2008 - An Eventful Year

Everyone's doing a 2008 recap.

While I hate jumping on any bandwagon, I'm gonna do one too since it's the easiest way to talk about all the stuff that happened last year without posting them one by one - so here goes :

1. Ran a half-marathon with Chris

One of the things on my To Do List in life is complete a full marathon. We started with a half marathon in the KL International Marathon - a mere bone-crushing 21km.

Our stamina was fine, but we didn't expect our limbs to give out. The knees and fibula (or whatever you call the bones of the feet) gave way under the strain and we were hobbling to the finish after only 10km. Walking was excruciating.

We managed to make it under the qualifying time of 3.5 hours, but only barely. I was reminded of similar suffering and tears when we approached the peak of Mt Kinabalu only a year ago - seeing the peak within reach, but no longer having the strength or bone density to reach it.

Read Chris' account of the harrowing experience here.

2. OMFG I married Chris !
That which I had not thought possible, has become a reality. I actually found a lovely man to fall in love with and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. And ... he feels the same way about me. Shocking!

I planned to do a day-to-day The Making Of our wedding, but I shall now condense it into a few visual aids.

Making the wedding cards. Very kindly printed by my uncle, but a very manual process to put together.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!" .... Losing it after cutting 500 little name labels.

Roped in some strangely cheerful help ...

And some ... not-so-cheerful ...

Our little sweat shop ...

Prepping for pre-wedding studio shots

Chong ... Chris Chong ...

... neither shaken, nor stirred ...

"Nnngarrfff". Hungry zombie snarfing a scone after 9 hours of shooting

3. Best Valentine's Day & Birthday ever!
I'm a cheap date, so I have not been wined and dined in style before. Often because I stupidly tell the guy that it's a waste of money to spend big moolah on one expensive dinner that could buy you 5 more equally tasty dinners somewhere else. But in my hidden, secretly girly heart, I still hoped for it.

A mind-blowing menu containing beer-drunk cows

Chris, my first Valentine, gave me the most romantic and sexy of Valentine's Days. Details have to be omitted ... because I am shy. *Coughs*

A few months later, it was followed by an amazing birthday treat in a restaurant I only ever heard about from other girls - La Fite. Swoon. They were the most beautiful of dates which made me feel very RARRRR RARRRRR (!!!) about Chris. Which is why I really shouldn't have been surprised when this happened :

4. OMFG OMFG I was impregnanted !
Still reeling over this one because getting pregnant is the single most feminine thing a female can do in her life. To many, being able to have a bun in the oven DEFINES you as a woman.

So for obvious reasons, I didn't think that macho, cussing, finger-flippin' furniture-smashing little ol' me could ever get knocked up.

Then sometime in Sept, a shocking discovery was made on a pee-stained stick (read about it here) and I am now over 5 months gone.

But, I hate being pregnant. All the rhapsody and song about the "beauty" of pregnancy is a bunch of bull crap!

You suffer all manner of indignities during pregnancy - gas, pimples, strange BO, horrendous rashes, hair growing in weird uncomfortable places, uncontrollable leaking when you sneeze or vomit, reswallowing your own bile and vomit to save your carseats, vomit splashing back on your face when it rebounds from the toilet etc... you name it!

And God help you if you have a HARD pregnancy because you should expect NO sympathy from the following :

- Other women who have been pregnant before, but had EASY pregnancies.
("It's all in your mind, love ... You should keep yourself busy")
Um. I DO keep my mind busy. I often have lurid and detailed fantasies of beating you to death with half-digested chicken drumsticks.

- Males
("Pish tosh, pregnancy is a snap. It's the delivery that's hard ...").
Yeah, like you'd know what either one feels like, motherfucker.

- Females who've never been pregnant before
("You should be more positive and stay calm, for the baby's sake. You should this ... you should that ...").
Why don't you go fuck yourselves asexually, get yourselves pregnant, stare down at your regurgitated breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday for 5 consecutive months and THEN tell me if you stayed calm and positive? Fatherfuckers.

My sister's attempt to identify all the mysterious 14-week old baby bits

I only felt happy in the 5th month, when I started feeling cute little movements of the bub in my belly, thus ensuring that I was INDEED pregnant with a lovely little human being inside me (not with an alien creature about to burst free from my already distended abdomen).

I love our still-unborn child. It's the pregnancy that's unbearable.


5. I earned my freedom!
After years of talking about leaving the rat race to take a break and discover what I truly wanted to do, I have finally got my savings together and done it.

Problem is, so much has been happening during the "break" that I haven't had much time or presence of mind to think about my next career move yet - though I am leaning towards several low-paying, but highly-satisfying industries.

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Doesn't seem like much numerically, but in terms of magnitude, my life and future plans have all been turned upside down - all in 365 days. It's been a doozy of a year.

Don't have any resolutions for 2009. Can't seem to think of any. I guess I don't really care, because I couldn't possibly top what I did last year ... till I give birth to our firstborn.

Wish me luck!