Good days!

Ah, 5 days with the girls ended on Sunday. As the old adage rings true, good times fly so quickly that it's ridiculous.

I was starting to feel unwell on the eve of the girls' arrival into Melbourne, and my condition never got any better during the girl's stay. It was probably a 'gift' from my colleague the day before, who was afflicted with a really bad cough/sore throat. Then I went to the gym, and it got worse. It seemed that the gym was synonymous with me falling ill all the time. Initially, people said that it was due to the germs in the air by all these gym-goers, and my system would 'adapt' to it eventually. Well, that was a load of crap then. How is it that I keep falling sick every time I go back after a week or so? Gosh.

Anyway, the girls were always understanding and patient with me, haha. As I was the driver, I did try to adopt the 'mind over body' stance and it sorta worked. I did cough a lot, and I sounded hoarse all the time. Going out all day continuously didn't help much with my condition, and I couldn't sleep loads as I kept coughing all night, but I think the cold weather really assisted with suppressing any possible flareups for the time being. Thank God.

Of course, being with the girls was so much fun that I didn't focus on being sick much. I do act like a little obstinate kid sometimes, even at the expense of my health, haha. And the girls were so easy-going and undemanding. So blessed! We had pretty good weather most of the days, especially on the longer day trips. 感恩 was our most-used phase during their stay.

We did lots of catching-up, and we hung out loads instead of going to places frantically. It was very leisurely, lots of chillaxing and chatting. We even ran into my dept boss at a winery! I brought them around to the suburbs as well, to the places where I usually hang out, saw the construction of my new place... kinda let them see what I do on a day-to-day basis here. We had fun as I drove, a lot of comments or jokes made, trying to figure out where we were going, talking to my 'Homer Simpsonified' GPS and random things really. I did hope I was a decent tour guide, and I drove very carefully since my mom kept stressing to me that I was responsible for their lives. Wow, talk about a heavy responsibility! But yeah, I know I should drive carefully at ALL times anyway, haha. It really helped that they were really undemanding, because I was usually zonked out physically. Trying to suppress an illness was mentally testing. The girls were always asking about my welfare, especially when I began coughing away, but because we weren't going at a pace of 100km/hr all the time, I was much better able to cope.

And for some reason, they really liked coming to my place. That just baffled me, haha!

Felt a little surreal after bidding farewell to them at the airport and drove back alone. Days just zipped by! But there was no time to think, because my 'mind control' relaxed and I fell disgustingly sick after they left. Fever, cough, and free-flowing flu all went BAM! on me in an instance. I went home feeling like I was hit by a bus. I rugged up with my blanket and snuggled up in my armchair watching telly. The next day, I called up the local clinics around, and only one was opened for business because we are still having holidays until Wed. Drove in to see the GP, and got put on antibiotics because he was appalled that I was already sick for so long, haha. Even the receptionist said I sounded horrible. I was already hoarse when the girls were here, but I think it got worse after they left. The antibiotics worked though, because I'm already feeling tons better today, and I wasn't kept up all night coughing as per previous nights. I did dream of cockroaches though, and woke up with my arms flailing away this morning, Like, wth!?

The motto is, the mind over body thing works! OK, all jokes aside, I had tons of fun with the girls and was glad they came over to visit. Since it was the first time I drove Kuru-chan to places further than Melbourne itself, I was slightly scared since I was afraid we would get lost due to my poor navigation skills. But, it turned out to be ok, that it was actually do-able, and I was just a paranoid goose. The GPS didn't let me down, haha. The girls were also reassuring and relaxed, which really helped lots, and I wondered where they had such confidence in me really! Anyway, I'm more confident to take the car out on road trips next time. Having passengers as friends who could read maps and settle your nerves helped too! After the whole episode of driving through the Dandenong Ranges, I think I should be ready to take on anything, wahahaha.

秋の空

And we're into Autumn here, in this weird part of the world.

I love Autumn the most. It's beautiful, melancholic, and it's a welcomed break from the murky summer heat. Being borned in September, I enjoy the affinity I have with it as well. I do prefer rugging up than sweating it out. All the documents which required my attention were done and taken care of. It took me one day at a time to get through several stuffs, all from the Uni, banks and the landlord. They're unrelated matters, the timing was just unfortunate for me. Anyway, it's a relief ... well, until all those babies are processed by their respective organisations and spewed back at me for follow-ups. Yikes.

So finally, I now have a reprieve this week. With stuffs outta my way, this week's schedule is looking way better than it has for a month or so now. There's dinner in the city on Friday. I'd decided to elect the restaurant, Eat Drink Bento in the city for us to try out. Hope the guys and gals wouldn't kill me if it was below their expectations. Then it's Ps Benny Ho speaking on Saturday! I really miss hearing his sermons, and the topic will be quite interesting. Another dinner again on Sunday night, and I'm done for this week.

Next week will be fascinating. I emailed The 7PM Show after they mentioned, at the end of a segment, that we could apply for tickets to be part of the studio audience since they recorded live. I emailed them and actually got a reply sometime later. So, my gals and I will be trooping along to the recording studio next Tues, haha. Well, I'm curious as to how it all works, and it's free too. Why not? I do have the Audit & Risk Board Sub-Comm meeting that evening, but my lovely dept boss has allowed me to pass this time. She's da best. Just today, she brought in a Granny Smith green apple, bought me a brand new peeler and taught me how to make stewed apples. She also made me some stewed pears last night and gave them to me this morning. Our CEO has pear trees, so she harvested one and brought in a whole stack of them to work. Woah. I had  my lovely stewed pears and apple with Nestle's Connoisseur Honey Macademia ice cream this evening after dinner. Needless to say, it was yuuuuuuuumo to the max.

And finally, next Wed, I'll be heading to the airport to greet Ling and Net in the morning. Definitely the highlight of next week! Better rest up whilst I can for now. =)

도움 !

I need to book myself a day of rest during one of the weekends in May. No more evening apptmts during weekdays, no more outings on both Sat and Sun. There's always something coming up, it's a bit ridiculous. Need to unwind, need to do things like watching random clips on Youtube for the whole day in my tracksuit pants, need to stuff my face with potato chips.

I don't have time to go to the toilet, sit down and read a magazine while I do my business nowadays. Can't even squeeze in a trip to the hairdresser's. -eyes her own scissors- My iPhone's To-Do List is exploding. Now I'll have to wake up at 8:30am on weekends so that I can squeeze everything in. Yipee yay yay, yipee yipee yay. Women out there who have husbands, children, careers and house chores to do in your lives, you have my most sincere, wide-eyed, utmost respect from the bottom of my heart. I shouldn't whinge.

I keep getting missed calls because I can't hear anything from the iPhone nor the HTC whilst on the move. Too soft even at max volume, and I feel no vibrations either. I am really annoyed. They are smart, but really impractical. Sounds like a certain country's Parliament somewhere.

Who is Tin Pei Ling? Her name keeps popping up in the Singaporean news feed.