Scouty’s Weblog

2012

Well… I doubt the world is going to end in 2012, as depicted in the movies or as predicted by the Mayans. So shall continue to blog.

The start of 2012, a brand new year. A bit of an oxymoron… Had wished that things will be smooth sailing for the year, yet realistically, life is always about challenging and overcoming obstacles. So I am not even sure if I should wished for a smooth sailing year or a year with obstacles and yet they won’t ‘kill’ me.
Nonetheless, I am hoping that 2012 will be a year of Hope.

Eye Appointment
Ended 2011 with my last medical appointment at the Eye Clinic. Had been searching for my eye specialist which I got to know during my Secondary School days when she was still practicing in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Somehow she had left Tan Tock Seng in 2003 and start her own private practice. So for a period of time, I didn’t managed to find her until like last year.
Finally made an appointment to visit her at her clinic while at the same time getting a check on my eyes. The check-up was ok, without any issues. Though we did had a good time catching up and chatting during the check-up. Now that I had found her, will be having my yearly eyes check-up done at her clinic.

Vietnam
Had made a short trip to Vietnam in view of the New Year holidays and also I wanted to experience how New Year count-down is like in other countries. So checked out the tickets, confirmed it and made my way there.
Managed to meet up a few friends there, so having them as guides was kind of cool, as I get to see Ho Chi Minh City from a local perspective, tasted authentic Vietnamese food and best of all, ride on a motor-bike and travel round Ho Chi Minh City while experiencing the heavy and complex traffic in Ho Chi Minh City.
One of the highlight of the visit was also experience the count-down at Ho Chi Minh City. It was a simple street party, but the turn-out was seriously large, I think the whole of District 1 at HCM City was there. Perhaps the most amusing thing I found / experience during the party was how Vietnamese have a way to prevent people from cutting through their path. It may seem like a selfish act but somehow given the size of the crowd, it is something I felt necessary to do and being a sporting tourist, I also got into the act of ‘blocking’ people.
It was an enjoyable trip overall, really seen and experience quite a fair bit of Vietnamese life-style despite it being a short 3 days trip.

School Starts
3rd Jan was the day everyone goes back to school (for those already in school) or starts school (for those whose kids are entering Kindergarten 1/ Primary 1 / Secondary 1).
It was great to see my library kids back again. Most of them actually came by to ‘visit’ me and say Hi. It’s very heartening to see those kids doing that, though a simple gesture but the feeling was really good, not only that… some of the regular library users also came by to say Hi before using the library. It’s really very encouraging to know that in the course of my work, I had directly or indirectly created some impact in these students lives.
3rd Jan was also the day, quite a few of my friends and my own sister sees their kid enter into Primary 1 or Kindergarten 1 and with the use of Social Media, updates of how their kids were doing were up in their respective FB page.

And that pretty much sums up what had happened thus far for 2012.