Updates at Home

I've been meaning to write a follow-up post from the last one, but never really got round to doing it, until now lol

So the problems with the actual house is gonna be resolved soon, I think. The leaking has led to some damages, but the actual amount of water that has been leaking is reducing, I think. And my bro and my bathrooms are gonna be renovated, so hopefully while they're digging up stuff, they can figure out how to solve the leaking problems, and the circuitry in my room can be fixed too. Meanwhile, surviving by candle light isn't so bad either lol (I use it to practice taking out candles using by clapping it out, or by wushu-ing it)

Dal did have some weird problems for awhile. He started limping and kinda walking on one side for a few days, and he couldn't lie down or sleep in peace, so he would just stand up most of the time. Even when we brought him to the vet one night, he would walk fine, just that he would flinch a bit. The vet said that it doesn't seem like anything wrong with is reflexes, but he also mentioned that dogs sometimes pretend, or mask their symptoms. As soon as we got through door back home, he began limping again and kinda half-walked half-fell to the side LOL Such an actor. Even after another trip or two to the vet (and even a specialist) we still didn't really know what was wrong with him.

It wasn't until our maid came back to visit for a day, and when my (second) bro came back from Qatar, that Dal was back to normal, wagging his tail, barking at other dogs, and jumping about. So, we don't know if Dal was just going through a period of doggie-depression. We thought not, because my bro and I are home pretty much all the time now, so technically he isn't lonely. Maybe he just missed having people at home. Even so though, if that was the case, he should be showing symptoms again since my (second) bro has flown back to Qatar, so. I don't really question it, as long as he's fine and not in pain anymore lol Also I take care of him most of the time, bringing him out to pee around lunch time, and giving him his dinner if no one else is home yet, so that's what I've been doing at home lol

So the situation with my maid: we were pretty sure she was gonna fly back. My sister even made a little booklet with our photos and got us to write stuff in it. I even gave her my stuffed bear before I left for school, on the day she was supposed to leave. Fortunately, she managed to find an employer at the last minute, so she stayed with us for a few more days before leaving. During the first week with the new family, things seemed okay. Looking after kids is more fun for her, I think, at least it's not so boring. We even made an agreement with the employers that she can come over to our place on the Saturdays that she's free, since she'd probably go out with her own friends on her free Sundays, so at least on Saturday, she has somewhere to go.

Recently though, I think things have been getting tougher on her, because the previous two maids that were working there, left too, so now she's left to take care of the house by herself, and the employers themselves don't have good personal habits. According to what my mum said, apparently the parents can go out on a Saturday night to drink, and come back locked out of the house 'cos they forgot to bring their keys. The father leaves his cufflinks and his belt in his pants when he's changed his clothes. And I'm like ??????? How can you constantly forget your keys???? And get yourself drunk, like you have to be responsible enough to take care of your own kids!! And do you think that your shit won't get lost in the wash??? So she's hoping to just survive these two years of her contract, and then fly back home.

Anyway, since she's not here anymore, my bro and I have to find out ways to feed ourselves for lunch when we're home lol orz The first time my bro cooked for us, he didn't know how to use the new microwave that functioned as a grill too, so since he didn't know how to use it to toast bread, he just put bread in an oily pan, and fried it. It was quite nice actually, made it crispy, but also very oily. My bro was gonna do that a second time the next day, but as he was putting in the next slice of bread, he dropped it, and Dal snatched it up straight away. He gave up cooking after that, so the next time we were both home for lunch, I had to cook instant noodles, and heat up the sausages in the microwave. I'll be honest, that was my first time cooking instant noodles - so you can see that I'm even more hopeless than he is lol

We probably survived on some microwaveable food for awhile, until my mum left out some filleted fish for us to cook. Once again, it fell on me to cook since my bro wasn't going to. I ended up getting step-by-step instructions from Hans via whatsapp (ikr) on how to cook the salmon. That was my first time frying something with supervision and my god, is it terrifying for me. I put oil in the pan (but it didn't fully cover the pan lol orz) tried putting the fish skin-side down, but it ended up being skin-side up. Then it got stuck. I managed to flip it over somehow, and then the skin got stuck too. At one point I got so scared, I just switched the gas off, and didn't dare touch the pan, so the salmon wasn't fully cooked lol orz I don't know how I managed to get it off of the pan, but I did. And I guess I did cook something edible, even if I had to put it in the microwave for 50 seconds. My mum then later said that that piece was hard to cook 'cos it was pretty thick. Anyway, I was traumatised by it for about a week, until this weekend.

I went shopping with my mum to get a new pan (really, I just wanted to get out of the house 'cos I needed to hatch my egg LOL). The pan was small enough that I could use it, and was non-stick so I didn't need so much oil, and things wouldn't stick to it lol Then when we went to isetan, they were selling salmon fillets marinating in basil and olive oil. Since they were pretty thin, and technically already flavoured, my mum thought it was a good idea to try it. We bought four slices, and cooked three of them that night. At least with some help and someone watching over me, I wasn't so bad. There was a point when I was supposed to flip it though, and some oil splattered onto my hand. It was painful enough that I freaked out and was too scared to flip it, but I still had to do it, so I did lol All three slices turned out okay, just that some where oilier than others. Since I could do dinner, my real test was today - cooking the last piece by myself.

It is pretty evident I came out of it alive LOL Although I did manage to burn the first side orz I got scared again when trying to flip it 'cos the oil was sputtering again (even though it wasn't in my direction) so I turned the fire off orz But then I had to light it up again 'cos the other side would still be raw if I didn't continue. So, I managed to finish it, and put it in the microwave for half a minute for good measure, just in case it was still raw. In the end, I had edible fish. As much as I want to be proud of myself for getting better, I can feel so much judgment that I can envision people having of me lol

Sigh.

As for my knee, somehow it got better over time. My mum gave me some cream thing, but that's only like a painkiller that in itself isn't foolproof. When I sit down and raise my leg from the knee, sometimes you can hear a cracking sounds, like the kind when you crack your fingers lol But for some reason, that now doesn't really happen anymore, which is weird. The true test was during pilates, when one of the exercises looks like this, which uses the knee, and surprisingly, my knee didn't hurt the next day. I don't think my knee has fully healed though, sometimes when we do exercises that needs you to put weight on it, I get a little worried, but so far I've been getting better somehow lol

Apart from all that though, school stuff has been okay. Evolution finals had fewer questions than we expected, stats was somehow more of analysis rather than actual calculations, and my effective reasoning paper was a head-scratcher, but I left early since I figured that extra time wouldn't answer my questions if I really don't have the answers lol Other stuff that has happened is our church's advent fair, where we sell stuff to raise money for a chosen charity that year. We do it at the end of the year during advent (the four weeks before Christmas), along with other things, like actually visiting the organisation, volunteering there, making videos to show during mass so that we can collect more money from the people lol

I helped out by getting some of the girls to sew Christmas ornaments. At first, I thought it would be pretty easy for them to do, but I think like 75% of the work was done by my mum and I lol orz They still did contribute quite a fair bit though. I handed a whole sheet of felt to one of the girls to cut out hearts and stars, and she basically used up everything in one day. I went over to one of the girl's house too, to sew designs on, and taught another how to sew the string that you use to hang the ornaments. All of that saved time, so that I could either study a little bit, or to sew the more difficult parts. Still, I'm glad that they were pretty happy we sold all of it c: My mum told me to finish up the remaining pieces when I'm free, and I even bought another bag of stuffing (which is so much softer btw omg) so I'll probably do some more. I should probably pack my luggage first though, since I'll be leaving for Hokkaido in a week. I can't wait, but it's the packing that I've been putting off :/ So, I guess I'll go do that now lol