update

And so, it has been a month since my female owner went off to pursue her Dream. Before my female owner left, her Functional Fren reminded her to bring over the ten Care Bears he gave her, and came up with a story that each Bear represented one month of being away (she is expected to return in December). My female owner breathed a sign of relief that she can finally “take away” one Bear. Suddenly the remaining months seem manageable. After all, a baby is formed in nine months too.

It’s time to do some accounting and figure out what she has done over this past month. My female owner’s over-arching goal in 2009 is to make this year count. She always said that she did not live in Brisbane last year. Rather, she lived only in St Lucia, with the occasional trip out to Toowong, the neighbouring suburb or the City.

Importantly, my female owner found a nice cosy place to stay. In doing so, she probably improved on her Mandarin vocabulary as she now knows what are the Mandarin terms for bell peppers and pressure cooker. My female owner mused at how she changed over the years. On her first day of work (in 2004) at her previous office, she told herself that “wow! I don’t mind working here until the end of my working life.” In addition, she was very commited to her previous relationship which lasted 6.5 years, despite parental objections and familial pressures to end the relationship. However, when Male Housemate asked her recently if she would continue to stay with them beyond one year, my female owner hesitated to commit herself. Is this the natural tendency of a swinging bachelorette?

Still abstaining from her choc chip cookies comfort food (thumbs up for that!), my female owner suspects that she has gained about 1.5kg since returning. Oh no, really a cyclical issue for her. On a related note, my female owner has recently started her healthy living plan and has kinda stuck to it for one week, since she actually did exercised three times last week. Applause please!

In terms of spending more time with friends, my female owner is happy to report that she has invested time and energy in this area, whether it’s meeting her Singaporean comrades for impromptu dinners, fellowshipping with her church friends or going on road trips around Brisbane.

Church has been good. Despite the initial awkwardness my female owner, now she feels more at home with her new bible study group. Perhaps because they are slightly older or because they are in the workforce, my female owner prefers the way they interact with one another, as compared to the student group.

School has kinda come to a standstill, given that the major load, her externship, is still not settled after 1.5 months! Enough said about this, lest my female owner turns emo.

Internet connection is still NOT up. If you see my female owner online these days, it is either she is in school or using her friend’s mobile access. As what one of her Singaporean Comrades said, my female owner has extensive “social capital” (a new term my female owner learnt!). A random griping in someone’s car about her need for internet access led to her friend offering her the mobile access to tide her over, for as long as she needs. In another instance, a random sharing with her Aussie coursemate about her maybe needing to interview someone who has experienced a recent loss for a course assignment led the coursemate to offer my female owner her own mother who lost her mother recently. Now, that is social capital.

Financially, my female owner is feeling stretched as she has been going out for meals with different people. With each meal costing at least $10 and she having a weekly budget of $280 (including essentials like rent, electricity, transport, mobile etc), no wonder she needs to rethink how to live within her means and yet achieve her goal of being more sociable and exploring beyond St Lucia.

In addition, the start-up cost of living in a new place is unbelievable. New furniture to purchase and utensils, food and condiments to stock up on. Speaking of which, my female owner has been yielding (such a strong word eh) to have a bookshelf to organise her learning materials. However, due to financial constraints (a simple one would cost about $70, without delivery), she decided not to get one. This morning just after she woke up, for some reason, she decided to get some greens from the nearby shop. To her pleasant surprise, she found that someone has discarded a usable white bookshelf in the pavement just next to her apartment. With such perfect timing (my female owner hardly gets out of her house just to go to the shop), location (the bookshelf was sufficiently heavy, so thankfully it was a short distance and she had the strength to lug it home by herself, up three flights of stairs) and provision (an assembled WHITE bookshelf of the right height), my female owner can only say that it was God who made it possible. Now, all she needs is a cloth to cover the bookshelf.

There you have it, an update of the month. My female owner hasn't really written down her goals/ resolutions for the year but more or less, it is to live life differently from 2008.