I spent the last two weeks, hiding from today’s space invaders. I did as little work as I could get away with. I spent as little time online as I could. The little moments I sneaked online was to play Words With Friends – Alec Baldwin is my hero of 2011 – and shared a bit of this and that, here and there, with whoever was there and interested.

I plunged deep into the things which give me joy at home. Books, music, movies, walks and, of course, food.

But it was a different kind of feasting – one that came from doing and concentrating.

Concentrating was possibly the most under-valued term of 2011. It’s hard to concentrate on anything today, and I think this is the main reason why I love to write. It forces me to concentrate and when you get into the zone, there’s no feeling like it. I suspect it’s the same zone any of us get into when we actually force ourselves to concentrate on something we love – be it kite surfing, golfing or cooking.

Last night, I took visitors to One Fullerton to admire Singapore’s new Stonehenge in the Bay. The minute we got there, my friend took out her iPhone and said, “Wow, I have to take photos and create a panorama.”

There was no time to just stand there, lean against the railings, look into the murky waters and wonder what’s inside. 

“What do you do with what you create?” I asked her.

“I post it,” she said.

Last year, I was asked a question by an older wiser woman as I was sitting in her living room, posting photos on Facebook.

“What’s this Facebook thing?”

“Oh, it’s somewhere where you share what you’ve done or are thinking with people.”

“Why?” she asked.

That shut me up.

Another moment in 2011 which shut me up was during my holiday in Rajasthan when, on passing yet another wedding procession, I asked the driver if his marriage had been arranged.

He shook his head vigorously. “Yes.”

“What happens if you don’t like her? Do you have a choice?”

“My parents only want the best for me, why would they choose someone wrong for me?” he said.

In 2011, we were over-assaulted by information, over-indulged with choices, over-whelmed by events and over-weighed by gadgets. We over-shared, over-tweeted, over-did.

I suspect with the dawn of the new year, we are going to want less of everything. We are going to be more selective about when and where we allow today’s space invaders to come into our lives. We are going to seek places where we can truly get away from it all. We are going to want some choices made for us. We are going to seek concentration, quality over quantity.

It will not only be that less is more but it will be at the very least what we need.

Here’s to travel unplugged in 2012.