Hello Beauty at Te Puke

📚 I thought I had escaped the Chinese-style homework battles…
turns out, I’ve simply moved on to a different level. 😂

I thought leaving China meant
I could finally say goodbye to those days of
“staying up late helping my child with homework.”

How wrong I was. 😂

You can escape primary school,
but you can’t escape high school.

You can survive English,
but then comes… Maths. 🤦🏻‍♀️

My daughter suddenly has a high school maths resit coming up,
so in true emergency fashion,
we’ve entered “cram at the last minute” mode. 🫠

Step One: Mum reads the question —
I don’t understand it. 😂

Step Two: Look up the words —
Turns out, the problem isn’t maths…
my English hasn’t passed the test either. 😵‍💫

Step Three: Try to work out the logic —
Wait a minute… where did my brain go? 🤣

Step Four: Finally figure it out.

Now I have to explain it in Chinese,
then translate it again
into a language my daughter can actually understand.

And then…

What takes someone else one minute,

takes us—

one whole hour for ONE question…
if everything goes well. 😂

And if it doesn’t?

Sorry… time to ask the AI Master. 🤣

Back when she was in primary school:

“It's so easy! How can you not know this?”

Now that she’s in high school:

“Don’t worry, Mum doesn’t know either.
Let’s figure it out together.”

After half an hour of still having no idea…

No problem.
We have the AI Master! 😂

My daughter is preparing for her resit.

Mum is preparing for a brain workout. 🤯

And once again,
I’ve learned an important truth:

There is no graduation day
for a child’s education,
and apparently,
there is no retirement age
for a mother’s learning either. 🤍

🤍 The Ability to Take Good Care of Yourself

Eat when you’re hungry,
sleep when you’re tired,
and on the weekend,
don’t be too hard on yourself.

Make yourself a nourishing soup,
let it simmer slowly,
and enjoy it sip by sip.

Watch an old movie,
sit in the sunshine for a while. ☀️

Take care of your health,
nourish your body,
and let the rest unfold naturally. 🌿

🎣 The Simple Joy of Fishing

The float gives a little twitch,
then dips,
then disappears…

In that one second,
your heart beats more sincerely
than it ever does in love. 🤍

You can wait all day,
just for this moment.

One catch
can make up for ten disappointments.

A fisherman’s happiness is simple—

A little wind,
a little water,
a float,
and a fish.

That’s all you need. 🌿

A True Leading Lady 🤍

My partner’s 60th birthday.
Everyone came together,
each bringing their own heartfelt wishes.

We picked up our phones
and captured a moment together.

But she spotted it immediately—

“Is this a beauty filter?”

“No. Retake it.
Turn the filter off.”

She simply said,

“I just want to keep the real me.”

And honestly,
I felt a little humbled. 😂

A true leading lady
doesn’t need a beauty filter.

Age is her confidence.
Presence is her strength.
And being real
is the best filter of all.

Sixty years old,
still confident,
still beautiful,
still shining in her own way. ✨

That kind of leading-lady energy…

I’m officially taking notes. 🤍

The Moment Your Child Thinks of You 🤍

After all these years of being a mum,
what touches me the most
has never been the tears,
the tantrums,
or the difficult moments.

It’s the day
when you suddenly realise—
your child has grown up
and learned to care for you.

I walked into her room,
simply to drop off some food I had packed for her.

I never expected
her to hand me a piece of clothing.

“I thought it would look really good on you,
so I bought it for you.”

No carefully planned surprise.
No big words.

Just a simple little gesture.

Yet in that moment,
my heart was completely melted
by my child’s quiet tenderness. 🤍

Maybe this is what parenting is all about.

Give them enough sunshine,
and they will naturally grow into their own forest. 🌿

And one day,
the love you poured into them
quietly finds its way back to you. 🤍

Somewhere along the way,
travel became slower.

I used to rush through eight places in a day,
making sure the nine-grid was complete.

Now, I’m learning to slow down.

If I find a little alley I love,
I’ll simply sit down and have a cup of tea.

No need to take a photo.
No need to prove,
“I’ve been here.”

Just feeling the breeze on my face,
watching the world go by,
and letting the moment be enough.

Perhaps that’s what travel really means.

Not how many places you’ve been,
but how deeply you’ve felt
the place you’re in.

Slow down.
Look around.
Be present.

And simply enjoy being there. 🤍

❶ 👦🏻❤️👧🏻 Love

🍷 The wine in front of us,
the person beside me.

A toast to my “long-time partner” 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

In this glass are the bittersweet moments of everyday life,
the ups and downs of life,
and even more so,
the love and companionship we’ve shared, day after day. 🤍

No dramatic love stories,
no grand promises of forever,
just that quiet understanding
when we raise our glasses and say—

“I understand you.” 🥂

After so many years of working together,
we’ve had our struggles and our sweet moments.

We’ve experienced so much together,
and grown step by step along the way.

We are husband and wife,
but also more like the closest of friends.

We can talk about love,
and we can sit together,
raise a glass, and enjoy life. 🍷

Some things simply don’t need to be said.

Here’s to us,
and to becoming better and better together. ❤️

🎧 The world can be noisy,
but passion has a quiet way
of carrying us through the years. 🤍

With music softly playing through her headphones,
a pencil glides gently across the paper.

Stroke by stroke,
line by line,
her imagination
slowly becomes a beautiful scene. ✍️

In that moment,
it doesn't matter
whether it's sunny or raining,
whether the day has been joyful or tiring.

All that remains
is focus,
and the peace found within. 🍃

As her mum,
I may not understand every style of art,
but I'll always be her very first audience.

Every drawing
tells a story of growth,
and quietly holds
her perseverance and dreams. 🤍

Today,
with a little encouragement from Mum,
she finally found the courage
to share her artwork with everyone. 🌿💕

May she always have the confidence
to create,
to dream,
and to let her light shine. ✨

👄🌹❤️

𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 📩✨

🔔 Ding! It's Friday!

The workweek is officially wrapped up,
and the weekend fun is about to begin. 💃

Time to switch off work mode,
turn on weekend mode,
and enjoy every little moment ahead. ☀️

Here's to relaxing,
recharging,
and making beautiful memories.

Happy Friday & Happy Weekend! 🤍