The Past Year in Review

As my birthday approaches, I reflect on my past year – and what a year it has been.  I can say with certainty it has been the hardest year of my life!  But, I am still standing, I have learnt so much from it and I am ready to take these new lessons forward with me.  There is no point on dwelling on the past, or looking too forward into the future – all we have is today and now.  Smile always J

The year 2010 in retrospective:

quarter life year in review

In the personal realm:

* I met one of my best friends AT at the LCB back in February – since then, we have had a fantastic year together. All smiles!

* Throughout my 3 visits to TO, I spent quality time with my HK soul mate NM. I got the opportunity to see her home life, and meet her family & friends. She will be visiting me for my birthday this weekend so I am incredibly excited for her to meet my life. In addition, we have enjoyed such beautiful Skype & email dates - distant has not been a factor. We also got the chance to see one of our HK friends Feng – it’s always great seeing “international” friends again. 

* I lost touch with my guy best friend LH to his (ex)-girlfriend. Unfortunately, he did not fight for our friendship and sadly, the girlfriend made him chose. In the end, I guess he was the one who not only lost a girlfriend, but a good friend.  We still talk, but it is not the same; I do hope one day we will be able to be great friends again.

* I stopped being friends with another girl HS that I thought I would be friends with for life. The reason is still unclear since everything went down in a drunken argument - and she was rather psychotic at the time, but apparently I tried to steal her (ex)boyfriend away from her and Im a bad person. In reality, I had befriended him and tried to make him feel part of our group. When they broke up, he & I remained friends and apparently that is a no-no. 

* I had 2 major upsets with one girl ML – I am clearly better off without her in my life. She created havoc with my friends due to an inability to censor her social media updates = unwanted drama & stress. Then throughout many months of re-building the friendship, she had a mental breakdown and left me stranded at BeachClub – with no apology and not being an ounce sorry for her behaviour, even going as far as insulting me at the time, I was more than happy to walk away. 
* Party friends do not make for good friends, but good friends make for excellent party friends! 

* I see this personal turmoil in my personal realm as my life clearing itself of the unnecessary shit blocking the positive influences in my life. Nevertheless, I have met some amazing, interesting and intriguing people ~

* Lessons learnt: a) Some people are not who you think they are – unfortunately, all too often, you only see what you want to see, or what they let you see; b) People change and/or grow apart; c) There are some people who come into your life for one moment, one day, one month and/or one year; very few people will be friends for a lifetime; d) Life is too short to surround yourself with fake hypocritical people.

In the health realm:

* Do not take your health and body for granted –

In the family realm:

I am so incredibly proud of my mother! Her accomplishments in the past year are outstanding – Gold Level Excellence Award for the Ombudsman department; the class she mentored won an award for their fundraising project; the yearly golf tournament that my parents organize raised over $10,000 for the Olympic Primary School in Kibera, Kenya; my parents just celebrated 31 years of marriage; and, she is always caring & making a difference in people’s lives – amongst other things.

* I am eternally grateful to be part of such an amazing family – Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, Cousins & of course, Friends of the Family...it’s simply beautiful & Im lucky to have so much love in my life.

* I also want to thank my parents for being so understanding and not saying too much every time I ventured to MTL.

In the professional realm:

I started off the year at LCB as Administrative Coordinator for the restaurant. I enjoyed my position, but after 9 months and no added responsibility, I felt the need for change. I left LCB due to a lack of professionalism on the part of upper management. I was overseen for a promotion since I was too good at my position & they didn’t want to lose me in that role.  What a joke! The part I had the problem with was that management said I would be a perfect fit for this position, and put the idea in my head that if I persevered a bit more, I would be rewarded.  I found out that LCB had chosen an outside candidate for the position through an email sent out to all staff – such a clear lack of respect that my resignation came the next working day.   

* Afterwards, I worked short term fixed contracts – but I did enjoy most of the summer off.

* I have finished the year off at the UofO where I work on a curriculum based project, my last day being December 22 

* International modeling was always in the back of my head, but I did not travel this year for this purpose. Some great shoots though :)

*** 2011 – Dubai, UAE as a Financial Coordinator

In the dating realm:

I have been single all year.

* I just recently learnt that sometimes what you are "looking for" is right in front of you, but you can be too busy looking the other way or creating mental road blocks to notice ! When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one that has been opened for us. While time is limited, I'll take everything in stride and be happy/thankful for the now we do have.

* I had small crushes on a few guys, but nothing worth my time & effort. 

* The letters “PA” in names have haunted me and in fact still haunt me....

* Interesting Fact: Ever since I was little, I had envisioned that I would be engaged by the time I was 26 – luckily this year, we are celebrating 25 again :P

In the miscellaneous realm:

* I bought my very first car a 2009 Hyundai Tiburon – my beautiful sexy little shark

* I got my very first tattoo ((( <3 ))) on my right inner ankle

* I got my first hair weave – my hair was growing too slow for my liking, so I had my real hair braided, and long hair sewed in. Instant make over!

* I started my first blog.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Seeing as this is a party blog, and not a personal diary, I can say that I have had a phenomenal party year – for sure, THE BEST PARTY YEAR TO DATE.  Countless Stereo adventures, a summer filled with BeachClub, party nights in Ottawa at Buddha Bar, Sunrise, Sotto & Lobby.  With all those outings, I cannot even say I had a bad party.  Smiles, laughs & memories!!!

DJ’s I have seen this year:

* David Penn, Chus & Ceballos – Stereo

* Stephan Grondin, DJ Vibe – Stereo

* Maher Daniel, Gaiser, Richie Hawtin, Lay & Bushwaka! – Stereo

* Joubin, Nicola Torriero & Victor Calderone – Stereo

* VIVA Tour w Steve Lawler, Leon & David Pher – Stereo

* D-Formation – Stereo

* Victor Calderone – Stereo (x 3)

* Danny Tenaglia – Stereo

* Danny Howells – Stereo

* Martinez Brothers – Stereo

* Sharam – Stereo

* Maher Daniel, Dubfire – Stereo

* Erick Morillo – Stereo

* Sander Kleinenburg – Stereo

* Chus & Ceballos – Stereo

* Maher Daniel, Ned Shepherd & Sultan – Stereo

* Oscar G, Glenn Morrison, RyanL, Kimio – BeachClub

* Ibiza Beach Party w Sharam, Chocolate Puma, Alex Kenji, Jerome Isma Ae – BeachClub

* Cube Guys, Chus & Ceballos, Fred Miller, King Louis – BeachClub

* Fred Miller, Nicola Torriero, Joubin, King Louis, Etienne Osbourne, Alex Draym & +++ - BeachClub

* Blond:ish – Lobby, PURE lounge & BPM

* Sharam – This is London

* Eli Wilkie – NYE Sunrise

* Pablo Ceballos – Kinki Patio

* Colleen Shannon – Sotto

* RyanL, Paulo Cardoso, Tim Foran, Jimmy Strip – Buddha Bar

* Martin Villeneuve – Buddha Bar

* Cedric Gervais, Etienne Osbourne – Sotto

* Joris Voorn – Circus

* Marco V, Chus & Ceballos, Hernan Cattaneo, Gareth Emery – Black & Blue MTL

* David Guetta, Sander Van Doorn – Bal en Blanc MTL

- the purple denotes a DJ I had never seen prior to 2010.

To finish 2010, and bring in 25 again ;) I hope to see all my friends and some family out at Buddha Bar on Friday night. I will be DJing my first club set!!!

New blog post about Fridays event coming this week....

xox <3 xox