2017 Reflections

Just like that, another year has gone! Time sure flies by when you’re having fun; gosh, time still flies by when you’re NOT having fun! XD

Well, here are my reflections on the year that’s about to end, 2017:

Physically-wise: this year began with almost the lowest possible low I could think of: ten years since the cruel and unfaithful God had so wantonly smote me down with the disabling brain tumour. I see all my able-bodied peers finishing uni, finding careers, getting married and having children, and me? I’m just stuck here, uselessly disabled. >< Still that doesn’t change the fact that I must continue to work my hardest on my mobility as I possibly can, although I’ll confess to thinking: what’s the point of trying? To put so much effort into regaining mobility then to just have the cruel and unfaithful God take it away in the blink of an eye. Sometimes I can’t help but think mother just shut her ears when the neurosurgeon initially told her, “Sorry, your daughter’s never gonna walk again. At the very most, she’ll transfer from her car to the wheelchair, then the wheelchair back to the car.” I mean, in light of that, I actually think it’s quite incredible what I’m currently managing! But this world truly has some incredible people: one day, when mother was walking behind me into our local Woolies to buy some groceries together, she suddenly tapped me on the shoulder. I stopped, turned around and saw that she too had turned around and stopped when some slightly bedraggled old man had tapped her shoulder. The old guy’s holding a bouquet of beautiful flowers, which he proceeds to pass on to me. “For you,” he says solemnly. I pause then hesitantly ask the old man, “Um, sorry sir, but do I know you?” The old fella laughs. “Nope!” He responds cheerfully, “But I saw you coming in with your mother and thought you needed this. Keep up the hard work; you’re doing great!” Aww, that really made my day~

I’ve actually had two close shaves with falling this year: the first was when I was enduring a session with my ‘bad’ physio, who had me bending down to the ground and using my demented left hand to pickup a lil kids’ block. I got to the item successfully, but straightening up I lost my balance and just sat down. I’m not calling that a fall because I literally just sat down and anyways, Vincent the physio had pulled me straight back upright the next second.

My other close shave was when I was leaving Ray’s place after some massage and acupuncture; for some reason one foot caught the heel of the other and I tumbled backwards. Obviously I’m big and fat; there’s no way mother would’ve caught me; in my desperation to not fall I pitched myself forward and rolled up on one knee. Mother of course tore into me a new one over that, but I didn’t fall, so hey.

Work-wise: yup, I’m still unemployed. I’d willingly try my luck with any disability employment agency and like I’ve said, I’ll do anything provided I can do it sitting down and it gets me paid, but mother seems for some reason against it? I think it’s coz she doesn’t like driving me to the appointments, and goodness knows I lost my driver’s license after the cruel and unfaithful God so wantonly smote me down with the disabling brain tumour back in 2007. *sigh*

Sporting-wise: the poor Broncos have now gone eleven years since their last premiership, but at least the mighty Maroons won the State of Origin; hope my smelly Blues friends are prepared for another at least eight years of pain. XD Oh, I’m looking forward to the Commonwealth Games arriving next year at the Gold Coast!

Spiritually-wise: well, God still hasn’t seen fit to heal me yet; I’m curious: can you be a Christian yet hate God? Coz that’s the position I’m finding myself in now. I don’t doubt his sovereignty, just that He loves me. Sure, the Bible says countless times how much god loves us, but surely He remembers creating the person who concocted the phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’? And going by His past actions towards me, I can only surmise how much God hates me. As long as He knows I only hate because He hated me first (brings to mind the verse in the Bible that says we love coz God first loved us), well, I hate coz He first hated me. It’s because of Him that I know how to hate, that I am good at hating. *sigh*

Everything else-wise: not much to note here, except that it’s already 10:25pm and I haven’t made my yearly hike upstairs to my old bedroom yet! So will call it a night and looking forward to seeing everyone in 2018!

Cheers,

Em. ^^

Christmas and Boxing Day 2017

Phew, unlike last year, when Christmas and Boxing Day were pretty miserable rotten days for me, this year around, they were much better!

Christmas Day: yay, the day began with another awesome sleep for me the night before: I bid Daddy Bear sweet dreams, fell asleep and didn’t wake until 6am.

Breakfast is also fancier than normal: instead of the plain porridge with one slice of dry (unbuttered) toast torn into it, dad had taken home this lil pastry thing from the Christmas party he and I had attended the night before at church and mother lemme have it for breakfast! Yummo~

Then, as traditional for every Sunday probably even since before I was born, we attended church. Unlike last year, BCAC wasn’t holding a Christmas service; I’d asked two people from SIC (Southside International Church, where we used to be Antioch International Church) and found out they wouldn’t be holding a Christmas service either. However, since I know mother insists that we attend church come Christmas morning, I kept looking around and found that Redeemer Lutheran College was holding one.

So that’s where we found ourselves, bright and early come Christmas morning, coz their service started at 8am! Originally, I’d grabbed a seat for myself at the most left hand side of the room, because post-disabling injury that the cruel and unfaithful God so wantonly smote me down with in 2007 the loss of all my left side side vision is one of the numerous physical disabilities he’s abandoned me with and whenever I’m seated somewhere that others can be more left than me I feel nervous because I simply can’t see them. (Even though it’s highly unlikely that while you’re @ church someone will just leap out @ you from the side and rip your head off. XD) However, somebody had placed it just so that a fan was blowing directly at my head; perhaps I’ve somehow developed a sensitive head post brain injury because I ended up having to scoot further along the aisle until the fan’s winds could no longer reach me. Of course, trust mother to bitch at me sth stupid that I didn’t get up and walk sideways to my new seat but I simply didn’t see the point, because unlike BCAC where we have individual seats, the Redeemer ones are just one long pew that I simply scooched across! Oh, and apparently ‘scooch’ isn’t a word? Dunno! XD

Think the Redeemer church is called sth like Our Hope? They have a really long bulletin; ‘twas pages long! Mother said our church was more environmentally friendly, because our church just gave an online version.

Thankfully, the parents lemme stay seated for the worship songs. I’ll admit I don’t really understand why we’re invited to stand for worship; I mean, will God hear us better from heaven if we’re like 1.5m higher than if we sang while seated? Obviously, we sang only Christian carols but I was expecting that, which is why for the car trip to Redeemer I sang a litany of four secular Christmas carols: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and the first five days of The Twelve Days Of Christmas. I’m presuming I learnt that last song back during primary school, because I have absolutely zero idea how the sixth day and onwards goes! XD

I was really surprised when the speaker was a guy called sth like Mr. Klienschmidt, coz I remember that was the name of the headmaster when I went for a scholarship interview back in the year 2000 for Grade Eight! Wow, I graduated from high school THIRTEEN YEARS ago and he’s STILL there; gosh, he must be part of the furniture! XD

There was communion after the service (of which I sat out coz I haven’t been baptised yet) and that was it. Originally I was like, “I need the bathroom,” but the parents insisted I wait until I got home.

And that was it, basically. We got home, I used the loo, I popped online (‘twas only mid-morning thereabouts). When mother tumbled downstairs from her long morning nap (which had stretched into the afternoon coz ‘twas about 2:30pm), she fed me lunch of last night’s leftovers. So rice, lotsa vegies and a lil meat.

More computer time for me after that. Post disabling brain injury that the cruel and unfaithful God so wantonly smote me down with, mother for some reason only allows me two hours per day to spend online. Luckily, I found something else to occupy my mind with after these most important two hours of my day are up: I found a site where I can watch the first season of the Good Doctor on! I’d seen the previews before the show started but unfortunately the episodes were airing on my small group night, meaning I couldn’t watch them. Can’t remember why I forgot to tape them, but no biggie coz I found an online site that streamed the series! So ‘twas all in all quite a pleasant arvo for me~

Late afternoon/early evening sometime, mother tumbles downstairs from her afternoon nap and boots me off to take a shower.

Dinner’s served after that; just a quiet one between the parents and I. No guests and nothing special for dinner. In fact, it was so ordinary I’ve already forgotten what we had for dinner that night. XD

After dinner, I continue watching episodes of the Good Doctor. I’ve almost finished Season One; just one episode left!

And that’s Christmas 2017! Just a nice quiet one this year~ Before hitting the sack, I wave goodnight to our Christmas tree and all the presents stacked underneath it, telling them I’d open them all toms!

Boxing Day: awesome, I begin this day with another awesome nights’ sleep; even better than Christmas, coz this time, I bid Daddy Bear sweet dreams, fall asleep and don’t wake till 6:20am! When mother comes to hit me with the eye goo I immediately sit up, give her a massive hug and burble happy birthday; Daddy Bear and Juice (the two teddies that currently share my bed with me) throw themselves at mother and do likewise. XD

For Boxing Day, dad took us to hit the sales at the Hyperdome! Yes, I will always have a soft spot for the Hyperdome because it’s the main shopping centre I grew up with; back when my parents and I were still Bogans living in Logan (the most important thing to note is that we evolved and moved out to Brisbane! XD) we probably visited the centre at least once a week. I will freely admit that I was majorly pissed, however, when the parents wouldn’t lemme use Sparkless 2 (my manual wheelchair) to go shopping in; like I’m sure I’ve explained before, if I’m to properly go shopping and browse things, you’ve gotta lemme use the wheelchair so that I can browse! Nowadays, whenever I’m upright and walking, I do so with the intention of walking to the next place where I can sit. Meaning my Boxing Day sales trip had been ruined before it even started; thanks, parents. (NOT. ><)

I was interested when we entered that I didn’t recognise where we were; turns out the Hyperdome had had an upgrade and now boasted a new wing! I was very impressed~

Dad immediately headed for one of his favourite stores, Rivers, while mother said we’d go to Kmart. There, I scored first, when I found this adorable lil pink blanket, rolled up and with a bunny face! Mother said I still had a lil red pocket money left over from the beginning of the year; that’s what I bought! I’m particularly fond of bunnies because I was born in the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit, see.

Dad bought himself a pair of slippers; for lunch we shared Japanese chicken rice (kaarage for me, sweet chilli chicken for mother) and some roast meal dad got from Bucking Bull. They shared a Coke; I just drank water coz I got dropped on my head as a baby (true story!) and don’t like soft drink. XD

And that was our shopping done for the day! At first I was like, “Err mother, did you get anything?’ She was like, “Yeah! When dad was buying us lunch and you were minding our bags I ducked into the pharmacy and bought stuff!” Oh, good; we all bought sth~

Same with Christmas: after getting home, I use the loo once then pop online; mother immediately hits the sack upstairs and dad starts whipping up dinner for mother’s birthday party!

Like Christmas, after I’ve enjoyed my most important two hours of the day online, I immediately resume watching The Good Doctor; when mother awakens from her arvo nap and boots me off for a shower, I comply before returning to continue watching the current episode.

Then, ding dong! The first of our night’s guests arrive; it’s Aunty A! Mother mock-wibbles @ me, “You see, if we’d invited Aunty A over and she knows nobody else’s coming, she’ll ‘punctually be a lil late’ (that’s Aunty A’s trademark saying in Canto XD) but coz she knows there’s other guests coming, she’ll arrive even slightly earlier and dress up for the occasion too!” XD

Aunty Catherine, Uncle Calvin and Joey arrive soon after; I’m immensely relieved that Joey’s come too coz it means I’ll have some company tonight and won’t be bored outta my wits. XD

I invite Joey to drag over a chair and continue watching the current episode of The Good Doctor that I’m on; I ask her would she like me to restart the episode from the beginning so she knows what’s happening? But she says nah, don’t bother.

When dinner’s called, I pause the episode, use the loo once more then join the table for dinner.

Woo hoo, dad’s outdone himself! There’s one really long steamed fish, Chinese mushrooms, vegetables, chicken and prolly other things I’ve forgotten, too! Personally, I’m just saying winner winner chicken dinner because mother even lemme have SECONDS that night; unheard of! XD

Thanks to the Kwoks who brought mother a birthday cake from the cheesecake shop, even though it wasn’t a cheesecake! I mean, it’s good and all that the Cheesecake Shop is branching out and selling other varieties of cake, but shouldn’t there be some stipulation that you can only buy a different cake only after you’ve bought a CHEESECAKE?? XD

After munching a wee tiny slice of mother’s birthday cake, Joey walks over with me back to our Christmas tree. We just sit and chat, until everyone takes their leave around 9:20pm. One more loo trip for me, then I can FINALLY open all my Christmas presents! :D I’m particularly happy with the Nesquik cereal Samuel Enderby bought for me; see, mother?? Somebody DOES read my blog!! XD (Mother always jeers that nobody ever reads my blog coz I’m so bloody repetitive; I’ve explained to her before that I keep a blog for myself, just to note down the day’s events lest I forget. See, one of the many disabilities that the cruel and unfaithful God abandoned me with back in 2007 was short-term memory loss; should I not note down what happened during the day, I’m liable to simply forget. That’s my daily events blog and I’m not after readers; I’m just happy to discover that people do read my special events blog!) My other favourite present’s this medium-sized teddy that comes with a nametag; saves me the trouble of having to come up with a name for him (for some reason, nearly all my teddies are boys XD) myself.

And that’s Christmas and Boxing Day over with for 2017! Just waiting for 2018, now~

Next post here … well, it’s gotta be my reflections for 2017. However, be prepared that they may not arrive till 2018, especially if dearest dad takes mother and I out somewhere to welcome in the new year! Although considering there’s thunderstorms forecast for toms night, perhaps not… Anyways, until then~

Cheers,

Em. ^^

XMas Greetings 2017

Greetings, one and all! Lookee, the end of 2017 is nigh; thanks for tuning into another instalment of my silly Xmas Greetings to you all. XD Has 2017 been a fun year for you? I sure hope so!

Unfortunately for me, just like last year, 2017 began on a depressingly low note. No, I wasn’t moronic enough to catch another bloody COLD in the middle of freaking SUMMER again (that was last year’s business; hopefully never again to be repeated! XD); rather, I was feeling totally despondent because February the 3^rd, 2017, marked ten awful years since the cruel and unfaithful God had so wantonly and totally destroyed my life with the disabling brain tumour. I can’t really describe the despair I felt when I first opened my eyes on that fateful day and realised that while my peers had graduated university, found careers, married and started having kids, here was I, disabled, abandoned by God and totally useless. *sigh*

However, when the next day dawned and I was still around, excitement started stirring up within me, coz that meant I had a good chance of being around for my 30^th birthday! See, I’d spent my 20^th birthday lying half-dead in the ICU, having already undergone the first of several botched surgeries. So I was there, but not actually present, if you get what I’m saying?

I’ll admit to having some unfounded fear that I’d walk out into the open air and suddenly a HIPPO would fall outta the sky, land on my head and knock me unconscious, thus making me miss my 30^th birthday, too! >< However, many people assured me that hippos randomly falling outta the sky and knocking people out were very rare and uncommon events, meaning I should be safe to reach my thirtieth birthday. ‘Should’ being the operative word. XD

Well, if I was going to be around, what I really wanted was a birthday party with a birthday card! See, you can’t really buy birthday cards for people turning twenty-seven, twenty-eight or twenty-nine (unless you buy those blank (i.e. nothing written inside) numbered ones from the Reject Shop, but you can for the decade birthdays!

When I mentioned this to Pastor Grace at church, she not only agreed with me; she even immediately offered to help me organise it! (I probably exploded with excitement right on the spot. XD)

So one Sunday afternoon after service, I had a pizza party down in A7/8! Not only that, we played games! Charades was understandably difficult for me, because I only have one functioning hand to properly gesture with, but the game I really enjoyed was Honey I Love You, Can You Give Me A Smile?! For this game, the ‘it’ person had to approach anyone sitting in the circle and ask them, “Honey I love you; can you give me a smile?” The correct response was “Honey I love you too, but I just can’t smile.” You won if you coaxed a smile from the other person. Some were admittedly useless at this game (sorry, Clara/Aggie XD) however I was a tougher nut to crack!

“Honey I love you, can you give me a smile?”

“Honey I love you too but sorry, I just can’t smile.”

“Honey I love you, can you give me a smile?”

“Nup, don’t feel like it. Next.”

In the end, games master (mistress? XD) Joey decided everyone had to take turns trying to coax a smile from me!

“Honey I love you, can you give me a smile?”

“Honey I love you too but sorry, I just don’t feel like smiling.”

“Honey I love you, can you give me a smile?”

“Nup, don’t feel like it. Next.”

In the end, ‘twas Mel Mel who finally made me smile! She was incredibly smart: when she approached me, in her hand she was holding one of the minions that apparently everyone who knows me even very slightly knows that I am totally besotted with; she asked, “Em, both the minion and I love you; will you please give us a smile?” I probably squealed, “For the minion, yes; <3 the minions!” Then I BEAMED at her. XD

But that wasn’t all! For several years now, I’ve attended a book club at the Logan North library and what I didn’t know was that all the members and the librarian that runs our monthly book club had decided to chuck me a surprise birthday party! See, for some odd reason, dad believes he must get me to every appointment I attend at least ten minutes early; I’ve tried explaining to him countless times, “Dad, if you get me to physio ten minutes early, I’m not going to get ten more minutes of physio; I’m just gonna sit on my butt for ten minutes until my allocated time arrives.” However, he doesn’t seem to understand that, but hey. So when dad got me to the library well before the 6pm commencement time and I looked in through the glass window near the top of the door and saw only an empty table, I thought nothing of it because that’s how things usually are. Only the first thing I see when I push open the closed door is that EVERYONE’S already there; they were just hiding inside the room beyond my limited line of eye vision! The next thing I see is one member, Katie, actually DRESSED as a minion; right after that, the word “SURPRISE!” assaults my ears! Someone then counts down (or up) from one/three, and everyone bursts into a lusty rendition of the Happy Birthday song for me! After I’ve excitedly burbled my thanks to everyone, I’m pointed to my usual seat; once I’ve plonked my bum down, stacks of presents are immediately piled in front of me and I’m told to start unwrapping, while everyone starts filling up plates with party food. There’s cake also; when I’m handed the knife and told to make the first cut, I ask Amanda, “I should be safe to cut this right down to the bottom, right? It’s just us girls in here, yeah?” My cheeky librarian jokes, “You just wait right here and I’ll go fetch Phil (the librarian that alternates with Amanda to chair our monthly book club meetings) inside for you, okay?” (Australians have this custom that for the first cut made into a birthday cake, if the knife touches the base, you haveta kiss the closest person of the opposite sex.)

I mock-frown, before raising the tip of the cake knife I’m holding. “Do you see this nice sharp pointy knife you’ve just handed me to cut the cake with, Amanda? Might you want to rephrase your question, huh?” Amanda very wisely retracts her question. XD

And so began life for me thirty years old! As I’m sure most of you are aware, nowadays basically my life is physio. Meaning I really have no life at all (sorry, all you physios out there. XD) >< If you’ve followed these annual XMas Greetings of mine for several years now, you may recall how, a few years back, an unsuspecting physio teacher accidentally lemme rather cheekily (and deliberately loudly, I might cheerfully add XD) drop an f-bomb right in the middle of the physio gym. Well, this year, something similar happened!

Sonia (the teacher) and I were talking about a past clinical educator that used to work @ the NAB. “Her name’s Steph,” I explained to Sonia. “She’s a short Asian, and several years ago, she was very heavily pregnant and wandering around with a huge belly.”

“Oh, do you mean Steph Fu?” Sonia replied.

“Yeah, probably.” I said. “How’s Fu spelt? F-U-U?”

“No, F-U!” Sonia shot back.

I immediately double over with laughter, before screeching rather loudly to the other teacher present, “Ethan, Sonia just told me to eff off!!”

“Huh, what? No I didn’t!” Sonia replied, confused. “All I said was that Steph’s surname was spelt Eff You…” Her voice hardened. “Oh, Em, you EVIL woman! I honestly wasn’t thinking about that at all when I spelt Steph’s surname out for you!”

Ethan, the other teacher manning the NAB that day, wanders over. “That’s a sackable offence, you know,” he informs me. “Teachers aren’t allowed to swear at patients.”

I laugh, before teasing Sonia, “Oh, I’m so dobbing on you!”

Well, Sonia had the audacity to retort sth like, “Huh, see if I care,” to my shallow threat, and for that cheek, I reported her to not only the head of the NAB clinic, Kat, but to the guy in charge of ALL the physio clinics @ UQ, Mr. Hans! Only afterwards I made sure to add that Sonia was actually a really really awesome clinical educator who even won some kinda Best Teacher Award back in like 2008 and could they please not fire her?

Luckily, both Kat and Mr. Hans both understood I was only being silly and phew, Sonia’s still working @ the NAB to this day. XD

Well, technically, not to this day, because it’s closed for the year! After enduring 100+ sessions of physio lasting way over 100 hours this year, I’m officially on HOLIDAYS! :D Like I told everyone through Facebook, until physio resumes for me come Jan 7^th/8^th, 2018, I am simply going to DENY that the word ‘physio’ even EXISTS in the English language. XD A physio friend did ask me, “Well, if physios don’t exist, what do I do for a living?” My reply? “Nothing. You’re on the Dole.” XD

For the past several years, every August I’ve had to visit the hospital for an MRI, to check that the idiot brain tumour residing inside my otherwise-empty skull (and taking up precious brain space XD) hasn’t done anything stupid like suddenly hit a growth spurt. Before I enter the MRI, a nurse must place a cannula into my arm. That stupid needle has caused me bucket loads of stress, because I have super-wimpy veins that bolt in terror every time anything sharp and pointy comes looking for them! Usually, one nurse will try two needles, both of which will fail. The other nurse on duty will also try two more, both of which again will fail. Then they’ll both give up and find a doctor to cannulate me, which means I endure five ouchy jabs before the process is completed. However, one year, I endured a horrifying NINE jabs before the bloody cannula found its way into my vein, after which I created a new deal: “You get the needle in within three jabs,” I tell the nurse about to stick me, “and I’ll be forever grateful. Take more than three, and you owe me a chocolate bar. Deal or no deal? If you’re not confident you can, please go find someone else!”

This year, after forewarning the nurses that I’m exceedingly hard to cannulate, both nurses only try one needle each before finding a doctor. When he arrives, I tell him solemnly, “Doctor, yours is the last chance. I’ve already taken two failed jabs, so if you can’t get the cannula in this time around, you owe me a chocolate bar. Deal or no deal? If you’re not confident you can, please go find someone who is!”

The doctor laughs and agrees, “Sure. I’ll give it a shot.” And, miraculously, he gets it in! I laugh with relief, telling him, “Doctor, many thanks. Your wallet thanks you too; now you don’t owe me a chocolate bar.”

The doctor laughs too before replying, “Oh, I don’t know… you were really brave; I still think you deserve a chocolate bar.”

More laughter from me, before I happily screech to the nurse on duty that day. “Nurse, did you hear that?? The doctor reckons I was really brave and still deserve a chocolate bar!”

The nurse joins in with our laughter. “I’ll see what I can find you,” she promises me. Sure enough, later on, she returns with a tiny little packet of M ‘n’ Ms for me! I thank her, and then ask, “Where did you find this cute little packet from? I’m pretty sure vending machines don’t sell M ‘n’ Ms in such small sizes?”

The nurse replies, “Correct. However, right now we’re having a farewell morning tea for one of our retiring radiographers; there’s a bowl of these lying on the table and I just grabbed you one.” Well, Mr./Mrs./Ms. Radiographer, we’ve never met each other before, but thanks muchly for the chocolate and hope you’re having a happy retirement! XD

Anyways, 2018’s fast approaching; please lemme wish everyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2018 ahead! Fingers crossed the year ahead will be a productive one for you, filled with lotsa memorable events and also lotsa fun! Hopefully we can stay in touch throughout 2018 (an admittedly easier task nowadays, what with Facebook. XD)

Cheers,

Em. ^^

XMas Wishlist 2017

Yoo hoo, Santa! Haven’t spoken to you for just under one year; how are you doing? When I posed for a photo with you last year, I finally remembered to ask you how you spend the rest of the year, because nobody ever really hears from Santa during the other eleven months of the year and I really laughed when you told me, “Sleeping! It’s extremely exhausting, you know, having to deliver so many presents all around the world in just one night!” XD

Anyways, I hope you had a great rest and are again gearing up for your mammoth present delivery, coz there are quite a few items I’m hoping you’ll bring me for Christmas this year!

(1)               Books – each year, I put out two wish lists. One’s the one I’m writing for you now, Santa, for Christmas and the other one’s for my birthday, which comes around in March. Undoubtedly, at the top of every wish list I write will be BOOKS. Never mind that post disabling brain injury I read so pathetically slowly it takes me almost one month to plough through one measly book, the fact is that I’ll always be an avid reader who’s forever on the search for a new book to stick my nose into! My favourite genres are fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction but hey, I’m willing to give anything bar Mills and Boon a crack. XD Oh, one book I’m after in particular’s that new book by Garth Nix! I loved the His Dark Materials series (in fact, I own the trilogy) and would dearly love to read another book set in that world, please!

(2)               Teddy – another item that always falls into my two yearly wish lists. Yes, all my teddies are named and yes, all are loved. Hopefully the Chan family can welcome at least one new addition into our household this year!

(3)               E-reader – I always add one expensive item I’m hoping to get, and seeing that I finally got a new mobile phone after like five years of asking (meanwhile, both parents have updated TWICE with new phones XD), the newest expensive item I’d like to ask for is an e-reader! I know some people need to actually feel the paper pages to turn to be able to read, but I’ve tried reading from one once and nup, I’ve got no problems with that! I don’t need a fancy waterproof one (when I’m showering, I don’t have time to read! XD) and to be honest, I’ll confess I have absolutely zero idea how much those things cost anyway, but maybe several people can chip in to get me one?

(4)               Nesquik cereal – oh, I usually have one food item in my wish lists. Yes, I’m aware that Nesquik cereal surely wouldn’t be considered a ‘healthy’ cereal, but since I like drinking Nesquik chocolate milk, I’d like to try a box of that cereal, please!

(5)               Minions – apparently, the ENTIRE church family of BCAC know that I have a complete obsession with the adorable, jellybean-shaped minions of Despicable Me! Indeed, one of the highlights of my birthday back in March was when Pastor Grace was taking little Naomi out shopping to buy some things for my birthday bash, when the adorable little girl pointed to some minion apparel and said, “Aunty Em!” Aww~ XD I’ve already received two minion items for Christmas this year but am hoping for more; <3 the minions! :D

(6)               Pet – yet another item that has probably appeared on every wish list I’ve written since poor Silver and Bronze passed away in the Winter of 2008. Yes, I’m unfortunately terribly guilty of involuntary manslaughter (how was I to know that goldfish are so horribly pathetic they need a heater in their fish tank during Winter to keep them warm lest they perish from the cold??) but surely I can be trusted with a live pet again?? Or if not, then I want a pet rock! Luke Mac Court, you did say you’d arrange one for me several years ago, but that event never came to pass, so Liam and Helena, please chase up your son for me! XD

(7)               Watch – err, actually, I dunno what those things are really called … er, wristbands? I mean one of those gadgets that count how many steps you walk each day? *sigh* Sometimes I think the parents forget how much of a struggle it is for me to walk even a single step; because walking comes to them as naturally as breathing and thus they can’t understand why it’s important for me to know how many steps I’ve struggled to plod on any given day. Somehow, they’ve simply forgotten that the doctor originally told them, “Your daughter will NEVER walk again. At the very most, she’ll transfer from the car to her wheelchair and then from her wheelchair back to the car.” ><” Actually, does anyone know where I might find an accurate one? See, the one I’m using now has ADHD; when I walk 100 steps he’ll gimme 500, meaning I haveta divide his total by five to figure out how many steps I’ve actually done over the course of one day! XD Mother recently ordered me a new one over EBay but when it arrived, she tried it on then said, “Hey, this one’s opposite to the one you’re using now, Em; instead of diving by five, I’d haveta multiply by like 1.5! to get an accurate number!” XD

(8)               Gingerbread man – yes, I know I’ve already asked for one food item in this Christmas wish list Santa, but what can I say? I’m a greedy guts and the way to my heart is through my stomach: feed me and I’ll love you forever. XD I’ve seen gingerbread man ads from Coles; could someone please get me one?

Hmm … I’ve already run outta things to ask you for, Santa; guess I’m just not very materialistic! XD Anyhow, I reserve the right to add to this list if further items pop up, but for now, Santa, could you please ask all your Christmas elves (i.e. all my Facebook friends who’ll read this XD) to start getting me Christmas presents??

Next post here … should be my Christmas Greetings for 2017, due out on the 11^th. Anyhow, until then!

Cheers,

Em. ^^