oddball family

drove an hour-odd to get to class today, only to change into surgical scrubs and hang around the operating theater for 30-odd minutes before anyone had a clue as to who our surgeon was and what we were supposed to be doing. it wasn't until another 10-odd minutes into surgery that we realized what kind of surgery the patient was undergoing. by that time, the probe had already been retracted and the surgeon was pulling his gloves off with a resounding snap.

what followed was a day full of oddities - quirky sense of humors, incessant stares directed at each of us only to be softened by a twinkle and a wink, being asked how high my stream of pee would reach in the air if i peed on my back, eliciting how long one takes to finish a pee in seconds, that famous stamp of the bladder and ureters @ mcneil's to name a few. oh and of course, the hordes of dirty aunts and grandmas we all couldn't possibly have because urinary tract infections don't stem from anything women do in particular, especially not bad hygiene.

at the end of the day, despite an unstoppable flow of jaw-dropping gapes and wide-eyed grimaces being exchanged by the four of us @ gosford today, i've realized that i too am an oddball, thoroughly enjoying every awkward grin. and you know what? i kinda like it =)

anywhere but here

flicked on the tv and happened to catch the opening ceremony of the winter olympics @ torino. *immediately gets infected with the exhilaratingly effervescent atmosphere* i miss that. i miss the days of conferences and parades. i miss the days when i was somebody, even if i really wasn't. it was nice to think one was a somebody. watching the opening ceremony stirred up dusty sleepy memories where i was on pedestals as high as those of the athletes, where i was part of the energetic activity instead of standing in the shadowy sidelines.

i get these random bouts of being inspired. not inspiration per se. just this incredible feeling as if seeing the world for the first time in full technicolor. a wonderful feeling where i can feel my eyes sparkle and hear the accompanying tinkling sound effects. a feeling that opens my eyes to all the things i could possibly do, can possibly achieve and how little time there is to do everything i want to do, try all that i want to try. i think you saw a smidgen of that exuberance when i contemplated about second chances *starts to sing i believe i can fly*

....*rewinds* urm. not quite, but you get the idea, no?

one thing @ the opening ceremony that caught my attention, besides the cute athletes and clothes each country was wearing, was taiwan's entry. i was complaining earlier how unfair it was that hong kong gets their own placard and entry as a different country contingent from china, except that they tacked on "republic of china" after "hong kong" - why could hong kong be allowed to enter when taiwan gets banned from joining anything that china's already in?! after all, taiwan already is known as a republic of china. it says so on my passport dammit. *throws a tantrum*

i had to swallow my own words a bit later when guess which country saunters in ..."chinese taipei"

*faints*

wtf?!

"more commonly known as taiwan...it will be interesting to see what kind of reception they'll get when they next march into the olympics in beijing" the running ozzie commentary said.



i'd gladly step up on my personal soapbox and launch into a tirade dedicated to those brainwashing eloquent folks controlling the great empire of china for yes, it will be interesting to see how taiwan is received, if even that, at the next olympics... yet i don't fancy having my butt sued off. after all, acidflask merely pissed off one lone figure in singapore and had his life turned upside down for months. could u imagine pissing off a commi...urm china equivalent?

nigglies

now, think of the happiest things... it's the same as having wings!

-Peter Pan

well, despite things seemingly swimming along all hunky dory, i can't help but sense a gaggle of nigglies bubbling under the surface. they're almost like them gremlins jittering in their little spheres just before popping like bubble wrap.

can't quite put my finger on any one particular thing and that's just as frustrating. spent the whole night listening to amici ~ the opera band. bah. as an aside, they're gonna be in town on february 20th so if anyone's interested in hearing them live, i would love to have the company! man, i miss choir days. especially a capella singing... *bows head in silence to tic tac tone's decision to take an indefinite hiatus... and for mr vee too*

*big bear hugs to jme* no, not for the meme. ARGH. absolutely flattered to get my first meme (does this mean i'm a real blogger now? does it, does it?) but decidedly un-thrilled to become a headless sheep wandering with the crowd. never have been one to go with the flow, yet sometimes i paddle upstream so furiously that i end up hurting myself or tiring myself out so much i end up being part of the mainstream anyway, albeit a tad more scratched up. hmmm anyway, this is for you girlie. the first and last meme i'm gonna ever do *stomps foot louder than those friggin new neighbors i currently have yet to meet* hang in there. you know that you've got a support group at your beck and call in newie should you ever need us =)

here's the meme ~

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. teacher's assistant (or so i would like to believe), aged 11, to a kindergarten class @ bert's mom's school.
2. orientation redshirt @ student services, uni of newcastle
3. that lifetime job that was thrust upon me, that thing called being a daughter.
4. the job of keeping myself sane =) (yes, im a spoilt little overprotected brat who's grasping at straws to come up with four jobs)

Four movies songs I can watch listen to over and over:
look. im not a movie person. i get bored after the 2nd rerun so tuff, this meme's getting tweaked!
1. pachebel's canon in d. any version.
2. bandari - every. single. cd.
3. any work of toshihiko sahashi - you can have a listen @ mistkron's site. it's his bkground music
4. at the moment, lin yu zhong's kao an

Four places I’ve lived:
1. kaohsiung, taiwan
2. manila, philippines
3. northridge/woodland hills @ san fernando valley, cali
4. singapore

Four TV Shows I love would religiously watch:
1. charmed
2. scrubs
3. law & order: svu
4. kenny ho's version of 中华英雄 aka the blood sword. bah, scratch that. gimme any martial arts/chinese swordfighting series and i'll sit in front of the screen for days!

Four Places I’ve Vacationed:
1. okinawa/tokyo, japan
2. bangkok, thailand
3. yangon/mandalay, myanmar
4. honolulu, hawaii

Four of my Favorite Dishes:
1. any form of dark chocolate concoction
2. poh piah - the one from a certain stall in taiwan =)
3. wah kuay.. urm, literally "bowl.. um kuay" i don't noe how to describe it but if you come to tw, i'll buy you a bowl! =(
4. piping hot dou hua/dao huae ~ yet another asian dish that literally translates to "bean flower"

Four sites I visit daily:
1. bloglines for my one-stop blogstroll
2. does gmail count? 0.0
3. news.com.au - I love reading about it before it’s broadcast on the telly. <-- amen jme!
4. sadly, the last would have to be blackboard. aint that pathetic?

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. in the company of long lost friends
2. at the beach, strolling along the sea foam, flicking sand with my toes and camera in hand
3. in LA, picking up where i left off
4. in taiwan, pigging out. with friends. mebbe a small dose of parents. SMALL i said!

Four people I’m tagging:
as much as i'm resisting to pass this on, i feel guilty for breaking the chain so in terms of tagging... well feel free to assume you've been tagged if it strikes your fancy =)

early apologies for lack of updating. not sure when i'll next get to do so, not sure when i'll next have something to share. here's a story to keep some of you squirming for a bit...

was at my surgeon's private rooms last week and saw a sweet elderly lady toddle in. turns out she's had her rectocele for the past 20+ years.

hers was so bad, it kinda popped out once in a while. she whispered that she thought she was becoming a man at one point. when asked how she managed to live with her rectocele for so long, she replied that she would shove it back in whenever it prolapsed. as if that wasn't a graphic enough answer, my surgeon turned to me absolutely beaming and exclaimed "now isn't that clever!! she sticks her finger in to push it back up!!" *faints* and you'd think it couldn't get any worse than that but 5 minutes later, my surgeon had his finger up her back passage and was showing me how the rectocele worked by parting the labia and wriggling his finger in the opening. man.. and then he handed me a glove... 1 minute later, there was one more dirty glove hitting the biohazard bin. PR #2 under my belt. whoopee ~

i'm having second thoughts about heading towards the school of surgery...

a second chance

'twas keeping my fingers busy by clicking around flickr. i noe, i'm an egomaniac. i trawl through my own photostream ranked on "interestingness" and i'm glad i did. a second chance for old pics. i rediscovered some photos of yore and found this one titled patchy. change bradley to amy, his to her and there you have it. how apt... even the caption fits =)

...and then bradley got his heart and head patched

'tis the day before chinese new year. a second chance at starting this awful year right. up and at 'em! *beams* i'll never forget something my laoba once told me *waves hi to mikey* ~ 'twas something i never really realized about myself, or thought true. time has subsequently revealed to me what some others already knew. i'm a people person, i'm a pseudo-introvert. all those myers-briggs personality tests say so. it must be so. well, i know so =)

getting out of the house, seeing friends and catching up these past few days has done wonders for my downcast lackluster spirit. seeing other friends online and sharing emo times hasn't been too bad either. i'm beginning to feel a lot better as the world that i'm familiar with slowly rebuilds itself, as more friends return from their holiday haitus. watch out world, amy's ready to tackle the new year =)

aussie day misadventure

a phone call snaps me from my reverie
the voice at the other side offers some company
"shall we traipse to the foreshore for the fireworks?" it asks
"we should get there before nine and half past"

a mad rush for the shower to get ready, i run
cooped up all day was definitely no fun
this invitation, i couldn't refuse
many a firework, will me they amuse!

we clamber into her cute car from the nineties
with a handcrank for the sunroof, it was such a tease!
vroom vroom past the police to the city
fireworks had already started, oh what a pity =(

stopping the car at a random spot to climb up a random city bridge,
we ran into some blokes, the air turned colder than that in the fridge.
"oh! we're no baddies. happy australia day!" they assured.
we smiled and ran back to the car, we weren't sure we were insured.

no fireworks were to be seen,
save the ones that had just been.
what a lousy display it was this year
oh, we forget - it's newie, my dear!

we counted our blessings later at home
we saw more than at new years' but still we moan
i retire to my bara as the eve draws to a close,
i still have this singapore firework, at the very most =)

pillow talk

talk of these beating hearts still hasn't died down (legal bots, o legalbots ~ images are edited from the webby!)

now there's a new name for it!
here's a random chat of the day ~

he says: what u doinz
aemii says: nothing much
aemii says: what about u?
he says: that was delayeddddddddd
aemii says: hee i was clearing emails
he says: just reading ur cute lil blog......... those beating heart things arent too much to look at
aemii says: awww
aemii says: if they didnt cost so much, i'd buy one
aemii says: a hundred and twenty american dollars!
he says: how muccch is much
he says: eiya, wonder what makes em tick, cant be bothered finding out cause first page took so long to loud
aemii says: for ONE pillow!
aemii says: lol some comp chip
aemii says: it ticks differently every time
aemii says: it's like u get to hug a diff person each time hehehe
he says: slut pillow!
he says: hehe
aemii says: 0.0
aemii says: haha
aemii says: i like that one... that's going in the blog

now that you've put it that way, $120 isn't too bad an investment eh? *wink*

like a moth to a flame...

i'm attracting all sorts of negativity here. need to rewrite that sticker slapped across my forehead pretty soon.

couldn't help but bring a smile to my face when i stumbled across numbandnumber's 2006 greetings. the two lines i love... the very first and the very last. lol.

i'm already feeling sick and this random stumble with a smile was the saving grace from having half-digested tummy contents see the light of day again. i guess it's cumulative. haven't seen another person since i got dropped off by my shuttle bus five days ago. home cooked meals aren't as tasty as home cooked meals should be. having nothing to do really bugs me. i've finished putting away all my luggage. knowing that school's about to start in another week also really bugs me. listening to the nasal voice at the other end of the line tell me "thank you for waiting, your call has progressed in the queue and we'll be with you as soon as possible" accompanied by cheesy music for the past 33mins and counting is fast coaxing a migraine from its slumber. selling my precious powershot s40 cam on ebay didn't help.

i've been home for less than a week and i'm already homesick =(

man, 2006's barely started and i'm already deflated. let's hope it's pms.

introspecting

a skype call with my mom this afternoon got me thinking...
she wanted me to email my aunt to "show my concern" whatever that meant. i guess we have different levels of caring, different definitions.

is it too callous of me to not want to email my aunt, so she can wander around her personal space without being accosted every week about how she's feeling? i heard from her after she had her first chemo session. i heard her msg on the answering machine last week. her next chemo session's not due for another week. what else is there to ask about in terms of new developments?

to my mom, i'm not caring enough. i'm supposed to show my care and concern during my aunt's darkest moments. she needs to be cheered up, she needs the support, my mom insists. (don't tell me who to email and why, dammit. write your own emails, make your own phone calls! yells the me with the teenage angst.)

to me, i'm invading someone else's private space. had my aunt wanted to involve me in her battle, in her chemo sessions and everything else, she would've indicated. i don't want to turn naggy. then again, i wonder if the real reason deep down is my fear of turning into my mom.

a comment by a friend last night got me thinking...
rgs girls seem to lack eq.
maybe i'm fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy. maybe i'm heading towards a downward spiral. the more i think, the more confused i get - not just with the whole "email ur aunt" issue, but everything emotional in general. the fact that i'm questioning whether my eq's lacking kinda highlights the fact that it can't be too high, no? *scrunches forehead into a mess of wrinkles*

touchie feelie

when i was a kid, i wanted a lot of things, especially cute and fluffy things. my mom curbed that insatiable desire by telling me to "mong mong eh d'oh hurh" in hokkien - roughly translates to "go have a feel and that should be enough." for those chinese-inclined, it translates to "muo yi muo jio hao" aka "touch touch can already" in singlish.

i usually ended up giving the stuffed animal a cuddle before putting them back. occasionally, i liked one so much it would sit cozy in my grubby chubby arms as i toddled around the store. the bottom line was that since i "owned" it for a period in time, i should be satisfied and should be able to leave the store with out it, appeased.

sounds too abstract a concept for a 3-yr old to understand, let alone follow through eh? i surprised everyone and as a result of this "conditioning" of mine.. well i still have a habit of lugging various things around stores for random quantities of time. ask mr sleepyhead. that's how he eventually came home with me.

***

in the spirit of "mong mong eh d'oh hurh"....
i couldn't resist sharing... 'tis a manifestation of the mong mong conditioning.

(bleah. i can't believe how easily suckered i was. man, parents can be evil if they want to. look at A's mom. she recordered A screaming her lungs out during her daily morning tantrums one day and played it back to her the next morning at maximum volume during another tantrum. it definitely shut A up quicksmart.)

anyway, look what i found...



that bag...

*swoons and faints on the spot*

:: psst :: aemii can be easily revived in the presence of at least one of these ::