Hello Goodbye

It is official. In fact, we now live in an environ where things are official when it's announced on blogs and Facebook. There is no need to go register at your nearest Marriage Registrar's Office when you just click 'married' on your Facebook status.

Anyways, I digress.

I declare to the world (yes, you) that I am done with Cantoland. Finis! I have finished the last museum on my to-do list last week. In it's own way, it was bitter-sweet. As I finished up, I couldn't help but feel melancholy. The American and I have spent a considerable time exploring the museums of this place. There was this unwritten rule that once completed, we would have finished up with Cantoland and it would be time to leave. I also had this 'I must go to every shopping mall in Cantoland' list; I am sure I have completed the majority of the malls according to my trusty map I have done 78/104... (I added another 32 off the top of my head which are not in the list)... Which is considerably more than most people I would believe! =)

It's now time to move on and up in the world! I am moving up north to the world of Giant Pandas! Wonderful creatures though they don't do very much.

Packing is always a nightmare when you don't have the company packers at your disposal. I hate to declutter and have to choose to keep books or shoes.Now is a good time to get it in my head that I don't need so many shoes/bags/books/clothes. You get the idea. I have only dug out half the stuff and already I am panicking. There is no way I will ever be able to condense everything to six boxes.

At least I have set me a target. No more than six boxes. *groans*

Touch GO! into Twenty Ten

Google images of Victoria Harbour

Happy New Year everyone! :)

Time flies when you're having fun. It seems like yesterday when I graduated from university. This year, Fat Eagle has graduated while the two youngest siblings are in secondary school. The fifth sibling is still in one (very tattered) piece and will probably survive another hundred washings in the washing machine.

I have been in Cantoland for more than two years now. While some may consider it a relative short period of time, I prefer to see it in terms of proportion. 27/303 months of my existance = 8.91% of my life.

2009 has been an exciting year. I made a resolution to see more of the world and I did! Looking back at my very dire predictions for 2009, I can see that they did come true (except the fireworks bit and mangoes ). We were pessimistic entering 2009 and we leave it feeling the worst of the financial crisis has past.

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My favourite dimsum restaurant closed down, and deep fried custard bun is no longer very readily available as it has been taken off the menu at my local restaurant. I hang out with the girls in the hospital and we spend our days oogling the pretty cars in the carpark and speaking Cantonese. One day we will have the guts to leave our phone numbers on the baby pink volkswagon beatle with a Barbie on the dashboard. It is so cute! If I have a car, I will get a customised number plate called 'Barbie' hahaha!

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This year the BBC could not decide if Dr Who would pronounce as 'two thousand and ten' or 'twenty ten'. In the end, they settled on 'twenty ten'. A shorter mouthful if you ask me!

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And twenty ten is going to be a good year!

The Medic has Landed

This the week before Christmas. Yours truly was debating the wisdom of sending home Christmas presents for the Fifth Sibling etc era. Then I remembered that the little brat sulks and will refuse to talk to me for a month if I did not send anything back. So a massively overpriced parcel was duly dispatched to the sunny land of Nasi Lemak. The postman stuck about a hundred stamps on the parcel. You would think that they have large denomination stamps that would suffice, but no, he covered the side of the parcel with colourful Cantoland stamps. I wouldn't let him put the fancy gold/silver/bronze East Asian Games limited edition stamps because that would guarantee the non-arrival of my parcel.

We had a Christmas party at work where we had to bring along a dish we made ourselves. Everyone else had parents/helpers who made the food, while I made my own. I am so proud of me. In fact, I deserve a prize. I won the lucky dip! I never win anything! :) So I am now five hundred dollars richer! :)

The medic has come back to visit Cantoland this weekend. I am so excited! It's been a whole ten months since I last saw one of my Powerpuff sisters (who happen to be grown men but it's okay). It will be fun to catch up and drink lots of alcohol without guilt, because no matter what, I will never out-drink a doctor.

Three days till Shang Hai! :)

Skin is Big Money

I went to the dermalogists' annual christmas dinner last night with the boss. Skin is one of those specialist fields that all women would like to have as a friend while all major beauty product companies would love to have as clients.

Needless to say, we always come home with loads of goodies. I have enough beauty freebies to last me the next three years no kidding! Am aiming for the free laser treatment and botox next hahahaha! You seriously do get scutinised by dermatologists for any textural imperfections, acne, thread veins. Just like your dentist would be staring at your teeth when you are talking to them, or your podiatrist at your feet and highly inappopriate footwear.

But when your friend the dermatologist decides that the lone pimple on your forehead does not become you, he will give you loads of freebies to get rid of that pimple. I like my dermatologist! :) Or maybe they were staring at my cleavage wrinkles. =/

We met quite a few unmarried doctors in various specialties. Medicine can be such a small hunting ground. They were surprised to find that we have loads of single and available girls for sale attractive young women in our department. If you do look at the percentage, 80% of our professional staff are unmarrried and 60% are female under 30 years of age. There aren't very many of us to start with anyway!

So the boss is scheming to matchmake us all up. I get to play charporone and pick a fight when the doctor 'makes the move'.

Work is fun! :)

And the seas parted...

As most people know, I am multi-talented *hahahahaha*. No, seriously, I am. :)

However, even perfect people have their quirks. And mine is that I cannot ride a bike *shock horror*. Oh, I did try as a child. I still remember aged six and living at Maria Strat in the Hague, my dad was trying to teach me the finer points of riding a bicycle. Everyone in Holland rode a bike. I couldn't for the life of me get it, even with trainer wheels. Then we went on holiday to Austria, and lo behold! I could ride when we got back! :)

The skill was lost with age and I found myself unable to ride a bike aged sixteen. Don't ask me why. I can't drive well either.

The local and the Aussie-local can't believe this for a fact, and persuaded me to come bike riding. So I went as I was promised dimsum after, and I love dimsum! :)

We went off in the heat of the day and rode thirteen freakin' kilometres! It was a scenic route and the weather was fantastic, but my bum hurt. In fact, it still hurts. The Aussie-local was equally unacclimatised to exercise, and we made the local abandon the plan to ride the whole route back again in favour of taking the train home. Ahhh..convenient public transport links!

I doubt I will be doing that amount of exercise again so soon. But then, we mustn't think of such unpleasant thoughts. I will concentrate on setting up my pretty new netbook! :)

Hard Act to Follow

I know I know.. I have fallen off the edge of the Earth.. But yours truly has just crawled back up. :) So viola! I am back! :)

No, I haven't been in Beijing all this while (I wish!)

It's been busy busy at work and outside of work. Been having way too much fun. And cracking my back while I'm at it... =P

But I'm well and good to go! Will head out for a night cruise on a traditional junk boat on Victoria Harbour tomorrow night, followed by dinner at one of the poshest restaurants on this side of Cantoland. I am debating between wearing my usual going-t0-work gear of shorts, grubby Birkenstocks and baby tshirt; or to scrub up a little in a mini-dress and 3.5 inch heels...

Aqua Luna - The junk boat we're going on! :)

Decisions... decisions... Nonetheless, this event is organised by a woman (who could tell huh?) and all of us are living it up here. I wonder if there is anything more that will impress me? Eventually we will run out of exciting/romantic/different/exotic things to do and will die of boredom.

And We're Rollin'!

Zhu Hai Hot Spring Resort

I know I have been terrible and should be shot *uhuh* for not blogging in ages.

But since my lovely readers love me very much and would miss my randomness when I am dead by chocolate, you should avoid feeding me chocolate thinking of shooting me. :)

As I have announced to the world. I went on holiday. Cantoland has this thing, where we have to take complusory leave for a minimum of two full weeks a year for stress relief. But they only give us very little leave to start with. My assistant gets ten days, which would amount to her two weeks. So she has to work her ass off the other 50 weeks of the year. Slave drivers... *grumbles*

I will blog about my holiday when my arms resume their normal range of motion. Which will be about next year. You see, in my eagerness to get back to work, I hurt my back and went for physio. Then I was supposed to go swimming, but when to the hot springs to prune up and be massaged till the cows come home. Then I went pole-dancing. So that's why I can't move my arms above my head without winching. Or my thighs into the yoga positions I should be doing.

They are all excused really, because my holiday snapshots are all still in the camera and the pendrive my brother gave me before I left.

The only significant thing that I brought back was TEN POUNDS. I put on ten freakin' pounds in the UK! My assistant told me so, my dietitian told me so, my speech therapist tells me so, my cleaner tells me so, heck even the patients tell me so! Arrghh.. But I have lost it all and more now *looks worried*. I should eat more and work less. Life would be much more interesting.

On a lighter note, yours truly has two brand new podiatrists to corrupt! :) Our team has conned two unsuspecting young pretty and gullible girls to come work for peanuts in Cantoland. Okay, they are still older than me, but I am an authority on the hottest places to party in Cantoland hohoho, so wisdom before age I say! ;)

I shall have to start crowd control measures for the number of young men who will be knocking on the clinic door.

White Lies

I was pulled up the other day, for being sociable.

I never knew that making friends was an offense. That having personal time was a big no-no. And not telling people who don't need to know your private life what you are doing with your time is illegal. Because apparently it is.

I don't think that telling little half-truths is a sin. Because these half truths have allowed me to protect you from feeling the hurt of exclusion. And the hurt only comes from the attitude you give to others. Thus their reluctance to include you into their social lives. So why shoot the messager when you accidentally find out?

One day, I hope you realise that is it important to respect others. We are watching and waiting. I can tolerate a lot of bullshit. However, I draw the line at manipulation. My life is mine to live as I please. And you are not invited into it.

And it's a Pandemic!

WHO declared the H1N1 virus, better known as Swine Flu, as a pandemic today.

It was surprising that Margaret Chan, did not declare that when Japan, then Australia had community outbreaks. But when Cantoland reported their first case of local human-to-human transmission, suddenly we were all worried and WHO decided to call the highest alert level. Did it help to note that she is from Cantoland originally?

The reason for calling in Phase Six is clear. There is wide global outbreak of this virus. Eventhough the number of fatalities are not very high, the fact remains that this virus affects many people in multiple countries. And we are just begining to see it spread to the developing and third world countries.

There have been reports that older people have immunity due to previous pandemics like the Hong Kong flu or the Spainish flu, while those of us below the age of forty have never been exposed to this virus.

There are two schools of thought:

1. Let everyone get it. Once we all get hit with this relatively mild virus, we would have immunity when it becomes more lethal later on.

2. Use Tamiflu and prevent everyone from getting this virus. However, once the virus mutates. We.are.screwed.

I've had my flu jab every year. And I have to say, when I fall ill. I fall really ill. And this has occured every time I have an annual flu jab. Should I be peeing my pants? Maybe.

Or I should just keep up on the hand hygiene, alcohol wipes and face masks.

Beauty Vs Brains

The gods of hospitals have showered their er.. grace on us poor souls in the clinic. They have decided to grant us a tiny 150-square-feet office. And being the absolutely easy-to-please people that we are, we are ecstatic. So we have moved in people! The boss has moved all the crap out of the clinic leaving me a lovely clean space to roll about. :) Well, maybe not roll about, since there is hardly enough space to squeeze past the clinical treatment chair and wheelchair in case of a fire. And I get to pick my own filing cabinets. I want a pink one! :) And a red lamp! :) So what if it doesn't match the cream clinical decor.

I got a little perk-me-up from the chief executive of one of the hospitals in the post the other day. One of my patients had written a heartfelt thank you letter for our service. And so he popped in a little note in appreciation for the effort made. I am quite addicted to collect those 'gold stars', like people collect blue and yellow slips in KTJ. I am kiasu.

We have a symposium on Friday and I was 'volunteered' to help out. While every other medical professional gets proper jobs like timekeeping, registration, audio visual etc, my official job description is to 'look pretty' and 'ring a bell'. -_-

I didn't think my life would one day come down to this. Since when have my (non-existent) beauty outclassed my brains?-_-

Mass Fatality Plan

They send us random emails en masse in this country. The emails make my day because hardly anyone emails me. They can range from 'do not gamble or drink alcohol during work hours' to 'the most memorable thing that happened in 2008 was Mr X retiring'. These people have a very weird sense of humour. No wait, they were serious.

We got one today about the Mass Fatality Plan. Now, unless you live in isolation with no means of communication, everyone has heard about Influenza A that's spreading like wildfire around the world. And you would have probably heard about how Cantoland went OTT to lock everyone up. We survived SARS; there was a valid reason why. We isolated infected people to prevent disease spread and scrubbed everything raw.

So this week, there is a new case of a local who came back from the US with it. And just because this is one of their own, they have decided that he was more important than the foreigner who incidentally, was also an imported case, and have declared a state of emergency. Thus we got an email on mass fatality in case of community outbreak. Initially, I thought they were going to lock up the hospitals and anyone who happened to be inside and throw away the key. Then hidden overhead vents will gas us and they will put us into a mass grave they just happened to have conveniently disguised as the swimming pool. Or they may throw our bodies into the construction site of the new wing of the hospital like the indigenous tribes of Borneo used to do to christen their long houses.

My department has our contingency plans ready. We will close all non-essential services. I hope that I will finally have time to read those magazines research papers.

Tai Tai my Foot.

The Lobby @ The Peninsula.

When you visit Cantoland, Lonely Planet tells you to take high tea at the Lobby of the Peninsula Hotel. This is a practice from colonial days when the rich ladies of leisure sat about and sipped English tea in fine bone china cups and nibbled at dainty sandwiches while gossipping and comparing the size of their diamonds.

And just because Lonely Planet said so, the queue at the Peninsula was an hour long. They do not take reservations and all guests must queue up, or pay some one else to queue. They don't even take a number and call you back when there is space. Snobs.

Yours truly queued patiently, while playing games on her phone and checking out the cute waiters . The lawyer and her friends joined in, and we were all dressed like aspiring tai tais complete with dangly jewellery, clutch and high heeled shoes and silk dresses. I had just woken up and had a cream puff for breakfast, while the others had a bun each. So when we ordered, we ordered a portion for each of us. We made small talk while I checked out the china and the silver. I have better at home.

When it arrived, we looked at each other and said: " that's it?" Then proceeded to woof everything down, and complain we needed more food. No one else seemed to be complaining about the miniscule portions. Idiots.

Tell me, how do grown women survive on so little? This is FOUR portions!

We had a pot of tea each to our individual preference. In Cantoland, they have a great fondness of tea, and when your teapot is empty, you lift the lid and the staff will refill your pot. We didn't know what to do with our empty teapots. We had been commenting on why the girl who ordered Chinese tea, had a taller teapot. We also commented on the gradual lightening of her tea in her teacup and further debated on how best to draw attention our empty teapots. Suggestions ranged from lifting the teapot lid a la Chinese restaurants to hailing the waiter in Mandarin a la Mainland tourist/Singlish a la your friendly neighbour.

The tea service by Tiffany & Co.

Then one of the girls burst out laughing. And wouldn't stop for five minutes. And then very soberly told us that she had been drinking 'tea' from the hot water pot to refill our teapots. We looked into her teacup to see clear water with 2 tea leaves floating about.

The peninsula has never seen such failures in womankind. I guess I am just not cut for the tai tai lifestyle *sigh*. Or I should eat more train harder.

Bun Bun Baby...

Towers of Buns filled with bean/lotus/glutinous rice/sesame paste.

The May Day weekend saw Cantoland celebrating Bun Festival in Cheung Chau. Not that Bun Fest is in anyway related to May Day, but that the Saturday happened to be Buddha's birthday= Bun Festival. Isn't is great to have a bun festival on your birthday? When I'm the queen, I am going to declare my birthday to be custard bun festival too! :)

I have been recuperating from my horrible cold and have found myself fit to enjoy the festival. I am the podiatrist here, so no one should question my judgement. So Friday night saw the bankers partying it up, and yours truly amongst them. It also saw Cantoland's first case of Swine Flu also known as Influenza A (type H1N1) and the lockdown of the hotel with 300 innocent people within it. We had dinner at the American Restaurant with was a bare 2 minutes walk from ground zero. There were cops everywhere! Bankers are paranoid people and refused to walk through the area for fear of cross-infection. I figured that the guy would have infected everyone around the area prior to being admitted anyway, and may even have sat in the very seat in the very restaurant we were having dinner at, and partied at the very clubs we went that night.

Saturday, bright and early, we went to Cheung Chau for the festival. For those newly addicted to my sporadic writings, bun festival occurs once a year. They have bun towers four storeys high, and people climb up a tower and grab as many buns as they can to win the competition. There are team events and individual events. The winner gets to take home a giant bun. No, I am only kidding. They get a trophy, though a giant bun would be better. They also put kids on sticks and parade them about town for kicks. If I ever have a kid, I would put him/her on a stick and join the parade too so that my kid won't feel left out.

The children are dressed in various characters. This year included AIG. It was probably for the children's safety they didn't dress them up as Lehman bankers!

The lawyer and her friends, the American and the medic student went along with me for the parades during the day. The pseudo-lawyer went for the competition at night. I am a lightweight and was unable to stay awake for such long hours in the heat. Next year, I am going to join the competition hah!

The queues were horrendous!

Peace Buns- thought to bring peace to the receiver.

Preparing the tower for the competition. Buns at the top are worth 9 points; bottom 1 point. Aim of the game is to get as many points are possible.

Buns are taken down to be distributed to the masses.

We went to the beach after. The beach was lovely! All nice soft sands, clean waters, and hot men in swimwear. Ah... Sight for tired eyes. :) Beer googles helped too.

Only in this country, would you get quirky festivals such as this. And they take it real serious too!

Swine Flu

The news has been heating about the epidemic in Mexico. Cantoland bosses are watching very very carefully in anticipation of hitting this tiny country.

Because let's face it. It is gona hit us. With the ease of travel nowadays it's just a matter of time before someone comes back with it. There are suspect cases in China as we speak. WHO has risen the alert to 4, which is just short of a pandemic. Cantoland is sitting at Serious level 1. I personally think it should be sitting at Serious level 2 to reflect the cross human transmission in a foreign land, but I can understand that they do no wish to freak people out.

People are freaked out already. My clinics are 30% lower with people choosing not to come to the hospital for fear of cross infection. Or maybe they heard that the podiatrist is down with a cold yet still at work. My assistants are all drugged up to prevent themselves from succumbing to my cold -_- .Accident and Emergency was pretty quick on it's feet when I went to see them this morning. I know, abuse of emergency services... But it was pretty much an emergency. I had finished my medication and my cold was showing no sign of abating with the next available out-patient appointment 36 hours away and 20 patients booked in. I needed medication fast *sheepish*. I was out the door in 15 minutes flat with my new prescription.

My staff are all prepared for a possible pandemic. We are going to be tellytubbies in our blue scrubs, disposable tunics, masks and face shields. It shall be an interesting experience, just like SARS.

I just hope that I get well enough to go for the Bun Festival on Saturday. I lurrvee Bun Festival!

Horrible Weather *Gaahhhhhhh!!...

It's been raining... It was raining when I woke up, and hasn't stopped. So much for my plans to go out and get some sunshine and a new book to read. -_-

The cold is a getting better but showing no instant signs of abating. :( Thus the medication continues. I had the sudden need to do laundry and have sent just about everything to the laundry lady. I also have weird food cravings for things like penne pasta, baked potato with tuna and cheese, dimsum and cream puffs.

I settled with yummy cream puffs to take my mind off having to eat congee all day (again!)

Life sucks.

Battling the Cold

I bet you didn't know that prostitution was legal in the little city state of Singapore. I didn't know either. But trust the government to make it legal so that they can legitimately tax the profits as the Dutch government is trying to do.

I am currently at home reading random news excerpts in between sleep and medication. I was hit with the common cold (why is it called common when it doesn't feel that great??) on Wednesday and have been off work yesterday and today in the hope of recuperation. My clinics are all totally messed up now. :( I have chaos to look forward too, as my assistant very gently reminded me when I went back in to work today to attempt to sort out some paperwork.

But that is all for next week. I shall enjoy the rest of my unexpected long weekend. I have a weird craving for tom yam soup.

Dear Diary...

Some friends are coming over this week for Easter. They are determined to max out their credit cards and empty their bank accounts. It is quite frightening to see women so motivated. We are also doing the mandatory sightseeing of Cantoland and Macau so that there are photos to show the parents when they head back.

Today is Good Friday. Fasting here is nowhere near as intense as home. We are supposed to take no meat in our 'two light meals one heavy meal' fast. Failing which, we should donate a generous amount to the church missionary fund. Holy Thursday mass was a publicity drive to generate income for the missionary work for the church in China. It seem to work, because everyone stood up and put money into the donation boxes. They probably collected in excess of a hundred and fifty thousand local currency in the ten minutes. Hit them where it hurts, and in Cantoland, it's the wallet.

Today was spent cleaning. I have cleaned my windows three times, and still they smudge.. :(

I am also going to Mass the will start the whirlwind round of shopping in my local area and then to Causeway Bay.

Tomorrow is Dimsum and more shopping, then to dinner and drinks at the clubs and pubs in Soho and Central.

Sunday we will head to Macau with the American and friends for sightseeing and more shopping. I wanted to go to the spa but was out-voted.

Monday is the usual Cantoland sights with dinner of the most famous roast duck in this country.

Tuesday to Thursday I have to work, but I have their schedule packed with shopping expeditions and food hunting.

I don't anticipate any sleep this week. Or I may just collapse in exhaustion.

Guinness Book of Records CantoPod Editon

I broke my own record today. You get days when you see pretty little shriveled up toes that just happen to pop off and is put into a doggy bag for people to bring home to put on their mantlepiece. Then the clients miraculously heal up really quickly and everyone is happy.

You don't get days like that very often. It normally takes a bit of wriggling and twisting and a lot of waving of hands and saying magic words before the digits auto-amputate.

Today, five little pigs went to the podiatrist and never made it home.

I am so proud of myself.

Spring Cleaning

My 3 Inch Lotus Shoe Collection

I have been procrastinating for a while... My dirty laundry is sitting nicely in the laundry bag while my clean laundry is piled in a heap on the floor as I couldn't be bothered to put them back into the closet. The closet is full anyway. But I really should be putting my clothes away instead of pulling socks from the pile every morning. It's not that I have to wash, dry or even fold the clothes, labor is cheap here and someone else does it for me. At least I don't actively pay someone to iron my clothes... That's because work clothes come ready pressed.

However, some friends will be visiting during Easter and thus I should have finished my cleaning by then. Nothing better than a dose of housepride to get the cleaning done.

I went out with the bankers on Friday for drinks and dinner. It was good to see some I have not seen in a while. In fact, I probably see them more often than one of the other guys who stays on the same floor as I do. It also reminded me why I should not be in my line of work. I don't get to flaunt pretty heels everyday. Hefty price to pay for your work clothes to be laundered for you? Saturday was a nice relaxing day with Dimsum, shopping, dinner with the American and drinks with some other bankers. I should really stop shopping. You see, you get a skirt that doesn't match anything else you own. Then you look for a top to go with it, and then a belt and so on and so forth. The only thing don't have to get anew are my shoes, but that's because I have a lot of those already. But this weekend I am the proud owner of some very pretty porcelain beads to be strung up into a belt. I probably won't even wear it with my new skirt...

I can't wait to declutter! Spring is here and it's mating season. The boss is away and I am running the ship. If I have my way, it would be nice and light clinics, but I only have a pair of hands that cannot work miracles, though we get pretty close. I am interviewing a guy who used to work at HSBC, and will hopefully have a new assistant by week's end. Somehow my assistants are all male and are getting younger and younger.*shifty eyed* Research has proven that people work better when motivated. I am planning for when we have three young single female podiatrists working together in the next few months. :) I am anything if not a considerate boss. Ha!

LaLa

I was skimming through Yahoo Odd News while taking a break from Shakespeare...

You've got to love competitions like this:

Oddest Book Title of the Year award:
- 1997: "The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition."
- 1998: "Development in Dairy Cow Breeding and Management: and New Opportunities to Widen the Uses of Straw."
- 1999: "Weeds in a Changing World."
- 2000: "High Performance Stiffened Structures."
- 2001: "Butterworths Corporate Manslaughter Service."
- 2002: "Living with Crazy Buttocks."
- 2003: "The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories."
- 2004: "Bombproof Your Horse."
- 2005: "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."
- 2006: "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification."
- 2007: "If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs."
- 2008: "The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais"

I want Sevens tickets but I didn't manage to get them this weekend. *boo*
However, I am going to visit the orphanage and dinner and drinks after *yay*