Into the New Year

2018 breezed by just like that, in intangible fleeting moments I can barely grasp before it all slipped past my fingertips. It has actually been a pretty comfortable year. Yeah, there were some difficult challenging times especially when it came to work, but it was alright. And here we are now, just a couple of hours away from the New Year. Wew.

December was a pretty festive month for me (more so than the previous years) cause I've spent almost the whole of it overseas. It was just only a few days ago when I came back from my month-long travel — 33 days, to be precise. It's a trip that I've been looking sooo forward to, because I finally got the chance to revisit my favourite country again and have a long break with Han. The travel plans were also what kept me going on through the hectic school and work schedule.





There's just so much about the 33 days that I want to write about. The places we've been, the kind of people we got to meet, and the slips of reverie from moments of luck that lead to the most memorable sights.

It's the longest I've been out of Singapore at one go, and it's also the trip that gave me many firsts. The first time watching the snow fall on my palms and scarf, the first farm stay in the Japanese Northern alps area, the first stunning Christmas fireworks display over the lake and the first humbling couchsurfing experience with very thoughtful hosts. The list goes on.

In those 33 days that we covered parts of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, my heart was so full from the people I got to meet and the experiences I got to encounter. Sure, there were bad moments too — like cramped hostel rooms, the temperamental gloomy weather and how everything closes way too early in the winter — but I guess that's the beauty of travel. The bad makes the good far more endearing, and in the end, these shenanigans will all be stories to tell some day.

Coming back from the trip honestly dampened my spirits. It feels like I haven't had enough and that I left a part of me back at wherever I was. But then again, it always feels this way after every travel venture. This time just makes me yearn a little more, because I got to spend December and Christmas there after all. It's like I don't want the allure and magic that comes with the festive season to end.



Anyway, it's just one more week before I'm thrown back to the bustle of a school curriculum so... I guess it's time to sober up and move on with work and the daily grind!

At least, I still have videos and pictures for keepsakes so I can't wait to start editing and writing about them. To welcome 2019 with some pleasant flashbacks of 2018 to keep me going doesn't sound too bad. Just working on some of the pictures you see here (with a switched up style of editing) already got me stoked for the remaining images to come.

Oh and course, some new year's resolution: To shoot a lot more, spend more time with loved ones, start a new workout regime and STICK TO IT (god knows how short lived my motivation is), pick up a new language (i said this two years ago and still haven't gotten anywhere cause #excuses), start cooking more anddddd to seriously get my driver's license because damn I've been putting this off forever and anything above the age of 23 just seems to old and lame to only be starting out.

Ha ha. The sudden realisation that I'm already turning 23... Just when did I become this old.