Valentine’s Day was exactly one month ago! Me, doomed to be
single for life (because mother has often jeered enough to me that nobody’s
gonna ever want someone as disabled as me), usually never place much emphasis
on it and treat it as any other regular day.
However, shortly before Valentine’s Day this year, I
received a Facebook/Whatsapp message from Peter Pie (I think I just call him
that to show I know alliteration; when he’s being mean I call him Peter Poo.
XD), inviting me to join him and others for a Valentine’s Day road trip!
Destination: to the Eumundi markets and then the beach! After asking for and
receiving permission from mother to join in, I was all set for the day!
Peter Pie had said he and Lisa would come and pick me up at
9:15am, so mother had rung Kyabra (the agency that provides me with the
Saturday morning carer who gets me outta bed at 10am) and asked that the carer
come at 8am instead. Usually, the Saturday carer stays for three hours, from 10am till 1pm
but obviously, if I was leaving at 9:15am ,
the carer would haveta come earlier!
My usual Saturday morning carer, Besta, a dark-skinned woman
from Sudan
who’s only one year older than me but already has a little girl prep age was
away doing CPR training; instead, Kyabra sent this Vietnamese girl to get me up
outta bed at 8am . I say girl because
the moment I saw her, I could tell that she was heaps younger than me. She
asked me how old I was, and after I told her, “I’m turning twenty-eight in March,”
she was like, “No way. Shut up. Shut up!” Lol, I’ve heard that phrase being
used in conversations before, but never at me! XD Turns out she was only
twenty-one.
Anyways, teeth brushed, I’m sitting out in the dining room
and munching breakfast when suddenly ding dong! Peter Pie and Lisa arrive early!
I quickly use the bathroom once then sit outside on the bench and wait for dad
to transfer Sparkless 2 (my manual wheelchair’s name XD) into Peter Pie’s boot.
Only, instead of letting us go, dad keeps yakking to Peter Pie
and Lisa! Fine by me; I just visit the bathroom again. XD
Finally, we’re off! First destination, Dr. Lee’s place;
we’re all meeting there before we begin the road trip.
Somebody walks behind me up to Dr. Lee’s living room (like Ray’s
place; the stair’s handrail is on my left) and I crash on the sofa. When Dr. Lee
shows up, I bid him good morning then show him my sore finger; which I somehow
managed to chip the nail off too short. Dr. Lee was totally unsympathetic, just
casually saying, “Oh, just chop it off”, to which I screeched that he was a
terrible doctor and that I never wanted to see him. However, only after saying
that, did I realise what a moot point it was: Dr. Lee has already made it clear
that he doesn’t wish to treat anyone from BCAC because of personal
relationship. XD
We are all required to partake in this game! Everybody’s
handed a little red piece of paper in the shape of a heart; inside, we are
required to write three things: (1) the order of preference for children (eg.
GBG), (2) a romantic holiday destination and (3) one bad habit. The love hearts
are then folded up, mixed together and every person’s given one. Our aim today
will be to find who our ‘valentine’ is, i.e. who wrote those three answers on
the heart-shaped paper.
Then we’re off! I visit the loo once more then get into
peter Pie’s car, as does Lisa. Peter Pie starts driving us to the Eumundi
markets! It’s a fairly long drive, so to pass the time, we play Twenty Questions,
the answer being a member of church.
Upon arrival, Peter Pie drops Lisa and I off, gets out Sparkless
2 for me then goes to park the car somewhere.
After everyone meets up, we start wandering the markets! Alex
Kwan pushes Sparkless 2 with me; around the beginning of the markets, I see a
t-shirt emblazoned with three cranky looking emus and the slogan “we are not
e-mused”. I laugh, and decide that if I can’t find anything else to buy at the
markets, I’ll come back for that tee.
And so our wanderings begin! There’s seriously heaps of
things on sale at the markets! Peter Pie goes and buys some kind of sausage on
sale and shares it with Lisa and I, although I didn’t like the mustard-y thing
that it came with, some kinda sour lettuce called something like sourkraust?
More strolling around the markets, until somebody decides he’s
hungry so it must be lunchtime. We bag a big long table and people scatter to
find food. Someone comes back with a kebab, and I consider getting myself one
for lunch too; ever since Naz left Sultan’s Kebab at Sunnybank
Plaza
Lisa and I go together in search of food. I pass by a stall
selling pulled pork crepes, and am instantly interested: firstly, I’m a
definite ‘flour head’ (say that in canto) so I love crepes and secondly, what’s
‘pulled’ pork?
When I ask the lady manning the counter, she laughs and
gestures to the guy beside her, who is pouring crepe mix onto the round frying
surface. He also laughs, reaches into a large container, grabs some shredded
pork, and pulls the pork apart. Ahh, so that’s what ‘pulled’ pork means!
It looks delicious, so I order one. Bringing it back to
where everyone else is also returning with food, I ask Dr. Lee what we are
doing for drinks, and he gestures to the building we are sitting adjacent to. “Gimme
your wallet and I’ll go get you a juice.” He says, before asking what kinda
juice I’d like, and I reply, “Pineapple juice, please. But if there’s none,
orange juice will be just fine.” After coming back once and asking me would I
like my juice with ice (yes please), he returns with a delicious pineapple
juice for me.
Someone says grace, and we tuck in! nomnomnom~
Not sure why I eat so slowly? But I seem to have a
recollection of when I was first released from the insane asylum (more commonly
known to everyone else as the Brain Injuries Rehab Ward of the Princess
Alexandra hospital XD) I’d try to wolf down my food too fast and choke,
prompting mother to tell me, “Em, slow down. I promise, nobody’s gonna steal
your food.” Meaning I returned to my rightful place as BCAC’s second-slowest
eater. Fiona So still holds the award for being the slowest. XD
After lunch was over, someone suggested we all get a move on
to the beach, prompting me to say, “In that case, will somebody please take me
back to the stall to buy the emu-sing shirt? I haven’t bought anything yet!”
I think we all go to the stall where I buy the tee! The
selling lady opens the tee then measures it against my front, before charging
me thirty-nine dollars for it. Cripes, thirty-nine?? That’s excessively
expensive! I don’t think I’ve even got thirty-nine dollars left in my wallet,
not after lunch!
However, I think Dr. Lee covers the several extra dollars
for me (so I’d better take back my earlier claim that he was a dreadful doctor
XD), and we all leave the markets. This time, Lisa goes and sits in the other
car, but Alex comes to join Peter Pie and I.
Our other stop for the day is some kinda beach/mountain
lookout place with odd names. Someone again unloads Sparkless2 for me, and
everyone goes for a wander along the trail. At some point, I hop out of Sparkless2,
brace against the railing, and everyone else comes around for several happy
snaps. Closer to the end of the day, Peter Pie decides I’d better hop outta
sparkless2 and walk awhile, so I obligingly get up and plod 50/100m before
being allowed to sit again.
When it’s time to call it a day, Peter Pie realises he’s
running very low on fuel! He rings the other car to tell them to buy our pizza
for dinner first and head back to Dr. Lee’s place, because we need to refuel.
While he’s ringing, Alex Googles where the nearest petrol station is, and we
head there to refuel.
When we arrive back at Dr. Lee’s place, I use the bathroom
once then crash on the sofa/dining table and await dinner!
Three yummy pizzas are ordered, and two garlic breads. We
all share, and while some drink wine, I enjoy one cup of orange-coloured
cordial and later, Dr. Lee makes both me and somebody an orange frappe with
ice!
After dinner, I crash back onto Dr. Lee’s sofa. Everyone is
required to read out what their ‘valentine’ wrote as their answers to the three
questions and guess who the other person is. Lol, just by random chance, Alex
drew mine and I drew his! Well, technically, we didn’t draw them; they were
given to us, but same diff. XD
After we all had fun sharing who our “valentine’s” were,
‘twas time to call it a night; ‘twas like 10pm !
Peter Pie dropped me off back home, where I had another surprise waiting for
me: dearest dad had taken mother out shopping somewhere, and she’d bought me a
Valentine’s Day present: several balloons all tied together to make a beautiful
flower! :o) Originally, I thought only lovers could give their other half
Valentine’s Day presents, but mother scoffed at me, “Of course not; you can
give anyone you love Valentine’s day presents!” Well, I immediately asked her
please to take a photo of it for me; originally, she was like, “nah, it’s late;
sleep now and I’ll take a photo for you tomorrow,” but I asked her, “could you
please take it tonight? Coz I’m afraid it’ll shrink overnight and any photo
tomorrow might look really ugly! She did, and guess what? Five days later, that
flower still hasn’t started wilting! Of course, one month later, it has moved
into heaven/wherever balloons head after their mortal life is up. XD
Well, so ends the adventure I had for valentine’s day, 2015.
See, even singles like me can have a great day out!
Next post here … well, it’s my BIRTHDAY next Friday, which
also happens to coincide with the first FX of 2015! Maybe I’ll scribble
something about how I spent my birthday this year; anyways, until then~
Cheers,
Em. ^^
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