Happy 2008!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I don't know about you, but I always feel a buzz of excitement and anticipation on the first day of the new year. Logically, there should be nothing different about the 1st of January of any year, since every day is a new day....but I guess most of us always like to take this day as a symbolic fresh start, to put aside any bad/sad things that happened in the last year, to resolve to be a better person, to do better things, whatever in the new year. Which isn't a bad thing, right?

Anyway, I started off this morning reviewing the 4 resolutions that I made LAST year, namely
1) Get a full medical checkup - well, I did SOME of this when I went for my heart checkup which had a whole lot of tests including a cholesterol and CT scan of my heart
2) Train to run and complete a marathon - DONE!!!
3) Get back to the Word - did this in bursts and splutters ....
4) Develop my brain - didn't do my Spanish courses, but did take up Scrabble on Facebook!

A good thing that happened last year is that I spent a lot more time with my mum and my family, and I pray this will continue on in the new year.

So, now I'm thinking what my 2008 resolutions should be....Haven't really decided on any yet, but my 1st resolution is to run another marathon and half-marathon with better timing. The second is to build on my relations with my family. The third will be to go to church EVERY SINGLE WEEK (I'm rather lazy about this aspect of my Christian life...I say grace before I eat, read the Bible before I sleep, talk to God a lot, but don't always make it to church!)

Live long, and prosper, everyone!

Old Year ponderings, New Year Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!!!!

It's a brand new year and boy, did it start off with a bang last night for folks up in Bangkok where some idiots decided to show the world how dumb they are by setting off 6 bombs in the city. WHY do folks still persist in thinking that they can get their way by violence? 2 days ago, the Iraqis hanged Saddam....funny, I felt sad when I saw the images of him walking to the gallows, having the noose placed around him, and his body, with the neck obviously broken, lying on a shroud. I thought I'd feel happiness that there's one less tyrant in the world, but I only felt sad that he was hanged on the morning of a religious day in the Islam religion, and that his death won't stop the violence in Iraq. It's also hard to feel joy at the death of anyone, even one as evil as him. Maybe I'm finally getting mellow in my mid-age???

Last night, my gal pals and 2 guys (one's a husband, the other is always found where's there's food!) gathered at HL's place for dinner and Christmas gift exchange (belated lah! we're busy folks you know!). I made the ultimate booboo of bringing the wrong bag of gifts! In my hurry, I grabbed the bag of gifts meant for my godkids and only discovered my mistake when I had parked my car in HL's carpark. Darn! I'm such a blur-blob! Anyway, the party was cool, my mum cooked her fabulous vegetarian bee hoon, and the rest had meaty stuff like chicken wings, kongbak pau. We then watched Star Wars Ep 3 on the telly and the countdown party. The rest clicked wine glasses at midnight, I stuck to my diet coke. (among my other boring habits, I'm a teetotaller)

Came home, tried to sleep, but couldn't! Must be the diet coke! why do I never never learn not to drink Diet Coke at night???? It's strange that I can sleep like a log after drinking cups of coffee all day, but can't sleep at all after diet coke or green tea! Anyway, I was playing computer games when I heard a loud bang and squealing brakes. I looked out of my window and saw a car careening across the road in front of my home! The scary thing was that the driver was braking so hard that there were sparks under the tires! The car screeched to a stop right in front of my home, and I saw a couple jumping out. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but I suspect the driver went round the corner too fast and hit the road divider. I don't know it he had been drinking, but a few minutes later, a cop car came. Thank God there were no casualties, and at 1am, there were very few cars on the road. I hope that driver learned his lesson and drive slower in the future....

Gosh, I've been meadering on and on, and haven't even got to my resolutions yet! Okay, in no particular order, here's my 2007 resolutions:
1) Get a full medical check-up: Believe it or not, the last time I had a full check-up was 10 years ago when the Canadian High Commission made me go for one before giving me a student visa. I think I'm relatively healthy, since I'm a vegetarian and exercise 5 times a week, but better to be safe than sorry, right?

2) Train to run AND complete a marathon: I've been running many half-marathons, but haven't done a marathon since 1999 when I did the Millenium run in the old Mobile Singapore marathon. This year, I'll train hard and take part in the full marathon. I know it's going to hurt like crazy during and after the run, but it'll be a personal milestone.

3) Get back to the Word: I've been amiss for the past few years and haven't been reading my Bible everyday, like every good Christian is supposed to do....I know I ain't a good Christian, but I guess I should at least read God's Word daily to help to keep me on the straight and narrow. So, I've decided that this year, I'll read at least 2 chapters everyday.

4) Develop my brain: According to Brain Age (fab Nintendo DS game) my brain's age is 80! I'm almost brain dead! To stave off early dementia, I think I'll try to do at least 2 courses in Spanish, which I've learned on and off over the past decade. I want to learn enough so that if and when I really go to Spain, I can communicate with the "natives" in their language. I might also learn mahjong for purely intellectual reasons, of course (erhem!) My mum's a champion mahjong player, so maybe I'll get her to teach me the basics of the game.

Well, that's the 4 resolutions I'm making for the year. Notice I didn't put avoiding cursing bad drivers when I drive and being more patient on the road...that'll be a resolution that would be broken the first time I get behind the wheel in 2007, which should be in about 2 hours time! But maybe, I'll do that for Lent this year.....

May we all have a good year ahead, filled with happiness, joy, peace, and blessings from God. May we all learn to love each other more, and love ourselves the way God loves us. May we spend more time with our loved ones, and less time on superficial activities and mindless chatter. And my personal prayer is for me to grow a little more like Jesus this year.