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  >  Travel   >  Australia   >  My 2016 in Pictures

There’s just a couple more days before we officially say goodbye to 2016. This year has been crazy! I’ve had a lot of memories, good and bad. My year-end blues came early this year which resulted to hard decisions being made. It was such a depressing time but I am happy that I’m leaving some things behind in 2016. It’s impossible to tell you all of the great stories in one post, so I’m posting pictures instead. (This would’ve been easier had I been a diligent blogger!)

January

Started the year by meeting up with old friends.

February

Tried my hand at digital sketching. I’ve always been fascinated by architectural and travel sketches by artists I follow on Instagram.

March

My parents (particularly my Dad) love to fish. They’d been bugging me to go with them but I always refused because I really didn’t like fishing. But one Sunday morning, for the sake of taking pictures, I finally agreed.

April

In April, my friends from work decided to finally visit me in Zamboanga City. We went on a road trip to nearby cities in Mindanao. It was so tiring but so much fun. I wrote about our experience here.

May

Clouds!

Sydney Airport

I hopped on a plane to Australia to make use of the remaining months I had on my tourist visa. My flight took me to Sydney, and then I took a domestic flight to Melbourne where I stayed for more than two months.

June

Watched the Sound of Music

Visited the Great Ocean Road for the second time

At Mount Buller. First time seeing snow!

June was a fun month! My brother and his family flew to Melbourne from Singapore to spend a couple of weeks during school holidays. We went to see my favorite musical of all time, the Sound of Music, which had me tearing up. I couldn’t help it, the songs were just too beautiful! *sniff*. We also went on a road trip to see the sights on amazing Great Ocean Road. Before they left, we went up to Mount Buller to ski. It was the start of the winter season so there wasn’t much snow yet.

July

The city of Melbourne at night

I bought a tripod to try long exposure shots of the city at night. I wasn’t able to do this on my first trip to Melbourne. It’s always my favorite thing to explore a foreign city alone.

This was also the month I sold Jagger, my car.

August

Went back to Mount Buller alone

Visited my friend in Manly (not the guy in picture. lol)

It was time to go back to the Philippines as my three months was almost up. But before doing that, I just had to go to Sydney for a quick visit. I wasn’t able to do this during my first trip to Australia, so I really wanted to make this happen. I contacted my aunt who lived there and they graciously welcomed me into their home (despite the fact that I hadn’t really seen them in like ever!). I made a side trip to visit a friend in Manly where I stayed for two days.

When I got back to the Philippines, I moved in to my new place in Manila. Yay!

September

The view from the KCC Mall

La Vista del Mar: One of my favorite places to watch sunsets in Zamboanga City

Went to my home town with my sister to spend a week with them before they fly to Singapore.

October

The parents and sister went to Manila for a quick visit

Completed the design for my first-ever wedding invitation gig.

My parents and my sister went to Singapore for a quick trip and they stayed at my new place when they got back to the Philippines.

I also started working on the website of my design business (which is still in the works as I had been sidetracked by other things.)

November

Me at Petite France

N Seoul Tower!!!

Birthday month! I fulfilled one of my long-time dreams: visiting South Korea! I spent my birthday there. I was sick and coughing the entire time, but I still got to enjoy most of it. 6 days certainly wasn’t enough and I will definitely go back.

December

Captured my first-ever Pikachu. Lol.

Hello, plant!

Today’s the second to the last day of December. It has only been 30 days, but so much have happened! First, I got the worst case of year-end blues. It was a tough time and I knew it was time to make a change. After 5 years and 7 months, I quit my job. The work-from-home sitch was no longer working for me. I wasn’t socializing, I wasn’t meeting or talking to people. I needed to get away from it all and just start living my life. I know at some point I’m going to regret this decision, but I am hoping for the best.

There are a hundred and one things that I wasn’t able to include in this post. (Like that travel to Pangasinan in August, and that Tagaytay trip in September.) I vow to blog more regularly in the coming year. I may not have as many overseas trips as I will be once again tied to an office job, but I still have the weekends and all the long weekends to explore the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. I can’t wait!