I don't write here as often as I did during my school days - the process of growing into a working adult has consumed whatever time I have to myself to backtrack and evaluate every experience. Besides, I'm busy growing the blog www.jackjulie.blogspot.sg, which is meant to document certain aspects of our married life, such as the progress of our flat and the planning towards our wedding banquet, which is coming up early 2015.
Wanderlust
2013 marks the year I travelled out the most in a single calendar year thus far - Taipei in January and June, South Korea in March, Hong Kong in November and Indonesia in December. Displacement in the form of travelling is unsettling yet therapeutic at the same time, because there's simply too much out there in the world waiting to satiate our hunger for knowledge and new experiences. Like counting down to 2013 at Taipei 101, scaling Mt Halla on Jeju-do at subzero temperatures, thronging the Venetian in Macau and watching Mainland Chinese tourists placing exorbitant bets on the blackjack tables, cycling in the rain against traffic on Cijin Island and stalking Hong Kong Island with a Canon 1Dx and a 800mm telephoto lens. No one specially buys such experiences; in fact, most of these invaluable memories were built either by moments of rash decision-making or simply being at the right place at the right moment. 2014 may see less travelling, but each ticket out will definitely be worth more than what I paid for.
Marriage
... is a bombastic word without a definitive meaning to it. When we decided to take the leap this year and sign the papers before getting the keys to our flat and our wedding banquet, we've carved another definition of marriage. Although it can be emotionally draining at times to always think about how near yet so far the other person is, this negative emotion motivates us chugging and working towards the next date with each other. To be completely honest, I still crave me-time, and our current living arrangement allows me sufficient alone time to do my own things that the Husband may not necessarily enjoy, e.g. spending the afternoon cleaning out my wardrobe. To many (detractors, mostly), our marriage seems incomplete without going with the conventions and keeping in line with what is deemed the "normal" progression of a Chinese wedding. I've been waiting to say this for so long: If you think your definition of a marriage is the right one, SCREW YOU.
Let's just say, 2014 is going to be a fruitful year. Let's make it awesome.
