Highlights of 2005

As 2005 draws to a close, I look back and am amazed at how much God had in store for me to make it a great year. There have been times where things may not have gone the way I'd like them to, but I am not complaining for the amount of things I have been able to do. Below are just some...

Jan:
My 25th birthday! Received lovely presents, and the best ones are B's surprise pressies of necklace and 25 roses (to mark my age - awwww....) and Bri cleaning up the flat before and after my birthday dinner. Bri says I've got to wait till my 50th birthday before I get this fantastic present again!

My first trip to Canada(for business); I had never seen so much snow before! We landed in a 'light flurry of snow' in Canadian terms, which is equivalent to a blizzard in UK. The Canadians were super-efficient; roads and train tracks were gritted and cleared of snow. We trudged through about 3 ft of snow whilst walking out for some dinner. Of course, being the tourists we were, we had to intentionally walk through snow piles although there was a perfectly ploughed pathway next to us. Fun making snow angels (see pic on left!) and having snowball fights on the way home from dinner one day too! Was spoilt with the hotel breakfast, where choices included pancakes with maple syrup (yummy)! For some reason, Canadian bacon tastes really good! I was also able to tag a trip to Toronto at the weekend. Trained it from Windsor to Toronto, which took approx four hours. Louise had flown into Toronto from NY for the weekend, so it was great to be able to meet up with her (haven't seen her in three years!) and meet her fiance Alan. I love Toronto - felt really safe walking around at night, although I guess it helped that 6-foot-plus Jon was there too! Took the chance to go up CN Tower the next day. We stood over the Glass Floor, 342m above ground. Definitely not for altophobics or acrophobics! See the pictures via this link.

Feb:
Spent the weekend in Glasgow en route to Loch Lomond on business. Great hotel (has a sauna room in each room!). Spent CNY in Loch Lomond.

Another trip to Canada; where the client treated us to an ice hockey game where Windsor Spitfires were playing at home. During half time, little kids (must have been less than six years old?) had a little game (you may be able to just about see them on picture on the right). So cute! They were better skaters than I can ever hope to be! At the end of the week, I made a trip to Niagara Falls. It was incredibly cold. Took a walk to the Falls at night when I arrived. It was raining and I realised that parts of my hat and coat, where it had been wet, had frozen. How cool is that? The Falls were soooo beautiful. With the snow all around, it felt like winter wonderland! Niagara Falls pictures here.

March:
A business trip to Bilbao and San Sebastien. The view I remember best about San Sebastien was walking over the bridge, looking to my right where I could see the Pyrenees covered with snow and to my right, one of San Sebastien's three beaches. We were treated to proper siestas during lunch too. Never have I had three-hour lunches before, and boy, were the food scrumptious! Fresh seafood, very simply prepared yet tastes incredibly good! The downsides of that were having to work till 11pm to complete the work and obviously, trying to lose the weight gained during my visit!

Second visit to Hong Kong, where I visited Ocean Park and Shenzhen too. Yet again, indulged in scrumptious desserts (mango pudding, mango pancakes, etc etc!), dim sum, wonton noodles, roast duck, and the list is endless. More pictures here....

April:
Completed the assignment that took me to Canada, Glasgow and Spain. Started another assignment that would be a fantastic learning experience and as a plus, a great credential to add to my CV.

May:
Meal with my new team at The Square. We had the ten-course Tasting Menu and for some reason, the dishes seemed to revolve around spleen!

June:
Presented a talk at the National Graduate Recruitment exhibition - signed up when I was brave, but before my talk began, I started thinking twice. Too late! It turned out ok in the end, and hopefully some have applied successfully for places.

Attended my first ballet class in about three years, and more than seven years since I stopped regular ballet classes. Really enjoyed the class and my pirouttes, developpes and grand battements were a lot better than I thought they would be. Of course, it was rather painful the next two days as I nursed my sore limbs! Not that I did anything strenuous during the class, but it just shows the lack of exercise I have had (despite eating loads when abroad!).

South Firebreak Day saw us having fun duck herding and trying our hand at archery. There were some interesting antics from fellow team members during drinks at the bar the night before, all of which I will not repeat here!

Also had a trip to the Hague for a two day client offsite meeting. It was interesting to hear how the project was going, especially how most clients faced the same issues, which I believe is mostly due to changes in attitudes towards regulation (ie more efficient to stop moaning/looking for ways out and actually do something about it!). In the evening, we had a teaming event in the kitchen. Sounds weird? In five groups of ten, we cooked a three course meal and were judged on quality, team and presentation. It was like Ready Steady Cook!

I attended City Women's Conference held at Lees Chapel. We studied chapters from Deuteronomy. I was encouraged to hear many experiences from others which weren't that different to mine, and realised how easy it is to walk away from God, then how difficult to rediscover the faith.

July:
Amongst the great meals we tried this month were at Passione and Ramsays Royal Hospital Rd restaurant. Watched Saturday Night Fever with some colleagues - very very good!

Our Away Day in Amsterdam. The second day coincided with 7th July bombings, which was a scary time for some as at least half the attendees were from London and were frantically trying to contact loved ones to confirm they are ok. The three-day Away Day was planned as a celebration of our achievements in 2004-5. Due to this tragic circumstance, our Managing Partner asked if we wanted the event to be more sombre or to continue with the well-deserved celebrations. Everyone gamely decided to continue the celebrations whilst humbly remembering how lucky that we were not in London when this happened, and that it did not affect our loved ones. I must say, however, cycling under influence of alcohol is a no-no! Especially when you're cycling on the different side of the road than you're used to! It was surreal returning to London the week after, seeing the bomb scenes which I had only seen on the news a few days before. Although I was lucky that none of my family or friends had been affected, it touched me to see how many lives were lost and really, how life is so fragile.

Aug:
A busy month with Anoup's wedding in Hitchin then Aston Villa, B's and Bri's 27th Bday BBQ, trips to Prague, Stockholm and Stonehenge. Probably easier if you check out the photos rather than me rambling on (more than I have done so far!):








B's and Bri's 27th Bday BBQ

Prague food

Prague castle

Prague LQ

Prague New Town

Prague Jewish Quarter

Prague Old Town

Prague Petrin Park

Prague Charles Bridge

Stockholm

Stonehenge

Sept:
Moi tagged along to B's conference in Paris. It was meant to be a holiday for me but thanks to a far-from-good hotel, I ended up feeling rather tired and needing another holiday when we got back to UK. Some of our Paris photos available here.

B decided that he was ready for long term commitment and proposed!!!! We haven't set a date yet, but it will likely be in 2007. A date will hopefully be confirmed in summer 2006.

Our quarterly Firebreak Day was spent canoeing. The other half went cycling, thinking it would be an easier activity and boy, did they regret it!!! We were entertained with tales of people losing controls of the bicycles, falling off the bicycles, controlling the bike whilst having a conference call.....

Our last Development Programme workshop. DP has now been replaced with Accelerated Leadership Programme (ALP) which, I was told, is more selective. I was privileged to have been nominated and selected for the ALP. Not much news about what is expected at this stage yet, but will soon hear more....

Indulged in food at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons. Can these pictures tempt you to visit?

Oct:
At the offsite meeting at Lensbury, I had to give a talk on a specialist subject to 70 people! Again, rather scary especially because these people would know if I'm talking nonsense since they work in the industry. Turned out ok in the end though - phew!

Watched Blood Brothers with Anne and Beverly. I expected it to be a musical, but felt that it was a balance of play and musical. Very interesting experience.

Attended the London Women's Convention. A day of praise and worship, and learning how to understand God's word in our lives. Very useful talks on friendship and bringing up children. I find these conventions such a great way to be closer to God again, to reflect yet again on His blessings.

Nov:
The ALP launch event was very enthusiastic and energetic. Expectations are high and I hope I will be able to meet them well.

Work took me to Philippines, stopping by HK on the way there and back. Pictures on this link.
Another trip to the theatre to watch High Society with Beverly. Despite the cinema being very empty and Jerry Hall absent from the cast list for this performance (not sure if this is a good thing), I didn't find the musical too bad. Having said this, I would not watch it again and was glad I got the 2-4-1 offer for this musical.

Dec:
Rest assured, I won't repeat everything again - see December 2005 posting. In "bullet point form",
Germany (Dresden and Leipzig)
Beauty & the Beast
Various Xmas dos
Lin's Xmas carol service
Absolut Ice Bar
Fat Duck
Milan
Christmas
All in all, I was lucky to travel both for leisure and business, to ten countries (Canada, Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, Czech Republic, Sweden and Italy), or twelve if you count stopovers (above + US (Detroit en route to Windsor) and China (day trip to Shenzhen).

Let us not forget the sufferings that many have endured in 2005 too. Whilst I look back at 2005 with happy memories, 2005 may not have been a year of joy for those who were affected by the Boxing Day tsunami, London bombings, Kashmir earthquake, the floods, plane crashes, car accidents, illnesses; whether they had lost loved ones in these tragedies or they experience physical/mental scars as a result of surviving these tragedies. May we learn from our mistakes in 2005 and make 2006 a better year, not just for ourselves but for our friends, neighbours, community and enemies.