Monthly Wrap-Up: November 2025

December 1, 2025December 1, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

November… What even happened in November? I honestly can’t tell you! Seriously though, where did the month go? Because it feels like it just started and now we’re already wrapping up. This is the same old song I sing every year but it still boggles how quickly time flies. Here’s (a very boring) gallery of images from November:

Work was busier than usual as we had several events, with one more to go to complete this year! I think that definitely made time go faster because it felt like there was no moment for rest, lol. Aside from that, there really wasn’t much going on. As I’ve mentioned before, I have no social life whatsoever, so whenever I’m not at work, I’m a gremlin in my cave, sitting with my books, refusing to meet people, and being an all-around lazy panda, haha. I didn’t do any baking this month either because I’m nothing if not a professional procrastinator. 😅

Monthly Wrap-Up: October 2025

November 3, 2025November 2, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

October was a heavier month than expected. There was a lot of illness and loss this month, with several family friends and a former colleague who passed away. It made for a rather heavy month, and I think the thoughts and feelings that brought affected me much more than I realised!

The month wasn’t all terrible though. I did a lot of baking (apple pies, lemon pound cakes, and banana-chocolate walnut loaves), I finally booked my ticket to Sri Lanka for a friend’s wedding and the New Year, and I treated myself to many books and cute Pop Mart things! I’m sharing some highlight posts from the month off my Instagram (and I just realised that one of the pictures I posted was from September, lol… oops)!

Monthly Wrap-Up: September 2025

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

September… What happened in September? Not a whole lot, really. The highlight of the month was celebrating mum’s 70th birthday, which was surprisingly low-key. It was nice though, and I enjoyed spending time with her and her siblings who joined the festivities. Other than that, I got a new desk set up, which I’m feeling pretty half-half about at the moment.

I love how big it is and how I have more shelf space to put books and my knick-knacks (although it is looking a little bare at the mo), but I’m not keen on the desk part being so wobbly. It’s especially bad with my monitor on this arm cos it’s like, one touch of my desk and it wobbles like it’s going to break. 🤣 I guess I can’t complain considering the desk set up was less than $50… 🤭 Let’s how long it lasts though—I sometimes feel if I put too much pressure in the centre of it (where my wrist wrest is), it’ll cave (or at least bend) in, haha. Not ideal!

Monthly Wrap-Up: August 2025

September 1, 2025August 30, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads35 Comments

August… Wasn’t a great month in terms of health. I spent the majority of it knocked down by various illnesses, the latest being the worst flare up of my chronic bronchitis that I’ve experienced since I first got it. As I’m writing this up on the last day of August, I’m just extremely exhausted of feeling exhausted. On the bright side, my chest no longer feels like it’s been stomped on by a herd of elephants and run over by a train, but it still feels like a weight is hanging off it and I hate that I get out of breath from simply moving around. 🥲 I’m really hoping that September will be much better health wise! 🤞🏽

Monthly Wrap-Up: July 2025

August 4, 2025August 2, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

July is somehow already over and I already can’t seem to recall what I did this past month! 🤣 Honestly, I have zero social life and most of my days I’m at work, sometimes going to the gym, and then coming home to blog and read. That might sound sad or miserably boring to a lot of people, but I kind of love my quiet life. Or maybe in true panda fashion, I’m just too lazy to do much of anything (this is actually very true too)! 🤭 I struggled to get myself back into the gym this month with life getting in the way but I did at least manage to go about half the month, and I hope to continue the streak in August. Other than that, I think it was a pretty quiet and uneventful month!

Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2025

July 3, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads24 Comments

I can’t believe June has already come and gone, and with it goes the last holiday I have before the end of the year. 🤭 We held the annual Bali family summer holiday mid-June to celebrate my nan’s 94th birthday and this year we also had family photos (*shudder*). My sister flew down from Japan, and the rest of family flew in from where we’re spread out globally. These years, family holidays feel less and less like a ‘holiday’ due to overly hectic schedules and trying to pack everything into a 1-2 week period, but it’s always lovely to see everyone. Even though I came back feeling the need for a holiday from my holiday, it was also nice to get a break from work!

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2025

June 2, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

Well, if you’re a follower, you may have gleaned from some of my more recent posts that the month ended heartbreakingly with a big loss. Other than that, May was quite uneventful although it seemed to pass in a relative blink. I had a birthday and I treated myself to many things, such as new bags and books. I also went shopping to cheer myself up at the end of the month because I am that retail therapy girl (it partly worked). 🐼 Is it too soon to wish that this year was already over? Or that I could sleep for a million years because I feel completely exhausted and as if I will never stop being tired, lol.

Sorry this recap is a bit of a downer.

Monthly Wrap-Up: April 2025

May 8, 2025May 8, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

I feel like I just posted my March wrap-up so how is it already time to post my April wrap-up!? 🫣 I honestly don’t have much to say about how April was because I really didn’t do anything. Coming back from Japan was rough and of course, getting back to work was diving straight into the deep end with no time to slowly sink back in (I’m pretty sure my office doesn’t know how to do that, lol)! It was tough but we managed. From my trip to Japan, I think I’ve developed a minor obsession with Pop Mart—the toy company that makes the popular Labubu dolls. I didn’t think I’d be into Labubu but after getting one in Japan, I’m finding them oddly adorable and hard to resist, lol. I’ve also developed a fascination with Hirono figurines! Please indulge me as I share photos of my small toy collection. 🥹

Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2025

April 7, 2025April 6, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads25 Comments

I can’t believe that March has already come and gone! I can’t even remember what happened in the first two-thirds of the month because my trip to Japan felt like it lasted the whole month of March, and I’m not mad about it, though I’m sad it isn’t true lol. I’ve shared pictures and updates from the Japan trip in my last two weekly wrap-ups (here and here), but I think my favourite parts of the trip were definitely Disney and visiting the town of Kusatsu outside of Tokyo. It’s so hard to choose though because the whole trip was fantastic—except for the moments of family drama and tension but that’s to expected when you put all of us in close quarters for so long, haha—and I’m so bummed that it’s over. On that note, I’m just going to share some of my favourite moments from the month:

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2025

March 1, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

February felt like it went on for longer than 28 days but I also can’t believe that the month is already over. Life was not much different in February compared to January and I didn’t get up to much. We celebrated my SIL’s birthday at the start of the month and my brother’s birthday at the end of the month, I took more bookish photos this month than I have in a while and enjoyed it, took care of my little Kiki who keeps coming back with funky lab test results but seems to be doing very fine otherwise (she’s so cheeky and chonky).

I know March is going to be so busy as I’m flying out on the 21st with my brother and SIL to meet up with my parents who will be there a week earlier than us and my cousin flying in from America the day before, for my sister’s MA graduation! 😍 I can’t believe she’s already graduating—time really flies, eh?