It's been one amazing year--of both ups, and downs. It's been a year of great upheavals, and life-morphing, tumultous change.

I've seen killing machines up close (though not for the first time) up in the deserts down under--where I was scorched by the sun, blown out of my mind by the billowing winds and swirling sands, and frozen by the desert cold--all topped off with many piping hot meals of meat stew and rice, potatoes and and pie, and finished up with many nice memories of that ramshackle cold-metal-container that was my home for the better part of a fortnight.

A close member of the family passed on--the closest ever, as death visited my life again, for the second time in as many years--and it made me see a lot more, feel a lot more, think a lot more, and grow a little.

And that truly tumultous ride of over two years finally came to an end, as I got off, rather unceremoniously--for the whole journey had already began a gradual descent back to earth. I was glad to be alive, but not really alive at the end of it all; I was glad that it was over, and would not have, for all the money in the world, gone through it all over again--yet, there was a tinge of regret, that it, too, had come to and end--no matter how glad I was that it had ended.

Nothing--no matter how good nor bad it may be--lasts forever. And in the midst of the end of that journey--despite all the relief over its end--it only made that truth all the more resounding.

And as I put one life aside, swept everything away, packed the remnants into boxes (complete with full battle order for recalls!), I stepped right into another, into shoes somewhat too big for me--and tried a hand at turning some ideals into reality. Of course, reality triumphed at the end of the day, and the ideals crumbled somewhat, but it was a good learning experience nonetheless--the (convenient) last redeeming factor of most things gone bad haha--and I learnt as much as sleeping four to six hours a day on an eight-hour job could have allowed me to, and I learnt the meaning of boredom, as well as the realities of the real world. But, it was an experience, nonetheless.

At the same time, those were heady days of mid-year tropical sunshine and warm waters as I spent many afternoons in that comfortable heat swimming up and down the pool in endless laps--something I sorely miss in the sorely cold weather of the American Northeast.

Then, it was part one of the dream come true at last--the first of many new people I'd meet, as we (were) got together, strangers starting out on a journey, never dreaming, how all this would come true; now here we stand, unafraid of the future, at the beginning with you...... *cue crooners* (sorry couldn't resist it :P)--but oh those were crazy times--of endless KTV sessions, that barbeque at East Coast, the crazy rehearsals (and that crazy, rather ominous spoof), the madness that ensued after the awards ceremony and so on and so forth.

And then, came the real thing--journeying 10,000 miles away from home on our own, and having lived on our own for the better part of five months (17 days to the 5-month mark)--breathing the air that geeks breathe, walking the ground the geeks walk, living the life that geeks live, and choking on the stale air that results from staying indoors too much. Haha.

It's been one heady year, in every sense of the word--intoxicating and stupefying, swift and violent, impetuous and rash, domineering yet intelligent--it's been one heck of a year--and it's gone by so fast, that it feels breathless to be standing on the brink of it.

If anything--one thing I have to take away from it all is: that I need a map, and a good one at that, to continue this journey with--complete with waypoints and all. And that, I guess, is my New Year's resolution--to find/build that map.

So there. Happy 2006 :).