Resolutions 2008

In 2007, I maintained 2005's productivity with an average of a poem in a month. Mid-year saw a surge in creativity, with July and August being the most prolific months, yielding three poems each.

As far as traveling goes, both my trips sent me on an R.S.V.P. to Sydney in September for Arthur and Stephanie's engagement and Toowoomba in December for Valen and Ruth's wedding.

There hadn't been many cultural events in 2007, with Cirque du Soleil's Varekai in June being the highlight of the year.

In March I suffered from a yearly getaway syndrome and went only as far as pre-launching a new travel blog. The year ended with a new job and prospect of better pay on the horizon.

As for 2007's resolutions, I've had 33% success rate by achieving only one of three resolutions.

All in all, a good year. Now on to 2008's resolutions:

1. Continue to sponsor my boys throughout 2008.
   
2. Sign up with The Writers' Studio.
3. Go to Paris for a writing stint.
   

Just as well I'm leaving

Melbourne really isn't the charming place to start over with a clean slate as I thought she would be. Not that I've accumulated too much snow on my slate to need cleaning, but the idea of starting life in a city totally unfamiliar was initially appealing and, I'm shameless to say, quite adventurous. Six months have passed since the move to Melbourne and the transient sense of excitement in the beginning has quickly been replaced by ruts of daily routines.

It's not that Melbourne fail to accommodate the life I was expecting when I first set foot here. You felt like a wide-eyed tourist in the first two months, but as soon as you make a new city your home, the charm that fills a tourist's holiday disappears and you quickly give up the artist's stroll for the express line, aimless people-watching for break-time gym programs slotted in between ferocious 24-hour rotating shifts. Instead of adventures, Melbourne threw me the exact same things I abandoned in the old life - only on a larger scale. So you start to long for adventures in some distant land across the seas.

Though it happened quickly, it didn't happen by accident. I believe somewhere along the way I gave Melbourne permission to slip the hamster wheel under my feet. More than ever, this is the time when I find myself relating to Hans Christian Andersen the most as he wrote in 1840, "It's just as well I'm leaving; my soul is unwell."

But where? It's one thing to entertain the thought of running off to some remote corner of the world on a moment's whim, and quite another to actually take leave from your daily cares and stand under the giant flapping schedule board in a train station picking a destination. And then there is the piled-up bills on the desk and the distant but distinct voices of well-meaning friends and parents who beg you not to throw away your senses for something so illusive and selfish. Deep down you fear that they might just be right. After all you can't even put a name to this unreasonable urge to "take it to the winds."

It's just as well I'm leaving; my soul is unwell. The desire to run off will not quit until the wayfarer recognizes his signpost and heads down the path that nurse his ache of standing still.

The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

- Blaise Pascal

Resolutions 2007

It's one of those times again--to review past year's resolutions and make new ones. For someone who's only started making new year's resolutions, I'm pretty glad that I've achieved about half of 2006's resolutions. I'm now the proud sponsor of not 1, not 2, but 3 children in Tanzania and Colombia with the support and encouragement of closed ones. However I missed the opportunity to fulfill resolution 2, which is to visit prison inmates, due to two major relocations in 2006. And as far as advocating for truth goes, I still need a lot more work as well as courage to achieve.

A recap of some personal highlights in 2006:


Sponsored Hamisi from Tanzania in January.











Visited Hong Kong and Shenzhen in February.















Sponsored Daniel and Maycol from Colombia in February.










Left a two-year career in pharmaceuticals in March.


Moved to Australia in April.


Relocated to Melbourne in August.















Found a perfect nest in the city fringe in August.


Found a new job in October.


A long-standing dream was shattered in October.


Got a new speaker for my birthday in November.


Fell in love with Mini Cooper in November.














Found and read David Mamet's True and False in December.


Had Christmas Eve dinner with Aaron & Grace at our own house.















Got a webcam and a wireless keyboard as my Christmas presents.


Watched New Year's Eve fireworks by the Yarra with my mates.

















All in all, a good year. Now on to 2007's resolutions:

1. Continue to support Hamisi, Daniel, and Maycol throughout 2007.
2. Start a novel.
3. Go to an undetermined destination for a week.