Time seems to pass more swiftly the older I get. 2024 went by in such a blur. If I had to describe the past year or two in a couple words, it’d be comfortable and routine. Which, I suppose, is both good and bad; I’d love to take more risks while I’m still relatively young, but I find it difficult to take the leap.
Writing: In the previous year I mentioned that I’d like to grow my creative writing. Unfortunately I never got around to it. I still have a particular story percolating in the back of my mind, but I haven’t put down many words on a page yet.
Reading: 2024 has been a productive year on this front. 21 books read, over a healthy variety of genres and authors. The standout for this year goes to the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. It’s a cozy, low-stakes, soft sci-fi series with vibes reminiscent of Firefly, which incidentally happens to be my favorite TV show.
Climbing: I still climb occassionally, but not as regularly as I once did. My age is catching up to me, with a couple recurring injuries preventing me from climbing consistently.
Geocaching: I’m still excited about geocaching, particularly overseas. For 2025, my goal is to start hiding some caches of my own. I’d love to give back to the community here by hiding some high quality caches. The caches in Singapore tend to be low-effort, and I’d like to raise the bar. Here’s my profile.
Other hobbies: My interest in photography has renewed a little. These days I’m rather enamoured with film photography, though it remains to be seen if I’ll keep it up long-term. My longboard has been collecting dust for the past few months, but I hope to skate more over the coming year.
Career: Work in Carousell remains generally unexciting. Comfortable and routine, as I mentioned earlier. That said, beginning next year I’ll be switching to the platforms team where I’ll work on horizontal pieces to be used across the feature teams. It’s aligned more with my interests, and will be an interesting change of pace.
Travel: This year I’ve been to Bali, Hong Kong (twice) and Japan (twice). The highlight trip was a one month solo trip between November and December, consisting of a week in Hong Kong and three in Japan. I’ll leave the details for a trip report blog post I’m currently working on. Safe to say, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend a few weeks travelling.