Gong xi! Gong xi! Are you all gong-xied out?
Well, I certainly am but not in a good way. You see, I am typing this from a hospital. Not from a patient’s bed, but in the visiting lounge where I have been squatting almost every day since Friday. One of The Man’s family members has been admitted, and we have rushed back from Bangkok to be here. We were in Bangkok for less than ten minutes when that phone call came. We were very lucky to get the last 2 seats in the next plane out. Thank goodness, we decided not to go budget this trip otherwise we would have to buy another set of return tickets. But not going budget also mean we had to cancel our very nice hotel and incurring a nice cancellation charge as well. But of course, nothing matters more than getting our ass back to Singapore pronto.
So, I have been in and out of the hospital this week. My poor Man is a complete wreck and I’m trying to play dutiful supportive girlfriend, but I am running a bit low on steam myself. It has been a very tough week. Sorry, make that a tough year. I’m awfully exhausted, and I can’t help but feel that this is only but the beginning of adult life – where you have to take things into stride, put others before you and working hard at your job simply because you need the money. Growing up sucks.
If any consolation, I heard that a lot of my friends are not having a great time this week themselves. The Housemate came home from a 2 weeks work trip in Italy yesterday in angst. Apparently he was held up at the airport in Rome because a bunch of ‘endangered’ squirrels bit through their cages and were running amok underneath the plane. I never knew this, but he told me that SQ often double up as a cargo plane since the space below the passenger cabins is free. On his flight that day, they were ferrying close to 700 ‘endangered’ animals when the squirrels broke loose. And because they are endangered, they cannot do anything to harm the animals so they can only lay out food baits in hope that the squirrels will obediently return to their cages when hungry. In the meantime, the pilot threw a fit and refused to fly the plane unless somebody does a 100% inspection of the plane’s wiring after all the squirrels are caught in fear that the bushy-tailed ones might have also bit some critical electrical circuits underneath the plane during their rampage. It took a total of 5 hours to get the whole squirrel situation under control. Now that just got me wondering – is there really such thing as endangered squirrels?? Aren't they a rampant lot of pesky rodents?
Anyway, besides The Housemate, Toi wasn’t having the time of his life this week either. He was spending CNY in his hometown and has been given the task of designated driver for his family visiting gigs. On the second day of CNY, he has to drive his family from Penang to Ipoh and what usually was a 1.5 hour drive ended up being a 6 hours drive due to the festive traffic jam. Worse still, he had 2 toddlers and 1 baby in his car, which is you add on 6 hours in an enclosed space in non-moving traffic, equates to the noise of 2 baby elephants and 1 hyena complete with 2 bags of urine and 1 bag of poo. He told me he will never in this lifetime want kids.
The Toe, on the other hand, was having a difficult time convincing her family that, just like them, she is BAD at Chinese. They were doing the yu sheng lou hei, and all of them turned to her to recite the requisite Chinese well wishes which you are supposed to say out loud while tossing the yu sheng. It ended up a screaming match because none of them are convinced that she can’t speak Chinese despite teaching in a Chinese school. She also had a visiting auntie from Australia who insisted that she (Toe) kneel before her parents when receiving an angpow, not before questioning why the Toe is entitled to one in the first place since she is already in her 30s.
I haven’t heard from Phillip all week and this can only mean 2 things. Either he managed to escape doing the whole family shebang and partied himself to death OR he didn’t manage to escape but has been abducted by his family and forced to marry some kampong girl in Batu Pahat.
Anyway, I’m sure it’s not all that bad. Some kid just walked in front of me holding some red packets and he is grinning from ear to ear. Bless him. And besides, this hospital lounge is really quite comfortable. Free wifi as well. And you know what, while it has been a tough week for a lot of us, I’m pretty certain it will soon pass. The other side of this rabbit hole is going to be a much happier and peaceful place.
Well, I certainly am but not in a good way. You see, I am typing this from a hospital. Not from a patient’s bed, but in the visiting lounge where I have been squatting almost every day since Friday. One of The Man’s family members has been admitted, and we have rushed back from Bangkok to be here. We were in Bangkok for less than ten minutes when that phone call came. We were very lucky to get the last 2 seats in the next plane out. Thank goodness, we decided not to go budget this trip otherwise we would have to buy another set of return tickets. But not going budget also mean we had to cancel our very nice hotel and incurring a nice cancellation charge as well. But of course, nothing matters more than getting our ass back to Singapore pronto.
So, I have been in and out of the hospital this week. My poor Man is a complete wreck and I’m trying to play dutiful supportive girlfriend, but I am running a bit low on steam myself. It has been a very tough week. Sorry, make that a tough year. I’m awfully exhausted, and I can’t help but feel that this is only but the beginning of adult life – where you have to take things into stride, put others before you and working hard at your job simply because you need the money. Growing up sucks.
If any consolation, I heard that a lot of my friends are not having a great time this week themselves. The Housemate came home from a 2 weeks work trip in Italy yesterday in angst. Apparently he was held up at the airport in Rome because a bunch of ‘endangered’ squirrels bit through their cages and were running amok underneath the plane. I never knew this, but he told me that SQ often double up as a cargo plane since the space below the passenger cabins is free. On his flight that day, they were ferrying close to 700 ‘endangered’ animals when the squirrels broke loose. And because they are endangered, they cannot do anything to harm the animals so they can only lay out food baits in hope that the squirrels will obediently return to their cages when hungry. In the meantime, the pilot threw a fit and refused to fly the plane unless somebody does a 100% inspection of the plane’s wiring after all the squirrels are caught in fear that the bushy-tailed ones might have also bit some critical electrical circuits underneath the plane during their rampage. It took a total of 5 hours to get the whole squirrel situation under control. Now that just got me wondering – is there really such thing as endangered squirrels?? Aren't they a rampant lot of pesky rodents?
Anyway, besides The Housemate, Toi wasn’t having the time of his life this week either. He was spending CNY in his hometown and has been given the task of designated driver for his family visiting gigs. On the second day of CNY, he has to drive his family from Penang to Ipoh and what usually was a 1.5 hour drive ended up being a 6 hours drive due to the festive traffic jam. Worse still, he had 2 toddlers and 1 baby in his car, which is you add on 6 hours in an enclosed space in non-moving traffic, equates to the noise of 2 baby elephants and 1 hyena complete with 2 bags of urine and 1 bag of poo. He told me he will never in this lifetime want kids.
The Toe, on the other hand, was having a difficult time convincing her family that, just like them, she is BAD at Chinese. They were doing the yu sheng lou hei, and all of them turned to her to recite the requisite Chinese well wishes which you are supposed to say out loud while tossing the yu sheng. It ended up a screaming match because none of them are convinced that she can’t speak Chinese despite teaching in a Chinese school. She also had a visiting auntie from Australia who insisted that she (Toe) kneel before her parents when receiving an angpow, not before questioning why the Toe is entitled to one in the first place since she is already in her 30s.
I haven’t heard from Phillip all week and this can only mean 2 things. Either he managed to escape doing the whole family shebang and partied himself to death OR he didn’t manage to escape but has been abducted by his family and forced to marry some kampong girl in Batu Pahat.
Anyway, I’m sure it’s not all that bad. Some kid just walked in front of me holding some red packets and he is grinning from ear to ear. Bless him. And besides, this hospital lounge is really quite comfortable. Free wifi as well. And you know what, while it has been a tough week for a lot of us, I’m pretty certain it will soon pass. The other side of this rabbit hole is going to be a much happier and peaceful place.
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| Found it! It seems the Red Squirrel from Scotland is an endangered lot. |
1 comment:
Oh dear. Here's to an easier week now. Hugs
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