M.Sc. for Juvenile Delinquents

Next month, I'll be done with one year of coursework. The six months after that will be spent on independent research with no more lectures or exams. And if everyone in class finishes their research projects on time (which is unlikely), we'll all meet again on graduation day in 2018.

Hurrah?

I think not.

I'm really going to miss my crazy classmates and the good times we had/ have during classes. I'm feeling a sense of dread and sadness when I think it's all going to be over in a few week's time. Even though the students are serious people during week days doing serious jobs like being lecturers, teachers, guest speakers, chemists, assistant directors, etc, during the weekend, it's a completely different story.

During the weekend, these same people are throwing things at each other, poking fun at each other, laughing like jackasses, plucking fruits from trees in the campus, poking each other with compasses, taking blackmail-worthy photos of other students sleeping for example, passing food while the lecturers turn their backs on the class, etc. Each different type of personality makes some contribution which makes the class a colourful and fun place to be (and if they don't contribute, they are automatically qualified as guinea pigs for the others to prey on). It's no wonder I fit in comfortably with this lot, despite coming from a slightly different background.

This really happens in postgraduate level classes

Being forced to spend about 14 hours every week for an year (except those weekends they closed down for strikes!), sharing food, sharing notes, sharing woes, copying each other's lab reports and assignments, attending class weddings, having each other's backs, uniting against injustices from the administration and going on field trips have made us closer. In a very recent incident, the eldest classmate, who we affectionately called "Big Brother" collapsed in class and died later in hospital. The incident shocked and shattered us, but in a profound way, the shared grief also made us closer.

They are a good bunch. Nearly all of them help with explaining concepts, notes and assignments (at the risk of bringing up the class average) without the slightest hint of reservation. This is one quality I found to be very strange. I recall in my undergraduate years, the student culture in that university didn't involve much sharing or approaching other students for help because of the highly competitive nature of the course.

Normally not one to display much emotion, I've subconsciously come to think of at least 75% of the batch as my children. I'm only younger than two of them. The youngest ones in class are eight years younger than I am. Every time they come to me for childish requests or guidance on things, I find my maternal instincts kicking in. Looking at their youthful eyes and potential, I constantly feel the urge to meddle in their personal affairs, open their minds to personal development possibilities they have not heard of, try to boost their sense of self-worth, feed them fruit and make sure they are not left behind in class. They are also quick to push me to the battlefront and line up behind me when they are too afraid to approach lecturers for certain requests or fear repercussions. Now on some level I realise they are using me, but I suppose I can let the small things pass.

Shuri, I think you are getting too soft with age.

Sometimes, I feel like this Possum mother. Seriously. 

There are many professions I could have excelled at, such as environmentalist, zoo keeper, veterinarian, semi-failed writer, failed musician, auditor or detective. However, what I was really born to be is a record keeper who observes people, collects information and analyses patterns. While I have been attending one year of coursework in environmental science, I have also been storing information on the personal lives of nearly 23 people I met in class.

If someone were to walk into my mind, they would find a vault. In that vault are several hundred files of people, arranged according to the various circumstances I met them, for example, "Family", "School", "Undergraduate", "Masters", "Childhood", "Teachers", "2nd Job in Singapore", "Dubai", etc. Some files contain more information than others, but usually each file has a photograph, name, age, educational background, family history, career profile, likes, dislikes, temperament, skills, born talents, quality of childhood, specific life events of adversity, aspirations, hidden potential, areas of expertise, etc. Files will be updated with any new information that comes along, even if it is long after we no longer interact on a regular basis.

I am of the opinion that collecting such information is essential to make an overall quality assessment on the people I let into my world, appreciate them and help me figure out how best to interact with them.

Ah, there's robotic Shuri again.

Having to leave behind friends and move on is a recurring fact of life. Some friends keep returning to your life even after long gaps of absence. The wonderful memories collected will be archived in yet another vault. If I'm lucky, some friendships from this chapter will stick and continue to age like good wine.

The Treasure Hunt

Not too long ago, one of my BFFs got married. Although it was customary for her closest friends to throw her a bachelorette party before the wedding, none of us (in this case, "us" refers to four) were living in Sri Lanka where the wedding was to take place. So with very limited options, the four of us (scattered in Canada, UK, Jersey and Singapore) thought hard on how to give our beloved friend - a simple, non-materialistic, family-loving, determined, serious-about-life yet sentimental girl - a memorable experience before she tied the knot.

With three weeks to go before the wedding, on 20th April 2016, a Whatsapp group was created and we immediately got to work. There was unanimous agreement for a treasure hunt. We also decided that due to the Bride's busy schedule and the significant amount of stress she was undergoing, the clues would be very easy to solve.

The following persons were the key players of the treasure hunt:

- The Bride (our beloved friend and recipient of the "Treasure")

- The Groom (who none of us had met at the time of organising the treasure hunt)
- Bride's father and mother (who lived with the Bride in Sri Lanka)
- Bride's brother and his wife (who were to fly to Sri Lanka a few days before the wedding)

- Shuri's sister's mother-in-law (who helped to compile the various gifts in Sri Lanka and execute the most nerve-racking finale of the treasure hunt)

- Organiser #1 - A Social Worker and part-time Master's student
- Organiser #2 - A recently married Doctor
- Organiser #3 - A Scientist doing serious work in the Pharmacology industry
- Shuri a.k.a. Organiser #4 - who was at the time plotting escape from an unsatisfactory job


An elaborate plan was drawn and item owners were assigned to various activities. It occurred to us that the plan, if executed well, would be epic. However, there were many things that could go wrong in this ambitious 10-step plan which we were trying to execute remotely and accurately with the help of people who had no idea about the treasure hunt yet and relying on timely online deliveries and postal packages. Each step was interlinked to another like the links in a chain and if one step failed, it would, in the worse case scenario, break the sequence, and if we didn't manage to get the timeline right, the Bride would not solve the clues in time to receive the treasure before her honeymoon! In which case, it would be an embarrassing fail, where the Bride would console us saying "That's ok, it was a nice try, guys. I love you and thank you for trying." and we'd have to inform our participants in the latter part of the hunt to "Abort the mission and just pass her the gift!"

The Master Plan

The treasure consisted of a wedding card, a Victoria's Secret travel pouch with an array of must-have items for an amazing honeymoon and married life afterwards, lingerie, a scrapbook filled with nostalgic memories, a mug with a hypothetical wedding photograph of us, and a Kama Sutra manual (because we believe that education is important). It helped to have the valuable input of Organiser #2, who also got married recently, to guide us with practical presents, while not getting too carried away with our imagination. It also helped that Organiser #1 was familiar with human psychology so we were able to sort of "customise" the treasure.

  

Contents which were placed inside are not shown here out of fear that my blog might be reported

 The wedding card with much love and advice from all four of us, compiled in one by Organiser #2

We tried to have a holistic coverage for the treasure chest

This was the closest to a perfect wedding photo we could have. Before this mug, we didn't know that Organiser #1 had good photo manipulation skills

The scrapbook was our favourite out of the lot and probably the Bride's too. It was also the one gift that we were most worried will not arrive in Sri Lanka in time for the grand finale of the treasure hunt! Thanks to having a very artsy member, Organiser #3, the scrap book turned out to have many beautifully hand painted pages with colourful additions, stories and photos of the Bride's childhood, family, her awesome friends (i.e. us), specific memories from our past and some extra blank pages. The Bride later told us she was looking forward to filling in the blank pages in the scrapbook.

Raw materials for a colourful project!

Memories of golden friendships 

 Besties for life

A page to remember the good heart and kind deeds of the Bride 

Memories of our days in school

Memories of her family

With the contents of the treasure chest more or less ready, it was time to plant the clues! Thankfully, I had to make a trip to Sri Lanka on 30th April for two days to sit for a university aptitude test and give my measurements for the bridesmaid's attire. This gave me the chance to meet her parents and the Groom for the first time. I also managed to plant our clues in the Bride's bedroom and secretly handed over two more clues to her mother and father (who were very excited and cooperative) after receiving a secretive briefing of the plan. All this happened while the Bride was very nearby and blissfully unaware of what was going on. 

We also sent out a help request to her brother

I met the Groom for the first time while accompanying them on some of their wedding errands, a few hours before my flight back to Singapore. This was the only time we could all hang out, given our tight schedules. I was introduced to the Groom in the car as they headed to the wedding hall to finalise the wedding decorations and menus. It was quite a challenge to find a moment alone with the Groom (while the Bride was hovering closeby), brief him quickly on our plan (who knows how he would have reacted!) and ask for a favour too (if he said no, it was too late to change our sequence now!), considering I met him in person for the first time just a couple of hours back! I couldn't let the team down, so the mission was somehow accomplished. 

He looked terrified when I told him I wanted a BIG favour when I had a private moment with him! But he turned out to be a cool guy who agreed to support the plan

Now that the clues were planted in place, it was time to officially start the Treasure Hunt! So here was the plan, simple yet complex:

Suspicious email to bride >> Leads to Groom >> Leads to Organiser #1 >> Leads to the Bride's mother >> Leads to Organiser #4 >> Leads to delivery of flowers + a clue in a bottle >> Leads to Organiser #3 >> Leads to the Bride's father >> Leads to Organiser #2 >> Leads to the Bride's brother >> Leads to the Treasure!

This was the most exciting part of the game. Mostly because we were able to confuse the hell out of the Bride and have a good laugh behind her back while she kept guessing. At times she got overly excited and solved clues faster than we anticipated (potentially jeopardising the plan) so we had to deliberately throw her off the scent until it fit with our timeline. And sometimes, certain clues were harder to solve or she was tied up with last-minute wedding arrangements so we had to be patient and figure out how to help her catch up with lost time.

One day, the Bride found a suspicious email in her inbox.

The suspicious email

 We only gave her the correct instructions after we gave her a hard time and laughed to ourselves about it. I mean, why not make use of the opportunity, right?

The game started with a few glitches, but eventually, we directed her to the Groom and the game resumed

The Groom's clue eventually led her to Organizer #1

 The clue from Organiser#1 led the Bride to her mother

 ...who then handed her another clue which was wrapped inside a pack of pot pourri...

 ... which was supposed to be a photo of Organiser#4 's (i.e. my) smile

But owing to a bad quality printout from a printer missing a few colours, the Bride received a confusing photograph, which went in our favour of stalling for time

Little did she know that about a week ago, l hastily tossed a clue behind a row of books in her room while pretending to listen to her about something she was saying

So many questions from the Bride, which can only signal impatience to get to the treasure 

Organiser #4 (that's me) got carried away and gave a clue with two parts; one a photo submission and the other was a (admittedly difficult) clue translated to Tolkein's Hobbit runes

We passed her based on a good effort posing as a hamster

Ideally, the runes translated as follows, indicating that the Bride will receive a message in a bottle soon. On hindsight, my choice of words to describe the bottle was not that great. Even though she couldn't figure it out, it didn't spell disaster since the clue was already on the way to her.

"Not too long from now, a surprise will find its way to you

A neck it has but no head and wears a cap

In it you will find love from lands far away

And a trail to your next clue"

The idea of a bottled message intrigued us.

Source: Getty Images

The clue in the bottle led her to Organiser #3

 Then, Organiser #3 gave her this awesome clue:

"In a galaxy far, far away was a boy who trained to be a Jedi...

He knew not, the truth about his past, his roots...

The next clue is the truth he uncovers when the Empire Strikes Back"

The Bride cracked this one very quickly and ran to her father for the next clue. At this point she was too enthusiastic and too fast for our likes.

 Source: http://onreallife.wordpress.com

The next clue from her father led her to Organiser #2.  She used to have a crush on Guybrush Threepwood from the game called Monkey Island so we had to put a picture of him

 Correctly guessed, and at this stage of the game, the Bride was on a roll!

The clue from Organiser #2 led her to her brother, who we figured was the best person to hand her the map

Meanwhile, Shuri's sister's mother in law helped to collect all the bits and pieces that reached her from various countries at various times and helped us to assemble the Treasure Chest. She also arranged for it to be secretly delivered to the Bride's house. While we were successful in coordinating a time to have the package delivered when the Bride was not at home, it was unfortunately the Bride who had to answer a call from the deliveryman to give him instructions to her house! By this time though, she had a good idea of what was going on and she was eager to get to her treasure, so it was alright.

When she got home, the parcel was hidden away by her brother who was the last clue holder in the game

"The lone oak swaying in the wind no more, Once held the chirping bird, Now holds the constant chirp"

The brother came up with a brilliant riddle for her to find a secret map hidden in their telephone stand! It must be some brother-sister mental connection because the Bride figured it out.

And he completely blew us away with a detailed map leading her to the treasure

Mission accomplished! It was a happy ending for us all. Also, we refused to take any responsibility for the embarrassment that was caused if she had to show the treasure chest contents to the family

Luckily for the Bride, 95% of the treasure hunt went according to the original plan, no steps were interrupted and she received her treasure on the day before her wedding day! Whew.

The Bride was completely stumped by how we pulled it off while involving her now-husband everyone in her family. To be honest, they were incredibly supportive and more enthusiastic than we anticipated. Without their help, none of it was possible. The Bride was a great sport even though she was under the intense stress of wedding planning while tending to a million last minute things. Later she told us that the joy of playing along in the treasure hunt helped her cope on the days leading to the wedding.

Many nails were bitten and anti-acid tablets were ingested by the organisers to make sure everything went like clockwork. Also, we enjoyed a lot of heart-warming moments when the Bride kept us all in the loop on how she was progressing with the game and what it all made her feel. We felt a renewed sense of closeness during this special period in her life, despite not being able to help her with any wedding planning as we wished or in the case of some, not being able to attend the wedding.

Those few days gave us a lot to look forward to as we went on about our routine, weary lives. And little did the four of us know that this treasure hunt will set the bar so high and no treasure hunt we ever organise again will ever be this good. And that's a lot of pressure considering there are three more potential bachelorette parties left to go in this group of friends.

As Aristotle once rightly said, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Best wishes to the married couple for a loving life together, to bring out the best in each other and to be there for each other through thick and thin.

Back to School

Returning to school after nine years comes with a fair share of challenges. You find that your brain isn't as sharp as it used to be in high school. Then you realise you have become an expert procrastinator, which isn't a good thing when pursuing a postgraduate level course. You also realise your hands don't cooperate anymore when writing down notes at a fast pace and your handwriting is now worse than a third grader's.

In addition to the above, I've also jumped into a science course after nearly a decade of not working in a related field (okay, maybe volunteering occasionally at the zoo counted for a little). The consequence of this is that I found myself in a class of mostly younger people who are more qualified, focused and academically sharper.

I've had to adapt to some new behaviours too. No one eats with cutlery here unless they have some kind of hand injury. Some restaurants look unhygienic and makes stomachs cringe. Students here also are used to eating together and sharing lunches. This is an effective arrangement to minimise food wastage and save money. It was a little awkward at first and years of being psychologically put down as a left-hander made me wonder if my lunch mates feel uncomfortable sharing food with me. But my two lunchmates seem to take no notice and they even voluntarily eat vegetarian food with me just so one half of a packed lunch does not go to waste.

On a related note and coming from Singapore where good hygiene is overly emphasized to reduce the spread of diseases, I find it appalling that a vast majority of public toilets in Sri Lanka do not have soap to wash hands. Even my institute that calls itself a leader in postgraduate Science education does not provide soap in the student toilets. I once voluntarily left a piece of soap for public use. Now it's over and needs replacing. I guess I'm going to be the unsung toilet hero that helped reduce the spread of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections in female students till the end of 2017. I now also carry a small bottle of hand wash wherever I travel.

Singing on class (field) trips in my native language is also something I am not used to. I have not actively paid attention to pop culture in my country for about twelve years so I've missed a lot. I also grew up in a multicultural setting in all educational institutions I've been to so it was hard to find songs for which everyone knew the lyrics to. And even for the English ones which everyone knew (mostly from singing class), we had no capable musical conductors to take the lead or musicians who could play a guitar or the conga drums. Anyhow, for this trip, I had to settle to mostly clapping and joining only when classics and songs older than twelve years were sung. I must admit, these students are very experienced at musical entertainment and even carry tiny song books with them!

"Conga" drums are a must-have on all long distance group trips in Sri Lanka. 
(Image source: Tremuloumusic)

After a couple of months here, I've started to fit in, find ways to promote harmony and feel humbled observing those around me. In most ways, I have an easy life. I live closer to the university than most (about 15 km away). I don't have a full time job or dependents to tend to, which is highly advantageous when pursuing studies. Though lacking in core subject knowledge and work experience, my English standard is above the class average which also helps. There are students who work full time jobs and travel hundreds of kilometers from various corners of the country, enduring a lot of hardships every weekend just to come for lectures. Some stay alone in hostels for the weekend and not see their families for many months on end. Some, I also learnt, do serious hands-on work in their respective environmental fields and are working hard with the goal to move onto better opportunities outside this country.

Lack of privilege is a cruel thing. If some of these driven, hardworking and capable students had the same privileges and opportunities I was fortunate enough to have while growing up, I'm sure they would have put it to better use and be in much better places by now.

According to an interesting interactive tool from the BBC called "How equal are you?", Sri Lanka ranks 84 in terms of gender equality.

 That's a positive sign too. Although, the same tool also states that only 39% of women are currently in a job or looking for work. This could imply that a vast proportion of female university graduates eventually take up stay-at-home roles (temporarily or otherwise).

In our class of 24 students, the female to male ratio is about 50:50. About 30% make up minority ethnicities. In a country that was war-torn for two and a half decades and where racial tensions with other minorities still bubble beneath the surface, one's race is a sensitive issue. When I first joined the course, I could feel the walls that the students erected around themselves and their comfort groups. There was hardly any mixing around.

Two months later, as we get to know each other better, core personalities are becoming apparent. Some are clearly leaders who like to take charge. They like to be the voice of the class and take the trouble to gather everyone on social media or worry about refreshments for everyone on class trips. Some are the suspicious and distant types who are not yet ready to be vulnerable with others. Some are the responsible types who assist the leaders and are given jobs that require accountability like being class monitors or photocopying precious notes for the whole class. Some are the leech-y types who like to take shortcuts and form alliances to receive advantages. Some are the helpful types who help other students with information, lecture notes or teach them how to do complex calculations. Some are comedians who maintain an air of lightness and joy. Some are good musicians who entertain everyone during class trips. Some are like neutrons. They keep a good balance by doing nothing good or nothing bad (this also helps reduce too much negativity).

Then there's me. I see myself as a neutral party that closely observes this fascinating ecosystem and occasionally anticipates and springs to action if someone needs help or something needs to be done to bridge gaps or maintain harmony.

It won't be long before we are more united as a class. After two field trips and some group projects, the walls between different races are very slowly coming down, trust is building up and people are connecting on a human level. Like for example, we were in groups of six in each safari vehicle during our last trip to Kaudulla National Park. At first, they laughed at me for putting on sunscreen lotion. Then they changed their minds and borrowed my lotion. Later the idiots thanked me for helping them minimise exposure to harmful UV radiation. Soon after, everyone was asking each other's life histories, work places, ages, showing photos of their partners, joking about being bald, exchanging phone numbers to keep in touch, congratulating some who just became new parents or newly engaged, etc.

Most of these migratory elephant herds spotted at Minneriya National Park last month have moved through the Elephant Corridor at Kaudulla-Minneriya to Kaudulla National Park. 

We went on a field trip to Kaudulla National Park see elephants, other mammals and loads of birds. Thanks to the sharp eyes of our lecturer and the collective group, we spotted a Ruddy mongoose, Golden jackals, Toque macaques, Grey langurs and the Sri Lankan axis deer for mammals (that's 6 out of a reported 24 mammals in this park). The lecturer is a huge fan of birds so he was clearly biased towards them and had to help us out in identifying nearly 35 species of birds (out of a reported 160 species of birds). Honestly, some types of birds looked the same to me so I have a lot to catching up to do to become familiar with identifying birds. And just to make my day complete with reptiles, we spotted a Water monitor lizard, Common garden lizard and a freshwater testudine that looked like an Indian black turtle (that's 3 out of 25 reported reptiles).

Overall, it was a fun trip and perhaps a sign of good things to come.

The piece of tofu

The festival in my city is over! My mother and I are so relieved. We can finally take a break from running a “hotel”. From now onwards, we'll be back to a slower pace of hosting people. And perhaps I can catch up on more important things and hobbies.

The past ten days were an interesting first-time experience for us managing a peak tourist season. We met people from United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Belgium and China. Some became closer to us than others. Some had interesting stories to tell us. Some were more curious than others to learn about Sri Lankan culture and our way of life.

It fascinates me how we choose to open up to complete strangers sometimes, with a level of trust that we don't even show to non-strangers and how sometimes interesting friendships develop. For example, although I am a very suspicious introvert, I find myself more open to talking to strangers while I travel. It's not the case when I am in familiar surroundings with not-so-strangers.  It's also interesting how different people get more or less out of the same situation by the level of openness and curiosity they choose to display.

The highlight of our ten days and a good example of guests making the most of a situation is perhaps the story that follows.

We had a documentary photographer and his wife who were on a "pilgrimage" across several Asian countries capturing various Buddhist traditions and festivals. I think it was a fortunate coincidence that they decided to stay with us. Communication was a bit of a challenge since we didn't speak Chinese and their English wasn't too fluent. However, by the end of ten days, they considered us as an adopted family and we considered them the same. 

They relaxed in the mornings doing a bit of cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping for food, playing the guitar (extremely well) and getting in touch with their families on Skype. By evening time, they left to the city with their camera equipment to cover the festival. For a couple of days, we observed them with interest and they did the same with us. We tried to anticipate their needs and made them as comfortable as we could. The turning point of our relationship was a piece of tofu. Yes, a piece of cold, white, raw tofu. One afternoon, my mother offered them a small piece of home-made tofu. To our surprise, their faces lit up and the wife hugged my mother and exclaimed “Thank you, Mom!”. I suppose they never expected to receive tofu from a Sri Lankan family or they probably missed tofu dearly since they had been traveling for 4 months. Shortly afterwards, they invited us to a grand home-made Chinese vegetarian dinner. It was the best Chinese vegetarian meal I had eaten in a long time. The tofu was cooked in an authentic Szechuan style (called Mapo Tofu).

The hosts were invited for a dinner by the guests

One night they called us at 1:00 am for an emergency. My brother and I went to investigate and found that they have not been able to go to the toilet for nearly an hour because there was a big (harmless) spider on the shower curtain. My brother relocated the spider to the woods and everyone was happy. My mother was able to answer them on questions related to Buddhist traditions, she let them borrow books from her library, took them to a temple nearby and taught the wife how to wear a sari. My father showed them around our garden and helped them to carry their photography equipment to the river for a photo shoot. My brother took them around in his tuk tuk and gave them new local fruits to sample. We had more meals together. Talked about travels, cultures and family backgrounds - even if they weren't in perfect English.

The photo shoot at "Ritigala" - said to be the last Kandyan King's bathing spot

After what seemed like more than ten days, we parted. There were some tears and promises to improve on English speaking skills, keep in touch and to meet again. We also gave them a parting gift that included a book and a rubber spider. 

Not every guest encounter turns out like this, but this one was certainly interesting.

Bugs, Hobbits and Adventures

Every year, I seem to be hit by at least one debilitating attack of acute bronchitis.

About 2.5 weeks ago, I caught a flu bug. Through a combination of factors - such as low immunity, lack of rest, overestimation of one's physical strengths, underestimation of how badly cold/rainy weather can exacerbate respiratory problems, gluttony and negligence - it developed to acute bronchitis. And that cost me 4 visits to the doctor, 5 days of medical leave this month and some strange side effects of the prescription medication such trembling fingers, blurred vision, headaches, nausea and disturbed digestion. I'm still not clear of the disease, but surely getting there.

The care and concern received from family, friends, colleagues and doctors have been overwhelming and great in aiding my recovery so far. Also, I've discovered the benefits of drinking apple cider vinegar with honey when a colleague made me try some.

Shu, for your sake, I hope there were some lessons learnt in this experience. Like NOT going on a hike to the Botanic Gardens when you were given 2 days of medical leave by a doctor TO REST.

 Nearer to the Tanglin Entrance of the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Swan Lake, Singapore Botanic Gardens

It was good weather to be outdoors!

I even found a reptile to stalk

These orchids were called Golden Showers. However, back in Sri Lanka they are called Kandyan Dancers because of their resemblance to dancers of a traditional dance originating from my hometown.

The outing turned out to be good for my soul, but bad for my lungs.

At the peak of the wretched disease, my parents began to worry obsessively about me. Mostly because all my housemates had left the country on their respective holidays.

Mother : If you are not careful, the next stage is PNEUMONIA (aka. death in the Dictionary of Mothers).
Father: Do not drink anything cold or eat anything right off the refrigerator.
Mother: STOP entertaining that cat and change your linen because there must be cat fur lying around!!
Father: Do you have any of the herbal oil I gave you? If you apply that before sleeping, you will have some relief from congestion.
Mother: REMEMBER to inhale steam before you go to sleep! And cover up.
Father: If you don't recover, may be you should fly down home so we can look after you.
Mother: DO NOT touch cold water!
Mother: STOP showering in the early mornings and getting exposed to the cold air outside! No wait, STOP showering altogether for a few days.
Mother: I WARNED you that you are having a bad spell according to your astrological influences. Are you remembering to be religious and all that???
Father: Why don't you let your mother come over there for a few days to look after you?

Shu: Whoa! No, that won't be necessary. Let me ask around to see if any of my friends would like to babysit a bronchitis-ridden patient for a few days.

Luckily, I found a willing volunteer. Ryuu, to the relief of my worried parents, very kindly agreed to leave behind all creature comforts and watch over me last weekend. You know, in case I died from pneumonia according to my mother. Ryuu ran to my aid from the room next door several times when I woke up in the middle of the night with coughing fits and brought me hot water to soothe the throat. Thank you immensely, Ryuu. I owe you about two month's supplies of lentil curry.

I would like to say the same about myself in being a good nurse. Unfortunately, human patients in my night watch will not receive the medical attention they need since I probably won't wake up to hear their calls for help. I promise I'm a better nurse during the day watch.

We made the most out of a depressing situation by doing a movie marathon of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). That was fun and compulsory because I planned to catch the finale of the series this week. I've grown 2 years older since Mr Peter Jackson started the The Hobbit movie series in 2012 and ended it this month! And 4.5 years older if I counted the time since I first read The Hobbit.

Hurrah!! A day off for Christmas and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) awaits.