This has been the most eventful year in the 17 years of my life. The MOST, hands down. The rest can’t really contend especially since I probably spent 3 years sleeping and on my knees, and the rest reconciling my identity (which still is a work in process) and hence just drifting through life, not gifted with the self-awareness that comes especially with age. In this year, my mental capacity has been stretched with the need to multitask, KI IS, debate, researching for COP16 to name a few; my emotional capacity with the stress, relationships with others, relationship with God. I have cultivated self-awareness as a leader in Earthwatch, been humbled by telling-offs from higher ups, been encouraged by the people around me that I’m blessed with.
So here goes!
Places I have been
- USA- New York, Washington D.C for GYLC
- USA- New York, Washington D.C for GYLC
(and technically Narita Japan due to the flight delay, yay)
- Cancun, Mexico for COP16
- Houston for transit. (I'm pushing it, I know :D)
- Malaysia for annual family getaway to rural kampongs (I exaggerate)
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Performances I have watched
(DO NOT get me started on the acts I’ve missed, namely:
Broken Social Scene
St. Vincent
But also:
Andrew BirdPatrick Watson
Florence + The Machine, The XX as opening act)
I’m not too keen on next year’s Mosaic because am not too familiar with the acts but listened to a few songs from The National’s album High Violet and do quite like it.
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Notable exhibitions I’ve been to
- Quest for Immortality- The World of Ancient Egypt
- Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town 79CE
- Parkett's exhibition "200 Artworks – 25 Years"
Greatest regret: 10 mins in the National Art Gallery is a travesty! I got to see a Monet and a Picasso but didn't get to see a Rothko which is impressive by size alone):): Oh well...
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| Mark Rothko, Four Darks in A Red |
Looking forward to:
Singapore Biennale (It’s supposed to be once in 2 years, I don't get why it's being held next year instead of this year.)
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Music I’ve checked out:
Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene
Swanlights, Antony & The Johnsons
The Sea, Corinne Bailey Rae
Belle & Sebastian in general
The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
I Speak Because I can, Laura Marling
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Books
I’m aware ‘novels’ have a more sophisticated ring to it but books, however juvenile-sounding, have been with me since my younger days.
Fiction
Fantastic carefully considered prose, with the sea as a versatile backdrop and reflection of the protagonist’s emotions.
- The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
For reviews on Kazuo Ishiguro, see here
Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Slowness, Milan Kundera
A Home at the End of the World, Michael Cunningham
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Crazy Heart, Thomas Cobb
Chocolat, Joanne Harris (Holiday read, excuse me)
Non-fiction:
The Story of Art, E.H. Gombric
A Little History of the World, E.H. Gombrich
Dreaming: A very short introduction (too focused on dream science though)Memory: A very short introduction
The Pig that Wants to be Eaten, Julian Baggini
Spiritual
- Pure Pleasure: Why do Christians feel so bad about feeling good? Gary Thoma's
- Who made God?:And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith, Ravi Zacharias, Norman L. Geisler (Good read, halfway through though)
- 3: 16: The Numbers of Hope, Max Lucado
- Crazy Love, Francis Chan
Seeking C.S. Lewis books like The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters presently. I have chanced upon so many wise quotes from him with great usage of analogies to illustrate a biblical point. A recent experience has sparked my interest in theology.
Poetry
- Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006, Wendy Cope (Bloody men are like bloody buses, heh)
- The Way Things Are, Roger Mcgough
- Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (Best anthology ever, thanks Mr Teo)- Penguins’s poems for life
- The New Penguin book of Love Poetry
Novels I couldn’t get through (but shall attempt as I age- I’m a firm believer that you need to ‘meet’ a book at a particular point in your life to enjoy it fully, like what The Sea was to me this end year)
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
- On Beauty, Zadie Smith
- The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner (my being adverse to stream of consciousness. I’m avoiding James Joyce like the plague)
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (I badly want to break through the classics world, but am stuck in contemporary fiction most of the time. Maybe Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte sometime soon)
Novels I didn’t want to get through after awhile
- The Widows of Eastwick, John Updike (Witty, but too American centric for my liking)
- Essays in Love, Alain de Botton (Too frivolous, none of Kundera’s wisdom)
- The Post-birthday World, Lionel Shriver (Her writing is faultless. However, the subject matter of an affair is slightly too unpalatable and does her writing little justice. Will try We Need to Talk about Kevin soon)
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Movies
- Revolutionary Road
- Cést pa moi, je le jure!
- Inception
- Toy Story 3
- Never Let Me Go (I can’t help feeling smug about this, oops)
- The Lives of Others
- Up in the Air
- A Simple Man
- The Curious Case of the Benjamin Button
- 1/3 of Gone With The Wind
- Casablanca
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Bladerunner
- An Education
- Grave of the Fireflies
I’m quite sure the lists aren’t exhaustive, I would have to excavate old library receipts and scour through my internet history links for them to be truly reflective. Enumerating the above brings about a certain level of satisfaction which I think works more to the benefit of yours truly than you, dear reader who probably just skimmed that whole chunk of alphabet soup.
I really am quite satisfied with 2010. Guess the premonition I mentioned at the beginning of the year which came from the song ‘No One Said This Would Be Easy’ did materialize but boy, did I gain much from the trials.
Everyone is cowering in fear because of the daunting task that lies ahead, that is confronting the A levels beast, I guess I’m no exception. This picture summarizes our fear I suppose:
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| Hokusai Katsushika, The Great Wave of Kanagawa |
But I have special antidotes that will bring me through. *brushes off holiday glitter* I may not be ready, but I’m anticipating. I may not know where I’m going, but I will follow. I may not see but I will have faith.
2011, what will you bring?
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