The recap.

This morning, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5.30a.m. I had gone to bed at 12.00a.m., struggling to get to sleep for some funny funny reason and now, I was wide awake. Shit.

So I got up, walked around a bit, and then went back to bed. 

The time now is 10.43a.m. I feel a little better. Nose is still blocked in my right nostril but hey, that's okay.

And suddenly, I feel like doing a recap of this year. Shall I?

The Best and Worst Memories of 2008

It was a Saturday morning on the 26th of January, 2008. I moved up to Welly from the comfort zone of Dunny that I have called home for the last 4 years. This time, as I left, I no longer had family to rely on. Everything was just pretty much me. But I moved up with the knowledge that I had friends to see and new friends to make. Both sisters and Singaporean Rambo (LTA) took me to the airport. Sis had tears in her eyes which she masked by putting on her shades. I departed from Gate 8 which meant I had to walk down a flight of stairs.

Arrived in the afternoon around 4ish and took a shuttle that dropped me off 3 streets away from my actual flat. Had a bitch of a time carrying luggage but finally found the flat. Phew. Met the Sociologist and Wallflower. We went out to the Warehouse to pick up little things like cleaners, some basic kitchen utensils, soap, whatnot. Weather was beautiful. We went to dinner at HK BBQ. We had chilli chicken in a claypot. That was really good too. That night, the Sociologist and I stayed up until 4 in the morning drinking milo and talking.

The next day, we woke up at 8ish and decided to head to church. Stumbling upon our way with a map in our hands, we decided to walk AROUND the Basin rather than through it, now a very stupid idea especially with me as a navigator. Found church and I thought I had found my new spiritual home. I was glad. In 2007, there wasn't much of a spiritual life for me. I wanted to start anew. After church, we went for yam cha with a whole bunch of Malaysians, Taiwanese, and Singaporeans and one Filipino. Um. Yeah. And someone asked whether the Sociologist was from CHINA. That was Funny. Wallflower drove us back to the flat after sending Arthur back to his uni hall. That evening, I walked over to find where the hospital was and how long it was going to take me. On my watch, it was going to take me 13 minutes. Went home and prepared for the next day. My first Professional Studies Week. (PSW)

Went to school the next day and met everyone again. It was good to see familiar faces albeit not really knowing them that well. But I saw Chinagirl and we were the only two Asians. It was good to see her. We stuck around each other a lot. Just for the sake of it. You know, Asians against the rest of the white class kinda thing.

Started clinicals a week after and I was thrown headfirst into the cardiopulmonary ward otherwise known as Ward 18. Went around, did a lot of things to patients and made them feel better. I hoped. Also bonded with some of my patients whom I took extra pains to make sure they were really getting better treatment and sometimes, I didn't quite get the results I wanted. Felt really disappointed but hey, what's new. Saw my first terminal case and the next day, the curtains to his room were drawn and his name plate was removed. A solemn day. Also got to see the inside of one of my patient's lungs. That was cool. Scrapped by exams with 4 marks to spare. And bought my first stethoscope. +)

Outside of clinicals, the Sociologist and I had breaky at Mr Bun which lasted an amazing 3 hours or so. Weather continued to be really kind and sunny. Also worked out a lot more often on a playground and I would like to think became a lot more stronger and hunkier. Hee. Went to ceroc and met the DancingSoftwareDeveloper, YC, and the HK couple. Choreographed a routine for the HK couple's wedding dance. Became a taxi dancer and got my first official taxi dancer shirt. Finally met the other flatmates and we had some crazy crazy sessions, more often than not. As well as some really really weird moments. We also had people staying in our flat every other weekend and I guess, that was all right. I didn't really mind.

Church story, sad to say, fell to pieces. I started doubting the church and finally felt really uncomfortable with it so I stopped going. I walked around Welly a lot more trying to find a church I could call home, from the Streets to Central Baptist to Wesley Methodist Church (I swear, that was awesome) to St John's Presbyterian but nothing quite fit the bill. 

I started working at BP with a majority of Indian management and workers. I hated it. Management in particular. The workers were fine. I had early morning starts and some pretty shitty customers. Which was really sad. There was one particular woman, which I would call the BP Bitch that I wished I could strangle and stuff with the LPG refilling hose. But that's a story. Ended work pretty badly and never quoted them on my CV.

Continued clinicals at different places throughout Welly which was both stressful and incredibly rewarding. The Sociologist and I continued to find places to go for breakfast at, including Simply Paris, Cafe L'affare, and Floriditas. On occasion, we met up for lunch at the Dixon Deli.

I continued to explore Wellington like I do, on foot to familiarise myself with my surroundings. Celebrated my birthday with a pancake lunch and two squabbling flatmates with a delicious choc cake and a kids book about me called Little Mr Happy or something or rather. 

Dancewise,  I continued dancing ceroc and started to take up argentine tango with the DancingSoftwareDeveloper. Also met the one chick whom I would term Blonde Girl and write a fictional story on that people actually thought I had gotten laid. Probably one of the best blog posts I've ever written in my entire life.

Workwise, I started a new job at the hospital working as a kitchenhand, washing dishes, pushing food trolleys and taking out garbage. In hindsight, it was a blessing as I earned at the hospital what I earned at BP working half the hours I did.

I broke up with my then girlfriend of 3 and a half years on the 22nd of August, 2008. Crying took 5 minutes and a walk through town with the Sociologist and a Hunger Buster meal. The rest of the year was pretty much plain old BIG BIG denial. It probably left me screwed up as a person emotionally. Bleh.

Then I moved to Levin. Which involved a total shift out of my now comfort zone in Welly. That was pretty shit. But I had the Brit who was my saving grace. Wouldn't know what I would do without him.

At this time, I had also managed to coerce the DancingSoftwareDeveloper into doing a ceroc/tango mix for a showcase performance. We practised every weekend and managed to put it together in my last week in Welly.

Then I flunked my exams. Again. For three years straight, you would think that I would try NOT to flunk. But I did. To empathise with my sorry arse, I ate an entire bucket of KFC. Yeah, you read it right. Between fighting back tears and trying not to eat my own snot, I stuffed more than enough breast meat into my system that I actually felt like a stuffed pot roast. Went back to Wellington that day and was prepped to do specials in 2 weeks time.

Best event of the Year - Doing the Tango Fusion performance with the DancingSoftwareDeveloper to the angsty angsty song of El Tango de Roxanne. I knew we could do it and apparently, we started a sort of tango resurgence in ceroc. How awesome is that? Went for the Simply Ceroc Ball after that and that was pretty awesome as well.

Then I sat my specials and passed it. Phew. I could graduate.

I came back to Dunedin on a bright sunny day. Funny. Funny funny funny.

Funnily though, I was so over graduation it wasn't funny. In fact, I actually wanted to graduate in absentia but then again, parents were going to drag me up on stage even if I didn't want to be there. So thus, I filled out forms and graduated. 

Made a few calls and started looking for a job. And then a hospital somewhere up North in what I will now refer to as WangyWangy gave me a phone interview and a job. I'm starting soon.

Then I met the Little Wild One again. Meeting her was bittersweet as in a past life, she was a best friend, a confidante, a dance partner, a singing partner, a workout buddy and more besides. But things have changed and I moved on with the times with tears in my eyes and a slight longing for what might have been, could have been, would have been.

Went for graduation a week ago. And that's it.

Here I am again. Back to square 1.

Its been a blast, 2008. Cheerios and I'm itching to see what 2009 will bring. As uncertain as it is, I'll take my steps by steps and somehow, some way, I'm going to end up in another place and in a year from now, I'll probably write the recap for 2009 in another blog (most likely!) and yeah. 

Smile and no one will know the difference.