Endings

With at least half the world ending 2008 on a decidedly low note, replete with dollops of bitching on and on how crap their year was, and the uncomfortably gloomy tidings of the year to come, I decide to - surprise! - blog about things decidedly less Gormenghast-esque for the first post of the new year.

Hello 2009!

So dad and I have been gearing up for our amazing event to start the year - a surprise 30th wedding anniversary for my mum! (Goes without saying that I'll be publishing this blog post a few days' later.) It's been a pretty busy, stressed couple of weeks, us having to plan and tiptoe around her all the while having secret conferences and making phonecalls/decisions when we're out of the house. It really doesn't help that she's a stay-at-home person, and the house is single-storeyed and relatively small... Anyway more about our secret bash later.

I guess with this new year, it's a timely reminder for me to come out of my hibernation-reclusive break. What with my feet nearly healed from the operation (what operation, you say? Just ask.) and the event-organsing nearly done, I don't quite have much excuse any longer to remain in my Hermitage. With my departure for Shanghai looming imminently in a month's time, it's really time to finally get off my butt and out there again. No new year's resolutions, as usual. Perhaps reviving this blog would be good, a sort of chronicle of my Shanghai adventures, but then again, I won't commit to more than 1 or 2 posts a week. Max. Can't be spending much time writing on here, when so much needs to be sorted and done, can I? Just writing from time to time will get them brain juices flowing again, a prelude to all the mental labouring I'll have to do once the Mandarin lessons begin. So here's to an exhilarating year off-the-beaten track, with plenty of opportunities to grab, places to see, and people to love!