Looking forward to “normal”

It was their last day in HK today, so we just took it easy. We went to Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay for lunch, and then bought some Tiger Sugar and a mooncake for them to try. We somehow managed to contain Nephew, and he didn’t have a meltdown today, amazingly. He took quite a long nap when we got home, which gave his parents the chance to pack and even some time to just chillax, which was great for them.

And once they were in the taxi, I took the opportunity to head down to the supermarket and buy some wine and cheese to celebrate having peace and quiet in the house again 🍷🧀 I sorta got to see why parents would want a drink at the end of each day! 😂

Kitty was rather stressed the entire time they were staying with us. She doesn’t like having other people in the house – in her house – so she pretty much just stayed in our bedroom for the past few days. And even when she ventured out to get some food, she didn’t really eat much. So I decided to move her food into the bathroom today, which seemed to help tremendously: she ate both her breakfast and lunch in there! And now that she has her house back to herself again, she seems a bit more relaxed and more her usual self, which is good to see 😅

And then N also flew back from Japan today. It’s nice to change things up every now and then, as you can then look forward to “normal” once again 🥰

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My pink latte

I’m starting to feel better, finally. I decided to go to Causeway Bay tor lunch today, and had a beetroot soy latte at Habitu, which I thought sounded rather odd, but it supposedly has immunity boosting benefits, and right now, I’ll take all the immunity boosting that I can get, so I thought I’d give it a try 😆

The pink-ness of this latte doesn’t really show up in the photo, unfortunately

It actually tasted quite nice! I’d definitely order it again, if I’m not tempted by something else on their drinks menu, which is quite fancy schmancy, actually. Last time I was there, I tried their latte with this thin layer of caramelised sugar on top, which was also really nice. So that’s two out of two drinks so far, which is a pretty good strike rate, if you ask me! I’d like to make it three out of three next time 😊

I stopped by the vet on the way home to pick up some more medicine and food for the furry little one, and also stopped by the supermarket for some food for us hoomans 😊

And then in the evening, I was just so tired that I had to take a nap to get some rest, and then finished off the day with a few more episodes of Love O2O, the current Chinese drama that I’m persevering with until I find something more suited to my taste 😆

We’re both a little out of sorts 😣

They eventually downgraded the typhoon warning from a T8 to a T3 today, and then eventually to the lowest level T1 in the early evening. The rain was still quite heavy all day, and I could hear the wind howling outside every now and then (and still is, as I write this after midnight!). Totally gum boot weather all day today! But once the winds die down, the Observatory will remove even the T1 alert, and I can feel at peace once again 😅

Kitty was behaving rather strangely last night, and I was concerned that she was ill again 😔 She just sat by the hallway all night, which is very unusual for her. And then today, she was sitting under the dining table when I woke up and pretty much stayed there all day. She was eating and going to the toilet fine, but she just wasn’t sleeping, and wasn’t being her usual affectionate self (as affectionate as she can be, that is 😆) She just sat there, staring into space. She wasn’t hiding or pacing or doing anything that she would normally do when she’s sick or in pain, so I figured she just felt the change in weather. Plus she spent all her time away from the windows, so she must’ve instinctively known that the weather was a bit insane outside. Poor little one 😔

And then I started getting a sore throat this afternoon, sighhh… So the gym was out for me today, and slept for a few hours instead. The sore throat is still there, and I’m still tired, just less so. What normally happens for me, though, with history as my guide, is that it only gets worse from here… 😒 I asked my brother if they can buy some Night Nurse from the UK when he stops by, as I’ve been told it works quite well when you have a cold. I just didn’t realise that I would be using it already, it’s not even the season for it 😒 But now that he’s in Oz, I’ll get him to buy some Sudafed and Codral for me as well while he’s there 😊

An off day

I had the worst sleep last night. Firstly, I went to bed sometime after 1am, and got randomly woken up at around 3:45am. I think it might have been related to my scary-ass dream about two older women I’d seen recently, who I recognised in my dream as grim reapers 💀 Isn’t that just lovely 😒 Luckily, I quickly went back to sleep, only to be woken up at 5:15am when N’s alarm went off. Brother and Sister-in-law wanted to leave the house at 5:30am this morning so that they could give themselves plenty of time at the airport. I don’t know how it all went this morning, though, as I went straight back to sleep as soon as they left!

And then for the next few hours, I was regularly woken up by Kitty scratching whichever door took her fancy 😒 Luckily the grim reapers didn’t return, but they left me rattled enough this morning 😔

I never felt right for the rest of the day, feeling pretty much out of sorts all day. I took a few naps, which got me closer to normality by the evening, so I tidied up the place a bit. But then I had a bit too much wine with dinner, which left me feeling a bit off again 😔

So not the best of days, but at least they landed safely in Sydney!

Another language meetup and an update on Kitty

I went to another language meetup today. There was supposed to be six of us going tonight, but only four of us turned up, which was a bit disappointing. I can understand that things can crop up at the last minute, so a quick apology to let the organiser know that you can’t make it now would be nice.

Nonetheless, the meetup was great! I learnt a ton of new words, and met two new people (I’d already met the organiser, who was attendee #3). One of them said that there’s another meetup tomorrow night as well, which she’s going to, so I’ve put my name down on the waiting list for that as well. I thought this one was specifically for English learners, but she said that Mandarin learners also turned up last week, so maybe I can still get something out of it. Hopefully the organiser will let me go tomorrow 🤞

The vet rang me today to check up on Kitty, and to give me the results of Kitty’s urine sample. It looked ok, and had no traces of blood, which was a good sign. And I told her that generally, Kitty seemed to be doing better now compared to how she was on the weekend: she’s more alert and is eating a little bit more, which is good to see. Hopefully she’ll continue to improve more and more as she gets through her round of antibiotics 💊

A curveball of a Saturday

I got woken up at around 7:30am this morning, with Kitty doing her usual scratching at whatever door took her fancy. Then she went to the bathroom twice, before throwing up 🤮 It wasn’t a great start to our day. I then went to clean up her mess, and put the bathmat that she threw up on into the washing machine. I then went to console her, and that’s when I noticed that she was bleeding, after having gone to the bathroom. So for the next hour, she just paced around the house, looking for somewhere to lie down and hide. She was clearly not comfortable 😔

The vet opened at 10am, which felt like an eternity. And then I wasn’t even sure if we could get an appointment, as I know the clinic gets very busy, especially on the weekend. When I rang, the receptionist did say that they were fully booked today, but because Kitty was bleeding, they squeezed her in somewhere, and we managed to see a vet, phewww

The vet suspects that she has cystitis, and has given her a bajillion meds. The poor little one 😔 And us too, as we have to administer some of these meds orally, and Little Miss is grumpy at the best of times. How are we going to get her to cooperate when she’s sick?? 😒 So let’s see how we go…

The aircon guys were also supposed to come this morning, but there was a bit of an issue with their earlier appointment and so the earliest they could come today ended up being 4pm. They asked if that was still ok, or if we’d prefer to reschedule. I chose the latter and rescheduled the quarterly clean for next Saturday instead.

And then my brother rang just before we were about to head out for some dance practice. I was speaking to my nephew as well, who’s almost three years old. He picks up English words really quickly and easily! I need to mimic like he does: just have whatever Chinese show on in the background, and repeat whatever they say, even if what I say is not perfect and I have no idea what they’re saying. The more I do it, the more phrases will come naturally to me, and hopefully over time, they will eventually start actually meaning something and not just be random sounds. You really just have to expect to be starting from scratch when it comes to learning a foreign language! 😆

And dance practice was good, although I couldn’t say the same about the quality of the actual dancing 😂 We had only booked the room for an hour, and when you essentially have eight dances to practice, one hour just ain’t enough. We managed to get through four dances, and even then, only superficially. We need to do these sorts of sessions more often.

On the way home, the streets seemed really quiet tonight, for HK standards, anyway. Normally this city is bustling, with lots of people everywhere. But tonight, where we were, it just seemed quite dead. And for this area to be dead at 9:30pm is highly unusual. I wonder if there was another protest today that everyone had gone to…

So it was quite an unexpected Saturday!

Humidity

A few people say that summers in HK can be even more brutal than in SG, which I think N agrees with, but I’m yet to feel it. As you may know, I don’t get hot very easily. My ideal temperature is in the low 30s, and only when it gets into the high 30s would I start considering it “hot” 😆 Temperature-wise, it can get warmer here, but I actually felt the humidity more in SG. Actually, let me rephrase that: I don’t really understand what humidity means, as I don’t really feel it 🤪 The only way I can judge the extent of the humidity is just how drenched my back is at the end of the day 😂 And so far, my back has barely cracked a sweat this summer. But today was the first time the weather was actually starting to rival SG’s, so maybe the proper summer is yet to come…?? I’ll find out soon enough… I’ll keep you posted 😉

But having said that, we have a mould issue in the apartment, which is terribly annoying and apparently very common in these high humidity climates! And people’s suggestions on how to combat the problem? Leave the aircon on 24-7! 😲 I don’t think it’s a very cost effective way to solve the problem, nor is it the most environmentally friendly, which is just as frustrating as the problem itself! We didn’t have this issue in SG, but apparently it’s a big issue there too 😔 Maybe because we live in an older building here, and so ventilation isn’t as great?? 🤷‍♀️ So as a compromise, I tend to turn on the aircon whenever I’m in a room, and turn it off when I leave. And I also turn the aircon on in whichever room Kitty is sleeping, so she’s a little comfortable too. I hardly ever turned on the aircon in SG, it was only ever on when N was home too. But here, I use all the aircon units on a daily basis because of the mould issue. Isn’t that just lovely 😒