There's Always So Much To Write About
Wednesday July 9, 2025
It's been an eventful four months since arriving back in Toronto. Upon returning to my apartment, I'd discovered a pigeon had disposed of the rosemary plant in the planter I'd left outside and replaced it with a small white egg, and multiple piles of pigeon shit all over the balcony. It was too cold to clean everything up, but the next day, a second egg had appeared so I knew I had to do something. Fortunately the temperatures skyrocketed to 16C one wet day in March, so I took the opportunity and binned everything.
The weather didn't really warm up properly until May. But when the city's cherry blossoms, magnolias and tulips burst into bloom, it heralds the start of True Spring and it's such a wonderful time to be out and around the city to visit all the beautiful trees downtown. The University of Toronto, Queen's Park, Christie Pits and High Park have some magnificent flowers, and it's all a matter of finding the less crowded ones so you can avoid the Instagrammers. We had the Victoria Day fireworks and very soon after, the official 1.0 launch of Lynked: Banner of the Spark.
Though it's only been a year and a bit since I joined FuzzyBot, it's felt like I've slid in and made myself useful pretty quickly. Shipping a game is intensely stressful for everyone. Console development is hard. Programming for TRC requirements is hard and often those features will never been seen by the majority of players. But we did it. The team did it. We pulled through for a largely successful launch and quickly patched some major issues. Reception has been very positive, but I think the game has struggled with discoverability, which is a very common problem these days. It's satisfying though, and we're all incredibly proud of what we've accomplished, and we should be! We celebrated in style - the three of us in Toronto, with partners, at Barberian's Steak House.
There was also Doors Open (Got to see the Mayor's Office and a bunch of cool things in the City Hall, as well as a guided tour of the murals out in Islington), a week in Montreal, Eurovision, and the usual street festivals like Taste of Little Italy and Do West Fest. There was the inaugural Toronto Video Games Month; one of the events they had was to project some video games onto the wall of a factory building by Billy Bishop Airport while people played - that was really cool to watch for a bit, but the highlight was getting to meet the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, who has an incredibly strong Asian Auntie vibe about her. She tried really hard to sound like she knew about video games but ended up talking about Angry Birds. There was also the Rat Race, a scavenger hunt of sorts through Toronto's underground PATH system, which we achieved second place for! There was Pride, a few days in Bruce Peninsula, and a week in Sudbury visiting Manitoulin Island and Killarney Provincial Park, some of my favourite places in Ontario.
Summer is truly a great time to be in Toronto, it's really a shame that it goes by so quickly. This autumn though, my parents will be visiting me, here in Canada, for the first time since I arrived eight years ago, so there's plenty to look forward to in the months ahead.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:35am on Wednesday July 9, 2025 :: 0 comments :: 
And Now Back to the Cold
Sunday March 2, 2025
It’s been a wonderful but busy eleven weeks - eleven weeks! Gone by already! - and as I leave Aotearoa, my home of 30 years, I’m full of gratitude for all the people I got to see and the food I got to eat.
When I went down to Wellington last month, I was reminded of the great lifestyle I had while I lived here; the great eateries, the walkable city, the beautiful night sky, the lush greenery and the sounds of native birds chirping in the trees. But as my friends have slowly left the city for the suburbs or even completely new cities, the vibe has changed and even I know deep down that my heart is in Toronto. Wellington will always be special to me, and I will be back in the future.
In amongst my usual weekly activities like Thirsty Thursday and Spicy Food Thursday, I also attended Owen and Bea’s wedding in Waikanae, literally on the other side of the world from where I had seen them last. It was nice to chat with people and explore Nga Manu Nature Reserve, but I was home early enough to catch the Dragon Dance and Chinese New Year fireworks at Frank Kitts Park. Today, I played piano at Central Baptist, a lovely reminder of my roots and a tribute to the community that has helped me so much.
Back up in Auckland, I was at Sam and Chara’s wedding with a bunch of my old friends from my church in Kelston, catching up with people who I hadn’t seen in over five years. My stepmum, who had been badly injured from a fall and surgery for a fracture, but is now in much less pain and discomfort than before, also arrived back from Malaysia. I caught up with Deanna, elusive Chief Cookie Officer of Moustache and got a private behind-the-scenes tour of the new premises. There were lunches and dinners with ex colleagues and old school mates and Uni friends, a Chinese New Year dinner with the all-important yee sang salad that we decorated with a snake made of cucumber, we celebrated Dad’s 70th at Lilian with a fantastic meal and exquisite cake, and William’s 39th at his place with a hilarious slapstick comedy about beavers, and three Jeremys. There was Auckland Pride, weekly badminton (my physio had told me I could play if I took it easy but still managed to evade injury after going a bit competitive), and a trip out to Muriwai with Alfie who was visiting from Toronto/Hong Kong.
Last weekend, I took my parents out to New Plymouth for a couple of days. My sister had recently been with her family over New Years, and after seeing the photos that they took, my parents decided they wanted to go too. The scenery and weather was fantastic. There were beautiful gardens to walk around, as well as the coastal walkway where the Wind Wand was. There were some magnificent views of the mountain, Maunga Taranaki, especially from Paritutu Rock, which was a steep climb on stairs for the first half, and then rock with a chain to hoist yourself up. I was impressed that Dad made it up there, and he was surprised by his own ability too. We caught the sunset up there on Sunday evening and the colours around the sky were majestic as they contrasted against the silhouette of the mountain.
The food was pretty decent too. On the first night, we went to the Orangery, famous for its tableside flambé menu. We had a great breakfast at the Arborio in the museum, and some nice Japanese-style bites for dinner at the Snug Lounge. All in all, it was nice to get away from the big city and enjoy the scenery in the countryside, and it really goes to show just how lucky Kiwis are to have this in their backyard.
In my final week here, my parents cooked abalone from Japan that had been dried and stored for 40 years. Dad had brought it to New Zealand from his father’s shop in Malaysia and I suppose it was finally a good time to eat it. The next night, I took them for an exquisite Middle Eastern meal at Advieh and had an amazing experience. And finally last night, we celebrated my birthday with a family barbeque. It’s been amazing. But unfortunately it’s time to return to the cold lingering winter of the northern hemisphere; but I’ll be back another day.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:19am on Sunday March 2, 2025 :: 0 comments ::
2025 So Far
Sunday January 26, 2025
The end of 2024 was pretty quiet without my parents around the house in Auckland. I wrapped up work for the year, I spent a lot of time at the gym, I caught up with people who hadn’t gone away on holidays. I’m at the age where my friends are all talking about injuries and ailments like gout. I spent Christmas with my sister and her in-laws out in Waiuku. The weather has been mostly warm and sunny, and I’ve been loving it.
For New Year’s Eve, I bought myself some prawns and green-lipped mussels, and cooked those up for a delicious seafood feast, then I headed to Mt Eden to watch the Sky Tower fireworks and the Harbour Bridge light show. As usual, they were a bit disappointing, but the vibe was great. I was staring out over the city close to midnight and admiring the night sky; even with all the lights of downtown Auckland, I was able to see Orion, Jupiter and Mars. It was a reflective but enjoyable evening.
I went to play badminton on New Year’s Day. After my foot injury in November, I was a bit rusty from a month off sports, and after playing almost nonstop for 90 minutes, my body began to shut down. With all the aching and tense muscles, my slipped disc triggered again, and I was in agony for two nights. Luckily I knew the stretches to do to alleviate the pain, but it would be another week before I’d be able to get a physio appointment. By that time, my pain had improved significantly and I was back to doing many of my daily activities without too much of an issue. No gym or badminton for a few weeks though. However, I did manage to do a "military grade" 3km obstacle course in Matakana as part of Sam's stag do, though I had to skip the 3m wall under orders from the physio. We were super filthy at the end of it, but it was really fun and the weather was fantastic that weekend. I rushed home to pick up dad to go to his wine club's annual general meeting which was being held on someone's property in Red Hills, and they had a bunch of alpacas and two fluffy cats that I played with.
I took dad out to Muriwai one night to try and spot the comet. Though the weather was too cloudy to spot it, it was still a beautiful place to hang out and watch the sunset. The gannets of course were all there, squawking loudly and returning from their evening fishing expedition. We tried again the next day, just by going down the road to the waterfront, but saw nothing.
Now I'm in Wellington, at an Airbnb a few doors down from one of the properties I used to live at - the one with Smudge, who has probably sadly passed away in the eight years I've been gone. The last time I was here, the city seemed pretty dead because many people hadn't returned to work yet; this time, it feels a bit more alive down Cuba Street and Willis Street, but it's awful to see the Central Library and council buildings still in a state of construction. Many of my old favourite restaurants have shut in the past few years, a result of a significant reduction in the government workforce and the state of the economy in general. Still, there's a sense of nostalgia and a triumphant homecoming; like I've spread my wings to see the world and I'm back to see where I started and honour the city that I called home for nine years. And it's odd, because I've been away for eight years now, but it doesn't seem as long as my time in Wellington.
It's been a busy weekend catching up with people and eating delicious food. Of course I went to Little Penang, and Auntie Tee recognised me after all these years. I went to the Sunday service at Central Baptist too and somehow volunteered myself for piano next weekend. There's a lot of new restaurants that my friends are taking me to over the next few days, and I'm really looking forward to connecting with all my old mates too.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:14am on Sunday January 26, 2025 :: 0 comments ::