My 11 Favourite Bits from 2011

I know, I know, it’s already almost mid-January and here I am still talking about 2011. Late I am, but still. Here goes:

1. Niagara Falls

Ah, the majesty.

I took on some hand-carry courier assignments from March/April – June this year for free travel and as a means to earn my living. For one assignment, I was sent on a memorable trip to Buffalo to deliver thermistors. I took a good walk around the falls from Buffalo to Toronto, crossing the international border with ease and a skip in my step (I felt absolutely blessed to possess the Singapore red passport during those months).

My journey to the Niagara Falls was made extra special after meeting two other travelers who were in Buffalo with equally interesting circumstances. Myself, a Singaporean, but living and working in Shanghai, and was exploring Buffalo after completing my hand-carry courier assignment. Another girl, a fresh graduate from Taiwan, but embarking on a work-and-travel program with McDonalds in Albany, New York, and exploring Buffalo before meeting her host the next day. A young guy (you can tell by now that I’m not good with names), a fresh graduate from Germany, but had been working in Boston on a research program, and exploring Buffalo before meeting his friends the next day in Detroit for a road trip. I met the girl at the one and only hostel in Buffalo. We hit it off immediately, the way ethnically similar people sometimes seek consolation from each other in the crowd of ethnically dissimilar locals. We met the guy on the bus towards Niagara Falls. Three of us with so different backgrounds and circumstances but with one common goal — visit the majestic Niagara Falls.

Crossing the border and checking out the Falls from Canada wasn’t on our agenda at all, until we pretty much got bored with the view from the US side. Three of us are from visa-waiver countries for entry to Canada, but my companions weren’t sure they could get back to US side after going across, as both were holding different types of US visas/forms and didn’t want to risk their onward journey in the US. So before entering Canada, we double checked with the US immigration officers who were more than amused how and why the three of us were traveling together, coming from vastly different backgrounds.

I spent the next day on my own, wandering around downtown Buffalo, buying bagfuls of American groceries and also spent a bomb in a pet shop.

But this post isn’t just about this trip and it’s getting a little long so I’m moving on.

2. My parents’ 30th wedding anniversary

I went home for about 20 days in March to celebrate my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary, my mother’s birthday, as well as to attend a friend’s wedding.

About 5 tables of relatives and my family gathered on a Saturday evening to commemorate my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary at Tung Lok restaurant in East Coast Park. It was a surprisingly good affair, and my mother’s idea of getting my brother and I to host a small series of games proved to be popular with both the kids and adults alike. My brother and I stood in front of the 5 tables and he made a mini speech thanking our parents for bringing us up (made my mother smile real wide I think). The first few prizes were handed out to those who had a red packet stuck below the seat of their chairs (we planted them before everyone arrived). Then we had a song game where they had to name 3 songs I pre-selected on my iPhone (“Baby” by Justin Bieber; “Ai pia jia eh yia” so that the old aunties would have a chance at winning, but the winner gave the prize to her grandchildren anyway; and “Nobody” by Wonder Girls.) The last game was a trivia question — what is the total number you get when you add up my family members’ ages?

It was strange that my family of all families actually set the bar for a wedding anniversary celebration, since we’ve always been pretty estranged. I felt both attached and detached from the entire experience, feeling how my absence from family events does set me apart.

3. I resigned from my job

1) Without looking for a new opportunity first. 2) Just one month short of receiving my annual bonus. 3) One of the best things I’ve ever done for myself!

The next time a verbally abusive boss comes my way I will not “give it 6 months”. If there’s anything I regret in 2011, it’s having not stood up for myself and given that big man a piece of my mind. There were too many occasions where I chose the “safer” path of laughing along with him and his lackey laughing at me and treating me like a second class teammate (getting them coffee, heating up boss’ coffee). Big men and their pompous asses. Urrgh. I did such a disservice to myself during those horrid 6 months, thinking to myself “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”, when in reality the insults were getting to my self-esteem and the amount of self-doubt I put myself and The Bitch through…

Never again.

I did want to bum around for a bit, but bills had to be paid. So I…

4. Worked as a hand-carry courier

Thanks to my Singapore passport, international travel is almost seamless. Working as an international hand-carry courier allowed me to take mini-breaks away from Shanghai/China, and enjoy these short stints overseas, albeit sometimes just in airports. I could wander in the foreign streets of Chiang Mai one day, Detroit in another, indulge in street food in Taipei the next. And of course, visit the Niagara Falls (see no. 1).

Not all is fun and glorious though. I’ve slept in airports with only a towel to protect myself from the cold temperatures at the airport; I’ve showered in a handicapped bathroom (I thought it was a good recommendation I read on SleepinginAirports); I’ve had to bother airline crew to check below the plane for my boxes; run through several terminals in Chicago O’Hare Airport in five minutes to catch my connecting flight after alighting from a delayed flight.

I loved leaving at a moment’s notice, but didn’t like catching those early morning flights. Overall, I would so take this on again given the opportunity, but this time I hope I can attain the goal I had set for myself in the first place — collect enough mileage on Star Alliance to get a Gold card (free access to the lounge anywhere in the world), and redeem return tickets to Singapore for both me and The Bitch.

5. Freelanced as Content Editor for a large language learning school

The perfect complementary job to being sent to remote places — a job that allowed me to work from anywhere in the world! I curated articles, quizzes and blogs for a language learning school’s website for English learners.

Doing this freelance work while waiting for flights instilled a desire for me to make a living nomadic-like. You know the image of someone chilling under a nice straw pavilion by the beach in Thailand, laptop in front, drink with the little cocktail umbrella on the side? Yeah I had that image a lot during this period of time, and can’t wait for my dream of working location-independently to come true.

6. Became a Website Manager at a Start-up

I feel happy where I am in terms of my work life now (I’m not for “careers”), and doing the best I can to make this dream of a website become reality. I relish in having ownership to this entire project, and as the website takes shape, so does my heightening sense of accomplishment. Our ideas and mockups are becoming an actual money-making business soon.

Life in a start-up is ever-changing, full of challenges and filled with uncertainty. Moreover, I can’t imagine going back to the life of having to clock in and out of work (with my work card or fingerprint), with strict working hours and annual leave.

A big part of what I love about where I work now is that I can waltz in at 10.30am, leave at 6pm, 5pm, 4pm, or don’t even have to go to the office if my boss isn’t around. We don’t keep track of when I take days off, as long as the work gets done and I deliver what I’m supposed to, it’s all good.

7. Moved house with The Bitch and The Boys

Although we only moved 2 floors down, I’m a happy camper because this was a combined decision made by The Bitch and I. We viewed houses together, had our discussions (disagreements), and finally placed our money on this apartment together.

It was a very tiring move because both of us have lived in Shanghai for more than 5 years and boy do things accumulate. But it feels great!

8. Rented cars for summer weekends in Shanghai

This year has seen us renting cars pretty often in the weekends during summer months, partly because we enjoy driving and have been wanting to step up to the challenge of driving in Shanghai since we converted our driving licenses; and partly because car rental prices are slashed during summer!

We’ve driven to our friend’s wedding in a village in Suqian; a getaway to Sun Island; a day trip to Chong Ming Island; shopping at Shanghai Outlets in Qingpu; ferrying my mom and aunt around Shanghai; and just driving in Shanghai for fun and practice.

9. Sun Island Getaway

The Bitch and I couldn’t really get away from Shanghai during the period of time when we celebrated our 2nd year anniversary and her birthday. I rented a car and drove us to Sun Island, a very decent holiday resort (managed by Singaporeans) with nice big villas (puts our Singapore chalets to shame, really), a golf course, small water park, indoor hot spring, horse riding, etc.

We had a nice relaxed time with some fresh air and plenty of greenery that weekend, rode on horses, played some golf, soaked in the pool, and basically just enjoyed each other’s company — something we miss out on when work gets busy in Shanghai.

10. Xiaolongbao eating competition with friends

It started from a crazy idea I spouted one random day over one of our email threads, and it really happened, thanks to a Shanghainese friend who clearly demonstrated initiative.

In pairs, 6 teams ate 20 xiaolongbaos each in the shortest time possible. It took us a long time to get over the feeling of disgust and actually start to enjoy eating xiaolongbao again. This competition turned out to be a great bonding activity for us as a group!

11. Spontaneous trip to Hanoi

Other than going to outskirts of Shanghai like Sun Island, Chong Ming Island, and driving 5 over hours out of Shanghai to Suqian for a friend’s wedding in a village, The Bitch and I hadn’t had a real holiday in 2011. Until we bought last minute tickets to Hanoi, that is.

We literally bought our tickets one night for travel the next afternoon. That feeling was awesome. I guess I’d missed that feeling of leaving at a moment’s notice and derived a certain high from it.

I found Hanoi to be unpleasant, dirty and too busy with motorbikes. Food seemed extra tasty when sitting by the roadside on extremely short stools, but my butt started aching halfway through every meal. Our cruise on Halong Bay made up for the not-so-nice Hanoi though. I’m usually not someone to win the lottery or prizes at lucky draws, but somehow we were lucky enough to get a free upgrade from our Oceanview room to the HONEYMOON SUITE. WOW. That was the best part of the trip, in my opinion. We got a nice big bed with rose petals strewn nicely on it, a big window with a continuous view of the rocks of Halong Bay, a bathtub also with a great view of Halong Bay, and the best part — our own balcony with deck chairs. The two honeymoon suites are located at the front of the cruise junk, so you can imagine what a splendid view you get when chilling at the balcony. We enjoyed our bottle of Muscato (that we cleverly bought in Hanoi and smuggled onto the cruise) in our balcony that night, chatting and trying to spot shooting stars (too cloudy to see stars actually).

——————–

2012

I’m determined to make 2012 a pretty crazy year to be filled with plenty of travels, fun, and loves.

There’s the excuse of someone turning the big 4 to celebrate year-round, as well as the Mayan prophecy to push us to do as many crazy things as we can while we still exist!