It’s finally 2018. I’m between feeling excited of the new year vs lamenting another year of aging vs thinking what does it matter if Gregorian calendar decides today should be a start of a new year? Other calendar systems would beg to differ anyway.
But to humor the spirit of celebrating a new start of international calendar, I suppose I could review my (lack of) performance last year.
It had largely been uneventful to be honest. I travelled for a month following the 3-month cooling period required to start my new job to East and Central Java, but soon ran out of money and had to hole up at home for the remaining two months. Being a natural hermit though, I rather enjoyed only being surrounded by my immediate family, pigging out on all the fabulous foods my sister-in-law (who’s Javanese and cooks mean Indonesian cuisines) and my dad (who knows his fish) cooked.
Being back to work was also relaxing but in a different way. Changing my work hours to night shifts has been a welcomed experience since I always have trouble sleeping at night. I have been sleeping better instead of struggling like my other fellow night shift colleagues.
Since I finally rented an apartment with a working kitchen, I thought I would be more productive at cooking, and over time, be better at it. Um…. I did and also did not? Sort of? As Chef John of Food Wishes said, sometimes you get bad results in the kitchen and that’s okay. Through a lot of trial and errors and countless vegetables that shrunk up uneaten in the fridge, I have finally decided to go back to my Asian roots and rely heavily on condiments and dried food, as well as frozen vegetables. These days I purchase veggies and immediately freeze them.
Relationship wise, over the years I have become better at letting things go when they don’t work out. People I used to be close with somehow slipped away. People I never thought would stay eventually settled into a comfortable distance and time table. I still get the occasional mild depression, but having someone who could simply look at me and say ‘I get what you’re feeling’ is a very relieving experience.
I think relationship is like the food you cook. Sometimes you do well, sometimes you don’t. But you learn to accept the result of your labor, welcome it into you, and if it’s a particularly bad one, you let it out quicker, haha.
Oh, to end this I should probably go with a new year resolution. I’m never really good at sticking to my goal and usually have a very low standard for myself. So I’ll go with: do more physical activities (yoga, stretching, walking and hiking), smile and laugh more often, eat healthy food, read more books (manga totally counts!), live frugally, and talk to myself more often in this blog! Happy new year!
Arle in Space 