2012!

if i must choose one year among the 23 years that i've lived during which i grew up the most, i will definitely choose 2012. of course, i am not talking abt physical growth here (sad to admit, but i am too old for that), but it's more like mental/emotional/psychological growth (it doesnt matter how you term it, as long as you get it). this year, i've grown so much to the extent that i've aged and i swear i am not even kidding one bit! ): so what happened in 2012? hmm, let's see...

january

the first few days of the new year were spent in my aunt's resort in da nang, to run away from hanoi's cold winter and to carry out a hidden agenda! :D it was a peaceful holiday, as all my time was for reading books with grandfather, watching tv with mom and cooking with aunt.

my lifeguard friends and i realised that we always met to eat and gossip and it was about time that we did some exercising together. and so we completed a long and painful journey of 20km along ecp all the way to changi together. some of us stopped along the way and got lost, but in the end, no one was left behind! (:

and the bus gang finally took a bus back together after years!

visiting temples every lunar new year with the seven dwarves has become an annual affair and what made 2012's lunar new year special was that none of us knew when the next time we could do it together would be, since each of us had different plans for the year ahead.

and another happy thing abt lunar new year was that we had a lot of pretty flowers at home this year. besides the usual peach blossom and cherry blossom, we had orchids and some-flowers-i-'ve-yet-to-find-out-their-names too! (:

february

my piggy darling was back to singapore for a few days before heading home for his last holiday as a university student and guess what? he became sooooo touristy in singapore! :D it was hilarious watching him reading the mrt map so intensely and complaining about how easy it was to get lost in singapore these days! come back again soon piggy and things will change even more!

march

we had a random steamboat dinner in my room in hall 2 (for a reason which i can't recall anymore), after which my room smelled like fish for a few days even with all the windows opened and air freshener sprayed once every 5 mins.

oh yes and during the term break in march, we finally started on our fyp properly and managed to finish the whole thing after like 3 meetings? i just loved these two people and had no regrets asking them to be my groupmates!

pulau ubin cycling day with the cakes was seriously tiring! ): i had no idea why there would be so many rocky slopes in an island, which made cycling uphill so torturous and cycling downhill so thrilling. this photo was taken after our water break at some museum/house along the way and trust me, i have no idea what the boys were doing.

this was at the top of a shaky old tower which vibrated violently every time a gust of wind blew (it took me a lot of courage to stand there holding the can of ice lemon tea and smiling). but i guess i wouldnt mind going again, provided that they renovate the tower, pave the roads with cement and keep all the wild boars in a cage (just kidding!).

after pulau ubin, theresa and eva joined us for dinner! (:

march ended with meiqi's belated birthday celebration where so many gossips were shared over both dinner and supper. and it was the first time a lifeguard-in-law joined us at a gathering. haish we're all getting old, aren't we? maybe soon there'll even be little lifeguards at our gatherings too! :D

april

i am sorry but what happened in april is just a blur now. i guess i was too busy rushing for project deadlines and revising for exams (oh yes, like real!). i only remember that we met up with the chim seniors for lunch but the photo is nowhere to be found now. i promise i'll upload it when i discover where it is hiding now.

may

the boys and i finally had a proper lunch meeting after so many failed attempts!

we celebrated the end of exams (and graduation for heosua and ha) at nongsa marina resort in batam. it was a peaceful trip purely for relaxation and seriously, all we did was eating and sleeping! :D

june

i spent most of my summer holidays at the 46th floor of keangnam landmark 72 building. it was rather scary initially, because i didnt know anyone at that place and everyone there was so different from the people whom i often interacted with and was more used to. however, everything fell into place and i can now confidently say that my two-month internship with kpmg was well-spent with new experiences discovered and friendships forged.

and guess what the best thing about our internship was? we had a lot of random 'missions' during office hours which somehow turned out into food adventures! (:

dearest pm! if it's not too late, i am now admitting that i was not entirely truthful to you about returning to singapore to collect my fyp results in june while i was actually on a family holiday. please forgive me for my wrong-doings and although i can't promise to you that i won't repeat the same act, i am deeply apologetic.

july

my fellow interns and i had great fun dressing up as kpmg air-stewardesses on the day when the kpmg passports were given out! :D i really liked the place and the people but not the job. there were times when i  have considered returning to work full-time but i guess that thought is off for now. 

a major portion of my holidays was spent with the dwarves too! our meetings could either be a properly planned outing to a pre-determined destination, or just a random shopping and cafe afternoon date decided 10 mins in advance. i am not sure when we can all gather in hanoi like this again, for each of us is now in a different country, but i am sure when we do, everything will remain the same.

i often disappeared during lunch time to meet up with other people throughout my one-week vib job. thanks to these escapes, i could spend an hour out of that stuffy small meeting room which felt like a prison cell!

after the internship, i spent the rest of my holidays in hanoi meeting up with people i havent seen for a long time and discovering new places in the city i call my hometown. back to singapore on 31 july!

august

i met up with the lifeguards residing in the west for dinner at the newly opened j-cube which used to be one of our favourite hang-out place after saturday trainings. it is amazing how we always have new gossips and secrets to share with one another, and this is one of the reasons why you shouldn't be absent from a lifeguard outing.

oh and it was just so coincidental that the cakes gathered at j-cube to celebrate eva's birthday on the same day too!

van miu visited singapore for a few days, so i finally got to see her after like 3 years? that girl is still so childish and irritating, and her voice just remains the same! :D

we had ramen at mark's birthday celebration and all these seven fat and full people in the photo squeezed into mark's car to go to sock's house to bake cookies after dinner!

can you see the cookies on the table? there were cute heart-shaped and cat-shaped ones made by me among the boring round-shaped ones made by the rest! :D

i am thankful for national day in august because if it were just a normal day instead of a public holiday, the busy working adults (uncle edwin and auntie erica) wouldn't have any time to escape out of their offices to meet me and uncle ching wei to send uncle ching wei off on his adventure with hsbc hk!

before school re-opened, we went on a short weekend trip to tioman, swimming in the blue and clear sea among colourful schools of fish and beautiful islands of coral. and we had a star-gazing and sunrise-watching session too because the boys insisted that we did! >.<

august 2012 also marked a big change in our lives when we finally moved out of boarding schools, hostels and halls into a flat. this move also signified a stage transformation in our lives - from children to adults.

september

i skipped my bf214 lesson to go to the airport to send uncle ching wei off (in hope for some last-minute secrets). all the best in hk my friend, discover a lot of new places so that you can be a good host to me when i visit you in hk!

heo transited in singapore before finally returning to vietnam upon graduation and spent two days with me.

mom was in singapore for my birthday too and she finally got to visit gardens by the bay like she always wanted to.

october

we had a very unexpected scgs reunion with our ex-principal and teacher in charge. it's funny how scared we were of her in the past and yet we are now able to talk to her freely like old friends. oh and even the head prefect who always corrected me for wearing short skirts or socks was there too.

we also had a great sunday out with the lifeguards at wavehouse. looking forward to more water adventures with you, my hydrophilic friends! (:

november

november was a month of project deadlines and exam revisions. however, i still had to drag myself out to the new star vista mall to meet sad-life laurel and sam for dinner on the only friday when they were dismissed early from work (which was at 7pm). it was fun hearing them telling sad stories about their sad working life and i was just so thankful that i was still in school!

and since i still had some vouchers left from the trip to wavehouse with lifeguards, i decided to go to sentosa again just a few days before exams with two of my three favourite boys.

december

before moving on to december, i'd just like to restate two facts about myself - (1) i dont learn from my mistakes and (2) i have to have bangs at least once a year. so due to these facts, two things happened in december: (1) i spent about 3 weeks at home despite the cold weather that i'm not exactly too fond of and (2) i cut bangs.

only 3 of the active dwarves were in hanoi then, and we managed to meet up a few times. we had great fun playing jenga at a newly-opened cafe along a quiet street of hanoi.

and in december, i admitted that i was an aunt for the first time. even though it was quite tiring running around with a 3 year old for one whole day, but i still enjoyed myself a lot being with that little bundle of joy!

despite the cold weather, i went out to meet up with the people with whom i spent 6 out of 7 days of the week more than a decade ago. some aspects have changed but some others still remain the same, despite how much time has passed. this year, i managed to catch up with phó mèo, ly xù, diệp, hằng, tùng cá and tín. next year, i will catch up with more people i promise!

and i spent the final days of the year with my beloved family, celebrating birthdays since there are 3 people whose birthdays are in either late december or early january. i guess family is one of the main reasons why i went away from the sunny singapore back to the cold hanoi. home is still the best place to be, even this time despite all the arguments i had with my parents about my future plans and all.

thanks (not!) to the popularity of the iphone, or any smart phone for that matter, people no longer see the need to bring digital cameras out anymore. inevitably, i am one of the victims (or defendants) of this phenomenon and that is probably one of the reasons which could explain the crisis i got into as i was finding photos for this blog post - I COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING FOR A FEW MONTHS IN 2012 AND I SERIOUSLY COULDN'T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED DURING THESE MONTHS! well, another reason is possibly that i am getting lazier and messier as time passes and no longer organise my photos in my hard disk neatly anymore. this is bad, i promise things will be back to the way they used to be in the past. but hey, this blog post isn't that bad, is it?

so that's 2012 for me! 2012 has shown me the consequences of the decisions i made in 2011 and, at the same time, required me to make decisions affecting my 2013 and later years. absolute statements are often not true, so i can only say that i think that i didn't regret most of the decisions i made in 2011 and am confident of the choices i've made for 2013. this will probably sound like a line from a model essay, but what happened in 2012 is definitely valuable and will prepare me well for the years ahead.

if 2004 can be considered to have marked the first important milestone of my life, the next important life events will happen in 2013. so let's see how this u-turn of my life will turn out to be! (: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!