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18 December, 2011

Keep Smiling - My Take on 2011

The weekend's been productive. I went out on two dates, trialled a new writing program, and had a ridiculously good time at a Swedish Christmas featuring Glögg.

Good use of a weekend in my opinion, but I'm not hear to wax on about the merits of a successfully-spent-Saturday-and-Sunday. Instead, I have decided to review 2011, a year of many firsts, and one that I am very thankful for the many opportunities it presented.

I was inspired by trawling through my old blog, The Tomes of Marshy, and recognised that in the earlier years, it was quite customary for me to do a year-in-review-style synopsis of what went down that year.

Given, that this year has been the most eventful by many measures this year, it only makes sense to resume this tradition.

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Where to start? Let's start with some statistics:

Number of new countries visited this year: 7
Times I saw Gabriel & Dresden: 1
Times I have listened to Gabriel & Dresden sets since being disappointed: less than 10
Video log views:1,300+
Amount of guests that stayed in my new Singapore apartment: 13
Jobs had this year: 3 with two companies

And I guess that will do, I just calculated them on the spot and I guess it's indicative of what has preyed on my mind this year. Travel, music, personal development, friends/family and career.

And if this were a role-playing game, I've racked up a shit-load of experience and improved my stats in all the key characteristics. And I'm Level 28 now, I can dish out some serious pwn

First the travel. It's fair to say I used to eschew it. I had a lot of stuff going on in my life and shitting on about travel and trips and what I have/haven't seen did not interest me in the slightest. But, it's a bit of a life-experience impediment not having seen the world and I took it upon myself to do just that.

Without ever having left the country I jumped on a plane to Singapore for work, and in the meantime have managed to see Krabi, Chiang Mai, Bali, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh, and Manila. Some of these places more than once, and managed to go back to Australia to brag about the experience three times on top of this. Winning.

It's given me a fresh, new perspective on the friendships that count, reaffirmed my ongoing love for my family, and made me completely forget the people who aren't worth the time of day - who? Exactly.

While I've been further than ever away from my favourite clubs, my love for tunes and music has only increased. It's been a bloody good year for sounds and appreciation of it. So much so, that after years of deliberation, I chose to get a tattoo of my favourite song from my favourite band, Crystal by New Order.

I've been enjoying it so much that I might undertake another project, let's watch this space in 2012.

Speaking of projects, I made less headway on the book than I would have liked, but am realising that there's no rush and that progression comes in many forms. Another project is the entitled Marshwah, which has been a tremendous amount of fun and given me some great insights into video, editing, and new media.

Career has been the other big story for me this year. I've worked hard and reaped rewards far more rapidly than I've anticipated. If making the call to move from Melbourne to Sydney for work was smart, moving from Sydney to Singapore was incisive. I'm blown away by what I've achieved and have to shift the goalposts again. Not that I'm complaining.

The year has been colourful, chaotic, and an absolute pleasure. Next year has a lot to live up to, something tells me we'll be up to the challenge.

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Another tradition I used to have from my old blog was a saying that I'd append to the end of each entry, it's ringing true for me now so I'm going to dust it off.

Keep Smiling.