adventures of a blogjunkie

I’ve been writing my year end reviews for 3 years now so I guess it has become customary of sorts. In addition to being an easy way of recording all the things I didn’t manage to write about this past year, it’s also a great opportunity to pause and reflect. This year I began my year in review by reading my 2009, 2010 and 2011 reviews.

God has been gracious and continued to bless me, so 2012 was another great year. I feel like I’ve successfully built a foundation in life and have now hit my stride for the next several years (or decades). That being said there are a few things I need to watch out for so that I don’t trip up and allow what has been built up to become undone.

I’m mixing the format up this year so let’s just jump into the highlights, in no particular order.

Vacation time again

Finally Zack is at an age where we can travel more again! 2012 began with a vacation to Langkawi. It was our first experience on vacation with Zack alone. He enjoyed splashing around in the pool but was afraid of the beach (sand and sound of the waves).

The Langkawi vacation prepared us for our longer, overseas vacation to Melbourne. Pei Chyi had to work a few days in Melbourne, and we took the opportunity to extend the trip and stayed with our good pals Joanie and Gavin. That was a fun trip! I had to watch Zack all by myself for several days which was pretty challenging but they gave me some great memories with Zack.

We also travelled to Bangkok in August, this time with my parents and sister. Oh gosh how grandpa doted over Zack. We also met up with some old friends whom we haven’t seen for 10 years and are now firmly re-connected via Facebook 😛

There was also a short trip to Singapore in June and Zack travelled even more than me when he tagged along with Pei Chyi to her cousin’s wedding in Hong Kong.

Pei Chyi says goodbye to The Man

In May, Pei Chyi left her job of 5 years to join her parents’ business. The plan is that she takes the reigns when my in-laws retire, but in the meantime the company workforce grew by 50% (there’s just the 3 Leongs).

Transitioning to a self-employed career has been exciting, challenging, frustrating and rewarding for Pei Chyi. And working with your own parents is a whole other can of worms too. I try to offer advice wherever I can but there are lots of things that she needs to simply experience and learn herself.

The upshot is that Pei Chyi and I have even more in common. I always felt there was a small but distinct gap between my self-employed career and her own employment. Now that gap is gone. And we can now both go out on weekdays at a whim, no need to wait for the weekend 🙂 Read More »