FOR AULD LANG SYNE!

1:35 PM – I’d my half-hour lunch and rushed to make a draft of this blog. Lucky you all, you get to read it after um… more than three years of my hiatus in blogging. God, I sound like one of those band members who just rejoined the band after a massive recovery from drug and alcohol problems. Except that I’ve always been very clean and a teetotaler (I think). It’s another thing that I wish to go to Amsterdam and smoke pot, one fine day (in 2015, God willing or NOT!). To be honest, my writer’s ears stood up in the loo after my lunch. You know how they say that people get their best ideas in the loo, you can second that on my behalf. I’m a little psyched that I have restarted writing My Frame of Mind. I can’t guarantee for how long I will pen down either of my specific or random thoughts swirling in my head though. As I’m getting old each day I’m becoming more of a faddist.

7:00 PM – Hiya world!!! (I think I forgot to formally give you all my greetings.) I just finished my last dinner for 2014. Why the hell am I talking about eating today?! Anyway, I’m watching the popular Sydney New Year's Eve (NYE) fireworks celebration on BBC News. I can’t believe we are closing out another year already. I miss being down under this time of the year, obviously to be the first ones to welcome the New Year. Well, as we close and welcome in the New Year, I’m gonna reflect on what I learnt in 2014 for you to take lessons (just kidding). And just so you know, I even denied my office colleagues for NYE to stay back home and finish this piece (winter cold has got nothing to do with it : P). The list is not in any order.

1. Time – where does it go?! 2014 went by so quickly personally. Great minds think alike - do I get the nod, who all? I’m glad that I am still alive and ready for 2015. New beginnings are so refreshing especially if you’re forever stuck with a mundane, humdrum existence. And you are a bit much adamant to hope that life will be all that you ever want it to be, next year. I’m very thankful for yet another exciting year; thankful for another chance to experience life with weird and wonderful people in my life. I hope you all take time to be thankful for all the good, bad and ugly experiences in your life with your most loved weird and wonderful people in your lives. It certainly has given you a way forward when you got lost and stranded.  I’m sure every one got lots to live up to, still. Well, for those procrastinators like me start off exactly from where you left off and continue to forge ahead with your every bit of energy. It’s gonna be an enormous year!
2. You make plan and it fails. You make another plan and it fails. You plan again. You always have next year to make the same plan. Inside story: I made a total of eight travel plans this year alone and miserably none of them happened. It was way beyond my grasp due to lots of i-don’t-remember-reasons. I’m carrying forth the same plans in 2015 minus the reasons. How exciting! I don’t have to plan again. Time saving too. On the brighter side I hope you all make crazy plans; plans that you definitely can do and plans for year next and when you do may it be the best one ever.
3. The price of petrol was 59.33 Nu today when I went to fuel my car. The last time I checked, it was 60 point something. At least it is good to know that some figures in life are decreasing. It is good news for someone like me whose living depends on a shoestring budget. Next time you visit a fuel station, don’t forget to discover your small happiness.
4. I’ve been living in Bumthang for almost 11 months now. Fogs are part and parcel of living in this beautiful district. I remember how I used to dislike foggy days pre-2014. It’d this unpleasant depressing effect to already not-so-lively-mood. But now I have become a fogaholic. I’ve come to realize that fogs are not always the damper especially if you like taking pictures of nature. So, you all, allow yourself to try your hand at stuffs that you remotely like. I’m sure some day you’ll know what you are searching for. En passant, strange place Bumthang is, every stranger I meet shares my first name. What are the odds?
5. Who says that you cannot live without social media! I partially quit Facebook for almost four months (no sad reasons just that I had a small bickering over nothing with Zuckerberg. You guys do know him, right? He’s kind and very thoughtful. If not for Facebook, millions would forget to wish their loved ones on their birthdays and wouldn't be able to track their milestones). No withdrawal symptoms of an addict. No having to go through the bombardment of too much information. But you suddenly have a lot of extra time in your hands! FYI, I’ll be back on Facebook soon, when I feel like I’m placated enough by Mr. Z. If you ask me how I survived, well, don’t consider it as cheating but I had Instagram and Twitter to accompany me during my peak lazy hours.
6. People say change is good. I cut my hair short when my heart broke last summer (more on that some other day). Clearly a haircut did not do any good to this airhead’s mood. Wait… except that you save your budget on buying shampoo and conditioner. If you love your hair, don’t try this stunt at home or a saloon for that matter. Only time heals. Give yourself few days, a month or two, a year... to let the suture in your heart heal completely. 
7. Um… this one is slightly blue. You outgrow people and it’s okay. Seriously, it’s A-okay! It doesn't make you a horrible person to let go and move on. Give them some time to grow up, though (if for nothing but just for their sake).
8. I’ve seen so many deaths in 2014 (may their soul rest in utter peace). We live for a limited period in this world. But each day we go fantasizing that we’re immortal. The sands of our death hourglass are cascading in full momentum and we still refuse to acknowledge. I hope you allow life to teach you lessons within that limited period. And when you do learn them you stop taking things for granted.
9. Come 2015 and 365 more days in it to live life our way in this beautiful world except that there are morbid diseases running through our planet. Most of the days I’m self-centered but lately I’m minding others business since World peace seems to be not at peace. May 2015 be the harbinger of positive change to these morbid occurrences. God knows, we need some desperately (Alert: don’t be surprised if I write my next blog somewhere from a remote village serving as a volunteer to promote peace).
10. This one is to change the mood. When you get sad, stop being sad and be AWESOME instead. It’s a true story. I learnt that from Barney Stinson.
11. And lastly but not the least, it’s okay to sit home and watch Cosmos- A Spacetime Odyssey on New Years Eve, alone. Well, it’s not even St. Valentine’s Day after all. It’s just another year around the sun we’re talking about, hm?

On a serious note, wishing a happy and fulfilling 2015, whether you’re bone-cold surrounded by snow or sweating in a hot summer land, wherever you are in this beautiful world. Wishing that may each day of 2015 bring you the clarity of intentions, bring you closer to enlightenment and satisfaction and may you get the strength to see them through. Happy New Year, all! Sharing positive vibes and light to you all! I’m a huge fan of English personalities. So as we ring out the old year, I end this piece quoting few lines from the infamous Scots poem written by Robert Burns:

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!
and surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

One more thing: I just read my daily note from the Universe. As the Universe ordered up another year for me, it has one request of me: to dream bigger. I pass on the same request to you all too:

DREAM BIGGER

Let’s do this, JC

PS. What is one resolution you have not followed through with in 2014? There I caught you!