It's that time of the year again........

It's that time of the year again, time to perform my ritual yearly review.

What a weird year 2006 has been, indeed it has. A lot of downs, a couple of ups. Blood is shed, fear and dread of the unknown. The passing away of a beloved cat and of course, the Great China shift. Let's begin :

January - Settled into life back home after London, feel VERY london sick. I think this London sickness will never pass me.

February - I think the first few months back in Singapore is really affecting me. Day in and out, life is miserable. And then I got my cat! So now there's Tash and endless episodes of Naruto!

March -  I was offered a job in London, but I turned it down at the very last minute. The REAL reason? Cannot tell :)

April and May - Were nothing but a miserable smelt of Siglap, Edmund, Alvin and the pondering of why I am giving up so much over something that cannot be.

June - Met Hyuna and HyunJin over bouts of drama in Yishun. The first six months back in Singapore was horrible. It is enough to have me decided permanently that I will never want to return here to live ever again.

July - The big China Shift. For the next X number of months, Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be my new playground, life is turning for the better and for the first time in many months, I felt really happy and without a care for the rest of the world.

August - Took up an online TEFL course and applied for a place in the University of London. Built an entire marketing plan based on technological usage for company.

September - Guangzhou romping, Hong Kong walking and lots of exploring. It takes a little bit of effort to get used to life in Canton, it's not your average city and the people are not exactly the most well-mannered.

October - Incheon calling! After a 3 month break we see Hyun Jin and Lizzie again. It feels great. Korea's great. I believe this is the city I will want to move to after I'm done with China.

November - I'm starting feel a little at home in Guangzhou. Lots of visits to Hong Kong and Hong Kong's becoming my little escape zone from the China madhouse. With lots of help from Ming of course!

December - Back to Singapore for a -very- short holiday. Seeing the stuff that she left behind and how everyone is back home makes me miserable all over again. The only thing that made me happy is seeing old friends and having a good drink with them. And then of course there's Shanghai! Met up with Hyuna and HyunJin again and it felt absolutely smashing! Language may be a barrier for now, but give us some time and it will not be.

And in areas of personal development, here's what I did :

- improved my chinese both in character recognition and speech building
- started my intensive study of Korean
- came up with very very wild ideas for business and marketing, I mean, check this out: an Electronic Sales kit and a platform that allows you to sell remotely, the building of a trademark and lots of co-ordination for an IPO.
- Read tons. Everything from humour by author-cooks, journalists and ex-presidents to catch up on current affairs.
- BOUGHT A MACINTOSH!
- I have this idea to be a freelance marketing-executive, I want to see how well this will take off.

In my next post, I will plan out what I want to do for the next 12 months and then compare it when December '07 comes along and I want to see what I have achieved or lost.