1 July: kitchen rediscovered & hospital visit

The house we were living in was huge. It had three levels and tow kitchen (one at ground level, one on level one).
The ground level was our casual living space. That was where most of the cooking was done too.
In comparison, the other kitchen was more like a conservatorium. Why? Although it is tucked at the back of the house, through a dark hidden alleyway, it opened up into a bright and airy space thanked to it's "glass roof". It's isolation had made it the much less frequented kitchen.
One day, MD & I were debating the cleaniness, or the lack of SF's use of the main kitchen when we "rediscovered" the hidden space. We were delighted! May be SF could migrate her soup making here or we could make our meals here from now on.
We started exploring the long forgotten cupboards. There was even a dishwasher. There were dishes in there! Filthy ones! One particular plate had shredded carrots and dried up bits of wakame attached! I couldn't believe it. I didn't think I have had wakame lately. So someone had been using the hidden gem of a kitchen and leaving it in a sickly mess!
"Save the kitchen!"
* * *
Us three had to travel by bus to the hospital for "observation" / "training" again. Public transport had always been terrible - masses of people with minimal buses servicing the area. I hardly ever notice which number bus I took. I just follow MD and SF. I thought I've lost them in amongst the crowds. I did. I got ont he bus though. I thought it was #216.
Anyway, I managed to get off at the hospital. Since I've lost them, I couldn't "observe" with them. I joined another girl - a chubby girl with sandy dirt blonde hair, who thoguht she knew better. We made rounds in the hospital, and as we came into this particular section, we were given and told to consume a tablet before we could enter the next room. Must had been to prevent some kind of disease. She took it, I saw the package the tablet was in - it said something very similar to aspirin or I should say, it was a drug, not aspirin, but derived from something v similar to it. That thought actually consumed more time than my automatic reaction of swallowing the pill. It was in before I knew it, " I should not take this! I am allergic to it!"
Right on cue, my airway started to swell up and I started wheezing, more wheezing, and then gasping. The supervisor also realised something was wrong and quickly got an airway and stuck it "live" into my throat! Did it hurt? It was too quick to register. Instantly, ample air flowed through my lungs & I could breathe again.
They put me on a bed in the recovery room. I had a feeling SF and MD already left the hospital, as by then it was four in the afternoon. By the time I "recovered" it had long passed home time and I had to catch the bus / or busses (with interchanges) back by myself. "What number bus?" I thought. It would be easy if I could get the straight bus. That hour of the day though, I didn't think the stright bus would be running anymore. I was trying very hard to remember all the bus changes we had to make one time.
"what numbers were they?"

18 June: scarf @ charity shop?

i had all my junk scattered around the school... after i left, my stuff were still scattering around... and 2 days after i left, i returned to the school for a visit...
the school had been turned into a charity thrift shop!
"that looks familiar!" it was my big handknitted purple scarf...
and a stroll around the corner... "that looks familiar too!" it was my other skinny handknitted purple scarf!
"excuse me, these are MY handknitted scarf... i knitted them"
could i take them back?
hmm... no.... they belong to the charity thrift shop now...
"but they were mine... i handknitted them..."

I guess I should always clean up after myself and not let things lie around everywhere.

17 June: stolen wallet!

I was carrying my harrods bag again, not exactly really, as it was of the same design but with out scottie and westie. I had another bag with me as well, must have been an environmentally friendly bag. The department store was very Japanese. I felt as though I was in Tokyu Hands. THe merchandise though was no where near as kitsch. I would classify it as very "mainland" (pre double digit growth period). The funny things was that I had to leave my bag in a shelfing compartment - like going to the gym. I happily did so and forgot about my bags. I went wandering around, looking at very "mainland" bed sheets, clothing etc etc. The entire experience felt very "golden -yellow" - must be the lighting, it felt like I was in the beehive gallery but much bigger with split levels.
Then I came back to the shelf. My bags were there. My wallet was GONE! I was actually expecting it to happen. It just brought me back to the time when I got so engrossed in shopping at Witchery for shoes that my wallet got "removed" from my bag without me noticing.
The next thing I remember, I was frantically trying to call all the card centre to cancel my Mstercard, Visacard etc. Mum was by myside, she was helping me call too. We were standing under a highway underpass, similar to the one we always wait for the bus at Causeway Bay. Grey and gloomy & polluted, everything had a grey tone to it. Then I realised I was actaully in mainland China - not big cities like Beijing, but more obscure ones where not many people spoke English.
We tried all these different phone numbers on my mobile which led to nothing, and I was starting to panick. We reached a Visa hotline, but got connected to this private number. The guy answering the phone was half asleep and wanted to sell us stuff. Then we tried to call a HK Visa number, and it got connected to the wrong department. I was balling my eyes out begging him to cancel my card or let me know the number to do so, as we only had several dollars of credit left on the mobile.

14 May: jaw breaker

" i am grinding my teeth like no tomorrow... it hurts! am i actually grinding my splint into pieces?! i can feel little bits in my mouth.. little bits of acrylic... and my jaw muscles hurts!"
then i woke up

30 April: downhill scooter & bits and pieces

...
i was on mc duck's 400cc scooter... i must have been in a race or a scooter club day, there weremany other scooter on the road passing me by...
all i could remember was being at the back seat without a front seat rider! and the scooter was still going... and it had a special button at the front panel "G-max" - it was activated and bright, sort of like an autopilot... that was until i could glimpse the downhill section of the road, there was sudden panic...
"i gotta climb forward and stop this thing! (before i crash and i get told off)"
so i did, it was going really fast! the head wind was strong!
i managed to get to the front and sqeeze on the brakes just in time...
the scooter sverved to the left, onto the roadside... it nearly slammed into a mound of rocks on top of the hill...
i nearly had my breath taken away, not only because of the near accident, but moreover seeing the scene of the rock mound, with little desert plants shooting out amongst the loose rocks, and the picturisque valley view below - it was breathtaking!

** there were other bits and pieces... but i cannot remember **

5 march: bush fires!

i continued sleeping after i spotted ewan leaving... strangely i also moved while i was sleeping... and when i woke up, i was no longer in a perth hostel, i was in our hk apartment, alone!
i woke up to to smell of smoke... it wasn't choking me... it was like incense... the smell of smoke drifting past my nose... i straight away went into hay fever mode and jumped up from bed (i think i was in grandma's room - there was still a bed next to the windows)
i saw burning trees outside! and amber floating in the air... the fire was not roaring (like the ones they have been showing on tele the last few weeks)... it looked like the leaves were burning like "ghost money / ancestor offerings" - i could see the slow glow of heat around the edge of the leaves, no flames... it didn't feel ghostly or too scary... but none the less i was worried about the "fire" spreading and the apartment catching on fire...
some of the windows in the house were opened and amber was drifting in... i quickly closed all the windows, and had to splash big bowls of water so that the curtains would not catch on fire... during that time, i really really wanted to ring mcduck for help... but the tasks of closing the windows and extingushing the burning amber were more pressing...
i caught a glimpse of neighbouring apartments when i was closing mum's window near her bedhead... all the apartments below were deserted! i was alone alright! i must have slept trough the evacuation...
then the phone rang... it was mcduck...

5 march: a sad ewan

it felt like i was on some kind of road trip and i was in perth - with the bright blue sky with no cloud in the sky & a cool breeze in the air...
i remember this scene - a walk by the shore (azure water with sandy beach & lot of other tourists and locals)... i saw this lady coming by with 3 golden retrievers... one of them has a bright red silk scarf tied around its neck... they were happy dogs, i could tell... they were bouncing up and down, skipping along... the owner was this blonde lady, average built, her face looking familiar as i glanced ather, then had to glance again to do a double take... "do i know her?"
she thought so... she said she was yvonne - snowflake's yvonne - but she didn't look like snowflake's yvonne, the face wasn't right... i didn't have time to argue, she was gone in a flash with her dogs...
then another scene: i was back at the resting place, with bunks on each side of the wall in the room... they were 3 levels high... it was like a hostel - and i had a feeling i was crashing out in a shared room with other strangers (it must have been uni times, as i would never do that now adays)...
then i spotted another familiar face - the bottom bunk with little head room, someone looking v sad, curling up in a ball in bed... someone who looked like he hadnd't washed for a week... someone hiding his sorrows under a thick bush of beard - it was ewan! "long way round ewan"! i couldn't believe my eyes... my first instinct was, " i want to get an autograph or photo or something"... but then his sad face reminded me, "gotta leave him alone."
i was about to drift to sleep at my own bunk when i saw him waking up, waking out of the room...

end of feb: lost 2 teeth

i was grinding my teeth so much... i felt the bottom 2 incisors becoming increasingly loose... to make matters worse, these 2 teeth are not next to each other, they were separated by just one incisor...
i was petrified of the prospect that i would loose 2 front teeth!
and i did!
i ended up having to get dental implants to replace my missing incisors...
it was terrible!

11 feb: another corpse

... "leave grandma on the table first... otherwise we can't continue shopping," dad said... we then off loaded a corpse ( i could not recall who was carrying her on the back, but one of us was)... the corpse of a young-ish female, definitely did not look like grandma... not scary either... but definitely lifeless... not stiff like a mannequin... a young, skinny, unconscious woman with bendy limbs... her skin was pale not dead grey...

2 feb: seeing coffin

i couldn't even remember why i ended up in this massive temple... and it was dusk... i didn't recall any familiar family members being there... but i was with a group of people - perhaps uncle K...
what really struck me was the sight of death and smell of death as i caught sight of the procession - 4 taoist in full gear, all in black robs and hat, the two long bamboo rods heavily weighted on each of their shoulders, suspending the rectangular coffin...
the coffin was made of wood, lacquared - mostly black with intricate and minute gold / orange floral patterns on each panal... it was huge and angular, there were no arounded corners, it felt like a fed ex wooden cargo with a crafty exterior...
the box looked light... but the weight of death was heavy... it was like fog... grey, heavy fog... dragging down the space around it...
i was scared of being in close proximity to the space... i was scared of the smell of death... the smell of decay...
it was a funeral for another family we didn't know... as passer-bys, it was customary to offer incense to show our respect... we purchased some at the counter (curiously there were two separate counters, two different operators within the temple)...
we needed a light... and the last thing i remember was seeing the man several feet in front of me, lighting his incense by tearing them in halves... the friction of the breakage set the incense alight...

2 feb: feeling of impending failure

... i was at school... it was university, on the day of graduation... all my family was there to watch the ceremony... before the big celebration, fifi reminded me or rather i reminded myself after seeing her clutching her all important last assignment/ assessment - a summary of the thesis we had been working on...
it was 9:30am... i just arrived at the graduation venue... there was the gown to hire and photos to be taken and time to share with family... but only one thing was on my mind ,"!!)@(*$&*(&@# was there a final assessment?!" yes there was... the faint whisper was becoming louder at the recesses of my mind... i put that thought there! in the far far corner of the subconscious, full oc cobwebs... i hated writing summaries... it was not hard to do, but i hated it...
now i have less than 3 hours... i tried to start scribbling gibberish on the A4 lecture pad... how would that compare with the neatly bound 40 page specimen clutched in fifi's hand? would i disappoint my whole family... would they have to retreat to their cars with embarrassment learning that there was to be no graduation for me after all..

late jan: being assasinated 0.2

the sandstone buildings were overtowering the landscape... it was the oldest section of the university where mum and i have attended, thirty years apart... the last time i was here was for a celebration... this time around, it was different... my mum and i had to move quickly... dad had already left in the black four wheel drive to divert their attention... all we had to do now was to criss-cross within the dark corridors of these old buildings to meet up with dad at blackburn... we were moving at an acelerating pace... we must have looked as though we were late for a lecture... then a group of three asian "tourist" slowed us... "no don't stop, don't answer them mum!" i could only think... and they started to ask for directions... once they detected our slowing pace, they turned around and started chasing us... it was so close... a left turn at the corner... mum nearly go trip by one of the men...

late jan: being assasinated 0.1

... from our first flour apartment, i descended down the step to the apartment foyer... the 2-storey atrium was illuminated by overcast daylight, not unlike the flourescence lighting which would switch on precisely at 6pm every evening... i barely pressed on the release botton, covered by transparent plastic for hygiene reasons (very common after the SARS incident), and the floor to ceiling door swinged open... i quickened my pace with a few doudle jumps down the stairs to the common garage... just before a reached the bottom, my eyes caught a glimps of our car - dark, stationery, very still, resting at right angles to the pathway into the garage, awaiting for me to alight - my sister would be there, my mother too...
"bang, bang, bang," in quick successions... another glimpse of one or two fast moving shadows... was that the shaft of a gun?
immediately my instinct made me to turn around... "run, run, run,"... "run back up!"