Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Photographs

I love this week’s photo challenge, as hosted by The Daily Post at WordPress: My 2012 in Pictures!

It forced me to really look at some of the photographs I have taken over the past 12 months and kind of sift through the most significant events in my life. Naturally, it was difficult for me to just pin down one photograph per month, so I decided to veer away from the artsy-route and just make this a little journal of thanksgiving for the beautiful things that happened to me in the past year.

January

My year started with a conference in Music Education here in Singapore. And I am glad that my research-artist-collaborator, one of the highly-respected singer-songwriters from the Philippines, Noel Cabangon, has taken time off from his busy schedule to perform and be part of the conference presentation here in my institution.

It was not ‘all work and no play’ for us, no siree. Sentosa (and fun fun fun) had to be part of the itinerary of course.

February

Flowers and chocolates from my husband for Valentine’s Day. Definitely a highlight. Little things like these are never taken for granted.

March

My crazy loves as we celebrated Spring Break at Pulau Ubin. Mandatory jump shot.

White roses for my birthday. My husband knows my heart.

April

In April, I was invited to give a short speech during the Launching of the Asian Children’s Collection at the Woodlands Regional Library. It was truly a privilege and definitely one of the highlights of the year.

This is me giving my very short speech. Click here to be taken to my blogpost about this event.

May

May was quite a hectic month. Our book entitled Singapore: Insights from the Inside was officially launched – I contributed a chapter to this book and I am also part of the book cover as can be seen in this giant poster. Again, a wonderful privilege to be part of this project by the Singapore International Foundation.

As part of the publicity for this book, I was interviewed and featured at Straits Times. Definitely a major highlight this year.

And he’s back! As part of the Program Committee for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content here in Singapore, we invited singer-songwriter Noel Cabangon to be part of the Festival as our regional focus this year was the Philippines. Click here to be taken to my post about this event.

June

June was a month of traveling for me and my family. It was also the month where I met up with quite a number of literary giants and icons. We are truly privileged to spend an afternoon with the literary icon, Madam Ninotchka Rosca who is based in New York, our Featured Academic during our Girl Power bimonthly theme. From L-R: Madam Ninotchka Rosca, my ten year old daughter, and myself.

Leonard Marcus was very kind to host a lovely tour of the New York Public Library while we were at the East Coast. Click here to be taken to my blogpost about this.

Another major highlight was being part of the Philippine team for the Children’s Literature Association Conference in Simmons College, Boston. What a lovely privilege to spend time with National Artist, Virgilio Almario (otherwise known as Rio Alma, farthest left) and one of my longtime friends and kindreds, Professor Tuting Hernandez, a linguist and research collaborator (farthest right).

July

We spent roughly five weeks in the States with family, and we mostly stayed in Las Vegas. Naturally, Grand Canyon, is a must-see for us.

And yes, we did the ‘sky walk.’ Mandatory family shot.

August

I presented another paper and facilitated a symposium at another conference in August, this time at the Sibelius Academy in Finland.

Walking around in Helsinki.

September

Yes, because I am a geek that way. My September highlight would have to be the Library Warehouse Sale here in Singapore. Click here to be taken to my blogpost about this.

This is me brimming with so much happiness with my book loot.

October

My then-ten-year-old daughter presented at their school’s Talent Show. She sang Christina Perri’s The Lonely. I do admire her spunk and courage. Very few kids would have the guts to audition for this and to actually sing in front of a live audience, on her own. Atta girl!

Apart from being a theatre and music geek, this little one is also a basketball player. Their team won the Bronze Medal and she was selected as one of the two All-Star-Basketball players for their entire team, which apparently is a huge deal. Congratulations, baby girl!

November

This is my daughter’s final Phantasmagoric presentation in her Theatre School (which runs for an entire year). I love how multicultural Singapore is: she has classmates coming from all over the world, aside from the local kids who are theater enthusiasts.

And we are in Straits Times once again, as they did a feature of my book club, Gathering Readers at the Jurong West Public Library. Heart is filled.

December

December is my daughter’s birthday month and she celebrated it with her friends and our family friends who came all the way from the Philippines. This was her first ‘official’ party in the four years that we have stayed here in Singapore: there was music, a singing competition, flowers, chocolates, pizza, roasted marshmallows, and a mean game of Taboo.

And my good friend, the handsome rock star, Noel Cabangon visited Singapore just to celebrate his birthday and Christmas Eve with the Singapore family. This is him flanked by a dragon lady (that’s me) and my best friend, the quintessential diva of all times. 🙂

Truly a lot to be grateful for this year.

How about you, dear friends, how was your 2012?