Spring came to Helsinki. Very beautiful, sunny Spring. There are places with Cherry Blossoms closed by. I can even see one through my window. In Helsinki, we are allowed to go out for walks and exercise but being cautious not to get close to anyone. This week, I stood under the Cherry Trees and wished for some normality. Although, it is sad to be missing Hanami Festival this year in Helsinki, I know that there will be a next year. It was lovely to find Cherry Blossoms in the neighbourhood parks.

It’s also my birthday week. I celebrated it yesterday by waking up to music, flowers, a birthday cake and coffee. Dinner was ordered in from the Japanese restaurant that we frequented pre-COVID.

I had some 500 birthday wishes from many parts of the world in different languages on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, phone call… There were voice messages and songs, virtual and hand-drawn cards and even my name handwritten in fantasy Korean! The postman also came by and brought me something. Thankful to God and feeling blessed to celebrate my special day quarantined style!

Today, I introduce a new character together with Emiko. I don’t know her name yet so she is called No Name as of now. Also, I can’t decide on her colour so I decided to make her change colour every once in a while. I’m planning to combine my illustrations to print out a book called COVID diaries. If you are writing one, what will you include there?