Weighing the good against the bad, I must say that overall 2009 has been a good year for me..

In June I traveled to Perth and Gold Coast with a friend.  In both cities I stayed with friends, so you can imagine the amount I saved in hotel accommodation.  While at Gold Coast I traveled to Byron Bay which is the most easterly point on the Australian continent.  Perth is on the extreme west. And last year I visited Sydney and Melbourne. So now I’ve been to the east, west and south of Australia.  The only part I’ve not yet been to is the North.

In September I went with a good friend to Johor for a few days.  I’ve been to Johor countless of times, but always en route to Malacca or KL, the places I usually go to while on holiday in Malaysia.  This time I actually stayed in Johor for four days and got to see the guts of this largest and southern most West Malaysian state.

While in Johor we stayed with a Mickey Towle, a colourful personality.  Mickey has been through the swamps of life and emerged none the worse for it.  He has an generous spirit and an infectious humour.  I thoroughly enjoyed his company and identified with many of his attitudes and life philosophies. 

October was a strange month for me – but in a nice sort of way.  That was the month of catching up with old friends.  My friend Chris Tan came down from the UK and we met with a group of friends including Fan Yue Sang.  I have not met with Chris and Fan in the last thirty years!

Another friend Leonard Lee came down from California where he now lives.  I have not met Leonard in more than twenty years.

I had another reunion meeting with another friend Colin See whom I’ve not met in the last twenty years.

What was strange with this series of reunions is that after decades of not seeing them, I am meeting them all within a short space of three weeks.  This is the cherry on the cake for me if I have to describe 2009.

And there were hits and misses.  Among my misses, I submitted a story for film competition thinking it was a real gem.  But it was not short-listed.

Also in October, a business opportunity in publishing came my way. I thought it held great prospects and I thought it was going to be a major turning point in my life.  That, too, fell through.

One wisdom story I read said that you can take all the failures, heartaches and disappointments that come your way as long as you know where to find the healing balm.

My healing balm in life comes in the form of my close friends who I know will stand by me come what may.  They are my joy and consolation and the ballast to steady me when the big waves come.

And I constantly live in the belief that always God is in charge.  When we look at the big picture, all the problems, the calamities we face are minor blotches on the canvass of LIFE.  When I look at what some people are going though in various parts of the world, I find the capacity to laugh away my problems.

Finally, I’ve mapped out my battle plan for the New Year – in the form of a Mind-Map.  On it I put the things I want to do, the people I want to connect or re-connect with.  I’ve put down all the activities I normally do, all my creative work-in-progress, the internet sites I regularly visit and so on.  And I colour coded them according to priority.

I have also identified all my time-stealers – the things that I spend too much time on at the expense of the things which I should be doing instead.

So there!  I’ve got my battle plan for 2010 on paper!  Now all I need is to summon up the discipline to see then through – that easy!