It's that time of the year again where I select my top 5 books of the year. This year I have read 95 book!  The most number of books I have read in my life. It's pretty amazing. I enjoyed a lot of poetry this year and I wonder how that will change in 2020. But without further a do,  here are my top 5 books of 2019.

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama (Hands down the best book I've read this year. What strike me the most is how raw and honest she is about how she feels to be on the spotlight, on finding her place, of being a woman along side her husband. Highly recommend this to everyone.)

2. Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino (Beautifully written and it has all the feels I needed in a book. I remember just enjoying this and I can't put it down. It was that good. Worth a reread.)

3. Please Don't Go Before I Get Better by Madisen Kuhn (A poetry written by a young lady that is so raw and real.)

4. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy (Everyone should read this! It's a quick read but it's magical and it makes you think about life too.)

5. Unfiltered by Lily Collins (I'm surprise by how much I enjoy this book. Perhaps because I can relate to her a lot and her book resonates with me.)

If you want to read about my past top books here are the links. 2018 - Goodreads
2017 - Goodreads, 2016  - Goodreads , 2015 - Goodreads, 2014 - Goodreads.

2019 has been the most life changing year for me so far. I got married, left Singapore and moved to London for good. These dreams; the biggest dreams I have since I was young was granted, gifted, blessed with. 2019 has taught me that dreams do come true and all you have to do is listen and follow your heart. It always knows, it just does. Thank you 2019 for this wonderful year and I'm looking forward to welcoming 2020. Also here are more highlights of 2019.

1. Went to Hong Kong for Valentines Day.
2. Went back to Manila and my parents met my boyfriend (now husband) and we got engaged.
3. Moved out of our apartment in Potong Pasir last March.
4. My husband (bf then) moved to London in April.
5. We had our first long distance for 7 months.
6. I moved back to my sister.
7. Saw Baby Seby grew up for a while.
8. I got married last August
9. Got my UK visa last September
10. Left Singapore and moved to London in November.
11. Spend my first Christmas in London.

It's been a week since I moved to London and I've seen more places than the last time I visited. I have a much different perspective of this city now that I'm older and no longer a tourist. It's true what they say, living in London is far different from being a tourist. I observed things, experienced things and I understood why there is no other city greater than London.

This city is everything. They make it easy for people to be eat healthy, offers so many options to the public; from museums, art, food to music. Life is in London and here I am living it.

Okay this is giving me goosebumps. I may not have written an entry when I first moved to Singapore in 2009 but I did wrote an entry when I moved to a new apartment in 2011. It's been a decade and I can't believe I'm still writing my thoughts here. And honestly I don't plan to stop anytime soon, though I am thinking of starting an art journal, still I won't abandon this.

I'm moving to London next week and tomorrow is officially my last day of work! Wow I'm just having a flashback on my time in this country. I lived here for a decade and that saids something. This is the place where I:

- First dreamed to move to another country
-  Married the love of my life
- Got my first full time job
- Bought my first designer bag - Philip Lim Pashli 
- Went to Europe for the first time. London to be exact 
- Lived on my own then later moved in with my boyfriend who is now my husband.
- Worked for a big company
- Really got into fitness
- Stopped eating meat and so much more.

Thank you Singapore for the dreams, for the love of my life and for leading me to London. I'm forever thankful for all of these wonderful, memorable and life changing experience.

Goodbye Singapore. I will see you another time.

I've been doing a lot of creative stuff lately; scrapbooking, drawing, creating a website, listening to creative podcast, reading art books etc. I've surrounded myself with so much of these lately that new ideas starts popping up; things I wanted to do and explore and I wasn't sleeping as much because I was having fun.

And I don't think I've ever surrounded myself with these much before. For 8 hours, or more, a day I go to work while counting down the days when I get to move to London. It was a long wait, a hard one and now I get to move. People kept asking me if I'll be working there and the answer is no, not yet. I'm taking a break from the 9 - 6 job...

Because I've been given permission, this pocket of time in my life to be who I wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist. No let me rephrase that, I am an artist and I want to live it fully. I'm thankful that my husband supports this. He could have said otherwise but no.

Then it got me thinking. Why do we need permission to be who we wanted to be? To do what we wanted to do? As though there's a need to explain ourselves because our situation doesn't allow it or some may think it will stir us to a wrong direction. For me I get to be creative on the side, doing hobbies but not all day, maybe for a few hours after I get home or on the weekends. Even then I'll be so tired to be doing anything and I just want to rest and catch up on TV shows.

That is why I'm savouring this moment and to remind myself that I have to bold, to brave, to challenge myself, to not stop and to keep pushing forward. Even though I'm not sure about what I'm doing or where it would lead me, I just need to be true to myself and have faith that it would all work out okay.