Reassessment

Sometimes the regularity with which we (read: I) need to re-focus on life can be very frustrating. It's just so easy to become disillusioned!

Thankfully, this time I had some help with reality checking. Read this fantastic post from guest post on Kevin MD here.

And on a brighter note, list of things I am currently very excited about:
1. Celebrating a belated anniversary dinner with my boyfriend
2. Watching a new studio Ghibli film in an outdoor cinema this weekend
3. My first Christmas in Australia - seriously. We don't even have a Christmas tree
4. Annual leave in two and a half weeks' time (Japan!! Onsen! and Ramen!)
5. Wearing my new Burberry coat (in Japan. Not in the onsen, though)

one lazy week off

So I have somehow managed to land myself 3.5 terms of back-to-back shift work. That's something like 37 weeks' worth of random what-day-is-it-again craziness. But working three evening shifts immediately followed by four overnight shifts occasionally has its benefits, so I have had the past seven days off.

After much deliberation and anticipation, I finally decided not to travel. For the following reasons:
1. I am "on call" for the last two of the seven days... which means I'm not really allowed to be outside the state for those days
2. No travel buddies (sad but true- either everybody has their own plans, or doesn't have leave.)
3. Expensive (again, not entirely true... but I am trying to save up for my new year's trip to Japan)
4. It's tiring!

Only a few years ago, I used to spend months on end in Singapore wondering how on earth I was going to pass the time over the Christmas break. Now that days off are so precious, I've been trying to fill them with all this stuff that I can finally afford- musicals, dinners, travel, etc. It's fun, but also quite tiring (think of travelling- booking, packing, flying, unpacking, planning).

This time, however, I just took the time to relax! Leisurely sleeping in, browsing the internet, planning my trip to Japan, shopping, catching up with friends, and putting some slides together for an Emergency Department presentation that I have to give. It's been so good. Even planning the Japan trip with my mother and aunt, which gave me serious flashbacks of my summers in Singapore. Now that she lives down the road from us, we can walk over to discuss plans/have dinner together any time we want, just like when we were in Singapore...

...a reminder that everything has its pros and cons ;)