I went to see Eton today...he's looking pretty ok, if you can call being in an pediatric ICU with all the tubes and cathers all over your body ok...he's got this large bandage covering the back of his head, and a relief valve that drains fluids as needed...when we went to see him, the collection bag contained about 2cc of reddy-yellow cranial fluids...:S
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Apart from that, managed to spend $500 worth of gift vouchers buying a heck of a lot of things...we're giving most of it away, so it's all for a good cause...of the $500, $100 was used for prez's for the kiddies (and it was agreed that the 4 eldest don't receive prezzies, so that's my sis, me, my cuz Josh and his sis Gerri)...the other $400 was all groceries...got probably enough food to last the Carmelite Sisters about 4 months...and we're going to go get them a turkey too, so that should be fun...but the food filled up most of the cargo area of the Land Cruiser...mostly non-perishables (obviously...)...
Strike up one for the Good Guys (Us 1, Them 0)
On Saturday, after breakfast, my sis and myself went shopping at the local market in prep for our dad returning...we were driving along the road when we passed this lady (who looked about 70 odd) walking at the side of the road and saw her carrying her shopping bag (which was absolutely bursting) in one hand and her umbrella in the other...she was looking tired and puffed, even though the markets were only a block or so away...being our charitable selves, my sis turned around and stopped just ahead of her...I was tasked with getting out and trying to get her into the car so we can drop her off where she wanted to go...well, put it this way, it took a couple of minutes to get rid of the language barrier (she was an old fashioned Chinese Popo, who only spoke 2 languages, one of which wasn't English, and I was the same, 'cept mine was Chinese) and she started crossing the road...I was waiting on the other side of the single carriage way road (about 7m across), when this idiotic car decided to speed up as she was half way across the lane...what would you do in a situation like that?
All I did was stand in the middle of the lane and stared at the guy (which was driving with his family, surprisingly) and he slowed down and waved apologetically (in that time the Popo had crossed the road)...we dropped her off, and she was thanking my sis and me for picking her up...she lived about 5 blocks further up the road, but it still made her day...and ours too...'cept for that creep...
Up another one...(Us 2, Them 0)
Who Is The Black Chinaman?
- Nick
- Kuala Belait, Brunei
- Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world. For days, sometimes weeks afterwards, you walk the streets, making infinite whatever you see. Once, for a few weeks, I couldn't feel the earth - everything I touched became lighter. Horns played in my shoes. Flowers fell from my pockets. You wonder if you've become immortal, as if you've saved your own life as well. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there - why deny that for a moment there, God was you? I realised that my training was useful in less than ten percent of the calls, and saving lives was rarer than that. After a while, I grew to understand that my role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness. I was a grief mop. It was enough that I simply turned up. Living and working back in Brunei, after a 14 year absence... Also known as: Brunei, NASA, Bruise-Eye, Bru, Cheesecake, Nick, BruNick, BruMedNick, Two Step etc etc etc
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