One for the books

What a day!

Arrived at the office at 6:40am, definitely a record!

Received gifts from two students who just came back from holiday. (Neither gift was edible.)

Celebrated colleague's birthday at staff meeting and had yummy cake.

Forgot appointment with thesis supervisor. Had to postpone.

Got stuck in the lift at work whilst on the way down to go home -- and I was alone! Another first; have never been stuck in a lift before. Funnily enough I was more amused than panicked. Perhaps because it was the office and I was pretty sure our security / maintenance guys would be on it pronto; I've seen them respond to other minor emergencies before. Also had network coverage on my cellphone, so was able to call a colleague in case no one responded to the alarm bell!

Asked the workshop guys to take a look at my car tyre, which seemed to be slightly flat. I was right, it was flat, and they discovered a nail embedded in the thing!

Was in and out of a shopping mall within an hour: another record! Hey, if you're going to go through all the hassle of finding parking and so on, you might as well maximise your time there. But I had to rush off...

To wait an hour for a lorry that never showed up.

Then navigated myself into unfamiliar territory to meet up with someone, because of the lorry no-show.

Finally managed to have dinner at 10pm (I was so hungry!). The stall owner saw me painstakingly removing all the spring onions, and offered to replace my dish! "I didn't know you didn't want any," he said. Another record! I was abashed; I hadn't asked him to leave them out, after all, so it was my own fault!

Let's hope the rest of the week is relatively uneventful. One day like this is enough to last me seven days!

Be careful what you ask for?

I never thought losing weight could be a mixed blessing, but the "my pants are falling down" feeling is really starting to bug me.

Normalcy: it's all in your mind

Him: "I'm a normal guy looking for a normal woman."

Me: "Don't you think 'normal' is relative, though? A person could be perfectly normal in every other respect but likes to dance naked every full moon, for example... would that make them abnormal?"

Him: "..."

Of course ice-cream is more important

I just realised I don't have one very important thing in the apartment:

Knives.

Like, you know, kitchen knives. For chopping vegetables and chicken and whatever else. And a chopping board. The two kinda go together, no?

There are other things I want to get: a bread toaster, a food processor...

Oh yes, and I need a gas tank, too.

At this moment the kitchen is the least fully equipped room of all, although I had already bought cutlery and plates. I'm still missing small bowls, though. The type of bowls we Chinese use for rice or for serving soup. But I have pretty glass bowls for eating ice-cream :D

A thankful heart

Hearing people thank God for His blessings and what He's done for them has always made me wonder if we would still be thanking & praising Him had things gone very differently. It kind of doesn't sit well with me, for some reason.

But having had a lot of cause to be thankful recently, I realised that for me the thankfulness springs from a knowledge, not just that God has been good to me, but that He has been so much more gracious to me than I deserve.

It is not that I would not praise Him had He not helped me, but more that I am amazed at His help and His gifts: the depth and breadth of it, truly "immeasurably more than all I could ever ask or imagine".

But I'm counting my blessings!

Me: "You know what's the best thing about moving to my own apartment?"

Mr TDH: "What?"

Me: "Running water."

Mr TDH: *raises eyebrow*

Me: "It's so LOVELY to have running water again!"

Mr TDH: "You need help."

Me: "No, but really! The water heater works, the washing machine works..."

Mr TDH: "Well, there is that..."

Me: "I can turn on the tap and water gushes out!"

Mr TDH: "You really need help."

We must not forget

Despite having lived for seven years without a credit card, I find myself easily slipping back into the "swiping" lifestyle: didn't bring enough cash? No problem! Swipe! And it's so, so, so dangerous.

Lessons learned must stay learned, or I shall return to my trusty debit card and spurn credit once again. I feel like I've been on a crazy shopping spree in the last half of this year. But it's all for the apartment... so I think (hope?) things will settle down to normalcy again in a month or so. Or else!