Checking In

A week after I wrote about my belated resolutions, I am so happy to report that I finally got off my arse and walked the 3.8 km home one day after work in 35 minutes and went back to yoga today after a 5 month hiatus. I am pretty sure my wrists were bruised from all the downward dogs I had to do because holding up my weight with my twig-thin wrists (my arms are disproportionately thin compared to the rest of me) for all that prolonged time was no easy feat. However, I did survive the 90 minutes and had such a great sweat detox I felt so good after.

I also made 3 micro loans on www.kiva.org and helping others to help themselves is a fantastic feeling. We have so much and so many people have so little. We spend $50 on a meal and that could be a month's salary for many living in abject poverty. We can all do more, and be content with much less at the same time.

And I also went back to my bread-making, with this cranberry and walnut loaf baked in my brand new Valencia orange Le Creuset dutch oven.

My life is finally moving back to a good and calm track.

Belated New Year's Resolutions

And suddenly it is March, the first quarter of 2012 is almost over. The first quarter of this year has been even crazier than ever. It has also reinforced once again that "Man proposes, God disposes". Now I know better than to fight life too much, things happen for a reason and everything will turn out ok. All cliches but all so true. So after a flurry of activities, things have settled down to a new calm at work. As such, I want to take advantage of the changes on the work front and start doing some other stuff in life like:-

1. More social responsibility and giving back to society. I have a proposal which I will post in more detail once things are firmed up. I am pretty excited about this one. And maybe also make some microfinance loans on Kiva for some underprivileged women in developing countries.

2. Somewhat related to 1 above, I want to do some volunteer work except in the area of arts and heritage. I used to be a volunteer museum guide, but since I relocated to Sydney, I had been on a leave of absence and had not resumed my guiding upon my return. I think I might be over it and am now thinking of volunteering to conduct heritage walking tours to marry my interests in heritage, architecture, design together wtih volunteerism and also getting some exercise in the process.

3. Which leads me to point 3 which is getting more exercise including walking home from work 2 times a week and a weekly swim. And going back to yoga.

So this looks like a belated New Year's Resolutions list. Whatever it is, I am going to try my darnedest to achieve all that. Oh and bake more bread.