anniversary

Today’s a momentous day! For everyone else, it’s just august the 29th, nothing special. But on this day, twenty-seven years ago, a man named Michael married a woman named Ling, and, three years later, they had a kid – me!
Two years ago was their 25th wedding anniversary, otherwise known as their silver wedding anniversary. I’d organised a small dinner party with the help of one of my carers, who has a degree in event management. She asked me, “have you got a restaurant you can go to?” Yup. The Manor’s just two minutes down the road from us.
‘Can you make a reservation there?” Yup. I just asked Chloe over MSN/Facebook and she did that for me. 
“Can you ask any of the guests to please buy a cake for the celebration?” Sure.
I asked Uncle Slam please to. There, all solved.
I invited the Slams, Aunty A and Uncle Tyrone over e-mail. I told them that the party was a surprise for my parents and not to tell them! Uncle slam answered my invite the next day and kindly said that he and Anna would take care of the cake. Uncle Tyrone never replied me, neither did Aunty Ada. However, I have Aunty A on MSN, and every time she logged on, I’d immediately ask her, “Are you coming?” only, she never answered! (I later learned that she just turns her computer on, which automatically signs her on into MSN Messenger, then she just leaves the computer to go do something else.) Finally, the night before, on the 28th August, I left her a message. “Aunty A, if you can come, just e-mail me. Indescribable@gmail.com. The next morning? Waiting in my inbox is one very short e-mail from Aunty A, consisting of five words: “Emily, I will come. Ada.” XD
Only I was a stupid idiot who spoiled the surprise! >< =On the night, when my carer/life coach/support worker/whatever they’re called now :P arrived, dad was leaving to go do something, and I called out, “Remember to be back home by 6pm, dad!”
“Why?” he asks.
“Because I made the reservation for 6:30!” *sweat drop* yes, I’m an idiot.
But we all had a great night. 
Fast forward two years, and suddenly, it’s almost the parent’s 27th wedding anniversary! Personally, this year I’m just happy to finally be earning a tiny income (thirty bucks each week) and can now afford to buy the parents anniversary presents! Honestly, I was so terribly ashamed of myself when I had to ask mother please to gimme some more cash so I could hit Garbo to buy anniversary presents with a carer for them! ><
Originally, mother told me that dad wanted a pair of crocs, but when I visited the croc shop @ Garbo, each pair was fifty bucks! Now, I’d only bought along fifty bucks extra to buy presents with, and if I’d bought dearest dad the crocs, I wouldn’t have any money left to buy mother a present!
So instead, I stopped at this little shop called ‘Gifts For You’ and asked the saleslady if there were any wooden gifts. See, my dad’s a carpenter; he loves anything related to woodwork.
Dad’s present done; time for mothers! Yup, I bought her a piggybank, to keep with the pig theme that dad and I have kept going for so many years. See, both dad and I call my poor mother ‘PIG mum’. Why? Well, I honestly learnt it off dad, who always called mum PIG mum when I was little, and my dad gave mother that nickname simply because she was born in the Chinese New Year of the Pig. XD
Anyways, gifts all done, I asked the parents where they’d like to go out for dinner. Surprisingly, dad answered that he preferred to stay at home and cook dinner himself. That was cool with me; after all, ‘twas their night, not mine!
After dinner, Uncle Colbert dropped by to see the parents for something. Dad shouted him some cheesecake, and Uncle Colbert offered to take some photos for us. “I’ll just run back home to grab my camera,” he says (the Cheung family live literally one minute away from us by car, “but can I suggest that you change outta your PJs first, em?’
><” I’d forgotten that I was already wearing my pyjamas! O_o XD
Anyways, all changed, uncle Colbert comes back with his camera and takes some happy snaps: all three of us, just the parents, dad and I, mum and I and the cheesecake dad had bought from the cheesecake shop. My dad’s so sweet; he even sliced some strawberries and placed them on the top of the cake in the number 27! (the parents have been married for twenty-seven years, remember.)
So we all enjoyed cheesecake, dad boiled some rice green tea for us and the parents looked at manual wheelchairs on Uncle Colbert’s laptop. Sparkless (my manual wheelchair) is getting very old, see. The parents are thinking of getting me a new one when we go back to Hong Kong next year.
Anyways, I hope that the parents had a very happy 27th wedding anniversary. Many, many more happy years to come!
Next post here … September’s book club or my MRI follow-up, whichever comes first. Until then!
Cheers,
Em. ^^

fasta pasta

My parents call me a ‘flour head’ in canto, meaning, I love eating anything made from flour.
And, last Sunday, I had lunch with CC at the Springwood Fasta Pasta!
I actually don’t remember this, but mother informs me that after I first collapsed with my brain tumour and before I went into hospital for the many operations that I went through, CC and Ben came to visit me at hospital. I asked CC about that, and she said, “Yes, we even brought you a goody bag with all this junk food, coz we were scared that they wouldn’t feed you enough in hospital!” XD
I got my usual favourite, fettucine cabonara with chicken, while CC got some ravioli thing with red sauce. We traded; mine was yummier. XD
I drank a yummy chocolate milkshake; CC had coke. We both also had glasses of water.
I also got lotsa parmesan cheese and a lil salt over my pasta; that’s one advantage to not having your mother with you for lunch. XD
Anyways, we just chatted. CC told me that she went down to NSW to work for awhile, but that she came back up and is now working for Zupps. Sadly, though, they don’t provide you with free cars. XD
She’s also continued with her chinese studies! Wow, her mandarin must be, like, uber awesome now! Me, having only studied six months of that subject before falling ill, can only count from one to ten, say ‘hello’, ‘thank-you’, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘your mother is fat’. XD
She’s also kept in touch with some of our old Chinese classmates, such as Garrett. I admit, I can’t really remember him, other than the fact that he was tall! XD the other guy I remember the most was Ben, the guy who’d come to the hospital to visit me with CC, but he dropped out soon after I had to leave, because his wife was expecting their first child!
Huge thanks to CC who even shouted me some ice-cream after lunch! She had mango, while I went for my favourite cookies and cream. Lol, she actually asked, “How many scoops do you want?”! I was tempted to say, like, “THREE!” but curbed myself and replied, “Just one, thanks.”XD
Anyways, ‘twas really nice catching up with CC; I’ve really missed her! Hopefully, we can catch up somewhere around Christmas again; I’d love to write her an Xmas card.
Anyways, next post here … probably September’s book club; I don’t foresee anything else coming up. Anyways, until then!
Cheers,
Em. ^^

BBQ

My dad may not be an academic, but he’s always been very handy at doing things. And his latest job was to build a deck out on our backyard! (not that we have a ‘back yard’, per se, more like a veranda which extends out to a thin strip of grass. XD)
And after this was achieved, he invited all of SHINE fellowship over to our place for a BBQ!
People started arriving around 5:30pm. My parents actually invited my carer/life coach/support worker/whatever they’re called now :P to stay with us for dinner! Lisa’s chinese, from Szechwan , and she accepted! The parents have been trying to persuade her to attend our newly opened mandarin service, but she’s shown no interest in that so far. Meaning it was great she decided to stay for dinner. 
I sat outside and chatted to several people while more fellowship members arrived and all the guys went to help dad out with the BBQ.
Before we tucked into dinner, thomas prayed for us. He also led a big group thank-you to dad and got everyone to admire the awesome job dad had of making the deck (ok, I admit: I e-mailed thomas and asked could he please congratulate my dad on a job well done, coz he’s honestly spent lotsa hard work doing it! XD)
Anyways, I tucked into lotsa yummy food that night: potato salad, two chicken wings, some yummy fish, one sausage, some sweet corn, bits of steak and some yummy garlic bread.  Someone also kindly poured me one cup of lipton’s lemon iced tea. We had a marker to write our names on our cup to prevent confusion; the girl who wrote my name on mine even drew me a smiley face upon request – complete with eyelashes! XD
After dinner, mother took me once to the bathroom, then I joined everyone sitting in the living room and awaiting for the night’s activities to start.
First, we played a game: everyone was given a sheet with a sentence on it, and we had to put a name down for each criteria, i.e. someone who fitted that statement. I learnt that:
-Heng can speak three or more languages,
-Horace has been to America before,
-Ben has seen a polar bear before,
Winnie has lived in three or more countries before,
Winnie law isn’t afraid of heights (A/N: brave girl, I’m TERRIFIED of heights! ><”)
-Heidi likes chicken feet at yum cha (A/N: ewww. XD)
Sharon’s been to the great wall of china,
Aunty Amy graduated from high school in hong kong,
My mum likes to sing in the shower (A/N: so I’ve heard. XD),
Ka Yee has broken a bone in her body before (A/N: her arm, if I remember correctly),
Michael Leung loves winter more than summer,
Thomas likes frog’s legs,
Dad hasn’t been on Facebook yet that day and
Sam’s been fined before.
There were two I didn’t fill out in time before Thomas yelled “time’s up!” they were ‘someone who has never failed a single assignment’ and ‘someone who likes vegemite’.
After the game, we did a bit of singing, and I sang the harmony for one of the English songs.
That finished, two people shared. Firstly, this girl shared about the prospects of switching jobs, and then Thomas shared.
After that, ‘twas time for dessert! Mother kindly brought me over one foam cup of sweet potato dessert soup, and I was just chatting with someone when someone else yelled, “Oi! Everyone get over here; it’s cake time!”
Turns out that Thomas celebrated his birthday recently (no idea how old he is XD) and someone had brought a cake over to share!
We sang him the happy birthday song again, first in English (I did the hip hips, of course) then in canto. Then someone kindly passed me a small slice and I happily gobbled away.
All too soon, ‘twas time to bid everyone farewell!
Well, I know I really enjoyed myself that night; hope everyone else did too!
Lol, poor Vicky couldn’t come, coz she was studying at uni. Smoky was gonna give her my slice of cake, but I laughed and said, “no, she can have the cream right at the end, coz it’s covered with almond flakes and I’ve got a peanut allergy!” XD
Anyways, next post here … should come as soon as I find some time! See, CC and I went to Fasta Pasta for lunch on Sunday! Righteo, cya then!
Cheers,
Em. ^^

MRI 2011

After my brain injury, I’ve had to have an MRI every six months to check that the stupid brain tumour taking up precious brain space hasn’t suddenly been retarded and hit a growth spurt or something else equally unhelpful.
However, last September, when my MRI thankfully turned up clear, the hospital said, “okay, we’ll graduate you. You don’t need an MRI every six months anymore; once a year’s fine.”
And, two days ago (Friday), I had my MRI done.
At the reception area, first I had to fill out this form, detailing I didn’t have this, or that, etc.
After mother handed that form back to the receptionist for me, someone from the x-ray department came and said they’d need to x-ray my head to locate exactly where the shunt was. See, I’ve got this programmable electronic chip inside my head that controls and sends all the excess brain fluid my brain secretes down to my abdomen. It’s at a certain setting, and every time I go into an MRI machine, the magnetics of the machine throw the chip settings completely outta whack, so I’m not allowed to sit upright again until a doctor comes and resets the pressure settings for my shunt with his little gadgety thing.
The x-ray preceded another wait, until ‘twas finally my turn to go into the MRI tube.
Actually, before that, a nurse attempts to insert a cannula into my arm. Last year, I was mightily stressed, coz it took NINE ouchy needle attempts before the doctor succeeded! >< the problem’s mine, I suppose, coz I’ve got mightily fine veins that are very hard to catch. Last year, two blood ladies both tried two needles and failed. That’s already four needles. Some bloody useless doctor comes and tries THREE times without success! >< finally, he injected my arm with local (which stings like HELL, BTW, before FINALLY getting the damned cannula in! >< this year was slightly less painful: the blood lady tried and failed twice, and then the doctor came and also took two needles before succeeding. Hey, four needles are heaps better than nine; I’m not complaining!
Mother hands me a Westlife CD that I asked her to please bring along for me, then the MRI technician and I head into the room. I hand him my Westlife album then he helps me get into the tube. He takes my AFO off (it contains a lil metal, where the straps are held by) and kindly straps my arms in (coz I explained that stupid ela had a tendency for involuntary movement). Then it’s in I go.
Once the MRI starts, I close both eyes and have a silent chat to god. I told him how very much I hated him for totally destroying my life, but how much I hoped that he would hurry up and turn his wrath onto one of the squillions of people in the world and leave me alone to recover the shattered shards of my life that he’s left me in.
MRI over, the lab technician told me to sit up! O_o luckily, I remembered that I couldn’t, and reminded him. So instead, he and some other guy transferred me to some bed and wheel me back to mother. The smart technician dude even remembered to gimme back my Westlife disc. 
Once back with mother, the x-ray department quickly came and whisked me off for another x-ray, to see if the shunt had moved anywhere. The x-ray technician explained to me that the x-ray department is actually opened 24/7, just in case someone comes in and needs an emergency scan.
Then the long wait for the neurosurgeon began. Huge thanks to mother who’d remembered to bring ipoddy for me to listen to, then when I said that I was hungry, she even opened a packet of hello panda biscuits!  We shared: six for her, seven for me.
Finally, the neurosurgeon turned up with his briefcase and gadgety thing and reset the shunt’s pressure. I was finally free to leave!
The nurse takes out the cannula, mother takes me once more to the bathroom, then, finally, we’re ready to leave.
Dearest dad meets us just as we’re exiting the main building. He kindly fetches mother’s car for her from whichever side-street she parked in this arvo, then mother tootles us home.
We arrive home close to 6pm, actually.
The night before, I’d already written on facebook, asking ppl to please pray for me, and also asking everyone please to just ring our mobiles and not the home phone should they wish to contact us. Coz sorry, but I’m a lil skittish after an MRI, and every time the phone rings, I like jump a foot in the air, terrified that it’s the hospital ringing saying that sth’s gone awfully wrong with my brain.
Actually, Uncle Colbert very kindly informed me today that he decided against ringing us yesterday for whatever reason in light of reading my Facebook request. XD
Anyways, the follow-up date’s sometime in September; fingers crossed I’ll get the all clear!
Next post here … actually, I’ve got two waiting to be typed out! See, yesterday, SHINE fellowship all came for a BBQ at our place, and today, I had lunch with CC at fasta pasta! Well, cya then!
Cheers,
Em. ^^

lunch with my australian godmother8

Well, the last time we met up with my Australian godmother (mrs. Dent) and my Australian grand-godmother (nana) @ Sunni Café awhile back, mrs. Dent had said she’d make sure we had lunch once more with nana before she returned down to Melbourne.
And true to her word, she contacted mother and arranged for lunch @ the Underwood Coffee Club. 
We arrived there slightly before Mrs. Dent and nana, but they arrived just as mother had whisked my glasses off somewhere to clean. Meaning I was peering short-sightedly @ nana and saying sth like, “Lovely to see you, nana; lemme give you a hug after mother returns with my glasses and I can actually see you.” XD
When mother came back with my glasses, we all looked at the menu and ordered. I really have zero idea why mother wouldn’t lemme have one plate of eggs Benedict to myself, but hey, she lemme have a yummy choc thickshake, so no complaints.
Nana even gave me a lil box of Cadbury Roses! Or whatever that little blue box of chocolates is called. There were about three from that selection that contained nuts; greedy mother immediately claimed, “I’ll have them for you.” XD
Even dad popped in for a quick visit! Originally, he’d wanted some of my eggs Benedict, but after I told him forlornly how mother had already only restricted me to just half a plate of eggs Benedict, he left off trying to eat any and ordered himself a slice of carrot cake instead.
Actually, I think he even invited Mrs. Dent and nana over to our place sometime so they can admire his new deck! But if he’s really serious about having them over, he’d better do it soon, coz I’m pretty sure nana’s flying back down to Melbourne at the very start of September!
But ‘twas most definitely awesome to see nana once more before she flies back down to Melbourne. She says she’ll return to Brisbane over the Christmas period; must remember to get her an Xmas present, then!
Next post here should come on Thursday! The Ekka holiday’s tomorrow, but dad’s not letting me attend this year coz apparently, the ekka flu’s horrendous. >< but at night I’m going to Janice’s and Wilfreddy’s place for a BBQ! Cya on Thursday, then!
Cheers,
Em. ^^

bookclub! (august)

Well, in keeping in accordance with sci-fi month held @ the logan libraries, this month’s novel was some science fiction novel called ‘sphere’ by Michael Crichton!
When I arrived @ the library, I took my reserved spot @ the head of the table. I always know that’s where I’m supposed to sit coz Amanda always leaves several science fiction and fantasy novels there for me to peruse! :D
Poor amanda’s been suffering from an infection. >< but she still made me a cuppa, white and two, while jan passed me the bikkie tray and I nabbed my usual ten bikkies.
Lol, perhaps it’s the age difference between me and all the other ladies (they’re all @ least three decades older than me, bar Amanda! XD), but how come they all love the books I find mediocre but all dislike any book that I actually find interesting!?!
What I mean is, that while I actually enjoyed sphere (prolly coz I’m such a huge science fiction and fantasy buff), all the other ladies thought that the book was either (a) too boring, (b) too overdone or (c) both! :P
Actually, the next book we’re doing will probably bore my brains out. XD the other ladies will probably all enjoy it, though. It’s some classic, and to date, the only two classics that I’ve ever enjoyed reading are Black Beauty and White Fang! XD
We also discussed what else we’ve been reading over this month; for me, my reading speed must’ve decreased spastically after my brain injury, coz now it takes me almost the entire month just to read the one book club novel! >< but when I finish that book, I always return to ‘lazarus rising’, john howard’s autobiography that mr. hall gave me as my belated birthday present this year. I’ve just reached the part where he’s just become prime minister, and the Port Arthur massacre’s just happened. That was back in 1996, BTW.
Speaking of disasters, can you believe that this year marks ten years since the September eleven attacks on the twin towers? I can’t believe that it’s been almost ten years since I came downstairs one morning, ready to head off to school, and to find my dad staring @ the television screen, saying, “this isn’t a joke,” while the images of the planes kept replaying, showing how they were smashing into the twin towers. How times flies, gosh, I’m feeling old. XD
Next post here … should arrive toms, coz today, mother and I had lunch with mrs. Dent and nana @ the underwood coffee club today – even dad popped in to say hello! Until then~
Cheers,
Em. ^^