In further efforts to catch up on last year's posts, here we are again.

After the Korea trip, life went back to normal. I had family visitors from home, and then I flew home twice, once for SailorJeow's wedding in July and once for GAIst's. Around that time they disbanded my team at work and I was at risk of losing my job ! But then I was kept on (phew) and rejoined the local team. Blessings in disguise and I got to work in a team which I had been very interested in. At the same time, having worked my previous two roles I was very well placed to do the work here, as I had a lot more contacts and knowledge that could be put to use as well as transferable skills. It was however a prerequisite to say goodbye to two colleagues as well and the move happened in July.

EstBear came to visit in HK, and then of course I went to the Kylie concert as well. (Think this is about June). It was interesting and my first time at a concert held at a convention hall. All this time of course, there were bouts of dieting and I was busy losing weight. I think I hit a year's low sometime in September. Due of course to a combination of late nights at work and careful watching of my food. I do not think I exercised as much as first, but slowly there was a combination of youtube videos and exercises which I tried to do every few days. Surprisingly I received more than 150 birthday wishes on my facebook, I think that is a new record which was all very sweet. Funniest thing was that around this time I discovered a dead cockroach in the kitchen and I joked that it must have died of hunger as I had no food in the apartment at all. In fact I have since switched off the fridge !

A bunch of high school friends came to visit and we had a lot of fun catching up. My sister came to visit again and I think we had a lot of fun going through Big Bang Theory. (this is in September by the way). Work started to be really crazy and it was due to of course it being near the end of the year and I was doing several persons' work. Think I managed to get a weekend off and went up to China for a hot springs trip with some friends off a Groupon. With a lot less mahjong playing instead I was off on more weekend sports games either playing squash with GAEyeung or badminton with the usual MrTam. By the time early November rolled around, RaeBear, DinoBear, WoobyBear, SharBear and more came around to attend RoxBear's wedding. It was fun just going around but gosh, did we eat a lot. I think I definitely laughed when WoobyBear announced he had gained 4 kg during the week he was here.

Finally at long last I made it to my block leave in November. Not having had anything planned at first, then I was joined by GABish, MrTam and their friend MsWin and we all went to Hualien for a few days. The main point here was to visit the alpacas that GABish loved but it was a good time and we had time to visit the Taroko gorge and other seaside places. After about 4 days, I flew to Tokyo to join my mom and sister of a last minute trip. They were there courtesy of cheap AirAsia tickets and I had time to join. It being the autumn season, there were beautiful foliage everywhere and we even had time for two day trips out of the city as I was getting bored of the city. We spent a day in Yokohama where the weather was gorgeous and there were theme parks, and malls and lovely walks. We also spent a day going up to Niko, travelling around old temples and even braving the local bus system to spend a couple of hours at the local hot springs !

I had another break in December where I went home just to hang out and I also went home for the Christmas weekend ! It was my first time back in 4 years for Christmas and one very big reason of course was that it was NickyBear's wedding. One of the big things to look forward to all year ! The wedding was great and I also participated in the morning traditional events. The reason why it was greated than usual was because I got to meet with all these school friends some of which I have known for 20 years ! There were also many that were back from overseas for the wedding and holiday season, from Denmark, Germany, Australia and Singapore, to name a few. It was also very relaxing to spend some time with the family during the holiday season.

All this time as well I had been taking French lessons, starting from early in the year. As of now, I have completed four semesters, two exams and will start Level 5 in a week's time.

2011 was a very happening year in which a lot happened. Perhaps 2012 will be even more happening.

I hope so.

|