Greetings, everyone! Just like that, this new decade’s not
new anymore: wow, we’re already halfway through it! Hope you and your family
have had an awesome 2025?
Last year, I was the absolute idiot who’d already totally
stacked it on the second day on of the year but this year, I lasted until mid-late
January before falling flat on my butt for the first time in 2025; may I call
that an improvement? XD
While it’s the left side of my body that’s been affected post brain injury and stroke (left leg must wear an orthotic if
I am to walk without pain but I still ambulate with a disabled gait, while my
left arm doesn’t do much functionally so thank goodness I was originally born right-handed) it’s my
right EYEBROW that doesn’t move (so I look like a Vulcan when only my left
eyebrow goes up and down XD) and my right EYELID that doesn’t fully shut hence
why I wear eye gel during the day and
eye ointment during the night to keep it lubricated. Usually, mother squirts the eye goo into my
eyes after I obediently hit the sack at the piss-early time of 9:45pm but this
year, more often than not, mother will come hit me with the eye goo around 9pm
and go to bed first herself, ordering that I do the same at 9:45pm. That’s fine;
I’m perfectly capable of going to pour myself half a mouthful of milk before
bed, brush teeth and sit over the loo myself without any assistance whatsoever from
mother before hitting the sack.
That night, after I’d entered my bedroom and turned the light
switch off, I’d grabbed the back of my commode chair and then the bedside rail some Home Modifications guy had
installed for me on the wall when I’d initially been discharged from the insane
asylum (more commonly known to everyone else as the Brain Injuries
Rehabilitation Unit of the Princess
Alexandra hospital XD) before pivoting
around to my bed and sitting down. Only I didn’t sit far back enough - in the
next instant, plop! My bum slid off the bed and I was on the floor! Luckily,
fat butt good cushioning XD; I didn’t hurt myself but what the heck was I gonna
do now, screech upstairs help mum I’ve slid off the bed please come pull me
back up? Obviously not!
I scrambled around, pushed myself back into bed and thought I’d
done well enough to not let mother find out, but whoops in my haste to climb
back into bed I’d banged bruises all up and down my legs and obviously mother
saw those! Usually, I sprout out with random bruises since I’m a messy sleeper
who apparently flails against the bedroom wall and bash myself bruises; one
year a carer saw all the bruises down my legs and asked me, “What, did you have
a fight with your mum or something?” I’d laughed and replied, “If I did, then
obviously I lost: check out those bruises!” We’d both cracked up, before I’d
assured her that they were accidentally self-inflicted and nothing to worry
about. XD
You know how Brisbane has tourist attractions like Dream World,
Movie World and Sea World? Well, in Singapore this year they opened a MINIONS
world and after I heard about it, I told everyone, “If you’re going to
Singapore, please stick me in your luggage and take me too – I’ve GOTTA go to
Minion Land!!” I believe everyone who knows me even slightly will be aware of
my complete obsession with those yellow, jellybean-shaped, stupidly hopeless henchmen
from the Despicable Me series? XD
One night when I was already in bed waiting to fall asleep
with my teddy, I heard my dearest dad having a Facetime conversation with his older
brother saying “Yeah, we’re taking a short trip to Singapore soon” and hope
ignited!
Several days later, when I was seeing my long-lost cousin
(my surname’s ChAn and his surname’s ChEn; surely bazillions of years ago our
cousins were siblings? XD) for some acupuncture and massage, after mother
excuses herself into the bathroom Ray says to me, “So, I hear you’re going for
a trip to Singapore soon?”
“MINIONLAND!!” I squeal back excitedly. Back in the car
after treatment, mother confirms this for me, but then immediately emphasises to
me that this will be the final overseas holiday she ever takes me on, since
it’s too much bother for her to help me out with personal care. Shame: I’ve tried researching supported
holidays before but don’t have enough funding for one and I’m unsure how you’d
go about applying for more?
But visiting Singapore for the first time in two DECADES (we
first visited in 2005 just after I’d graduated high school) was AMAZEBALLS and
visiting MINION LAND was the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!! Mother lemme buy a minion
plushie with fairy floss hair as my souvenir from there; when I brought
FairFloMin to a Toastmasters meeting to show him off to all the other members,
Neil (our current club president) was cheeky and pretended to give poor
FairFloMin a HUGE LICK! “Eww!” I
screeched; the next day, my carer was a champion who wiped him down for me with
an antibacterial wet wipe and thus saved him from the contamination of Neil
germs. XD
Remaining on the topic of Minions, this year I hit the Ekka
for an afternoon and night and returned home with a GIANT Minion - he’s 87cm
big!
I saw the huge Minion along the prize rack of some game and asked
the game attendant, “May I win him? What do I need to do after giving you my
cash?”
The guy demonstrated. There was a bottle lying on its side. With
a ring attached to a piece of string on a stick, you had to hook the ring
around the neck of the bottle, draw the bottle upright and release the ring without
the bottle tipping over. The game attendant demonstrated once and made it look
easy! I paid for three goes. My first attempt was dismal failure: the bottle stood straight up, but once I
released the ring from the bottle neck, it went straight back down. Hm, no
good! For my second attempt, the bottle wavered upright for three seconds
before falling back down flat. Hey, I’m sitting right now and can concentrate. I
told myself. I’ve got this; if I can
make the bottle stay upright for my last go for five seconds, I’ll win! Very
slowly, I draw the bottle upright and release the ring. The bottle stays
upright for one second. For two seconds. For three seconds! For four seconds! For
four and a half seconds! But then, on the fifth and final second, it gives up
the ghost and falls back down fat. Defeat. >< “Oh no,” I wailed. “I failed!”
But the game attendant catches my gaze. “Hey, you know what?” He says. “I can see how much you love the Minions and I can also see how
hard you tried, so I’m going to give it you
anyway!”
“You’re the BEST!!” I
screech. For the rest of the
day, my poor carer had to push the wheelchair for me, since once that enormous
Minion was on my lap, I couldn’t reach
around him to the wheel When we rolled me past his game stall later
again that day, the guy was still @ work
and when I yelled “Hey!” at him, he looked up,
saw me holding the massive Minion on my wheelchair, flashed me the
thumbs up and called back “Cool Minion!” my only response? “THANK-YOU SO MUCH!!” :D
This year, Queensland NEEDED to win the Origin, since our
poor captain’s dad had suddenly passed away the previous Sunday but after
immediately leaving camp to be with his family, he’d returned on Wednesday to
lead the team out. Watching the game live from the couch I’d been terrified
that the Blues would somehow snatch the victory from us brave Maroons but our
lads were heroic and held on for the win; fingers crossed that’s a positive omen
that Queensland have started another (at least!) eight-year winning streak!
And GLORY: for the first time since 2006 (nearly two DECADES
ago!) the Brisbane Broncos won the NRL premiership!! The last time Brisbane
hefted the premiership trophy was the year before the cruel and unfaithful God
totally and wantonly destroyed my life with the brain injury and I’d been so
GRUMPY with idiot Ben Hunt in 2012 when he’d dropped the ball from the restart
and thus cost us the grand final (even though a church uncle very knowledgeable
about the game had explained to me that the fault actually lay with the player
in the previous play) but Hunty hung
around and secured the final redemption by winning the 2025 NRL premiership; I
hope he and Adam Reynolds retire immediately and will be remembered as
champions!
The day after the NRL grand final was a public holiday and
originally my dearest dad had planned to take mother and I out to the city,
hence why I was allowed to use Sparkless3 (my manual wheelchair). After boarding
the bus, a girl sitting in the priority seating up the front (since her leg was
casted up to the thigh) immediately waved me over to sit beside her. I was wearing
my Broncos jersey to celebrate Brisbane’s mighty premiership win and since she
was wearing a Broncos jersey too, complimented her on how awesome her jersey
was. “Likewise!” She cheerfully replied. “Are you heading out to their fan day like us, too?”
What fan day?? I’d not heard anything about it! Her dad immediately whipped out his
smartphone and showed the event to my dearest dad, my dad quickly located the
same event on his mobile and voila, immediate plan change!
As we disembarked the bus the heavily casted girl and I bid each
other bye and maybe cya at Suncorp Stadium and then we made our way inside!
Turns out one whole side of the stadium had been open to
fans and not only was the PREMIER David Crisafulli present to give a little
speech, afterwards, the grounds were opened to everyone! When people started streaming down into the field,
I told the parents that I wanted to head out too; sure enough, a short while
late some usher approached us and asked would you like to go down?!
Down in the field we all took happy snaps together and I
wanted to wheel over to where a stage
had been setup for the players to come out and get a Bronco to autograph my
jersey for me, but the parents said don’t;
it’s too far away and we can just watch them on the big screens since
we’ve gotta leave soon and open the door for the carer who’s coming at 4pm.
Fair enough, I watched the big screens
and cheered loudly for the mighty Broncos; fingers crossed we’ll successfully
defend the title again next year and hopefully
I’ll not haveta wait another nineteen years before we’re the premiership
champions again because cripes, I’ll be
nearing SIXTY by then! (Fifty-seven. XD)
One more story for 2025: for the first time since 2012, I
wheeled the Bridge To Brisbane! Mr. Hall, my teacher (for year ten high school
maths) who first invited me to do it with him and a bunch of other maths teachers
thirteen years ago has since moved up into heaven but last year at my
twenty-year high school reunion I bumped into one of the teachers I’d done it
with and Mr. Ilsley had said let’s do it together again next year! Back in 2012 we’d done the 10km course but
this year we only did the 5km course since Mr.
Ilsley’s in his seventies now. While travelling along the course, I saw some
female doing the course using a rollator! She’d walk some and when she needed a
rest, she’d put her legs up onto the rollator’s frame and the person
accompanying her simply rolled her along! Back doing another session of blasted
physio the next week (at time of typing this letter I’ve still got one more session
to endure before finally getting a very short break over Christmas and New Year)
I’d asked my physio, do you think I’d be capable of tackling the 5km using a
rollator too? Like, walk some and then rest some? She’d replied I’m unsure can your
affected hand handle a rollator but you should stick with what you know.
Currently you are walking with a hiking pole; how about you walk 1km, sit 1km
and repeat that for the 5km? She then immediately offered to accompany me to do
it, saying I’d need to find someone to help me push my manual wheelchair along
while I was walking. I immediately started enquiring around and a Toastmasters
friend said she was willing to help push my wheelchair for me while I walked!
Mother warns I’ll need training to be able to walk such a distance and I’ve said
that I’m willing: once 2026 arrives I’m gonna start preparing for the event come
September!
Huge apologies:
usually I send out these greetings come the 11th, giving you
one fortnight’s time to read and reply but yesterday I was busy attending
Christmas parties; they’re one of my most favourite things about Christmas!
Still, please allow me to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New
Year; please remember to contact me for a meal catchup/whatever so we can
celebrate 2025 together since I’ve got odd parents who usually don’t lemme
contact ANYONE and ask are they free for a get-together? Hope you’ve achieved
everything in 2025 that you set out to and may your 2026 be overflowing with many
awesome things! Looking forward to staying in touch with everyone next year~
