Year 2013 has come to an end!!! It’s time to revisit my goals and see if I have met most, if not all, of them! :) Well, as usual (and as I expected), I won’t be getting a perfect check on these items on my bucket list. Pointless but still, I am doing a year-end update! :)

1.  One tourist spot (in the UK) per month. Moving in to a different place excites me this year (ummm scares me at the same time though ehehe!). Just to satisfy this ever-growing wanderlust, I’ll be exploring this part of the world, alone or with a “solemate”. :)

Mid-year – I’ve been around some places here at the southern part of the UK—the nearest places I could go to for a day trip. :) To name, Reading (of course) London, Bath, Exmouth, Seaford, Bristol.

Year-end – And so my wanderlust was not just confined in the UK territory! During the second half of the year, I got my Schengen visa approved, good for 6 months (until 31 Dec 2013), so I had travels outside of the UK, and most of the time I traveled on my own! Hehe! I went to visit France (Paris), Spain (Madrid, Segovia, Valencia and Barcelona), Norway (Bergen, Flam, Myrdal), Netherlands (Maastricht) and Germany (Cologne and Koblenz). I’ve had a few trips in the UK, a weekend hike in Lynton/Lynmouth and a quick visit at Windsor Castle.

2.  Learn a new sport. Ambitious, yes. I’ve always wanted to be sporty when I was younger (hahaha! kung makapagsalita, parang antanda ko na!). Sanay lang ako sa mga larong-kanto and traditional games nung bata pa’ko hehe! Pero I got to learn to play table tennis and volleyball in high school; judo and basketball in college (required sa PE classes eh! Hahaha!). And the only sport that I competed into during college was Darts hahaha! Bull’s eye! Kase yun ung nilalaro ni college crush eh, aside from lawn tennis and taekwondo! =p

Mid-year – Or should I say “try” a new sport… and you call surfing a sport? I tried surfing last January in Baler, at di na naulit yun.. haha! It was fun and exciting and fulfilling (considering that I have a fear of huge waves! hohoho!)

Year-end – I got a repeat of my surfing experience!!! During my interim homecoming last September, I went on a 5-day trip around Surigao and spent some time in the island of Siargao to try surfing again)! It was more fulfilling as I was able to stand on the surf board quite a number of times hoho! :D Proof here: (The complete post on my Surigao trip on a later post!)

3.  Volunteer for an outreach program or something to that effect. ehehe! Wala lang, trip lang… Epekto ata ‘to ng pagiging tambay ko the past few days. Gan’tong mga charity works naiisip kong gawin every time I’m having a dialogue with myself. Wala, gusto ko lang ng konting meaningful event for 2013. :)

Mid-year – Not started…
Year-end – Not done! :(

4.  ****** **** ** ******* before the end of 2013! hahaha! no matter how odd and how impossible this may seem, I’ve decided to give myself the chance to revive this “faith in uncertainty” which has been once broken. Char! Nakikita ko nang hindi ‘to matutupad! Nyahaha! May parevive-revive pa’ko ha! :p

Mid-year – Boom! Yes! In my dreams though… =P Stressful! Juskopo, whyiii???
Year-end – In my dreams, yes… and it ended in reality! haha! **weird-mode**

5.  Wear a skirt / dress at least once a week (in the office or during weekend trips). Hahahaha natatawa ako habang tina-type ko ‘to! Maybe it’s time to overcome the hassle!:p Since feeling ko ‘di na ganun katindi ang pagcocommute (yung tipong byaheng Dian to Ayala via bus, standing-position-damit-na-lang-ang-pagitan-kind-of-commuting).

Mid-year – I was wrong at assuming that I won’t be commuting around here—I do commute everyday! But that didn’t stop me from wearing skirt ehehe! Yes, I started wearing them at around April when it wasn’t too cold anymore. Leg muscles, exposed! =p Photos to be uploaded next time…

Year-end – I’ll just be posting a sample of my office outfit… I’m really not fond of making #OOTDs, so just bear with this one haha! You might have already noticed that I’ve been wearing skirts and dresses on my trips to Paris and Spain… Yun lang! I can’t wear girly clothes during a hike, oh please! And during winter time—too cold!

6.  Eat / Cook something unusual. Rabbit pa din nasa isip ko hanggang ngaun! haha!

Mid-year – My home-cooked meals are (always) unusual haha! But I’d definitely try some unusual (exotic?) food when I’m back in the Ph.
Year-end – As I said, my home-cooked meals are always unusual… But my most favorite are my version of Charlie Chan chicken pasta and Oil and Garlic Seafood pasta! yum! :p Unusual ba?! Might be unusual for your taste! :p.

7.  Do a part-time job / Earn extra income. I’m thinking of accepting tutorial services (parang hindi busy eh!). Shocks! Anu ba ‘tong mga iniisip ko, slacker talaga ang peg! Or pwedeng seryosohin na ang franchising business—I’ll be very involved (virtually maybe, kase malayo ako) in running the biz.

Mid-year – Shux! I’m too lazy for things like these! :( We’ll see what happens in the second half of this year.
Year-end – I think our food stall business is earning, I’d like to believe so hehe!.

8.  Experience Moonlight over Paris. ehehe! Wala lang, I just remembered the song… Ka-emohan lang, walang basagan ng trip! lalalalalala!

Mid-year – Hahahay!!! Flight to Paris, booked!!! Hostel, booked!!! Ummm I’m scheduled to submit my Visa requirements this 4th of July; hopefully all will turn out well! :) Who wants to come along??! =p

Year-end – How come I didn’t see the moonlight in Paris?! hehe! Maybe I wasn’t just too observant, boo! Maybe I was just too tired too wait for the moon to rise–it was summer, days were longer! **excuses!** But yeah, I went to Paris—read my Paris Story here.

9.  Lose some weight and maintain it at 50kg or below. Final na, di na pwede lumagpas pa! Starting weight: 52kg na ba? Takot akong magweigh-in ngaun haha! Oh well, I’m bringing some skyflakes to the UK to help me achieve this hehe! No-rice mode ulet just like in Indonesia, and no pasta na sana… :D

Mid-year – Losing weight is taking tooooo sssllllooowwww…. Here’s my latest weight (as of 15th of June).

Year-end – I lost, I gained, but at the end of the year, I maintained! haha! Maintained at the original weight of 52kg, demet! Next year, I’ll be serious at losing weight!! :p

10.  1 million Peso savings for 2013! Hohohoho! Boom! I’ll be watching closely my cash flows for this year. It’s time to effectively manage my finances, make investments and stuff like that. ehehe! Kelangan na sigurong magseryoso sa buhay (parang hindi serious dati no!).

Mid-year – Yehh! I think as of 30th of June, I still can say I’d be able to meet this goal… But with the upcoming travel plans (hahahaha!), my cashflows would be distorted! :) Planning to cut down my costs in July though to cover for my August and September expenditures hehe!

Year-end – I saved up and then I splurged! haha!.

11.  Try a new hairstyle? Wanting to get back that old curly hair. Parang sawa na’ko mgparebond ng buhok! Haha! Sana pag kumulot, maayos na curls naman ehehehe!

Mid-year – She bangs! Just out of boredom, I cut my hair! :p.

Year-end – Did I just say I won’t cut my bangs again?! But I did anyway! :p. I have to cut my curly and damaged (because of too much hair coloring) hair that short! Wew! Ayaw kaseng ayusin nung hairstylist ang pagkakulot ko! hoho!

12.  Go out on an unusual date. Not the usual dinner-movie-kind-of-date. Basta sana yung kakaiba! It’s time to revive the romantic side of me. haha! Nagawa ko na sana yun nung 2012, kaso umurong puso ko hahaha! hmp! Ngaun, meron na’ko naiisip na unusual, pero ang malaking tanong, sino ang pwedeng i-date??? Hahaha!

Mid-year – Unusual what? Eh yung normal nga, di ko magawa! hohoho!.
Year-end – I’m not ready for a date! charot! haha!.

13.  Read. Read. Read. And share some takeaways. I have the urge to read, pero di ko maaksyunan! Hahaha! Nakadepende talaga sa mood ang pagbabasa! And it also depends kung inspired or not! ehehe! =p

Mid-year – Read some books during the first quarter of the year, when the weather’s too bad for outdoor trips hehe! Then slowed down at reading at the start of spring hehe! Wahh still got a lot on my “shelf”. .

Year-end – Ahmmm seems like I’ve only finished reading 3 books—in their entirety! The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Fault in Our Stars (which I really really like!), and Looking for Alaska. I was reading another John Green book, An Abundance of Katherines, but then..I got bored (and busy?!) hehe! And I am catching up on the Hunger Games trilogy (so behind!) Haven’t read any of John Grisham books that Tsadiktus forwarded to me! haha! :p .

For the takeways..I don’t have much except for some fave lines that I got from TFIOS (See Appendix below! hahaha!)
**hahaha! Minsan lang ako ma-hook sa pagbabasa, and this one got me! Excited to watch the movie—hopefully in Amsterdam! hoho!**

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Another year is coming. Let’s all be hopeful that this would be more awesome than 2013! I hope everyone gets to experience a better year or better years ahead and I hope we all get to tick the items off our bucket lists! :) HAPPY NEW YEAR! **fireworks** :)

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Appendix: Lines from TFIOS
“Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them,” I said.

“That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt.”

“But I believe in true love, you know? I don’t believe that everybody gets to keep their eyes or not get sick or whatever, but everybody should have true love, and it should last at least as long as your life does.”

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”

“The world,” he said, “is not a wish-granting factory,”

“That’s what I believe. I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it—or my observation of it—is temporary?”

“You say you’re not special because the world doesn’t know about you, but that’s an insult to me. I know about you.”

“I can’t talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I’m likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.”

I remembered Van Houten’s letter: Writing does not resurrect. It buries.

Without pain, we couldn’t know joy.

‘Pain is like fabric: The stronger it is, the more it’s worth.’

Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.

I missed the future. Obviously I knew even before his recurrence that I’d never grow old with Augustus Waters. But thinking about Lidewij and her boyfriend, I felt robbed. I would probably never again see the ocean from thirty thousand feet above, so far up that you can’t make out the waves or any boats, so that the ocean is a great and endless monolith. I could imagine it. I could remember it. But I couldn’t see it again, and it occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again.

Okay, maybe I’m not such a shitty writer. But I can’t pull my ideas together, Van Houten. My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.

But her hand was still her hand, still warm and the nails painted this almost black dark blue and I just held her hand and tried to imagine the world without us and for about one second I was a good enough person to hope she died so she would never know that I was going, too. But then I wanted more time so we could fall in love. I got my wish, I suppose. I left my scar.

What else? She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.