สวัสดีปีใหม่กรุงเทพฯ

This must be some kind of a record. I've never cleared immigrations and retrieved my luggage this fast at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. The last time this happened, I arrived at an empty airport on New Year's Day at 8am; clearing customs was fast, but the luggage took almost 20 minutes to arrive. This round was super impressive.

Sure, Singapore Airlines flew out on time and landed early. (I'll do all that I can to avoid flying Scoot.) I exited the plane straight into the arrivals channel, and I turned right to the automatic gates with two lanes for Singaporeans and went through in five minutes. Got my passport stamped within thirty seconds and strolled to the luggage belt. The suitcases and parcels arrived within ten minutes. I was nicely seated in the car to town within twenty minutes of arrival. Wow.

I'm here mainly to meet the lovelies in Thailand, and check out the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale themed 'Beyond Bliss'. However, by pure coincidence, quite a number of my favorite non-resident Thai people are in town too! We didn't all plan to be on this trip together, but since travel dates overlap, we could definitely do two meals and two coffees and a few drinks, and see if people's schedules allow for any extra jaunts around the city.

This trip, I lugged up many parcels totaling almost 100 kg for the friends. I rarely do this, but this is Christmas. Hurhurhur. I was quite happy to fulfill some shopping lists and also get some gifts for the friends.

Please give me a pat on my back for the superb re-packing skills. These parcels weren't packed to travel; the shops couldn't do it that well, or meet my standards of 'secure'. So I repacked every one at home, and bubble-wrapped the heck out of them. Not environmentally-friendly, but hey, it ensured that the contents stayed in mint condition. Labeled the parcels with names and contact details in English and Thai. Everything arrived intact and in working order. Whewww.

There's no better way to ring in 2019 than to be in Krung Thep with people I love. It's good to see those whom I haven't seen for a year, and catch up on everything that I've missed out on in their lives. Happy things, sad times, career moves, health scares, managing short ailments and long-term illnesses, et cetera. 2018 has been a major year of shifts and changes for many in my social spheres. I technically know about these, since we're in constant contact via texts and emails. We refuse to do voice messages/memos for now. But nothing beats a hug IRL, and tag a tone and a real voice to the words.

Here's to 2019. 🥂 May the year be kind and may we have faith and fortitude, and a clarity of mind to deal with come what may.