#488 - Goodbye 2013

2013 has been a pretty wonderful year - I'm growing little by little in many ways and there's been new people entering my life, some people exiting my life, some people still there for me through the thick and thin, first year of tertiary education is over, I've finally doing something to earn my keep, I've learnt new skills, am experiencing so many things and I'm slowly but steadily emerging from my little shell. I like and accept myself a little bit more than I did when I was growing up but hey, I feel like I had a very awkward, fairly emo-ish and cocooned adolescence and wow can't believe people were able to put up with me and stick around back then and even now - you guys know you're awesome and are very much loved and appreciated by me. Anyway I digress, I'm just feeling rather grateful and blessed for everything that has affected me and has made me me even if not all the occurrences were necessarily good because every daily action and happening is something that I can say is featured in the story of my life and it's unique and one-of-a-kind and only applicable to me and no one else. (: And it feels absolutely incredible to be alive - goodbye 2013, hello 2014. I'm already looking forward to getting a start on writing in my new diary - every year I say I promise myself I will write every day and finally fulfill my wish of finishing a diary but yet again this year I am miserably far off in achieving my goal as I've only written up to October before stopping, I can only keep hoping that I'll eventually get there - hope keeps me going, it's there whenever I wish that it's this job application that will finally be successful, it's there when I wish that today will be a good day, it's there whenever I have a dream of achieving something and aren't we ever so lucky that it's there, where would we be without it?

So I visited the Sydney Aquarium last week with Steph after many, many years and the day was sweltering hot but we had such a good day out - funnily enough we just don't travel and go out and do fun things with each other; these kinds of activities are normally restricted to being done with friends. Just made me realise how much I appreciate her and how lucky I am to have her - she's so wonderful and I always feel that I am in no way capable of being a good older sister without her support because I just suck at that role whereas she is absolutely perfect for it. Anyway, we were both super excited to see the dugongs and well, gotta say that they are officially my favourite sea animal, so cute and fat and their facial expressions are just so affable and happy, the kind of expression a kindly old person would give you (: Worked up a sweat eating lunch at Pepper Lunch on such a hot day, cooled off with froyo and milk tea, bought some basic tees and then just went home extremely tired with aching feet.

 And then later on Boxing Day, I saw the second Hobbit: film at Liverpool with M, L and X and it was an absolute pleasure to watch - I liked the first but the second was definitely better minus the ending which could have been a tad better and more exciting; the story flowed on well and the fight scenes were excellent and coupled with clever humour here and there and who could forget Cumberbatch as Smaug (his voice!) and Freeman as the loveable Bilbo! (Sherlock season 3, soon!)  Kinda in the mood to rewatch and relive LOTR - and well well, I'm currently downloading a better quality version of the first film and I'm so crazily into this series and the Hobbit I'm seriously contemplating buying all the books, now that is a big deal! Also lovely mum has bought something wonderful from Costco - a huge jar of jellybeans that come in a whopping forty-five different and interesting flavours (blueberry muffin and fruit salad being prime examples) and they greatly remind me of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans from Harry Potter although they are infinitely less gross (: Also lovely to see Bitter at work today despite the chaos, she's the first person to officially drop by and say hi haha.

And before I forget, DW Christmas Special - usually I adore Moffat and his ingenious stories but this episode just fell into the category of 'wtf'; it was confusing and very random, although it was lovely to see Amy even for a brief second and Smith went out with a bang though - I'll miss him because he's grown on me over time but then, I'm looking forward to the new Doctor and season eight. Have been watching and re-watching a fair bit of movies in the last few days: Batman trilogy (good but overhyped), Princess Diaries 1 & 2 (I likey, they are feel-good chick flicks), When Harry Met Sally (oldie but a goldie), It's Complicated (not a stereotypical chick flick, Sweet-approved) and Anastasia (good). And gosh I've just got so damn much to write (this will be the last topic I will talk about!) but Steph and I made a swear jar around 24 hours ago and it's a pretty interesting experiment I'd say. Okay, over and out now, can't believe I just wrote a huge wall of text. (Early) Happy New Year!
 

Let us all adore and fawn over this adorable animal.