Welcome, 2023!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sticking to tradition, my first blog post of the year will be a review of the past year. It was the most eventful year for me (and probably for everyone else) since the pandemic started, with so many amazing things happening.

First, there were a lot of family celebrations and events. My grandmother 'Nanay' celebrated her 95th birthday. I took my family to Raging Bull to celebrate the birthdays of my mom and my brother. My family also paid our respects to Mama Guading as her remains were moved to a new resting place. I didn't get to write about it but I also took my family to Wildflour for my nephew's birthday. We threw a party at home for my other nephew's birthday. My family also enjoyed a great lunch at Dylan Patisserie. I'm really happy and thankful that my 95-year old grandmother still has the strength to join us when we go out to celebrate.

I also got to travel again. I took some time off work to spend some days in Shangri-La Mactan in Cebu earlier this year. That was also my first plane ride since 2019. I then got invited to a wedding at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bataan, which was my first long drive since the pandemic.

Best purchase of 2022: my Fitbit! It helped me keep track of total steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, and sleep score, among other things. Over the year, I amassed several Fitbit Achievements, the latest of which is my New Zealand badge! I got my Fitbit during one of the many Lazada sales during the year. I also leveraged these Lazada sales to purchase several Kiehl's products and an Issey Miyake fragrance that came with a lot of freebies. I also purchased some really awesome Nike shoes called Desert Elephant. And while this wasn't exactly a direct purchase, I did make use of my mobile phone provider's recontracting rewards program to get a new Samsung S22+ phone. (Gosh, looks like I went a bit overboard on my shopping and spending hahaha.)

In sports, Nadal won his 21st and 22nd Grand Slam titles, including his 14th French Open title. His comeback win at the Australian Open allowed him to win at least 2 of each Grand Slam event, making him only the second male player after Noval Djokovic to accomplish this in the Open era. Hidilyn Diaz won three gold medals at the 2022 IWF World Weightlifting Championships, making her a world champion for the first time. She is now a gold medalist at the Olympics, the World Championships, the Asian Games, and the SEA Games! Also, UP won the UAAP Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time since 1986.

Other stuff: I got certified as a Professional Scrum Product Owner. I read four Neil Gaiman books during the year. They were some really good books too so I'm happy I was able to make enough time to read them. I subscribed to Disney+ and I have since seen many, many movies and shows on that streaming platform. I got to try a several new restaurants in 2022: The Loggia by Margarita Fores, Gram Pancake, Coffee Academics, Antipodean, Pizzulu, and Savage by Josh Boutwood which I haven't written about yet (aside from Dylan which I already mentioned). I continued writing my throwback posts: Paris, Luxembourg, Vietnam, US (including California, Ohio, Kentucky, and New York), and Palawan (Busuanga and El Nido).

2022 was also filled with a lot of get-togethers, game nights, and reunions. I'm really happy that life seems to be slowly going back to pre-pandemic normal. Hopefully, 2023 will be just as good, if not better.