Here’s a review of my Q1, 2022:
I spent my New Year’s in Penang and met up with a good friend from Germany. Then on tenth day of January, I drove down to KL. This time, I had a passenger with me (me mam) as I was due for a hospital visit. There was a birthday celebration at Chan Meng Kee, a traditional mee sua dinner and a delicious salted egg crab delivery.
I also appeared on @booksbualbual Instagram Live with fellow Penguin author Elaine Chiew to promote my short story collection ‘Two Figures in a Car’. I bought a new phone, the Honor 50 Lite, visited Pavillion Bukit Jalil, had a brief hospital stay, spent a week homebound in recovery, and the next thing I knew it was time to go back to Penang for Chinese New Year.
In January I read two books and they were “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl and “Atonement” by Ian McEwan. I also rewatched Schitt’s Creek Season 1 as it was then available on Netflix Malaysia.
February kicked off with the Tiger Year celebrations and it was so good to see family and friends freely without Covid restrictions. New babies, new homes and new cars galore! By the seventh, I was again back in KL. It was back to the daily grind and the mundane of routine; grocery runs, car maintenance, bank errands, house hunting and a booster jab.
Exciting moments were limited to a cinema trip to watch Death on the Nile (2022) and meeting a friend for brunch at Bandit in SS2. In February I read only one book, and it was a children’s one to boot: “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator” by Roald Dahl.
In March I read more books: five including “Lake Like a Mirror” by Ho Sok Fong, “Paper Towns” by John Green, “Mermaids on the Golf Course” by Patricia Highsmith, “Slowly, Slowly in the Night” by Patricia Highsmith and “Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King Jr.
I went out a bit more this month, which was good; dinner and mamak in SS15 with a high school friend, brunch at BSC’s Huckleberry with another childhood friend who had come back from Singapore, and a birthday celebration at Dai Cha Dim with freelance work colleagues.
To pass the time, I embarked on a 20-day haiku series on Instagram, handwriting via the Create > Draw feature. I also completed Apple TV’s Servant Season 3 – all for the love of Rupert Grint. By the end of the month, I had a found new accommodation and was able to move in to a flatshare with another girl. Bye bye Puchong, hello Subang! Exciting days are ahead x
Wan Phing Lim 