Two more days before we say goodbye to 2025. What a year it has been for me, and I cannot gush enough about it. Thank you, 2025, for the people, the places, the experiences, and the wonderful memories.
I look forward to the coming new year with excitement! Here’s wishing all my readers, friends, and family a very Happy New Year! May the new year bring exciting adventures and experiences, a healthier lifestyle, and good well-being to all.
It is the last day of 2024! What a year it has been for me. There were more travels than ever, more memories made as the year progressed, and sadly, a new injury. Let’s recap for the record.
My DIY crafting and building miniatures waned and came to a complete halt when my travels kicked in. It’s unfortunate after four years at it, project after project. Well, maybe come 2025, the interest will return. Only time will tell.
At the beginning of the year, I went to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, for golf and leisure. My flight distance and time increased dramatically with an app I downloaded to track these things. In October, I added Japan to round up my travels abroad. I figured I had reached a milestone, so I should travel more. In total, I flew 19,768 km with a flight time of one day, six hours, and 38 minutes. I’m wondering if I can top these stats with the new year. We will find out!
Wonderful memories are created with the travels and truly cherished. We played at new golf courses in Vietnam and Indonesia, and I savored the time with my golfing friends. What more can I ask for? My best memory is meeting up with an old college friend in Hanoi! The precious few hours we had is something I will never forget. We talked as if we were never apart for the last few decades that flew by.
The family trips were all about food, sights, and new experiences. Bangkok was all about walking, shopping, and eating. Likewise, Japan, but more. Wonderful, wonderful time together. I hope we can do such trips come 2025!
My golfing ability has been up and down for the year. The top highlight was being crowned the Overall Champion for my Tuesday Group’s annual game in August. I guess I peaked at the right occasion! I hope I can rediscover my momentum for the new year because I picked up a new injury right after that game.
The right tennis elbow sucks. As such, the golf has been on a downslide. But I’m not upset by this disability because hubby and I picked up pickleball to stay active! And I play with my left hand, thus preserving the right side from further aggravation. I wear an elbow guard, just to be safe, though.
Toward the end of the year, I reconnected with another old friend who migrated and was visiting. She’s my bestie’s older sister and an ardent golfer, so it was wonderful to host her. Despite the elbow woes, the time together was more important.
As 2024 winds down, I reflect on what has happened and look forward to the new year ahead. I’ve stopped making resolutions but tend to keep a positive mind as I believe in ‘you are what you think you are’ to face what’s ahead. Attract the good vibes and keep the bad ones away or at bay.
On a global scale, sports, politics, war, world peace, and climate challenges share the headlines. I’d rather not elaborate as details on these issues are available freely online. I am thankful I survived the year.
I take this opportunity to thank all my readers and supporters who have kept me going in my blog and to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May 2025 bring peace and prosperity to all.
Cheers and adieu 2024, it’s a wrap, and thanks for the memories!
Several days before ushering in the New Year, I was out with a nasty cough and flu. It was most depressing. Even the New Year fireworks at midnight could not lift my spirits.
You could say I limped, not leaped into 2024. I have been sapped to the core, nursing a watery nose and teary eyes. The sneeze just cannot come out! Ugh. What a weak start to face the new year. I’m just hoping for a speedy recovery.
The good thing about this misfortune is the sudden weight loss. I have been trying so hard to shed some pounds towards the fourth quarter of last year but have failed miserably. With so many occasions and birthday dinners, it was hard.
But with my current situation, I have no appetite, and going out is too much of an ordeal. And the pounds are gone! It’s nice to know there is light at the end of the tunnel. I will recover and face 2024 head-on.
Happy New Year everyone!
We have two days left of 2023 before we bid the year goodbye. It has been another eventful year for me. As we count down to the New Year, I reflect upon the past 12 months, and here are some highlights of the good times and not-so-good moments.
The biggest highlight would be the two weddings in the family! My only sibling’s twins got hitched within three months of each other. It was a very happy occasion for the family.
Before the weddings, I started 2023 with a bang, getting myself hospitalized for kidney stones. I thought I pulled a back muscle from gardening, but it was more than that. I can laugh about it now!
After that scare, my diet changed to one that is low-oxalate. It took a while to adjust, but I have gotten used to it now. It is always best to stay healthy than to have a recurrence.
The year also saw me having a constant battle with putting. I suffered putting yips every so often with the many rounds of golf I played this year. The musical chair with my Peanut Putter, Scotty Cameron Squareback, and TaylorMade Spider Mini putter choices was a regular practice. Towards the end of the year, I had to retire my Peanut Putter because the grip was disintegrating. Boo hoo hoo. For now, the Mini is in the bag.
There were no family holidays this year as both girls are working, but I’m okay with this. Instead, hubby and I made several golfing trips with friends, locally and abroad. As a result of the constant golfing, my craft work suffered. I slowed down building miniatures, and the latest DIY project, number #32, is incomplete and collecting dust at my workstation. Sigh. Perhaps I can revive it at the beginning of the new year. We shall see.
2023 was not all fun and happy or frustrating. There have been scary moments that I wish not to be repeated. We experienced two spine-chilling episodes with friends after golf, but quick thinking and action saved them. However, no amount of action could save the loss of others due to other issues. Unexpected and untimely, this is the cycle of life, and we have to accept it. I avoid elaborating much on these occasions because I feel it’s best to remember these people in happier times than upon their deaths. Peace be upon their souls.
What will the new year bring for me? It would be materialistic to wish for this and that. I will be practical and say better health more than anything else. With each year passing, the body cannot take the strain regardless of what I do. This dinosaur is getting old!
Well, 2023 has been happy and sad all rolled into one, to sum it up in one sentence. Goodbye 2023, thanks for the memories, and a toast to the year, now stored away as I await the New Year with an open mind.
Would you believe that we have three more weeks left for 2023?! To say how fast time flies is correct and sometimes not.
Time flies when one’s having fun. However, time does not fly when one is at home and bored to tears, with nothing to do except count the ants on the counter and listen to Spotify on a loop.
I am not reflecting on my eventful year yet, and I’m sure the right moment to pen down my thoughts will hit as the year draws to a close. Until then, I better make the most of what’s left of 2023. Then, I will have much to say and reflect on later.
The New Year started off with a bang, literally. Fireworks went off at the stroke of midnight, and 15 minutes into the new year, the fireworks continued. We have gotten used to this, having firework displays close to home.
For many years, we don’t even have to drive out to join the merry-making crowd to see the colorful displays and usher in the New Year. The comforts of home, especially from the bedrooms, give us the best views without the crowd and sweaty bodies.
My New Year did not start so smoothly. I injured my left knee while golfing. To make matters worse, I pulled my back muscle too. And at the end of the New Year game, I was in excruciating pain from the back injury. During lunch, it was horrible; I was nauseous and could not eat. We left so that I could recover from this unexpected ordeal.
I felt like a machete was chopping my back repeatedly. Even the painkiller could not help. Why is my New Year kicking off so dramatically? Ugh. Thank goodness all that excruciating pain subsided with rest and some roll-on medication. Lesson learned: do not pull weeds at awkward angles before a golf game. Happy New Year, people!
Happy New Year world! With the new year ushered in, let there be more positive vibes, more love and more stories to share!
This New Year countdown has been different for us. Year in, year out for the last few years, we would stay home for a simple home-cooked meal, paired with a bottle of wine and just relax. By eleven, we would be in bed and by the stroke of midnight, the fireworks in the neighborhood would go off and entertained us. Then in the horizon, there would more fireworks displays and we would ooh and ahh at the bursts of colors as well.
This year, a friend invited us to her house for dinner for the New Year Countdown. And what we had was a front row view of the fireworks display within the community that she lived in. We were only two streets away from the launch site; only the tall hedges between the two streets blocked the view of the actual launch.
For a change, it was breathtaking and simply awesome to see the fireworks display so up close instead of from the bedroom window. I think we ooh-ed and aah-ed for the entire ten minutes, definitely more than all the previous years combined.
It was all good positive vibes especially with the whole place organized as a carnival with lots of people, food stalls, food trucks and even a stage for live performances. A fitting welcome for the year in and curtains down to the year out.
Happy New Year!
Angieneering 
Remarks