Betcha bottom dollar

A week ago tomorrow, will be my 550th day as a fresh graduate in Sabah's little world of wildlife conservation.

Sounds like a long, long time but it felt like a few weeks ago that I first landed in Sandakan with a bag still smelling of Australian soil.

I do have some regrets leaving but I was at a point of my life where I'd regret even more for not leaving at the time I did.

The realisation of a quarter-life crisis was all too real. I felt, and knew that I had to not answer soul-searching questions but to ask them instead; but what are the questions in the first place?

I found those during the CHOICE weekend. With the dirt of Sabah still under my fingernails I threw myself into a mind and body draining (but soul reviving) weekend.

My flight from Kota Kinabalu landed in Penang a whopping 15min earlier at 4pm on 9 July. The next day was spent making a decision to commit to a 9yr-long relationship with the bank on a car. It's still in process but I've opted for a manual, yes, manual, Myvi SE 1.3cc. It took me 3/4 of the day and the rest of it was spent meeting the kareshi's colleagues over dinner. On Friday, I was running around for the first half of the day like a headless chicken looking for my things around the house. My attempt in keeping my belongings in boxes was futile. I had stuff lying around hidden in every nook and cranny. All too soon the kareshi was picking me up to go for the CHOICE weekend.

Yesterday and today, I committed myself to a challenge. A weight-loss, fitness challenge with Penang Fit Challenge. I have no idea how I could still sum up the energy to workout after a mentally and spiritually tough weekend but I'm still waiting to fall flat on my face. In between, I met up with a catechism teacher who was keen on introducing me to gardening - he gave me a crash course on grafting adeniums. That, and a post mortem of CHOICE with the kareshi.

I'm going on and on about CHOICE and not explaining much about it...ok here it is: it's a once in a lifetime experience where one explores the meaning(s) of relationships. Wow, how much more detailed could I get without being vague??

It was a promise made on not to divulge details or discuss outcomes for very, very, very good reasons.

With all that in the past week that didn't just fly by but sped through in super sonic speeds that left a ringing in my ears, I'm starting on a new journey tomorrow.

I've prided myself as a zoologist with terrestrial, botanic, and semi-aquatic fieldwork under my belt. This new relationship with microbiology/biotechnology with CEMACS is totally beyond me but at least it isn't a physics or math class. I haven't prepared myself academically for this due to lack of time but hey, I'm born to dive in the deep end.

I'm a mushroom aspiring to be a grape.

Mushrooms love dark, damp corners. 
Grapes thrive in well-drained soil with plenty of sunlight. 
I want to broaden my horizons and push my borders.
I'm at the edge and putting up a hell of a fight. 

Final Countdown for a New Start

ONE MORE WEEK!!

One more week until I'll be home for more than a fortnight in five years!!!

It'll be an interesting adaptation because in the past five years, I've been setting up to live on my own. I have my own things which I don't (need to) share because I've always been territorial about my things as I had to constantly keep things in good order to pass down to my sisters who promptly tear them up.

No, srsly.

Have you not had to write gingerly with pencils on workbooķs and playbooks and trace out colouring books on scrap paper, proudly pass them onto your younger siblings as they come of age to that colouring/writing level and they got hold of crayons and marker pens and proceeded to annihilate the meaning of preservation?

Until now, I experience traumatic flashbacks when one of them asked to borrow something of mine.

In any case, I'll be extremely glad to feel settled (I feel cosy already!) and would be finally able to celebrate the kareshi's and my birthdays together for the first time, have Christmas and New Year's together for the first time (my grandpa passed away on Xmas eve last year so that didn't, couldn't count.). Yea, after about five years of dating, we don't have those milestones. How tragic.

I missed my parents' big 50s, Jessica's 21st, Juliana's end of public schooling...friends' life events (not mentioning weddings, I'm talking about other friends) and basically, just everything I ever wanted to do like join local events - I'm doing the bloody 10km Penang Bridge this November as a sadistic, belated birthday present to myself.

Hah!

Can't believe it's already July and I'm still not used to 2013. Maybe it's a quarter-life crisis - have I done enough?

But who says that I can't start a wee bit later?