Greetings, one and all! Just like that, it’s the final month of 2023 already – where has the year gone?? Hope this year has been a good one for you and your family!
Since I had
muchly enjoyed studying Ancient History during high school, I’d even chosen it
as one of my majors in the Arts degree I’d begun concurrently studying with L aw
for my first year of uni. However, I found Ancient History at the uni level
extremely boring – I’d attend a lecture and promptly fall asleep! Telling myself
I’d better change to study something else that I wouldn’t fall asleep in, I’d
picked Chinese and in doing so, inadvertently pissed off my high school
Japanese teacher whom I’d kept in touch with after graduating high
school; apparently, I’d once sent him an e-mail saying that I was 99.99%
certain I’d study Japanese at university level? He’d sent that e-mail back to
me, screeching, “Look what you wrote!!” Well, sorry sir: the 0.01% won instead
and I studied Chinese. XD
A close
church friend introduced me to her close high school friend who was also
studying Chinese at university; Madam Hippo (her cousin gave her this very apt
nickname, not me! XD) and I hit it off immediately! Unfortunately, while pathetically
useless me went and suffered a brain injury, she finished her degree – and then
became a published author! We’d met over our shared love of fantasy novels and
Naruto but instead, she went and wrote a bloody ROM COM!! How low can you
sink?? I remember screeching at her. XD Still, I wasn’t gonna miss her book
launch for the world! It was held at some fancy multi-level book store in
Sydney and was actually the first author event held there after COVID-19 had
forced the closure of like everything! My friend had given me a copy of her
book and I’d promised her I’d find all the errors and bag her out for them. XD
In the end, I dug out 2.5 errors. Actually, I thought I found three but she
conceded to only two of them, so we settled on 2.5. XD Mother had warned me on
threat of disembowelment (well not really; I don’t even know how one says ‘disembowelment’
in Canto! XD) not to bring attention to those mistakes and obviously I wouldn’t!
instead, I remain, as always, her most loyal squeeing fangirl. XD
Last year, I
shared the devastation of me marking the 15TH year since the cruel
and unfaithful God had so wantonly destroyed my life with the brain injury but
this year marked a much happier event: 1.5 DECADES since I’d been released from
the insane asylum (my pet nickname for the Brain Injuries Rehab Unit of the
Princess Alexandra hospital)! XD
I thought
such a momentous event deserved a dinner out for celebration, but when I tried
politely asking mother could we please have a celebratory dinner out together
on May the 23rd to celebrate my 15th year of release from
the insane asylum, she’d IMMEDIATELY snapped back, “No way! What’s there to
celebrate about??”
Me: “Um, I’ve
been out of the hospital for 1.5 DECADES; isn’t that enough cause for
celebration? Mother pointed out, “You still walk like crap.” Sheesh, did she
like stick her fingers into her ears when the doctor I’d NEVER even STAND
again, let alone walk?? Sure, I still walk with a disabled gait (and I can’t
help but despair that I will never ambulate normally again ><) but I AM
(however improperly XD) mobile.
So, mother
obviously didn’t see the need for a celebration, but I still felt like one! Hence
why I tried asking my gospel group (i.e. church small group) next were they
free, they said sure and so on that Tuesday night, I met five of them at Garbo’s Eight Street and we all pigged out on a
dinner of Korean fried chicken! Even better, afterwards we all hiked to some
gelato store in the upstairs food court, bought a big tub of gelato and then
went to my GG’s leader’s house where we all munched gelato and played this awesome fun card game called
Organ Attack. Everyone starts with
three/five organs and then you just draw cards with illnesses and try to
murder everyone else. I was the second-last standing but in the end died of
tonsilitis. When I asked my doctor friend wasn’t tonsilitis just a very sore
throat and how could I possibly perish, she explained that should the tonsils
swell and impact on each other, that will block your airways and once you can’t
breathe? You’re dead! >< Great, next time I get a sore throat I’m gonna
be terrified that it’s the end for me.
>< Should that ever happen,
remember me fondly, please? XD
Last year I remember
sharing with everyone how my dearest dad had started taking me to church on Saturday
afternoons to play table tennis together; some precious daddy-daughter time~ Mother
somehow found for me this table tennis club in Windsor (that’s the first time I’d heard that Brisbane has a Windsor; when she
originally told me I was like we’re rich enough
to fly me from Brisbane to Windsor and back every week?? No way! XD) and
the only criteria you must meet before joining is that you must have some sort
of intellectual disability. I’m just the
unlucky (but since Christians aren’t meant to believe in luck I suppose that’s
just another thing that I can hate the cruel and unfaithful God for ><)
sod that has both an intellectual AND physical disability. *sigh* But the
once-weekly sessions are fun and there are even three/four competitions during
the year! My dearest dad drove me down to
the Gold Coast to compete in one competition although unfortunately he
wasn’t available to drive me up to the Sunshine Coast for another competition
because he’d just returned from an overseas trip to Hong Kong that morning and
was obviously too tired to drive me up there on such short notice.
But speaking
of overseas trips, can you believe it: this year marks TWO DECADES since I went
on the high school trip to Japan on exchange for two weeks, and it remains the
BEST EXPERIENCE of my life to date! I’ll never forget how during our first
night in Japan we girls (there were five of us and two boys) were AGHAST to
discover that the youth hostels there had COMMUNAL BATHROOMS! We ORDERED our
poor Japanese teacher to STAND OUTSIDE THAT DOOR and NOT LET ANYBODY ELSE IN,
got it?? XD
But
Christmas arrives next next Monday! Please allow me to wish everyone a very
Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year; hope you’ve all been good
boys and girls so that Santa will bring you all lotsa Christmas presents! Personally,
I have a bone to pick with Santa: I’ve tried my hardest to be good year after
year and year after year he brought me fewer and fewer presents until this
year, all I’ve received so far is one -*one*! - measly *unwrapped* present
under the Christmas tree! Perhaps you suddenly feel the urge to be Santa’s elf
and bring me more presents to put under the tree? Don’t delay! XD
But seriously:
all the best for you and your loved ones in 2024! May whatever you’re currently
working with continue to go well and may whatever new endeavour you take up
prosper~ I’m constantly thankful that we live in an age of technology where it’s
much easier to stay in touch with everyone not just through snail mail and hope
I’ll remain in contact with you throughout next year as well~
All the best
for 2024!
Cheers,
Em. ^^
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