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.