It has been a rather hit and miss week, quite literally as well as metaphorically. The week started with me being so sick that I was out of action in Sunday after church and on Monday, where I did not make it to work but instead slept most of the day away. I made it to work on Tuesday but got sent home after half a day due to my constant coughing and sneezing. Made it to work yesterday and gained back a bit of my appetite. I can say with glee that my clothes are now a bit looser and that the pair of shorts that I wore yesterday can be pulled down without being unbuttoned or unzipped. Though I would ask that nobody try to do that please, I prefer to be walking around with clothes ON thank you.
I was still feeling rather sick yesterday, my sore throat and sore nose from tissue burn didn’t help either. There was Found on last night and I was on the border of not going cause I thought I should be resting a bit more so I can recover quicker but I still pushed on and went, it was the first worship experience night we had and I felt like going. So I got there, I parked at my usual spot outside Amanda’s house on the sandy verge and went in. It was a great night last night, I admit I wasn’t really into it at first but it was after that I started doing a lot of thinking, about what each person had said last night. I could relate to what Sam was saying, there are many times where I try and grasp the concept that God is by faith and although I cannot physically see Him, He definitely exists and plays a huge part of my life. Sometimes I feel like God can’t hear me but when that happens, I see this chain of events that prove me wrong. Yesterday was just one concrete example of that.
As I said just now, I just wasn’t feeling up to going, but I thought I should go for support of the women’s ministry. So I went and I parked at my usual place, even though previously I’ve scraped the bottom my front bumper slightly while reversing I though it would be the same thing again. Not. As I left to go home after Found, I scraped my bumper, quite badly this time. As I reversed, I heard a snap and my heart dropped when I did. So I pulled over and saw that the left side of my front bumper had come out and was jutting out about 1 cm. Which is still 1 cm too much for comfort. So I drove home, contemplating my options, wondering why had I even parked at that spot, wondering where I could get it fixed for cheap.
I had a fitful sleep last night, I wasn’t too happy with myself, with what I had done to my beloved car, so disappointed that I ignored my own advice of not parking there anymore. So I got up extra early this morning and because I couldn’t find masking tape anywhere, I resorted to cutting up pieces of contact into strips and stuck it on my bumper to keep it in place for the trip to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it just cause I was so distraught that I had damaged my Blue Lightning once again. I rushed out of the house, trying to beat the traffic and create less stress on my car and me and managed to forget my cough syrup and honey and lemon drink in the morning. I made it to work in one piece and managed to drive to my final evaluation appointment which was over at the other AAWA site. Had my final evaluation with Sue and I passed with flying colours! The team were very impressed with my work on the life history book sample I created as well as the sensory boxes and cataloguing of the resources and creating how to sheets for them. They even got Joel to take a picture of me with the stuff I had put together there on my placement and that will go in the November staff newsletter 
Jess said she will send me a copy when they get it, so it will be rather odd seeing my face with all the things I did over the past 7 weeks there.
Louise and Deb took me out to Floreat Forum and we went crazy at the Bali Beach shop over there, with me looking for items for the sensory rummage boxes that were seriously cheap, and Deb and Louise shopping for house decorations. Louise treated me to lunch at Gloria Jean’s, which was really kind of her. I’ve got some goodies for them at the office that I’ll be giving them tomorrow. As we sat eating lunch, Louise and Deb offered me a paid job over the summer as a research assistant for a research project they are interested in. I was stoked! I think I froze and they gave me the details of it and it was great! It fit in perfectly with my summer plans and I get paid and I have the flexibility to do things. It was a dream come true! Little need to say, I accepted it right away, I wasn’t going to let this get out of my reach. As I’m goins to be applying for PR and need something to keep me occupied before I get a real job and it looks great on my CV. I couldn’t have asked for a better job! All this while, I still had the thought of fixing my car, nagging at the back of my mind. I couldn’t exactly drive around on my next prac with a lose bumper.
I rang the Proton smash repairers early in the morning and they said that they could try fixing it, or if it is bad they have to replace the bumper, which will cost 500-600 bucks, but will be covered by insurance. So I wrapped up things at prac earlier and got off at 3pm and raced to Proton to get the bumper fixed. Got there at about 3.20pm and had a discussion with the mechanic (he’s brilliant! I would highly recommend him) about my options and even though he had a full workshop, he fit me in and got my car fixed in 15 minutes. While he took my car off me to bring round to the workshop and I was waiting in the waiting room, contemplating how much I would have to pay for all that, he walks in 5 minutes later telling me that I was lucky that I brought it in today. They found a nail in my rear right tyre and by the looks of it, it had been there for a while. He said it was lucky they caught it now, cause it would have meant that any day now my tyre would have gone kaput if it wasn’t fixed. He even recommended me a place down the road that could do it for cheap. So off to Richard’s Tyrepower on Scarborough Beach Road I went, in search of a puncture fixer. No wonder for the past week or so I have heard a tick tick sound everytime I drive, turned out to be the blooming nail in the tyre.
I got there and managed to get them to squeeze me in, even though that meant I had to wait an hour, I would wait. I think today was just great, I managed to get my car fixed at 2 places where both workshops were full and I got it down for cheap and quite fast as well. I got the bumper fixed for $25 and the tyre fixed for $30. I drove home in good spirits and was just thinking about the day. Then I looked at the bigger picture of things, that if I had never rocked up to Found yesterday, I wouldn’t have snapped my bumper, then the mechanic wouldn’t have found the nail in my tyre and I would have had a punctured tyre at a later date and a lot more expensive repair as well as a lot more hassles. God definitely had my back and always had my back all this time however stupid I might have felt or however useless I feel. This might probably sound stupid but I’m not ashamed of it, I prayed while driving back today, thanked Him for all His blessings and everything He has given me so unconditionally. That I now can see it is His hands in every facet of my life, even without me knowing, carrying me all the way, consoling me and egging me on the times I feel like giving up. So I was crying while I was driving and I must have looked like a downright idiot, but you know I don’t care anymore. What I do care about is what God means to me and I’m glad I have a God that is so loving and full of grace
So all in all it has been an awesome day! I got a job offer, I got my car fixed and my supervisors at prac were highly impressed with me. God is great Even when I thought this was such a horrible week, I’m glad that with Christ in the vessel, I can smile in the storm.
Nic, you’ll be proud of me. I managed to cut across 5 lanes on the Mitchell Freeway in less than 500m at 9am. Haha….Though I probably won’t be doing that any time again in the immediate future 
Irony is when you know how to code HTML, XHTML and CSS but don’t even know how to work the phone in the office.
This was due to the Imagine Christmas photos and comments. Only 12 hours or so since I last checked it and that’s what I came back to. I’ve gotten about 100 e-mails in the last day alone. Haha….I feel special
On Wednesday I finally was stuck in my first traffic jam in Perth. Or rather I would say, got caught driving in a traffic jam. It took me 20 minutes to clear I think a few hundred metres on Shepperton Road. Given that it was peak hour, it took me 1 hour to get to work that morning, for what usually takes me 30-40 minutes driving I was really peeved that morning. But the thing that really topped everything off that morning was not that I had to endure sickeningly long queues first thing in the morning but rather that there was this driver that was behind my car all the way from Shepperton Road to Mounts Bay Road that kept stopping way too close to my car. I know that my car is a hatch back but this lady was coming really really close to my car.
I got quite agitated by her driving. I tried altering my driving just so I gave her time to brake before but nope, she was so keen on driving right up to the back of my car. I remembered that I had brought a camera in my bag (in my resolution to blog with pictures each day) and duely snapped pictures of her.
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She’s lucky I didn’t get a picture of her face….Grrrr
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I was nice enough to block out her car registration number….But I was so stressed driving to work that morning.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t having a very good day at work. I usually sit at my desk and amuse myself for hours, writing up resource sheets or doing reserach about dementia and related conditions, symptoms and the list goes on and on. I even went as far as looking up Alois Alzheimer on wikipedia. Wikipedia is not my new best friend in the office to look up random facts. And Google Maps are also another one of my favourite sites to look at to amuse myself at the images and how to get to places.
For cell on Friday, we had steamboat and teppanyaki at Joe’s place. We ended up cooking up a storm and had lots left over.
I apologise for cutting off some people from the photo :S
Warning: Photo heavy beyond this point
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It’s been a rather full on week. We had a full dress rehearsal on Monday for Imagine Christmas. I tell you I have never worn so much make up in my entire life. We practiced on the actual stage, with lights and music and everything and there is definitely room for improvement but it is looking much better.
Due to so many things happening this weekend, this week’s cell has turned into a social and we’re having steamboat at Joe’s place and watching a movie and having bubble tea during the movie. Well, that is turning into quite an activity tiself, trying to organise food, movies and people RSVPing.
And to top everything off, I managed to reinjure my back. On Saturday I woke up with a slightly strained back muscle and worked through the pain. Rested on Sunday but strained it again slightly. Rested and was fine on Monday till Tuesday. Today, in the car, I was twisting and reaching behind to get a cushion to prevent me from having more pain (ironically) and I really did my back in. I didn’t hear any crack but the pain is now in the middle and its bad when I’m sitting but better when I’m standing. I have a really bad feeling I did something to my discs in my lower back. I cannot afford to have an injury now, with the dance only 3 days away.
Oh and FYI, taking Panadol with coke does not get you high. I assure you I did not conduct this experiment knowingly. I had Panadol on the way to work cause I was in way too much pain and I thought I’d better stretch my legs at Maccas on the way to work and to get a bite to eat. I craved coke cause I was just so tired and I ended up getting coke just casue I wanted a cold drink that came with the meals and not the coffee. I only realised my mistake a bit later on at work. That was when I promptly texted Chester to ask if the myth was true. His reply:
You will explode. It’s true…..Hahaha….Kidding….You’ll probably just burp a lot
At that point I was on the phone to someone at work and I had only read the 1st part and my eyes were bulging open. I think I must have froze for a while and then realised that only happen to seagulls when you fed them Panadol. I bet the lady on the phone was wondering why I sounded like an idiot.
As a result of being in constant pain over the day I had: 1 medium coke from Maccas, 1 cappuccino from a cafe in South Perth (cause we were meeting a client there) and 1 double shot coffee at work. Plus 3 Panadols to make it through the whole day. I seriously hope with sleep tonight it’ll be less painful. Already by walking to my car it was less painful. I think the problem is compounded by me sitting in the chair for a few hours a day.
As you can tell, my diary is full and it’s getting harder and harder to squeeze things into my day. I’m literally booked out from morning till night. I just want to sleep. I want Kristine Time.
Today most certainly was not the day for driving around. Well, petrol is cheaper but that does not mean I can afford to drive everywhere. And my parking leaves a lot to be desired so I decided to take a risk and hitch a ride with Nic to Phi Yen and he decided to be super hero and cut across 3 lanes on Stirling Highway to get to a turning. I tell you my heart nearly stopped and I was screaming when he did that with no warning. Clearly Nic, my nagging on the way there didn’t work now did it?
Then on the way back, I was driving out and I made sure I looked at the pedestrian crossing before I did anything. I even took my foot off the accelerator and hovered it above the brake just in case. Then just as I was halfway across the crossing, this girl just runs out from my right and I had to jam brake. And even then, she stopped just in time as well and she was literally inches from the front of my car. I was probably more ticked off than scared at the point of time. Here I was taking extra precautions and then this reckless girl just runs across. The people around us were looking and were shocked she had just literally sprinted across it. I mean come on, if you were walking and I was not halfway across the thing I would have stopped for you. But nooooooo, just run and don’t look where you are going.
Clearly karma just came to bite me back on the bum for nagging at Nic today. And I quote Nic: “You are like the mum I already have” in terms of nagging. How nice to know that when I eventually have kids, they’ll have to hear me nagging them about their driving when I nearly hit pedestrians 2 weeks in a row.
I played tennis yesterday with Nic, Chester and Russell after church. Not one of my wisest moves due to a few reasons:
1) I didn’t plan on playing tennis therefore did not bring proper gear - no footwear or proper clothes or a tennis racket. I ended up playing in a dress ala Maria Sharapova and in thongs I had left in my car instead of the high heeled boots I had on for church.
2) I had never played tennis in my life and am used to playing badminton.
3) I didn’t warm up prior to playing.
As a result of my venture into the world of playing tennis, I now have a sore butt, wrist and back. Apart from that, I’m really enjoying tennis…Hehehe….Another session scheduled for after church next week. Here’s to hoping I don’t get so many sore body parts!
I drove to Gen and Glo’s apartment in the city yesterday. I tell you, that was probably one of my more educational driving trips. I had to try and get into the parking lot of the Sheraton, couldn’t really get in with the queue, cut a U-turn, try again and finally giving up and then parallel parking on the street. I think I might just stick to forwards parking for the time being. LOL
Drove Amanda home after that and I feel rather accomplished. Though I think I should send my car for another service…It is sounding a bit funny. It has just come back from a service 2 months ago….Oh well, I don’t really expect much from a Proton haha
Well, today I managed to slice my left thumb with a vege peeler while peeling a stupidly small potato. So now, my thumbs are sorta symmetrical in a sense that my right thumbnail was grated off while I was grating chocolate yesterday and today the skin on my left thumb is sliced while I was peeling potatoes.
Just goes to show my cooking prowess!
Don’t worry, I bake better than I cook. LOL
Speaking of food, we went to lunch today at Penang Hawker in Northbridge. Had yummy asam laksa and cendol. I miss food at home.
While walking to lunch today, I snapped these pictures. In between snapping both pictures, me and Elizabeth nearly got rolled over by 2 cars….Just prior to that, I was joking that since the 3 boys were in front and so engrossed in their conversation, they wouldn’t notice us screaming for help behind them. Usually its the girls that walk in front so the guys can keep a lookout for them.
But when they heard I think me screeching trying to avoid the car, they stopped and waited for us. Haha…so they do check for us girls once in a while.
That there was one of the cars that we had to avoid. We didn’t look to the left and nearly got hit. Twice LOL
I took the pictures cause they looked quite funny the 3 of them walking in a row with different dress styles and shoes LOL
Today at church we went around getting to know people better and it was quite amusing. Elder James Seow was reacquainting us with the church vision which is “A united people with passion and purpose: Loving God - Making Disciples”. So he was saying we should be united and get to know each others names and such. That’s when my brain went into Champion League mode and I thought, “Hey! We are men united!” Lame but yea.
That’s all for today. Got a ton of work to do