HDB

The classmates of my secondary school class met up last night. It's been a while since we've been 16, some of us area already working adults who can no longer use classes and exams as excuses.  IC numbers apparently now start with T00... as opposed to our S89... or S95... id numbers (which was a revelation to me), and dinner table discussions are starting to revolve around the topic of...

HDB

The conversation started as everyone curiously interogated the only married person in our class, how did it happen, where are they staying, how did he propose yadda yadda yadda. And of course HDB comes into the topic once you're talking about marriage in Singapore. And suddenly, it surfaced that another 2 other girls have been applying for flats as well. 

After listening to all the talk about government grants, prices, locations, etc etc etc, I went home and said to my mum (being typically singaporean)

'Mummy, Mummy, all my friends all applying for HDB already, I also want leh..'

Where We All Are

 

I've been living the housewife life lately, one which I'm honestly, not too keen to start on just yet! It's only been a week and a bit since my last official summer holidays have started, and I've had many periods of 'headless-chickeness' (whereby I feel utterly aimless and have nothing productive to do) over the past week. And of course there are the times where I go and spy on voyeur on people through blogs and what not. 

Although it's been quick and I'm about to finish my final year of my degree, most of my peers and friends have either already graduated, or are 6 months or so away from graduation. I was just looking at Joan's blog that day and had this realisation that she now fills the shoes of the people we were all once under the mercy of...

TEACHERS

Whereas Fei has gone off to work in the area of couselling, both jobs have something very much in common...

PEOPLE'S LIVES ARE IN THEIR HANDS!!

Gosh, how we've all entered and gone through multiple phases in life, and we're not even halfway through. Neither are these phases (ie. Junior college, uni, work, etc), even comparable to the trials and challenges our parents face in parenthood or marriage. 22 years of my life down... a heap more of years left to go!

(I do feel like such a child when I think about how much more there is in life that I've yet to experience)

Finally

All right so I've been back from Toowoomba for about a week, but felt terribly unmotivated to blog about anything at all! Apologies for that, I'd been getting too used to not having internet and only using my laptop once in a while since I've been back. 

During my 6 week stint in Toowoomba I discovered the most awesomest thing...

INSTANT BUBBLE TEA FROM SUNNYBANK..

And when I saw instant, I REALLY mean instant. This was during one of the weekends that I returned to Brisbane and paid Sunnybank (our unofficial Chinatown) for some asian-ness. I came across what seemed to be a really dodgy chinese drink whilst I was at the supermarket.

 

 Why dodgy? If you understand mandarin, the cheesy name of the product doesn't help the fact that Jay Chou is trying to look so cool doing a thumbs up. (It's called you le mei in mandarin, and u love it  in English) Thumbs ups are never cool..

So anyways, the bad packaging and branding caught my eye, plus the fact that it kinda looked like a coffeee cup from merlo. To my surprise, the drink flavour was 'bubble tea', albeit having little/no description of the actual contents (it didn't even have a nutritional table for me to see the ingredients), and everything else being written in traditional chinese (I can't even read simplified mandarin well, let alone the traditional one), I decided to give it a shot and just buy it for $1.70, which is a steal compared to our regular $4.50 bubble tea drinks here in Brisbane.

To my pleasant surprise, this drink was friggin' amazing!So here's the very brief ingredients list on the container:

  

And the contents of the cup! I'm holding the very adorable scrunched up straw...

 Which extended out to be this full length straw!~ Pardon the crazy look, I was really REALLY excited to have my bubble tea!

The dehydrated pearls that required about 5 minutes of soaking in hot water. (They turned out to be even chewier than some of the commercial bubble teas availaable!)

Don't be deceived by the yucky dehydrated look.. The drink turns out pretty fantastic! I didn't grab a photo of the after cos I finished it pretty fast. The tea is really sweet though, and would probably be able to make 2 portions. But it has a very nice creamy taste to it, well, not really creamy, but it has a certain taste to it.

So, if any of you bubble tea fans are tired of paying $4.50-$6.00 for a cuppa chewy sugar loaded liquid, pop over to Yuen's in Sunnybank and give this budget version a shot! (Especially if you're heading to a regional/rural placement like I did and was craving bubble tea.. haha)

Hospitals and hospitals

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks, which marks the mid-way of the prac here at Toowoomba Hospital. I'm definitely losing my initial enthusiasm, but I'm still enjoying nonetheless. I suppose what has been most discouraging is that in the acute setting, most of the patients end up dying or being under palliative care anyways, it made me feel redundant in some ways. But the important thing is this:

Even if someone is dying, or is predicted to never ever improve and just slowly waste away, it's still our job as a health professional to provide the best that we can to them, albeit their time here being so limited. I've had 4 patients die over the span of 1.5 weeks,  (I had naively predicted 4 to die throughout the entire prac and my clinical educator said I was being way too conservative, haha). I don't feel devastated or emotionally rocked by deaths (so far) mainly because it is a circle of life which we need to accept:

Look at the words below. What do they describe?

BALD TOOTHLESS INCONTINENT DEPENDENT RELIANT FRAIL HELPLESS  DIAPERED NON-VERBAL 

Much like any other old person? Yep. And guess what, much like a baby too. When I saw a couple of patients curled in foetal position, wearing mittens so that they don't pull their naso-gastric tubes out, and of course, wearing diapers, it just reminded me of how life truly becomes one full circle at the end. We enter as a baby, we leave as 'bigger' babies. 

The Ciiirrcle of lifffeee.

Now I just have the most increased fear of aging! 

It's the WEEKEND!!

It's the weekend! I've never been SO happy, elated and carefree ever! This week at the hospital was my first week of placement, it's a fantastic experience here in Toowoomba and I would never trade it for anything else. Here's what I love so much about it:

1) Toowoomba is elevated on a 'mountain' (I'm sure there's a better term for it), which means that it is colder than Brisbane, the average temperature now feels somewhat like winter, but the heating systems everywhere are so efficient that it's comfortable most times. (I still can sweat sometimes in the hospital)

2) This elevation also means that the air is EVEN fresher! When I came to Brisbane, my first thought was - WOW the air is so fresh!. Then I went to visit Mark in Gatton, and I thought - Omg the air's EVEN better here! And when I stepped out of my car last Sunday in Toowoomba, I couldn't believe the freshness of the 'mountain'air! You can smell that nice misty feel, and it just freshens you each day!

3) Being on that 'mountain'might mean that I burn more petrol driving home, but,  I can make up for it by leaving my car in Neutral the ENTIRE way down. Yesterday I did it for a good 5km (about 6 minute drive) as I went down the slopes and even reaching 100km/hr without even pressing the accelerator. (don't worry, that was at the end when the speed limit was that and the slope wasn't as steep)

4) Staying at the nurses quarters is fantastic (besides the zilch internet), Rooms are cleaned weekly for you, toilets are cleaned daily and heaiting is on 24/7. It also takes me LESS THAN 5 MINUTES to get to work.. Muhahahahhaa.. (ok I feel bad for the rest who are posted far far away in Brisbane)

5) The town centre is so close and compact, which gives me this nice feeling of togetherness. BUt this isn't really accurate considering I haven't actually been there shopping yet. (Yes, biased, I know)

6) I get to see so many different kinds of caseloads! I haven't been able to see paeds yet, but I've gotten to see cancer care patients, acute ward patients, rehab patients, language, swallowing, communication etc. This probably doesn't make any sense to you guys who aren't in a health work setting, but it does actually make a difference what kind of patients you see.

7) I'm only 40km away from Mark in Gatton (Which was my main reason for choosing Toowoomba actually, hahah...) and the drive takes about half an hour, which is way better than coming from Brisbane.

And so ends my promotion of completing a clinical practical at Toowoomba hospital. Trust me, it's fantastic =)

Toowoomba Flower Festival

I went to Toowoomba for the Carnival of Flowers (finally!) last weekend. It was a bid to check out my placement area as well, but we pretty much just hung out in the streets and main mall of Toowoomba. It really is a lovely place, with roads lined with trees (very much like Singapore), and parks and gardens close by.

Ironically, we only spent about a total of 40 minutes in the actual flower display at one of the gardens, and spent the bulk of the time walking around the mall, catching Johnny English, and eating (as usual, haha)

It took us about a 15minute walk to get from the mall to the actual flower display at the Queens Park (I think that's what it's called), and we were greeted by the sight of lucious, beautiful flower displays! It is truly refreshing to see so many colours and flowers, though there are quite a number of lovely flowering trees and bushes blooming here in Brisbane too. But knowing that someone specially planted and arranged these flower beds just seems... nicer. =)

This was already the second last day of the carnival, thus it wasn't really that happening.

Heaps of tourists too! And avid photographers of course!

 And of course, what would a weekend trip 120km away be without some touristy photography right?

I deliberately wore a floral dress to suit the occasion, ahhaha...

The Magpies are apparently really ferocious.. They had signs like these all over the cordoned off areas.

 

 Just look at how vibrant all the colours are! A nature photographer would've gone mad!

We bumped into a couple of Mark's friends from vet school who had actually gone around to all the different flower sites and gardens, they said that this one was actually not that fantastic. Perhaps next year we'll actually spend the day looking at flowers instead of Rowen Akinston!

After we'd had enough of the flowers we attempted to walk back to the mall where I had parked my car. Unfortunately, due to horrible road planning, we ended up in the residential area and walked pretty far to get back to the main road. I guess we were just unfamiliar (it's like getting into some bukit timah estate in Singapore I suppose).

 However I loved the quaint little houses we saw on the way back! The architecture was all pretty classic and nice.

 And a really old car we walked by! Look at where the side view mirrors are, I honestly wouldn't know how to drive this I reckon.

OF course we had to stop for tea right? The whole point of a 'holiday' is to have the excuse to eat more frequently due to the walking (though we just ate and ate and ate). And you know what there is in Toowoomba and nowhere else??

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PAPA ROTI! All the way from Malaysia! 

It tasted fantastic together with the peanut butter milkshake. (If any of you are heading to Toowoomba for a weekend or something, please go there!!)

Love of My Life!

Presenting the love of my life.....

The one whom I cannot do without..

One of the things I always miss when I go on a holiday without...

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BOO BOO!!

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 Booboo is my bolster which I've had ever since I can remember. The previous bolster case had been so worn out that it was literally thread bare. It eventually had the consistency and transluscency of organza. My mum couldn't take it finally gave in and made me a new bolster case from her nightgown (which I traded with by burning the latest season of 24 for her), which I absolutely love (albeit the gaudy colours) because it now has an element of her too!! A bolster has 3 important features:

1) Softness of the case: it is ESSENTIAL that it is baby skin soft, you wouldn't want to rub your face into a sack cloth right?

2) Lumpiness: The amount and distribution of lumps must fit your body shape just right. It has to fit between your legs without stopping your blood, and yet without being completely flat

3) Smell: Of yes, it's ABSOLUTELY got to smell of familiarity! Why else would you want a security item if it didn't smell secure right?? Right???

I bet a lot of you are cringing now, thinking 'Ee yer... never wash one...' BUT I DO OK, (just not as often as I should). But booboo's normally washed at least once a semester la, which is probably more frequent than how many times you guys wash your comforter! =P
 

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.I honestly think that my bolster's probably one of the most precious things to me. I'd be more devastated if I lost it as opposed to losing my phone. I mean, lost phone, $200. lost booboo, PRICELESS.

Security items are actually much more important than we realise, especially for children. They help the child learn to self sooth and rely less on you, which might sound like a bad thing at first, but think about when you want to go out to work in the future knowing tha your child cannot be comforted by anything but you, how worried would you be? It's like a nanny!

I'm definitely going to give my child a security item once I can, and in case you're wondering, no I'm not goin to give boo boo to him/her. BOOBOO IS MINE.

hehh =)

Just a silly post to distract me from exams, haha..

Interlaken Jan 2011

Carless for the weekend! =( But hopefully it'll be back and I'll have a 'brand new' car to drive on Monday! I promise to show my car all the lurve, care and respect it deserves! =)

Since I'm unable to upload pictures due to my lousy cranky computer, I stole photos from our weekend family trip to Interlaken (Switzerland) early this year from my sister's online account for Gaby-photos. Quality of the photos are AWESOME as they're from my brother in law's awesome DSLR, (even though I played camera man, which wasn't very awesome, ut camera made up for it). 

The trip to Interlaken required the rental of a hugehuge diesel vehicle, so that we could all sit comfortably with Gaby in her new car seat. It wasn't awesomely comfy though and did get quite squishy at some times. The drive took about 2+ hours, not something I'd recommend to someone with a baby who hates being strapped.. and for those who ge tmotion sick too.

 

Journey started a little later than expected as Lionel had to finish up his research paper, my sister boasts that he can complete writing a journal article in 3 weeks apparently! haha.. 

 

Here's our little darling still quite fairly easily entertained. She chews everything, and I was happy to let her chew on my sun glasses as long as she didn't start screaming...

 

Which, of course lasted maybe 15 minutes before she let her boredom get to her and she started yellin, that's her face pretty much most of the journey, =O We sang, told stories, shook stuff in front of her, all to no avail.. We still had to make a little pit stop about half an hour into the journey for her to get a feed! It's amazing how your life changes after a baby enters it hey? I always thought I was born to be a mum... until I saw my sister become a mum and then I figured.. hmmm maybe waiting isn't such a bad idea... It takes a lot to give up and sacrifice so much for your kid. You give up your figure (women), social lives, work especially, diets, freedom, fashion (or just not looking sloppy)... So many things for a baby!

 

Good thing Gaby needed a feed anyway, we all got to have some ice cream from the push cart! It was an expensive treat (everything in Switzerland is expensive, even the bloody trashbags are expensive), but it was nice to have something cold in the warm weather.. Plus, cheap thrill of buying ice-cream off the road! (Gaby had some too!)

 

Taken during another feeding stop about.. another half hour later. HAha.. This was some random pretty lake. It was really pretty though!

 

Finally, after 2 hours of winding bendy roads, lots of singing and story telling, (I think I heard the story of Goldilocks too many times), I learnt that I could come up with poems when a screaming/cranky/bored baby is presented to me. In that sense, Gaby's my muse! =)) the hotel we stayed at was awesome! Well, it was more like a studio/chalet styled place, but I really loved the concept and the entire surrounding area! They even had a TRAMPOLINE downstairs!

 

One of the many happy moments of Ah bee!! Look at the amount of teeth that little Jaws has! But they hurt like a bitch when you actually have to breast feed.. But she's sooo cute, I think it probably takes all the pain away, haha.. 

The beautiful views of the mountain tops! (Imagine the Sound of Music and them crossing the mountains to escape Nazis... cue cliche cowbell and yodel music)

However, Interlaken is a pretty touristy place. There were more Japanese and asians than Swiss in my opinion, and it was awfully crowded and hot at that time, though the weather was pretty good I suppose. unfortunately we couldn't find a place to picnic due to the lack of shade (and as typical asians, we NEED shade), so we ended up having a meal at one of the restaurants there. Pretty good food, typical expensive tourist prices. But it was all good, Gaby even got to make new friends! Look!

Tired Lionel and Gaby eating some grass.

 

Gaby's fascination with dogs was finally met and she got to get up close and personal with one! Haha, the dog was such a darling, he let her pat him in that typical baby-ish way. Don't they look adorable??

DEVASTATED!

I don't know why all the photos I try to upload from Europe are like this!! =(( I reckon it's an SD card thing, but these are the files that I've already transferred to my computer from the SD card, and they don't show up like this when I open the individual photos up, only when I try to upload them on blogger.. 

WHY

WHY

WHY!!!??

 It's as if it's a snapshot from the horror movie 'shutter', which, by the way, I caught with Korah and Mark a month ago (finally) and was disappointed that the boys didn't find it as scary as other films (I must find an Asian horror film that'll knock their socks off!). There's an on going debate between Mark and I as to whether Hollywood or Asia makes the best horror.

I reckon that the asians win hands down of course, and that blardy Hollywood just makes either a) lousy remakes or b) uses plenty of scary voom-voom soundtracks and that shoves an ugly ang-mor ghost in your face in order to make you piss in your pants.

I personally find asian horror to be chilly and oh so spine-tingling not only in their filmography and effects, but storylines as well. They're the kind that leave you with shudders even after you leave the theatre..

However perhaps that's just the feelings I got when I watched horror as a teenager some 8 years ago (man that's OLD). And I guess I'm less shakable now that I'm a quarter through my life, and I understand the concept of on-screen ghosts being just normal people in ugly costumes and having bad hair days. You know how a scary scene is scary? It's not always quite as simple

1) Scary music, if not, just uncomfortable silence that makes your breath sit in your chest like a decaying lump of cheese

2) Lots and lots of tension building up to that particular scene

3) A blurry unclear image of the ghost, it musn't linger for too long, or you'll realise that it's actually just a human. And I think this is actually the most crucial factor. I find that a lot of horror shows go wrong in the sense that they show you too much  of the ghost, and you end up being able to pick out the very human features in them (which thus totally defeats the initally aim of appearing as a ghost)

 I think the show that completely shattered the ghost image was our Singapore short series 'Incredible Tales'. Remember that? There was one episode with the famous pontianak of course, which comprised of this flour-faced, long haired asian chick with not very scary eyes, and what appeared to be a piece of otak in her mouth acting as a long tongue. Howdumb was that?? Oh well..

What a digression eh? I didn't even set out to talk about horror in the first place!

Oo look at this boy's face, you can't see it cs the picture's been cut off, but he was beaming SO much on the bus ride as he flirted and twiddled with the girl's hand. They weren't a couple, which I suppose, made it all much funner for the guy to try and cosy up to her as they went on their journey!

Doesn't that bring the butterflies to your stomach girls?? When that guy first flirted with you and gave you that attention which you craved but wasn't brave enough to demand for? Haha.. Being young is so fun..

I feel terribly old!

I removed my thumbdrive from my laptop for the first time in 3 weeks. Wow it's like having a good shit after constipation!

And I won't have to be looking at Times New Roman Font size 12 for a couple of days =))

PECS

I was just preparing some materials for therpy later and was looking for a picture to represent 'outside play'. Some of you might know of the system called PECS, which stands for Picture Exchange Communication Systems. It's a system used with many non-verbal children and adults who use pictures to communicate to you what they want. 

So I wanted to look for a good representation of 'Outside play', and naturally typed in 'PECS outside play', hoping to get a nice version from the PECS system, and this is what I found on google:

It took me quite a while to figure out why the hell so many half naked men appeared on my google search page! Is outside play some form of connotation related to male models or something?? Then I realised...

PECS.

>.<

Things that make me smile...=)

I'm sure I've had this as a title before, it's just that I'm a strong believer of sharing your happiness and joys instead of imposing any emo-ness and bit*hcomplaints to the world who can't be bothered listening to you whine.

I'm sure we all have that song that makes us smile uncontrollably, that feel good  or shiok song that calsm you and make the corners of your lips raise and your mood lighten and you go all 'ahhhh...'

The song above currently has that effect on me, yeah, it does sound pretty much like bubblegum pop, but hey, it makes my endorphines run! =)

And you know what else makes me happy and high?? Smelling nice things like my Dove soap! I spent a good 10 minutes hopping around with the bottle like Gollum and his ring. (I think my housemate and her friend thought I was siao, I think the fumes got to me la)

Hehe... The simple pleasures of life; why don't you start with your 5 senses and just see what makes your day? That can make a crappy day all better =)

( I know I sound like some uber positive-happy-high-brainless-bunny now, I think the redbull is kicking in.. hurhurhur...) seeing that I've read the limited research on Red Bull and the impact it has on mental performance, I'm sure it's having an effect on me right now. If only I could be as verbose as I am now on this blog as in my lit review. haha..

Skilled Laborour

Several weeks ago on one of those lazy nights where I frist got my internet connected, I stumbled across Xiaxue's videos on clicknetwork.com, and came across a hilarious video of her baby sitting. Well, it wasn't hilarious per se, more of a mix between shock and amusement. 

You may watch the video at the following link: (I am unable to embed a video from clicknetwork

http://www.clicknetwork.tv/watch.aspx?c=1&p=8&v=462

As many of you know, I'm not exactly the person with the best fashion sense, neither am I the kind who knows how to 'dress up' even if the occasion calls for it. I'm pretty much a T-shirt-and-jeans kinda girl, and have progressed steadily from super-oversized-ugly-t-shirt-and-berms to fitted-t-shirts-and-jeans-with-occasional-dresses. As plastic or superficial as it may seem, I sometimes do envy girls who are able to use 87 different substances to accentuate their features. 

Random example of pretty girly dolled up girl

It's like an art, I suppose that's why they're called make-up artists yes?

People like Kaykay and Xiaxue even make livings out of their looks (especially xiaxue with her video tutorials on how to gigantify your eyes), which is pretty awesome if you think about it, show people how to do something you like (and are good at), and get paid for it! And it's not exactly laborious either.

So when I saw videos of them babysitting (Kaykay and Paul Twohill had another experience here), I gaped for a while. I have never seen people SO awkward around kids before! Watch for yourself and see, gosh I felt bad for the poor kids!

But in this process, I discovered my skill: Diaper Changing/Kid Minding!! Actually I think I'm better with babies, they can be easily distracted and entertained with stupid things like how huge your mouth is whereas a toddler would just run around and ignore you.

So I have a skill!! YAY

But models get $50/hr and babysitters get $15/hr... Hmmm Oh well, at least I know if I have a kid I won't freak out!

I Am Human...

Sometimes Mark tells me I think I'm wonderwoman because I like to keep myself constantly busy with work and studies and other frivolous matters which fill up my time (lest I become too complacent with too much free time and therefore waste it). But many things I do remind myself that I am merely human, and a rather blur and stupid one at times...

Stupid things done just over the past 7 days:

1) Drove my car to school, and walked home with Jerrine and completely forgetting that I'd parked it in school.

2) Spent a good 5-10 minutes searching for the cover of my blender in the different kitchen cabinets, getting all worked up, only to realise that it was already in the blender.

3) Walked right smack, hard on to our glass door... But that I blame my unbearable hunger that caused me to attempt to rush through the door to get to the fridge asap... Not one of my finest moments I must say. I think Mark was on the verge of whatsapping everyone my moment of genius

And all within 7 days, haiyoo..

What stupid things have you done??

To to to... Toowoomba!

We just got our postings for our 6 week placement in October! And I'm ecstatic to say that I've been given my first choice of completing my 6 weeks at the local hopital in Toowoomba! (Yes, there's a name funnier than Toowong). For all you non-Queenslanders/Brisbanites, Toowoomba is regional town 194km away from the city of Brisbane. Technically, it is not Brisbane. (I grappled with that fact for a while in my first year, because I thought EVERYTHING was Brisbane, yes, silly me)

I've attached a picture of the google map for the benefit of everyone so that you can get a sense of how blardy big Australia is.. Or how blardy small Singapore is.

Actually, I think this picture does an even better job. One fo the lecturers had put up a picture of a map similar to this to demonstrate the need for the development of Telerehab, which is basically the deliverying of different types of therapy via internet programmes similar to Skype. Because Australia is so vast and some the state and level of development really can differ greatly from region to region, many therapists choose to stay in Metropolitan areas such as Brisbane, Sydney and what not (I mean, who wouldn't right?) So researchers find ways to try and provide healthcare services to all the little kampungs (small small towns) out there in order to benefit as many as possible.

Toowoomba is one such kampung that has now turned into one of the bigger, more 'happening' town centres in the region. When people talk about places in Queensland, it's Brisbane, Townsville, Caines, Toowoomba etc. It's probably not massively huge, but I've heard it's pretty bustling (compared to the little swa deng  Gatton which Mark is in) I've conveniently marked Mark (haha, pun unintended) on the google maps map to show how far he is from civilisation on any given day. Poor guy only has ONE asian fried noodle stall to eat from!! (which therefore means he's now pretty chummy with the guy and can get discounts when he buys noodles and fried rice, haha.. perks of a small town).

Gosh do I digress or what? I'm just so excited, to be able to work in a (slightly) less metropolitan hospital setting, and staying in nurses quarters, which I'm clueless about. All I know is, in a month's time, I'll be of to to to to toowoombaaa!!

HEHEHE *excited mad laughter*

adios~

Terrification

I've just spent today at a one day course on 'Practical Stuttering Techniques for the School-Aged Child' organised by Pearson in the city given by J. Scott Yaruss, the co-author of the OASES forms used in evaluating the functional impacts stuttering can have on a person.

Fear, phobias and anxiety are always issues which come up whenever the topic of stuttering comes to mind. It's instinctive, even to the lay person that a stutterer does so especially when he is anxious, afraid or scared. This is completely true of course, and is often one of the key issues we as therapists must inform the client. Do not let the fear of stuttering control you, because that is exactly what makes you stutter even more.

When Dr Yaruss started on the topic on his arachnaphobia and how these children basically experience that level of anxiety all the time, I began to recall the times when I was still of a single-digit age, and when I was in a (fairly traditional) Chinese primary school. I remembered being petrified of every single Chinese language teacher before the age of 9. I would never EVER dream of asking to go to the toilet during chinese classes, and would almost always do my homework until I was Primary 3 (I think...)

One key experience I remember was when the class was walking down the stairs in pairs for the flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day, and our Chinese teacher told the 2 children at the front to stop walking while she caught up; but they didn't. So she reprimanded them (not too badly actually, I think she yanked the girl's ear slightly, but it sure freaked the hell outta me cos I was just behind them), and promptly told them to swap with me and my partner.

For that 2 flight of stairs, I swear I was as nervous as hell! Man I don't even get so nervous giving presentations now! Why was I so petrified? It wasn't that she was a tyrannical teacher or anything like that, I was just afraid that I wouldn't understand her when she said 'stop' in mandarin and end up overshooting and being reprimanded as being 'disobedient', when actually, I just don't understand. Thankfully, none of that happened and I got to the parade square nice, safe and without peeing myself.

Many times as children we're so petrified of adults. I knew I was afraid of all the chinese teachers because I couldn't understand shit. What ever they'd say, I probably only got half the message (and then whoever was around me would have to explain again). The fear of speaking chinese was even greater! I was just so shy with speaking mandarin actually.

When I think back now, I'm so glad I'm over that stage of being afraid of people. It's not a very good fear to have I reckon =P Lesson for today?

Make sure my kids are friggin' bilingual and don't have to go through the same horrible feeling of inadequateness as I did!

 Gaby better start on her chinese lessons soon!! (I'm going to make sure her first chinese words are 'ah yee'!

The Lack of IT

Due to the recent move and hustle and bustle of getting back to school and work, there hasn't been much time for updates. Not only that, there hasn't been any INTERNET for updates. As I probably whine and whinge about this every time I move house in Brisbane (which is 3 times so far), we have yet to have our internet connected. While this is nicely saving us about $15/week without internet, it still makes us feel like we haven't quite settled in yet. Not to mention the horrible amount of research we should  be doing for our honours projects this semester.

I honestly can't wait to really get started on my project. It's on Taurine and how it might enhance/affect word learning (yes, geek at heart.). Taurine is an amino-acid found in things like Red Bull, Formula milk and such, which is believed to enhance attention, cognition and all that sorts. I've not yet actually come across any journal article that explicitly states so though, however I have only been researching for a grand total of maybe.... half an hour?

So a quick update of life..

Life's been great =) Had a great birthday, been playing nice traditional games such as Uno Attack and Munchkins thanks to my lack of internet and technology in the house (i.e. TV). Which is good actually. televisions reduce our sociability I find. Everyone tends to just end up sitting around and nuahing when we could all be talking and interacting instead.

Not having the internet at my fingertips has also meant that I spend more time sleeping, getting 8 or more hours of sleep a day is a luxury I know will soon cease (once the internet kicks in and the assignment writing starts). So I'm gonna treasure that sleep!!

=))

I like to move it move it

Yes I've been away for loooooong.. That's because after the 20 hour flight+transit back to Brisbane, I got straight back into work at the daycare, moved out of my old place, got more busy with long days at the day care, and moved into the new place with Jerrine, which is, by the way, a lovely, warm-looking (not feeling), quaint Queenslander near school!

The new closeness to school still gets me so excited that I still squeal when we approach the house, knowing that I need not crawl up the horrible Carmody Hill or navigate through the meandering bends anymore! For those of you that aren't aware, a queenslander is basically an ang morh atap house (all the wood and stilts without the atap). The place had previously been flooded to the top of the windows, and thus received a full renovation and refurbishing, which results it a very very very professional, very shiny and reflective timber floor! The toilet is AMAZING, with self-cleaning shower screens which apparently allow you to use it without ever having soap scum/water marks!

I think both of us have never been so happy and satisfied with a house and it's providings. The owner is really a sweet old man, like the grand dad I never had really.. He's quite stern and anal about his house, but sooo helpful and friendly. If only all owners were like that

Anyways, alas I'm here writing this in the school library because

1) We have no internet, as usual.
2) I stupidly forgot to bring my keys and my housemate is out till late.
3) I even more stupidly forgot to bring my phone. so, which is the stupidestest??? ?

I suppose this means I get the chance to finally sit down and update my blog about something going on, although I am sad to not be able to put up photos. There's so much I want to talk about! Belgium, Luxembourg, Zurich and Gaby and all the other random things I so like to talk about =))

Well I guess that will have to wait! till then,

Adios!

Nightmares

Last night was pretty epic. I woke up to loud huds on the window and thought that the world was ending. You know how you get jolted awake suddenly by noises or someone suddenly and the adrenaline just causes your stomach to churn and your muscles to just tense and function despite your mind still being in a semi-consious state? Well that's exactly how I felt last night when the storm woke the entire household up.

It wasn't just an ordinary storm, it was MASSIVE, and guess what, 

THERE WAS HAIL.

 The winds were amazingly crazy strong, and this picture from my sister's window doesn't give enough credit to the chaos and frightening tension brought by the storm. A piece of hail that fell on my mummy's toe was actually what woke her up as all our windows were wide open (It's pretty hot in Zurich now, and the nights feel very much like our Singapore nights).

So this piece of ice struck her awake and she quickly went around closing windows with my sister. It probably took me 30secs more before I woke up and realised what was going on.

 If you look closely you might notice the pattern of the rain on the road as the rhythmic winds gushed across the sky.

 I tried to take a picture of pieces of hail that fell into the balcony, but it didn't turn out too clear. Hail was actually dropping down the chimney too, but it was too dark and dusty for me to capture a shot. Plus my eyes were half closed and my brain half in dream land still.

 I'm not too sure if that white orb looking thing is hail. It might be since I don't see it on the floor now.

It took me a while to get back to sleep because of all that adrenaline and trauma, and when I did, I had the most frustrating dram (which I thus consider a nightmare because it didn't want to end). Basically I was ferrying 4 people home in my dream (this was in Brisbane of course), and after I drove almost all the way home, 1 girl told me she lived on the other side of the river, which meant I had to backtrack a whole way. The frustrating part came when I just couldn't get to the respective houses of the people to drop them off, meaning I was lost and jsut couldn't find my way. Which, in my opinion, is the most frustrating thing ever! I hate it when I get lost in real life, much more in my dream!

So bascially I woke up frustrated. Because I never got to send them home and they scolded me.

Thank goodness I have Ah Bee to lighten the days that I'm here! Honestly, motherhood is bloody tiring now that I see it up close and 24/7. Piang eh. I always thought I'd want to be a young mum, but now, I begin questioning if I'm ready to sacrifice and give up literally my whole life for someone who's just going to be a pooping, crying little monster who has her moments of cuteness and warmth. Don't get me wrong, it's not that my niece is a monster, but it's just that I never know if my kid will turn out to be one!

 We frequently try and let her self-entertain in her walker in order for everyone to get on with doing their own thing. But when she frets, she frets. I've watched the video of 'Elmo's Song' so many friggin times I think I'm going to have dreams of that soon!

 And Miss Poopy Pants doing a Poop!! She's SOOO adorable when she sits on the potty!

This was taken during one of the 'Elmos-Song-Consolation-Session' when my sister was in the shower and she was pining for her. Elmo seems to be the best substitute so far.

I'm so gonna be Gaby-sick when I leave for Brisbane!!!! =((