Looking back at the year that had just passed and trying to remember what did happen in one’s life is no easy task. To summarize, I have divided it into segments that I could easily relate to and recall what transpired.

HOME AND FAMILY

Trying to get everyone together had become a chore. To think that there are only four of us! But Myke in Manila had his own trimestral school schedule at De LaSalle while James in Kuwait had a different school break (June to August). My leave was, of course, moveable but due to many commitments and projects at work, it was quite difficult to squeeze in the time to match the boys’ vacations. However, we all managed to be together for the New Year’s celebration in Manila before James and I flew back to Kuwait – him to school and me to work. Gladys stayed behind to be with Myke for a couple of months while she supervised the construction of the 3-door apartment in Cainta. This project had been on the table for quite some time and it only pushed through during the summer.

Me and the two boys in Greenbelt on New Year's day

James went back to Manila for a 3-month vacation when his school year ended in May. He only came back with his mother on August. I invited Myke to spend Christmas with us but he had other plans. Next year na lang daw. Seems like each one of us now has his own agenda. The wife, meanwhile, flies back and forth earning frequent flier miles despite the fact that she’s jobless!

Anyway, except for my persistently high bad cholesterol level and Gladys’ low calcium, the year ended with all of us in good health, thank God. Health is wealth. I couldn’t have asked for more.

WORK

The building boom in Kuwait – being an offshoot of the Americans’ occupation of Iraq and the skyrocketing oil price hike – has trickled down to all sectors, raising prices for commodities and rent. Less bang for the dinar. I will soon be paying 25% more rent for our 3-bedroom flat.

Our small interior contracting office ended the year with 60 projects – less than the 72 in 2004. However, most of these 60 were bigger in scope. There were more offices and banks that we designed and built compared to restaurants and stores. It was a good break for me since I was getting sick and tired of doing restaurants. The novelty of doing a TGI Fridays or a Hard Rock Café had long worn off. The one big job we bagged was the Sahara Golf Club (the first PGA-sanctioned club in the country) which was close to a million dollars’ worth of interior works.

Neither the boss nor I went to attend any of the Furniture/Design Fairs in Milan, Cologne and Paris as we usually do due to the heavy workload. For the nearby Dubai Index Fair, it was our electrical engineer who went.

Since everyone in this line of work was pretty busy, I had a difficult time getting part-timers for drafting and presentation work. Some jobs we lost or had to forgo for lack of initial design submittals. We tried to hire locally but there were no takers. Going to Manila to interview and get somebody was a drag and time-consuming so we made do with what we had. We did very well, though, so no regrets.

TRAVEL

If there’s one thing I won’t miss, it would be this. Unfortunately, since we had conflicting schedules, we couldn’t go on vacation as one family.

I bought this interesting book “1,000 Places To See Before You Die” and was quite flabbergasted to find out that I would need two lifetimes more to visit them all - even if I traveled every month to a new destination. So far, I had only been to 62 places out of the one thousand.

Incredible Indian delights!

Anyway, we had planned to go to the French countryside in June to watch Lance Armstrong capture his 7th unprecedented title in the Tour de France before heading up north to discover Scandinavia. But it wasn’t meant to be. My officemate invited me to his eldest daughter’s wedding in India during the month of May. With the boss coming for the occasion as well, that’s where we ended up. Gladys flew from Manila and I from Kuwait – we met up at the Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi. For 12 days, we did the Indian Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) before heading north to the Himalayas (Shimla, Chandigarh and Dehradun) where the wedding took place. It was surprisingly such a pleasant trip that I’d recommend it to everyone. Their tourism bureau’s motto: “Incredible India!” sure rang true. The culture, the people, the food and the sights seemed out of this world. I also got to take home a hardbound copy of the Kama Sutra as a souvenir.

September came and I was itching to go for my annual vacation so when the situation presented itself (meeting some supplier in France for a project), I packed my bags and took the wife along. We spent three glorious weeks traipsing around Spain and Portugal, with Paris as a side attraction, immensely enjoying the Castillan sights amidst the mild autumn weather.

We'll always have Paris and Segovia on our minds

BOOKS, FILM AND MUSIC

Come to think of it, I didn't indulge myself much in this sphere unlike before. I remember reading all my son’s Harry Potter books – at his prodding – and Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” (also his idea) but nothing much of substance. Except J.M. Roberts’ “History of the Twentieth Century” which caught my fancy during a sale at Jarir Bookstore. Light reading fare mostly consisted of Time and National Geographic - whose subscriptions I maintained - which I could run through during my lunch hour. Sky and Telescope was one more favorite although till now, I haven’t got around to buying a telescope! Ah, yes, there were also those magazines from home which I lapped up with gusto everytime my wife sent them as padala thru someone who was coming back from Manila. My personal favorites: Bluprint (to check out local design trends), Entrepreneur (to educate a business illiterate like me), Philippine Tattler (high society’s plain tsismis), Lifestyle (the title says it all) and FHM (for the articles, honest!).

Didn’t have much time to watch many movies even though I had Orbit installed (for the NBA) aside from my old Showtime connection. However, two films stood out from the handful I watched: “Sideways” and “Lost In Translation” which were both damn good. And that girl Scarlett Johansson’s hot!

Music? Also lagged in this department. I didn’t enjoy much of the rock churned out last year (or the past years for that matter) which had nothing but power chords as its staple. The lyrics were uninspired as well. Where is this generation’s Who and Led Zeppelin? As for rap, well, I had better things to do than listen to 50 Cent or Jay-Zee. Perhaps, I’ve become an old fogey since I was mostly tuned in to Classic Rock on the Net. My Ipod’s loaded with it, to my son’s eyeballs-rolling-over consternation.

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST…..

I finally launched my Blog last June after procrastinating for so long. I felt that it would be an uphill climb trying to write regularly plus a big hassle understanding the new technology in the wired world. It definitely is. With so little free time on my hands, it’s a struggle but I hope, I’ll be able to finally come to grips with these RSS and CSS jargon to be able to do what I want with the interface, design-wise. For the meantime, I find it surprisingly, therapeutic. And fun. That’s why, I think, I’ll persevere.

So that wraps up the year past. Like everyone else on this planet, I look forward to interesting times in 2006.