My New Year Motto: "It ain't over till..."

[I’ve had some good feedback for this last Ice Cream Sundae newsletter, I thought I’d copy it here as well. If you’d like to receive the Sundae email newsletter, you can sign up here.]

I hope you had a great time for New Year’s Eve! I’m just back from the Pyrénées Mountains where I spent a few days for a tabletop gaming getaway with friends. We had a fantastic time playing games, hanging out, drinking champagne and eating cheese fondue.

Next year I might take an end of year holiday break for the newsletter but I figure I’ve only started recently so keeping my own habit of consistently writing it every week is more important than taking a break at this point.

I mentioned New Year resolutions last week. I don’t tend to make these kinds of resolutions. That said, I wrote about liking game designer John Wick’s habit of New Year mottos and I’ve been giving some thought to it.

My favourite motto in life so far is “what goes around comes around”. I like the implicit ideas of karma and cycles. As much as I like it, I probably have space to add something new now.

As I was thinking about what could be in store for 2016, I browsed a few sites for quotes and sayings. I was thinking of themes like pursuing things, finishing what I start or something along the lines of perseverance. I’m thinking of the various things I’ve started last year like this newsletter and the podcast.

I’m usually pretty good at getting excited for new projects, and not necessarily so great and pursuing them over time. I get bored after a while and want to move on. There’s probably some measure of stopping when things get too difficult, when the real work starts. This also means I don’t often (or even ever) invest enough time to master anything. On one hand I enjoy learning all sorts of different things and being a Jack-of-all-trades, but that of course also means I’m not mastering much.

As these various thoughts were rolling around my head, this phrase suddenly came to mind and is taking hold: It ain’t over till the fat lady sings. (or The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings)

That’s what the year 2016 is about. It’s my New Year motto.

I like the sound of it, and the idea(s) associated.

Don’t assume anything is over and done until it really is.

Give things everything I’ve got until the very end, and then more.

Don’t readily give up.

Don’t presume to know the outcome of an event that is still going on.

Shake out of being resigned or cynical, there’s more that can be done if it’s not over.

It’s playful and can be applied to many situations.

I find it encouraging.

The proverb is often applied to sports, and that’s apparently the environment in which it was first coined. According to this article it was the sportswriter Dan Cook around 1976 in the San Antonio News-Express. “He was trying to to buck up local basketball fans who were dejected because the San Antonio Spurs were down three games to one in the playoffs against the Washington Bullets.” Others attribute the saying to the famous baseball player Yogi Berra.

The “fat lady” comes from opera stereotypes, in this case it is believed to be down to Wagner’s famous quadrilogy of epic music dramas: Der Ring des Nibelungen. A full performance of the cycle takes place over four nights at the opera with a total playing time of over fifteen hours. The fourth and last part is Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the name is a translation of the old Norse phrase Ragnarök, basically a huge war amongst gods and heroes leading to the end and rebirth of the world. One of the main protagonists is Brünnhilde, a valkirie of the Norse mythology. The opera and whole of the Ring cycle ends with her singing a 10 to 20 minute long solo in a scene where basically everything ends in flames.

That’s when it’s over and not a second before.

I enjoy the opera. I’m not a specialist at all, but I like listening to some of the famous ones. I’ve had the chance to see La Traviata in Perpignan last year. I’ve also seen Cosí fan tutte, Tosca and Le Nozze di Figaro on stage. I haven’t seen any of Wagner’s Ring cycle. I’ll look out for what’s on at the opera in London this year. Perhaps a topic to explore in another Sundae.

I’ve also written a blog post expanding a little on one of the previous newsletters about what went on for me in 2015, and rather than repeat myself too much I’ll probably copy another version of this newsletter in my blog.

I also published the last podcast episode of 2015, an interview with James Wallis, a British game designer, writer and consultant. If you listen to and enjoy the podcast I would greatly appreciate if you could give it a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher.

I asked this last week already but that was before the New Year. Do you have a New Year resolution or motto? Keep in touch if you have one, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for reading, I wish you all the best for 2016! Have an amazing year!!

Cheers
Willem

Belated summary of 2013 and hello 2014

The famous Singapore Chilli Crab! The kind of reason for a few of my extra kilos.

I obviously haven't been writing much of anything here last year, though I did write about a few things I wanted to achieve in 2013 so coming up to April 2014, it's about time I write an update.

1. Context

I talked about consolidation, and I feel that was definitely done. I wasn't sure what it meant then, still not exactly sure what it means now, but I feel like it was a good to time to stop and take stock, which is done now.

I installed a few things to turn my spacious living room into an awesome cinema room - new HD projector and sweet speakers. My flat has become the main hangout for friends, and many chilled movie nights. It's nice to have a place to call my own again, I've been enjoying the creature comforts of home. I've made a great group of friends and a bunch more acquaintances to hang out with.

I threw a couple of big parties, Halloween in particular was pretty insane - over 60 people there and the cops came round to shut it down. Some of the Singaporeans there couldn't believe it, they'd never seen a house party like that (I don't think they'd ever attended a cool house party before). I dressed as a Bavarian beer maid and was serving beer to guests poured out of big fake breasts - corny but great fun. Sweetly decadent, at least by Singapore standards anyways.

I exceeded my money saving target for last year which is pretty cool, and I didn't have to particularly deprive myself of anything which is cool too. On the other hand I mostly failed at any kind health improvements or weight loss, I kept on my line of eating & drinking too much while not exercising much. I'll come back to that.

Work-wise it has been a really interesting year, learned a lot about business in Asia, won an Effie award, won a big piece of new business, learned to work on new industry categories, etc.

Now it's probably time for some change after a relatively quiet year - not sure what yet, I'll keep in touch when there are new news on that front.

2. New things to learn and new places to go

I said it was about time I learned how to drive. I've been saying that for a while, and I'll keep saying it for a while longer... The progress has been feeble. I signed for driving school back in August 2013. Found out it takes about 2 months in advance to book anything. I've booked to take my basic theory test twice, and didn't study at all. The third time was this morning and I didn't go. I was reading a more interesting book about yeast biology over the weekend. I might actually bother with the drivers license the day I actually really need it. 

About yeast biology, my main new thing from last year is home brewing beer. I'm having a blast doing that, I've progressed and I can make a pretty decent drinkable brew now. I want to get better at it and I've been investing in a few bits and pieces. I brewed my latest batch a week ago, which is going to be a vanilla bourbon oatmeal stout. It's already pretty tasty, the vanilla is soaking in there for another week before I bottle it up. I've also joined a group of home brewers in Singapore to learn from other people, bought a few books, and I'm participating in a beer tasting workshop at the moment.

I did an Arduino weekend workshop last year, so that idea was done as well. I got the whole basic kit and played around with it a little. It was a really interesting (and geeky) weekend and I'm glad I learned more about it, though I haven't done much with it since.

My little brother's birthday back in the South of France was awesome - fantastic party of fun debauchery wit the whole family. I didn't go visit many places in the area, I spent more time with the family and a little time helping my sister with her vines. She ended up being the first winemaker in France to crowd-fund a portion of the money she needed to get started, she even got some local press out of it I tasted her first wines over Christmas and they're really good - very proud of her.

Less travels last year but I still had an awesome time for cherry blossom in Japan, joined a fantastic party with loads of locals, foreigners, travellers, and expats for a huge Hanami (cherry blossom viewing party, basically getting trashed in the park under the cherry trees - crucial tradition in Japan) in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo. I also visited my friend Simon in Sabah, Borneo for a weekend, and did some business travelling round Southeast Asia. I also went to Bali and the Gili Islands for a few days, which was pretty sweet.

3. All fun, not so much practice

This last thing I'd mentioned was this silly idea to exercise. I went running a few times after I wrote it, and a few more times about mid-way through the year, but that's about it.

More craft beer bars have been opening in Singapore, I'm brewing the stuff myself, and the food here is just too good and varied to not indulge. I've made some awesome restaurant discoveries in all sorts of styles and cuisines, from close to fine dining to street food and tiny hole in the wall type places.

I did go to a few concerts, and a few more this year as well which is cool - the best thing is to spot some awesome musicians that Singaporeans wouldn't necessarily know about, in which tickets are generally cheap. I went to see Steve Vai a few weeks ago - one of  the best gigs I've been to in a very long time. 

Gaming we did occasionally with some friends, the odd board game night a few times last year which was cool.

Altogether pretty cool year in 2013, I've learned to appreciate Singapore and discover some cool things beneath the surface. Onwards and upwards for this year!

Hello 2013

The Colour of Consolidation

We're already a week into the new year, I don't typically do much of this though I thought it would be good to have a think and write about what this year should be about. I don't exactly take this as resolutions just because I don't think I'd ever stick to any kind of resolutions - maybe it's just semantics, I prefer the idea of creating what this year is about. I saw my friend Adam does it this way so I'm kind of just copying him, really.

1. Context

Of course you never know when life will throw a curve ball, which is also part of the reason why I'm saying it's different from just resolutions, I think of it as creating some kind of context for my life this year.

This year for me is about consolidation, that's the theme I've come up with. I don't think it sounds super sexy or exciting though it does right for me now and the word has come back to mind a few times as I was thinking about the year ahead.

I checked a few definitions and came across this one I like:

consolidation - combining into a solid mass; the act of combining into an integral whole

It's part of the reason I stopped travelling full time, I wanted to take a break, regroup and enjoy some simple creature comforts as well as think about what comes next. To which my cynical voice may well be whispering that Singapore is a fine choice of a place for that... I'm not exactly certain what I'd be combining this year, mostly myself in a way. I like the idea of spending time pulling together my experiences of the past few years into an integral whole, whatever that may be.

It's also material, I definitely intend to save money this year and I have a goal set for that. It is a worthwhile one and slightly challenging, without being impossible or sacrificing much in other areas over the course of the year.

With work, I'm a few months in a new job and new environment, there are a lot of opportunities, one of them being to improve or hone certain aspects of being a planner, and it looks like I have some excellent people to learn from on the planning side of life at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore which is brilliant. Missing working in a team was also one of the reasons I chose to look for a full time job again and I'm lucky to work with some amazing people.

We'll see what else consolidation might mean as a context for the year as we go.

2. New things to learn and new places to go

The next point is questioning what I am going to learn this year. I'm not talking about trivia, information, or work stuff. I mean a useful and/or interesting activity or skill of some kind. In 2010 2011 I learned scuba-diving, and in 2012 I learned Thai massage.

I've pretty much sorted the main thing to learn this year and it fits in the consolidation theme: driving. I'm 33, it's about time I learn how to drive - I have no idea how to. It's never been of major interest but I know it's useful and as time went by I always had something better to do with my money than invest in learning how to drive. I'm pretty sure one days it'll come in handy so I might as well get that done.

I might try out a few other things as well though not sure what, could be salsa dancing, tinkering with an Arduino board and simple electronics, or figurine painting. I'll keep in touch and write about any of these if they happen.

Now it's not because I say the theme is consolidation that I'm not going to travel at all, so of course there should be new places to go to and explore, plus I'll also be traveling for business (which I don't necessarily consider exploring). Given I'm back in an office I'm switching to different travel styles to fit shorter lengths of available time, and also looking forward to hosting friends and travellers here in Singapore.

My little brother Morgan is turning 30 this year so I'm going to France and I want to go to a few new places around where my family lives in the South west around Perpignan. Nothing crazy, just a few places I haven't been. That could be Montpellier, Ceret, Andorra, Figueiras, maybe going on the Little Yellow Train up the Pyrenees. Other places I'm looking at visiting this year include Java (Jakarta, Borobodur, and Bromo National Park in particular), and I'm looking at a short trip to Japan for the Cherry Blossom. In addition, perhaps a few weekends to nearby places like Malacca or the Cameron Highlands.

3. A bit of practice, a bit of fun

To finish this off and I guess closer to the classic kind of new year resolutions, I've been in Singapore for now 4 months and I indulged a little too much in fine beers / booze and food while settling at a new office job so I started putting on some weight. I've decided to start the year with some exercise and healthier eating. I went running three times since last week (to put that in context the last time I went for a run was at least three years ago) so a bit of regular exercise, I'm eating more healthy and I'm cutting down on beer and Doritos / crisps in particular (my main weakness in the foods that are bad for you though taste oh so amazing department). My plan is to lose about 10kg in the next three months.

The game I'm playing with beer is I'm only allowed if I'm at a good bar offering craft beers and/or a micro-brewery AND I can't offer or suggest going to these places in the first place, I have to be invited. We'll see how that goes, not sure how long I'll play.

Next on line is I've learned foot massage last year and it needs some practice so I can improve, I have a couple of ideas on that front though still working it out.

Now on fun, I've just been realising there are some pretty cool concerts coming up and I haven't been to any big concerts in ages. Among artists I'd like to go see and upcoming in Singapore: Norah Jones, Santana, Deep Purple, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Journey, etc. Some of those are pretty pricy so I probably wont go to all of them though at least some. Let's say at least 3 big concerts this year and more live music in general. I'll also look out for shows, plays, and musicals.

Next I want to get back into some table top gaming; board games and perhaps role playing games if I find people up for that. Good news is I met some people up for occasional board game nights, I've already had a couple last year, bought myself Zombies, Small World, and I'm very excited about Democracy coming up that I've helped fund on Kickstarter - it looks amazing, looking forward to trying it out.

I think that's about it for now and we'll see what else happens! Happy New Year everyone!