Swiney Stuff

The month of June was full of surprises. Of course, there was the honeymoon. Suffice to say, it was great, not because of the place (I would have preferred Europe any time) but because it was wonderful travelling with him and being silly together.

I went back to the office on the 24th, and was told at 10am in the morning that I will need to fly to Manila in 2 hours time. For contract negotiations, apparently. For a contract I left alone for one week. Like a chicken losing its head, I rushed home, packed and went to the airport in 1 hour.

It was overwhelming because:

1) I did not know anything about Manila except that it is in the Philippines;
2) I did not have any foreign currency (my mind went - I think it's Pesos... gosh, how much is that in RM?);
3) I hated unplanned packing;
4) I wanted to be home after a week of traveling together;
5) I had no idea how much the contract has progressed in my absense;
6) I was told I am to convince the Iron Lady to accept our terms and conditions and that she may just eat me up.

I didn't have any choice, unfortunately. Except to pray profusely.

Manila is nice, because I don't have anything more to say about it. All I saw were offices and hotels. I went shopping for an hour, but that was it. The Edsa Shangri-la was nice, but I hardly had time to enjoy it.

Anyway, the point is, when I got back, I developed a cough, followed by mild fever a few days after that. Of course, that means I went to the Sungai Buloh Hospital to check it out. I will admit, the hospital looked impressive as we exited the highway. Unfortunately, that's the only good thing I have to say about it.

You would think that since Influenza is the pandemic at the moment, hospitals such as this would have clear signages and special units to direct people who may be having the it or who want to check it out. The only signages we saw were those asking you to wash your hands, wear a mask, telling you what the signs are, and which country is affected. It must have taken us 10 minutes (and I must have asked about 3 people) to find the place where they will check us for Influenza.

When we finally found it, it was a sad area on the tar road in front of the emergency entrance. They slapped a mask on my face and told me to wait. This was 7.15pm.

I must have waited for almost 40 minutes when some guy, fully masked, gloved and covered in plastic came walking out with a pen and pieces of paper. He asked me for some details of my traveling and then, I was to sign that piece of paper. After that, he took my temperature and told me to wait yet again.

Nothing happened for the next one hour or more, until I went up to one of them and asked them what I was waiting for. It was only then that they said to me, to go to the back of the building (some dingy room) where they would swab my throat for a sample. They told me that they would call me with test results in 2 days.

After being swabbed and interviewed, I was asked to wait for medication. I thought this was finally the end (it must have been 9.15pm by then). However, I was wrong.

We couldn't stand the waiting any longer, so at approximately 9.45pm, he went to the counter to threaten to leave if nothing is being done. Miraculously, the precious medication we were waiting for was given to us within 5 minutes. I left the hospital at 9.55pm. I daresay by the time I left, I already felt better and my fever may have decided to healed itself.

The very fact that this has to happen to anyone is in itself appalling. If I did have Influenza, I would have died, if not because the disease, because of the waiting. And, if I did not have Influenza, I may have contracted it after being left in that stupid place for so long. Or, I would have contracted something else from the patients going in and out of the emergency room.

So ask me now, is my country taking measures to curb the pandemic, or at least, trying its best to contain it? I would be too ashamed to answer.

By the way, I never got the call to tell me what the test results were. It has now been more than 7 days. If I had it, I would have passed it on to every single person I've spoken to, laughed with, in the same room with in the last 7 days. Thank God I am blessed with brains to know that since my fever and cough are now gone, I would be negative forInfluenza. I didn't need to wait 3 hours in a hospital for a stupid test (which may not have been done in the first place) to tell me that.

Demotivated

I'm at work but I do not care. Some not so motivating news came my way recently, and I do not understand how it all weights out. I understand where he was coming from, of course, and I'm not bitter or angry about it; maybe a tad bit disappointed. There was a lot of assurance in his voice and his words, although sometimes, I wonder if it is enough to keep our morale on the high.

I have noticed that I have become increasingly negative. I do not think I am a very negative person at all (or at least I'd like to believe that) but I have unconsciously been giving out negative vibes to people around me. That can't be good, for me nor for them.

Target for next week - think of what is good. After all, if I want to be obsessed with the Kingdom, I need to fill my mind with the right stuff.

30 minutes more to the weekend.....

It's This Weekend!! Gasp!!

Somehow, I'm more jittery than I was last year. Eventhough I'm not acting nor singing this time. Maybe it's the lack of time we had, but I'm so proud of the team for getting as far as they are now, even with the lack of time.

I love it. Even if you do eventually watch it and think it needs more work, I will still love it, because of how we managed to not kill each other despite all the stress we are in right now.

Love it.

Poor ol' student

I received a Google Map street photo of a friend's house in Luton this morning. I took one look and immediately wished I was in back in Nottingham, where long evening walks, wide selections of things and courteousness are possible.

Of course, to explore the new Google Map feature was next. What I found made me miss Nottingham dearly.

While I was at University, I did not own a digital camera nor a blog, and looking through these street pictures was like re-living it all.

This is a picture of the back of my flat, Albion House. The street is of course, Albion Street, in Beeston.

Almost right across Albion Street, is my all favourite hang out and stress relief place, Sainsbury. You can't really see it from the picture because it's blocked by the trees. My flatmates and I used to go to Sainsbury just before it closes to get cheap deals off pastries and cakes.

To go to University everyday, I opted for a 20mins walk to the West Gate rather than to take a bus which would cost one quid. I would pass the High Road which would look like this (as I remember it, vaguely).

The West Gate, the nearest entrance from Beeston to the University. Also the nearest entrance to the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences.

The Trent Building, where most of the activities are held by the Law Society, the Malaysian society and the Christian Fellowship. Also where Solid Rock met.

On weekends and whenever I felt like it, I would go to town. Nottingham is well known for its shopping escapades and late night shopping. It's main shopping centres are Broadmarsh and Victoria Centre (Google Maps only had the street photo of Victoria Centre's parking lot). Broadmarsh is the building on the right in the first picture below, and the entrance is negligible, but once you enter, it's like a whole different world.

For less expensive shopping and to cure hunger, there's also the Beeston Market which is approximately 3 minutes walk from my flat. I remember discovering that the market sells 3 branches of garlic for 50p (and yes, that's the cheapest - believe me I've done research.)

At the end of my lease at Albion House, I stayed on in this house, 44 Beeston Road, where many, many memories are made. It's the house 2nd from the right in this picture with the blue door. I promise, I was close to tears when I found this.

I now pronounce you...

Now that the vows have been said, the decorations have been put away, the place has been made cozy, it is the natural progression of things that the stories about married life start. This is when everyone asks the golden question "So how is married life?" It's an easy question to ask, but certainly not an easy one to answer.

I'd like to say, it's really not bad. Really. To those people who say that you'll get annoyed a lot, you'll fight a lot, or you'll get irritated because he squeezes the toothpaste the wrong way or leaves the toilet seat down, shame on you. That's hardly even a quarter of what married life is about.

There are a million things to say, but today, I'd like to talk about just one.

I've been observing people to see why their marriages work wonderfully and why they are happy or why they don't seem to be happy. It's amazing observing how people treat each other, how they show love, and how they respect each other.

I observed something very obvious about the couples I'd like to emulate - the women do not dictate/nag their men in public. All you see the wife do is respect him, in what he does, what he says, whether or not he looks stupid, whether or not he's offensive. She doesn't diss him in public, nor argue with him in front of others.

So does this mean wives have to agree with whatever their husband says?

Not so (thankfully!!). I learnt from him that, a good marriage is based on having the same foundation, or the word he uses, the same platform. Our platform is simply, that we are not married to each other to condemn, but to build up. So whatever we do, however we feel, it's based on this. So I've learnt that whilst the husband may be wrong or silly or offensive, telling him off in public is not going to build him up. Not only that, telling him off in public mirrors disrespect. Its like how you won't want your best friend to tell you that you have on an ugly dress in front of the guy she likes, for example.

However, telling him in love and in private does build him up. Make sense?

It makes a world of sense to me. But now comes the hard part - doing it. It's a long and difficult learning process (how can one resist telling one's spouse that he/she is really making fool of himself, so please stop it right now?)

However, I am very fortunate because God gave me this wonderful, patient and tolerable man. He understands that it's not easy for prideful lil' me. He stands by me as I struggle to hold my tongue and focus on the platform.

He's not perfect either, but he's mine.

I Appreciate You, too!

Your lil' appreciation messages throughout the day overwhelmed me into tears. My facebook page was filled with them - unfortunately, I was not able to log on till way after midnight.

To all of you who had texted me throughout the day - thank you!! This is me being too lazy to reply to all of you, but I appreciate you, I really do!!

Thank you, people. Thank you for filling me up with all your love and thoughts. I love you too.

Self Discovery

I have learnt 2 things about myself recently:

1. I get annoyed when people speak to me as if I didn't understand it the first time. I am not a child, therefore, I am able to tell you if I don't understand.
2. I also get annoyed when I've taken pains to make things clear and people still do not get it. I get even more annoyed when I have to repeat myself after all the effort I've put in the first time.

Why am I blogging about this? So that you will forgive me should I spread some of my annoyance unto you. [This usually happens at work anyway, so if you are not my colleague or a client, it probably doesn't apply to you.]

On a separate note, the engraving on my wedding ring reads "....131220 0 8". It's spaced wrongly and the last zero is slightly lower than the rest of the numbers.

I was annoyed with that initially (I paid you for this??!!??) but now, I think it's perfect because it reflects that it is the only ring that will ever exist like that, and that I'm not perfect, but he chose me anyway, imperfections, annoyance and all.

Hee.