questioning

My female owner is having mixed feelings about moving now. In fact, she is feeling sorry about having made the decision to move. St Lucia, pretty much, has been her home since she went to Brisbane. St Lucia saw her come as a perfect stranger, trying to adjust to Brisbane’s way of life. Awkward and raw, my female owner took a long time to warm up to its charms. Now that she has nicely settled into Brisbane, my female owner is moving yet again. Another transition. Apprehensive and ambivalence, she is questioning the wisdom of her decision.

There are so many things she is going to miss.

Being able to walk to school, and not having to rely on buses.

Walking to and fro school with Therapist Fren who lives just up the street. Going for early morning brekkies with her. Having impromptu dinners at Nando’s with her.

Jogging around the school compound with her jogging kakis. A routine established early upon her arrival to Brisbane which maintained some form of sanity in the midst of chaos. Even the impromptu jios would be missed.

Impromptu dinner jios with Mr Nice Guy who lives nearby.

Walking over to Bryce Street for social events (dinners, movies, guitar lessons).

Car rides home with St Lucia dwellers. My female owner loves taking car rides with friends because of the opportunity to interact with them on a casual but more intimate manner.

Even walking to Chai’s, the neighbourhood Asian grocery store, and buying durian chips!

Accessibility to St Lucia and Toowong friends.

My female owner says that her days in St Lucia are numbered. Just one more week and she would be gone. If moving to a suburb 20mins away is so painful (even by choice), what would it be like for my female owner when/ if she leaves Brisbane for good??

line

An Onli Fren is someone who bothers to ask when you are returning from overseas, remembers the date, convinces her husband to drive to the airport to fetch you, more than a month before you are due to return.

An Onli Fren is also someone who asks about your availability, takes leave in accordance to what you say, more than a month before you are due to return.

An Onli Fren is also someone who tirelessly helps you to pay your credit card bill or call up the credit card company whenever you send out an SOS.

Well, my female owner got into a little tight spot recently with her Onli Fren terminology. One of her friends protested (unprovoked) that having such a name just devalues the significance of her other friends (which also includes him). In his words, “we are standing on a thin line now”. Without being defensive, my female owner then told him the story behind this title.

He responded empathetically and said “So sad. Okay, I will still be your friend… and I will get more wires so that I can strengthen this line. And I will get God to bring a bridge of love”.

Ah, so sweet. There you have it… another friendship established. Well sort-of. Not that my female owner would run to him if she has issues. So strange, she says. But it is good to know that she has such sweet friends around.

coursework

My female owner finally completed her couple therapy assignment. Two days ahead of schedule in fact, and with that, she completes the coursework component of her programme. Congratulations female owner! So proud of you.

It is only at milestones like this, that one takes a moment to ponder about the journey that transpired thus far. The ups and downs of the road less travelled, the different seasons weathered, sometimes unexpected lonely segments where no one knew the pain and agony that she was struggling through, at other times, tranquil stretches where she could reduce her pace of work and savour the beauty of the journey. The process, as my female owner always say, is as important as the outcome.

Suffice to say, my female owner came out of coursework stronger, more insightful, sensitive and knowledgeable. This journey is still not over yet. There are so many things awaiting her to explore, learn and develop. I’m sure she will make the best out of it.

Straddie

My female owner just returned from a camping trip at North Stradbroke Island. Her first real camping trip of her life! For those who don’t know where it is (well, neither do I actually), it is an island at the south east of Queensland, accessible by 45-min ferry ride.

If you think Gold Coast has nice beaches, my female owner says, you should just take a look at the beaches on Straddie. She was so awestruck by them. Crystal clear blue waters, with vibrant waves adding to the ocean roar, complete with soft white sand (it is so soft, it squeaks when you walk on it. My female owner actually laid on the sand directly...soothing, she describes it), a cooperative sun for sunbathing and wide space with few people. Just heavenly.

She spent the weekend just flowing with the surroundings. The environment became a natural playground for her friends and her, as they walked onto the jetty, waded into the water (spotted a turtle swimming by..), monkeyed around on a see-saw, flowed with the currents of the sea (turbulent to a certain extent for my female owner), sun-baked (and sun-baked and sun-baked), beach-combed for mysteries either washed up by the sea, or buried in the sand. Bounded by nothing, not time, not phonecalls, not emails or even MSN. She didn’t even care that she had to submit an assignment the day after she returns. It’s just them and nature interacting. Back to the basics. It was also like a time to reflect and be comfortable with yourself. Before she went camping, she asked God about something regarding her future. He showed her the stars. She thinks she got a clearer idea now.

Coming from a very underexposed background, my female owner also quickly picked up new skills and knowledge in terms of building a tent, using technical tools, marine life, even barbequing. (Thank God for patient friends, I must say. My female owner had her usual travelling mantra in full gear at the back of her mind, just that she didn’t mention it to them). My female owner took some photos but well… as usual… it would take a while to upload them.

My female owner is looking forward to more camping trips. Now is the time, she says!

moving

My female owner says that her housemate stuff has been more or less settled. Her housemates had advertised the vacancy on the accommodations website and people have started showing interest in the room. Yah, they finally spoke on Tuesday. It is amazing how many days can go by, without you seeing your housemates. My female owner has never realised it before.

Although she would have like to have talked to them face to face from the word go, my female owner was still glad that she acted on what she wanted. In the past, she would have just let it go… and suffered in silence.

Timing is everything, she reckons. In the past, she would have never considered living with a church friend, for the fear of losing the friendship by being in too close a proximity. As long ago as last year, when she first met this person she is going to stay with, she knew that this person had empty rooms to rent. When she arrived in Brisbane this year, this person still had empty rooms to let (she has three extra rooms, you see). My female owner did not consider the house at all. Now, she says the timing is right. She is ready to move in with her (sounds like marriage ah).

Anyway, you probably know that my female owner has ambivalence tendencies. She reckons that she analyses situations too superficially, too much. Hence, she can see the pros and cons of situations and end up being torn by alternatives. When reality hits home and she realises that she is indeed moving, my female owner was filled with ambivalence.

She really loves her current location. When she first moved in, she had no idea if she made a right choice in staying at St Lucia. In fact, she was reluctant to move in. She kept delaying, until the last possible day. The location has just been a great blessing to her in more ways than one.

Not surprisingly then, my female owner feels a tinge of reluctance and sadness in having to move out (note: this is in spite of the fact that she chose to move). Maybe she dramatised things too much. She felt as if once again, she was relocating from Singapore to Brisbane, and wished that she could bring all her St Lucia friends to Sunnybank, so that they could be within reach. In fact, she never considered Sunnybank as a possible place to live. However, rising costs in St Lucia made her swing her vote to Sunnybank. Ever bad at financial management (can you believe that my female owner once considered being an accountant?!?!), she roughly estimated that she would save about $200/ month (which she was also sure that she might spend that savings on other things). So, the argument is not about saving money, but getting value for money.

abundant

My female owner walks to her placement every Thurs and Fri. On good days (i.e. when she is calm and composed), she would pray along the way. As she started her leisurely walk today, the verse John 10:10 flashed across her mind: “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”

My female owner started to claim this promise of God. Although she had inklings of what this verse meant before, today, she suddenly experienced an epiphany, that it didn’t make sense for her to allow herself to live her former life, which was filled with depression, low self-esteem, low confidence and rejection. Living with depression is like a social fad at times. So normal and accepted by society. Deceptions of the devil. This is not God's concept of abundant life.

Ah, so she spent her time praying and rejecting these lies that she had been living with. Her joy, confidence and acceptance are found in the complete work of Jesus. Of course she might lapse into old thinking patterns and behaviours at times, but she has clearly made her choice today and has willed herself to keep praying and sticking to her convictions if she starts to wilt. As she always tells her clients, feelings are not facts.

She later found out through her study bible that this verse speaks of restoration to an individual and when God restores, He doesn’t just “bring back to a former or original condition” (as defined by the dictionary), He multiples. How comforting!

life

overheard on MSN between my female owner and her funny friend:

"when i was five, my mom told me to be happy in life. At school i was given an assignment of what i want to be when i grow up. i said happy. and my teacher said i didn't understand the assignment. i said she didn't understand life"

essays

Well… today marks another mini milestone. My female owner completed all her extra-curricular activities such as marking and research work. All she has on her plate now are two essays. One is due next Monday and she is almost done. In fact, she has reached that neurotic stage of wondering, how good is good enough? What else should be changed?

The other essay is due next Friday, and she intends to continue working on it next week (maybe 30% done?). A fairly straight-forward essay that requires little research but more application of knowledge (i.e. come up with treatment plans and intervention strategies). She is quite reluctant to put the final full-stop on these essays, coz these two essays actually mark the last of her coursework. After next Friday, she would have completed the coursework component of her programme. Time flies!

Believe it or not. After completing her marking just now, she felt lost. The “what’s next?” feeling. Huh? Just essay? And so, she started procrastinating and spent more than an hour talking to Onli Fren. Was a good chat nonetheless.

And yes, time to start on the essay now. Stop avoiding it!

avoid

And so, this is an interim update of her avoidance stance. My female owner took great pains to wake up late on Sunday so that she does not need to do any serious talking in the morning. Her housemates were out by the time she stepped out of her room at 1000hr (she had no choice, she had to go to the toilet). At night, she reached home about 2230, after a very meaningful dinner with some friends). They were asleep already.

This morning was as per usual. Male housemate out of the house, female housemate in her own room. Female housemate did not make any attempts to talk to her (which is good…. consistent to her avoidance philosophy).

So, two days after writing the note… nothing has transpired. My female owner certainly hopes that she can move out without a fuss… fingers crossed

avoidance

My female owner had a strange day, all because of her avoidance tendency. She finally decided that she would like to move out of her current place as soon as possible to a friend's house. She had been contemplating on this for more than a month. In fact, when Second Onli Fren was here, she put some pressure on my female owner to speak to her housemates about her moving out, and even offered to broach the subject with them. My female owner decided against it then, coz she was not ready to drop the bombshell.

Late last night, my female owner decided that she would move out. However, she’s really bad at discussing such issues. She felt that they would be angry, even though contractually, she was not bonded to any agreement, except that she had to give 2 weeks’ notice. Hence, she crafted a lousy, CMI (cannot make it) plan. She would write a letter to her housemates (sometimes she would do that to inform them of her whereabouts or talk about the excessive internet usage), leave it on the table and escape till late at night to yes, avoid them. She didn’t dare to see their reaction to the news and wanted to talk to them only after the anticipated initial shock (i.e. tomorrow).

So she camped in school, doing her laundry list of things. Until about 3pm, one of her church friends jioed her for lunch (?!). She responded and ended up in Sunnybank (20mins’ drive away). Because she was avoiding being home, she returned to school again to do her work. That was about 5pm.

At 6pm, another church friend jioed her for dinner (with some others) at his house in St Lucia. For some divine reason, she managed to get a lift from someone to go to his house (actually just mins away from her own house). Dinner ended at 8pm. Different people had different plans. One of the gals had to go back to work. My female owner felt that it was too early to go home (coz they would still be awake). So she requested to be dropped off at school again.

And she is still in school.. It's almost midnight. All because she don’t dare to go home, even though she didn’t do anything wrong. Onli Fren mused that she actually ran away from home! This anxiety is becoming irrational. My female owner even started wishing that someone would jio her out for supper. What’s wrong with her?

sand play

Ever heard of sand play therapy?

Apparently, it is a non-intrusive form of play therapy that allows children (or adults) to play out what is happening in their world. The therapist provides a sand tray, water, miniature objects and materials so that the child can imaginatively create scenes in the circumscribed space of the sand tray. The scene of picture that is constructed is a reflection of the child's inner and outer worlds and an expression of both conscious and unconscious thoughts.

One of the school counsellors at my female owner's placement specialises in sand tray. Her clients are mostly primary school children. Ever open to new ideas, my female owner decided to take up her offer to have a sand play session.

It turned out to be psychodynamic in practice. My female owner chose certain items from the shelf and arranged them in the sand tray (see her creation below). The counsellor then guided her to tell the story behind each placement. My female owner could see for herself how her story was an extension of her personality, inner thoughts and current concerns.

My female owner told her story before the counselor revealed what each region of the sand tray meant. The centre: Self. Left bottom: Sub-conscious. Left top: Religion or spirituality. Right top: Relationship with earthly father/ future. Right: Relationship with earthly mother. Right bottom: Relationships.

Eerie but true… my female owner’s story tallied with the various domains. Specifically, she pointed out the tiger as being her mother and the group of turtles as a group of friends. Notice that little orange turtle which is buried in the sand too? That placement is hard to relate to any domain I suppose. She saw herself as being on the boat, about to go out to explore things… and the top right, she expressed distressed that it was empty, glaringly empty. The sub-conscious domain was hard to explain. My female owner said that she didn’t know why she put leaves and pebbles there, but she pictured nature as she placed things there. When asked fast nature (e.g. wind) or still, she said, it was still. Hmm… Perhaps she is at peace at this period of time. The spiritual side, represented by the relaxed dog. Wahaha. Lazy Christian? The counselor didn’t draw any reference to religion but suggested that spiritually, she is calm and relaxed.

The thing about psychodynamic is that any interpretation can be correct, and you are often trying to find explanations that fit what your story is. Nonetheless, my female owner was astonished at the accurate tally of her story and most of the domains.

fear

Fear. A powerful motivator. A powerful inhibitor.

My female owner is scared of many small things. She knows they are irrational, but she gets anxious and avoids them when possible, creating inconveniences and restrictions in her life.

Injections. Prevents her from donating blood. In fact, she did it once, but never mustered up the courage to do it again.

Speed. She can’t take thrill rides and extreme activities like bungee-jumping.

Dogs. Stresses her out. Makes her take alternate paths to avoid them

Balloons. Yes, she cannot bring herself to blow balloons and screams (and sometimes tears) when a nearby balloon bursts.

My female owner also fearful of big things.

Commitment. Hence, spontaneity and impromptu gatherings are her lifestyle choice. No tying her down to big purchases or forward planning of more than two months.

Failure. Keeps her working harder than she should, to cover all grounds and to leave no stones unturned. Can be tiring and ineffective.

Intimacy. Shares her true feelings with a select few. Others only see the “friendly side of her”.

Disappointment. Hence, she dares not hope for too much or be too ambitious. Not getting what she hopes for = failure.

Making the wrong decisions. That explains her indecisiveness and tendency to remain in the status quo.

But fear, is not of God. We should not allow it to dictate our lives.

path

My female owner has been wondering about life after graduation. Although it is a good 12 months away, she knows that it is time to start thinking about “what’s next?”.

She doesn’t know.

Brisbane or Singapore? Or elsewhere? Having found some decent company (but not many she will count as frens, if you know what I mean) and gotten used to the slower, more relaxing pace of life, my female owner is reluctant to return to Singapore (for good) too quickly. Yet, Brisbane has never felt real. To her, it's like a dream land, where she escapes for 3 years... before returning to the "real world" of work and erm, work? Won't that mean being back to square one? What a waste of time.

Save for her “doctorate”, she reckons she is far behind in every other aspect of life. It’s the same old story: no career, no savings, no family of her own. Friends, those who matter to her, are far ahead of her. The feeling of being left behind is real.

At the same time, she knows that this will happen when she chose to take this path, a path which brought her out of her comfort zone, and threw her into the deep end. A path which will occupy her for three years. If she had a choice, she would still choose this path again. In fact, she might have chosen to take it earlier… or through another means, but yes, this path again.

Now, she doesn’t really know where this path leads to. No idea at all. While she is trying to figure it out, my female owner has decided to enjoy the rest of this path. She knows that God has more things in store for her, and that when the time is right, He will reveal more to her.

grace

My female owner had her prayers answered in a most unconventional, modern way. It all started on Sunday morning, when she went to her office with the intention of (finally) working on her multiple regression statistical analysis which she procrastinated for a week.

Opening up her thick stats book, she wrote a prayer as her MSN tagline. “God… help me with stats please.” My female owner didn’t think much of it, having resigned herself to an afternoon of perplexing statistical manoeuvres.

Ten minutes later, a friend popped up online and said excitedly “I can help you with stats!!”

The rest, they say, is history. Her friend kindly offered to meet her that afternoon for a two-hour crash course on multiple regressions. The friend is actually a statistics tutor in the School of Economics and does extra tutoring for students at a fee (it never occurred to my female owner that she could ask him for help). But he did it free for her... and even when she bought him a pizza for lunch, he returned the meal with coffee.

When my female owner wrote out that MSN tagline, she didn’t consciously mean it as a prayer. It was more out of desperation. But God, in His ever generous and protective grace, made things happen in such a way that her friend would log on on a Sunday morning, respond to that line, and be available to help her. The timing was just perfect. Her friend would be out of the country two days later till the end of October and she needed to hand in some analyses asap.

Ah, the grace of God. Hits you when you least expect it... but rescues you from darkness.

maths

When my female owner was small, she went for a family day outing with her mother and her colleagues. She was looking at some plants along the road (must have been a trip to some nature reserve or something) when an auntie came along to tell her more about the plants. She asked the auntie how she knew so much about the plants. The auntie said that when people grow up, they would specialise in one area (presumably she meant people would pursue a tertiary education in a selected field). My female owner then asked her (Singaporean mentality acting up here), how would she know which area she would specialise, would someone tell her?

About ten years later, my female owner decided that her “specialised field” would be psychology. Ten years after that ten years, she is still trying to qualify her specialisation. If my female owner did not do her last minute switch to psychology just before she entered university, she would have been a teacher. A mathematics teacher, to be exact.

She loves mathematics, to the point that she took both Mathematics C and Further Mathematics in Junior College. People thought she was mad. She even took Mathematics in first year of university and ended up aceing her modules coz they were easier than F. Maths. Can you beat that? She was finally not failing her tests. Anyway, she gave up Mathematics and Sociology in single-minded pursuit of psychology.

Throughout university, she tutored school-going students, and her pet subject was mathematics of course. She also fantasised that one day, when she got married and had children of her own, she would give up full-time work and be a freelance home-based tutor. This would enable her to be a stay-home mum and yet, be meaningfully occupied. Yah, that was her. She had simple aspirations.

Anyway, I'm digressing. The reason why I started talking about Maths is because the local news recently reported that parents were unhappy about the exceptionally difficult Mathematics papers for PSLE students. They even published one complicated question in the news. My female owner had a mini kick out of solving it. It is easier than it looks but for a 12 y.o., it might have been daunting.

Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?

Ah, the good old days when answers are clearly right or wrong. Unlike now, where her chosen field is largely subjective, shrouded with shades of greyish ethical, moral and spiritual considerations.

walk-in

My female owner went back to her placement on Thursday. It has been a fairly easy placement for her in the sense that she doesn’t need to do much after hours preparation. Might be another way of saying that she is slacking!

Anyway, she says that it was an extraordinary two days. Besides having all her usual students turning up (they sometimes forget to turn up and have to be called for), she had “walk-in” students exactly at the time-slots where she has no one booked in. This is also unusual coz walk-in students are not common and if she does, she’s usually unable to see them due to clashes in her schedule.

So all in all, she ended up with 8.5 hours to client contact hours this week. More than any preceding weeks and her prayer of 7 hours. Wat a relief. She passed the half-way mark in times of her hours! 44.5hours more to go.

My heart, Your home

If your heart is where God lives in, how would it look as a home? Will it be welcoming, cosy and warm? Or will it be awkward, restrictive and cold?

What kind of changes do you need to make, things you need to get rid of, things you need to add in, so that your heart will become a home for God?

All these years, my female owner’s heart has been small and restrictive. She allowed God to enter certain rooms in her heart, at her whims and fancies. Other rooms were out of bounds; their doors, guised as walls, covered with paintings.

Early this year, through a church friend, God spoke to her about these locked doors. The thing about doors is that, only you can open, and you choose who you want to open these doors to. My female owner decided that it was time to open (or maybe, to first locate, since she has blocked out many of these doors from her selective memory) these doors to God.

Over the past 6 months, my female owner struggled with opening these doors fully. Ambivalence. Memories. Deception. Fear. Doubts. Wounds. At times, she started closing the doors again. And if she did open those doors, she was hiding behind those doors, as if God was welcomed to come in… but she was too ashamed to see Him. As if to say, “God, you can come in…. but I will go out. This heart of mine, is too messy, I don’t know how to face You”.

At times, she became frustrated with herself. And yet, she was acutely aware of God’s presence and patience. She had the conviction that God has never given up on her.

Through this process, her heart now, is looking more like a home for God. The home which she is proud to invite God in, show Him around, and give Him access.

hurdle

My female owner started out on her semester break, listing down the things she had to complete by the time school started again. Happily, she did manage to complete all that she has set out to do.

Well, that was the first hurdle. For the rest of October, she has to complete the following:

• Proposal on dementia caregiving training – 60%
• Couple therapy paper – 60%
• Mark (or vomit over) 31 year 3 assignments
• Weekly tutor responsibilities (like respond to anxious students’ emails and prepare for class)
• Data analysis for research work + writing up of paper ASAP (in her supervisor’s words)

Already, she is sweating over her assignments. She broke out into her familiar pattern of panic and started to catastrophise all the worst case scenarios… and wondered if she would be able to fall sick strategically so that she can obtain a medical certificate to get an extension for her assignments.

In a way, the end is quite near for her. Only 3 more weeks till the end of semester, i.e., end of all her coursework. If she had continued in her Masters programme, she would have actually reached the end…. And graduate at the end of the year. And be a fully registered psychologist. Wow. That’s how fast 2 years went for her and us turtles.

Well, now she has an extra year to go, to complete her final placement and her 40000-word thesis.

first

My female owner had another run away weekend. Three weekends ago, she stayed over at SOF/SOF’B house. Two weekends ago, she did a SOF/SOF’B + Noosa Heads getaway. Last weekend, she stayed over at I-Fren’s house. Hmm.. didn’t realise how much she had been away, until now.

The sleepover at I-Fren’s started innocuously, with a simple aim of learning to pitch a tent. Unbeknownst to her, it morphed into a full weekend of experiential learning and many firsts. It started off with a dinner hosted by his mum on Friday night. My female owner rarely sits at a table, having a family-type dinner, especially with the conversation centred on direction in life/God. No wonder she was struck dumb. She also never spoken to any parent at such great lengths. Back in Singapore, it was always her friends who came to her house and wound up chatting with her mother.

Then, exposure therapy to her fear of dogs. It was either she stayed in the car for the night to avoid the dog or come out and be uncomfortable. She was forced, literally, held by the hand, to stand (trembling) in the dark and allow the dog to sniff her. She was then forced to pat the dog on the head. What horrors!

Saturday came and they picked up I-Fren’s friend (who was visiting from Melbourne) at the Gold Coast before heading to Lamington National Park for a hike. Her first time at the acclaimed place, south of Gold Coast. The drive up to Lamington was therapeutic and calming, especially when compared to the driving she had to do in Tasmania. For once, she could enjoy the sights, cows and wind as they went into the mountains and farms.

The initial plan was to do a 5-6km hike. It morphed into a 12.7km hike. Not that my female owner had any issues, coz she loves hiking (with ungirly people). What she didn’t expect was that the Melbourne friend (whom I-Fren hosted till Sunday evening) was a mega big camwhore. The trio ended up spending heaps of time posing with nature. From hanging off tree branches, to sitting on them like a swing, to crawling into a cave, and standing on rocks, to squeezing into tree trunks and checking out bums… they did them all.

And unexpectedly but gleefully, half-way in the hike, my female owner managed to turn the table on I-Fren and got him to do some rudimentary exposure therapy at the edge of the cliff, all in the name of confronting his fear of heights. Evil her.

The last 5km was unexpectedly difficult for my female owner. She started to slow down and to tail behind the guys. Her foot was developing a blister and she could feel quite painfully, the uneven terrain beneath her shoes. Nonetheless, walking through that long stretch of track alone, praying and humming worship tunes, my female owner had a spiritual conviction that this is how she wants to lead her life, always worshipping and praying even if times are hard and lonely.

Plan for the night was to make Ondeh-ondeh. Another first! Both I-Fren and her were clueless about what it meant to “cook tapioca flour until transparent” but nonetheless did their best to follow the recipe. Instead of getting green balls, they ended up with paddle-pop looking balls, no thanks to green, red and yellow food colouring. So cute!!! Another unexpected exposure therapy happened when my female owner was asked to light the stove with a match-stick and she had no choice but to confess that she can’t light a match-stick…. out of fear. I-Fren could not contain his surprise. His eyes widened so much, my female owner knew she was in trouble. She ended up having to practise lighting matches…. with him holding on to the box. Oh well… uncompleted therapy.

Sunday came. The original plan was to pitch a tent, remember? Well, it never materialised, because they went to attend a bridge opening. Another first! Yes, the Kurilpa Bridge, which links South Bank to the City across the Brisbane River was opened to the public that morning. An impromptu jio expanded the trio to five persons. They ended up lunching together in the city… and taking a walk to the Botanical Gardens…. Which was another first for my female owner. Yes, after 1.5years in Brisbane, she finally made it to the Botanical Gardens…. And discovered that there was actually a bridge (Good Will Bridge) that linked the Garden to South Bank.

And for the first time in her life, she climbed up a tree. Well, not exactly. She was pulled up by her friends. But it was fun for her, as she sat up in the tree, looking at things around her. Hmm, she could have stayed there the whole day. She also found clusters of bamboo in the Garden which she immediately gravitated towards. Bamboo! She adores them.

The day of sight-seeing (remember, they were actually hosting I-Fren’s friend) ended back at South Bank as they explored the landscaping and man-made beach. My female owner didn’t realise how tired she was, until she woke up from an 11-hr sleep this morning.

Yes, thanks to the two guys, she has heaps of photos... which she is too lazy to show me! One day, she says.

coin

My female owner had such an eventful weekend, starting Thursday night, that she is now rushing to complete her assignments. Work and play are really two sides to the same coin of life. She says she will tell me more when she can. For now, she has to work on her sex and old people papers.. Both due today.

career

One of us turtles possible career options..

children

It’s October!! Happie Children’s Day to you… and to us turtles. Last quarter of the year for everyone. It’s the crunch-time for those who have been slacking in the year. Time to wake up and pay their dues (that includes her actually).

My female owner always believed in the inner child. Hence, given a choice, she would celebrate Children’s Day with her adult friends. Maybe it’s just an excuse for her NOT to grow up. Strange that she doesn't really like children though... Once, her ex told her in frustration “I want to be with a lady, not a girl”. On well… that’s history anyway.

Anyway, for everyone out there, take time to celebrate Children’s Day.