Being there.

Basin of water. Several towels. One feverish, fussing baby.

I've lost count of the number of times I've gone through this scenario in just this afternoon alone...of wringing wet towels and sponging my little niece, desperately working with my sister-in-law to bring down her high fever, talking to her in as soothing a voice I can muster while fighting the fear and frustration inside of not being able to do anything more to help her.


It is stressful, it is exhausting.

The fever has been fluctuating between 38-39 degrees Celsius, and because it shoots up with no warning at all, we have to constantly monitor her. She's actually been a really good gal already, with much less fussiness than I would have expected from a sick baby. She still has the moments where she would chuckle, and smile, and play with her toys. And I'm really grateful for that, since her staying active will help to keep the fever at bay to a certain extent. As are the medicines which the pediatrician gave. He says it's a viral infection, which means this ordeal may last another day or two before she finally gets over it.

This whole day has been draining on both Amber and I, though.

Since the time that I went over to her house this morning to help with Avril till now, we've sponged her - well, I kinda lost track after the fifth time. Hearing her cry while we sponged her are the most heart-wrending moments for the two of us, and we were both close to tears ourselves even while we wrung the towels and applied them to her neck and arms, trying to distract her with some form of amusement.

I need to be strong for Amber's sake, because Amber the Mummy is even more worried and anxious than Em the Aunt, and I don't want to give her additional stress by sounding frantic or alarmed, even if I AM feeling that way.

But it is Hard, so very hard.

I don't want to be strong. I don’t want to be the pillar. I want to be the one leaning against it. I just want to be able to sit down and have a good cry till my heart feels lighter. I want to be held tight, to have someone whisper reassuringly that "It's gonna be fine," to have my fears and anxiety soothed. I want the fever to go away, to leave my darling little niece alone. To give Amber the much needed rest she needs. To relieve my worry and frustration.

But we can't always have our way, can we?

Cause this is Life.

And Life means getting up, and going to get another basin and another 5 towels, even when my exhausted spirit rebels.

It means soothing the little one's cries even while it rends my heart to hear it.

It means reaching over to give my sis-in-law a hug, when she is feeling overwhelmed with distress and worry.

It means being strong, even when the going gets tough.

And knowing that by going through, I'll emerge the stronger for it.

**She has zero appetite tonight.**

The Rain, The Paper, and The Soggy Bread

It rained again this morning.

And I, as usual, was caught off-guard. Without an umbrella.

In the sea of anxious faces peering up at the grey cloudy sky whilst busily digging in their bags for their handy umbrellas, no familiar face stood out. No Umbrella Angel materialized out of nowhere to lend a helping hand today, no knight in shining armor coming to the distressed damsel's rescue.

BUT, the lady standing in the corner of the crowded MRT station exit was giving out newspapers....

It worked.

My make-shift umbrella, I mean. The poor, floppy, wet newspaper worked to keep the TOP half of my head dry.

And nothing else.

Not my clothes. Nor my hair. And most certainly NOT my bag, which is of such marvelous design that it has no flap over the top to cover its contents from sun or rain or thieves.

When I finally reached office, after a final mad dash in the light-drizzle-suddenly-turn-heavy-downpour, I sat down very collectedly at my desk to catch a breath and took stock of the situation.

My findings?

1 set of damp clothes
1 black bag, wettish
Stringy hair
1 tattered wet newspaper, no longer readable
1 soggy piece of bread

So much for wanting to pack breakfast to office....

Moral of the story: Put your bread in a ziplock bag before bringing it for a jaywalk in the rain.

Or, you could just remember to place a lil umbrella in your bag..;)

**She has a sudden craving for blueberry muffins, hot and fresh from the oven, with a thick slab of butter melting right in the middle...Uh-oh.**

Dayang Revisited.

After six torturous months of banishment from the sea, we finally revisited our underwater Home with the opening of the Dive Season 2010.

Nope, we weren't just happy - we were HIGH.

On Nitrogen.

Heading out for our commencement dive of the season with my closest dive khakis!

Finally getting to dive with my cuz Yew Tai, who got certified for his OW on the trip! Yayness(:

Celina, Patric's wife, went snorkeling while we dived

The few exemptions where heads bobbing in the middle of the ocean is no cause for alarm

Berley checking her diving apparatus before the dive

My group of fun leisure divers

Having fun on the upper deck of the boat as well, in between dives

Underwater is da place to be!!!~

Curious CK

We found our good friend Nemo

Best buddies in everything (:

our boat

Hong, Chubbs, JW, Berley, me

Saying goodbye to the island after an awesome weekendddd

We can't seem to get enough of crazy times, huh :)

happy babes

'trying to act cute' hunks

If you lose your slippers, wear your wet shoes!

Our van people (:

Nobody wanted to leave the island.

Even two weeks later, we're still talking about it-

the non-stop laughter,

the crazy pics that don't do enough justice,

the underwater antics,

the friendly ribbings,

the hilarious Dayang Got Talent 2010 videos,

the FUN memories....

And beneath it all,

unspoken but warming in its essence,

lies the ties of friendship

all the more closely knit by our shared passion for diving,

and unblemished by the politics

that riddle almost every other organization with bullet holes...

This is how it should always be.

This is what I fell in love with.

Welcome back to my underworld.

**Her theory is that the antibiotics, the second round in two weeks, are numbing her throat. Which, I guess, is a good thing right now, considering her tight schedule...**

I maxed out my budget for the day, but who cares? We had fun.

"Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does."

I think Austen nailed it pretty well.

Hanging out with friends is never easy on the pocket, but hey, this is life, right? It's not like we chose to be born in a high-cost-of-living city like Singapore. And not all of us landed in well-to-do families or were left a large inheritance from old relations, unfortunately.

So unless we unanimously decide to scrimp and eat at the nearby hawker center (which rarely happens anyway because who wants to eat 'normal' food when you're out with friends? Now's the time for the good stuff!), we usually end up with a busted - errm, nearly busted wallet by the end of the day. Well, maybe not everyone. Maybe it's just yours truly, who still fits under the category of 'OK-Only earners.' (Yeah I'm poor, saving up for further studies, and have expensive sports hobbies. Next?)

Point is, poor or not, who wants to be a Scrooge when it comes to hanging out with friends? I mean, if you're even taking the time to meet up with them, you might as well go all the way and not ruin everyone's fun by miser-ing about a few additional dollars spent, right?

Life is short. You gotta treasure the moments you have with friends and loved ones. They may not come often and you don't know when the next one will be.

Conclusion: Be Creative!

Come up with different ideas of chilling out that does not always involve a fancy restaurant. :D

And at the same time, don't rule out that option, especially when you just need a place to get away and catch up with good friends.

Like what Sarah, Kim, & I did, before she flew back to Melbourne for her last school sem! We had an awesome time over some awesome food at Marche, and are looking forward to July when she's back and we can meet again:)

Candid is best right? She had no idea I was taking this pic(:

We decided to get a little more creative for our meet up with our diving khakis, though - POT-LUCK lunch!

The creation of JW, Kim, & I ~ Baked seafood fried rice!

The creation of Hong & Chubbs ~ Fingerfoods

We're finally ready to dig in after spending several hours in JW's kitchen.

Hong insisted on using chopsticks - even to eat dessert!!!

JW happily tucked into his 'special request' desserts - brownies AND apple-crumble. :O

And TZY's dish took so many hours to appear we had to go look for it, in his house. Apparently, he was still in the kitchen trying to perfect his Special Recipe sauce. :D

The end result, though, was delicious. Swedish hand-rolled meatballs with TZY's Special Recipe sauce, new rivals of IKEA's meatballs!

See? We've even prepared the advertisement picture for him to use.

Then after the incredibly late lunch that ended up as Linner or Dunch (whichever you prefer) and a movie, we hung out some more at Toastbox drinking kopi, just like the old folks.

Maybe sometime we shall explore the possible options for cost-effective chill outs coz I'm dead sure they exist. But not today, 'kay?

Today I'm just gonna smile as I store away more priceless moments shared with a bunch of close friends. No matter how rich we may get eventually, it will not be able to buy time or bring back moments that might have been lost if we were all too busy worrying about how big the holes in our pockets would be by the time we get home that night.

Yep, I may have maxed out my budget for the day, but who cares? We had a great time. And that's what matters most to me. (:

**Her throat, her crazy throat, needs to get well before Wednesday. Because Wednesday means back to work. Which means loads of phone calls. Which means many many the talking. And no way is she gonna risk a relapse THIS close to the first dive of the season.**