Year-end Review

 

 

I'm so pleased to end the year with Runninghour X'mas 🎄 morning hike. We met at Fort Canning MRT station next to where Liang Court used to be and walked along the Singapore River & Alexandra Canal to the new Margaret Drive Food Centre, next to Queenstown MRT station.

I didn't attend the Saturday morning run at Punggol Waterway Park in July as I was attending the SkillsFuture certified course by Runninghour.

On the next day I went to Singapore Turf Club to attend the Tandem Bike Trial. When I was a teenager who couldn't cycle, I sat on the back of a tandem bike once. I'm v chuffed to try out being a tandem bike captain for the 1st time with Samantha Teo as my buddy on 16 July 🚲

After Saturday morning run at Labrador Park (the Bukit Chermin boardwalk had been closed since late last year and only re-opened after July this year), I went to East Coast Park in the evening to attend the Appreciation BBQ session for Guides initiated by Magdelene & Michael J. I can't remember when was the last time I attended a BBQ at East Coast Park 🏖 As I strolled along the pathway, I wished I was rollerblading 😎

We returned to Labrador Nature Reserve for Sunday morning hike in October. We took the MRT train to Haw Par Villa (the original plan was to walk & end the hike there), another place I haven't been to in ages 🐯

Another Saturday that I started & ended with Runninghour was 4th November when I attended Saturday morning run at Dairy Farm Nature Park & Purple Parade at Suntec City in the evening.

This year I only attended Saturday morning run at Bishan Park once in July. I missed the November one cos I worked late the Friday nite before.

In November, Runninghour co-founder John See Toh conducted a workshop for guides at his new BGA Inclusive Gym at Bishan so I missed the Stadium Saturday morning run on the same day. One of the guides Steven Lim managed to attend both!

I had cough & cold in December so I missed the Lavender Saturday morning run which was the 1st day that the nearby North Bridge Road Market & Food Centre re-opened after 3 months renovation.

Book Club Streak Broken

After reading 18 books in a row (& attending the same number of physical meetups) for the book club, I didn't read 2 of the books for this year. I usually don't attend the meetup if I didn't read the book. This year I ended up missing 3 meetups cos was away last month for the last meetup of the year even though I read the book (On The Road by Jack Kerouac).

I only ever read physical copies of books which I usually borrow from the library. I managed to borrow Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (June) from Uma who'd suggested it last year for book club. I decide that I'm not gonna buy anymore books this year after buying spree in the past 3 years (I bought alot of books for book club). So I didn't read the books in August & October this year cos the physical books aren't available to borrow at local libraries.

V chuffed that 2 of the books this year were my suggestions: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (July) & To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (September). Rachel (Book Club organiser) kindly held a watch party at her apartment on National Day for the 1992 film adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans (Director: Michael Mann | Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis). Also v pleased to attend the watch party & make the acquaintance of giant Golden Retriever dog that Rachel was dog-sitting.

This year I read 2 books from previous book club meetups:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (May 2019) & I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (June 2020).

Naturally, I re-watched the 2019 film adaptation of Little Women (Director/Screenplay Adaptation: Greta Gerwig | Lead Actor: Saoirse Ronan) on library dvd after reading the Little Women book. Twas my 1st time to re-watch it after watching it at the cinema in February 2020 with a group of fellow book club members - I co-organised the watch party with Rachel & was in charge of buying the tickets in advance.

Coincidentally this was just around the time publicity for Gerwig's upcoming Barbie film was reaching fever pitch for the cinematic release in July this year, debuting the same week as Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer.

In 2020 while watching Little Women in the cinema, I was thinking: "Gerwig is doing a Christopher Nolan!" Cos the film adaptation started in the middle of the book's story and the storyline went back & forth throughout the film. And we all know Nolan's signature non-linear storytelling techniques in Memento (2000) & The Prestige (2005).

Fun fact: I haven't watched Barbie or Oppenheimer 😜 I received email mailer that the newly opened Golden Village x The Projector at Orchard Cineleisure (GV x TP) has $3 Barbie screenings - dunno if I have any chance of watching that?