Cranky after an involuntary afternoon/evening nap. the hot weather, plus going out to meet some guildmates for lunch, plus being sick due to the haze, combined together and just knocked me out after i reached home. still, it's more productive than my usual sunday routine of doing absolutely nothing.

let's talk about being sick first. i hate it. took the opportunity to test out one of the combination COVID and flu A/B test kits that i bought online, and the good news is that it appears i'm negative for all 3 viruses. what seems to have happened is that the haze particles are irritating my respiratory system, making me produce more phlegm and mucus. the annoying thing is that it accumulates when i'm lying down, so one side of my nose will be blocked when i try to sleep. worse, the mucus and phlegm tend to dry out while i'm asleep, and i wake up to this horrible feeling of congestion that only gets better after i cough up some viscous green blobs. the coughing also makes my throat sore, so that's another L. biggest L: being sick reduces my brain's processing speed and capacity, and i go through cases much slower (provided i have the motivation to look them at all!). thankfully, i seem to be on the mend and should be better in a few more days.

as mentioned up there, i had lunch with some guildmates earlier today. we ate at yishun's yappari steak. nice that i have a direct bus there, less nice that it takes about an hour one-way. still, i think that the long commute is worth it to meet these people. the steak was at its usual standard, i went for 200g instead of my default 300g order in an effort to cut down my intake. we also talked about china trip plans; seems like we should be looking at flight prices soon. reminder to self: i should also apply for leave. quite looking forward to the trip, more so than i thought i'd be! apart from the recent sickness, i think part of the restlessness that i'm currently feeling also comes from the stir-craziness of just sticking to the usual routine with very little variation. considering that my last big holiday was in march (i'm not counting june's bangkok trip), 2 longer overseas trips per year sounds about right to keep me balanced. and thankfully, being single affords me the flexibility to just take a week or so off and disappear. no idea how my married friends and relatives plan for their family holidays. the logistics (booking flights, accommodation, setting an itinerary that will please everyone) alone sound terrifying, let alone having to wrangle kids on the trip.

small point of interest, the bus that takes me to yishun also passes by the ex's place. it's actually the same bus that he takes to work, just in the opposite direction. while passing by today, i just felt nothing. ok, not exactly nothing. i did feel nostalgia for the 8-ish months i spent there and in the vicinity, memories of commuting to and from the office, stuff like that. i also thought that given the time at which i passed by, he should have been out for lunch with his dad. but i didn't feel any sadness or regret about the relationship ending, nor did i find myself having any desire to find out how he's doing or anything. in fact, i'd say i didn't feel anything negative at all. good job, me!

not much on the agenda next week, my goal is to get out the last 2 cases from the previous bunch of files, then start to work on more recently assigned cases. socially, crochet guy says he wants to come over, so that should be nice. need to get mooncakes next weekend, as gifts for my mentor and lead. tuition-wise, the kids are due to have final exams at the end of the month. i'm pretty sure my original 3 will do decently, not so confident about the new 2. but well...one thing i learnt from the JET experience is that we can't help every kid. or put another way, not every kid is worth helping. it's beyond my pay grade to chase them for work, constantly repeat basic concepts, and enforce discipline in class...especially when it's to the detriment of the majority. we'll see how things go with them.

-random thought of the day: Still coughing.-