For most parts of 2018, it has been a year of eat, sleep, work, repeat. I guess that’d be a general routine for many of us. What is significant for myself is that I’ve been doing it for the past 3 decades, and this blog has been around for 1/3 of that timespan!

Phew, time really flies when you least expect it!

While my roller-coaster relationship with 2017 was a love-hate one, 2018 has been the exact opposite. It has been predictable, routine, and manageable.

That’s how life begins at 30, right? Heh.

Despite the routine-ish moments throughout the 365 days, there has to be a handful of them worth mentioning, right? Well, that’s the whole purpose of this blog entry!

So without being so long-winded (one of the traits of aging peeps), I’ll categorise this year’s recap into 3 categories; Leisure, Fitness, and Career. Here goes!

LEISURE

This year, for my 30th birthday, I decided to get myself (possibly) the biggest gift that I’ve ever bought for myself – a brand new car.

It has been a contemplation for more than 2 years as I was keen on being able to drive a car I call my own. I was undecided between a Honda HRV or Civic. My initial preference was the former as I’ve been driving a sedan since forever (a change would be cool).

But guess what I got…

A Civic instead! It’s been a few months since and I’m enjoying every single cruise… and how it has helped me solved some first world problems.

No table, what to do? Civic to the rescue!!

Anyway, our travel adventures have been rather out of the ordinary. We’ve gone to places we wouldn’t have expected to visit in such a near future.

In May, we travelled to Maldives. Club Med Kani, to be exact.

To be frank, I ain’t a beach enthusiast. But boy, this is probably the most laid-back vacation I’ve had so far. The logistics were mainly to get to Malé and a boat transfer to Kani Island, and the rest were free and easy.

We snorkelled, ate buffet meals 3 times a day, lazed around, and practically had the most blissful days of our lives in the middle of the ocean.

The weather was perfect, the skies were blue, the French ladies were beautiful (ops, forgot my wife will be reading this), the food was intercontinentally delicious, and I had the best beach bod for the occasion. ;)

Well, not going to flash my abs here because on kenwooi.com that’s NSFW. Check out @kenwooi on Instagram instead ya.

“Eh, last time blog about boobs and all. How?”

Shut up.

Anyway, check out our Club Med Kani Maldives travel video on kenwooiTV:

After Maldives, we travelled to another country which wasn’t on my to-visit list AT ALL – Vietnam.

Yes, I’m more of the urban city traveller. You know, places like London, Melbourne, Seoul… that sort? But hey, it was a pleasant and eye-opening experience. We travelled to Nha Trang and Dalat to be exact, instead of the main cities such as Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi.

What I appreciated most out of this trip was being able to witness the world closer to Malaysia, such as the temples, historical sites, and local cultures which are somewhat similar to ours.

The weather was superbly hot though. Thankfully we had transportation provided to and from each locations. Or else, we’d be roasted!

Shades are cool when it’s sunny.

Here’s another travel video made for our Vietnam trip on kenwooiTV (where else?):

Speaking about videos on youtube (need to buck up with creating consistent content), I’ve finally invested in a gadget that could potentially enhance my videography capabilities – a gimbal!

What held me back previously was that the more reputable ones can be rather costly; price range easily more than RM1,000. Eventually, I got mine from Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform.

It’s apparently a revolutionary gimbal with it’s 3-axis stabilizer and portability. Just received it a few days ago, so I’ll be testing it out soon! :)

Really looking forward to more exciting and better quality videos!

Told ya shades are awesome. ;)

FITNESS

To everyone out there claiming “being healthier” or “exercise more” as a new year’s resolution, you better start and stay true to it.

My fitness journey started in the middle of 2017 and I haven’t stopped since. Started off with weak limbs and unbelievable body weight and fat %, I’ve been inching closer to a better version of myself every day.

I aspire to run a 21km half-marathon this year at the Standard Chartered KL Marathon but I’ve been having issues with my legs in January. Just as I decided to be YOLO, registration was closed. Great…

Perhaps it’ll be an attempt in 2019.

Other than that, I’m thankful that my wife has been my diligent company at the gym. Once again, not a #relationshipgoal, just aiming to motivate each other.

Go go go!

CAREER

It’s been a first full calendar year with my current company, the one I joined after being kicked out of my job in the previous one in 2017.

The journey has been great, coupled with various learning opportunities to improve both for the organization and myself. In February, we had a kick-off and I had a chance to present about Customer Experience in front of all my colleagues.

It was nerve-wreaking yet exciting as the 10 minutes presentation felt like 1 hour. Fast forward throughout the year, I’ve yet to unlock the key to its success. :(

There were moments where I wished that “it could have been better”, but how you react when you fall down will make a difference in moving forward.

I’ve also had the opportunity to travel to Manila on a business trip (yes, it’s also my first time to the Philippines) where I met our shared services colleagues from the Operations team.

Finally putting faces to names, and I must say that it has been an eye-opening experience to be physically working there on initiatives and going through the daily routines.

Really grateful for this opportunity to be working alongside them and for their warm hospitality and excellent spirit.

Of all the cross-functional collaborations I’ve had within the organization, the one with the Operations team has been the most significant.

My collaboration continues on with the local Operations team back in Malaysia where we strive to continuously improve internal processes and workflow. That’s my passion and forte I guess (should have figured that out by now), so it’s all about doing better and emanate positive changes across the business.

Here’s to more cross-functional collaborations, and better days ahead for us!

So hey, 365 days of 2018 compressed into a single write-up. Well done! *pats self on the back*

Oh wait, expecting to read some new year’s resolutions for 2019? That ain’t happening because to me, crossing over to a “new year” is just like crossing a street. Just cross, and continue walking lah.

Here’s to all kenwooi.com readers (if anyone’s still there) – Happy New Year 2019!