2012: the best year yet!

the 2011 round up ended with how the mister and i stared down the uncertainty of being long distance for some time yet. i'd moved to the uk to start medical school in september and he remained in singers to work.

little did we know that early on in 2012 (4 days in, to be precise) he'd be made an offer he couldn't refuse by a uk firm. humbled by God's goodness and grace, and how the position was a great opportunity for him beyond our wildest dreams. i remember being in reykjavik on new year's day a little bummed that the holiday was coming to an end and we seemed to be on very different trajectories. we'd just finalised our midsummer wedding (the iceland trip was a recce!) but had no visibility as to how long we'd be based halfway across the world from each other. and four days on, tada! a door miraculously opened and the mister was soon en route to londontown. how's that for a pretty awesome january? :)

in february i went on a wilderness winter trip to the cairngorms (!) and it was breath-takingly beautiful, despite the lack of snow. the mister also came to visit for my birthday and we'd a lovely week together exploring the city. finally got to try all the restaurants i'd been saving for a 'special occasion'. a much welcomed respite from my miserly student-living ways. feeling i'd hit x years with nothing to show for it, i proceeded to have a mini-wobble. thank goodness for the mister who reminded me to count my blessings and enjoy being responsibility-free. that's also when he told me there was a high chance that by the time i hit the big 3-0 (still far far away, thank you very much!) i might be a wife, mother, doctor and lawyer. the mister, he gives me waaay more credit than due...

march rolled round with its super secret mission. capitalised on being already half way to NYC to hop on a plane across the pond. made one appointment, went to one shop, and found my dream wedding dress. was semi-disappointed that deciding on possibly the most important dress in my life took all of 30minutes. no kidding. and having budgeted a week in NYC (stayed in a 6bedder dorm between the city's most famous sex club and, well, the sex museum), i quickly booked up NYC-based friends and had much overdue catch ups. and the dress? well i proceeded to wear it thrice. also helped a dear friend da bao a wedding gown back to singers, so as to better justify my airfare.

april was one of the best months this year because the mister relocated to the +44 and we started house hunting. oh but before he did, it was still easter break and we enjoyed some time together in singers then phuket. as always, i loved every moment of being home and was amazed by how fast all these restaurants were popping up. went to a few but there's just so much out there it was impossible to sample everything #firstworldproblems. oh but before i went home, i swung by cambridge to watch one of my oldest friends, Y, graduate. it was my first time there and i fell head over heels with the place. the fact that Y was an excellent tour guide didn't hurt.

popped home in may for my cousin's wedding (when you only have 3 first cousins, you make sure you don't miss milestones!) and met our first ever rottie litter. had first year finals a week after that and somehow made it through to second year. of course, i only found out in june, a nerve wracking week after sitting the exams. had nightmares of not being able to get married over midsummer because i was swotting for the august re-exams! and june, oh june, we exchanged vows in a tiny wooden church by a red stone beach on the south western tip of iceland, surrounded by 14 relatives and 16 of our oldest and dearest friends. massive props to the mister for planning and executing a wedding that meant every thing to us. after the wedding, we made the most of the 24h daylight and roadtripped with our friends, before continuing just us to the magical western fjords.

back in london, we got the keys to our first home on friday 13th july and moved out of the converted bus depot that the mister had been living in since he relocated. before we could even start furnishing our  tiny flat, it was off to singers for wedding rounds 2 and 3! we'd a chinese sit down lunch for extended family and family friends, followed by a dinner party the same day for our friends. most intense day ever but oh so worth it! caught up with friends who we'd sorely missed since moving and was blessed to have friends come from far away (vancouver, DC, aix-en-provence, shanghai, perth, melbourne and brisbane) to share our joy in person. had a thoroughly enjoyable wedding weekend, and a mini-moon in phuket after. 

spent the rest of summer in london decorating our home and playing host to the many family and friends passing through the city. suddenly had time to get out there and meet new people and before i knew it, we'd a support network of lovely friends in london! was also the happy housewife, cooking, cleaning and doing other mundane house things. ironically, it was a luxury to be able to languish in the myriad of chores. whenever i met someone new, i said i was a housewife because it was too hard to explain that i used to work but had gone back to school and oh i'm on holiday now just waiting for my husband to finish work so we can have dinner... unsurprisingly, by the time september rolled round and it was back to school, our flat was done!

it was a relaxed couple of months as i eased into second year of medical school and went on weekend wilderness trips. we just got back from a cheeky pre-christmas weekend in copenhagen in time to meet my in-laws in london for christmas and new year's. it was our first christmas in london and the mister roasted a goose in celebration. it was quite the adventure, getting his hustle on and heading out one morning at 7am to score the last organic goose. and getting that bird prepped and into the oven is another story for another day. suffice to say, christmas dinner was a roaring success (phew!) and we are home-cooked out. combining my supreme aversion to crowds and shopping, we braved the crowds on boxing day for the in laws' dose of retail therapy. (aside: never again! harrods on a good day is bad enough. harrods then westfield on boxing day? forget it!!!) this is also when i start singing "the power of love..." because sometimes i don't realise just how into the mister i am, until i find myself doing something so completely out of character solely because it makes him happy. pseudo-martyrdom aside, we're looking at a quiet new year and am cautiously excited about some interesting transitions in 2013. we'll see how that goes :) and speaking of 2013, fingers crossed - we plan to spend chinese new year in singer! woot! 

thanks for reading, it's so kind of you to bother. there's so much out there on the internets and i'm beyond flattered that you spend some of your precious time with me. and if you'd like to see, here are the rounds ups from 2011, 2010 and 2009.

have a wonderful end to 2012 and wishing you the very best for 2013!