I received the first stitch of my life about one month after my 31st birthday.

On Friday, 6th August 2010, Sri KDU organised a Merdeka Carnival in conjunction with Patriotic Run, which is the school’s mini-marathon. It is usually held in conjunction with National Day, but this year because the fasting month was starting on 11th August 2010, the school decided to have the run earlier.

My class was planning to make a maze of terror, and were only allowed to start our preparations on Thursday 4pm. I stayed back with the kids until 11.30pm to get as much done as possible, but the maze was still far from finished, and we had to come back early the next morning to continue work. The guards told us we could get in by 6am, but I was too tired and decided to get there by 7am. Bryan Homi asked me to pick him up from Zhou Han’s house, but because they overslept, I had to WAIT FOR THEM and we ended up reaching school close to 7.30am.

I was trying to fold the metal legs on the wooden table when the leg snapped at the ring finger on my right hand. I didn’t feel the pain at first; all I saw was BLOOD. My immediate reaction was, “Oh, we have real blood here.” Then I ran all the way to the school infirmary to ask the nurse to clean it up and to put on a dressing. The nurse took one look, and told me I needed stitches. I asked her, “What, now?” She must have thought that it was a really silly question. But what actually ran through my head was, “I need to be at the maze to monitor the students.” She didn’t clean up the wound, but put two tight layers of dressing to tide me until I get to the hospital.

I then ran back to the special classroom to get my handbag, but because I hadn’t had breakfast, I could feel the nausea building up. Jasmine Leong saw me, and stopped me to ask what was wrong – she said I had gone so pale!

She was going to accompany me to the hospital, but she couldn’t drive; so she got Mr Lee Wing Hong (the new Chem teacher) to drive me instead.

I went into the emergency ward and was given two shots: one painkiller in my ass, and another in my arm for tetanus. The nurse then opened the dressing but had a hard time taking it off because the school nurse had put the first layer on so tightly. She cleaned it and then put a basic dressing on it. They then recommended I get an X-ray done to ensure that there was no fracture.

After the X-rays, a hand specialist took a look and said that it didn’t require major surgery and said I only needed stitches. They were going to get an orthopaedist to take a look at it, but he was busy at that time so the emergency ward nurses suggested we go for breakfast instead and to come back in half an hour.

When we came back after breakfast, we were told that orthopaedist had come down in our absence, and they then sent us upstairs to see him. We had to wait for about half an hour before we were called in. The orthopaedist, Dr Soong, opened up the basic dressing and was going to do only another dressing before taking a second look and realising that I needed stitches.

He first administered a local anaesthetic, which was injected at the base of my ring finger. I couldn’t bear to watch that one… IT HURT!!!! I could feel the sensation of the anaesthetic traveling to my finger. But it quickly numbed my finger and the stitching process didn’t hurt at all. In fact, I was able to watch the entire stitching process without squirming or wincing at all. I was quite interested and fascinated because I had never received stitches before in my life!

Dr Soong was quite surprised and impressed that I could watch the whole stitching process. It was Mr Lee who was squirming with his shirt pulled up over the bottom half of his face.

We got back to the school late – at 11.30am. That’s 3 hours after the accident happened.in the hospital! The kids were already running the maze and there was already a line.

I’m going to be removing my stitches on Monday (hopefully) after 10 days. It was supposed to be removed tomorrow but I’ll be accompanying the kids to the debate competition at IIU.

I didn’t manage to take photos during the stitching, because I couldn’t have possibly managed it at that point in time; and poor Mr Lee was squirming too much. I did manage to take a photo of the stitched finger though… if you’re not squeamish, you can view them here.

Oh, and the class managed to make a little profit from the maze. The important thing was that we covered cost, which fortunately we did.

I feel like a deflated balloon.

I’ve always enjoyed training for dance competitions. Even if the outcome isn’t fantastic, even if I don’t make the break rounds, even if I flop, I still enjoy the training nevertheless. That has always been the best part of the competitions for me. The medals and trophies attained are just an added bonus. For the MODF, we had practice 3 times a week. Now my nights are free and I get to sleep early, but I’m feeling lost instead…

Well, on the bright side, I met up with three different friends for breakfast/dinner/lunch over 2 days. My social life seems to be on the rise. Hahaha.

Just to fill up space, here’s my bragging rights:

That’s my trophy for modern jazz individual (2nd), trophy for line dance individual (3rd), and medals for team events (3rd). I’m short of a medal for one team event, because there was a mix-up during the prize presentation, which the organisers haven’t fixed to date.

Here are the photos Pei Ru took during the night of the finals at Shangri-la.

In other news, I dropped my watch! My favourite watch!!! *sobsob* This watch was given to me by my website clients – a very sweet couple who thought of me when they saw this watch. Notice the brand of the watch in the photo below?? Best watch I’ve ever had! No one has ever had a watch with a brand in their name… mind you it’s not custom-made!

I dropped it as I was taking it out of my bag to put it on, and it fell straight onto the floor with a resounding crack. The impact not only caused cracks to appear on the glass front, but some of the diamantes were severely broken too :(:(:( Fortunately it’s still running though.

So I had to dig out one of my other watches to get the battery changed at a watch shop in One Utama. While the battery was being changed, I showed this watch to the sales assistant and asked if the glass face could be replaced. Admittedly, this isn’t a famous brand and obviously the shop I went to doesn’t carry the brand. The lady just handed it back to me and said, “It’s not worth it to change. Some of the ‘diamonds’ have already dropped off.”

I couldn’t believe how snooty she was. I mean, this watch is important to me for personal reasons, and it’s not some RM20-piece-of-junk picked up from some night market. So I just paid for the battery change and went off. I was actually contemplating buying a new good watch from the shop since they were having a sale, but her attitude completely put me off.

I’ll just have to go look for another watch shop to get it fixed then; probably a family-owned watch shop, if they still exist. Going to watch shop chains are of no use; some shops are so snooty, they won’t change the battery of a watch if they don’t carry the brand. At least if a shop is run by a family, they’re nicer and more willing to do what the customer asks.

Anyway, while I was in Midvalley today, I saw a Swatch roadshow and went to poke around. I asked a sales assistant to show me their waterproof watches (almost all of them are) because I have always wanted to get one for a long time, especially one that I can go swimming with. (Sometimes when I swim at the pool in school, I lose track of time. It would be good to have a watch so that I can check on the time.) She helped me pick out a really pretty and trendy white watch.

Yeeha!!! I haven’t had a watch with a rubber strap for a long time. Come to think of it, I haven’t bought myself a watch for a long time. Some of my watches were either free gifts with items bought, or given to me by friends. My watches in the past few years have all been either metal straps or leather straps. So yay!!! Now I’ve got one I can wear even when I’m exercising or dancing.

And… this is my first Swatch in my entire life!!! Hahaha!!! When I was in school, I’ve always wanted a Swatch because all my friends seemed to have them, but they were pretty expensive and I never worked up the courage to ask my parents to get me one. And I didn’t save for one either, because I felt that it was really too expensive, and I could easily get a working watch for less than half the lowest price of a Swatch. So this is like a childhood wish that’s been finally fulfilled. The only thing missing now is the rubber watchface guard that was the rage back in school.

I consider this my belated birthday present to myself, and my reward for my achievements at the MODF

Actually I spotted another Swatch watch that I also really liked; it has a metal strap with crystals in the them. But I can’t afford to buy too many watches And I’ve still got to fix the glass on my Zyenn watch.

Pretty good week so far, in spite of the cracked watch. And to top it off, it’s the second three-day weekend in a row! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

OKOK. I’d better write this down before I forget to, and the news becomes so old that it’s not interesting anymore. It’s just that I had no time, what with the class tests and the dance competition and falling sick.

My birthday was last month, on the 8th of July. I had shamelessly been announcing my impending birthday in vain hopes that I would, for once, be able to get something from my birthday wishlist, and I mean my birthday wishlist. Nothing of the sort happened, of course. Except for the dark chocolates. Oh, but at least I didn’t get any plumbing accessories this time

Anyway my birthday was off to a good start with dinner with close friends at The Ship.  It was fun and enjoyable, but if I thought I could escape the “Happy Birthday” singing, there was no such luck. While other places like TGIF merely get all their staff to sing very loudly, The Ship blasts the birthday song over their speakers so that everyone in the restaurant knows it’s someone’s birthday.

The meal was fantastic, and the company was excellent! Kalem arrived extremely grumpy but his mood got progressively better and he became positively hyper by the end of the night.

We took a lot of photos… Take a look!!!

Sunday saw a brief celebratory lunch with some of my dance teammates. Tracy made me beautiful cupcakes, every single one personally handpiped by herself. The cupcakes were absolutely delicious! She bought us lunch at Starbucks before making everyone embarrass me with a “Happy Birthday”  song…

More photos of the beautiful cupcakes here!! Must-see!!!

My family then took me out fo a nice quiet dinner at Sri Siam. Erm, there’s no photo because it was a really simple dinner.

Tuesday night, on my birthday eve, I went for dance class which is usually followed by dance practice. One of the ladies who attends the social dance class, Eloise, usually brings her 6-year-old daughter Jye Yi to the class, but because the little girl usually can’t cope with the adult-level class, I spend time with the little girl, teaching her the basics and dancing with her so that she doesn’t lose interest in the dance. Because I spend so much time with her, she became quite attached to me; and she found out my birthdate… through the expedient method of asking me.

She made her father take her out to buy a cake, and insisted on coming to class to give me the cake. Fortunately it wasn’t a class celebration, because everyone left quite quickly when the class was over (phew!) but for the little girl’s sake, her mother and her aunt (both of them attend the social dance class) sang a quick round of Happy Birthday, and I cut the cake to give the little one a slice. She had bought a delicious coffee cake… yummm :)

Wednesday… my actual birthday. I have to say that it was simply the best birthday I’ve celebrated at Sri KDU, ever. The day got progressively better

I had ordered mini-cupcakes from a friend, with the intention of giving each of my students one, and some of my colleagues (can’t give EVERYONE… there’s too many). I ordered the cupcakes because I knew that I couldn’t expect people to celebrate my birthday with me, so the only way to make sure I’m not alone in my celebration is to MAKE THEM CELEBRATE IT WITH ME.

The first class of the day was 4 Newton who, instead of the customary “Good morning, Miss Hoo” sang “Happy Birthday”. That was a nice greeting

And… surprise, surprise. Some of my tuition students actually got me a cake!!! I was quite touched; it was the first time I ever received a cake from students not in my class. Muaxes to all of you With Lydia’s help, they got me a very pretty chocolate cake.

The second class was 4 Aristotle, who used to drive me nuts the whole year by always singing “Happy Birthday”. But when I walked into class, they refused to sing it to me, and gave me the customary “Good morning” greeting instead. And when they did sing, they sang it to one of their classmates Gary instead. After a bit of hemming and hawing, Juno finally came forward with a papercard which everyone signed. And they said they didn’t know how old I was, so they wrote every number they could think of – “Happy 16th birthday”… “Happy 32nd birthday”… “Happy 48th birthday”… But of all the numbers everyone wrote, no one got the right number.

The class immediately after that was 4 Mozart, and they sent people outside to stop me from going in. I guess it would have been obvious to anyone as to what they were planning, especially since the lights were off and so many of them were holding cameras, but I had long taught myself not to expect anything. And… so when I went in, they had a cake with candles lit and everyone burst into song, I actually started crying. And unfortunately, a few of them caught my tears on camera. =.=”

But I don’t mind admitting it. I was truly overwhelmed, especially since this class isn’t even my homeroom, yet they were thoughtful enough to throw me a surprise party. If I could, I’d take them in as my homeroom, too.

I don’t have photos of the cake 4M prepared for me though. I didn’t have my camera ready, I was too busy wiping the tears away.

The best surprise was yet to come though. 4M had done something great, and it would be right to expect my homeroom to do something better, but like I said, I had taught myself not to expect anything. But during lunchtime, it was obvious that they were planning something, because from my seat in the staffroom, I saw quite a few of my students walking by the doors, and the moment they spotted me through the glass, they quickly doubled back. Then Darryl was sent in to ask me to step out. He pretended to want to ask me a Chemistry question, but it was so obviously a lie, that I handed him my camera. What was waiting outside for me was beyond anything I had expected…

I GOT A HUMAN GREETING CARD!!! IT’S THE BEST CARD I’VE EVER RECEIVED!!!

And on top of that, they got me a cake! And embarrassed me in front of everyone by singing “Happy Birthday” very loudly at the cafeteria.

I had no more tears left, but I was still very touched. It trumps 4M’s surprise party, hehe.

I was surprised at how quickly everyone disappeared back to class when the bell rang, leaving me and a few others to clean up the mess. And when we got back to class, someone kept saying, “The party isn’t over yet” but it didn’t register until Johann walked in with a second cake…

The day ended with my receiving a beautiful bouquet from Bronya, which she had sent to the school. They were late; it was supposed to be sent in the morning. But nevertheless, it was a great end to a great day.

Thank you everyone for your wishes, presents, and cakes! I love you all!

Photos of my birthday at school can be viewed here.

So, Teacher’s Day is next week.

1. I love dark chocolate. The darker the better. I prefer those with AT LEAST 70% dark chocolate. Anything less doesn’t qualify as dark. But, NO FERRERRO ROCHER, PLEASE!! That’s my least favourite chocolate brand. Seriously!
2. If you think I deserve something more intellectual, book vouchers would be great!
3. Have I mentioned how I like photography? I could do with some new lenses to go with my Nikon D60. Or one of those LED flashes.
4. My videocamera is dying on me. It’s been having problems for a while, and now the lens holder at the camera is getting loose (as in, it seems like it’s going to fall off my videocamera). I actually sent it in to fix a while back, and obviously it wasn’t a good job. Sigh… what to do, it’s a Sony. I really could do with one of those new HDD HD videocameras.
5. I’ve never been to Club Med before, would love to go there…

*Hint hint*

I went to Malacca for the weekend, to accompany Bronya on a dance workshop she was conducting. I was also supposed to perform with her, but I hadn’t gotten the music ready yet as we were both so busy the past few weeks – she gave me the list of songs to use last week, but I had no time to fix the medleys, so on the drive down, I worked on it on my laptop.

I’m pretty sure that the workshop attendees must have thought me unsociable, because I sat in one corner fiddling with my laptop instead of mingling with the crowd. But then, the 2-hour drive was only enough for me to cut one medley, and I was supposed to do three! So I worked on the other two as the workshop was in progress. Fortunately I-Vee was with us, and she helped me take a video of the entire workshop. From time to time, I managed to take a few shots of Chief Guru with my DSLR though.

…. which goes to show how last-minute our performances were planned. We did have a rehearsal between the workshop and dinner, but that was obviously not enough

I performed with Bronya in two of the medleys (a funky mix, and a cuban mix) while she performed solo for one (smooth). Erm. We did pretty well in spite of the last-minute cuts, if I do say so ourselves. OK, maybe she won’t agree with me, because I messed up some of the beats. But the crowd did respond to me, and to her, when we played with the crowd. So I guess they enjoyed our performances in spite of our mistakes. Hahaha!!!

No, I’m not putting up the videos. The performance was probably only fun to watch live. If you want to watch it, well… you should have been there!

The next morning Bron had 2 private classes, so we had breakfast together before she went off. My right wrist felt stiff, and I thought I slept on it wrong. It was only much later that I realised it was a slight injury from last night. What happened was this: we didn’t have a changing room so we were given the stage (with curtains drawn) to change behind. The actual performance was on the floor in front of the stage, where the dinner tables were arranged around. As I was walking down the short flight of stairs from the stage, I slipped and grabbed the railing to stop myself from falling. I hit my thumb, so there’s a small bruise on it, but I thought that was it. I didn’t realise then that I’d probably sprained my wrist as well.

Anyway, so when we left the hotel, we were in a bit of a hurry to leave as we supposed to meet some ladies for lunch. Bron had come back to the hotel to shower after her private classes. I had like, 3 million things to carry… as usual. I had all my videocamera/camera gear, my make-up, my clothes bag, etc etc etc…

AND I LEFT MY CAMERA BAG BEHIND. WHICH HAD MY VIDEOCAMERA, MY DSLR CAMERA, 2 LENSES, FLASH AND MY WATERPROOF CAMERA.

Trust me, I screamed louder than you did.

I couldn’t believe it. I only realised it when I had reached home, unpacked everything, and switched on my computer to convert the videos, and suddenly went, “Eh? Where’s my camera bag?”

I was in total shock. I thought that I left it in I-Vee’s car initially, but my memory was very clear on that one. I could picture her car boot in my mind’s eye – what it looked like after unloading all my many, many things, and I knew it wasn’t there. And then it hit me. I knew exactly where it was in the hotel room, and I remembered that I was carrying many bags, but I had not carried it out of the room when we checked out.

I had never left anything before in a hotel room, and it’s horrifying to leave something so expensive and precious behind!

And here, I was lucky. I normally wouldn’t have the phone number of the hotel we stay in that has arranged by someone else, but today I did. I-Vee had gone downstairs first to check out, while Bronya and I had struggled out with our many bags (she herself had many bags too). I pocketed the hotel keycard which was left in the room slot (to trigger the electricity) and didn’t return it to the reception because I was carrying too many bags. And it had the hotel’s address and phone number on it.

So I quickly dialed the number and spoke to a hotel staff (who seemed to be rather *blur*) and made him check with the cleaning staff for me. And yes, it was there.

THANK GOD!!!

(Which brings another issue to mind as to why they didn’t call me to tell me about my bag. You see, I’ve labeled my bag AND cameras with my name and phone number. But that’s another issue altogether)

I called the workshop organiser, Helen Fan, who was the one who also arranged the hotel for us, and asked her to pick it up for me. Fortunately she’s coming to KL tomorrow, and I can meet her then to take my bag from her.

Actually, if Helen wasn’t able to pick it up, I was prepared to drive all the way back there myself just to get it!!

Yes, I know I’m lucky. And I’m every bit grateful for that. I had once also left a cheque book behind at a cheque deposit machine in a bank on a Sunday. And when I went back, it was GONE… but someone saw me looking for it, and his friend was the one who kept the cheque book with the honest intention of giving it to the bank. I cannot say how lucky I was. It was perfect timing as well… that the guy happened to be at the machines when I returned to look for the cheque book. If he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have seen me hunting, and wouldn’t have told his friend to pass the book back to me.

I know I was such a fool to have made such a horrible mistake, and I cannot say enough how lucky I am. Oh, and because I don’t have the photos, I can’t put anything up with this post yet…

So now I’m waiting for the bag, and I hope everything’s still inside. My wrist is stiff, but it will recover. And I’ve just had a cup of Milo, which, to quote I-Vee, has made me “warm, comfortable, and contented”.