So another year had come and gone. A whole new year without any parent.
Atrocities continued in Gaza and Palestine and other areas in Yemen and Lebanon, and African countries which didn’t get publicised. It amazes me that some people, even non-Muslims, readily educated themselves and openly supported the plight of the Palestinians when some so-called Muslims just didn’t care. And it also shocked me that some people think that is-hell has the rights to force others out.
A moment of careless caused me to fall and break my wrist, necessitating a surgery and numerous physiotherapy sessions. I also had my own exercise at home and bought some exercise tools to help me. And because I didn’t really use my left hand until a few months after the surgery, I now have minor frozen shoulder and have started physiotherapy to address that issue. I really must be more alert and careful and less ditsy to avoid recurrence of this. It’s too easy to regret and say I should’ve been more alert and careful but it had already happened and regret is just a waste of time and energy. I do need to exercise more care to avoid similar occurrences and recurrence.
Arsenal finished second to Sh*tty in the 2023-2024 campaign. We drew and lost some games we shouldn’t have. The current season has been challenging with some players already out injured. Sigh.
I embarked on ‘revenge travel’ and visited a few countries (Timor Leste, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein) and new places (Bacolod, Semarang, Pontianak, Sapa, Kuala Krai, Zhengzhou and Xi’an) and revisited Ipoh, Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Georgetown, Kota Kinabalu, Hanoi). Alhamdulillah. My 2024 trips were as follows:
January: Flew out at month-end to Denpasar, spent a night there and flew out to Dili in Timor Leste the following morning. I also travelled to Baucau before returning to Dili
February: Flee to Bacolod via Manila during Chinese New Year break to visit my Pinoy mate
March: Joined schoolmates on a bus trip to Ipoh, Taiping and Kuala Kangsar
April: Flew to Tashkent and on to Astana via Almaty. After two nights, I flew to Shymkent and from there travelled on to Turkestan (where I fell down and broke my wrist although I didn’t know it then) and then took the night train to Almaty
May: From Almaty, I crossed over to Bishkek. Spent two nights there before flying to Osh. After two nights in Osh, I flew to Istanbul and after a few hours of layover, I flew to Bologna. Took the coach the following morning to Vaduz in Liechtenstein, passing through Switzerland. After one night, I took the following afternoon’s coach to Milan for my flight back to KL. At month-end, I took the night bus to Georgetown for my annual trip
June: Came back from Georgetown. Had wrist surgery at month-end and was given medical leave for 3.5 weeks
July: Doctor gave me green light to travel to Kuching. From Kuching, I took a bus to Pontianak and overnighted there
August: Took the ETS train to Kampar to explore the town
September: Took the train to Arau and then travelled to Kuala Perlus during Malaysia Day weekend. The weekend after, I flew to Kota Kinabalu with my nephew and nieces. At month-end, I attended another niece’s wedding at the groom’s place and my sister and I overnighted in Kuala Krai
October: Flew to Hanoi at month-end and travelled on to Sapa from the airport
November: Returned to Hanoi and spent a night there before flying back
December: Overnight trip to Batu Pahat to settle dad’s estate. Flew to Zhengzhou on Christmas Day and took the train to and from Xi’an
I did better than 2023 but still fell one book short of my reading target of 150 books. Well, I do have to spend about 30 minutes to exercise in the evening and there were some evenings when I could hardly keep my eyes open. Some evenings I woke up to find I had dozed off when trying to read (after my exercise) and had to drag myself up to bed.
I never cared much about new year or celebrating it. All the same, I pray that the coming year will bring us good health, wealth, peace, increased iman, prosperity, success and all that we wish for. May we prioritise our mental and physical health, may we be more considerate, generous, less judgmental, more compassionate, thoughtful and kinder to everyone and all creatures.
