Wednesday, January 02, 2013

The Year That Was: 2012

It was a mixed year so I guess that’s normal there. Ups and downs, happiness and sadness, new places explored and old ones visited, good friends reacquainted with… I had also made the conscious decision to reduce time on Facebook. Really, I find it tiresome and Boring with a capital B, not to mention so 2006. So indirectly I have not really been in touch with my friends’ numerous activities. Must say I don’t miss that at all.

Alhamdulillah, I managed to squeeze in some trips, both locally and abroad as follows:

January: Flew to JB to check out Johor Premium Outlets then spent Chinese New Year on a Field Trip (i.e. Padang and Bukittinggi). Flew to London at the end of the month
February: Iceland and back to London for a night; day-trip to Melaka
March: another day-trip to Melaka
April: New Town (Pekanbaru); flew to London before hopping over to Ireland and then back again to London
May: Travelled to Albania via Milan and Thessaloniki and travelled by road and sea to Corfu before flying back to London
June: overnight trip to Melaka; train trip to Singapore; a weekend in Taiping
July: birthday trip to Manila, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur; went to watch Arsenal in Hong Kong
August: Merdeka weekend in Penang
September: Malaysia Day weekend in Bangkok
October: day trip to Ipoh; overnight trip to Melaka
November: long weekend in PD
December: end-of-year trip to Osaka

I set a target of 60 books and managed to read 65 books in 2012, up from 57.5 books the year before. Not bad considering I’m juggling two households on top of my hours at work. I didn’t manage to watch as many movies as I would have liked: either there were fewer that appealed to me or those few which did were no longer screened by the time I was free to watch them.

We saw Arsenal struggle before overhauling the Spuds and panted in at the end of last season in third place. Wenger made me happy when he brought over Poldi, Giroud and then Cazorla, and we got rid of the Dutch skunk and Song. My grief over Cesc’s departure has been cured somewhat with Giroud’s presence. Our performance so far has been hot and cold, up and down, in and out... just like that Katy Perry song.




My resolutions are to continue to eat well (although I have succumbed to the odd bar of chocolate already!), to take care of my health (must cut down eating food beyond their best-by dates!!!), to take care of my relationships, to rein in my temper and to continue to travel. I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions anymore because I try to do them continually.

It’s going to be a tough challenging year (when does it get any easier anyway? That’s just how life is) so fasten your seatbelts and prepare for the ride ahead!