I went walking on the Tan Track on Monday. I did it all by myself and am very proud of my mini achievement. I wasn’t bothered by any weirdos and I didn’t suddenly need to use the loo. Although I was hoping that I didn’t have to perform my ‘civic duty’ at a place like the Tan Track, I unexpectedly was subjected to it once today. That’s ok. Once is better than multiple times in just one visit to a busy shopping centre.
There was however a minor hiccough. As I was walking towards the Yarra, opposite MGGS, I took my hat off to air my sweaty hair. I was still unhappy that I was subjected to one ‘civic duty’ that had taken place just minutes before. Less than a metre after I turned left, a bug flew into my long black hair and got stuck. Its buzzing sounded angry as it tried to get out. I tried to help and it landed on my left cheek and promptly stung me before moving back into my hair. The pain was like being given a Penicillin shot on the face! So, I tried to frantically get the little devil out of my hair using my hat but was unsuccessful. The sight must have been comical because a couple of drivers actually slowed down to watch. Runners and joggers going past also slowed down. LOL. Luckily, this gentleman stopped to assist when I requested his help. He was unable to find it at first and asked if I was sure that there was a bug. LOL. I told him that I could hear the buzzing noise. Crazy people can hear lots of stuff too, I later thought. LOL. Eventually he found it. It took three attempts to get the little bugger off the left side of my head before it flew straight back to attack the right side. This time the gentleman managed to get it out in just one attempt. He even tried to step on the nasty bug as he explained that it could be a Wasp or a Bee. I thanked him and continued walking.
On my way home, I desperately wanted a mirror to see if I had reacted to the sting. Most of the pain subsided after about 5 minutes but I still wanted to see if I had turned into a monster. The people running past me didn’t seem to react but may be the kind of people that run on the track weren’t the type who would react to physical disfigurements. Where were ‘those’ people when I needed them to ‘criticize’ me? As soon as I got into our pigeon hole, I dashed to the bathroom to inspect my cheek. Except for a dot, there was absolutely nothing. My face is not one bit uglier than when I left home. Nevertheless, I iced the area and applied a liberal amount of Tea Tree Cream just to be sure. This antiseptic cream is like a cure-all for us. LOL. Growing up in an ‘outpost’ situated at the edge of rainforests might have built up my resistance towards insect bites.
I suspected that M would react to my account by saying, “That’s it. You are not going there on your own again.” He didn’t though. He also didn’t ask me to cut my hair. It turned out that he found the whole thing hilarious. I think I will tie my hair before putting my hat on next time. Investing in some bug spray might also be a good idea. Tuesday is going to be another super hot day with gale force winds arriving tonight. So, it’s best for me to stay home. Thursday is likely to be my second walk at the track this week.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A Pleasant Surprise
I logged online briefly on Sunday evening to write about a dream starring my Guinea Pig from around a week ago. After I logged onto blogger, I noticed that I had 3 comments waiting for me to publish. Wow, 3! I think the last time I received a comment was back in August last year. Suddenly there were 3 from the same person. When I first saw the 3 comments, I didn’t read them. I didn’t even look to see who left them. I just took off to look for M accusing him of playing a prank on me. I suspected him because he knew how badly I wish that someone will read my blog and stay long enough to leave me a comment before I bore him or her to death with my dreadful writing. He denied doing anything and I dashed back to the computer to read them properly. I was over the moon to learn that they were left by an Aussie blogger living in Japan. I think I have mentioned that I am absolutely hooked on reading blogs belonging to people living in their spouse’s homeland. Anyway, I really enjoy this Aussie blogger’s writings. They are funny. If she can make M laugh, she has got to be funny. It’s interesting to read about life in Japan and sometimes people describe it very differently to what text books offer. The lady also mentioned that she has placed me on her blog list. This got me thinking about adding a list of blogs that I like too. May be I should also ‘renovate’ my blog a bit.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Still Having Trouble Sleeping
I experience sleeping difficulties almost every fortnight but I do not take medications for it. I was tossing and turning all night on Monday. I was already expecting the worse by the time I got myself ready for bed on Tuesday. The second night after a sleepless night is usually worse. I wasn’t just tossing and turning but I was also getting up every two hours or so. To make matters worse, I had different dreams each time I managed to fall asleep. Anyone experiencing my kind of dreams will know how exhausting some of them can be.
At 4:50ish on Wednesday morning I got up and sat on the bed trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or just stay up to read. I looked out of the window and saw a Taxi downstairs and a half drunken bloke staggering out. After going to the loo, I sat to look at the front cover of my Guinea Pig’s photo book. Seeing him is calming. I did try to read a book after that but found it hard to keep my eyes open for long and was fast asleep within minutes. This time though, I was accompanied by a wonderful dream starring none other than my beloved Guinea Pig, of course. M played a minor role as well.
Here I am again describing another dream featuring our dear friend. In the dream, I lowered the Guinea Pig’s cage to the floor and told M to let him out for a little run. The Guinea Pig had been pretty restless, running around in his cage. I attempted to pick him up and he ran away from me to hide under the hay. When I tried to pick him up again, I noticed another pair of eyes looking at me. This second Guinea Pig was smaller, looked scruffier and shared the same colours as my little friend. M saw the shock on my face and asked, “What? Have you forgotten that you insisted on buying another Guinea Pig last week?” I looked at him, suddenly remembering that I apparently bought a little Guinea Pig from a pet shop at Melbourne Central. LOL. Suddenly I could see that M was secretly wondering if I had been neglecting the newbie.
Seeing that I failed to pick either Guinea Pig up, M came over to help. He let them both run wild in the living room. (In reality, our dear little Guinea Pig played within a fenced up area.) Coincidentally, as mentioned in a previous dream, the balcony doors were left wide open. Soon we had trouble monitoring both of them because they didn’t stay together. M tried to pick up the newbie and it bit him on the finger and darted away. He was then seen running down the hallway, towards the spare room before we were briefly interrupted by a neighbour at the door asking for some foam to make artificial flowers. (Well, I think I did reveal recently that my dreams can be quite weird.) Meanwhile, our original Guinea Pig was already rummaging through all the junk in the spare room. As soon as the neighbour left, we took action to spoil the little cheeky piggies’ fun. The newbie was chewing the vacuum cleaner cord but M went for our Guinea Pig who was chewing on some paper first. After returning him to the cage, he came back for the newbie who had then found something else to chew in the almost inaccessible room. The dream ended when both piggies were safely returned to the cage.
That new piggy seemed quite a handful! Luckily we are not in a hurry to get ourselves another Guinea Pig. I am still trying to get over the loss of our first furry friend. We will definitely keep Guinea Pigs again one day but it will not happen until we get ourselves a property where pets can be lovingly buried upon their deaths. To us, pets are like family members. They are loved in life and should be treated with dignity when they pass away. Although I will never know if my beloved Guinea Pig’s ashes are really in the urn, I am content to see him popping up in my dreams from time to time.
At 4:50ish on Wednesday morning I got up and sat on the bed trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or just stay up to read. I looked out of the window and saw a Taxi downstairs and a half drunken bloke staggering out. After going to the loo, I sat to look at the front cover of my Guinea Pig’s photo book. Seeing him is calming. I did try to read a book after that but found it hard to keep my eyes open for long and was fast asleep within minutes. This time though, I was accompanied by a wonderful dream starring none other than my beloved Guinea Pig, of course. M played a minor role as well.
Here I am again describing another dream featuring our dear friend. In the dream, I lowered the Guinea Pig’s cage to the floor and told M to let him out for a little run. The Guinea Pig had been pretty restless, running around in his cage. I attempted to pick him up and he ran away from me to hide under the hay. When I tried to pick him up again, I noticed another pair of eyes looking at me. This second Guinea Pig was smaller, looked scruffier and shared the same colours as my little friend. M saw the shock on my face and asked, “What? Have you forgotten that you insisted on buying another Guinea Pig last week?” I looked at him, suddenly remembering that I apparently bought a little Guinea Pig from a pet shop at Melbourne Central. LOL. Suddenly I could see that M was secretly wondering if I had been neglecting the newbie.
Seeing that I failed to pick either Guinea Pig up, M came over to help. He let them both run wild in the living room. (In reality, our dear little Guinea Pig played within a fenced up area.) Coincidentally, as mentioned in a previous dream, the balcony doors were left wide open. Soon we had trouble monitoring both of them because they didn’t stay together. M tried to pick up the newbie and it bit him on the finger and darted away. He was then seen running down the hallway, towards the spare room before we were briefly interrupted by a neighbour at the door asking for some foam to make artificial flowers. (Well, I think I did reveal recently that my dreams can be quite weird.) Meanwhile, our original Guinea Pig was already rummaging through all the junk in the spare room. As soon as the neighbour left, we took action to spoil the little cheeky piggies’ fun. The newbie was chewing the vacuum cleaner cord but M went for our Guinea Pig who was chewing on some paper first. After returning him to the cage, he came back for the newbie who had then found something else to chew in the almost inaccessible room. The dream ended when both piggies were safely returned to the cage.
That new piggy seemed quite a handful! Luckily we are not in a hurry to get ourselves another Guinea Pig. I am still trying to get over the loss of our first furry friend. We will definitely keep Guinea Pigs again one day but it will not happen until we get ourselves a property where pets can be lovingly buried upon their deaths. To us, pets are like family members. They are loved in life and should be treated with dignity when they pass away. Although I will never know if my beloved Guinea Pig’s ashes are really in the urn, I am content to see him popping up in my dreams from time to time.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Potentially a Guinea Pig’s Paradise
On our way home after ‘inspecting’ the Tan Track a couple of weeks ago, we walked past a display in front of a statue on St Kilda Road. It was a big patch of Parsley. I took a couple of photos at the time but they didn’t turn out great. So, we went back a couple of days ago and took more photos of it and here they are. It is amazing how the patch of Parsley actually survived Black Saturday.
My Guinea Pig loved parsley, especially the curly type. I used to enjoy watching him eat it. If he chewed one from the stalk end first, he would always look very funny with the curly leaves temporarily arranged at his mouth, like he had a green beard. LOL. I totally regret not taking photos of such a precious moment. If there really is such a thing as a heaven for pets (or humans), do you think there is an All-You-Can-Eat joint similar to this patch of Parsley for Guinea Pigs?
My Guinea Pig loved parsley, especially the curly type. I used to enjoy watching him eat it. If he chewed one from the stalk end first, he would always look very funny with the curly leaves temporarily arranged at his mouth, like he had a green beard. LOL. I totally regret not taking photos of such a precious moment. If there really is such a thing as a heaven for pets (or humans), do you think there is an All-You-Can-Eat joint similar to this patch of Parsley for Guinea Pigs? Making Use of The Tan
Reading blogs of people living in their spouse’s homeland is one thing that I really like doing when I surf the web. A recent post by this lady blogger inspired me to increase my walking. M and I are already walking to and fro to get our shopping and errands done. We even walk on days which I used to deem too hot (over 34°c) to do anything active (not including swimming in the pool) outdoors. In fact, I now find it cooler to walk to the city on warm days than to ride in a super stuffy tram.
There are splendid parks located very close to where I live. We go there quite often but we have never made plans to regularly exercise there for FREE. Inspired by the blogger in Japan, I am going to start making use of the Tan Track that is so conveniently close to our little home. The Tan is a 3.8km walking and jogging track that encircles the Royal Botanic Gardens and Kings Domain. Heard that I was interested, M and I went to check out the track a couple of weeks ago. We instantly felt the difference between walking on the track and walking on a typical footpath. Slightly more effort was required for each step on the track because of its surface. I took some photos on the day and here are a couple of them.
There are splendid parks located very close to where I live. We go there quite often but we have never made plans to regularly exercise there for FREE. Inspired by the blogger in Japan, I am going to start making use of the Tan Track that is so conveniently close to our little home. The Tan is a 3.8km walking and jogging track that encircles the Royal Botanic Gardens and Kings Domain. Heard that I was interested, M and I went to check out the track a couple of weeks ago. We instantly felt the difference between walking on the track and walking on a typical footpath. Slightly more effort was required for each step on the track because of its surface. I took some photos on the day and here are a couple of them.
Not wishing to set myself up to fail by doing too much, I am hoping to start walking on the track at least once or twice a week before gradually building that up to three times per week during the cooler months. My plan is to start this week and will post about my progress in here every now and then. M is not quite sure of letting me go there on my own but I think it should be safe. I did see individual female runners or joggers when we were there. The track is very popular with residents nearby and city workers. So, it’s not quiet and spooky.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Ordered Photo of Sam – the Rescued Koala
As soon as M left for work today, I too was on my way to the Herald Sun Shop to purchase a photo of Sam, the koala who was rescued by a CFA guy. Not wishing to walk too much, I opted for the short cut via the back gate. As soon as I got to the footpath, I happened to look across the street and saw a new booth set up on one side of the driveway going into the back of the morgue (aka Coronial Services Centre & Victorian Institute of Forensic Pathology). Inside the booth sat an officer with a blue cap on. I couldn’t quite tell if he was a security officer or a policeman. To the left of the booth, I saw marquees set up on the area immediately behind the main building. The marquees were surrounded by temporary fencing and each panel was further covered with a layer of black mesh to block people walking past from looking in. So, that was the temporary morgue they set up. What a sight? I stood outside our building for a minute or two. My stomach was turned upside down – similar but less intense to how I felt when I discovered that my Guinea Pig had passed away 9 months ago. I find it very hard to accept that horrible things can happen in Melbourne or Australia. People complained about the lack of proper storage in Thailand after the Boxing Day Tsunami but it turned out that Melbourne’s morgue too is very small.
When I noticed that the officer inside the booth was looking at me, I turned to continue my journey to buy that all so touching photo. Three people were working in the shop and I was the second to be served at the time. From what I overheard, every call the three very busy people answered when I was there were enquiries to buy the photo of Sam. It turned out that they didn’t have the photos in the shop. I was required to fill in a form, pay for it and pick it up next week. I hope there are no hiccoughs. I just can’t wait to buy a frame for it and to place it next to my Guinea Pig’s photos.
According to the news, Sam has a new friend. His name is Bob. He too suffered burns. Apparently Bob would put his arm around Sam. I wish that someone would take a photo of that.
I was brought up with close contact to Amahs because my parents were very busy. As a result I was exposed to a never ending source of ghost stories. The women probably found it easier to scare me as a way to control a head-strong and demanding girl. Those ghost stories gave me nightmares for years and made me more superstitious than any members of my immediate family. Today, as I stood there looking at those marquees, I wasn’t a bit scared at all. Instead, I felt total sadness for those people. What a way to go?
I will post again about Sam when I receive the photo next week.
When I noticed that the officer inside the booth was looking at me, I turned to continue my journey to buy that all so touching photo. Three people were working in the shop and I was the second to be served at the time. From what I overheard, every call the three very busy people answered when I was there were enquiries to buy the photo of Sam. It turned out that they didn’t have the photos in the shop. I was required to fill in a form, pay for it and pick it up next week. I hope there are no hiccoughs. I just can’t wait to buy a frame for it and to place it next to my Guinea Pig’s photos.
According to the news, Sam has a new friend. His name is Bob. He too suffered burns. Apparently Bob would put his arm around Sam. I wish that someone would take a photo of that.
I was brought up with close contact to Amahs because my parents were very busy. As a result I was exposed to a never ending source of ghost stories. The women probably found it easier to scare me as a way to control a head-strong and demanding girl. Those ghost stories gave me nightmares for years and made me more superstitious than any members of my immediate family. Today, as I stood there looking at those marquees, I wasn’t a bit scared at all. Instead, I felt total sadness for those people. What a way to go?
I will post again about Sam when I receive the photo next week.
Scored a Good Buy
While I was out today, I dropped by the supermarket to buy a few items. Since I was on my own, I was free to hang around a bit longer to study the price of some things. We normally do not buy laundry powders with fancy brands but today I spotted a 2kg box of Drive Advanced Concentrate for just $5.99. Not only did my glasses nearly fell off my face, I think my eyes nearly pop out as well. That’s 70¢ dearer than a 2kg box of Homebrand Concentrate. According to a sticker on the box, it looks like the product is about to go for a facelift including a formula change (2X concentrate). $5.34 off normal recommended retail price is really quite a catch. I think I will go back tomorrow to get a couple more. I will have to be speedy because now that the Chinese New Year is over, the students (the International Student population) are back for another year at Uni.I am still quite disappointed for not buying a 10kg bucket of Cold Power Advance for $27 from Big W at the end of 2008. There were stacks of them on display but I was taking my own sweet time. Before I knew it, the offer was over! At $27, that’s $2.70 per kilo! A 10kg bucket would last us a year or more. Today the same bucket is about $35 - $38, I think.
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