Farewell 2008, Hello 2009! *

Another year is leaving us and the time has come for us to bid farewell to 2008 and welcome 2009 in its place. It has been an exciting year for Mariuca and B. So many things happened this year; at times, it felt like we were living in a soap opera world! ;)

Before I go on, I have to give a birthday shout-out to some very special people celebrating their birthdays in December. A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to my sister Ann, who celebrated her big day on the 23rd. This was followed by Rozella who turned 25 on the 29th and finally we have Debbie and Bobby who share the same birthday on the 31st. Enjoy your birthday cake and don't forget to save a piece for me! :)

Here are some of the memorable events that took place in 2008; I'm glad I captured each significant moment here. See, it does pay to have a blog! ;)

The major highlight of 2008 would have to be the Dead Body Outside My Window! That shook me up real well and until today; I get a little spooked whenever I look out the window at the playground where it all happened that fateful morning. This was followed by a fire breaking out on my condo floor, barely 3 weeks after the tragic incident. Though nobody was hurt in the second incident, we were once again disrupted from our peaceful daily lives.

Just when I thought nothing else could possibly happen to us, we had another close call when my ceiling lamp came crashing to the floor for no apparent reason, narrowly missing our fluffy cats lounging on our coffee table! We decided enough was enough so we took some time off to Bandung, which was my only vacation for the year. I enjoyed another short getaway at the beautiful Trader's Hotel to celebrate my birthday a few weeks later and received a beautiful pink Dell Inspiron from B, which I LOVE and have been happily using for work and blogging.

Things started to pick up towards the end of the year with the arrival of Baby Issy, who came down to Malaysia to celebrate Raya with us. She is now back home in UK and according to my sister, has started walking and running. It seems that she has acquired taste for adult food and loves grabbing other people's food of their plates ha ha! Doesn't she sound adorable? :)

My fave pic of Baby Issy on her last trip home

Blog wise, both Mariuca and MPG had a wonderful year and I hope for bigger success in 2009. After 2 years of blogging, I finally moved my blogs to their very own domain, which saw my PR being slashed to a 0 but guess what? My friend TH just dropped off a comment here five minutes ago saying that Mariuca is now a PR3! Oh wow, thank you Mr. G! I don't know how long this will last, so I'd better savour this sweet blogging moment while I can. What a wonderful New Year gift for Mariuca! :)


I also joined Entrecard this year and made a whole bunch of new friends. A loyal EC dropper, I had a big shock when my account was deleted without warning but I was reinstated after removing the auto-play music from my site, which was the reason I got deleted to begin with. In celebration of my 2-year anniversary for Wishing on a Falling Star, I organised another contest, which saw Roxy bringing home the adorable BEAR-iuca! Janice was the other lucky winner who won my heart with the name Chanel for BEAR-iuca's little sister. :)

Thank you to everyone who has been so terrific this year. Your love and support for Mariuca and MPG carried my spirits high throughout the year. When things in my offline world weren't going too well, I had my blogs and my blog buddies to turn to. I hope it will be another amazing year for all my wonderful Mariucans and I wish you the best in 2009. Last but not least, my NY Resolution for this year is to be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend, copywriter and blogger. I am going to keep it short and sweet this year and forgo a long list!

Okay, I can hear the fireworks in the distance so it's time for me to end my post and say 3.. 2.. 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Love and hugs all around. :)

Posted at 1.24 AM

* The first person to leave a comment on any post title that ends with a star will receive a link back to his or her blog for being my first commentator!

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