get over these bleed throughs and…

This is an animated film by Adam Elliot. A story about Grace Pudel, a lonely misfit who loves collecting ornamental snails. I saw an exhibition of “The Story of the Moving Image” at ACMI Melbourne. This movie got my attention because of the clay arts. The characters look cute. It’s the sort of thing I’d want to collect as well. Anyway, after seeing the clays used in the movie at the exhiition,…

I wrote this post 12 years ago. I wonder who is this person I spoke with. I wonder how she is now. If she is what I think she is, then it is sad to think that until now she is still in the same difficult situation. I was hoping that over the years, some other Christians would have reached out and water the seed that I planted. Even if at that time, it landed on hard soil. As disciples of Jesus,…

Coffee cup, newest tumbler, wooden stand, pens. It’s not that aesthetic but it’s practical. Before, I rarely buy coffee from a local coffee shop. I find that being able to do that on my day off makes me happy and hopeful. Moreover, I find that teaching/training someone still makes me happy. I also find that being around the right people uplifts me, too. That’s why I should make it a habit of…

I was really glad to attend yesterday’s service. Aside from the food, it’s nice to see the different traditional attire of the members with different nationalities. This church event made me realize that I need to buy traditional attires for events like this. I’m thinking of asking my cousin to create me a few. At least 3–one with barong style, the other with high puff sleeves, and the other…

I signed up to do GrowTrack at church. In this session, we learn about the church’s history and then answer some questionnaires, assessing our spiritual gifts. The facilitator would then tell us the different ministries/areas in church where we can serve/volunteer. My top 1 is faith. I was surprised. I didn’t even know that there is a gift of faith. Now I’ve been reading up about this gift. And…

One of the blessings I received when my husband and I moved to Melbourne is my “ideal” work roster. I love that my husband and I have Sundays off. My language of love is time so spending quality time with my husband is important to me. As we both have Sundays off, we could do things together and talk freely about anything under the sun. We are always busy over the week and even though we are…

This was my second attempt to buy croissants from Bakemono Cafe. People say it sells one of the best croissants in Melbourne. Last week I tried but they were sold out. This time, they were sold out again. So elusive. I should come in really early next time, or maybe I should just pre-order. I ended up eating at The Bagel Shop. It has the dill cream cheese bagel. It’s similar to The Brown Bagel’s…

When I was young, I could never understand why my highschool batchmates would rather stay in Manila rather than go home during our weekends or days off. What’s better than going home and relaxing and being free to be my true self. It makes me wonder what I could have achieved if I wasn’t as pressured living with strangers, when it comes to my studies. I would be able to concentrate more and study…

First post for the year

Happy new year everyone! I am grateful for 2022. It was the year I was finally able to move to Melbourne to be closer to relatives. This is 10 years in the making. This year I am hoping to be more settled here. The new year had me reminiscing. This made me realise that I have been blogging for almost 20 years now(since 2004). It started with blog drive then Blogspot then WordPress. I also had…

My husband wanted to go to the shopping centre last Saturday and it made me think what I would do there. I have gone back to being a homebody again since I got flu 2 weeks ago. And since I’m still over the moon with my Hobonichi, might as well get some accessories for it which are stickers and washi tapes 😊 https://youtu.be/vitRzNL-7Tw And while on it, might as well show you my purchases.

youtube.com/watch My planner for next year.

Choose to be Kind

This was what I reminded myself of yesterday. The day started hard. But it ended sweet. I thank God that He hears me and answers my prayers. I thank God for giving me the strength to click on the preachings from the church I attend here. It shows that sharing the gospel is not a waste of time. I went to the city because I wanted to have coffee and a Japanese egg sandwich. The one from Melbourne…

I’ve been here in Melbourne for 3 months now. It’s been a busy 3 months. So much has happened that I couldn’t stop and look at life to see how I was doing. The move to Melbourne was not easy. The drive was long and scary. I also experienced some sort of discrimination. This experience convinced me that I was right to move to Melbourne. Still healing from the awful encounter, we stopped by…

Browsing through social media has its disadvantages. Seeing updates from people got me envious because they have it easy. Like they don’t have to struggle so much with what they have because they were born rich, or their partners did a lot of the hard work to be where they are. They don’t have to think about or worry about what I worry about. Gratefulness stops envy. These are the things I…

I turned 40 yesterday. It was also my 3rd wedding anniversary. So how was it? EXHAUSTING! But God is His goodness, still able to give me a sweet surprise. 🙂 My original plan was to have a big birthday bash here in Tamworth, inviting everyone but then that’s very impractical. In the end, I just gave gifts to some people who helped me in 2021. My husband and I decided to book a flight to…

Happy new year!!! A call from Mom after a hard month made me miss home so much. I am feeling homesick. It’s been 2 years since I have had this feeling. I always feel homesick right after coming back from my vacation in my hometown. At this moment while typing these words, my eyes are tearing up. That’s how bad it is. But this is a great reminder of the importance of family, and how important to…