Thoughts on... The New Year

31 December 2012

Uh, hullo 2013. I am happy to welcome you. This signified the continuation of mankind, who lived through the end-of-the-world fiasco.

This post is a little late. I started typing it on 31 Dec 2012 at work but was suddenly so inundated by, oh you know, work, that I did not manage to finish it (what's more, it was half day at work). So it is published now, two days into the new year. But fret not, the year is still new in my opinion.

Oh yes, speaking of the new year, I should include the obligatory new year’s greeting that we are so fond of.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU! HAVE A BLESSED 2013! 

SPEAK MORE. SPANK MORE. STUDY MORE.

And YES. I will also include the obligatory new year resolutions for 2013.

But first things first.

It is amazing how my friends and I ended our last day of 2012. It is definitely one of my most memorable New Year's Eve gathering. Ever.

It started out with a deceptively simple idea of renting a chalet, having a smashing barbecue and then spend the night and early morning away playing games. But the deceptively simple idea was thwarted by the deceptive weather with rain. It started pouring heavily at around 2pm in the afternoon. Which was fine since I thought that so much was poured out from the sky, all water-letting should have ended when evening rolls around. But I was deceived. The rain poured for an hour or two and then turned into light rain. Good. But that light rain alternated between light and slightly heavy rain which continued endlessly.  Evening came, RAIN. Night came, RAIN.

It is like how your bladder is so full but you are stuck in an endless meeting and when you finally get to the toilet, all you did was empty out a small part of that urine reservoir in full blast and the other part in a slow and long drizzle. You know what I mean? Or does that only happen to me?

But we soldiered on under that unfortunate rain by fixing a cheerful light-blue outdoor umbrella over the pit and fashioning a shelter over the eating table using canvas and raffia string. It was an engineering feat and a proof of the indomitable human spirit to want to feast on unhealthy carbon-cooked food and have fun regardless of the weather. It is our way of saying f**k you weather with the canvas as our flying flag of victory and the cheerful outdoor umbrella as a beacon of our collective middle-fingers pointed towards the sky. It was a victorious night where humankind: 1 and weather: 0.

But because we started barbecuing so late (at 9pm we still have not got cooked food on our tables), we scrapped the game-the-night-away part from our plans. We were wet, exhausted, cold, stuffed and old. Nevertheless, we had fun and we still had our carbon-cooked food. Sweet success I declare! 

But NYE this year will be spent in a hotel room with food that comes in proper plates in a restaurant. 

Now, back to my new year resolutions:

1. Read the newspapers every day: I find myself really outdated and clueless on the going-ons of the world. I feel so stupid that I did not know who passed away, which country went bankrupt, who is fighting who and why Randy is the only left at American Idol. The snippets of news I receive daily from ST Facebook page and the 140-characters tweets will not keep me abreast of the news. 
2. Be more patient with people who blocks my way by strolling/shuffling/walking slow: I do that sometimes. Walk slow. Block people while looking at my mobile phone. Munch on fried squids from Old Chang Kee while walking. Walk to the beat of the music when dub step comes on (slowmo, quick, slowmo, quick quick quick). Nah I do not walk to dub step. I would look incompetent. But I am really impatient with people who blocks my way when I am walking. I walk fast with long purposeful strides. Let me emphasize on PURPOSEFUL. Do not HINDER me from my purpose (especially when that purpose is to look for food). But I will try to be patient this year. It is only healthy for my health and sanity.
3. Try not to judge people too harshly on first meetings: This is a tough one. I am the most cautious person I know among my friends. I tend to judge people on how they look and how they interact. And the first judgment sticks. It would take more convincing and a whole lot more of observations to change that judgment. So if I do not like you on first meeting, I do not like you ever. Apologies, but it is my cautiousness at work here. So this year I will try not to judge people too harshly. TRY. 
4. Learn to live and let live: For 2013 I want to be happy. One way to do it is also to let others be happy by living how they want to live. Let them live so that I can live. You can read up more here, http://www.positivelypresent.com/2011/06/live-and-let-live-how-detaching-can-improve-relationships.html. Great, now the song “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney is playing in my head.
5. Write more, read more: I once read somewhere that writing is a muscle. You have to keep exercising it to build it. So I must keep writing to attain some serious writing musculature. And since writing and reading is interlinked, I will read more too. More newspapers, more books (in a variety of genres), more pamphlets/brochures/flyers, more text messages, more tweets, more FB updates, etc.

I guess these are the resolutions that I want to keep this year. I have a host of other cliché resolutions (keep fit, lose weight, exercise more, eat less) that I made but they are not keepers.

What are your resolutions for 2013?