"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

As usual, I'm fashionably late. To my credit, it is still January 2010.

2009 was a crazy year for me.

When I was standing at the brink of the beginning of 2009, I had some idea of what it would bring. I was getting married in February 2009. I was going to shift to my new apartment. I had just started work at X Company. I didn't know I was going to change jobs in June 2009, which brought new adventures that I'll keep offline.

At the start of 2009, one of my few close friends left the country. This year, I'm hoping to visit her in the faraway land she flew off to =)

I started anew on some old hobbies of mine, most notably drawing. In 2007 and 2008, I focused more on playing the guitar, but that took a step back in mid-2008 and I've not resumed the level of commitment since, except for playing at home for my own consumption. Oh, but drawing... that's my first love amongst all my hobbies and I think it always will be, considering I was a doodler before I was a reader or a guitarist.

As for writing, I think I express myself better through writing than through verbal speech, except when I'm very very emotional, which hardly ever happens. As an angsty teen, when I quarreled with my mum, she'd win any verbal argument. Until I got fed up and wrote to her a long letter detailing why she's a terrible mum and why I'm so misunderstood :P LOL I wonder if she still keeps those love letters ; )

Back to drawing though. 2009 was a milestone for my drawing because I started on some lessons with my long-suffering Shifu who taught me caricature drawing way back when. This time, he got me started on live drawing. For those who are not familiar, live drawing is figure drawing, which is drawing nudes, male or female. This has led to several rather interesting conversations I've had with people who can't believe that I would do something as sleazy as gaze upon a nekkid body for 3hours with a group of like-minded people.



For instance, my young colleague looked through my sketchbook and proclaimed for all within earshot to hear, "These are screenshots of p0rn! What have you been looking at? TSK TSK TSK look at all these!" *flips through book loudly*

In another instance, Intuition was explaining my absence to a gathering which clashed with my class, and a (rather conservative) friend wanted to find out more:

He: Quirkie can't make it tonight cos she has drawing classes.
She: Oh really? What class is she taking?
He: She's doing live drawing.
She: Oh that sounds like fun! What happens in the class?
He: The model... poses, and then they draw the model.
She: Oh wow! Can I be a model?
He: ... ermmm *not wanting to embarrass her, says* it's a pretty niche thing.

Another one involved an sms exchange between a friend and I:
His sms:

Me: QKK can draw a new mascot for us this year.
His boss: She got time anot?
He: I'll ask her la.
*pause*
His boss: Will she draw them with clothes on or not?

To which I replied:
Me: Unless Y Organization increases my pay, I won't draw them with clothes on.
He: ... I'll let her know.
Me: Thanks. I can be persuaded.
He: You know, in a sense, one of the mascots is kinda like my avatar. So if you draw him nekkid, you're drawing me nekkid.
Me: OW STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP
He: Just so you know.