Friday night musings...

Very irregular of me to spend a Friday night at home when I could be in the darkroom at Club Retro dancing the night away. Arnie is away sick, the poor thing. He caught the flu and needed rest. I slept over his place last night, braving it regardless of the fact that I could very well catch whatever bug he has. I already had the flu a month ago and I think it is highly unlikely of me to catch it again.

Anyway, the nights have become colder. It has become quite unbearable to walk down the city and enjoy the sights. Now, it has become a matter of rushing off to the nearest shop to thaw out or into a coffee shop to warm up. Being a creature of habit, I went to the city anyway after work. I needed to relax. I had quite a taxing day at work. I mentioned a few posts back that one of my staff tendered her resignation. The reasons behind it weren't pleasant. She was sick and was going to undergo a major operation. She felt that she can no longer be a full time employee because of this, that she had to concentrate on getting better. Fair enough, her health is more important over anything else. It was her last day today and my team were sad to see her go. We started in the company at the same time and she just seemed to be one of those type of employees who would stay in the place forever. Well, just shows how wrong I was to make that assumption.

So, I went to the city after work. Arnie met me regardless of his condition. We had dinner, each of us having a heaping serve of Chinese noodle soup. We did some window shopping. I finally checked out the prices of a Burberry bag and wallet that I have had my eye on for yonks! Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I'll have it in my pretty little hands! I got a grande Chai Tea Latte and Arnie got a Caramel Mocha from Starbucks. It just made walking down the city streets so much more bearable. I bought him the DVD of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, the only one in the series he doesn't have - aside from Sith, of course. The price dropped from A$41 to A$15!

We were heading to the car to get home (this was around 8:00pm) when a woman who was well-dressed and rather well-spoken asked us for money because her car ran out of petrol. She proceeded to tell us a rather elaborate story of how she was driving from work to get home then her car just conked out, how she went to a petrol station to fill up the car when she saw that her wallet was also stolen along the way (and she has no idea how this happened), and how she went to the police for help and that they actually offered to drive her home, only that she could not leave her car where she parked it (it was a hospital zone) because it will get towed and she will end up having a $400 bill for it. Whew!

We didn't give her any money.

Why? Well, it's not that she didn't look unreliable or anything like that. It's just that nowadays, you never know what these people will use the money for. She may not look like a druggie, but there has been recent rather disturbing reports that most women professionals who are addicted to crack/cocaine do not look like your everyday druggie. Scary!

Besides, any responsible car owner won't be stupid enough to let their fuel gauge run that low.

*****

For the past three years, I have endeavoured to make myself lead a healthy lifestyle. After my staff member's health problems and my other staff member's cancer scare, it made me look at how well I take care of myself.

As much as I am a regular gym goer and the fact that I have not smoked a cigarette for a good three years, I am ashamed to say that I have not gone to a doctor to get checked up on ANYTHING for the past 6 years! Well, that is excluding dental work. Those I really have to get done!

The last medical checkup I had was when I applied for my migration visa all those years ago.

Pitiful, absolutely pitiful.

Note to self: arrange doctor's appointment IMMEDIATELY!