2017 Dec 28
Today I find myself standing before the Time Lords and asking – why? I could have sworn it was last month that I was writing a New Year’s Eve Roundup for 2016 but here we are, in the last week of 2017 already, wondering where a full year disappeared to. Bewilderment aside, what a year it’s been! There’s a lot that has happened during the last 12 months that we’ve already forgotten about. A year so full of change, lessons and growth for us all that we at Pulse can’t help but reminisce the good, the bad and the ugly. How many of these can you remember?
2017 was welcomed with renovations at the Bandaranaike International Airport in January and I don’t think that’s something any of us can easily forget! With long lines at Security, Check in, and Immigration, the airport requested that passengers show up at least five hours prior to their flight time, leaving us vacationers and business travelers with tons of time to contemplate life. Wasn’t the most fun of experiences but hey, the best part about it is that the country’s infrastructure is now that much better, so can we really complain?
Not long after, April of 2017 saw the collapse of a section of the Meethotamulla garbage dump. This has got to be one of the worst things to happen this year, shaking Sri Lanka’s foundation both literally and figuratively. With so many people injured, the Meethotamulla incident gave us our much needed reality check and brought about the awareness about the environment and the importance of proper garbage disposal, which was one of the best things to happen this year. We now have a multitude of environmentalists, volunteer groups and regular citizens ensuring that we’re all doing our best when it comes to preserving the land that we live on.
June brought us soaked socks and sniffles with the insane Monsoon season – landslides and flash floods disrupted the lives of over half a million, claimed the lives of approximately 200 people, and have resulted in almost a 100 to go missing. And as soon as the floods subsided, Sri Lanka was hit by a heat wave, come August. We spent the longest time sweating our bums off and cursing a certain Caucasian President for claiming that Global Warming isn’t real. And if that wasn’t enough, the sudden torrential rains and storm caused havoc across the country in November as well!
A plus in 2017 for Sri Lanka was that our very own Don Sherman made it to the list of Top Ten Chefs in The World! Bagging the title of 7th Best Chef, he now works and as a gourmet expert and singing chef as top 10 chefs in world – big wins for the Pearl of the Indian Ocean!
This year also saw the birth of some of the most Stupid Makeup Trends in all of forever. Come on, squiggly brows and lips? Nose hair extensions? Could we be any dumber? The worst part is that this stuff went completely viral and got a ton of attention too! Come on, internet, you’re so easy to amuse.
Here’s a huge plus for everything our little island has to offer – Sri Lanka placed in the Miss Universe top 16 for the first time since 1955, thanks to the beauty and brains that is Christina Peiris, definitely putting us on the map!
With August, the excitement of all the Cosplays at ASUS Lanka Comic Con took social media by storm. The effort and dedication that went into those costumes left us quite speechless, but as always, with great things come the not-so-great as well. As soon as Comic Con was concluded, the trolls crept out from under their rocks, calling people names and insulting their hard work. It was a tough time but the Geek Community stuck it through, having zero tolerance for Cyber Bullying and making sure the victims of the bullying felt loved and supported. After all was said and done, who was the real winner? Shout-outs courtesy of Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot herself? Hells yeah, big wins!
Of course, one can’t forget the mad memes that brightened up each of our Facebook-scrolling mornings. From Salt Bae to Man’s not hot to The Floor is Lava, I wouldn’t dare say any of them played a part in being the Worst of 2017 for fear of being disowned by multiple people. Through and through, these meme trends have found a way to light up any dark situation and I don’t know where we would be without them anymore!
2017 was also The Year of Bob Cuts. A large part of this was thanks to the Cancer Care Trust and Ramani Fernando Salons for their amazing donations to Cancer Patients. However, oddly enough, there were many of us that styled our hair shorter even though we didn’t donate it! This has to be the best of the year though, because all the ladies out there are downright slaying and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Another amazing thing about 2017 is that as of December, Australia became the 25th country to achieve marriage equality, and legalize same-sex marriage. Love’s winning everywhere so what’s up, Sri Lanka?
There was also the rise and fall of multiple eateries in and around Colombo, the incomplete Lotus Tower still towering over us, and wallet-emptying maalu paan stories. What it comes down to is that there were very many Bests and quite a few Worsts but Sri Lanka stays beautiful, humble and strong through it all. It’s been a wonderful and eventful year but here we are, at the very end of it, loving every second of this life we’ve been given. So this one’s to us, for sticking it through another insane year, and looking forward to everything 2018 has to offer!
