2018 Christmas Letter
24/12/18 13:36 Filed in: Christmas Letters
Dear all,
It’s Christmas Eve, 2018. Almost another year, another $357 - if the saying “Another Day, Another Dollar” is true.
This is probably going to be a short letter from me this year. I haven’t actually done a lot.
My year started on a sad note. I travelled to Hong Kong to farewell my cousin William. It was a trip I wasn’t looking forward to and dreaded going. His absence was felt with two additional trips we made to Hong Kong during the year.
I lost my teaching
job. I actually taught at two “schools” this year. The first one wanted us to go full time - for not a lot of money. If I wanted to be a full time employee, I might as well go back to Corporate IT. The second one wanted me to go easy on the students, as some of my students complained that I was “too harsh”. Their definition of “too harsh” is they copy and paste some answers not even remotely close to meeting the assessments criteria and because they’ve “put in their effort” (by not attending classes), I should pass them. To make it even more ridiculous, the school told me to go easy because they didn’t want to lose any student (i.e. money).
What sort of world do we live in now?
My IT consulting business is experiencing double-digit growth this year. But then, with the number of clients I currently have, even one new client is a double-digit growth!
My apps are selling well! At the end of the year before, I had 5 app which sold a total of 23 copies, last year I had 8 apps which sold a total of 105 copies. I didn’t add any new app this year but to date, my 8 apps sold a total of 295. If only I can think of that special app that sells a million copies.
The family is still fine, mostly (still). The most asked is, STILL, “How’s mum?”. Mum is still well, for her age. She’s like a kid, throwing tantrums half the time. I don’t think she’ll ever grow up.
I’ve found, though, if I threatened not to take her out unless she’s good, she’ll co-operate. How did I know this trick? Well, it worked on me when I was a kid.
I guess that’s good news for me. People have been telling me to “grow up” over the years. I guess now I can say, “Why? I’m going to end up being a kid anyway, might as well save some time!”
Most of the time, I must say I am not very patient with mum. Thankfully I have two sisters. They are the two best sisters a guy can have. I often thought they got the short end of the bargain having a brother like me. But then, they wouldn’t get such great character building opportunities!
I made two trips overseas this year.
In March, we went back to Xian, China to visit the Terracotta Warriors again. I don’t think they were too happy to see us. They had the same stoney faced expressions as the last time I saw them! We even had our cousin Grace joined us. I don’t think we’ll visit again for a long while if their reception is always going to be so stone cold!
The above is Hong Kong Park. Worth a visit!
My cousin Eugene and his family joined us in Taipei this year. Such a rare treat! I had so much fun growing up with my cousins and it was a lot of fun spending three days with them.
The highlight and perhaps of the year - I did more cooking!
I got a pizza oven for my birthday (how did they know?), which means I had to really step up on my pizza making.
I finally got my breakthrough by experimenting with the recipes and found one that worked.
The more I studied making pizzas, the more I moved away from the multiple toppings type of pizza. I’m now a fan of the Margherita and Marinara pizzas, one with cheese, the other with garlic and no cheese with Italian ingredients as much as I can.
From there, I experimented with simple Italian recipes. I can now actually cook a couple of decent simple Italian meals. I’m doing one for our Christmas Eve dinner tonight. If no one wants to come to our dinner next year, I’ll know why.
Lastly, an update on Kismet. Kismet’s job description hasn’t changed. Her main role at home is being cute. She consistently meets her KPI. I don’t know, she must have graduated with double honours from Cute School.
FYI, the second photo is her on our dining table just now.
That’s it for the year 2018. Like I said, short letter this year.
I’m thankful for what I have - my health, my family and my friends.
Until next year, I hope this letter finds you safe and well.
As it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I’d play one of my old favourites “O Holy Night”, sung by Michael Crawford.
I wish you all, a Happy, Healthy and Safe Christmas.
Your friend,
Bevan
