Yow! What’s up?
You might be wondering why I’m posting my highlights and reflections now when I usually posted it in January? Well, I usually posted it in January because I thought I needed the year to end completely before reflecting on or highlighting something ’cause something might happen at the very end of year and need to be highlighted, right? But well, I want to write something else next year, so to commit to my monthly posting here, I must write it now – especially because I’ll travel at the end of the year so now is the best time to post something for December.
Well, remember the next book I started to read and asked you to guess in the previous post? I actually finished it in exactly 2 weeks while biking in the mornings! I know it’s slow compared to how fast I read in the past, but this is really much faster than how slow I was in the last years. Oh, by the way, the book is Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho! I won’t review or comment much on it. Aside from the vivid descriptions of the sex(ual) scenes (can we actually call it porn? But what you do expect when the author clearly said he wanted to write about sex? 🙈🙏), I love how the author write so many quotable texts. As expected from Paulo Coelho! But actually I got interested in reading it not just because it was popular some years ago, but also because the one translating to Indonesian was one of my English lecturers. I read the English version, though, ’cause I bought the used book when I was still in the US. One thing to learn: We should not feel superior to others just because of professions.
So after that I read another book, and guess what? I finished reading it too in less than 2 weeks! It’s Amanda Brooke’s Yesterday’s Sun. You can guess why I bought and read it. I am always fascinated about stories about “time.” Won’t spoil you with the story but heaven, the plot twist is brilliant! The setting was in England, but somehow some parts felt American, or maybe it’s just me. But one thing I can learn: Don’t worry too much about the future, cherish the present more.
I’ll be putting my reading & biking on hold for now ’cause I’ll be travelling, but now I’m thinking about what book to read next, or perhaps bring with me while traveling. I guess I should pick up Mitch Albom’s have a little faith. I have started reading that book since forever but I just couldn’t get to finish it. Now I’m contemplating whether to restart from page 1 or continue where I left. We’ll see.
But, well, 2025 has been amazing? Well, maybe I can’t say amazing with all disasters and tragedies happening in my country and its people. But where my life is concerned, I want to be thankful:
- I’ve got jobs to make a living, to save, and to afford indulging myself and my family sometimes.
- I took that JLPT test, even though I failed to pass, but I achieved my goal: I now know that I am not at N3 level yet but am really close to it.
- I got to travel to new places. At the beginning of the year I explored Borneo/Kalimantan.
- I went to China – I didn’t get to go to the Great Wall due to the weather, but what an experience!
- I went to Colombia! Gosh, I don’t know I could best describe it. It’s really beyond my wildest dream. I can’t thank my Colombian friend and colleagues enough.
- I made progress with my publication and revision, so hopefully it’ll finally get published next year. (Please wish me luck!). And again, I am really grateful for my Colombian friend, Ana. She did not just say “Let’s collaborate” but actually put it into action!
- I got to post monthly – although one of the posts somehow got lost/removed and can’t seem to be retrieved. But I’m too tired to keep asking about it, so maybe I need to learn to let go…
- I got to watch my fav anime, C-short dramas, etc.
- I got to care for my cat and plants.
- I got to eat some delicious food.
- And I’m healthy and rarely sick – even though I’m gaining weight T_T
And talking about weight, gosh! Can you guess how heavy I’m now? 49.5 kg! Dang, that’s the heaviest I’ve been in my whole damned life! All those biking apparently doesn’t help me lose weight – though that wasn’t really why I started biking. LoL Like I said, aside from my bloating tummy, I have no problem with how I look ’cause I feel like I look just the same. But apparently I don’t ’cause some clothes now don’t fit, and the scale can’t be lying, so yeah… I’m thinking maybe this is because I’m getting older. You know, the older you get, the slower your metabolism is? So maybe that’s why.
But, by the way, I’ve already created my calendar for 2026 using pics from my past travels including this year. But let’s save it for next year’s post, shall we?
You might be wondering where I’ll be traveling to, but let’s wait until I’m back from that travel. What I can tell you now is that the planning is frustrating. Planning to travel in my own country is ALWAYS exasperating! Hffttt
Well, maybe that’s not really great highlights with deep reflections. And maybe it’s more about my life in December rather than the whole year. And I think I shouldn’t end my post with negativity, but gosh…
Anyway, I hope you’re ending this year well, reaching out to a better year next. God bless!
