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. ^^