I have not given up on this blog, it’s just that I have had no mental space to write for fun. But it’s the end of the year, and what better way to update this blog than with a year in review post. When last we heard from our hero, I was adjusting to my new toy and had just taken my first solo vacation in years.
A quick update on the Glove80. It remains my daily driver, but I haven’t been able to push past 110wpm consistently, and there are still some awkward key combinations that I haven’t figured out how to smoothen yet. There have been some technical issues too: first, with a loose ffc cable, but I was able to get hold of the creator via customer support and he talked me through disconnecting and reconnecting the cable.
The current problem is an updated Bluetooth driver on Windows that the keyboard’s software driver doesn’t play well with, so there are frequent disconnections and I wind up having to use a wired connection. Nothing much I can do about that except wait for one or both parties to update their drivers.
That solo vacation is the highlight of my year. I still look back fondly on that trip to Vancouver – very pleased to have gotten a chance to catch up with my friends, with whom I’m due for a video call in a couple of weeks. And I still remember the amazing spanakopita I had in Kits and the glorious spaghetti I had at Nightingale. Let’s raise a glass to good eating with friends.
The second half of the year was more hectic than the first half, hence my silence. Basically quarter three was spent hosting and entertaining people in Malaysia, while quarter four was spent maniacally traveling almost every two weeks, five trips in total for both work and play plus a one day roadtrip to Janda Baik and Bentong that I’m not even going to count.
Now that international travel is picking back up, Malaysians living overseas who haven’t been back since the pandemic began have started returning, so I got to see a friend from the US whom I last saw in 2017. My mother’s aunts in the UK and Australia also came back for an extended visit, including one who’s 102. This time the next generation and their kids came as well (ostensibly to keep an eye on the old folks), and were so amazed at what a good time they had and what good food they ate. No one, neither them nor us, could explain why they have never bothered to come out before. Come again, I say, spend your foreign currency in our economy. A little later, two friends from Stanford also happened to be in the region at the same time, so we had a mini-reunion.
In September we celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday. She’s generally photo-averse (maybe that’s where I get it from) but she correctly figured a 100th birthday is actually kind of a big deal and happily posed for photos.
That marked the beginning of my traveling. First to Ipoh, for the 100th birthday celebration. Then, two weeks later, a family getaway to Shanghai where I discovered the glory that is shengjianbao. I basically made my parents eat dumplings for four days, alternating between shengjianbao and xialongbao.
Two weeks after that I flew to Seoul for a speaking engagement at a conference organised by Seoul National University. The conference dinner was held at the very fancy Korea Furniture Museum that we were told was opened specially for us because they now only open for private functions. It was my birthday weekend so I extended my trip into the weekend and wandered around Seoul on my own, sadly unable to eat any Korean BBQ that required a minimum meat order for two persons.
Two weeks after Seoul a friend and I checked an item off our bucket lists – a trip to the Mulu Caves. It was off-peak season so I thought we were getting flights and accommodation at a steal. However, when we got to the airport it transpired that my friend had not actually clicked the button to BUY our flight tickets from KL to Miri, so we wound up having to pay a fortune to buy last minute tickets for a later flight and then change flights to the one we were supposed to be on so that we could make our connecting flight from Miri to Mulu. Thank goodness there was actually room on the original flight.
Then when we got to the national park, we found that they had quoted us the accommodation price for single occupancy and there were two of us, so we had to pay a bit more there too. Thankfully, everything else worked out, we could afford the extra cost, and the weather held. We got caught in the rain during one of our hikes, but the rain cleared in time for the much touted bat exodus, which in my opinion wasn’t that exciting in the damp season. But take that with a pinch of salt as I’m not a big nature fan.
A couple of weeks later, it was time for another family trip – this time a road trip up to Penang where there was, as usual, much eating. To our credit, this time we discovered new char kuay teow and nasi kandar spots, so we weren’t always returning to the same well. Except we did stick with our favourite curry mee and bang chang kuay in Pulau Tikus. I don’t know why I cannot find a good banana peanut butter bang chang kuay anywhere besides this food truck dude in Penang.
My last international trip of the year came two weeks later: a workshop in New Delhi on AI governance organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The air quality in Delhi was atrocious and I had no intention of wandering around on my own. It was also wedding season in early December and many hotels were fully booked so the workshop participants were all in different hotels and the only bits of Delhi I saw were on the drive between my hotel and the hotel where the workshop was held plus a couple of visits to Khan Market, instigated by the shoppers in the group I was hanging out with.
And then I came home and tried to wrap up my last publication of the year (technically number ten of the year, it’s been a very busy year), and got embroiled in a bit of authorship order drama that I’m not going to get into here. Suffice it to say there are power advantages to being the project lead. I tried to make sure I was fair and I stand behind my decision but obviously there are disagreements. I mean, it’s not even like I made myself the first author. In any case the paper should be out next week, and that will be my year done.
Oh! Last month I confirmed my worsening astigmatism and have to have prescription glasses made. That, plus all my white hair, and I now get “auntie”-d on a regular basis by fully grown adults. I have officially reached middle age.
It’s been a poor year for books, just three (don’t start), but I did better with movies, reaching 17, with one more on my watchlist that I hope I’ll watch before the end of the year. Hope you’re all having a good end to the year and best wishes for 2024 – do something special with that extra day that’s coming!
[Christmas Eve update: watched that 18th movie!]
Happy belated 100th birthday to your grandma!! Happy century!