Of all my addictions and more...

* Irritatingly long post ahead!

This will be my last post for the year. Come December, I begin to have a sense of purpose in life - Wind up stuff I intended to do this year! :-) All the grandiose plans I would have made in the past 1 year will finally get my undivided attention now !! The unfinished paintings, unread books, begging for my books (very daunting task this), a new time-consuming interest, playing Secret-Santa in office (*eyes rolling as I am convinced now that I'm aging backwards)  ... and so on and so forth. I know I can do all of these in January and the subsequent months, but there's a secret thrill in accomplishing pending tasks. 

Law of blogging states that one must give away the awards one has won. Not too sure even now whether I deserve them awards ; yet I abide since I feel selfish not doing so. I have also picked a post from every blog I read and linked it here. Click on their name to read.

## Addicting Blog Award

1. Reflections

2. Shoot the Breeze

3. A rose is a rose is a rose

4. The New Sixty
5. The compulsive rantings of a nobody


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## Butterfly Award

 

1. Just a Mother of Two (link to follow later)

2. Shalom

3. Agnes

4. The self love project

5. Antarman

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## Best Blogger

1. Shruti 

2. Shruti (MM)

3. Musings of a lonely traveler

4. Insignia

5. Aryan and his mom

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## I Love your blog

1. Mohan

2. Evanescent Thoughts 

3. The Song of Life

4. Attuned
5. Shobha

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For my close friends/family/colleagues who don't blog, yet read all my posts (not always under pressure), I've already awarded some of you in the past. So I'm racking my brains for fresh innovative ideas. Shanti Sagar masala dosa ? Corner House ice-cream ? My coconut burfi ? An autograph ? ;-) What would you like ?

I honestly didn't think I'd blog beyond a dozen posts so lets just say I amaze myself at times.  I took to blogging solely to try my hand at writing (read my first post) and that stays. I used to maintain a diary (ever since I learnt to read/write) and update quite regularly until my brother discovered all its various 'hiding places' in my room :-X  To lighten up, let me share --

Highlight of the year - Obviously there were many but I like to keep things impersonal. Recently, I learnt am still learning to make portraits and made one of my parents.  I, for one, was simply thrilled it resembled them ;-)



Flip side of the year - Again more than I would have liked. But lets stick to the current topic. I also dabbled in a self-portrait (a pencil sketch). Disaster! I made myself look 15+ years older. Sob! :'( So that portrait will see the light of the day only when I am actually in my forties or fifties !!! :-P

Speaking about portraits, don't miss Preeti Shenoy's work here and here. Her portraits inspire me.  :-)

My post nears its end (yea, at long last!). Like this year. Recently, my best friend surprised me with a book. Titled 'A Good Year - everything matures eventually' (also a movie starring Russell Crowe)  :-) I am certainly not a 'thing' and I hope it applies to situations also, but anyhow it does sum up my year beautifully !!

My resolution for the new year is to start blogging in Tamil !!! ;-) Please send in your best wishes and 'Learn Tamil in 30 days'/ 'Tamil for Dummies'  books across !! FYI - I can read, write and speak indeed. The sudden fetish is because I am all set to immerse myself in an epic novel  "Ponniyin Selvan" . I'm ruing the fact that I have to make do with a translated copy (now you can assess the true extent of my mastery over the language!). I'm warning you, do arm yourselves with a dictionary when I make my grand come-back :-)

*@ Arkansas Patti, Agnes - Tamil is an Indian language. 

Thank you for appreciating my 'stuff' and bearing with all my 'nonsense' too.

Happy New Year!!

P.S.   @ Bloggers  :::  I took the liberty of linking posts I liked without requesting for prior permission as I wanted it to be a surprise. Please don't hesitate to say so in case you want the link removed - No hard feelings. The award is still all yours ! :-)