What have you done besides working the past 5 yrs?

- - WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD... grab a drink before you start reading? - -

I met up with a colleague from Philippines, Gary, for dinner last week. He's currently in Malaysia to work on a project where he'll be back for good next month.
As we were chatting, we suddenly realised the last we saw each other was in 2002, 5 yrs ago!

Geez... time flies!

Gary asked me what have I done besides working the past 5 yrs. I paused for a moment. And it suddenly struck me that my most memorable days were actually when I was travelling around Europe back in Uni days esp. Those were the days where you don't even have to worry about car loan, house loan, credit card bills etc. All I had to worry about is to finish my tutorials on time and of course to pass with flying colors.


My 20th Birthday party in Manchester, UK

It's nice reminiscing good old times, as you will realised how it actually shaped the person that you are today.

While I always envy hollywood celebs on making just USD13m in a movie or even english footballers of getting really indecent weekly wages that I would probably not earn until God-knows-when, when I do look back on the past few yrs of my life esp, I feel really thankful.

Me and my beloved boxer doggie, Simba, when I was back for summer break - 1999

Thankful for the patience and faith that my parents have towards me.
I'm pretty much the typical rebel during my teenage years, and I really salute my parents for taking all kinds of shits from me. Of course I'm not entirely 'bad' in terms of drugs, ciggies, booze.. no no.. not in that context. But there's always this period in secondary school when you learn about boys and there goes your concentration in education. And looking at the guys that I mixed with then, of course my parents had everything to worry about. If I was in my parents' shoes, I'll lock my daughter up in her room 24x7 or even migrate to a different cty! Yes, me the typical stupid teenager then.



Me in Holland after graduation



Thankful for the opportunities that my parents have given me.
I wouldn't have travelled around Europe if my parents have not sent me to Manchester to further my studies. During my Uni days, I have actually been to half of Europe which includes UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Spain & Switzerland. If you're an Art & History lover, Europe will truly blow your mind off. Beautiful building architecture of museums, palaces, churches, domes, water fountains etc - it's amazing.


Me during a company trip when I just started working - 2001

I'm sure everyone has their 'to do' list in life. Tangible & intangible assets - things that make life worth living for.
We tend to forget about intangible ones when we start working as majority of our goal then is to establish a career to earn money to reach our tangible asset goals.


Me at Taman Negara - company organised trip - went jungle tracking, caving & river-tubing - 2002

When Gary asked me what have I done for the past 5 yrs, I realised that I don't have much memories of things that I'm jolly proud of as I spent most of my time working in office, and then back home chilling out. And when I zoomed in more, it began apparent that I stopped chasing my intangible dreams as I'm just too tired after work to do anything else. Just 1 or 2 events in the past 5 yrs that managed to leave a footprint in my life :(


Me (in red) dancing on stage during a company dinner - 2003

And while I'm starting to regret of the countless times when I just pig out in front of the TV having DVD marathons, I can't take back what has passed. What I can do is make sure that I work towards my to-do list again!

Partying with my close colleagues - 2004

Some of my to-do lists (besides travelling... that's an infinity to-do list!) which left a footprint in my life the last 8 yrs (Note: This refers to my U-rated list only *GRIN*) :
1) Own a car
2) Fall in (puppy)love during a summer vacation romantically as what you see in movies
3) Dance on a table in a bar
4) Dance on a podium in a dance club
5) Get drunk around your close friends (whom you can trust!) and end up sleeping in front of the toilet bowl
6) Smoke pot legally
7) Sky Dive - free fall, not talking about the one where you 'tag' to another diver
8) Bungee Jump
9) Get a Tattoo
10) Perform/Sing in front of a huge crowd
11) Perform/Sing a ROCK song in front of a huge crowd during a competition
12) Caving - crawl like a spider and have bats shit all over you
13) Scuba dive - only did the discovery but at least I tried it before..
14) Shoot using a REAL gun.. legally la..

During Limpy's hen-nite - 2005

Out of that 14 items listed, the only recent one I did (i.e. last yr) is nbr 11 :(
The rest were done probably >3 yrs ago.. *sob*
SAD.

Me and Rudy the Rawkstar @ comp annual dinner - 2006

What's my next to-do list? Well, for now based on what I can think of - I hope to achieve these before I turn 35:
1) Get my scuba dive license and scuba-dive next to a manta ray!
2) Watch F1 Monaco @ Monte Carlo
3) Own a house
4) Have 2 kids!

So what's YOUR to-do list? I'm sure you don't want to wake up one day when you're 50 and realised that you do not have any or much footprints in your life, right?