3 Weddings, A Funeral, and a Couple of Holidays

It's been a helluva month! Sitting down and recounting to my colleague about the number of trips I've made this year, I surprised even myself on how much travel I've chalked up this year. Considering I'm not a business traveller, I've traversed quite a bit of the globe in the last eight months.

First off the block was the end of last year, when we duly trooped off to Bali for a wedding. Then, less than a month later, I was jetting off to Sydney for another wedding. Three months' later, we drove up to Ipoh for yet another wedding. Two months after that, it was to my old "hometown" of Hong Kong for a shop-and-feast. A month thereafter, it was time out across the Causeway with the girls for an enjoyable birthday treat (creepy hotel room experience notwithstanding). Barely another month passes, and we were rushing up to Ipoh on the overnight bus to bid my aunt a final farewell. Weeks later, we jetted off on the free air tickets I managed to score on the budget airline to Langkawi, and I finally got to see what all the fuss about fine sand on the beach was all about. And immediately after putting in one measly day of hard graft at the office upon my return, I was off to Hokkaido!

Breathless yet??

All this doesn't even take into account the short trip across the bridge to Sentosa for a short weekend break away from the madding crowd, thanks to J2's wedding. You have to consider all the above in the light of my usual "big holiday every other year" (which got upgraded to "big holiday once a year" after my midlife crisis).

After a year and more of feeling like I couldn't possibly be enjoying myself, I am. Finally. I look forward to getting off the plane in a foreign land, laughing stupidly with good company, throwing caution to the wind and trying tempting untried cuisine, taking countless photos of banal details of travel, hauling heavy backpacks around, and even the part where I whine about my feet being in pain from too much walking.

So, after sorting through the hundreds of photos for "the best of" selection to upload and stun others. After sorting out all the dirty clothes and laundering them. After distributing all the souvenirs and gifts hauled back from the foreign land. I'm prowling the papers and cyberspace for the next break...

Carpe diem! Plenty of fun to be had in sunsets in foreign lands!