Last day of 2012, Page 366 of 366

Page 366 of 366, the end of a chapter in my book. I shall make the best of 2013, instead of wishfully expecting 2013 to be good to me. :)

It's been a busy year, yet I don't feel like I'm actually enjoying my life for this year. It seems that everything is stagnant and monotonous. Therefore, I shall try to change that in the new year with a set of goals that (hopefully) can be achievable by the end of 2013. Cheers everyone and happy holiday~

The day has come... And Happy (冬至) Winter Solstice Festival Everyone~!

So, it's finally 21/12/2012. THE DAY! As expected, all sorts of social media are being annoying (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to name a few) and my day has passed by quite uneventfully. I shall await for the next doomsday date. Hah!

Anyways, today is 冬至. In English, it's called Winter Solstice Festival and is one of the most important festivals in the Lunar Calendar. To celebrate this festival, families usually gather together to roll glutinous balls called tang yuan. It's made of glutinous rice flour that is slightly mixed with water, which are then rolled into tiny balls and boiled in a sweet broth. My aunts boiled them in a sweet broth mixed with pandan leaves and ginger. Tang yuan can be filled or unfilled and also of any sizes, depending on personal preferences. You can also add food colouring to the tang yuan. My family made them in 5 colours: red, yellow, orange, green and brown. Somehow, I'm still not sure why, but my aunts insisted that during the first time we eat tang yuan on Dong Zhi, we have to eat it by the order of red, yellow, orange, green and lastly, brown. Then, we can eat any colours we want. I'm not sure if any other people did such practice as well. The way I see it, everyone just made tang yuan in any colours they want. I mean, I've seen people posted pictures of the tang yuan they made in blue and purple colours too.

Well, congratulations to everyone who survive doomsday, and let's try to survive the next one. Also, a very Happy 冬至 to everyone.

P.S. Pottermore's first 7 chapters of Prisoner of Azkaban has been released yesterday. I personally think there's too little moments in most of the chapters. But still, do have fun finding things. :)

Aeschylus Quoted in Robert F. Kennedy's Speech

I was reading a book Great Speeches: Words that Shaped the World by Edward Humphreys and John Boyes this afternoon. While skimming through, I found the speech that Robert F. Kennedy made on Martin Luther King's death. It's quite an inspiring speech, which talks about peace and equality. In his speech, Kennedy quoted Aeschylus.  His version:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart,

until, in our own despair,

against our will,

comes wisdom

through the awful grace of God. 

 

 

 

Freedom at last!!!

I am now finally, truly, free from coursework and exam for the year 2012!!! A great burden has been lifted from my shoulder and now I can freely do whatever I want~! There has been so many things that I want to do that I don't even know where to start. ._.

Obviously, since 2012 is coming to an end quite soon (I'm not talking about 21/12/12), I am unable to complete those challenges I had proposed few months ago. Never mind. I intend to have a fresh start next year (yeah, I always say that). Hopefully I can catch up all those Shinhwa stuff I intend to save before their next year's comeback. And so many K-dramas to watch! Argh so much thing to do, so little time. ._.