The Berry Group

We hadn't seen each other in months, but when we met it was instantaneous laughter and lots of non-stop chit-chatting.

First off, three of us were all wearing black and carrying canvas tote bags, so there was that. Secondly, we were all famished! Food makes everyone united, honestly. I could never be great friends with a person who didn't like to eat.

Went to Thomson Road's The Prata House and Salted Caramel. The prata was okay, and when were ordering drinks, I order teh bing and Joyce ordered "iced tea tarik". To which the guy replied, "So...two teh bing?"

Originally I'd thought all of them would be talking about K-pop and I'd be mostly quiet, but I realized, this is me: I'm never quiet. Plus, they actually had a lot of other things to talk about, like school, work, family, and of course we reminisced about primary school days a lot.

The four of us - Joyce, Shuyi, Ruby, and I - gave ourselves code names back then. It was kinda stupid, but I'm pretty sure most everyone was stupid in primary school. We were the berry group: Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Cherry.

My stomach is grumbling as I type. Clearly two pratas, a third of mee hoon goreng and ice cream weren't enough to last me till after suppertime. It is officially Monday right now, and I am hungry. Not a good start. I'm sure the Monday blues will manifest soon.

We took a long time to take four Polaroid shots, and an even longer time to decide who's getting which, thanks to my indecision. I'd post a picture of all four shots here, but laziness prevails. Maybe tomorrow.

Pics tomorrow? More like next year!

Who am I kidding? No one's reading this shit.

My new keyboard

Unless you have a PMS-y keyboard like mine, you won't understand how good it feels to finally be able to type the letters 'e', 'd', and the number '3'. Apparently I use a lot of e's and d's; I'm never taking them for granted again.

This reminds me of the feeling I had when we installed a new water heater a few years ago. We'd been taking cold showers (involuntarily and unnecessarily) for a few months and that had made me dread showers.

Which is something you should never have to dread because you actually have the privilege of it, unlike people who have no homes, shelter, water, etc.

"Hi, Cheryl. Look how shiny I am."

Anyway, when we finally got that water heater, the first hot shower I took almost made me cry. And now, as I type words with tons of e's and d's, my elation is palpable in the air. Delighted, ecstatic, effervescent - bring 'em on!

Sick and sick again

I don't know if it's the weather or my period or my immune system or all of it combined, but lately my body's being such a temperamental female dog. First I got gastric pains, which was the second time I've experienced it in my life.

When asked why, the doctor told me it could be a variety of reasons - which we'll never know for sure - skipping meals, stress, weather, basically anything. I believe stress was the cause. You see, the first time I had gastric pains was around 2 years ago, when I first started my job at Gramophone Capitol, the multimedia store. After a month at the job, I had gastric pains and a fever that rendered me stupider than usual. (And that's saying something.)

So it's been exactly a month after I began my new job as a clerk/stock-taker/whatever-you-want-to-call-me at my uncle's auto parts shop, and BAM! Gastric pains. How convenient.

Right after I took meds for the pain, my period arrived. So now I had the delightful confusion of whether it was my tummy going nuts or my cramps acting up. [Sorry if any squeamish guys are reading this. It's not my fault you're so delicate.]

Then, as my period is coming to an end and the gastric pains have long since subsided, a flu developed and my throat started getting real dry. Will life not give me a break?

Sure, if you think about sick orphans and dying soldiers, my predicament seems pretty cushy. I have doctors, modern Western medicine (or Chinese herbs if I want any), fans (the ones that have rapidly-turning blades to produce wind, not screaming Justin Bieber types), a mom to nag at me, a job that allows me to not work when I have exams, a relatively conservative amount of money, clean water...you get the gist. But...

Okay I forgot my point. Apparently I have just talked myself out of my whining funk. Life's pretty good. Have a great week!