New Year New Look

Fireworks display in London on New Year's Eve

First of all, Happy 2007 to everyone! It's been exciting waiting and looking forward to this new year and counting down to the goodies coming ahead. Did you also notice my new blog outlook?! So many things to look forward to;

Time to train up for the marathon!

1. Baby Brendan's first birthday,
2. First marathon in the UK
3. Graduation, hopefully
4. Job or PhD
5. First CNY outside Malaysia,
6. First Easter outside Malaysia
7. Possibility of flying home cheaply if AirAsia seals the JV deal with Virgin
8. More marathons in the UK or Europe
9. Possibly playing host to my friends (in Japan) who are planning to visit Malaysia (VMY 2007 mah..)
10. Possibly family and friends attending my graduation in Cambridge!

Just these 10 things already kept me looking forward to the new year. There are many more...

New Year in Cambridge was quiet but not as dead as Christmas. There were no fireworks. Fireworks were only in London. I counted down at The Eagle Pub where Crick and Watson, the two Cambridge scientists announced the secret of life, the DNA. So, what better way to celebrate the new year than a place that announced new answers to life! We (actually the people around us) counted down for 5 times, and went up to year 2012! Watch the video and observe how many countdowns were there altogether...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21jgcAidZgc

You had been looking at all the nice things that I posted up here. Now this picture is not a very nice thing to be boasting about. This shot was taken by my friend who came for a discussion on assignments at 1.30am. That's typical...

I had been very pressured and getting alot of stress lately. It is just hectic here. There is almost no holiday for me, at least. I have been waking up early and sleeping late every night (morning) on assignments, one after another. It is just a bottomless pit and there is really no end to it except until the course ends. I envy my friends in other universities who could even do a part-time job during their postgrad studies. What is this man!

Anyway, on New Year's Day I had bah kut teh for the first time in the UK. Winson invited Sean and myself to his house for the rare Malaysian delicacy. Was yearning to eat that for a long time! Cold weather, hot soup, yau choi with ikan bilis and a spicy concoction of garlic, chilli padi, black and soya sauce.

L to R: Me, Winson and Sean having bah kut teh. If you are thinking about the flag, that's a South African flag and I have no idea how it got up there. And there are no South Africans in Winson's flat.

Wah lau eh! Syiok oh! Haha...that was how Sean expressed himself before sitting down at the table, a typical cool Singaporean....

I have not thought about new year resolutions yet. I just want to be healthy, happy and be ever more faithful to God who decides on what He thinks I deserve, rather than what I think. I also hope that all the people whom I meet could exchange the energy of joy and love among each other with a greater degree of altruism in the spirit of reciprocity, so that this happiness is not only for myself, but is shared with others and others with me.

I also hope that those great moments and encounters in my life are not hollow and tainted by material greed in disguise of happiness. And I wish everyone again a Happy 2007 and may you get what you have set out to do and achieve in life.