This morning, I got up at 7:15am, exercised with my brother Jack and proceeded to clean up my room instead of eating breakfast as I had to fast for my 9am blood test. It was "Crazy Hair Day" at Jack's school so I offered to creatively design his hair with the golden yellow hairspray Mum and I bought at Hot Dollar the day before. After browsing through some images on Google for some ideas, I decided it would be unique to spray one side of Jack's hair yellow to represent sand and the other side covered with blue cellophane to depict the deep blue sea. I had some small shells that I agreed to stick onto Jack's hair but after twenty minutes of frantic racing against the clock while Jack was impatiently devouring his toast, the judge (Mum) pressed the buzzer and declared, "Oh no, Jack isn't going to school with bobby pins stuck on his hair like that!" My plan failed but oh well, I found it fun to get my creative juices up high so early in the morning!
After all the crazy hair fuss, Mum and I rushed to the doctor's and had our blood drawn. We were anticipating the experienced phlebotomist, Hanh, but we met Winnie instead, another Vietnamese girl who was covering Hanh during her maternity leave. Surprisingly, Winnie was even more experienced than Hanh in that she could easily draw my blood without any pain, despite my infamously "small" veins! In the past, I've had to come in two or three times a week simply because each person could not find the perfect vein to draw. Maybe I followed the tips to drink plenty of water and keep my arm warm.
Arriving home, we found Dad already eating lunch alone but we politely excused ourselves to visit our neighbour. An Italian widow who lost her husband to illness thirteen months ago, she now has chronic neck and knee pains and finds it painful to walk about the house, even with her wheel-able support frame. She was so delighted to see us as her sons and their wives were working and had little time to care for her. She told us, when she lost her husband, she lost everything. Her eyes began to water and her lips were trembling but Mum quickly changed the subject with "nooooo, not everything! You have lovely grandchildren!" then her face beamed into a broad smile as she showed us photos of Ricky (3 years) and Sammy (15 months). Mum promised to make spring rolls for her next week as she found them so delectable. Our neighbour didn't wish to see us leave but after an hour, she walked us out the door and made us promise to visit her often. To know that someone is thinking of you is a really lovely warm feeling and not only should we keep those we love close to our hearts but those who are lonely and do not have the affection of loved ones as they used to have.
Not wasting time, Mum drove me to Neeta City where she introduced me to a "Ceramics" store that sold a wide variety of Chinese decorating ornaments, including vases, paintings and tea sets. The store was closing down so almost everything was on clearance but we soon found out that many products were still at full price. Despite that, we found a pen holder for Jack's teacher, a thermoflask a small quartz looking container and tea mug for my ginseng pellets.
Our stomachs were growling without lunch so we returned home for some white rice and beef stir fry before heading off again to visit my Kindergarten teacher. Her name is Miss Graetsch. It must be a really joyful and emotional feeling for a student to visit you after twelve long years and I could really see it in her eyes and the way she smiled when she saw me - just like she always did in my first year of primary school. I showed her some of the photos of us I kept and she gladly displayed them to her colleagues "Look at her! She used to be tiny! Oh well, she got to Sydney Girls - I must have done something right!" Although she made me a bit uneasy by telling me she's looking forward to finding my name in the paper at the end of the year, she's crossing her fingers that I'll do well. It must be another amazing, heartfelt feeling for a teacher to know that he or she inspired the student to also become a teacher like them - she couldn't stop hugging me! Every student has a special teacher in his or her heart and Miss Graetsch is my special teacher.
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| 19/12/01 - on the last day of Kindergarten :') |
Word of the day: perfidy (noun)
- The state of being deceitful and untrustworthy.
- In the context of war, perfidy is a form of deception in which one side promises to act in good faith (e.g. by raising a flag of surrender) with the intention of breaking that promise once the enemy has exposed themselves (e.g. by coming out of cover in order to capture or kill the enemy).
Sentence: The Thernadier's unknown perfidy to Fantine and her daughter Cosette left the mother in a state of hopelessness and struggle.
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