goose

Another day gone. My female owner didn’t get to revise her work at all. She had to attend a full-day training in school and after that, she went to meet Q. But still, it was a day well-spent.

It was the first time that Q and her went out one-on-one. It almost didn’t happen because my female owner got lost (but actually, she never really knew the way, so maybe I should say, she couldnt find the way), trying to get to Q’s hotel. When she finally found herself on the right track 45mins after the agreed time to meet (i.e. after an hour of walking around), Q and her school mates had already left the hotel, on the way to Chinatown. Q had to follow them as the teachers rightfully did not allow her to stay behind at the hotel alone. So my female owner ended up having to track a moving target. If she couldn’t locate a stationary target for an hour, what more a moving target? Thankfully it did not end up as a wild goose’s chase.

My female owner doesn’t quite know the nature of their relationship. Are they teacher-student (Q still refers to her as tuition teacher)? Or are they neighbours? Are they friends? Or just acquaintances?

Anyway, my female owner enjoyed the fellowship with Q… who, after a long while, finally agreed that my female owner did put on weight. Wahaha.

And oh! My female owner managed to give the cake to Q.

strike

Today, my female owner finally handed in the last assignment that is due before her exams. She struggled a lot with it. She had to write a case study based on the first session with her adult client and because she didn’t ask enough questions, she didn’t know what to diagnose him with (can you beat that?!). She ended up changing his diagnoses a few times, each one becoming more serious than the previous. Finally, last night, she gave him two diagnoses, which complicated her case study.

She has two more written assignments to submit but those are due after her exams and she don’t really care about them at the moment. And if you thought she would jump straight into revising for her examinations, you are so wrong.

She went on mental strike and did some grocery shopping at the nearby suburb. Grocery shopping has a kampong feeling, coz sometimes you would meet people you know. In a way, i suppose it’s quite fun to see them, in another way, you wonder how come everyone is at a supermarket on a Thursday evening.

Anyway, so she bought the week’s grocery. Didn’t get much snacks (alarm bells ringing) – just a BIG bag of chips (oh well..). Just another form of poison. She went home and decided to bake the same cake (but using peach this time) for Q, although she doesn’t know when they would be meeting again. This time, she didnt have a weighing scale, so she used "agaration" with the measuring cup. Turned out pretty ok.

I suspect that if they don’t meet up soon enough, the cake would end up in my female owner’s stomach.

Anyway, my female owner continued her mental strike and decided to cook spaghetti for the next few days' meals.

Think she needs to settle down quickly, coz time is racing out (not even running out).

impromptu

My female owner met up with Q today. Such a warm feeling, to be seeing a familiar face. It was really impromptu (my female owner loves impromptu meetings). Q smsed to ask she was free at about 8pm-ish. My female owner was in the midst of telephone consultations. She finished up her work asap and headed for the next ferry towards city… without knowing which hotel Q was staying. Even when she got the name of the hotel, she didn’t know where it was.. Such impulsivity!

Anyway, to cut the long story short, she managed to locate the hotel and knew she was in the right place, when she saw a large group of teenagers hanging around the lobby, waiting to be assigned their room keys.

Oh, the familiarity of the Singapore accent… and the Singaporean slang… and singlish! For someone who has been in a foreign land for about 4 months and surrounded with non-Singaporean, my female owner could now discern the distinctive accent. But to hear the teacher speaking singlish to his students was so ticklish that she couldn’t help smiling to herself.

Even though it has only been 4 months, she noticed that Q’s facial features have changed somewhat. Wonder what else changed. And of course, my female owner met some of Q’s friends. Somehow, my female owner always feels comfortable being with teenagers. Maybe it fulfills her not-so-secret fantasy to be forever 18?

My female owner hopes to be able to meet up with Q again before she flies back to Singapore (I can just hear my female owner crying out “take me with you!”). The days are tight, but then, nights are always an option I suppose.

visitor

My female owner is getting a visitor from Singapore! And that would be her neighbour, Q! Wahaha. My female owner saw Q blossomed from a very shy and helpless girl to a clever and self-motivated young lady. This opening makes my female owner sound so old (actually she is very qualified to be an “auntie” already).

Actually, my female owner was Q’s tuition teacher from Primary 3 till Secondary 4. That’s like an 8-yr relationship. My female owner started out teaching her English, Math and Science in Primary school, to Maths and English in Lower Secondary and E/A Maths in Upper Secondary. Q did my female owner proud by aceing both her maths subjects in her O level. This was a vicarious victory for my female owner, because she failed to get an A1 for A Maths.

So Q is on a plane now, heading towards Brisbane as part of her school-band tour. Talk about ironies of life. Just when we turtles thought that we were liberated from my female owner’s lousy flute practices, Q decided to join the band and pick up the clarinet! Argh. At least the clarinet is more mellow and the sound is coming from next door, so it’s not so jarring to our ears (yes, we have ears!).

Dodo told me that once, when he was little, my female owner sat Q down in front of them (Dodo, Dona and Nana) and made her write a short composition about them. Q must been quite traumatised then. Anyway, she grew up to like turtles as well and even bought some as pets (talk about social modelling.)