Meme - 2012 in review
The nights have been hot, so instead of squirming around not sleeping, I'm doing this (from dolorosa_12):
1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Rocked up in a country and just lived there. No real plan, no idea what I was doing or when or where I was going. I've posted about my time in Cambodia, so there were all kinds of new things going on. The other thing I did (am doing) is that I found a volunteer position that I actually feel connected to. Every other time I've just felt like I didn't know what I was doing it for, but this time, it just fits.
Also, listing my countries I'd visited reminded me that in 2012 I was a carer for a friend who wound up medi-vacced to a Bangkok hospital from Phnom Penh. Scary stuff. I can't remember if I wrote about this on here or not? He's OK now.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Was not in the head space to make any last year. I'm not sure about resolutions, I think I'm happy to go with live my life to the best of my ability. I'm not entirely sure I know what that entails, but I suppose that's the interesting thing about it. It's a bit of a non measurable resolution.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Two cousins and a high school friend. Babies babies babies galore. Cute.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily no. Although I posted on here about the death of a girl I met travelling....
5. What countries did you visit?
Lots. Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, China, Turkey and Malaysia. Whew. Big year for travel.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Money. I sort of hate it (and its corrupting influences), but never before had I realised quite so strongly how important it is. You don't need to be rich, but comfortable is good.
I'd also like a bit more intellectual stimulation. Something to really challenge my brain...
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I don't remember dates. Actually to be honest, I have a terrible memory so I'm not certain much will stay in my memory, only time will tell.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I started listing things and then realised the biggest and best "achievements" were actually making friends with some amazing new people. And coming back home and re-connecting with old friends.
9. What was your biggest failure?
A friendship that has gone sour (which I blogged about).
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
So many minor illnesses. What the heck body??? Why are you doing this to me???
11. What was the best thing you bought?
All of my art supplies. I was quite restrained with my spending this year, so there wasn't actually a whole lot to choose from, but that one is miles ahead. Well, also a plane ticket overseas (and the extension of my ticket home).
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My amazing art teacher who taught me that if I enjoy doing art, then I can be an artist. Also for saving me from the harshness of Phnom Penh and introducing me to another awesome person, my friend Maki, who fed me healthy food, was my personal tour guide and translator in Japan and was a real role model, showing me that it IS possible to take risks and succeed.
My friends, both overseas and at home, who helped me in my travels and to settle back in here.
And, as much as I don't often admit it, my parents for taking me back in and trying to help, in their own weird, and often annoying way.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
The Cambodian government. Bogan expats in Cambodia. School shooters. A certain dog in Cambodia whose bites have left scars on my hands and arm. Anyone with real hate in their hearts.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Travel and all its expenses. Yoga retreat. Food.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Too much to mention. Art, people, food, travel, other cultures, eating soup after nightclubbing in Turkey.
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
In the bedroom with the great line "I know a place, where you should go" - heard in Turkey and it's just so bad it's good. Also, appropriate as my life was all about going places.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier. Much, much, much happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Sort of the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer in $$$ but richer in experience.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Yoga. I was a bit too sporadic with it.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Feeling weird and guilty about being fortunate enough to be born into a life with so much opportunity. Instead of feeling bad, I could have accepted that was the situation and done something.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
A random Asian BBQ down at the South coast with my parents and an old friend. It was windy and cold, and the food was odd, but it was probably one of my better Christmases.
22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Not with a person.
23. Did your heart break in 2012?
No.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
I've been loving Once Upon a Time, Call the Midwife, Top Chef, Survivor (this last season was so much better), Smash and Project Runway. But the award for best show that was so so so appropriate and perfect for my life goes to Being Erica.
25. Where were you when 2012 began?
Watching fireworks near Waverton.
26. Who were you with?
A bunch of friends from university and my two lovely exchange friends who came to visit me from the US.
27. Where will you be when 2012 ends?
I was in Canberra at a Frenchie (group of high school friends - I went to a French-Australian high school) gathering eating delicious Mexican food.
28. Who will you be with when 2012 ends?
Frenchies (I cannot explain this properly...).
29. What was the best book you read?
Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Nor (something like that) which taught me most of what I know about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge genocide. I also enjoyed a couple of book club books, Sense of an Ending (by Julian Barnes) and the Fault in our Stars (by John Greene).
30. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm not sure I made any this year?
31. What did you want and get?
Some inner peace.
32. What did you want and not get?
A new job. But now I'm not certain how much I wanted it...
33. What was your favourite film of this year?
I've barely watched anything new. Pitch Perfect was fun.
34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See answer to question. The day before my birthday we went to Rick Stein's restaurant in Australia. Yum seafood. I'm now 28.
35. How many different states/cities did you travel to in 2012?
See answer to question 5 - various places in those countries. In Australia? Just two.
36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Breathable fabrics. Tropical weather = comfortable clothes.
37. What kept you sane?
I'm not sure I was all that sane. Maybe my friends.
38. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Annabel Crabbe (and through her, SOME of the politicians on her show). Forgot to mention I love Kitchen cabinet in the TV shows question. Poh Ling Yeow for her enthusaistic cooking shows. Erin Karplunk from Being Erica. All the characters on Community (another show I forgot to mention). And the potentially hot dwarf in the Hobbit movie (just for the few second glimpses of his maybe hotness - maybe because it was too short to really tell). Also, embarrassingly, my criminal law lecturer because his class was amazing and showed me I can enjoy learning, I just need an inspiring teacher!
39. What political issue stirred you the most?
Poverty and corruption, particularly in Cambodia.
40. How many concerts did you see in 2012?
Jisan Rock festival in South Korea. Maybe just that one?
41. Did you have a favourite concert in 2012?
Radiohead was pretty good at the rock festival. Nobody tops Imogen Heap and Sufjan Stevens though.
42. Who was the best new person you met?
So many wonderful new people. I don't want to pick just one.
43. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
No, I was probably embarrassed a few times, but it's impossible to get through life without being a little bit foolish.
44. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2012?
Being given roses by a random Turkish guy who worked in a bar that we went to. It was sweet, but I felt very awkward and also bad because I wasn't really interested.
45. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
It's OK to be me. Especially as I really can't be anyone else. So better to be me.
46. What are your plans for 2013?
Attempt this balanced life thing where I work enough to live, create enough to feel alive, socialise enough to feel loved. Fill my life with things I enjoy and minimise the things that I don't.
47. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
This is a bit cheesy sorry but I'm in a cheery sort of mood (also ate a lot of cheese tonight, *badoom chhhhh*):
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
They're really sayin......i love you.
Louis Armstrong - what a wonderful world
1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Rocked up in a country and just lived there. No real plan, no idea what I was doing or when or where I was going. I've posted about my time in Cambodia, so there were all kinds of new things going on. The other thing I did (am doing) is that I found a volunteer position that I actually feel connected to. Every other time I've just felt like I didn't know what I was doing it for, but this time, it just fits.
Also, listing my countries I'd visited reminded me that in 2012 I was a carer for a friend who wound up medi-vacced to a Bangkok hospital from Phnom Penh. Scary stuff. I can't remember if I wrote about this on here or not? He's OK now.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Was not in the head space to make any last year. I'm not sure about resolutions, I think I'm happy to go with live my life to the best of my ability. I'm not entirely sure I know what that entails, but I suppose that's the interesting thing about it. It's a bit of a non measurable resolution.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Two cousins and a high school friend. Babies babies babies galore. Cute.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily no. Although I posted on here about the death of a girl I met travelling....
5. What countries did you visit?
Lots. Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, China, Turkey and Malaysia. Whew. Big year for travel.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Money. I sort of hate it (and its corrupting influences), but never before had I realised quite so strongly how important it is. You don't need to be rich, but comfortable is good.
I'd also like a bit more intellectual stimulation. Something to really challenge my brain...
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I don't remember dates. Actually to be honest, I have a terrible memory so I'm not certain much will stay in my memory, only time will tell.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I started listing things and then realised the biggest and best "achievements" were actually making friends with some amazing new people. And coming back home and re-connecting with old friends.
9. What was your biggest failure?
A friendship that has gone sour (which I blogged about).
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
So many minor illnesses. What the heck body??? Why are you doing this to me???
11. What was the best thing you bought?
All of my art supplies. I was quite restrained with my spending this year, so there wasn't actually a whole lot to choose from, but that one is miles ahead. Well, also a plane ticket overseas (and the extension of my ticket home).
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My amazing art teacher who taught me that if I enjoy doing art, then I can be an artist. Also for saving me from the harshness of Phnom Penh and introducing me to another awesome person, my friend Maki, who fed me healthy food, was my personal tour guide and translator in Japan and was a real role model, showing me that it IS possible to take risks and succeed.
My friends, both overseas and at home, who helped me in my travels and to settle back in here.
And, as much as I don't often admit it, my parents for taking me back in and trying to help, in their own weird, and often annoying way.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
The Cambodian government. Bogan expats in Cambodia. School shooters. A certain dog in Cambodia whose bites have left scars on my hands and arm. Anyone with real hate in their hearts.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Travel and all its expenses. Yoga retreat. Food.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Too much to mention. Art, people, food, travel, other cultures, eating soup after nightclubbing in Turkey.
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
In the bedroom with the great line "I know a place, where you should go" - heard in Turkey and it's just so bad it's good. Also, appropriate as my life was all about going places.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier. Much, much, much happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Sort of the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer in $$$ but richer in experience.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Yoga. I was a bit too sporadic with it.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Feeling weird and guilty about being fortunate enough to be born into a life with so much opportunity. Instead of feeling bad, I could have accepted that was the situation and done something.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
A random Asian BBQ down at the South coast with my parents and an old friend. It was windy and cold, and the food was odd, but it was probably one of my better Christmases.
22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Not with a person.
23. Did your heart break in 2012?
No.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
I've been loving Once Upon a Time, Call the Midwife, Top Chef, Survivor (this last season was so much better), Smash and Project Runway. But the award for best show that was so so so appropriate and perfect for my life goes to Being Erica.
25. Where were you when 2012 began?
Watching fireworks near Waverton.
26. Who were you with?
A bunch of friends from university and my two lovely exchange friends who came to visit me from the US.
27. Where will you be when 2012 ends?
I was in Canberra at a Frenchie (group of high school friends - I went to a French-Australian high school) gathering eating delicious Mexican food.
28. Who will you be with when 2012 ends?
Frenchies (I cannot explain this properly...).
29. What was the best book you read?
Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Nor (something like that) which taught me most of what I know about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge genocide. I also enjoyed a couple of book club books, Sense of an Ending (by Julian Barnes) and the Fault in our Stars (by John Greene).
30. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm not sure I made any this year?
31. What did you want and get?
Some inner peace.
32. What did you want and not get?
A new job. But now I'm not certain how much I wanted it...
33. What was your favourite film of this year?
I've barely watched anything new. Pitch Perfect was fun.
34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See answer to question. The day before my birthday we went to Rick Stein's restaurant in Australia. Yum seafood. I'm now 28.
35. How many different states/cities did you travel to in 2012?
See answer to question 5 - various places in those countries. In Australia? Just two.
36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Breathable fabrics. Tropical weather = comfortable clothes.
37. What kept you sane?
I'm not sure I was all that sane. Maybe my friends.
38. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Annabel Crabbe (and through her, SOME of the politicians on her show). Forgot to mention I love Kitchen cabinet in the TV shows question. Poh Ling Yeow for her enthusaistic cooking shows. Erin Karplunk from Being Erica. All the characters on Community (another show I forgot to mention). And the potentially hot dwarf in the Hobbit movie (just for the few second glimpses of his maybe hotness - maybe because it was too short to really tell). Also, embarrassingly, my criminal law lecturer because his class was amazing and showed me I can enjoy learning, I just need an inspiring teacher!
39. What political issue stirred you the most?
Poverty and corruption, particularly in Cambodia.
40. How many concerts did you see in 2012?
Jisan Rock festival in South Korea. Maybe just that one?
41. Did you have a favourite concert in 2012?
Radiohead was pretty good at the rock festival. Nobody tops Imogen Heap and Sufjan Stevens though.
42. Who was the best new person you met?
So many wonderful new people. I don't want to pick just one.
43. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
No, I was probably embarrassed a few times, but it's impossible to get through life without being a little bit foolish.
44. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2012?
Being given roses by a random Turkish guy who worked in a bar that we went to. It was sweet, but I felt very awkward and also bad because I wasn't really interested.
45. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
It's OK to be me. Especially as I really can't be anyone else. So better to be me.
46. What are your plans for 2013?
Attempt this balanced life thing where I work enough to live, create enough to feel alive, socialise enough to feel loved. Fill my life with things I enjoy and minimise the things that I don't.
47. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
This is a bit cheesy sorry but I'm in a cheery sort of mood (also ate a lot of cheese tonight, *badoom chhhhh*):
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
They're really sayin......i love you.
Louis Armstrong - what a wonderful world