2000-2005 In Retrospect

New year, new Chinese year, new clothes, new hopes, new resolutions.

And because I'm brain-dead from a designer's block on a web design job, here are 10 Milestones of the First Half-Decade of the 21st Century!

1. Learnt how to drive on KL roads

I only started driving after I graduated as I had all of 2 weeks between getting my licence and flying to the UK (and btw my driving-test session was the very last of the batch that didn't need to go thru P-licences!). My baptism of fire was having to drive from PJ to the Istana Budaya in Jalan Tun Razak, for a Carmina Burana rehearsal; my usual ride wasn't available that day. After having to go through the massive bits of construction at Jalan Damansara (the flyovers weren't ready yet!) and the even more horrible mess at the junction of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ipoh, I got home with a stiff neck and even stiffer hands.. but that was it, I was a Certified KL Driver.

2. Got admitted to the bar

No, i don't mean the type that serves drinks.

3. Got a job

'Cos that's what graduates do when they come out into the job market. Doh. ;-D

4. Learnt enough about web designing (I hope!) to do it for others

Not that I felt I was so 'pro'. I was broke when I decided to give up comfortable monthly pay to do the MBA! :-D (Am still broke.)

5. Got myself a blog

The actual story (never revealed before!) was that, after a bunch of stressful months at work, I decided maybe I wanted to be an arts writer/journalist, and the idea of a blog came to mind as a means for practice. Well, I didn't become an arts journalist, but the blog stayed..

6. Wrestled enough time to take up my neglected second instrument again

And that would be the violin. And I don't pretend I can confidently say "I play the violin" without shivering in fear of someone asking for a demonstration. Whoops, I've got a class at the end of this week and I haven't practised.

7. Wrestled enough time to start tap classes

By the way, here's a recent article in The Star about the tap classes I was taking, and the instructors!

8. Dislocated a knee-cap, thus putting No. 7 on hold for more than half a year

There's something about orthopaedic injury that keeps hindering my efforts at doing something with dance. (Or maybe it's just mother nature trying to tell me that I'm clumsy :-D) Back in uni, I fractured my hip bone during a fall when practising a dance co-choreographed with Hall-mates for the Malaysian and Singaporean Society ball. I can't remember the other historical incidents but let's not bore ourselves with war-injury stories anyway..

Anyway, I'm still not sure my knee can take it yet. Dang. I wanna go back. It was the first dance of any type I attempted that I didn't have a screeching teacher yelling at me asking me to try and be more graceful. ;-D

9. Got an MBA

New knowledge, new outlook, new friends, new opportunities. Am terribly glad I did it!

10. Got married

Possibly the most significant milestone of all. And with it comes new abode, new family, new box to check on forms, new NAME :-D

(You know, the thing I like about numbered lists, apart from being structured, is that it gives the illusion that you've done a lot during the time-span under discussion..)

Anyway here's to another wonderful half-a-decade ahead (and hopefully the end of my mental block for this afternoon!)

YAAAM SENGG!!!