Looking back 2017

January to March
Port Dickson during my birthday for a rather quiet CNY and a cranky phone
Had The Patisserie cakes
Snow pilgrimage to Hokkaido, Niseko, Sapporo and finally satisfied all my Hokkaido cravings
Cut-off and call-back
Got rejected for ALBB job but it's ok
Got a promotion in my current company
First reservist after NS
Lots of drinking during Cocktail Festival

April to June
Started my Japanese language class in April
Met Piti & Jarren & Shikai and started drinking every weekend, and got obsessed with gin
KW's wedding
Got wow-ed by Jeff's, Chek's and Andrew's house
Got offered an internal transfer in June

July to September
July party. Stupid alcohol.
Went to Hokkaido for the summer and beautiful lavender fields. Met lots of Japanese friends: Kazuki-Chan, Ha-Chan, Habu-Chan, Emi-Chan but didn't get to meet Calvin. Everything was on sale so I shopped a lot and got some money back.
Piti came back again
Internal transfer got postponed but I won lotsa stuff in the company lucky draw. 60 scoops of awfully chocolate ice cream, grab codes and starbucks vouchers LOL
Started drinking with Jarren and gang
NF and the withdrawals

September to December
Reika's wedding
More drinking with the gang and crazy Andrew
Went to Taipei in Oct, amazing food but boring place
Got into dating scene again, dates with Bernice, Amanda, Kathy etc. Let's see how it goes.
Second reservist in Nov
Every Friday night and Saturday night was spent drinking and partying till wee hours and reaching home at 4.30am, then hangover on Sunday
3 seconds incident
Had a traumatic first two week of December and suffered a mild depression
Confirmed my transfer
Last week of working in the department and farewell treats
Had an amazing Christmas at KL's and received lots of presents heh

And I ended the year with a good break and meetups with family and friends, and opened my bottle of Port for the New Year.

2017
Financial
I have been tracking all my expense up to the smallest detail for a year in an excel sheet.
This year I'm doing pretty ok on my financials, except for December the spending month. The bulk of it was on travels, insurance, alcohol, iherbs, my ski stuff and my X recently, but I managed to save up 50% of my total income. So many advantages of eating at home. My mum is a great cook and I don't need to spend on dinners. I can just have dinner at home and go out for drinks after. I think that's what I'm going miss the most in London.

I found out I have been hoarding too many things in my room and managed to sell some of them. I now have a dedicated Gin/alcohol shelf (some limited edition gins for investment purposes). I need to reorganise my wardrobe though, it's bursting with clothes even though I only buy new clothes/shoes online or when I'm travelling (besides uniqlo). And I realised you don't need to buy those ridiculously expensive clothes to look good, you just need to be in a good shape, understand the material you are buying and know how the clothes fits.

Physical
This gym routine really makes me more disciplined in terms of work and life.
The results of going to the gym for a year: I'm in my best physical form in my 30 years of living and I'm quite proud of it. Going to the gym after work for 4 times a week is seriously draining but the results are showing whenever I look in the mirror. My pants are too loose. My clothes sticks to my body just nice. I've become leaner, more toned and more proportional compared to a year ago but this is not enough. I have to continue for another year then it would be really awesome.

I'm particularly proud of my arms - my biceps and triceps; and the veins running along. When I wear t-shirts and the sleeves wrap around my arms nicely, people (friends/strangers) would touch/ grab/ squeeze/ whatever, both secretly or openly.

Ever since I started drinking protein shakes my hair and nails have been growing at an exponential rate, especially my facial hair. I have to go threading every 2 months. I had too many people saying I don't look 30, thanks to miracle water SKII.

After I developed a liking for bitter stuff (like gin tonic) I realised I no longer crave for ice cream or cakes or sugary stuff as often, unless I'm having coffee. Even when BnJ was on sale in supermarkets I didn't even take a look. So weird huh!
I've also changed my taste of alcohol throughout the years: beer 5% alc to wine 13% alc to gin 42% alc and Navy Strength Gin 57% alc. What's next? Absinthe 74% alc? Heh.

Overall
The year of 30 has been very dramatic for me, probably the most dramatic yet, totally not a stable year but yeah lots of opportunities. I felt like I am moving but not really moved, like one step forward but one step back.

Like what Marie Kondo said, only keep things that spark joy, if not it's time to let go - be it clothes, people, electronics, habits or whatever. I manage to finish a few epic books like Remembrance of Earth's past. I also made a lot of friends, through apps or friends introducing other friends, or whatever. Of course relationships come and go, but I'm glad I kept the good ones. Like I said last year, when you meet people with different stories, you understand yourself more and know what you want or do not want and what you value more. A good investment will yield good returns, if the return on investment is negative then it's time to dump the stock.

I have been too emotional this year and it made me very unfocused. Or maybe I lost touch with my logical mind, like maths and engineering stuff. The depression amidst the promotion, the withdrawals amidst the alcohol high. Perhaps it's the alcohol messing with me. October and November were definitely the most fun months for me. Lots of crazy shit happening with alcohol.

My tagline of 2017: Alcohol makes people do stupid things.

一張一張飛過的日曆 拼湊剪貼一件風衣
大風吹吹什麼包裹我 包裹你 包裹心
成長是個遊戲 把曾經 變如今

一個一個告別的身影 拼湊剪貼一件黑色風衣
未來是本書籍有童話 有愛情 有推理
去過我的過去 誰同行 誰遠行

(since when I've become this emo shit posting lyrics omg)

2018
I've made some bold decisions and 2018's going to be quite life changing for me: New team new business, London, surgery, 2 trips to Japan booked, etc.

I really don't know what's going to happen in 2018 and I'm actually a bit afraid of the unknown. But that's life isn't it? Being in the 30s is actually my prime time so I will do whatever I can to make this year exciting. Onwards!