I’ve been doing this post for the last couple of years. It’s my summary for the year.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Lived in a country that doesn’t speak English as a first language for 2 weeks – Taiwan. Dressed up as a zombie ballerina for a professional photoshoot for Aasia‘s birthday – it was loads of fun. 

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t make resolutions.

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?
Currently, I don’t have any plans.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandmother

5. What countries did you visit?
Kenya, Taiwan, China & Zambia.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
More challenges.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
9th July – the day my grandmother passed away, which is also my wedding anniversary.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
My Digital Life making it through the financial year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not growing My Digital Life’s traffic enough.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I always pull a neck muscle around winter, which is so bad that I can’t check my blind spot, so I can’t drive.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Macbook Air.

12. Where did most of your money go?
Macbook Air and cost of living for 2 weeks in Taiwan, hence no New York trip. 

13. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Someone Like You – Adele.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spending time away from my laptop.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Spending time in front of my laptop.

16. What was your favourite TV program?
I enjoyed Shameless and Game of Thrones.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.

18. What was the best book you read?
Steve Jobs autobiography – but still reading.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Deadmau5 (mostly because he came to South Africa).

20. What was your favourite film of this year?
Bridesmaids.

21. What did you do on your birthday?
Was taken for a surprise dinner (okay it came out shortly before I left home) to Bukhara – my dad was up in Jo’burg too.

22. What kept you sane?
Earphones.

23. Who did you miss?
My grandmother.

24. Who was the best new person you met?
I met lots of people while traveling.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
To be grateful for everything I have because there are others who are always worse off.

I found this this travel meme online and decided to do it. I know, I haven’t blogged since returning from Taiwan, I’ve been so busy catching up and trying to recover. So this will have to do in the mean time.

1. Where, of all the places you have never been, do you want to go to most?

New York City! I hope if I go there, it lives up to my expectations.

2. Where do you most want to go back to? 

I used to want to return to London, but not so sure about that anymore. I think Cardiff, because I lived there for almost a year. I’d like to see what the city is like now, and how things changed over the years.

3. Favourite City?

That I’ve been to, I’d say Berlin. I love how different the East and West are (architecture). There’s a lot to see and learn. I was surprised at how friendly people were to me.

4. Least favourite city?

I didn’t like Bangkok. Too crowded and too filthy. I had to take nausea tablets because the air stank.

5. Do you speak other languages? 

No, I wish I did, though.

6. How do you get by without being fluent?

I use Google on my phone a lot, or I show pictures of what I’m looking for/where I want to go. It’s always handy to have a business card of the hotel you’re staying at so if you need to take a taxi back, you show the card (which is printed in two languages).

7. Best airport? 

Hong Kong airport. It’s huge, airy, clean. Also, have to mention the self flushing toilets! Creepy the first time around.

8. Worst airport?

Maputo Airport – not much of an international airport.

9. Best travel tips?

Don’t bother with travelers cheques. One of the best options for forex (apart from getting cash), is loading money onto your credit card and (having your PIN) so you can withdraw from any ATM your card is compatible with.

10. Biggest travel mistake?

Packing for an “in case” situation. I’ve learnt to travel light over the years: I went to Germany with hand luggage only. Pack what is necessary and not half your belongings.

11. Best coffee outside your city? Best coffee in your city?

Starbucks without a doubt! When I was in Taiwan, I never passed a Starbucks without buying something. This was mostly because I couldn’t find halal food and mostly surviving off liquids. Best coffee in my city varies because I like a latte from one place, cappuccino from another, etc. Also, depends on my mood. I do like Seattle Coffee Co. though.

12. Best meal while on travel? Best meal in your city?

Best meal for me anywhere would be pizza, even if it’s a margherita. Best meal in my city – too difficult. I like different dishes at different places.

13. Most breathtaking view from your travel? Most breathtaking view in your city?

Breathtaking view from travel – this is difficult too: I liked Singapore, Kuala Lampur, London, Cardiff, Berlin. I like buildings more than the ocean. In my city – I need to explore it more to answer this.

Images taken from Google Images.

I came across this really cool personal Twitter data-generated infographic via Syllable, called Visual.ly.

Just login with your Twitter account and you will see that you are what you tweet. You can compare yourself to someone else if you want, but I selected the solo option. I cropped out a little bit of boring info. This was my result:

If you’re reading this, feel free to generate one for yourself and let me know via comment.

I wrapped up 2009 by answering the following questions and thought I’d do the same for 2010.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Rode the Gautrain. Attended Fifa world cup matches. Watched soccer matches at fan parks. Cheered for my team outdoors in -2 degree weather. Learned how to blow a vuvuzela.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t do new years’ resolutions.

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?
Probably the same way I spent it last year – sitting online and watching the countdown on www.google.co.za, eagerly awaiting for virtual fireworks to explode on my LED screen. Rad.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Germany.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
An LED TV, which might happen sooner, rather than later

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Waking up at 4:30am on 8 June 2010, in the middle of winter to catch the inaugural Gautrain ride from Sandton to OR Tambo International. Although I only caught a much later train, it was worth it. Also, 11 June 2010.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being given the chance to run My Digital Life. And being told “I like the way you think” by our company CEO.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Expecting results that never came.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I pulled a shoulder/neck muscle, which was very painful.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Fiat 500

12. Where did most of your money go?
Medical aid, credit card payments, gadgets.

13. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Waka Waka.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Maybe food blog.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Wasting weekends sitting indoors.

16. What was your favourite TV program?
The Big Bang Theory [same as last year].

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t hate people. I just hate their habits.

18. What was the best book you read?
I started several…

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I’m gonna have to cheat with this one and change it to my most listened to album for the year: Kick-Ass soundtrack.

20. What was your favourite film of this year?
Kick-Ass.

21. What did you do on your birthday?
Spent the whole day being grumpy because I felt old.

22. What kept you sane?
As always – listening to music.

23. Who did you miss?
A friend, who’s around but it hasn’t been feeling like that.

24. Who was the best new person you met?
I met an Internet friend redsaid, or as she is called in another world, Rachel. Yeah, I know, I cheated with this one, too.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
Don’t speed… it costs a fortune when you get caught.

Got this tag from Hamish. It’s a list of stuff that I should have mentioned to my husband before I got married. You know, the quirks, or whatever you want to call it.

1. I don’t like eating broken Marie biscuits.
2. When I’m upset and say “I’m okay” – I’m not really okay.
3. If I do admit to not being okay, I don’t like talking about it.
4. I can be OCD at times (you should see me butter my toast).
5. I hate doing dishes and laundry.
6. I flip channels and try to follow 2 programs at once.
7. I get distracted easily.
8. I forget to put the milk back into the fridge.
9. I forget to switch off appliances sometimes (I know what you’re thinking).
10. I can get *very* competitive at games and hate losing.
11. When I cook, I don’t like being distracted or want help.
12. When I don’t have food in my stomach, I’m the biggest grouch (you can only imagine what I’m like in Ramadaan).

That’s all I can think of right now.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Posted a video of myself on YouTube.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t do new year’s resolutions, find them totally pointless. Why wait for a particular time in the year to change who you are when you can do it anytime?

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?
Probably indoors.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
None this year, but my list is long with Italy being right on top.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Patience. I could always do with more patience.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The day my nephew Zayd was born, 7 January. Other than that, the year hasn’t been that eventful.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being offered a role at work that involves creativity, management and a lot of hard work.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting a friendship die.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Does having my wisdoms removed under local anesthetic count?

11. What was the best thing you bought?
MacBook Pro.

12. Where did most of your money go?
MacBook Pro, hahaa. Paying off credit cards and bills.

13. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Muse’s Uprising.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Being social? Nah.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Spend a lot of time indoors. Nah.

16. What was your favourite TV program?
The Big Bang Theory.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t hate people, I just pretend they don’t exist.

18. What was the best book you read?
I can’t say, it’s not yet published.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I wouldn’t say “greatest” but I really like Korpiklaani.

20. What was your favourite film of this year?
Star Trek

21. What did you do on your birthday?
My birthday fell on a Monday so I was spoilt the whole day on the Sunday.

22. What kept you sane?
Music.

23. Who did you miss?
My two sisters who live 570km away.

24. Who was the best new person you met?
I don’t make friends easily; nobody stands out. This excludes people from teh interwebs.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Always double check your flight times.

I took this meme from the Sunday Stealing blog.

I’ve seen this meme flying around cyberspace – posting a picture of your desktop. I have three desktops but since I’m at the office, it’ll have to be this one.

It will remain the above until I get bored.

Go on, post a pic of your desktop… I tag anyone and everyone reading this.

I got this from another blog. Feel free to steal it from here and pass it on.

1. want: a faster desktop (will this ever end?)
2. need: ghd thermal hair protector
3. thankful for: everything I have
4. thinking: about holidays
5. quote: “Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is” – Sir Francis Bacon
6. watching: currently, just my screen.
7. lacking: energy
8. listening: the soft hum of my CPU
9. responding: to this blog meme
10. planning: what I’m going to do in my 4 day weekend that is fast approaching. So far it’s books, movies and catching up with my two sisters + their husbands + their kids (I’m their favourite aunt, btw)
11. am: relaxed for now.
12. not: on deadline – yay!

Create your debut novel cover:

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
The name that appears is your author name

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml
The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php
Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik or something similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your blog along with this text.

I tag anyone who is reading this.

Using only songs from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to whoever you like. You can’t use the artist I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “My Life According to (ARTIST NAME)”.

Pick Your Artist: Metallica

Are you male or female?
Invisible Kid

Describe yourself:
Don’t Tread On Me

How do you feel?
Carpe Diem Baby

Describe where you currently live:
The House That Jack Built

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Through the Never

Your favourite form of transportation:
It’s Electric

Your best friend is:
Ronnie

Your favourite colour is:
The More I See

What is the weather like?
Frantic

Favourite time of day:
Hit the Lights

If your life was a T.V. show, what would it be called?
Disposable Heroes

What is life to you?
Struggle Within

Your relationships:
Nothing Else Matters

Your fear:
Creeping Death

What is the best advice you have to give?
Ride the Lightning

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
Phantom Lord

Thought for the day:
…And Justice For All

How I would like to die:
Hero of the Day

My soul’s present condition:
Purify

My Motto:
Fight Fire with Fire

I tag (yes you guessed it) anyone who is reading this.