Part two of The Year That Was – My 2009

I meant to include all 12 months in one post, but if you had seen Part 1 of My 2009 – The Year That Was, you’d have noticed that it was imposible. Well, not impossible per se but it took a lot of time and well, it’s also a lot for you to read.

So I decided to be nice *cough* and split it into two post. Here goes, the second part of my retrospective on 2009.

JULY

My cuti-cuti Asia plans continued in the second half of 2009 as I made my first ever trip to Bali. It’s a place I have wanted to visit for a very long time, and I am very happy that I did. I love the place! So much so that I dedicated five six blog posts to it. You can read them here, here, here, here, here and here. It was a pretty fancy and luxurious trip but hey, I barely paid anything for it. How’s that for a highlight?

I have always been a Manchester United fan (yes, yes, I know we just got kicked out of the FA Cup). Well, not always but since the days of Eric Cantona – my sister was a big fan. Sure, I’m not like Ian Yee (pictured above) who is brinking on fanaticism but still. So, imagine my excitement when I got the chance to meet some of the current team players including Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, Nani and Darron Gibson!

AUGUST

Whatdyaknow? I’m back in Bali in August, twice in a few weeks is more than I can ask for. Better still, the trip was free! Okay, sure, it was work related – I was there to cover the Internatonal Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), the first time I’ve attended it since it was hosted by KL in 1999. HIV/AIDS has always been a cause close to my heart, so I really wanted to be there. Plus it was Bali. I also met a really good friend there in the form of James Chau.

SEPTEMBER

I’ll keep this short ‘cos September is a long entry! That is Sharmila and myself taking our first sips of the day (besides our Sahur,t hat is), the first time I ever puasa. We were both fasting in conjunction with Fast For The Nation. Read about it here.

Together with @ling_chan @davidlian @suanie @radianceleong @eevon and @nigelais, I helped organise Kuala Lumpur’s first Twestival. We mobilised over 200 Twitterers in the country to come together to raise funds for Destiny Starting Point. We raised over RM11,000, way beyond our initial projection. Look out for Twestival Global in KL come March!

I turned 30 in September last year. Okay, so this has got to be the milestone of the year. Not many things could compare to it. My family were there, my closest friends – some of whom traveled from out of KL to join me – too. I was going to write a lot about it, but I think the pictures say it all. So head over to my blog post on it to see it all (link to my Flickr photo set of the birthday party there too).

OCTOBER

In October, I was asked to be part of the Nike+ Human Race 10K Ambassador’s Challenge. Across the globe, Nike gets local personalities to be part of a campaign to promote the actual race (which I ran again for the second year in a row). I was part of team Rojak Runners alongside SmashpOp, 8TV’s Zher Peen and radio deejay Nana. We won by the way and RM10,000 was donated to WWF, our charity of choice! I was very honoured to be part of this campaign!

I have never been asked to give out an award before, so my experience of giving two out at the MSC Malaysia APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Awards) 2009 Awards was indeed a thrill. I didn’t know what to expect, so I was quite amazed at how elaborate the event was.

NOVEMBER

In November, we introduced four new columns to R.AGE to go along with the new R.AGE Blog. My column, What The Tweet is on social media. Sure, it’s not very active (I really should work more on it) but I am trying to improve the content of it. I’m still figuring it out but I thought this was a nice landmark towards the end of the year. My second column in The Star.

DECEMBER

One of my highlights of the year has for sure got to be the play in which I performed in alongside Davina Goh and Michael Chen. The Swimming Instructor, written by Singaporean Desmond Sim and directed by Chris Ling, went on for almost two weeks at KLpac. We didn’t sell out the production but general feedback was very positive. It was one of my best acting experiences ever.

One of the last events I attended in 2009was just prior to Christmas. I was on leave from work after that, and I had kept my social calendar free to just – well, rest. The said event was the Starbucks Malaysia’s 11th anniversary where they also launched their Facebook Fan Page. I was very humbled to have been invited to help launch the page. Wowza!

If you read my post yesterday, I mentioned about how social media has changed my life. December cemented that for me when I was featured on the cover of August Man magazine, along nine of its other Men of The Year including such personalities as Joe Flizzow, Hans Isaac, Henry Golding and Afdlin Shauki. I was selected to represent social networking. This has got to be one of the biggest moments of my life!

As if the August Man honour was not enough, Martell VSOP also decided to help me cap 2009 and make it my best year ever in terms of my public profile and professional career. I wasn’t one of the nominees of the main Martell VSOP Rising Personality campaign, but they introduced their first ever sub-category – the Martell VSOP Rising Media Personality. It is a peer-nominated category, and honours media personalities who are involved in other activities outside work. I was nominated for being a journalist-actor and … well, I won. Oh, I’ll be heading to France in March too as part of my winnings!

Sorry for the long post, but that’s why I split them into two. And December was pretty long too, but you’d have to agree that those were big moments for me!

And now, do you believe me when I say that 2009 has got to be one of my best years ever. I certainly think so. Wonder what 2010 holds for me? Only time will tell. Best wishes for the rest of the year all, and let’s make this one count more than the last.

12.56am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: 2009, Afdlin Shauki, aids, apicta, august man, bali, birthday, chris ling, christopher ling, darren fletcher, darron gibson, davina goh, desmond sim, destiny starting point, facebook fan page, fast for the nation, france, hans isaac, Henry Golding, hiv, ian yee, iccap, james chau, jason goh, Joe Flizzow, klpac, manchester united, martell vsop rising media personality, men of the year, michael chen, nana, nani, new year, Nike, nike+ human race 10k ambassador's challenge, R.AGE, r.age blog, rio ferdinand, sharmila nair, smashpop, starbucks malaysia, the swimming instructor, the year that was, twestival global, twestival kl, twestival local, what the tweet, zher peen