Farewell 2016

If asked for one word to describe the year, I would say "succession". I could have said "passing" for many iconic persons passed away this year but it just doesn't quite capture the fact that their passing made news because they had been hugely successful in their lives. Also succession implies there will be new icons. It is worth reflecting for the moment why I had especially called out those who had died this year. Its not just because they were famous but rather what they were famous for. 

Musicians like Bowie, Michael, Prince not only wrote unforgettable music but performed like no other. I would go so far to pronounce them pioneers in inventing new genres: glam rock, new wave and of course Prince is uncategorisable. Cohen and Frey on the other hand were not as versatile performing but were blessed with so much composing talent that songs like Hallelujah and Hotel California will still find fans long after this.

 

Its not just the music world. The world of literature lost a giant of a man. A moral compass of our time, Elie Wiesel, wrote achingly about the holocaust. If not for him, this most unimaginable of tragedies of the 20th century would have lost a powerful voice.

 

Architecture too lost a heroine. Until Dame Zaha Hadid, the famous architects were all men (Ando, Corbusier, van der Rohe, Wright and of course Gaudi). In fact even fictitious characters (as in Ayn Rand's Fountainhead) were men too. She broke through barriers not just with her sweeping lines but with a bravado not often associated with the female gender.

There are some barriers though that remain unfortunately intact. Hillary Clinton lost the race to be the US's first woman president. She lost to an unlikely candidate whom she and others of her ilk had taken literally but not seriously. Indeed, Trump and quite a few political leaders have herald a new brand of politics where rhetoric and reality will be the redefined. So even though the presidential succession did not happen as I expected, it nonetheless is a succession that will redefine the global political landscape.

 

At home, new thresholds had also been crossed this year. M completed her secondary school in flying colours. Top GPA, with school and state awards to boot! J completed his basic military training and officer cadet school top of his class and picked up some military and state awards too. D is writing yet another chapter in her career moving ever closer to her dream design job. I too moved on to one of the top-most table in my firm. But for D and me, at this stage of our lives, its more about how well we have set up the future. On this score, 2016 showed us we need not worry so much. Yes, they could be more intense than we like but importantly, their values are soundly founded (thanks to D) and their wings are pointed to a suitably aspirational height (thanks to yours truly). 

 

So, 2016 is indeed the conclusion of an era, and immediately the start of a new one. We all can do our part to create more icons who can change the world, in our own small way, for the better.

 

We wrapped up the year with the family. First in Malacca with a Christmas dinner (where we also had a very special golden anniversary celebration* for mum and dad) and now in Singapore on New Year's Eve lunch.

* Video made by M & D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDoxvBoKTPM&feature=youtu.be

Would you believe I once had a 27-inch waist?

It's been a bit of a life-long struggle. I was a heavy 8lb 2oz baby at birth but generally a scrawny toddler. Things starting going awry when it took me awhile to hit puberty. A number of my classmates in Standards 5 and 6 in BHES were experiencing early growth spurts and my mum expecting mine to come shortly starting feeding me like I needed the calories. Well, my face started getting rounder (and captured for posterity in photos).

I did start growing through puberty at around 13 and did stretch out a bit and caught up with some of my (first to grow) friends, though generally still at less than average in height. But at least I was no longer pudgy.

That way I remained for a good 10 years. In fact I was slimmer then (less buff too!) than J is now. So much so, that none of us could believe how small my old scout uniform was.

The trouble started not in junior college or university (and yes I did have a 27-inch waist and could carry a white pair of slim cut Levi's like a rock star!) but it was the entertaining in the airlines industry that did me in. I went from a sub 70kg to touching 80kg in the 90s and have remained there since. In boxing terms, I would have gone from welterweight to middle weight to light heavyweight.

But the horror of horrors was awaiting me. This morning as I stepped on the scales, an act I have been assiduously avoiding the last few months (knowing the feasting I had done in Athens, Hydra, Paris and most recently over Christmas in Malacca), I was confronted with a number it has never shown me before. I am now well and truly in the heavyweight class, a good 20% above my ideal weight.

I had sensibly adjusted my ideal weight (owing to a stout, muscular 'ahem' built) to about 77kg (and allowed a permissible range of 75 to 79kg).80 was to be the alarm bell. At 84, I am more than alarmed.

And this is after a year of disciplined exercising. In fact, I had run 400kms, and with the distances covered from cycling, walking, swimming and rowing, it'd top 600km. In fact, I do enjoy running and recently did so in Chicago along the lakefront and in the Greek national gardens. So am not short of expending energy. Its the intake that way exceeds the output that's all.

So, here's a simple resolution. One which D made for me early this year. She didn't even specifiy a weight target. She simply said "lose the gut". Being more mathematically inclined, I would resolve to get back to my sensibly adjusted ideal weight of 77kg. Certainly way before my 50th birthday.

So, here's to a smaller waist!