Sick Holiday Week

It was a very literally sick holiday week for me. As I have repeated many times, I was down with a sore throat, a cough and very flu like symptoms.

But just like how every good thing has it's bad tag-alongs, the sick holiday week was one I spent the most time with Dearie. Being ever the wonderful boyfriend, he stuck with me. Every day he would come over and accompany me by watching TV or DVDs, or just hang out. I am not a very entertaining person, especially when ill, but he didn't mind that I was the walking flu virus - right in-your-face.

He even accompanied me to Suntec and Marina Square, which I have been wanting to go for so long. THE next place to shop at I tell you. Not as packed as Orchard. Huge plus point. Both of us couldn't really afford anything so we didn't make any purchases, but when i said I wanted to eat at Cafe Cartel, he indulged me and let me do so. So I was coughing and blowing my nose in between slurping spaghetti, before I realised he had to pay a hefty $30 for the meal. OOPS. [When one is broke, yes, $30 for a meal is pretty hefty. Can't imagine the KTV session coming up on Saturday.... what should I call THAT?]

Dearie's got to be the sweetest guy on earth I tell you. I can't help thinking that. I've said it since the day I fell for him, and till today, he continues to be just that.

To think that I was watching E! Entertainment, wondering to myself how lucky Paris Hilton to be able to afford anything she wants, Tara Reid to travel and party everywhere she likes, and all the other mega stars look so pretty with the perfect hair, make-up and dresses.

All these things were but on screen. Images and fantasies fed to our minds. They breed envy in me. All those materials wants and all.... For those moments I was lost in the world of Hollywood. I was almost oblivious to the wonderful sofa I was sitting on, the 34" flat screen TV, the Digital Cable box where the channels were coming through from, the wonderful family who worked hard for these things, the boyfriend who made me feel like I was in heaven when I was on the brink of hell this week, and so many other things.

Then there was the Indiana Jones marathon on HBO (of which I've watched all 3 of the movies umpteen times and will still watch them) who always prompts my mind to wander into the realm of adventure.. wondering if I would have a day of adventure where I would be the star.

Again, it was the manifestation of Hollywood on my puny little mind. Am I not already living my own adventures? It may not be as colourful as Dr Jones who got to fall out of a plane (and survive), save a village of children and fight head on head with evil Nazis. But just as each adventure created the character, am I not making my own every single day?

There was a documentary on Her Majesty the Queen. I didn't watch the full documentary but what I watched was enough to make me feel touched. It followed her from her rise to the throne through at least 40 years of reign. It showed how she had to deal with the introduction of pop culture, a changing people and the tragedies that faced her own family. I have a new found respect for her: who has had to serve her Kingdom as a head of state, a wife, a sister, a mother and a grandmother.
How she had to deal with criticsm from the public on her, her children's failed marriages, Princess Diana, her sister and her mother's deaths, etc etc etc. I'm not surprised why she's not giving up the title of Queen to her son yet. He doesn't exactly have the best publicity.

I figured she was just like my mummy. Except the head of state part.
You know what I heard my mum tell my dad about our family photo (scroll down to previous post on Hari Raya Puasa)? That all their hard work over years have been worth it - and that everything was encompassed in that one family photo. She said all their 3 daughters have grown up, standing there in the photograph with their son-in-laws, and their grandson. What more could they ask for?

Money cannot buy that happiness and contentment in my parents. Now THAT is priceless.

I am a lucky girl. I know it. I'm thankful. I'm grateful.