Folkestone Harbour station, as well as historic branch lines in coastal Taiwan
Folkestone is a coast town in England. The nearest current station, Folkestone Central, is located away from the coast which needs 20-min walk. But can you imagine if the train can reach next to the sea so that you can even connect a ship to France?
My first trip to Ramsgate
Since coming to London I have arranged trips to different parts of the country, and most of them are coastal towns because I love the sea a lot. Travelling along the coast can make me more inspired and energetic. Starting this year (as of Feb 2025), I have made some trips so far, of them Ramsgate is the place I first visited.
When failure doesn't exist
When I was travelling in Bournemouth, I enjoyed watching the people who surfed for almost an hour…
My sketches of Crystal Palace Subway
I have two related sketches now. One is the imaginative cross-section showing the whole picture of the subway. Another one was done during my second visit as the session was purposed for photography and sketching.
Everyone is indeed vulnerable. No exceptions.
Everyone is indeed vulnerable. No one is perfect. Some people who look like so happy and lucky with a lot of friends and money are easily admired, especially with the existence of social media. That’s why most of us even fall into comparing ourselves with others and choose to feel ashamed.
The two Folkestone's modern architecture — Grand Burstin Hotel and Shoreline
I realized there are so many architectures that interests me, and one article will be too long to include all I want to talk. Thus, I will include two of them in this article.
Walking from Folkestone to Dover - failed to complete the whole trail due to accident
This is on my list: walk from Folkestone to Dover — the two coastal towns in southeast Kent, England. On my recent trip of Folkestone, I tried to walk to and stay in Dover on my second night. However, I couldn’t complete it.
Jubilee line Treasure Hunt organized by Transport for London
The treasure hunt commemorating 25 years of Jubilee line extension.
Lessons on my recent long-term illness
I got serious flu which lasted for three weeks, and I was too ill to work. But without the long period of illness causing me to stay at home doing nothing, I will never learn something from my life.
The Underground Mysteries by Tokyo Metro in 2018
I saw a lot of passengers carrying the following bag when I was taking Tokyo Metro. I then googled it and understood they were participating in a game organised by the underground train company here (地下謎への招待狀). English version was available too besides Japanese.
Visiting and sketching in Wellcome Collection
Among museums in London, Wellcome Collection provides unique insights for visitors. It’s science. It’s public health. It’s understanding about us. It’s society. It’s history. It’s human centred. It’s also art. Uniqueness comes from these integration.
My recent long long flu, and my relationship with technology — Garmin and Strava
The illness did let me learn a lot, but before talking about the takeaway points, I am here to show my relationship with technology when I was ill. Those data allows me to understand how my health condition was going.
Southbank Portrait Session — a great event to enjoy portrait sketches in London
In London, there are many sketching events, from urban sketching to still life to portrait sketching. Usually a portrait sketching event lasts for a certain period of time (like 2 hours) even with a fee (especially when a model is needed during life drawing), but there is one that you can feel free to sketch a lot of portraits as you like for free.
On creativity — what’s it and is it only for art?
The following articles were written in 2019 in my language. Now I translate to English and add some points about creativity.
Urban Sketchers London, Jan 2025 — The National Archives
Urban Sketchers London is one of the sketching groups in London. Every month an event is being held in different parts of the city, so that people who take part in can sketch places on location. This month (Jan 2025) we were in The National Archives, which is close to Kew Garden station.
Apps and me in 2025
Apps are more and more important to everyone's life including creators and artists. While we will need some tools, we may not either need the best, powerful those but it doesn't imply the most minimalistic settings are necessary.
My birthday staycation in Eastbourne: Sketching The View Hotel
I always thought of having a birthday trip this year. However, when I got very serious flu from Christmas last year and couldn’t recover for weeks, I thought I might have to stay at home instead. After seeing my GP and having some medicines for a few days, I started feeling better. Thus I wanted to have good memories in my birthday while being cautious, and staycation was on my mind.
On loser
According to social expectations, I am literally a loser.
Why? I have no properties. I have no girlfriend and even marriage. I have no money. I have ever quit my job recently.
But I'm not. Because I just can't meet that social expectations and thus keep the economy running.
40
It's 2025 now and my age just reached 40. 40 may be an entirely new era for most people just because of the figure 40+ vs 30+. Just like products with something like £9.9 vs £10. But thing is: changes are always incremental…
On productivity and misery
And I wonder why we must always be productive, and why we must always be fast. Why can’t we slow down or even stop for a while? Why getting things done? Why do we have to feel miserable when things are falling behind?