well, i've had dinner @ this restaurant twice this week!
the first time was on monday, to celebrate me being outta the mental asylum (more commonly referred to as the princess alexandra hospital :P) for three years! see, i was released on the 23rd of may, 2008. come the 23rd of may, 2009, i asked mother if we could please eat out somewhere to celebrate having being out of the hospital for one whole year. sadly, mother refused, saying that she was too tired from working during the day to eat out @ night. oh well. :( so i tried again come the next year, the 23rd of may, 2010. this time, 'twas father who refused, saying he needed to sleep early for work the next day. oh well. :(
come this year. i tried broaching this subject again, surely, third time lucky! however, mother still seemed reluctant - somehow, she didn't think that there was anything worth celebrating. i begged to differ - three years outta the hospital seemed like a pretty good reason to me! so i told her that if she refused for the third consecutive year to take me out for dinner, i'd turn to facebook and send out an offer of dinner with any of my friends. i mean, it worked last time, when father couldn't attend the church picnic coz he was still recovering from a small operation.
seeing my resolve to follow through with my plan to seek out dinner company should she refuse to take me out, mother compromised with me: she would tell dad to take us out for dinner only if she got to gleefully FORCE :( me to hike up and down the stairs once each today. *sigh*
but i agreed, of course, and dad took us out for dinner to the big gun chinese restaurant come the 23rd may, 2011. much thanks to the waitress who held era and led me into a seat somewhere. she even suggested a yummy entree for us! some kinda minced pork and diced vegies in a wrap thing. nomnomnom~
the reason why dad chose this restaurant was because he'd heard that the steamed fish were on special, sth like $12.50 per fish. so we ordered that, plus some kailan, some crispy skin chicken plus some congee with some more vegies.
but i had a good laugh when the manager went to catch our fish for dinner! the poor bugger obviously desperately didn't want to be our dinner, and after the manager dude dropped him into the bucket, he struggled so hard he flipped himself outta the bucket! meaning the manager scampered after him, caught him and re-dropped him into the bucket. i had a good laugh @ this, and when the waitress brought our resigned-to-his-fate-as-our-dinner fish over and showed me the now-still fish, i waved to him and said, "see you soon, dinner!" i asked mother how come the waitress had shown me the fish that they were gonna cook for our dinner, coz i don't think it's common practice in chinese restaurants, and she replied, "lol, she brought it over to show you coz you had such a giggle @ him when he first flipped outta the bucket."
:P
since i've somehow gained the habit of 'saving the best for last', meaning i usually eat all my vegies first then save the best for last, i had a bit of an ><"! moment when the waitress suddenly cleared my plate, which still had my one remaining slice of crispy skin chicken on it! >< but the nice waitress reassured me. "oh, sorry!" she said. "don't worry, i'll bring you out a bowl of black sesame dessert instead." well, i happen to love black sesame, so all was good. :)
when we left, the manager told us that they had a peking duck special ATM! I LOVE peking duck. :D
i didn't know that dad was actually considering the managers offer - but suddenly, we were @ the big gun chinese restaurant again four days later, this time to have peking duck with aunty a!
the waitress actually made the first course, the wraps, for us! but we didn't have the sang choi bau (say that in canto) for second course, instead the duck just came out all sliced. nomnomnom~
all in all, two happy nights out eating @ the big gun chinese restaurant! actually, on the first night, i asked the manager/boss if, when coming up for a chinese name for his restaurant, did he just look sideways, see big gun butcher and decide to name his restaurant 'big gun Chinese restaurant'? and i was right! see, the manager explained to me, no-one will understand where you are if you try to explain to them which road you're located on, but if you say, "oh, we're just beside big gun butchers", then everyone will know where you are! smart man, that one.
next post here ... dunno! lol, maybe book club? anyways, whenever that is, cya then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
origin one
QUEENSLANDER!!!
yeah, who watched the origin last night?!
what an awesome game it was!
we'd invited uncle colbert to watch the game with us, and the week before, i'd sent him an e-mail, titled 'proper attire'. in it, i'd detailed that he WAS NOT to wear ANYTHING blue, was i clear?! coz if he did, i either (1) wouldn't let him inside the house or (2) would ask dad to physically throw him outta our house, should he wear anything blue. my dad's a bigger build than uncle colbert, see. :P a day later i received a reply from uncle colbert, saying, "don't worry, i've got some brownish pants, i can wear those, just haveta iron them first." phew, problem solved. :P
still, when uncle colbert arrived, before he'd gotten more than three steps into the hallway, i'd ordered, "freeze! clothing inspection!" luckily, he was wearing a browny-coloured tee, the brownish pants and black socks. "wait ... what colour's that tee you're wearing under your jumper?" i asked him suspiciously. uncle colbert just laughed and pulled the collar out so i could see that the shirt was black. "okay, welcome to our house!" i cheered, "you ready to watch our boys win?"
father and i sat on the sofa, mother kindly brought bear bear over to watch the game with me, and uncle colbert sat on my dining chair.
yeah, we scored first! dad chucked bear bear up in the air three times for his usual celebratory jumps, while mother, uncle colbert and i all cheered.
i missed the analysis of the first half break, coz i was in the loo! zero thanks to mother who refused to walk behind me back to the sofa because she was too busy watching television to ensure her only daughter's safe return to the couch, but i made it back safely without falling. :)
the second half was nerve-wracking! especially in the sixty-somethingth minute, when NSW grabbed the lead! my heart plummeted when NSW grabbed the lead, but locky and thurston saved the day, with lockyer sending thurston over the line for the match-winning try. go the never-say-die queenslander attitude. :)
dad AND UNCLE COLBERT SNACKED ON PEANUTS, I CURSED MY NUT ALLERGY AND GOT MOTHER TO FEED ME A STICK OF POCKY INSTEAD. :p woah, sorry, shrieking! ><
i also leant that yow yeh's surname is actually pronounced 'yow YEE', not 'yow YEAH'.
actually, much praise must go to mother! usually, dad sends her upstairs while we're watching any game, coz usually, she gets too excited and starts squealing and jumping up qand down all over the place. :P
cameron smith won man of the match. i can't remember, isn't he sometimes the australian captain?
much thanks to dad who kindly bought me the courier mail today so i could spend the afternoon reading the match review and everything. the paper gives each player a ranking out of ten; i was amused to read one player's comment:"threw more punches in the end-siren brawl than during the game itself." :P
i think most BCAC ppl went to kwany's to watch the game. joshels invited me too, but i wasn't really enthusiastic about hiking up all those steps to kwany's house ...
anyways, QLD1, NSW0. com on, lads, we can win six consecutive! i know that after we won five consecutive last year, i said that NSW could win this year's, if they really insisted, but i forgot! this year's lockyer's and civoneceva's swansong! so i'll be very appreciative, NSW, if you let queensland win this year too. :P then you can win 2012's series, if you really must regain some pride. :P
next post here ... umm, maybe the next book club? dunno if anything else'll come up before that. anyways, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
yeah, who watched the origin last night?!
what an awesome game it was!
we'd invited uncle colbert to watch the game with us, and the week before, i'd sent him an e-mail, titled 'proper attire'. in it, i'd detailed that he WAS NOT to wear ANYTHING blue, was i clear?! coz if he did, i either (1) wouldn't let him inside the house or (2) would ask dad to physically throw him outta our house, should he wear anything blue. my dad's a bigger build than uncle colbert, see. :P a day later i received a reply from uncle colbert, saying, "don't worry, i've got some brownish pants, i can wear those, just haveta iron them first." phew, problem solved. :P
still, when uncle colbert arrived, before he'd gotten more than three steps into the hallway, i'd ordered, "freeze! clothing inspection!" luckily, he was wearing a browny-coloured tee, the brownish pants and black socks. "wait ... what colour's that tee you're wearing under your jumper?" i asked him suspiciously. uncle colbert just laughed and pulled the collar out so i could see that the shirt was black. "okay, welcome to our house!" i cheered, "you ready to watch our boys win?"
father and i sat on the sofa, mother kindly brought bear bear over to watch the game with me, and uncle colbert sat on my dining chair.
yeah, we scored first! dad chucked bear bear up in the air three times for his usual celebratory jumps, while mother, uncle colbert and i all cheered.
i missed the analysis of the first half break, coz i was in the loo! zero thanks to mother who refused to walk behind me back to the sofa because she was too busy watching television to ensure her only daughter's safe return to the couch, but i made it back safely without falling. :)
the second half was nerve-wracking! especially in the sixty-somethingth minute, when NSW grabbed the lead! my heart plummeted when NSW grabbed the lead, but locky and thurston saved the day, with lockyer sending thurston over the line for the match-winning try. go the never-say-die queenslander attitude. :)
dad AND UNCLE COLBERT SNACKED ON PEANUTS, I CURSED MY NUT ALLERGY AND GOT MOTHER TO FEED ME A STICK OF POCKY INSTEAD. :p woah, sorry, shrieking! ><
i also leant that yow yeh's surname is actually pronounced 'yow YEE', not 'yow YEAH'.
actually, much praise must go to mother! usually, dad sends her upstairs while we're watching any game, coz usually, she gets too excited and starts squealing and jumping up qand down all over the place. :P
cameron smith won man of the match. i can't remember, isn't he sometimes the australian captain?
much thanks to dad who kindly bought me the courier mail today so i could spend the afternoon reading the match review and everything. the paper gives each player a ranking out of ten; i was amused to read one player's comment:"threw more punches in the end-siren brawl than during the game itself." :P
i think most BCAC ppl went to kwany's to watch the game. joshels invited me too, but i wasn't really enthusiastic about hiking up all those steps to kwany's house ...
anyways, QLD1, NSW0. com on, lads, we can win six consecutive! i know that after we won five consecutive last year, i said that NSW could win this year's, if they really insisted, but i forgot! this year's lockyer's and civoneceva's swansong! so i'll be very appreciative, NSW, if you let queensland win this year too. :P then you can win 2012's series, if you really must regain some pride. :P
next post here ... umm, maybe the next book club? dunno if anything else'll come up before that. anyways, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Monday, May 23, 2011
FREEEDOM!!!
lol, forgive me for being so melodramatic. it's nothing that special for everyone else, really. :P
but for me, today's an INCREDIBLY special day! see, for me, today, may 23rd marks THREE years since i've been released from the insane asylum! well, i believe all you folks call it the princess alexandra hospital, but for me, it's the insane asylum. :P and i've been out for THREE YEARS! :D
see, i first collapsed and was rushed into hospital on feb the 3rd, 2007. i wasn't released until may the 23rd, 2008. well, i got two weeks off over christmas and new year, and towards the end, i even got weekends off, but yeah: date of admission to date of release was a staggering ONE YEAR, THREE MONTHS and TWENTY DAYS! o_O
anyways, come may the 23rd, 2009, i tried asking mother if we could please head out for dinner to celebrate. but "nope," says she, "coz i've been to work this morning and i'm exhausted and therefore i need my rest and therefore i can't take you out tonight." :(
so i tried again one year later, may 23rd, 2010. only this time, 'twas dad who refused! "nope," says he, "coz i've gotta go to work on monday, so i need to sleep early. can't take you out." :( again.
come this year, 2011. third time lucky, surely!
i ask mother PLEASE can we eat out to celebrate. @ first, she's reluctant to say yes, coz she doesn't reckon that there's anything worth celebrating. but i persist, telling her that if she and dad won't take me out, i'll haveta log into facebook and send out a cry for anyone who can have dinner out with me tonight, just like i did when the church was having a family picnic somewhere and dad couldn't go coz he was still recovering from a small operation. that time over facebook, 'twas awesome laurence who responded and gave mother and i a life down to seventeen mile rock, where the church picnic was held. (there's a post about the church picnic somewhere further back in this blog, if you're interested in reading).
luckily, perseverance paid off. mother finally agreed to tell dad to take me out for dinner on the 23rd, on one condition: that she get to gleefully FORCE :( me to hike up the stairs and gleefully FORCE :( me to hike down them everyday. *sigh* trust mother to come up with a condition like that. but the feet are willing to suffer for a happy tummy. :P
i asked mother where we'd go for dinner, and please can we not eat @ the manor or dining room coz we always go there. actually, i'd have dearly loved to try dinner @ hog's breath cafe, coz mrs. dent (my australian godmother) has told me before that it's a great place but only for dinner, coz the serving sizes are way too big for lunch, but mother said to let dad choose. fine, i was just happy that we were going out! :)
actually, dad chose big gun chinese restaurant! when i asked him why, he explained because the steamed fish were on sale then. fair enough.
much thanks to the waitress who very kindly lemme hold her hand gently and walk to a table. she also suggested an entree for us - some thin pork strips and vegies in a wrap! kinda like 'sang choi bau' (say that in canto) but without the duck. dad then ordered a fish, some crispy skin chicken, congee with kailan and one bowl of rice to share.
lol, but our fish didn't wanna be dinner! after the boss had caught him, the poor fella struggled so hard he flipped himself right outta the bucket! XD meaning boss had to scamper after the fish, catch him (actually, do fish have genders? coz i've decided that the one we ate for dinner tonight was male :P) and drop him back into the bucket! i had a good laugh @ this - the waitress, seeing my merriment, even brought over the still flopping fish in the bucket for me to wave goodbye to. :P
the guy who'd originally caught the fish, the owner, came over and apologised (for dropping the fish, i guess?) and we had a chat. i asked him did he get stuck for ideas when naming this restaurant, look across the rod, see big gun butcher, then decide, "right. we'll become big gun chinese restaurant?" and surprisingly, the answer was yes! see, he explained, no-one really gets you if you just try to tell them which street/road you're located, but if you say, "oh, we're just beside big gun butchers, then everyone'll know." smart man, that. :)
i had a bit of an ><"! moment when the waitress cleared away my bowl before i realised what she was doing, coz i had left one small piece of chicken and one last mouthful of rice for last! for some reason, after my brain injury, i've always eaten in the 'save the best for last' style, meaning i'd eat all my vegies before savouring my meat @ the end. but the waitress said, "oh! sorry, but don't worry, i'll bring you out a bowl of black sesame soup/pudding instead." that's cool, i like that thick, gooey stuff. :) we also had two slices of orange each, and not only did we bump into our neighbour, we also bumped into terry from sunnybank oriental!
so all in all, i had a fantastic celebration to mark my third year of being let out of the insane asylum. :P :) i remembered to hug and thank both parents sincerely for taking me out to celebrate tonight. :)
actually, one more happy thing to report: almost half the year's gone already, and i honestly can't recall ever having even one bad dream! like, back when i was still hospitalised, i'd sink into sleep, only for god to send me some awful dream how i was all alone, forever and ever, and i'd wake up terrified, pray so hard that my parents were still here for me, then wake up and feel shattered when i was all alone. >< luckily, those have all stopped now. :)
next post here ... well, if queensland win state of origin one come wednesday night, i'm pretty sure you'll hear from me on thursday! but if not ... maybe not till book club. we're reading the biography of alan alda, the guy from M*A*S*H this month! righteo, until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
but for me, today's an INCREDIBLY special day! see, for me, today, may 23rd marks THREE years since i've been released from the insane asylum! well, i believe all you folks call it the princess alexandra hospital, but for me, it's the insane asylum. :P and i've been out for THREE YEARS! :D
see, i first collapsed and was rushed into hospital on feb the 3rd, 2007. i wasn't released until may the 23rd, 2008. well, i got two weeks off over christmas and new year, and towards the end, i even got weekends off, but yeah: date of admission to date of release was a staggering ONE YEAR, THREE MONTHS and TWENTY DAYS! o_O
anyways, come may the 23rd, 2009, i tried asking mother if we could please head out for dinner to celebrate. but "nope," says she, "coz i've been to work this morning and i'm exhausted and therefore i need my rest and therefore i can't take you out tonight." :(
so i tried again one year later, may 23rd, 2010. only this time, 'twas dad who refused! "nope," says he, "coz i've gotta go to work on monday, so i need to sleep early. can't take you out." :( again.
come this year, 2011. third time lucky, surely!
i ask mother PLEASE can we eat out to celebrate. @ first, she's reluctant to say yes, coz she doesn't reckon that there's anything worth celebrating. but i persist, telling her that if she and dad won't take me out, i'll haveta log into facebook and send out a cry for anyone who can have dinner out with me tonight, just like i did when the church was having a family picnic somewhere and dad couldn't go coz he was still recovering from a small operation. that time over facebook, 'twas awesome laurence who responded and gave mother and i a life down to seventeen mile rock, where the church picnic was held. (there's a post about the church picnic somewhere further back in this blog, if you're interested in reading).
luckily, perseverance paid off. mother finally agreed to tell dad to take me out for dinner on the 23rd, on one condition: that she get to gleefully FORCE :( me to hike up the stairs and gleefully FORCE :( me to hike down them everyday. *sigh* trust mother to come up with a condition like that. but the feet are willing to suffer for a happy tummy. :P
i asked mother where we'd go for dinner, and please can we not eat @ the manor or dining room coz we always go there. actually, i'd have dearly loved to try dinner @ hog's breath cafe, coz mrs. dent (my australian godmother) has told me before that it's a great place but only for dinner, coz the serving sizes are way too big for lunch, but mother said to let dad choose. fine, i was just happy that we were going out! :)
actually, dad chose big gun chinese restaurant! when i asked him why, he explained because the steamed fish were on sale then. fair enough.
much thanks to the waitress who very kindly lemme hold her hand gently and walk to a table. she also suggested an entree for us - some thin pork strips and vegies in a wrap! kinda like 'sang choi bau' (say that in canto) but without the duck. dad then ordered a fish, some crispy skin chicken, congee with kailan and one bowl of rice to share.
lol, but our fish didn't wanna be dinner! after the boss had caught him, the poor fella struggled so hard he flipped himself right outta the bucket! XD meaning boss had to scamper after the fish, catch him (actually, do fish have genders? coz i've decided that the one we ate for dinner tonight was male :P) and drop him back into the bucket! i had a good laugh @ this - the waitress, seeing my merriment, even brought over the still flopping fish in the bucket for me to wave goodbye to. :P
the guy who'd originally caught the fish, the owner, came over and apologised (for dropping the fish, i guess?) and we had a chat. i asked him did he get stuck for ideas when naming this restaurant, look across the rod, see big gun butcher, then decide, "right. we'll become big gun chinese restaurant?" and surprisingly, the answer was yes! see, he explained, no-one really gets you if you just try to tell them which street/road you're located, but if you say, "oh, we're just beside big gun butchers, then everyone'll know." smart man, that. :)
i had a bit of an ><"! moment when the waitress cleared away my bowl before i realised what she was doing, coz i had left one small piece of chicken and one last mouthful of rice for last! for some reason, after my brain injury, i've always eaten in the 'save the best for last' style, meaning i'd eat all my vegies before savouring my meat @ the end. but the waitress said, "oh! sorry, but don't worry, i'll bring you out a bowl of black sesame soup/pudding instead." that's cool, i like that thick, gooey stuff. :) we also had two slices of orange each, and not only did we bump into our neighbour, we also bumped into terry from sunnybank oriental!
so all in all, i had a fantastic celebration to mark my third year of being let out of the insane asylum. :P :) i remembered to hug and thank both parents sincerely for taking me out to celebrate tonight. :)
actually, one more happy thing to report: almost half the year's gone already, and i honestly can't recall ever having even one bad dream! like, back when i was still hospitalised, i'd sink into sleep, only for god to send me some awful dream how i was all alone, forever and ever, and i'd wake up terrified, pray so hard that my parents were still here for me, then wake up and feel shattered when i was all alone. >< luckily, those have all stopped now. :)
next post here ... well, if queensland win state of origin one come wednesday night, i'm pretty sure you'll hear from me on thursday! but if not ... maybe not till book club. we're reading the biography of alan alda, the guy from M*A*S*H this month! righteo, until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
Saturday, May 21, 2011
tyrone kam
well, last week sometime (wednesday, i think), tyrone kam came to visit mother and i @ our house. he's the co-ordinator person in charge of ppl like aunty wendy, and he's got one son who's in his teens. and his wife's mandarin, BTW.
mother and i both called him 'kam sang' ('sang' in canto's like mister). when we arrived, the first thing i asked him was he 'kum' or 'kam'. he replied he didn't know anyone who's surname was 'kum'! i @ least know kelvin kum and jane kam. one of each. :)
i don't think we really talked about anything serious, but he did confirm for me that aunty frances wasn't allowed to feed me any arvo tea, even if i showered mega-quickly and finished before the hour was up. :( *sigh* doesn't matter, i know i won't starve ... i'll just try to get lots for lunch instead! :P
surprisingly, i managed to correctly guess his age! usually, i have zero talent in this regard, but he asked me to guess. i looked @ him, decided he was around dad's age, and tried that number - and he's really turning that age soon! well, i said i'd ring up and wish him a very happy birthday then, and he laughed and replied that he's eagerly awaiting for it. :P
however, he suggested sth that's causing me considerable grief. >< well, @ least mother's happy - she gets to gleefully FORCE :( me to walk up and gleefully FORCE :( me to walk down the stairs once every day! >< hopefully, she'll observe the sabbath and gimme a reprieve on sunday - i mean, even the lord rested on the seventh day!
anyways, next post here should prolly come on monday, coz the 23rd of may marks THREE YEARS since i've been released from the hospital! cya then!
cheers,
em. ^^
mother and i both called him 'kam sang' ('sang' in canto's like mister). when we arrived, the first thing i asked him was he 'kum' or 'kam'. he replied he didn't know anyone who's surname was 'kum'! i @ least know kelvin kum and jane kam. one of each. :)
i don't think we really talked about anything serious, but he did confirm for me that aunty frances wasn't allowed to feed me any arvo tea, even if i showered mega-quickly and finished before the hour was up. :( *sigh* doesn't matter, i know i won't starve ... i'll just try to get lots for lunch instead! :P
surprisingly, i managed to correctly guess his age! usually, i have zero talent in this regard, but he asked me to guess. i looked @ him, decided he was around dad's age, and tried that number - and he's really turning that age soon! well, i said i'd ring up and wish him a very happy birthday then, and he laughed and replied that he's eagerly awaiting for it. :P
however, he suggested sth that's causing me considerable grief. >< well, @ least mother's happy - she gets to gleefully FORCE :( me to walk up and gleefully FORCE :( me to walk down the stairs once every day! >< hopefully, she'll observe the sabbath and gimme a reprieve on sunday - i mean, even the lord rested on the seventh day!
anyways, next post here should prolly come on monday, coz the 23rd of may marks THREE YEARS since i've been released from the hospital! cya then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Saturday, May 14, 2011
joseph king of dreams
well, today my visitors from SHINE fellowship were daph and thomas! they brought along a short movie to watch called 'joseph king of dreams'. it's an animated one, about the bible character joseph.
before we went over to the couch to watch, however, thomas quizzed me on the story of joseph. i dug around my severly depleted grey matter :P and gave all the right answers, like, how joseph was jacob's favourite, how jacob made him a special coat which made his older brothers so jealous of him they sold him into slavery, how he did well in egypt and was promoted until potiphar's wife falsely accused him of molesting her, how he interpreted the dreams of those two guys in prison with him, how he then interpreted pharoah's dream and saved egypt and how he was eventually reunited with his family. phew, i answered all his questions correctly, and we went over to the sofa to watch. :P
it's just a short movie, only seventy-five minutes long, but 'twas very good! joseph was actually voiced by someone famous - ben affleck! as usual, i focused on the music, and absolutely loved it - not only the songs with words - which were awesome - but also the songs without. :)
after watching the movie, we returned to the table, where thomas quizzed me on the movie. i asked him why he didn't quiz his wife, just me, and he answered coz she knows all the answers correctly. :P
actually, thomas also told me that he doesn't know why god smite/smoted/whatever the past tense of the word 'smite' is :P me down with a brain tumour and left me severely disabled, but he assured me that it wasn't because of anything i did/didn't do. i dunno how/why he knows that, but it comes of great comfort to me, because i remember all those lonely nights i spent in a hospital bed, crying out to god and asking him did he ruin my life because (1) i didn't pray to him enough, (2) i didn't read the bible enough, (3) i didn't give enough offering or (4) i didn't sing songs of praise loud enough to him. thomas he says he doesn't know why god did this to me, but he assured me that it definitely WASN'T anything i did/didn't do. :)
before they left, daph held my arm and i went once to the loo. they left shortly after 4:30, but that's understandable, coz daph has some awesome news to share - she's PREGNANT! :D the tyke's due in december, but poor daph is already suffering from morning sickness. >< i laughed and said i was looking forward to calling thomas 'uncle'. :P
they also gave me the DVD! :D anyone wanna come over and watch it? :)
next post here ... well, don't think anything exciting's coming up for awhile ... oh well, cya when i cya!
cheers,
em. ^^
before we went over to the couch to watch, however, thomas quizzed me on the story of joseph. i dug around my severly depleted grey matter :P and gave all the right answers, like, how joseph was jacob's favourite, how jacob made him a special coat which made his older brothers so jealous of him they sold him into slavery, how he did well in egypt and was promoted until potiphar's wife falsely accused him of molesting her, how he interpreted the dreams of those two guys in prison with him, how he then interpreted pharoah's dream and saved egypt and how he was eventually reunited with his family. phew, i answered all his questions correctly, and we went over to the sofa to watch. :P
it's just a short movie, only seventy-five minutes long, but 'twas very good! joseph was actually voiced by someone famous - ben affleck! as usual, i focused on the music, and absolutely loved it - not only the songs with words - which were awesome - but also the songs without. :)
after watching the movie, we returned to the table, where thomas quizzed me on the movie. i asked him why he didn't quiz his wife, just me, and he answered coz she knows all the answers correctly. :P
actually, thomas also told me that he doesn't know why god smite/smoted/whatever the past tense of the word 'smite' is :P me down with a brain tumour and left me severely disabled, but he assured me that it wasn't because of anything i did/didn't do. i dunno how/why he knows that, but it comes of great comfort to me, because i remember all those lonely nights i spent in a hospital bed, crying out to god and asking him did he ruin my life because (1) i didn't pray to him enough, (2) i didn't read the bible enough, (3) i didn't give enough offering or (4) i didn't sing songs of praise loud enough to him. thomas he says he doesn't know why god did this to me, but he assured me that it definitely WASN'T anything i did/didn't do. :)
before they left, daph held my arm and i went once to the loo. they left shortly after 4:30, but that's understandable, coz daph has some awesome news to share - she's PREGNANT! :D the tyke's due in december, but poor daph is already suffering from morning sickness. >< i laughed and said i was looking forward to calling thomas 'uncle'. :P
they also gave me the DVD! :D anyone wanna come over and watch it? :)
next post here ... well, don't think anything exciting's coming up for awhile ... oh well, cya when i cya!
cheers,
em. ^^
Friday, May 13, 2011
bookclub! (may)
well, this month, we did the novel anna karenina. it's a classic, and to date, the only classics i've ever liked are black beauty and wite fang, so yeah ... :P
because mother knew i'd be taking the life up to the library, she gleefully FORCED :( poor em to hike up and down the stairs first. also much thanks to my carer cathy, who fed me a few small thin chunks of some easter egg after i explained to her that the parents would never take me through the redrooster drive-thru for a meal after bookclub but that i was unwilling to walk the extra distance to the dining table and back for dinner.
anyways, after catching the lift up to the library, i flopped on the sofa and read the front and back pages of the day's courier mail until the door was unlocked. there was nothing interesting: the front page was about government spenditure, while the back page was about the union. i'm a league fan, not a union (sorry, mr. jennings! :P)
when i walked into the room, i pointed to the seat @ the head of the table. "that's my seat." i told mother, who asked, "why?" see, amanda had dumped three fat fantasy novels on it; she knows i'm a great big fantasy and science fiction buff. :)
anyways, after mother left, amanda came over and kindly made me a cuppa, white and two. i thanked her for leaving me the three fantasy novels to browse, and asked her, "in the future, how about i come along every month and just read another one that you've selected for me?" :P "sounds good!" she laughed back.
dear erika came and sat beside me, saying she had just bumped into mother before she entered the room. actually, she also kindly made me a second cuppa, white and two, after i finished the first with four bikkies to spare. yes, i was a pig who grabbed ten. :P but i also showed remarkable self-control when i pushed the bowl of arnotts bikkies away to june, saying, "keep them away from me." :P
unlike last month's meeting, we started off with what other books we'd read this month instead of how we found the book. i started a convo about how the borders @ garbo were closing down, and how, as such, there was like 50%-80% off all books. actually, i complained most about how they'd removed the comfy sofas which i used to so enjoy reading upon. :P
but, just like last month, everyone bar me enjoyed the novel! :P like i've said, obviously i'm just a small literary mind compared to everyone else. :P
actually, i didn't even finish the book! i guess in part, this was due to the writing being awfully piddly tiny - i told amanda that, if there were any large-print copies available in the future, to please reserve that copy for me. after my brain-injury, my eyesight's gone to pieces, that's why i really appreciate it when some worship teams @ church remember to print me out the day's lyrics in larger font. :)
actually, i'd spent the entire month diligently reading it, but on monday (the bookclub's on a thursday), i gave up and read the book's synopsis sheet, where i found a bad ending - anna loses the love of her life and commits suicide by throwing herself under the railway tracks of a train! o_O lol, well that put me off reading the book entirely. :P
luckily, though, next month's book looks promising! we're doing the autobiography of the lead guy in the old television series M*A*S*H! it's got some funny name, like 'never leave your dog stuffed'. i remember that show playing when i went out for dinner @ BIRU, when i was still hospitalised in 2007 and 2008. actually, mother says we used to watch that show together when i was in primary school, but that was more than ten years ago!
anyway, next post here ... lol, i really dunno! if nothing comes up, it might possibly be all the way until next month's bookclub! righteo, until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
because mother knew i'd be taking the life up to the library, she gleefully FORCED :( poor em to hike up and down the stairs first. also much thanks to my carer cathy, who fed me a few small thin chunks of some easter egg after i explained to her that the parents would never take me through the redrooster drive-thru for a meal after bookclub but that i was unwilling to walk the extra distance to the dining table and back for dinner.
anyways, after catching the lift up to the library, i flopped on the sofa and read the front and back pages of the day's courier mail until the door was unlocked. there was nothing interesting: the front page was about government spenditure, while the back page was about the union. i'm a league fan, not a union (sorry, mr. jennings! :P)
when i walked into the room, i pointed to the seat @ the head of the table. "that's my seat." i told mother, who asked, "why?" see, amanda had dumped three fat fantasy novels on it; she knows i'm a great big fantasy and science fiction buff. :)
anyways, after mother left, amanda came over and kindly made me a cuppa, white and two. i thanked her for leaving me the three fantasy novels to browse, and asked her, "in the future, how about i come along every month and just read another one that you've selected for me?" :P "sounds good!" she laughed back.
dear erika came and sat beside me, saying she had just bumped into mother before she entered the room. actually, she also kindly made me a second cuppa, white and two, after i finished the first with four bikkies to spare. yes, i was a pig who grabbed ten. :P but i also showed remarkable self-control when i pushed the bowl of arnotts bikkies away to june, saying, "keep them away from me." :P
unlike last month's meeting, we started off with what other books we'd read this month instead of how we found the book. i started a convo about how the borders @ garbo were closing down, and how, as such, there was like 50%-80% off all books. actually, i complained most about how they'd removed the comfy sofas which i used to so enjoy reading upon. :P
but, just like last month, everyone bar me enjoyed the novel! :P like i've said, obviously i'm just a small literary mind compared to everyone else. :P
actually, i didn't even finish the book! i guess in part, this was due to the writing being awfully piddly tiny - i told amanda that, if there were any large-print copies available in the future, to please reserve that copy for me. after my brain-injury, my eyesight's gone to pieces, that's why i really appreciate it when some worship teams @ church remember to print me out the day's lyrics in larger font. :)
actually, i'd spent the entire month diligently reading it, but on monday (the bookclub's on a thursday), i gave up and read the book's synopsis sheet, where i found a bad ending - anna loses the love of her life and commits suicide by throwing herself under the railway tracks of a train! o_O lol, well that put me off reading the book entirely. :P
luckily, though, next month's book looks promising! we're doing the autobiography of the lead guy in the old television series M*A*S*H! it's got some funny name, like 'never leave your dog stuffed'. i remember that show playing when i went out for dinner @ BIRU, when i was still hospitalised in 2007 and 2008. actually, mother says we used to watch that show together when i was in primary school, but that was more than ten years ago!
anyway, next post here ... lol, i really dunno! if nothing comes up, it might possibly be all the way until next month's bookclub! righteo, until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
Monday, May 9, 2011
behavioural optom
yeah, i'm ridiculously short-sighted; i've worn glasses ever since i was in grade three. back then, the lenses were only -1.5. some sixteen-odd years later, they're now like -9.00! meaning without glasses i basically can't read a sheet of text unless i'm holding the paper touching my nose. anyways, i'm so special, i get my lenses done @ a behavioural optoms. basically, they put sth in your lenses to make you a better behaved kid for your parents. no, don't laugh, it's true! next time you see me, i'll show you my glasses. the lenses on the left hand side are considerably thicker than the one's on my right hand side. the optom's put some prisms into my lenses there to make me a better behaved kid for my mum.
well, obviously, i'm telling porky pies. :P XD well, the part about the added prisms is true, but the part about those prisms making me a behaved kid for my parents is obviously just a fabrication. :P
see, if i put my finger to your face, moved it side-to-side and said "say stop when my finger gets to the middle" you'd say "stop" when my finger was @ your nose, right? but, if you did the same to me, i'd say "stop" when your finger was all the way to the right-hand side. meaning after my brain injury, my midline has somehow shifted all the way to the right, and what these prisms do is help me automatically weightshift back to the left when i'm walking.
before these special glasses were available for me, the optom rented me a pair of fit-over ones. they looked ridiculous, but for me, it was like you'd just fitted a piece of clear plastic over my glasses. no difference @ all. however, mother tried them on once, just for fun, and when she came back, said, "em, i almost fell over when i stood up and walked; those lenses were pulling me so far to the left side.
one more thing about these new glasses is that they actually keep the floor level when i walk. yeah, i was a stupid kid who didn't tell my mother i had this problem until after i got those special glasses, and happily told mother, "the floor stays down level whenever i walk now."
"you mean the floor didn't stay down flat before you got these glasses?!" she asked me, aghast.
"nope, it'd rise up and meet me. that's why i always hated walking."
"why didn't you TELL me?!" she screeched @ me. lol, i don't why! guess i've always been a stupid kid. XD
anyways, i'm happy with my new glasses, now. :) just one problem: i'm asian, and many asians don't have a bridge on their nose. not a literal bridge, of course, but sth to do with the bone in your nose there? meaning i've borrowed dad's glasses string that he usually wears while playing baddy to prevent the glasses from sliding off my face completely. :P
oh, and i also need new fit-over sunnies, too! see, my new pair of specs, the frame's too broad to fit the sunnies over. but mother took me to sunnybank hills shopping centre to see aunty amy kwan, who runs some sunglasses shop, to buy a new pair. but since my face's so fat (well, actually coz the frames are so broad :P) she's put in an order for some wider frames and she'll bring them along to church on sunday for me to try out. :)
but it's just so much more fun to tell people, "i'm such a bad child my mother took me to see a behavioural optom to get new glasses. they put sth into your lenses to make you a better-behaved child for your mum, see. no, it's true! have a look @ my glasses! can't you see that the lenses are much thicker on the left side than the right?":P so far, no-one's believed my story, yet ... guess i'm not very good @ telling porky pies. XD
next post here ... lol, i dunno when! it's ages til the next public holiday (the EKKA show holiday) no, wait! book club's this thursday! cya thurs night, then!
cheers,
em. ^^
well, obviously, i'm telling porky pies. :P XD well, the part about the added prisms is true, but the part about those prisms making me a behaved kid for my parents is obviously just a fabrication. :P
see, if i put my finger to your face, moved it side-to-side and said "say stop when my finger gets to the middle" you'd say "stop" when my finger was @ your nose, right? but, if you did the same to me, i'd say "stop" when your finger was all the way to the right-hand side. meaning after my brain injury, my midline has somehow shifted all the way to the right, and what these prisms do is help me automatically weightshift back to the left when i'm walking.
before these special glasses were available for me, the optom rented me a pair of fit-over ones. they looked ridiculous, but for me, it was like you'd just fitted a piece of clear plastic over my glasses. no difference @ all. however, mother tried them on once, just for fun, and when she came back, said, "em, i almost fell over when i stood up and walked; those lenses were pulling me so far to the left side.
one more thing about these new glasses is that they actually keep the floor level when i walk. yeah, i was a stupid kid who didn't tell my mother i had this problem until after i got those special glasses, and happily told mother, "the floor stays down level whenever i walk now."
"you mean the floor didn't stay down flat before you got these glasses?!" she asked me, aghast.
"nope, it'd rise up and meet me. that's why i always hated walking."
"why didn't you TELL me?!" she screeched @ me. lol, i don't why! guess i've always been a stupid kid. XD
anyways, i'm happy with my new glasses, now. :) just one problem: i'm asian, and many asians don't have a bridge on their nose. not a literal bridge, of course, but sth to do with the bone in your nose there? meaning i've borrowed dad's glasses string that he usually wears while playing baddy to prevent the glasses from sliding off my face completely. :P
oh, and i also need new fit-over sunnies, too! see, my new pair of specs, the frame's too broad to fit the sunnies over. but mother took me to sunnybank hills shopping centre to see aunty amy kwan, who runs some sunglasses shop, to buy a new pair. but since my face's so fat (well, actually coz the frames are so broad :P) she's put in an order for some wider frames and she'll bring them along to church on sunday for me to try out. :)
but it's just so much more fun to tell people, "i'm such a bad child my mother took me to see a behavioural optom to get new glasses. they put sth into your lenses to make you a better-behaved child for your mum, see. no, it's true! have a look @ my glasses! can't you see that the lenses are much thicker on the left side than the right?":P so far, no-one's believed my story, yet ... guess i'm not very good @ telling porky pies. XD
next post here ... lol, i dunno when! it's ages til the next public holiday (the EKKA show holiday) no, wait! book club's this thursday! cya thurs night, then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Sunday, May 8, 2011
mother's day!
well, today mother's day was celebrated all around the world! well, i know that @ least australia and hong kong have the same mother's day, but different father's days. ours is during september, while i think the hong kong father's day's during may.
having earned some income through tutoring over the past few months, i asked mother to please gimme an extra fifty bucks when i hit garden city shopping centre with my carer/life coach/support worker/whatever they're called now :P on thursday so i could buy her a decent mother's day present. but she had another suggestion:"why don't you take the border's gift voucher someone gave you for your birthday this year and buy me a present from borders instead?" she's smart, my mother. obviously, she didn't want me to buy her sth pig-related (poor mother has always been called 'PIG mum' by father and i. i learnt it off dad when i was very young, and dad's excuse for calling mother PIG mum was coz she was born in the chinese new year of the pig. :P).
so off to borders i went. @ the front counter, i asked a cashier where they kept the mother's day gifts. first of all, she pointed me out to an array of diaries and calendars, but i said, "please, we're almost halfway through the year, i don't want to get her a diary/calendar!" so she directed me to the back wall, along the most left aisle from the store, and i picked up two nice books for her there. then i went to stacks, where i picked up this really cute mother's day card and bag to store the books that i'd bought for mother. finally, over a mcflurry with oreo cookies, i wrote out the card to mother, then got dad to sign the card once i got home. my dad's so romantic, he even drew love hearts all over the card. :)
@ our church, every year, two youths, one boy and one girl, are asked to speak about their parent, and this year, i was chosen! uncle phillip just told me to talk for about five minutes, and just reminded me to finish my speech with thanking my mother for being such an awesome mother.
well, mother tells me that several years ago, she had helped me write a similar script, but for dad. this time, coz i was writing about mother, i couldn't jolly well ask her for help to write it! instead, i gave ngan (one of my carers from vietnam) a quick run-through, which she approved of.
fiona and julz helped me up the three steps to the stage, then i just sat down on a chair.
uncle stephen chan introduced the day, then handed me the microphone.
i started by explaining that i owed my life to mother, in more than how everyone owed their existence to their mum and dad having intercourse. :P see, about one week before i was due to be born, my mother went to see a doctor and said, "doctor, my baby isn't kicking anymore. sth's wrong." the doctor felt mum's tummy, then said, "nah, don't worry, mrs. chan. your baby's coming out in about one week or so." but my mother was INSISTENT that there was sth definitely wrong with her baby (me) and she explained to the doctor, "see, my baby usually has a morning routine. around 7/8am, she awakes, has a stretch and kick, then returns to sleep. but this week, she's been moving less and less and less, until this morning, when i decided to come see you, all i felt was just one tiny little nudge. so there's definitely sth wrong with my baby, doctor, and you'd better find out what." the doctor was like, "okay, okay, if you're gonna fret so much, we'll hook you up to a monitor and listen to your baby's heartrate for one hour." and @ the end of that one hour, the doctor came back and apologised. "sorry, mrs. chan, you were correct. please call your husband. it's an emergency. your baby's gotta come out NOW." see, what they'd heard from the monitor was that my heartrate had PLUMMETED, meaning, even when i was still inside mum's tummy, i was such a messy sleeper i had wriggled and squirmed around so much that i'd caught my umbilical cord around my neck and was CHOKING myself. o_O
anyways, mother fasted for several hours, went into the operating theatre, and whoosh! i came out. :)
fast forward about three point five years. we'd just come to brisbane, and my parents had enrolled me into childcare while they went to TAFE to learn english. after about the first week, the teachers said to mother, 'mrs. chan, you need to give your daughter an english name, coz for the life of us, we can't pronounce her chinese name." my chinese name is 'tsz yin', more easily pronounced as 'zee yin'.
anyways, we had a bilingual english-chinese dictionary, @ the back of which was a list of boys and girls names. mother read those out to me. "A ... April."
"nup."
'b... belinda."
"nope."
"c... catherine."
"don't like it."
"d... dora."
"next."
"e... emily."
"yup, i like that one. don't need to say anymore." :P mother also liked emily coz in canto, it's roughly translated into "oi mei lai," which means "loves beauty" and, by all accounts, i was quite the beauty queen when i was little!
anyways, i went through primary school, where i met my australian godmother, who told mother to lemme sit the scholarship exam for two private schools. "but we can't afford sending her to a private school!" mother protested. my australian godmother just replied, "let her take a scholarship exam for the schools. i'm sure she'd get one."
so i sat the exam, and was called in for an interview with both schools. @ the redeemer one, the headmaster told me, "we're willing to offer emily a 45% bursary."
"sweet," i thought,"i only haveta pay 55% school fees!" then, @ the canterbury one, the headmaster told me, "we're willing to offer emily a half scholarship."
'even better!" i thought. "let's go to canterbury, then." but mother was even smarter. she leaned forward and challenged the headmaster, "so what? redeemer's already offered her a forty-five percent bursary. you're only offering her five more percent, i may as well just let her attend redeemer."
the headmaster and the dean of studies looked @ each other, then reconsidered. "in that case ... we'd be willing to give emily TWO half scholarships."
mother drove me home, then said the decision was mine. where did i want to go? 'don't be stupid, mother," i told her, "of COURSE i'll go to canterbury! no school fees"
"but all your friends are attending redeemer," mother warned me."
'so? @ redeemer, they haveta attend some MONTH-long camp. i don't wanna be separated from you and dad for that long!"
so to canterbury college i went.
all was well until 2007. i'd graduated with an O.P1, had studied two years of an arts/law degree and had just begun my first paid job as a woolies checkout chic.
then, disaster struck. i suddenly collapsed one morning, and, rushed to the hospital, i was diagnosed with a brain tumour. >< operations, complications and more operations followed. basically, the doctors told my parents i'd never walk again, to just send me to a hospital, lemme rot and die (okay, so they didn't exactly say the rot and die part, but i'm sure you get my point. :P).
luckily, being an only kid, my parents chose to take me home and now, despite the doctor's predictions, i can walk/hobble/stagger/limp/you choose a verb :P with short distances.
but i owe a HUGE apology to mother! see, when i was recovering in the rehab ward, she came to visit me one afternoon, and we were chatting for awhile, when suddenly, i asked her, "umm ... do you know where my mum is?"
"do you know who i am?" she countered.
"sure!"
'who am i, then?"
"you're aunty ling!" (which is correct, my mother's name is ling.) anyways, she went to the loo after that, and when she came back, i said, "hi, mum!" like nothing had ever happened.
BUT THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! ><
"umm ... do you know where my mum is?"
"do you know who i am?"
"sure!"
'who am i, then?"
"you're aunty ling!"
but this time, mother continued the conversation. "and does aunty ling have any kids?"
"yup."
"what?"
"she's got one daughter."
"and what's her daughter's name?"
'emily."
"and what's your name?"
"emily."
'so...?"
'so what?"
'I'M YOUR MOTHER, YOU IDIOT!!!"
lol, mother says she didn't call me an idiot, but i'm sure you get the point. :P
but sadly, life has also become ridiculously difficult for me.
i remember one day, when mother was forcing me to do sth when i turned to her sadly and asked her, "mother, does it really give you that much pleasure to see me sufer so?" and i will never forget her response to me. she said, "YES, IT DOES GIVE ME PLEASURE TO SEE YOU SUFFER."
granted, she did continue on to explain that i must suffer in the short term in order to live an easier life in the long term.
but the most important thing: i just want my mum to know how much i love and appreciate her love and all the help she's given me over the years. THANKS, MUM! I LOVE YOU!!!
next post here ... toms, if i get the time! i still haven't posted about my new glasses yet! righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
having earned some income through tutoring over the past few months, i asked mother to please gimme an extra fifty bucks when i hit garden city shopping centre with my carer/life coach/support worker/whatever they're called now :P on thursday so i could buy her a decent mother's day present. but she had another suggestion:"why don't you take the border's gift voucher someone gave you for your birthday this year and buy me a present from borders instead?" she's smart, my mother. obviously, she didn't want me to buy her sth pig-related (poor mother has always been called 'PIG mum' by father and i. i learnt it off dad when i was very young, and dad's excuse for calling mother PIG mum was coz she was born in the chinese new year of the pig. :P).
so off to borders i went. @ the front counter, i asked a cashier where they kept the mother's day gifts. first of all, she pointed me out to an array of diaries and calendars, but i said, "please, we're almost halfway through the year, i don't want to get her a diary/calendar!" so she directed me to the back wall, along the most left aisle from the store, and i picked up two nice books for her there. then i went to stacks, where i picked up this really cute mother's day card and bag to store the books that i'd bought for mother. finally, over a mcflurry with oreo cookies, i wrote out the card to mother, then got dad to sign the card once i got home. my dad's so romantic, he even drew love hearts all over the card. :)
@ our church, every year, two youths, one boy and one girl, are asked to speak about their parent, and this year, i was chosen! uncle phillip just told me to talk for about five minutes, and just reminded me to finish my speech with thanking my mother for being such an awesome mother.
well, mother tells me that several years ago, she had helped me write a similar script, but for dad. this time, coz i was writing about mother, i couldn't jolly well ask her for help to write it! instead, i gave ngan (one of my carers from vietnam) a quick run-through, which she approved of.
fiona and julz helped me up the three steps to the stage, then i just sat down on a chair.
uncle stephen chan introduced the day, then handed me the microphone.
i started by explaining that i owed my life to mother, in more than how everyone owed their existence to their mum and dad having intercourse. :P see, about one week before i was due to be born, my mother went to see a doctor and said, "doctor, my baby isn't kicking anymore. sth's wrong." the doctor felt mum's tummy, then said, "nah, don't worry, mrs. chan. your baby's coming out in about one week or so." but my mother was INSISTENT that there was sth definitely wrong with her baby (me) and she explained to the doctor, "see, my baby usually has a morning routine. around 7/8am, she awakes, has a stretch and kick, then returns to sleep. but this week, she's been moving less and less and less, until this morning, when i decided to come see you, all i felt was just one tiny little nudge. so there's definitely sth wrong with my baby, doctor, and you'd better find out what." the doctor was like, "okay, okay, if you're gonna fret so much, we'll hook you up to a monitor and listen to your baby's heartrate for one hour." and @ the end of that one hour, the doctor came back and apologised. "sorry, mrs. chan, you were correct. please call your husband. it's an emergency. your baby's gotta come out NOW." see, what they'd heard from the monitor was that my heartrate had PLUMMETED, meaning, even when i was still inside mum's tummy, i was such a messy sleeper i had wriggled and squirmed around so much that i'd caught my umbilical cord around my neck and was CHOKING myself. o_O
anyways, mother fasted for several hours, went into the operating theatre, and whoosh! i came out. :)
fast forward about three point five years. we'd just come to brisbane, and my parents had enrolled me into childcare while they went to TAFE to learn english. after about the first week, the teachers said to mother, 'mrs. chan, you need to give your daughter an english name, coz for the life of us, we can't pronounce her chinese name." my chinese name is 'tsz yin', more easily pronounced as 'zee yin'.
anyways, we had a bilingual english-chinese dictionary, @ the back of which was a list of boys and girls names. mother read those out to me. "A ... April."
"nup."
'b... belinda."
"nope."
"c... catherine."
"don't like it."
"d... dora."
"next."
"e... emily."
"yup, i like that one. don't need to say anymore." :P mother also liked emily coz in canto, it's roughly translated into "oi mei lai," which means "loves beauty" and, by all accounts, i was quite the beauty queen when i was little!
anyways, i went through primary school, where i met my australian godmother, who told mother to lemme sit the scholarship exam for two private schools. "but we can't afford sending her to a private school!" mother protested. my australian godmother just replied, "let her take a scholarship exam for the schools. i'm sure she'd get one."
so i sat the exam, and was called in for an interview with both schools. @ the redeemer one, the headmaster told me, "we're willing to offer emily a 45% bursary."
"sweet," i thought,"i only haveta pay 55% school fees!" then, @ the canterbury one, the headmaster told me, "we're willing to offer emily a half scholarship."
'even better!" i thought. "let's go to canterbury, then." but mother was even smarter. she leaned forward and challenged the headmaster, "so what? redeemer's already offered her a forty-five percent bursary. you're only offering her five more percent, i may as well just let her attend redeemer."
the headmaster and the dean of studies looked @ each other, then reconsidered. "in that case ... we'd be willing to give emily TWO half scholarships."
mother drove me home, then said the decision was mine. where did i want to go? 'don't be stupid, mother," i told her, "of COURSE i'll go to canterbury! no school fees"
"but all your friends are attending redeemer," mother warned me."
'so? @ redeemer, they haveta attend some MONTH-long camp. i don't wanna be separated from you and dad for that long!"
so to canterbury college i went.
all was well until 2007. i'd graduated with an O.P1, had studied two years of an arts/law degree and had just begun my first paid job as a woolies checkout chic.
then, disaster struck. i suddenly collapsed one morning, and, rushed to the hospital, i was diagnosed with a brain tumour. >< operations, complications and more operations followed. basically, the doctors told my parents i'd never walk again, to just send me to a hospital, lemme rot and die (okay, so they didn't exactly say the rot and die part, but i'm sure you get my point. :P).
luckily, being an only kid, my parents chose to take me home and now, despite the doctor's predictions, i can walk/hobble/stagger/limp/you choose a verb :P with short distances.
but i owe a HUGE apology to mother! see, when i was recovering in the rehab ward, she came to visit me one afternoon, and we were chatting for awhile, when suddenly, i asked her, "umm ... do you know where my mum is?"
"do you know who i am?" she countered.
"sure!"
'who am i, then?"
"you're aunty ling!" (which is correct, my mother's name is ling.) anyways, she went to the loo after that, and when she came back, i said, "hi, mum!" like nothing had ever happened.
BUT THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! ><
"umm ... do you know where my mum is?"
"do you know who i am?"
"sure!"
'who am i, then?"
"you're aunty ling!"
but this time, mother continued the conversation. "and does aunty ling have any kids?"
"yup."
"what?"
"she's got one daughter."
"and what's her daughter's name?"
'emily."
"and what's your name?"
"emily."
'so...?"
'so what?"
'I'M YOUR MOTHER, YOU IDIOT!!!"
lol, mother says she didn't call me an idiot, but i'm sure you get the point. :P
but sadly, life has also become ridiculously difficult for me.
i remember one day, when mother was forcing me to do sth when i turned to her sadly and asked her, "mother, does it really give you that much pleasure to see me sufer so?" and i will never forget her response to me. she said, "YES, IT DOES GIVE ME PLEASURE TO SEE YOU SUFFER."
granted, she did continue on to explain that i must suffer in the short term in order to live an easier life in the long term.
but the most important thing: i just want my mum to know how much i love and appreciate her love and all the help she's given me over the years. THANKS, MUM! I LOVE YOU!!!
next post here ... toms, if i get the time! i still haven't posted about my new glasses yet! righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Saturday, May 7, 2011
michael jennings
lol, here's another post about one of my high school teachers.
michael jennings is a tall, thin man with brown hair. actually, i think he might be suffering from pre-mature hair loss. :P
he taught me japanese from year eight all the way through to until year twelve. actually, he took a bunch of schoolkids and i to japan in 2003!
during the trip, we stayed @ youth hostels. @ one such youth hostel, us girls were AGHAST to discover that the youth hostel had COMMUNAL showers! o_O
so we all surrounded mr. jennings and we told him, "sir, we're all going for showers now. while we are in there, you will STAND @ the front door and you WILL NOT! let anyone else in! do you understand us?!"
mr. jennings just laughed. "well, what about the boys, then?" he asked us. "i can't guard their door and yours @ the same time, you know."
"well, we don't care what happens to the boys," we answered him. "but while we're in there, you will GUARD that door and not let ANYONE else inside! got it?!"
mr. jennings laughed again. "okay, okay," he said, flapping his arm @ us, "go have your showers."
us girls went into the bathroom, and 'twas a quick shower, for me @ least! i finished first, and was just about to head back outside, when one of the girls said, "check that mr. jennings is still guarding our door, okay? i quietly padded outside and phew, he was still there. "thank-you, sir," i said, walking past him. "now, STAY! until all the girls are out, okay?!"
he just laughed. "okay, okay." so i got through that experience fairly unscathed. :P
actually, mr. jennings got quite grumpy with me in 2006, when i sent him an e-mail saying that i was 99.9% certain that i'd study japanese, but then i ended up studying chinese instead! sorry, sir, guess the 0.01% won out. :P
when i got sick, mother tells me that him and his wife cindy were my most frequent visitors @ the hospital. actually, when i returned to consciousness in BIRU, they'd often visit me too - and even bring me pocky! :D
but i hadn't seen him since i was released from the insane asylum (sorry, i meant the princess alexandra hospital :P) so i was very happy for him when he e-mailed me the news that he and cindy had a son!
around easter, i e-mailed him asking if he knew that queensland's first mosburger had just opened up @ sunnybank plaza, and he e-mailed back, "really?! you've just made my easter! actually, how about we meet up there?"
of course i eagerly agreed; i hadn't seen him in almost three years!
so tess tess (my carer on saturday)drove me there on saturday. sadly, the parents were HEARTLESS and didn't lemme use sparkless, but i still tried my best to enjoy myself.
actually, when i arrived, i received two SMSs from cindy, saying they wouldn't get there till about 12:45, coz little ben was still sleeping his morning nap soundly. so much thanks to tess (who was due to leave @ 12:30) who waited and stayed with me until she arrived with little ben.
he's really, really kawaii!!!! :D yeah, i pinched his chubby lil cheek very, very gently. :P
actually, tess and i shared half a yummy chicken kebab while we waited for their arrival.
when mr. jennings finally arrived, i gave him a great big hug. :) then he very kindly went to buy us lunch. actually, he went there and back twice. the first time was to grab a menu.
i was gonna get what i had last time with leanne, the teriyaki chicken burger, but instead went with a mos cheeseburger - which comes with one slice of tomato! i also ordered some chippies, of which cindy (i asked her did she want me to call her mrs. jennings, miss lee or just cindy and she replied the latter) nabbed like three.
then we just all happily chatted away (well, little ben just girgled whenever i couldn't resist and tickled his feet :P). i told mr. jennings about my new-found proficiency with the word 'kusai' :P and also about nobuko. i also thanked them both lots and lots for visiting me when i was very sick in hospital.
for some reason, little ben kept grabbing for my jasmine milk tea with pearl! :P but cindy had little finger sandwiches prepared for him, which he ate very tidily, even though she says she forgot to bring a bib for him. :P
turns out that cindy's parents are both hongkies! i think she understands canto?
they wouldn't lemme pay for my meal, apparently, 'twas ben's shout. well, thanks, little guy. :P
when dad came to pick me up, him and mr. jennings shook hands and exchanged a few words. before we left, i gave little ben a kiss on the cheek. i bet, when he gets older, he'll have hordes of girls chasing him! i can say that i've already kissed him. :P
anyways, next post here ... should come toms! see, i've been selected to speak about mother for mother's day toms! and there's the story of my new glasses which i haven't shared yet! well, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
michael jennings is a tall, thin man with brown hair. actually, i think he might be suffering from pre-mature hair loss. :P
he taught me japanese from year eight all the way through to until year twelve. actually, he took a bunch of schoolkids and i to japan in 2003!
during the trip, we stayed @ youth hostels. @ one such youth hostel, us girls were AGHAST to discover that the youth hostel had COMMUNAL showers! o_O
so we all surrounded mr. jennings and we told him, "sir, we're all going for showers now. while we are in there, you will STAND @ the front door and you WILL NOT! let anyone else in! do you understand us?!"
mr. jennings just laughed. "well, what about the boys, then?" he asked us. "i can't guard their door and yours @ the same time, you know."
"well, we don't care what happens to the boys," we answered him. "but while we're in there, you will GUARD that door and not let ANYONE else inside! got it?!"
mr. jennings laughed again. "okay, okay," he said, flapping his arm @ us, "go have your showers."
us girls went into the bathroom, and 'twas a quick shower, for me @ least! i finished first, and was just about to head back outside, when one of the girls said, "check that mr. jennings is still guarding our door, okay? i quietly padded outside and phew, he was still there. "thank-you, sir," i said, walking past him. "now, STAY! until all the girls are out, okay?!"
he just laughed. "okay, okay." so i got through that experience fairly unscathed. :P
actually, mr. jennings got quite grumpy with me in 2006, when i sent him an e-mail saying that i was 99.9% certain that i'd study japanese, but then i ended up studying chinese instead! sorry, sir, guess the 0.01% won out. :P
when i got sick, mother tells me that him and his wife cindy were my most frequent visitors @ the hospital. actually, when i returned to consciousness in BIRU, they'd often visit me too - and even bring me pocky! :D
but i hadn't seen him since i was released from the insane asylum (sorry, i meant the princess alexandra hospital :P) so i was very happy for him when he e-mailed me the news that he and cindy had a son!
around easter, i e-mailed him asking if he knew that queensland's first mosburger had just opened up @ sunnybank plaza, and he e-mailed back, "really?! you've just made my easter! actually, how about we meet up there?"
of course i eagerly agreed; i hadn't seen him in almost three years!
so tess tess (my carer on saturday)drove me there on saturday. sadly, the parents were HEARTLESS and didn't lemme use sparkless, but i still tried my best to enjoy myself.
actually, when i arrived, i received two SMSs from cindy, saying they wouldn't get there till about 12:45, coz little ben was still sleeping his morning nap soundly. so much thanks to tess (who was due to leave @ 12:30) who waited and stayed with me until she arrived with little ben.
he's really, really kawaii!!!! :D yeah, i pinched his chubby lil cheek very, very gently. :P
actually, tess and i shared half a yummy chicken kebab while we waited for their arrival.
when mr. jennings finally arrived, i gave him a great big hug. :) then he very kindly went to buy us lunch. actually, he went there and back twice. the first time was to grab a menu.
i was gonna get what i had last time with leanne, the teriyaki chicken burger, but instead went with a mos cheeseburger - which comes with one slice of tomato! i also ordered some chippies, of which cindy (i asked her did she want me to call her mrs. jennings, miss lee or just cindy and she replied the latter) nabbed like three.
then we just all happily chatted away (well, little ben just girgled whenever i couldn't resist and tickled his feet :P). i told mr. jennings about my new-found proficiency with the word 'kusai' :P and also about nobuko. i also thanked them both lots and lots for visiting me when i was very sick in hospital.
for some reason, little ben kept grabbing for my jasmine milk tea with pearl! :P but cindy had little finger sandwiches prepared for him, which he ate very tidily, even though she says she forgot to bring a bib for him. :P
turns out that cindy's parents are both hongkies! i think she understands canto?
they wouldn't lemme pay for my meal, apparently, 'twas ben's shout. well, thanks, little guy. :P
when dad came to pick me up, him and mr. jennings shook hands and exchanged a few words. before we left, i gave little ben a kiss on the cheek. i bet, when he gets older, he'll have hordes of girls chasing him! i can say that i've already kissed him. :P
anyways, next post here ... should come toms! see, i've been selected to speak about mother for mother's day toms! and there's the story of my new glasses which i haven't shared yet! well, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
Thursday, May 5, 2011
suncrop
firstly, i honestly reckon the suncorp-metway bank should sue the pants off the suncrop chinese restaurant! all suncrop did was switch the 'r' and 'o' letters! :P how incredibly lazy of them to not even come up with an original name. :P
but that's where mother and i headed for lunch yesterday with her old workmates from the beenleigh nursing home. i like suncrop coz it's not a yum cha restaurant (i can't stand yum cha, sorry. i'll explain why in a post someday.)
i felt slightly uncomfortable having lunch surrounded by a bunch of registered nurses! :P
i sat next to margaret, who sat next to patsy, who sat next to aunty anne, who sat next to mother, who sat next to me. :)
instead of ordering one plate per person, someone decided we'd share.
we started with spring rolls for entree first, and that's when the problem started! there were only four spring rolls - but there were FIVE of us! i was just about to suggest how the other ladies all take one each, while mother and i halved the fourth between us, when aunty anne said, "you guys have the spring rolls. i'll pass, i've got a sore throat." poor aunty anne. :( but the spring rolls were very yummy! (either that, or i'm just a huge fan of sweet and sour sauce. :P)
then we all shared one plate of fried rice, one plate of ho fan and one plate of combination egg noodle. nomnomnom~
margaret told me how she worked as a community nurse now. community nurses are the ones that drive round and round and see patients @ their houses.
for some reason, margaret and patsy gave me a bouquet of flowers! :D mother got a flower, too - a fake one. :P but she got a ferrero rocher, and i didn't, "coz we know you're allergic to peanuts," said patsy smugly. :P actually, she says little kennedy's now two! and that he prefers to be called just "ken". i remember how mother and i met them @ plaza foodcourt awhile back, and he was very little, then! he had a dummy, which he kept throwing to the floor and get patsy to pick it back up for him. then, repeat. :P
someone shouted us, can't remember who ... margaret, i think. must go send her an e-mail and say thanks. :)
actually, must also thank mother for leaving me - and anyone else - entirely undissed during lunch with all the nurses! it's a rare event. :)
next post here ... should come toms! coz i've finally got my new glasses! :D until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
but that's where mother and i headed for lunch yesterday with her old workmates from the beenleigh nursing home. i like suncrop coz it's not a yum cha restaurant (i can't stand yum cha, sorry. i'll explain why in a post someday.)
i felt slightly uncomfortable having lunch surrounded by a bunch of registered nurses! :P
i sat next to margaret, who sat next to patsy, who sat next to aunty anne, who sat next to mother, who sat next to me. :)
instead of ordering one plate per person, someone decided we'd share.
we started with spring rolls for entree first, and that's when the problem started! there were only four spring rolls - but there were FIVE of us! i was just about to suggest how the other ladies all take one each, while mother and i halved the fourth between us, when aunty anne said, "you guys have the spring rolls. i'll pass, i've got a sore throat." poor aunty anne. :( but the spring rolls were very yummy! (either that, or i'm just a huge fan of sweet and sour sauce. :P)
then we all shared one plate of fried rice, one plate of ho fan and one plate of combination egg noodle. nomnomnom~
margaret told me how she worked as a community nurse now. community nurses are the ones that drive round and round and see patients @ their houses.
for some reason, margaret and patsy gave me a bouquet of flowers! :D mother got a flower, too - a fake one. :P but she got a ferrero rocher, and i didn't, "coz we know you're allergic to peanuts," said patsy smugly. :P actually, she says little kennedy's now two! and that he prefers to be called just "ken". i remember how mother and i met them @ plaza foodcourt awhile back, and he was very little, then! he had a dummy, which he kept throwing to the floor and get patsy to pick it back up for him. then, repeat. :P
someone shouted us, can't remember who ... margaret, i think. must go send her an e-mail and say thanks. :)
actually, must also thank mother for leaving me - and anyone else - entirely undissed during lunch with all the nurses! it's a rare event. :)
next post here ... should come toms! coz i've finally got my new glasses! :D until then~
cheers,
em. ^^
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
haircut
lol, well today, mother and i went to get our hair cut.
our hairdresser's this lady from laos. actually, can anyone tell me, is that place pronounced 'louse' or 'lay-os?' her name's anna, and mother tells me that i used to see her for my hair cuts even before i got sick, not that i remember that, sorry. :P
the first time i went to her, i asked her, "please, can you not gimme a toilet-bowl haircut? i don't want a toilet-bowl haircut." (toilet-bowl haircuts are when the mother just places a bowl around the kid's head and cuts around it. :P)
she asked me, "whaddya want, then?"
i pondered awhile, then asked, "do you know how to do a mushroom hair cut? ('dong goo tau' in canto)"
"of course!" was her reply.
"awesome, i'll have a mushroom haircut then."
but aunty anna's awesome: "no, i'll give you a HIGH-CLASS mushroom haircut."
sweet, that's me taken care of. but how about mother?does she want a high-class mushroom haircut too?
no, she doesn't care. i decide for her, then. she can have a high class 'shh-muk (say that in canto)' haircut. :P
the coolest thing is that aunty anna charges me fairly cheap. :) i think she charges mother a few dollars more than she charges me, although, technically, @ twenty-four years old, i should be charged the same as mother.
she's got two daughters, one in senior school, and the other one in upper primary. both attend state schools.
anyways, she's cheap, nice and highly recommended! anyone looking for a new hairdresser? just ask me. :)
next post here ... whenever the next public holiday is, maybe? nah, that isn't till august, i don't think. prolly when mother and i go out for lunch with my australian godmother, then. cya!
ceers,
em. ^^
P.S. no! i should be getting my new glasses soon! new post due then! :)
our hairdresser's this lady from laos. actually, can anyone tell me, is that place pronounced 'louse' or 'lay-os?' her name's anna, and mother tells me that i used to see her for my hair cuts even before i got sick, not that i remember that, sorry. :P
the first time i went to her, i asked her, "please, can you not gimme a toilet-bowl haircut? i don't want a toilet-bowl haircut." (toilet-bowl haircuts are when the mother just places a bowl around the kid's head and cuts around it. :P)
she asked me, "whaddya want, then?"
i pondered awhile, then asked, "do you know how to do a mushroom hair cut? ('dong goo tau' in canto)"
"of course!" was her reply.
"awesome, i'll have a mushroom haircut then."
but aunty anna's awesome: "no, i'll give you a HIGH-CLASS mushroom haircut."
sweet, that's me taken care of. but how about mother?does she want a high-class mushroom haircut too?
no, she doesn't care. i decide for her, then. she can have a high class 'shh-muk (say that in canto)' haircut. :P
the coolest thing is that aunty anna charges me fairly cheap. :) i think she charges mother a few dollars more than she charges me, although, technically, @ twenty-four years old, i should be charged the same as mother.
she's got two daughters, one in senior school, and the other one in upper primary. both attend state schools.
anyways, she's cheap, nice and highly recommended! anyone looking for a new hairdresser? just ask me. :)
next post here ... whenever the next public holiday is, maybe? nah, that isn't till august, i don't think. prolly when mother and i go out for lunch with my australian godmother, then. cya!
ceers,
em. ^^
P.S. no! i should be getting my new glasses soon! new post due then! :)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
being faithful
i remember awhile back, @ SHINE fellowship one night, we were doing a bible study on first corinthians. chapter one verse nine reads "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
obviously, i must be an immature christian who doesn't understand this passage @ all. because i'm having some trouble agreeing to that sentence.
'faithful' is defined as 'steadfast in allegiance'. i suppose that we're the ones that are supposed to be steadfast in allegiance to god, not the other way around.
but the one we remain steadfast to, shouldn't he in turn also be steadfast toward us?
that passage from first corinthians says that 'god is faithful', but i'm having some trouble figuring out why a god that is faithful would do to me what he did, i.e. give me a brain tumour and leave me bloody cripple.
why would a faithful god do that to me? wouldn't a faithful god look after me and keep me safe from any number of terrible physical afflictions?
i remember i used to ask god, what had i done that was so sinful that made him smite me down with a brain tumour. was it that i didn't pray enough? or didn't give enough offering? or didn't sing loud enough during service?
unsurprisingly, though, i never received an answer.
i guess all i can do is just keep persevering, keep struggling on, clinging onto the hope that one day, god will get bored of me and turn his wrath onto one of the 6 775 235 700 and leave me alone to recover the shattered shards of my life. and hell, am i ever looking forward to that day!
actually, correction: mother tells me that god IS faithful to me. "had He not been faithful to you, emily, you'd be six feet under by now." well, fair enough.
anyways, next post here ... the ekka day holiday? unless sth comes up before then. righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^
obviously, i must be an immature christian who doesn't understand this passage @ all. because i'm having some trouble agreeing to that sentence.
'faithful' is defined as 'steadfast in allegiance'. i suppose that we're the ones that are supposed to be steadfast in allegiance to god, not the other way around.
but the one we remain steadfast to, shouldn't he in turn also be steadfast toward us?
that passage from first corinthians says that 'god is faithful', but i'm having some trouble figuring out why a god that is faithful would do to me what he did, i.e. give me a brain tumour and leave me bloody cripple.
why would a faithful god do that to me? wouldn't a faithful god look after me and keep me safe from any number of terrible physical afflictions?
i remember i used to ask god, what had i done that was so sinful that made him smite me down with a brain tumour. was it that i didn't pray enough? or didn't give enough offering? or didn't sing loud enough during service?
unsurprisingly, though, i never received an answer.
i guess all i can do is just keep persevering, keep struggling on, clinging onto the hope that one day, god will get bored of me and turn his wrath onto one of the 6 775 235 700 and leave me alone to recover the shattered shards of my life. and hell, am i ever looking forward to that day!
actually, correction: mother tells me that god IS faithful to me. "had He not been faithful to you, emily, you'd be six feet under by now." well, fair enough.
anyways, next post here ... the ekka day holiday? unless sth comes up before then. righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^
Monday, May 2, 2011
labour day/church picnic!
well, apart it from being labour day today, today was also the day of our church picnic!
i had dearly wanted to attend right from the start, but poor dad was stuck @ home recovering from a small operation he'd had undergone last week, and mother, being a registered nurse, had just originally planned to stay @ home and look after him!
but i really wanted to attend!
solution: facebook. :P i hopped online, and wrote: DRIVER NEEDED! anyone free to gimme a lift to the church picnic toms? if you can, please lemme know." :)
my ride came in the form of laurence chan, a guy that attends SHINE fellowship. :)
so, after packing my picnic armchair into his boot, he tootled us off to meadowbrook park for the church picnic! we spent the trip there talking mainly about the floods brisbane suffered @ the beginning of the year.
once we arrived, mother took me once to the toilet before she left me clinging to a pole (literally, a metal thing, not my pal apole kwok. :P) while she went to get my picnic armchair that dad had bought from BCF for me.
once i sat down, i watched with interest the games aunty alice was leading everyone in attendance in. lol, she's so short, she crawled onto a table and stood on it in order to be seen when she gave instructions! :P
after several games, 'twas time for lunch! the pastor said grace for us, then mother and i shared two platefuls of food that the church aunties had cooked. mother had fried some vermicelli, but i'm not a fan of thin noodles (i prefer the thick stuff, like udon. :) but i ate a new noodle today! 'twas made outta sweet potato! very interesting~ i ate some fried rice, some fried noodle, approx. one chicken drumstick, one cuttlefish ball, etc.
after lunch, the majority of the aunties decided to take a bushwalk. i knew mother would like to participate in that too, so i asked her please to take me once more to the toilet before she went.
when she did go, i actually sat down and listened to uncle colbert play the erhu! he was playing, while quiet daniel's parents were singing. i asked aunty jenny where her son was, and she shrugged. "i dunno," she said. "he was originally gonna come, but suddenly changed his mind this morning."
i also patted melo! he's someone's siberian husky ... aunty josephine wong, maybe? melo's placid and friendly, both era and ela took turns patting him. :)
and best of all, uncle colbert lemme try playing the erhu myself! it's only got two strings, sth like A and E. uncle colbert helped do the fingerings so different notes were produced, and era tugged the bow gently between the strings to produce music. :) while that was happening, i also watched with interest the dads vs. kids soccer match being waged on the soccer pitch. gosh, if there's one thing i really miss since being a disabled bum is that i can't any longer participate in games like soccer. :) i've always played right back. but 'twas good to watch the guys play - gosh, joshels really plays very well! well, i also watched him cop a ball in the back. :P
uncle eddy wandered over after the game was finished and asked where dad was, coz apparently dad always played goalkeeper for them! hopefully, dad'll get all better soon and he'll go back being their goalie. :)
anyways, the picnic was over and 'twas time to head home all too quickly. mother took me to the loo once more than laurence tootled us home. he drives manual, BTW. some kinda toyata.
but 'twas an awesome day out! :) i can't remember ... how many church picnics do we normally have each year?
next post here .. well, there's being sth meaningful i've been intending to share about from first corinthians; i'll post that up when i get the time.
actually, i'll prolly have a new post sooner! my new glasses should arrive soon! they're special, but i'll post about them then! cya later!
cheers,
em. ^^
P.S. wikipedia informs me that "labour day is an annual holiday to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers." :P
i had dearly wanted to attend right from the start, but poor dad was stuck @ home recovering from a small operation he'd had undergone last week, and mother, being a registered nurse, had just originally planned to stay @ home and look after him!
but i really wanted to attend!
solution: facebook. :P i hopped online, and wrote: DRIVER NEEDED! anyone free to gimme a lift to the church picnic toms? if you can, please lemme know." :)
my ride came in the form of laurence chan, a guy that attends SHINE fellowship. :)
so, after packing my picnic armchair into his boot, he tootled us off to meadowbrook park for the church picnic! we spent the trip there talking mainly about the floods brisbane suffered @ the beginning of the year.
once we arrived, mother took me once to the toilet before she left me clinging to a pole (literally, a metal thing, not my pal apole kwok. :P) while she went to get my picnic armchair that dad had bought from BCF for me.
once i sat down, i watched with interest the games aunty alice was leading everyone in attendance in. lol, she's so short, she crawled onto a table and stood on it in order to be seen when she gave instructions! :P
after several games, 'twas time for lunch! the pastor said grace for us, then mother and i shared two platefuls of food that the church aunties had cooked. mother had fried some vermicelli, but i'm not a fan of thin noodles (i prefer the thick stuff, like udon. :) but i ate a new noodle today! 'twas made outta sweet potato! very interesting~ i ate some fried rice, some fried noodle, approx. one chicken drumstick, one cuttlefish ball, etc.
after lunch, the majority of the aunties decided to take a bushwalk. i knew mother would like to participate in that too, so i asked her please to take me once more to the toilet before she went.
when she did go, i actually sat down and listened to uncle colbert play the erhu! he was playing, while quiet daniel's parents were singing. i asked aunty jenny where her son was, and she shrugged. "i dunno," she said. "he was originally gonna come, but suddenly changed his mind this morning."
i also patted melo! he's someone's siberian husky ... aunty josephine wong, maybe? melo's placid and friendly, both era and ela took turns patting him. :)
and best of all, uncle colbert lemme try playing the erhu myself! it's only got two strings, sth like A and E. uncle colbert helped do the fingerings so different notes were produced, and era tugged the bow gently between the strings to produce music. :) while that was happening, i also watched with interest the dads vs. kids soccer match being waged on the soccer pitch. gosh, if there's one thing i really miss since being a disabled bum is that i can't any longer participate in games like soccer. :) i've always played right back. but 'twas good to watch the guys play - gosh, joshels really plays very well! well, i also watched him cop a ball in the back. :P
uncle eddy wandered over after the game was finished and asked where dad was, coz apparently dad always played goalkeeper for them! hopefully, dad'll get all better soon and he'll go back being their goalie. :)
anyways, the picnic was over and 'twas time to head home all too quickly. mother took me to the loo once more than laurence tootled us home. he drives manual, BTW. some kinda toyata.
but 'twas an awesome day out! :) i can't remember ... how many church picnics do we normally have each year?
next post here .. well, there's being sth meaningful i've been intending to share about from first corinthians; i'll post that up when i get the time.
actually, i'll prolly have a new post sooner! my new glasses should arrive soon! they're special, but i'll post about them then! cya later!
cheers,
em. ^^
P.S. wikipedia informs me that "labour day is an annual holiday to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers." :P
Sunday, May 1, 2011
letters to god
well, today, my visitors from SHINE fellowship were uncle kelvin cham and kathy chow. kathy brought along a movie for us to watch, some christian movie called 'letters to god'.
it's about this little kid, tyler, who's got some kinda brain cancer, and it's just about the last short days/weeks/months of his short life.
he's been writing lotsa letters to god. just simple "dear god, please look after ..." ones. but he hands them to the postie everyday, and through that, he brings the postie to christ.
tyler's got a female best friend, who stands up for him (one part of the movie is her shoving some bully's face into a bowl of cereal :P)
tyler's also got an older brother, who doesn't really understand all the attention his lil bro's getting and becomes somewhat jealous of him.
the mum and grandma also play a role, grandma giving some support to the mum when she can't handle the prospect of losing her son.
there's also some very lovely music throughout. :) hey, a movie review doesn't exist unless there's some mention about the music! :P
this movie's a tear jerker, though: tyler passes away @ the end. :(
but i wonder ... what would it be like to have faith like tyler does? to write letters to god and just believe that they'll be read up in heaven?
anyways, this is a sweet little movie. :)
next post here ... well, i'm trying my hardest to find someone who can gimme a lift to the church picnic toms! if i can attend, i'll have a long post all about it toms night i'm sure! but if i can't (poor dad's recovering from a small operation and can't go, while mother's looking after him) i'll prolly have a post toms too, coz it's labour day toms! righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
it's about this little kid, tyler, who's got some kinda brain cancer, and it's just about the last short days/weeks/months of his short life.
he's been writing lotsa letters to god. just simple "dear god, please look after ..." ones. but he hands them to the postie everyday, and through that, he brings the postie to christ.
tyler's got a female best friend, who stands up for him (one part of the movie is her shoving some bully's face into a bowl of cereal :P)
tyler's also got an older brother, who doesn't really understand all the attention his lil bro's getting and becomes somewhat jealous of him.
the mum and grandma also play a role, grandma giving some support to the mum when she can't handle the prospect of losing her son.
there's also some very lovely music throughout. :) hey, a movie review doesn't exist unless there's some mention about the music! :P
this movie's a tear jerker, though: tyler passes away @ the end. :(
but i wonder ... what would it be like to have faith like tyler does? to write letters to god and just believe that they'll be read up in heaven?
anyways, this is a sweet little movie. :)
next post here ... well, i'm trying my hardest to find someone who can gimme a lift to the church picnic toms! if i can attend, i'll have a long post all about it toms night i'm sure! but if i can't (poor dad's recovering from a small operation and can't go, while mother's looking after him) i'll prolly have a post toms too, coz it's labour day toms! righteo, until then!
cheers,
em. ^^
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