Not many people would believe that I have a rather weak body. Taking too much “heaty” food would take me down, other than being very upset. I usually feel thirsty even though my water bottle is always near me.
I was down with sore throat, cough, flu, diarrhea, and probably some fever almost a month ago. I went to the TCM before all the pests arrived and the four days of good behaviour did not save me. Then, I had to force myself to visit the polyclinic because I was told that green phlegm meant that it was a virus infection. Green poo threatened me more.
I knew I could have recovered much earlier like usual but it was a different scenario this time. Within the first few days when the symptoms arrived, I was deeply upset over certain news that I had lost my determination to resist anything. It made me feel stuffy on my chest and I knew my conditions would be worsened.
It took me a few weeks to pull myself together after trying to accept reality. I was, however, very loaded with work that I could not have sufficient rest. Keeping myself occupied with work was quite a good way to numb myself anyway. Nevertheless, being in a bad shape had slowed down my work by a lot.
The dry cough after the phlegm was gone kept me companied throughout for at least a week more. I still went to the toilet twice or more times daily as a new routine, and there would be bad tummy-ache at least once.
It was until Thursday night, I felt healthy and managed to have a good volleyball game, followed by supper at McDonald’s with my elder brother and mum.
Battling against illness depends a lot on the mind and I know I should try to avoid recalling depressing stuffs.
I began the day engrossed in my Chinese show, which I caught at Tudou. I went to sleep at 6am with Lucky. He shared my mattress for the first time. I woke up eventually after 2pm.
My younger brother gave a last minute notice for a swim and luckily my stomach was in a better condition that despite having my meal a couple of hours before the swim, I did not feel as bad as in the past. After the swim, flu caught me again.
My brothers and I went down to walk the dog again. We spent most of the time at storey two, right opposite my mum’s workplace, where my younger brother played with his waveboard. I was busy sneezing.
I tried to sleep as early as before 5am and I woke up before 9am. I did not go back to sleep for I remembered my younger brother told me that he could go for a swim before his school. My mum bought breakfast for us from the coffee shop at the second level on its last day of business.
I went to the toilet twice before setting off. The noodle seemed to be a curse. Then, we took bus 145 to Mount Faber Safra and the ticket selling machine failed on us again. I hesitated for a while before visiting the toilet again. I joined my brother in the swim soon but my left shoulder caused me enough pain to slow down but I eventually got used to it. After taking down ten laps using my zip-zap swimming style to avoid the crowd, I stopped for my stomach to digest properly for a while before my chest was choked. It certainly described how bad the problem with my stomach had become. Anyway, I swam another ten laps before the problem relapsed and that summed up my day.
We went up to the second storey to look around after taking our bath, into the E-Mart and then bowling alley. Then, my brother set off to school while I went home alone with my wet nose. I regretted badly not bringing along tissue paper.
The running nose worsened soon and I started sneezing as well. I tried to rest but could not doze off. I posted question in Facebook to discuss about how to solve the problem to smoking in public housing and a smoker posted an idiotic comment to piss me off.
I planned to set off early to for photography before meeting up my ex-colleagues but my weak body refused me. In the end, the bus 75 played trick on me and the bad traffic jam worsened the situation. I alighted a bus-stop earlier and finally reached Rail Mall half an hour late. My gang, consisting of Hirman, Christine, Joei and Eunice had finished their dinner and left a potato for me. I was surprisingly bloated after taking it. Since I was sick, they ordered a bowl of pumpkin soup for me. It was never a boring outing with Hirman around.
As they were calculating the bill of nearly $140, they excluded me for I took very little stuffs and that I was jobless. I felt like taking free lodging. Hirman dropped me at Keppel Road before he sent Joei for her next appointment at East Coast. I felt the urge to get my civilian driving license and car so that I could do friends favours as well.
After reaching home, my younger brother made a cup of tea for me upon knowing that I was having a bad flu.
I spent the full day of my Saturday trying to upload the photos taken during the camp into Facebook but as usual, it was problematic. After waiting for very long, it displayed error alert and I had to redo again. I tried uploading smaller numbers of photos at one go but the errors appeared most of the time. One very irritating issue was that some of the photos were uploaded but a few were missing, such that I had to compare to find out the missing ones.
I went for a jog in the evening before completing the work. I took a small muffin and my medicine before leaving my house at around 5.30pm. On the way, I realised the medicine I took was for my flu, cough and sore throat, and not simply for my stomach problem. It was too late and I had to endure running in my blocked nose.
It was not my plan to challenge my limit again for I had heard numerous cases of people collapsing while exercising in their illness. This time, I did it again. Somehow, my timing was more than satisfactory even though I slowed down a lot at the big T-junction separating Marina Barrage and Marina South Pier.
Marina Barrage was crowded on this Saturday evening. The sky was clear even though it was gray before I took off. The gradient colour painted delights in me. The strong wind dried my sweat fast as usual. I found myself a space and lay down immediately to rest, and also, trying hard to prevent liquid dripping out of my nose. The cough hurt my throat a little and I had this feeling that I could not make it back.
There were two groups of people creating loud noises on the field. The first group forfeited a guy by coming over to lie besides me. When I was standing by the side, a cute girl from the second group was forced to come over to greet me but she only waved. I was disturbed by a SMS regarding work that I was most fearful of, but I decided to fully indulge myself in the beautiful and lively place.
I stayed at the Barrage longer than usual. When it was 8.30pm, I decided I should rush home to continue with my work. Half of the crowds were still around and new visitors continued to arrive. I left reluctantly in my semi blocked nose, feeling more feverish than the earlier journey. I was delighted upon reaching my destination at Shenton Way for my timing was much faster than expected in my illness.
It was the first ever known overnight camp for the students to my knowledge. I had not witnessed an event as exciting and enriching as this. Two days one night were too short for the fun, though ample for the bodies and minds to endure. Hirman, the great one, together with his team of lecturers and student leaders, made it all happen.
Most of the staffs of the Singapore Discovery Centre were over-accommodative, responding well to all needs and they even prepared coffee at night at their own good wills.
The schedule was packed and every moment was fruitfully spent. The orientation group leaders (OGL) were quick to react to fill the time in the middle of switching the game stations. They did their jobs well and responded to the lecturers.
The management made their ways down after work on both days to show their supports. I was much luckier than them since I could stay for the entire camp to interact with everyone, including their seeds – the students.
There was nothing much I could really do other than photo-taking, but I believed my fruits of labour would sharpen the fading memories in future; I hoped the sights of them would bring back true smiles on everyone’s face. Most importantly, I hoped I could help Hirman to sum up the entire event through the photos.
So much for my great photography experience and fun in disturbing the kids, everything came with a price. The greatest exchange I made was my two days of time to do my own work and probably longer time to sum up the event together with the aids of the photos. I went down in my sore throat, cough and flu. The sleepless night before that almost made me float and I managed to challenge my limit again by sleeping less than three hours throughout. I had gastric pain twice on the first day and once on the last evening. My feet were sore and my knees were stiff after two days’ walk.
Hirman had brought back confidence and enthusiasm to this five hundred-plus-strength future of our country. It was the first step, a magnificent thrust, to implant hopes into them by making them understand that there was a big pool of people who really cared for them. It was a great effort to bring out all the goodness within them.
There was no absolute measure for the success of any event. However, it was made obvious with the sight of sick and injured students refusing to leave the camp to rest at home. The reluctance of students to leave the place at the end of the camp proved it.
No event could be perfect; although with the strong support from managements, staffs and students, there were still a number of areas to be improved since it was the first attempt of such grand event. There were some ground rules, which were not lay, and thus, creating some political issues. Some students created big issues for the leaders at night.
If the camp goes on for future intakes of students, many great souls would be torn to bones; but a much awesome and impactful one would commence after all the reflections.
I’m finally home with itchiness on my legs. The blocked nose has never recovered and so is the bad cough. I can feel some hurt whenever I swallow saliva into my throat. My feet are sore and my knees are aching. I seem to have some sunburn on my arms.
I have only slept less than three hours for the past two days.
Tuesday evening, I stayed in the office until quite late to attend volleyball, not very confirm whether it was on or not since Jingkun and Weitat were not going down and I was too lazy to ask Mingfa. It turned out that only Mingfa, Kok Chiang and Wilson from my side went down. I was more than happy to play with uncle Jiaming and we basically imported a player for each game. I was too sick to do much. We left quite early.
Wednesday morning, I went to visit the Chinese physician again for my cough, flu and sore throat. I had lunch together with Jingkun and Daniel and I was quite stunned when they mentioned going to Mr Prata shop but I did not want to foil their plan. It was quite a tiring afternoon staying inside the administration office. I was very impressed by Mr Baey’s enthusiasm and performance, volunteering himself extra hours to contribute his talent. I stayed a little bit later to check out what Hirman might need but there was too little I could help.
Last week, I felt very hungry in the office and thus I almost emptied my drawer’s food. I was already not feeling very well; in fact, my health was never in perfect condition since the end of last year.
My lower rib started aching over nothing since last Saturday and it could never be due to the relaxing volleyball game.
The heat increased and eventually I could feel the sore in my throat by Sunday night. The cough was bad and flu started conquering me. I was restless.
I could not allow myself to take medical leave due to work commitments. I had to force myself to recover even at the expense of not taking my medicine for the stomach problem.
Wednesday morning, my mum and younger brother left the house before I woke up to go to Bali.
I had a little difficulty in breathing at first. I hesitated again but decided I should take more rest at home instead of destroying myself at work. I went to see the doctor at the Outram polyclinic finally.
The checkpoint outside the main door was cleared. There was only a poor guy standing inside near the queue ticket machine, asking everyone if there was any symptom of flu, fever or cough. Then, a couple of old people bothering him over the queue machine in quite a rude tone, which I thought was so silly and ridiculous.
After putting on the mask, I realized my breathing had improved somehow. My queue number was F009 and it was not very long before I went into the consultation room. When the doctor was checking my throat, she said it was very red inside and that made me very curious. I remembered when I was in the army, I went to see the doctor for diarrhoea, and I was told the same thing. I was not having a sore throat that time and thus I took it lightly until the next day, it started to hurt.
I was given two days medical leave by the doctor without asking for it. If I were to tell her about my occupation, she would probably make me stay at home until the next Monday.
After reaching home, I dropped a couple of emails. I was planning to go downstairs to buy lunch before my elder brother’s girlfriend offered to do it. She went alone to help me get my wantan mee.
It was a lazy afternoon for me and I spent lots of time lying on the bed.
In the evening, the food delivery man interrupted my sleep. I checked my phone and realized my brother had informed me to wait for the food because his girlfriend could be asleep. My brother got home soon and we shared the two packets of food.
I started off Monday early in my sore throat, cough and flu. Having to keep repeating stuffs was more tiring than ever. It lasted for nearly four hours. The spoiler of the day was a phone call.
I was supposed to have a good lunch with my shi fu, Josephine, but she forgot about it and went out with her students instead.
I had lunch with Xiao Mei instead, and was lucky enough to bang into Kevin in the canteen.
I had a short meeting in the afternoon to confirm some work, which left me in a better piece of mind.
I could not escape taking the kids to Simei ITE. At first, I was supposed to replace George but his meeting was postponed and thus I was free. Just the night before, I was tasked to go since Bernard was sick, but luckily that was my favourite class. I missed the opportunity to hang out with QB though.
I reached early at 8am. Kevin came over to consult me. He related about his past experience, which could happen to me in near future.
The bus driver, uncle Tan, was very friendly. Criz was late and Alan was even worse, however, uncle Tan agreed to pick him up at Clementi MRT station before turning to AYE. The girls knew I was not in very good mood but they triggered more onto me with all the questions.
We met up with the rest before going up to the hall. None of the booths had anything for degree holders since it was meant for ITE students. The only thing that attracted me was the free notepad from NCS. While some of the girls were being interviewed for the Sentosa crew job, we stood near the booth for Yunnan Haircare, where many girls from probably a beautician related course came over and some were very cute and pretty.
We went to the canteen for their lunch and my brunch. I bought a plate of lemon chicken rice and started filling my stomach with the soup while waiting for the rest. They bought a piece of cake for Criz to celebrate his birthday and he was very cute throughout the celebration.
At around noon, we rushed off to board the bus and had some phototaking fun inside. The driver took us a tour before going back to pick up Nicholas’ retail class. After reaching the campus, I went off. Due to all the delay, my plan to visit the Chinese physician failed. I went home straight away to rest my weak body even though I slept longer than usual the night before.
I woke up at five plus in the afternoon, cleared email and rushed off to the campus. Flu had caught me and I felt weaker than before. I was minutes earlier before my bosses were leaving and the Indian guy was waiting there to lock the office up. I picked up my sports gears and talked to my bosses while going down. The canteen auntie reached and she gave me free sandwiches again, which I shared all with the rest of the volleyball players.
The game started but my legs were giving ways due to the jog the evening before. My cough had worsened and I felt feverish. My knuckle was still giving me problems. It was not so bad until Mingfa left the court after coach Michael Ong arrived; I was too used to his setting pattern to coordinate with others.
I was not only aching and sick, but also pressurized by Michael Ong’s presence. I felt quite irritated due to my poor performance in front of him because all along I wanted to prove him I could do better than what he thought.
Kachua and I left right after ten since he had to send his girlfriend home. We went to Sembawang and dined at a coffee shop. I took a plate of chicken wing rice from “Happy Chicken” and the taste was quite okay. After which, he dropped his girlfriend in front of her flat and sent me to his office where I walked home.
Since last week, my stomach was not feeling well. Followed by the sore throat was my bad backache and flu.
The weather was warm but the cold air-conditioner at night that was causing shivers in me upon waking up was more terrible. What was worst was the big air-conditioner spitting freezing air right on top of me in the office.
For the past few weeks I had been hugging my little pillow inside the office. I was not trying to act cute nor making the office cosy like my house obviously.
My health had been depleting for the past few days ever since Sunday morning. The bloated stomach invited flu along on Tuesday night and I almost could not make it for work the next morning.
Taking panadol caused me bad cough and I could not doze off with the irritant on my throat. I was not sure if I was allergy to panadol because it was not the first time it happened. The giddiness in the morning almost tripped me over on the way to Bukit Batok.
I was surprised that I could still conduct the workshop in my condition. It was a terrible morning to struggle on for my weak body wanted to collapse so many times while I put on a strong front.
Lunch was at Clementi’s coffee near the NTUC. The chicken cutlet was a letdown. I was not sure if I was too giddy or Weitat heard wrongly, otherwise, I would have enjoyed the chicken chop instead. A gay bee ruined my entire cup of lime juice by kissing the tip of the cup and also sucking off the juice.
I was always sleepy but the flu worsened my condition that my eyes could hardly stay open in the afternoon.
Magdalene gave me a lift to school and thus I reached SIM very early. I took a seat at one of the study tables and two quite good looking girls shared the table with me, and even sitting on the same side, right besides me. There were many babes passing by as well.
I was drunk with lots of herbal tea and other drinks to replenish my energy and hydrate myself. Alas, the sweating and toileting worked by Saturday, when I was left with only giddiness and my body temperature stayed at around 37 degree. It was unusual though, for my usual temperature would not exceed 36.6 degree.
The worst thing was that my mum forbade me from bathing in case I would be caught by flu again.
However, another problem had yet to be solved – my tired eyes. A stunning recall of the past, for as long as two years ago, the same problems aroused. I remembered the doctor told me my eyes were infected and I was given two types of eye drops. This time round, the doctor probably thought I was tired due to the flu.
My Saturday was spent updating of blogs and gaming.
Since the beginning of the week, my throat started to irritate me. Somehow, my eyes were very tired and I could not stop myself from nodding in the afternoon no matter how much sleep I took.
The weather was intemperate and the office was full of sick workers. I could no longer withhold the virus and flu started to emphasise my body by Wednesday. The cough managed to keep me awake for quite some time on my bed.
A visit to the Outram Polyclinic was a new experience during this Swine Flu period, where screening of temperature was done outside the entrance. All the visitors with symptoms such as fever, cough and flu are allocated to a different queue.
I was among the outcast group to be attended within a room. The pharmacy took over the original reception counters and even took my identification card, which was probably used to call up to check whether had I gone overseas within the period.
It was a long wait and Doctor Tan Kai Hui Colin attended to me. I was surprised over his friendliness, which was rare among the polyclinic doctors. He assured me of my condition was normal and gave me MC (medication certificate) to excuse me from work for two days. It was the first time I was given two days of MC in the polyclinic without having to debate with the doctor.
I went home to swallow the disgusting cough syrup, flu pill and sucking the lozenge. Soon, the power of the syrup and pill put me to sleep.
I could feel myself floating at night. My body was warm and I knew fever had joined in the fun. The first thing that came to my mind was I did not have any medicine for fever since my temperature was originally 36.2 degree in the morning. My mum gave me panadols to resist the fever before I went to bed.
My temperature fell between 37.4 and 37.9 degree throughout. I could feel my entire body torching and aching. I predicted the weekend would be wasted.
On Thursday, lunch was “lor mee” again since I was still feeling sick and could not take other stuffs.
In the afternoon, I tried to drag time so that I could get to rest more. I would not have done any sport for the day if Meihoe did not tell me that Mr Ng was going down to play with me.
I went to the canteen to grab some sandwiches and the auntie sold me a box of them for two bucks, and even asked her assistant to make a cup of tea for me when I told her I was sick.
The entire hall was very crowded. When Mr Ng arrived, I teamed up with him to play against the rest. Next, Daniel allied with me against Afni and Vivian. After teaming up with Dorothy against Meihoe and Mr Ng, I played one on one with Mr Ng and it certainly took me lots of courage and energy but at least, we did not play as long as the previous time.
After badminton, we proceeded to play volleyball. We had friendly match with some Malaysians and some of the SIM players came down as well. It had been ages since I last had serious volleyball game and I felt so weird. Jumping with my injured right knee was difficult and the runny nose was irritating. I was not able to do my best.
Overall, we won three games and lost one game. I left after that since I was not feeling well and that I had to wake up early for the next day.
My stomach gave me lots of problems, posing more problems than the flu and cough.
The flu tablet caused excess drowsiness on me. I did not take it in the morning and I totally forgot about the lozenges as well until I was at the carpark.
The Photoshop work was handed over to me and it was really tough since Yuanyuan had merged the texts with the background previously, and now that they wanted to make changes to the text as well. On a plain background would be much easier but it was fanciful designed and I had to perform some magic so that the amended texts would look normal with the edited background. It required lots of time and patience.
Lunch was at the canteen with my two buddies and Daniel. I bought food from the usual mixed vegetable rice stall but this time, I chose fried fish instead of chicken cutlet. Mdm Seet joined in the table to create lots of laughers.
The afternoon kept me busy and it was torturing in my drowsy state to walk around. Things were still okay, except for a very immature and arrogant kid who was rude. I tried to control myself to tolerate such bitch because I did not want to make the first attempt to shout at girls. It was pointless to try to save anyone who did not want to save himself or herself.
Jingkun, Weitat, Meihoe, Dorothy and Vivian were playing badminton. I could not join in due to my illness. So, I walked to the MRT together with Daniel.
I pinned high hopes to get some vicks or strepsils from the Co-Op in the yesterday morning. It was over 10 AM and after looking at the notice on the door, which “9am to 4pm” was written, I happily went in to get my lozenges. The girl at the cashier was asking me what I wanted and told me it was not in operation yet.
It was so ridiculous to have the operating hours indicated at the door and yet the shop was still not opened an hour later. I supposed none of the retail shops out in the market would do this. The excuse was that the girl in charge, Colin, had not arrived yet and probably due to some traffic jams. Her working hours were supposed to be 8 AM to 5 PM and yet the traffic jam could actually cause her to be late for two and a half hours. When the shop was finally opened for business, I realised none of the lozenges was on the shelves anymore and that the excuse given was that it was coming to the end of the semester soon.
I had lunch at the Tradehub with Baey, Joy, Alfni, Alex, Hasnah and Bernard. I ordered a plate of chicken rice for $3 and the can of carrot juice cost $1.50. The meat seemed to taste quite good with the gravy and nasi lemak rice, but I was unfortunately having flu and thus did not get to enjoy much. I did not join in the conversation often since I had to handle my runny nose.
I almost finished a packet of tissue papers in the afternoon; it was a tough afternoon for me.
Was it so difficult to follow instructions when the speaker was not right besides you? Was it just because of your self-discipline problem that your attention was diverted away once nobody was right besides you to monitor you?
This afternoon, I repeated my words many times and did as many times debugging as well.
As I was rushing off from work, Bernard offered to send me to Dover MRT and thus saving me lots of energy and time. I was more appreciative of the companion.
I took the wrong exit out of Outram Park MRT, having to make a detour. As I was asking for Dr Sally, the nurse at the counter disappointed me by telling me Sally was on leave. I had not met her for years and she was one of the best doctors at the polyclinic.
The waiting time was in fact, quite short, at four PM. I got into the room right after around two patients. Dr Ho in room 2 looked quite stylish. My main purpose for visiting the polyclinic instead of a Chinese physician was because I wanted to ask about my swollen right wrist and freckles on my shoulders but she did not seem to be able to help me at all. I was then prescribed the usual flu tablets and cough syrup, and she asked if I needed any lozenges, which quite stunned me since she was the doctor. The short consultation period cost me $9 together with $4 of medicine. I was wondering if I could get better medicine if I were to pay more than thrice the amount in a private clinic.
My mum was cooking dinner when I got home. I took my meal earlier than normal. I finished the last episode of the “Ten Brothers” online, which I missed it a day ago on channel 8, before swallowing a flu tablet and dozed off shortly.
I spent the long weekend better than previous weeks; more things were done although the efficiency level was still too low. I did not even know about the Deepavali’s holiday until Daniel told me on last Friday morning.
My upcoming directory site had moved to another era with the confirmation of the design and layout, such that I could go ahead with the remaining coding without fears of amendments.
I added four Chinese songs to my collection: 吴英仔 - 双手的温柔 (Wu Ying Zai - Shuang Shou De Wen Rou) 吴宗宪 - 留心 (Jacky Wu Zong Xian - Liu Xin) 李玖哲 - 想太多 (Li Jiu Zhe - Xiang Tai Duo) 薛之谦 - 黄色枫叶 (Xue Zhi Qian - Huang Se Feng Ye)
The meet-up with Irwin, including golfing, was great except for the fact that my flu and cough had not recovered.
I also managed to spend some time trying out the add-ons for Mozilla Firefox to enhance my surfing experience.
I woke up feeling more feverish than before. My body was weak and the joints were aching. The sore throat resided for a while like the day before but the flu did not stop.
I was so terrified of myself whenever I recalled being inside the class, having to move to the back to sneeze badly. When the fluid tried to drip down from nose, it was really gross. I wanted to maintain a clean sheet record but it would certainly hurt my conscience if I were to spread the virus to others.
For the first time since the first day of my work, I went to see a doctor for medical certification. I preferred Chinese physician but it was too bad their certification might not be recognised.
The polyclinic was crowded and I waited for around forty people before I got my queue number. Doctor Sally was busy as usual and when I asked about Doctor Kok Leong, the nurse at the registration counter was stunned and told me that he had been transferred to the headquarter. She checked my record and realised my last visit to the polyclinic was in year 2006, which was more than a year ago.
Surprisingly, I needed not wait as long as the usual two plus hours to get everything done. The doctor, Doctor Mark, assigned to me was from Ireland. I managed to get to see him quite soon with the absence of two to three patients who were not around after their numbers were flashed for minutes. He seemed to be having flu as well. It was a common infection inside my body.
The medicines prescribed were: Loratadine 10mg Tab Glycerin Thymol CO Gargle 100ml Dequalinium CL 0.25mg Loz Promethazine Codeine Co Linctus Amoxicillin Cap
As usual, for as far as I could remember, the doctor asked the same question, “Do you need an MC for today?” – How about the next day? The medicine prescribed would definitely cause drowsiness and how could the virus be wiped off within a day? Since I did not want to miss work longer, I did not try my luck.
I spent yesterday lying on the bed, having too much sleep to doze off again.
