Just like how I did it last year, I am gonna first say why today was a beautiful day before doing a round up of what made this year the most terrific of all!
Today was pretty awesome because the hubby and I had a very nice and cosy dinner at the Punjabi Grill by Jiggs Kalra at the Marina Bay Sands, with two of our friends. Sure, the dinner was over priced and the ambience wasn't the best, but their New Year's Menu came with three glasses of different wines and the food was indeed very new, innovative and surprisingly yummy. We had a wonderful time chatting and having a lot of fun over the dinner, after which we went to one of the friend's place for the midnight countdown, further drinking (I had the maximum alcohol I've ever had in a single night at 2.5 glasses of wine!), fireworks viewing (his awesomely located high-rise flat made the fireworks at both Marina Bay and Sentosa very visible!) and a few more hours of fun, as we welcomed the new years together!
That was for today. Now for this year and what made it so super awesome! There's a whole load of stuff really, so let's do a list.
Here's all that made 2011 awesomely beautiful!
1) Blog - Completing two years of writing this blog! To be very honest, wouldn't have expected myself to get that one done!
2) Cooking - I must say that this year was quite a remarkable one for the amount of cooking I've done and of course, for their yumminess level! And needless to say this was a huge, huge jump from my cook-once-every-year routine that I had been following for the last 6 years or so. So that's pretty awesome!
3) Fitness - This one am pretty happy about because the number of days I exercised this year was a good +20% vs. last year (my target was +15%) and specifically for yoga, there was a jump of +44% vs. last year (my target was +25%)! This has in turn continued to maintain my fat percentage at levels am pretty happy about!
4) 15 Countries - Travelling to 15 countries across 4 continents, 7 of them for the first time ever! In my wishlist from 2007, I had wanted to travel to 15 countries by the time I turned 30 and the fact that I could do all of them within this 1 year was a blessing just too good to be true!
5) Europe with Parents - Taking my parents and in-laws on that fantastic European holiday, again one of the items on my wishlist from 2007. I had always wanted to take them to all those wonderful places that I've had the privilege of visiting and finally that dream came true!
6) A once in a lifetime experience - Not just taking the parents on the holiday, but giving them that surprise of a lifetime, when we unexpectedly popped up at the Bombay airport just as they were about to board their flights, and told them that we too were joining them on their trip - something which was a top secret till then! The expressions on their faces and their reactions were simply to die for, it was indeed a once in a life time experience! I hadn't shared the video of that very memorable experience here before but let me do that today.
7) The Entrepreneur Hubby - This has less to do with me and everything to do with the hubby but this year, I watched his transtition from a consultant and analyst to an entrepreneur which is a dream come true for him. Like I said, I have nothing to do with any of it (other than offering the name Teamie for his company!) but I am incredibly proud of him and I find this milestone has made this year even more wonderful for us!
8) Family - I had a whole load of wonderful time spent with my family this year! The year kicked off with my mom and in laws being in town, after which all four came down for the Mausams premiere, all of us travelled Europe together and they again came down for a visit mid-year. We also spent some time with not just the parents but also the extended families - uncles, aunts, cousins etc. etc. on both sides, thanks to the weddings of a cousin each on my end as well as my hubby's! And all of that was huge, huge fun and remains very close to my heart!
9) Dance - Thanks to the hubby's cousin's wedding in November this year and a dance performance that was required for it, I had a blast choreographing and dancing to a few songs. I always miss dancing, something which was such a big part of my life during my college days and this year, I put in a lot of time into it for a couple of months. That was an incredibly awesome feeling!
10) Work - This year was evidently very eventful because of travel and film making and all that but what I am very happy about was also how, during a very tough time at work, I could really put my whole self into it and pull things around. It gave me such a sense of fulfillment like I've never had before! Had this not happened, I would have ended up feeling like an underachiever at my job and that I had to compromise my work for some of the other things I did. But that was not the case! In what was very aptly titled "One of the best days ever" post, I had explained the whole thing but for now I would just say that it was one of the biggest and best learning experiences I've had. I learnt that it is absolutely possible not to give up on something and you just have to keep trying really really hard, no matter how things seem otherwise!
11) Mausams - My God, Mausams! This year saw its completion and what a journey it had been to get there! Some of the milestones had been captured in this blog as and when it had happened - the theme song release, the teaser release, the last minute highly nerve wrecking editing, background score and sound design work (which has several posts dedicated to it), the behind the scenes video, ticketing and publicity work including giving interviews for video and radio shows and several newspapers and magazines and last but to the least, the fantastic and unbelievably eventful premier night in Singapore which became the mother of all coincidences by falling on the 500th day of this blog! Mausams is and will stay one of the most beautiful journeys I've made in this life.... it was just out of this world!
12) Unexpected Blessings - All of the above Mausams stuff are probably the expected ones - you know, things that I was expecting to happen and working towards it - i.e. completing the movie and releasing it on time in Singapore. But what I absolutely didn't expect and hence was like the biggest blessings of all was what happened afterwards. The incredible response to the film, meeting a lot of wonderful people - other film makers, film maniacs, etc. who came into my life thanks to Mausams, having a wonderful screening in my home town, getting accepted in a few film festivals and last but not the least, winning an award at one!
13) Vegas & the Award - Sure I travelled to 15 countries in 2012, but nothing like the 1.5 day trip to Vegas to pick up the Silver Screen award for Mausams. That was just surreal.
14) Inganeyum Oru Katha - this is the short film I started on post Mausams. What makes this truly special is because it's my first film in my mother tongue Malayalam and I had a wonderful time working this with my lovely Mallu team! I think IOK was simply an excuse for us to hang out together, talk in our language, discuss Malayalam movies and actors and politics and food and what not! And all this contributed a lot to what made this year very awesome!
15) Ready to be 30 - Last but not the least, I am officially ready to be 30, having ticked off every single thing on my Before-30 list. In my yearly round up from last year, I had mentioned that I was well on track to completing this list by end of 2011, and sure enough, that turned out to be true! The things pending were sky diving, making a film (in this case, completing Mausams), taking parents on a non-Asian holiday and last but not the least, learning to cycle. All of which I managed to do this year! That's truly a very satisfying feeling!
So yes, it's been a wonderful, wonderful year! One which was so special for several reasons!
And since many of the above would not have been possible had it not been for some very wonderful people in my life - family, friends, colleagues, strangers even, here's a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who's stopped to care and reach out in whatever way, big or small! And of course, there is no denying that am incredibly blessed, so here's a HUGE THANK YOU to our dear God as well!
Now it's time for 2012.
228 more to go.
Easily one of the very best blogs of yours..!All ur innumerable accomplishments are further embellished by your humility , down-to- earth approach ,your acknowledgements ... ... and make u such a lovable person...wishing u the best always....may God continue showering His blessings on u forever...
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