Year End Review - 2015

It is again that time of the year to wrap up all sentiments to conclude, to count the blessings, to review the bucket list and to plan the next step.

Blissful Moments
- Visited numerous overseas places (Brussels, Bruges, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Vatican City, San Marino, Phuket, Copenhagen and Siem Reap).
- Visited several local cities in the UK (Oxford, Bath, Salisbury and Manchester).
- Getting to know a few great friends who are always there to cheer my days.
- Surprises received during Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day and on my Birthday.
- My pleasure to attend 2 wedding dinners in Malaysia.
- Watched 2 Musical shows at the London Theatre: Wicked and the Phantom of the Opera.
- Have had some good meals in London.
- Thanks to my colleague’s invitation for me to experience a western wedding banquet.

Achievements
- Accomplishing my goal of back-packing alone + trying the backpackers' style of staying in shared dome.
- Taken a step forward to start a small business in Penang with friends (https://www.facebook.com/housedemente)
- Received compliments from bosses and colleagues on the great job that I’ve done.
- Visited San Marino - my dreamed destination (and I should start making other destinations my dream now and plan to achieve them in the coming days).

Things Not Accomplished
- Have been lazy and failed on my workout plans (wondering when I could achieve my six-packs? Hmmp…)
- Not much of a progress as in personal development through readings.
- Had not lived my life to the fullest.
- Feel sorry to have missed and turned down some wedding invites.

Lessons Learned
- Most people will only look at what I have accomplished without giving any credit to the efforts and hardships behind the scenes.
- Not every creature in the name of human understands the art of gratitude, appreciation, consideration and responsibility hence do not expect these values from those deficient souls.
- Identifying and categorizing passer-by, friends, real friends and fake friends in my life.

Challenges
- The less preferred work destination - Keighley and Bristol has always been a nightmare for me. The far North city of Keighley is cold and remote; while the far West city of Bristol is inaccessible and often caused me hours of waiting for the public transportation to get home.
- To have survived another year in UK despite:

• Living with sandwiches (Other than sandwiches are still sandwiches...)
• Enduring an absolutely annoying housemate who is always on the phone loudly and inconsiderately.
• Tolerating the untidy people who always mess up the kitchen no matter how many times I have cleaned it.
• Dealing with colleagues who often cause me high-blood pressure and stroke.
• Traveling on public transportation with various inconveniences.

Year 2016

2016 will be a challenging year ahead with manifold turbulences to overcome and it is as well the time to refill and replenish what has been depleted overtime as the cycle of life reruns. Every decision is a challenge, and every move is a risk. Most aspects in life have been trying to bring me down repeatedly hence I will need to pick up the broken pieces and strive to move on.

Having failed the previous resolutions, maybe I should make myself a simple one this time - just to be easy going and be happier in 2016. Cheers~  :)