What is going on in 2012?

Year 2011 is coming to an end in a couple of days.The year 2011 definitely has its ups and downs. I finished my Masters, started diving more consistently in NZ, learned how to mend our own drysuit and service my own regulators. There were definitely frustrations - immigration NZ, the university's poor administrative structure. Also, there is a constant struggling with finances - there are so many financial commitments, but there is never enough income!

Year 2012 brings new challenges  -

• PhD study. Challenges with the research for my PhD is to find the perfect  and yet affordable  location for field and lab research. There are a couple of professors lined up but it is hard to finalize which professors to collaborate more closely. I will have to seek our more research funding and scholarship opportunities.
• Diving. In the year 2012, Hannah and I are going for our long-awaited Trimix class. This class will open up more opportunities for our diving. We will be more involved in the TechDive NZ cave exploration - Blue Creek resurgence. 
• Tutorship. I will start teaching in the BIOSCI lab after 2 years of demonstrating. I am definitely looking forward to it. 
• Fitness. Wow... age is a horrible thing!... I used to be able to go through weeks without much sleep, and can bounce back easily from a illness...now I can barely keep myself awake after 11pm! And when I fall sick, I FALL SICK! This year, I have to be more diligent keeping myself fit.
• Family.. the Chinese have a great saying which I never really appreciate until now. When you are young, you can't wait to leave home. When you are adult, you want to have a home. When you are old, you just want to go home. In 2012, I am going to be in closer contacts with my family (both old and new family members :) )

and goals -

1. Finish and publish the two papers I have been working on for the past 3 months.
2. Portions of the PhD research to be done : location recce, collaborators negotiation, literature review, experimental design.
3. Publish at least one paper from my PhD research before end of 2012.
4. Pass our GUE fundamentals and Rec 3 (Trimix).
5. Conduct at least one exploration dive on the Blue Creek resurgence with TechDive NZ.
6. Clock a total of at least 40 recreational dives and 10 technical dives. 
7. Teach 2 labs per week (this will help with the monthly finances as well :) )
8. Stick to a strict exercise regime ( I already have a regime, but sticking to it is another story :P)
9. Run the Auckland Marathon.
10. Call home (Singapore) at least once every fortnight.
11. Go home (Singapore) at least one time in year 2012 (not counting the wedding date!).
12. Go back to Iron Mountain.

Happy new year.