Time just swoosh past you without you realising ... It took me at least 5 attempts to log on my own blog... shows how long I've not been doing my homework... Not that I'm coming up with thousand-and-one excuses but it takes some inspiration to get the words flowing..you know what i mean...Let me flip back the pages of my diary and bring you back to March. I finally caught the Phantom after 11 donkey years of waiting... Still could recall how my granny said it was a waste of money to watch it. I failed to persuade her to be my sponsor when I was still young and penniless. But things are different now. I managed to get some good seats through my good buddy, Gu , who took 3 hours of page loading of the website. Well, it was all worth it... the wait.. the costs.. Thumbs up!
And on the same evening, I received an SMS from my aunt, informing me that my dearest cousin, Clady had his lungs collapse and was admitted to the High Dependency ward in KK hospital. Coincidentally, it was his birthday the following day and he had to be bed-bound for 3 dreadful weeks. It all started off a month ago when he was complaining of chest pains. As he had a history of high-blood pressure the GP diagnosed his case as overexertion. He's an active participant of his Outdoor-Adventure society in school and his enthusiasm showed no signs of him being worn out. He got better eventually until it relapsed a few days prior to his hospitalisation.
He felt breathless occasionally but still looked normal and healthy. My aunt insisted that he should see the doctor but he kept postponing the appointment due to some CCA commitments. The doctor was a bit hostile when he attended to Clady when he first met him in the A&E ward, thinking that he was just another non-emergency case as he looked perfectly fine. But his expression turned awfully serious the moment he saw the X-ray. " Why are you here, boy? You'd been breathing on 1 lung for the past month! You should be admitted immediately. " Before he knew what was happening, he had tubes sticking into his chest to suck out the excess fluid that has been suppressing his left lung- pneumothorax, they called it.
His flow of visitors seemed neverending. I never had much chance to talk to him as his classmates and teachers went in 2-by-2. Sometimes, his condition grew worse, and people would leave with teary eyes. His bed was surrounded by birthday-cum-get-well gifts. And throughout the weeks, I had been visiting him almost every other day.
There comes April, where I had my Stayovers and People's departures... I had a little retreat with Love at Aloha Changi where you can have the whole, 2-storey bungalow by yourself. It had a fully-equipped kitchen and a fully-furnished living room. The best part was the seaview and the worse part was that it was located opposite the haunted old CGH. Perhaps that was why I did not have a good night's sleep.
The next few days was the preparation for Huaiky's hen-cum-farewell party. She'd be married off to Brisbane. We rented a helium tank and blew balloons over the ceiling of the Ritz-Carlton room. We did a pot-luck and some kinky, girly stuff after dinner. ( The picture tells a thousand words.... )We were supposed to stay up for board games but everyone ( except for Ally n Fen ) ended up sardine-packed into the only King-sized bed and zonked out. Not only did the 2 not get a piece of the bed, they had to kick and slap away the balloons that fell on their faces as they slept on the couch. Poor gals! We sent Huaiky off at the airport the following week.
And there goes another friend/good colleague of mine, Mich, who was my team mate and desk neighbour. She, too, would be leaving for Austria to work and get married eventually. We had a whole series of activities lined up for her as a "farewell package". We went cycling at East Coast, steamboat at Bugis and spa at Paragon. Each of us received a complimentary deluxe spa package from our boss as a Christmas gift last year. It was a comprehensive package with a 45 min massage, jacuzzi facilities, in-house movies and free flow of food and drinks. We booked a private lounge since we were expecting to make a lot of noise. At the end of the day, we were all very thankful for the extravagant indulgence and were extremely motivated to work hard for the world's greatest boss!( hmm..how practical are we... women are easy to please isn't it ???)
A few days later, I received a news from one of my ex-colleagues one evening, that our engineer was down with a stroke. I was shocked and saddened and made a trip down to the hospital again. But thankfully, it was discovered early and he seemed to be coping well and recovering fast. He's undergoing his physio at the moment....
On the last weekend of April, I went skating with my ex-colleagues. 2 of them were still picking it up so I was more busy taking pictures and videos of them skating and falling than doing anything else. It was quite funny to see brave AL picking it up so fast despite so many falls and how the other Big Goon was gingerly rolling the wheels trying hard not to fall. Life lesson : The one who falls more learns more.
Well, but all thanks to this big goon, MS, who drove us to Changi for lunch, and brought us to the boardwalk. We had a stroll along the kelong and down the shore to catch crabs. It was very fun and it reminded me of the Tioman trip, where the few of us were catching fireflies and hermits.
So much ups and downs for April, but it was here and gone.
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