2017 in Review

A friend got me into this habit of reviewing my year, and I think this is my third review so far.  But now that I have this blog and I’ve gotten into the habit of writing in here on a daily basis (no matter how crap or boring or unproductive my day was!), I think I will have to do this review in here from now on 😊

1.What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before? I have done it before, but I stopped doing it ever since we moved down to Melbourne (and now SG). I started back up again this year: Adult Ballet. I freaking love this class / dance 😊

2.Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions and will you make more for this year? I think I made some progress on them, but progress became less and less as the year went on.  As for 2018, I will probably keep them all the same, as the goals are quite long term, but I’m going to really focus in on the process, which I think I lacked this year.

3.Did anyone close to you give birth? One of N’s family friends in Jan, and one of his close friends in SG in Feb

4.Did anyone close to you die? Parents of a few friends passed away this year. Really hits home when I hear about these. Also, Kitty is sick. I don’t know if she will be able to come home with us when we pick her up from the vet 😢

5.What countries did you visit?

  • Hong Kong
  • Taiwan (Taipei)
  • Japan
  • Australia

6.What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017? Consistency.  As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, this is my one-word theme for next year 😊

7.What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Not just one day, but a few: 1) Christmas this year wasn’t my favourite. Although it hardly ever is, but still, I was not impressed this year. And 2) the last few days of this year, when we received texts and emails from the cattery and the vet about Kitty 😞

8.What was your biggest achievement of the year? This is a tough one. Maybe having what felt like a five minute conversation in Japanese when we were there in November. It was probably only 1-2 mins and we were just talking about general stuff hahaha but the focus I needed for that conversation was full on intense!! 😅 It has fuelled me to achieve that same level in Chinese, and to also improve my Japanese next year 😊

And also perhaps this blog. I’ve kept to my daily posts so far, which is a pretty good effort from me!

9.What was your biggest failure? I’d say not being focussed enough with my trading goal, and probably not doing the right things to progress with it.

10.Did you suffer illness or injury? Thankfully nothing serious, touch wood.

11.What was the best thing you bought? I’d have to say my Bullet Journal, which was just a Moleskine A5 dotted notebook. It’s really just a notebook, but I feel like organising / planning my life has completely changed for the better because of the Bullet Journal concept.

12.Whose behaviour merited celebration? The Australian people, voting “yes” to same-sex marriage laws 🌈🌈

13.Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Aung San Suu Kyi’s treatment of the Rohingyas

14.Where did most of your money go? Rent, again, by far.  This will continue to be the case, while we’re in SG 😔

15.What did you get really, really, really excited about? Probably my Bullet Journal 😁 and our holiday to Japan 🇯🇵

16.What song will always remind you of 2017? Good Life by G-Eazy & Kehlani

17.Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Fatter/thinner? Richer/poorer? I think happier, because 2016 was pretty bad hahaha; fatter because we didn’t do much dancing this year; and richer, because we focussed more on this during the year. This was probably the only goal that I actually met.

18.What do you wish you’d done more of? More focus on each of my goals. I felt like I was all over the shop with virtually all of them.

19.What do you wish you’d done less of? Ironically, planning!  I think I get a bit too excited when it comes to planning, and go a tad overboard with it.  Just a tad 😉

20.How did you spend Christmas? With family, up in the northern beaches in Sydney

21.Did you fall in love in 2017? With my Bullet Journal and the whole idea of it, yes!  lol

22.How many one-night stands? HA!

23.What was your favourite TV program? Season 9 of Masterchef Australia was pretty good, actually. I was also introduced to House Hunters Asia and HH International this year, and now I’m sorta addicted, lol 😲

24.Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Aung San Suu Kyi. Although I still think hate is too strong a word. I’d prefer to just say that I don’t like her now 😊

25.What was the best book you read?

  • Fiction – Harry Potter #3 (Order of the Phoenix) was pretty good.
  • Non-fiction – The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin.  I think this was a real eye-opener, which explained a helluva lot of my illogical behaviour at times.

26.What was your greatest musical discovery? Julia Michaels 😆

27.What did you want and get? We got to go on a nice holiday in Japan and had a lovely time (as evidenced by this blog! lol)

28.What did you want and not get? I didn’t explore SG as much as I would have liked to this year.  I didn’t actively look for places to go, restaurants to try etc so we ended up going to the same places over and over again.

29.What was your favourite film of this year? It wasn’t released this year, but Cloud Atlas was probably my favourite movie out of all the ones I watched this year for the first time ever.

30.What did you do on your birthday? We went to Pollen in the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay, and I didn’t bring enough layers. I was freezing inside ❄️❄️

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A better trading year 😔

32.How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017? Much of the same: casual, summery clothes that is line with the hot and humid SG weather!

33.What kept you sane? A good night’s sleep always does wonders.

34.Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017. I stumbled across this quote from somewhere: “Life is not about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself.” Ever since I read that, I’ve stopped looking and started creating.  And now I feel like I’m starting to create the ME that I’ve always wanted.

35.Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Lyrics to Stargazing by Kygo 😳

Now bring on 2018!Happy New Year! 🎉🎉

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