celebrating the last day of 2008

It's 1753 hrs where I am, just slightly over six hours away from the start of the new year (and less by the time I complete this post). What do you intend to do to celebrate the last day of 2008? Party the night away? After all, there are a couple of major parties around town and a lot of other minor ones to crash. I'm thinking though, that I should spend this night at home, just like any other night, reading and perhaps thinking about all the things that I can remember as being significant to me this year. 

I just called my little sis who's in PKU just now with the intention of asking her the brand of colour pencils she wants for her belated Christmas present, when we realised that we are two of the very few individuals who are actually intrigued by how the world's timekeepers have decided to add an extra "leap second" to this last day so that clocks could match the Earth's slowing spin on its axis. Apparently she has been telling her friends this. (We're geeks aren't we). Well, geeks unite. 

On another geeky level, I took the time to list down the books I've read this year. I might have missed out a couple, but oh well. It's not as many as I'd like to, but I'll try to read more next year. 

Here they are:

CHICK LIT 

Sex and the City – Candace Bushnell 

Four Blondes – Candace Bushnell

One Fifth Avenue – Candace Bushnell

Lipstick Jungle – Candace Bushnell 

Trading Up – Candace Bushnell 

Under the Duvet – Marian Keyes

Further Under the Duvet – Marian Keyes

The Other Side of the Story – Marian Keyes 

Man and Boy – Tony Parsons

How to be Cool – Johanna Edwards

Love, Rosie – Cecelia Athern 

Fashion Babylon – Imogen Edwards-Jones

The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus 

OTHER READS THAT INTEREST ME

The Wednesday Letters – Jason.F.Wright 

Lottery – Patricia Woods

Something to Tell You – Hanif Kureshi 

Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris 

Barrel Fever – David Sedaris 

A Spot of Bother – Mark Haddon 

A Long Way Down – Nick Hornby 

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff 

The Tale of the Unknown Island – Jose Saramago 

Memories of my Melancholy Whores – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

Philosophy in the Boudoir – Marquis de Sade 

Lust, Caution – Eileen Chang

And here are books I’ve ventured to read but have yet to finish:

A Reading Diary – Alberto Manguel 

Seven Types of Ambiguity – Elliot Perlman 

Naked Finance – David Meckin

So I read too many chick lit, but hey they're easy reads. And after a typical twelve-hour workday, they seem way more attractive than the smart reads that have been sitting on my shelf collecting dust. 

Anyway, I'm resolved to finally complete James Joyce's Ulysses in the coming year. Having read The Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man way back in 1999, I think I owe it to myself to finally complete the book that has earned him the recognition as the Father of Modern Literature. I still love D.H. Lawrence, but James Joyce is really something else. 

Geeky things aside, 2008 seems to literally be "the happening" year where lots of things happened. 

1. Competed, and bought my first designer dance costume, from Tatsiana Lahvinovich no less. 

2. Had one of the best trips ever to Hong Kong (who'd have thought?) 

3. Started really focusing on my career, doing things I never thought I would love (but I do). 

4. Attended FIVE weddings of my good friends, and missed a couple more. 

5. Bawled over the death of my beloved cat, Perkins. 

6. Agonised over the unexpected loss of a friend. 

7. Moved to a fantastic office I deem more of a first home. 

8. Started to enjoy running. (I used to HATE running, constantly failing my 2.4 KM run for NAPFA. Now I run about 4 km every other day). I plan to REALLY run the 10 km races they'll have next year, one definite one being the SHAPE RUN 2009.

9. I've travelled more than I have in the past five years before 2008, spending a total of five months out of the country when I total all the days I was out of Singapore. 

10. Met up with (get this) FIVE of my good friends from Vancouver IN SINGAPORE. 

I'll add to the list when I have more time later. 

For now, I'll sign off with the WEIRDEST dream I had last night: 

It began with my friend Callie and I sitting at a table having a meal. There's another person (a dude I think, whom I cannot visualise right now) sitting beside me. But he's not important. Anyway, Callie and I decided to order the same meal, which is this five or six-course meal (thinking they are all of small portions ala French). But they turned out to be huge plates of eats. We had the most disgusting appetiser, followed by a huge plate of what seemed like fried rice or something. Now Cal was tucking into her food and I was just about to do the same, when the whole plate toppled over and all the food fell to my lap. I HAD NO FOOD. And so I asked for a replacement, which never came. All this time, Cal was already on her third, and fourth dish. And when mine finally came, it was the wrong order. Just then, my sister's friend, Maybelle (I have no idea why she's in my dream) came over and sat on me, hitting my hip bone. I asked her to move away since it hurt, and she sulked, saying how she's lost weight. And I was like, yes, you're very slim, but it's a bone, and that's gotta hurt. Anyway, I told her I was so hungry cos my food never came, and then said something like "I need to eat, I'm not fat." During which she looked at me thoughtfully, and said, "Well I guess you are a little chubby..."GAH! I think I woke up after. 

Is that bizarre or what?!