Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2026

April 9, 2026 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

What happened in March? I honestly have no idea. It passed by in a blink, but with the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid, half of the month was practically a holiday for the majority of the country. 😂 While my family doesn’t celebrate, we still got a holiday, and though I literally did close to nothing for my 5-day weekend, it was still very nice, lol. 🐼 Something I started again this month was gaming. After years of putting aside Disney Dreamlight Valley, I decided to pick it up on a whim and have found myself enjoying the gameplay so much more this time around! There are tons of new characters and quests, as the “base game” has developed further since its launch. Despite the tons of frame drops and massive lags, it’s been a great way to unwind daily and I’m a little obsessed.

The big event this month was celebrating my dad’s 72^nd birthday with Korean BBQ and a delicious fluffy chocolate strawberry cake. Other than that, I experienced a few more gorgeous sunsets in the car on the way home, and I also ate some mouthwateringly good Indian food! Here’s some snaps from the month…

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2026

March 2, 2026March 11, 2026 Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

She blinked and somehow ~~January~~February was already over. I know February is a short month, but it felt like it was only two weeks long with how quickly it flew by? Looking back on the month, I’m not really sure what happened? We had some farewells at work with two colleagues leaving us, but other than that, it was just a whole bunch of work (🎶work, work, work, work🎶) and little else. One farewell involved karaoke and I hadn’t been to one (sober) in ages but it was actually a lot of fun. I still can’t sing to save my life, but I had a great time with my colleagues! We also had our office iftar (the evening meal to break the daily fast) on Friday hosted by our Head of Office. His wife arrived from Egypt with some amazing treats and she cooked up a delicious feast for us. It was fantastic! I drool still thinking about it. 🤤

Monthly Wrap-Up: January 2026

February 5, 2026February 5, 2026 Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

She blinked and somehow January was already over. I spent the first (almost) 2 weeks of the month in Sri Lanka attending a friend’s wedding, ringing in the new year, and going on a mini-beach vacation. It was jarring to fly back to reality because my brain had basically been checked out since Christmas 2025, and I had to remind myself what days and dates were a little too quickly for my liking, lol. 😂 Coming back to work after close to 3-weeks away wasn’t fun—especially since I was thrown straight into the deep end—but we survived. Despite passing so quickly I can’t believe it’s over, January also felt like a decade long. There was so much chaos and heartbreak in the news. I’m sending so much strength and support to my friends on the other side of the world! I hope everyone is taking care and doing as okay as can be. 🫂

Here’s a small January photo dump:

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.