A fulfilling day

Today was incredibly fulfilling, I was so busy I barely had time to breathe. In the morning, I went to the gym with my neighbor's mom and didn't leave until 12:30. Then we went to have lunch together.

After dinner, I went shopping with her to buy clothes. She was also taking advantage of the winter vacation to take her child on a trip. Her family planned to go to Zhuhai first, and then to Macau.

We took our child to Zhuhai last summer, so I shared all the travel guides I had prepared with her. She was very grateful when she received them and even called me a travel guide expert.

This morning, I even managed to snag round-trip high-speed train tickets to Beijing for the winter break. I plan to take my child to Beijing the week before Chinese New Year. My child is about to start middle school, and I'm afraid there won't be much time for travel after that; the opportunities to go out will only decrease.

So, while my child is in fifth grade and before the academic workload gets heavier in sixth grade, I take him out whenever there's a winter or summer vacation. Besides, Beijing is our capital and a must-visit tourist city.

Fortunately, I managed to snag a train ticket to Beijing smoothly today. The return ticket hasn't been available for booking yet; it will be another week. I think there shouldn't be any major problems.

We bought sleeper tickets when we went. My child had never ridden a sleeper before. The journey from Wuhan took about ten hours, and we arrived in Beijing around eight or nine o'clock the next morning. This timing was perfect, as it saved us a night, giving us five days to explore Beijing properly.

I planned to snag a high-speed rail ticket for the return trip, which would take about four or five hours. Because the return journey was quite rushed, I opted for this itinerary. I also booked my accommodation a month in advance, and today when I checked the hotel price again, it had almost doubled! I really admire my wisdom in booking in advance; I saved at least a thousand yuan by booking ahead.

Let me talk about my side hustle on Xiaohongshu. Today I just got a family portrait shoot order from a young couple with their twin babies, and I also got a pet dog photoshoot from a returning client. I've noticed that my business seems to be expanding again; two old clients have already come back to me to customize other content with their photos, which makes me really happy.

Although this side hustle doesn't earn much—sometimes there are no orders, and when there are, it's just a small amount—I'm still very satisfied. After all, I'm earning money based on my hobby. This makes me realize that besides my main job in civil engineering, I can make money with other skills, and this positive feedback gives me a lot of motivation.

I plan to open another account dedicated to pet photography when this account reaches 7,000 or 8,000 or even 10,000 followers (it's almost 5,000 followers now). I've discovered that the demand in the pet market is huge, and many people are willing to spend money (and quite a bit) on pet photography. This is something I overlooked before, and now I see a new business opportunity.