Weehee!! . ^_^..

I was really spooked by this creepy old guy on the bus today.



I only had one class today at the Yoshino school.
After I got on the bus at Kagoshima station, I took a seat next to this high school girl.
Pretty normal fare... so I thought...


Just as the bus had pulled out onto the road, the guy sitting behind us suddenly got up and leaned over.
It took a while before I realized he was talking about my hair... he said it was long and that long hair is good... I politely nodded and forced an awkward smile. He sat back down again.

Then the girl next to me says "mada sawatteru yo" (he still touching...)
So I leaned a bit more forward and pretended to turn to the side to look at something so that my pony tail swings over my shoulder.


Fortunately, the guy got off a couple of stops after.

We left the house around 10 this morning and caught the bus up to Kirishima Jingu from Kokubu station thinking that we could have a look around at the shrine and then maybe have a little wander "in" the mountains "in" amongst the trees.

The shrine was quite nice, and had a couple of really big torii (shrine gates) and was surrounded by trees and mountains. Kirishima is a really beautiful place. I love where we live.
After the shrine, we had a look around the culture village (mainly the souvenir shop,) then continued on to a little produce shop and got a soft cream each.

Then we decided to proceed on to walk down to the station so we could catch the train home so our little "bush walk" ended up being the long walk down to the Kirishima Jingu station. You'd think that the station named after the shrine would be a lot closer to the actual shrine than 5kms away, but no, the station was really really faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar. There wasn't much shade along the way either so Paul got a little sunburnt, it was fortunate that he remembered to put sunscreen on before we left the house.

Just about a km from the station, a guy pulled over and called out to us from his car. He asked us where we were going and then offered to give a lift down to the station. That was soooooooooooooooo so so so nice of him. Given that I was flustered, dehydrated, and have just purged all the soft cream/juice/isotonic drink that I'd had along the way... the ride was very much appreciated.

It may have sounded like it was a bad day... but I actually think I had a pretty good day.

After getting back to Kokubu, we went to the Katsu restaurant (I think it's my favourite restaurant here at the moment,) and had a very big lunch there before coming home.

Then we went out again for a late evening stroll to the park to watch stars. The skies were a bit overcast though so we didn't really see that many, but it was still a nice little stroll anyway. I even did a lame-ish semi jog back! hehe

I think I had too much tea today (well yesterday...)
It's 2:20 in the morning and I still can't get to sleep.
Really really tired though as I didn't really sleep that well last night either and woke up around 6-something (then finally got out of bed around 8-something.)

( Don't read the rest, I'm whining. )

Haven't been sleeping too well lately (neither has Paul) because I've been coughing my lungs out all the time.
Finally gave in and went on an excursion to the hospital yesterday and got some help. I was there for about 3 hours; waiting for ages before being seen by the doctor, then getting treatment, then seen by another doctor afterwards. When I was told that I should be OK but might benefit from a drip boost I said maybe I'll just wait and see how I feel in the evening first. Didn't have to go back. Had a half decent night's sleep too.
Hopefully I'll be able to sleep OK tonight too.

Most of the time I don't really know what I'm thinking..
For one, I get distracted easily, one moment I would get up and go do something only to find 5 minutes later that I have started doing something else that caught my attention on the way.

I also have trouble retaining all that information I hear. I guess I'm not a very good auditory learner. To people who find it annoying that I ask things that you have supposed told me just moments before, it's not that I'm not listening, I really just don't remember sometimes or my mouth just blurts out stupid questions before I realise they're stupid.
The other explanation is that my brain is simply being too lazy. I really should use it more.

My asthma's come back to haunt me recently (still suffering right now, but not so badly right now).
I've had a sore throat for days and have almost completely lost my voice; I still went and taught everyday though. Fortunately Marci had an office week last week so she was able to come and help out on Thursday and Friday, she offered to come on Saturday too, but I felt bad interrupting her plans to meet with her JT.
I almost forgot how bad having asthma can be, I guess I've learnt my lesson (for now) to take better care of myself and be more diligent with my medication.
Not being able to breathe in deeply enough and coughing every 5 seconds is hell. Add to it the pain on the sides induced by excessive coughing and fatigue due the lack of rest because the inability to breathe and the urge to cough keep you from falling asleep at night. No fun at all.

Still coughing every now and then and throat's still a little coarse and tender but much much better today, so for that I am really really glad. Looks great outside today. Nice and sunny, no gloomy clouds, no rain. Yay! I feel like I can get a little bit of bounce back today, and hopefully a bit more tomorrow, and the day after that.

I've always wondered why people say "moshi moshi" when they answer the phone. It was explained on TV the other night that: "moshi" was abbreviated from "moshimasu" which kinda means to call, in the old times people don't have phones but that's what they say to call out to someone they know on the street, but it was believed that if a ghost (spirit) called out to you at night and you turned around and answered they would take your soul, so in order to let people know that you're not a ghost you say it twice hence "moshi moshi" and from that it transgressed to being used on the phone in modern times. Interesting ne? =)

Oh, that reminds me, Paul's heading up to Fukuoka on Saturday. We went and got Shinkansen tickets for his interview trip yesterday. 10000yen for return shinkansen tickets between Kagoshima and Hakata, that's almost half price as it would normally cost about 19000 yen! Only draw back is you can only catch the first 2 trains of the day or the last 4 trains in the evening, so we have to book a hotel for him to stay over on Saturday night in Hakata so that he can be well rested and not rushed in the morning for his 12-5pm interview on Sunday. I hope he gets an offer, and above all else I hope he gets offered a job in Kagoshima. Don't know what I'd do if he had to work in another prefecture.

I should be getting ready to head out to Yoshino soon. I'd organised to meet up with Ayumi to make preparations for Summer School, but there was this wedding and apparently really really big after party so I don't know how early she would be. I should still get ready to go soon though. Yeah I should.

Oh.... I just put all our pillows in the wash... I was gonna go get the dried at the coin laundry afterwards, but then I realised as I was watching the washing machine fill up with water that Paul's pillows are not supposed to go in a dryer... mmm...

Ah, I really should be having breakfast right now, that's what I came downstairs to do...

We just went out for a run. I am soooooooooooo knackered!

After all that raining and raining and raining, we finally got a chance to go outside without getting soaked and bucketed down on. It's great! but now I'm all out of juice.

Paul, as usually, did a couple of loops while I slowly trodded through a straight path. I really need to work on covering a little bit more distance.

... for me to go home... o(^-^)o


Yes just one more hour of class in Kanoya and I'm outta here till next month! Yay!

Gonna try to get out asap and aim to get on the last bus back to Kokubu from Tarumizu Port because taking the bus to the port then ferrying across to Kagoshima city then taking the bus to Kagoshima station and then taking the train back to Kokubu is just so much more troublesome. Hope none of the kids get picked up late today.

* * *

Anyway, an update on what my life is like these days:

Recently Paul has gotten me into this RPG-like rugby game called Blood Bowl. It's a bit gory as the name suggests but rather comical at the same time. He figured out how to play it online so we were able to play against each other even while I'm in Kanoya. ^-^ Gosh I'm turning into such a geek!

I quite enjoy work and am having fun most of the time. Sometimes I get so annoyed by bratty kids but it's only a small portion of the time so it's not so bad. Time really seems to go by really quickly.

Haven't really made any friends outside of work yet. Don't really hang out with people at work much either. Frank, the other teacher in Kokubu from Kenya is pretty nice but we don't hang out much. Most of the people working here seem to drink a lot and party a fair bit. Most of them seem to have the typical expat stay-up-late-get-up-in-the-afternoon kinda lifestyle. Then again I could be wrong, afterall、I haven't been in the area all that long and I hardly know these people here so I shouldn't jump to conclusions.

Oh yeah, on the 5th, as part of our team building day, we went out and watched this guy from a local Japanese sweets shop in Kumamoto make these beautiful 和菓子(wagashi). Then we went to this traditional crafts centre and painted wooden spintops and made bamboo baskets. It was a long but fun day. After the very cool cultural stuff we had lunch and went to the Kumamoto Castle Park and just chilled there. We played "capture the flag" and our team lost miserably but still it was great fun. We also played catch, and then some people started playing poker so I played a bit of makeshift rounders (using a little spongey ball and a P.E.T. bottle) with a few other people who weren't playing.

Paul's friends from Osaka came to Kagoshima so he was up in the mountains at an onsen ryokan with them. It was rather weird not having anyone at home when I got back. I'm really glad Paul had them visit and that he had a great time traveling around with them. ^-^

It seems unlikely that I'll be able to join a dragonboat team nearby, I was told that there's a big event about half an hour out of Kanoya each year but there aren't really any groups here that do regular training. A bit of shame really. I guess I'll have to find something else to do.
I'd been thinking about doing Taiko, but I'll wait till we're in a slightly better financial situation.

Right now I want to go jogging at least twice a week and do WiiFit on most of the other days.
I also started reading Murakami Haruki's "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" in Japanese. It's going to take me a while to finish it but I'll try and read a little bit each day. I think the most effective way for me to study/learn Japanese now is through reading books and watching TV etc.

OK, almost time to go. Just got hammered in a game against Paul, but I'll get my revenge (I hope!)

Well the week in Kanoya is almost coming to an end.
I get to go home tomorrow! Yay!

Long day today though. Four classes in a row... but then again I shouldn't complain, the schedule for this job a lot more slack than the other jobs I've had.

Went out for a really really late dinner/snack with Saori (the Japanese teacher of the Kanoya classroom) and Rieko (the JT for the other classroom in Kanoya). From what I've heard before they usually go drinking and stuff, but we didn't go drinking last night so that was good. I would prefer that they didn't smoke either, but ah well.. It was quite fun chatting to them actually. We mainly talked about Rieko's emo boy problem, haha. Hope she works up the courage to tell him about her feelings.

Away in Kanoya again this week with nothing much to do so here's the long-promised post of photos.

All these pictures are taken with my phone so don't expect super quality resolution.

( Here we go. )

Well here I am in the middle of nowhere that is Kanoya.
Not much around here really, a lot less happening here than Kokubu and everything closes really early... plus, I don't get Paul's company either so it makes a whole lot of difference.

The hotel is actually not so bad... there's a nice clean microwave near the elevator on each floor, and there's free internet on a pretty nice and clean computer, yay! I also happen to be in a room that has a small kitchenette!

On my little have-to-kill-some-time-for-them-to-clean-the-room shopping spree yesterday, I got myself a nice little saucepan; it was a bargain... BARGAIN I tell ya. I'm so happy about it.. hehe..
I also got a head of lettuce for 20 yen! so cheap! hahaha so I got some udon and seasoning stuff then went back to the hotel and cooked up a really simple noodle soup.
Oh yeah, and I have a nice little cup and a bowl that's perfectly sized for the saucepan.
All that should make my "business trips" in Kanoya a little more comfortable if not remotely at home.

We now have 4 planter boxes and 1 pot in our tiny little back-of-the-apartment space.

In our first planter, we had basil seeds, chamomile seeds and lemon balm seeds growing in it, and I made little sign posts for them. The basil seeds have sprouted like crazy so we should expect a pretty decent crop. While the chamomile have sprouted up, it still just looked like a tiny dot that's not really doing anything but staying tiny... whereas the lemon balm which I thought was not doing anything, have now sprung up and overtaking the chamomile in hte growth process.
We also acquired a couple of tomato plants (a mini and a roma) and a strawberry plant (pink marshmallow)... oh, and a marjoram plant too.

Oh yeah, and the baby basil (bush basil it was called... the leaves are tiny, but it was reaally nice in the tomatoes we had with the chicken fillets we had for lunch one day.

Then while I was away at staff meeting in Kumamoto last Sunday, Paul went and got an oregano plant and a tiny little rosemary.

Today, we went out to this DIY store near Kokubu station and brought home the 4th planter box and the pot along with a rhubarb plant and some coriander seeds. At the cash register, I picked up some bat dropping fertiliser.. hehehe!

I got a small packet of tomato seeds last week (it was free with the chips I bought) so I thought I'd plant them in the little plastic thingies that we have lying around waiting to be thrown out... while I was sowing seeds in the first plastic thingy, some windy swept by and took the little packet with it!!

Another thing I just remembered; we finally walked down to the little area that we go past each time we go jogging and snipped a bit of "mint" to add to our herb "garden", yay!!


And right now, I'm really enjoying this maccha pudding that I picked up from the convenience store on the way home last night.

Yesterday (Thursday) was my second day at the regular school near home, but it was my very first day teaching there all by myself.
I was really really nervous because I was told there's this kid who was an absorlute nightmare... but as it turned out, the class was awesome and we had a lot of fun ^-^
Sadly though, the other class, the one that was supposed to be alright, was just that, alright, nothing more. It's my first time teaching that level too (grade 6 ~ jr high)... guess I'll have to think of some ways to make the class more interesting for them, as well as myself!

Another first yesterday was finally going to eat ramen. Since moving here from Osaka we haven't eaten ramen here at all for over a month!! Why this is so strange is because:
a) we love ramen
b) Kyushu is meant to be famous for ramen
c) Kagoshima (the prefecture we're in) is famous for kurobuta(black pig) tonkotsu(pork bones), and
d) our favorite ramen is tonkotsu ramen!!
So anyway, on my way to work yesterday Paul and I stopped at this place near my classroom and had ramen! ^-^
It was a pretty nice place, the soup was "a little salty, but nice nonetheless" as Paul said, and the pieces of chashu was unbelievably huge... "it's almost like a steak! it's huge! and so thick!!", was what I said when I saw it.

(Haven't found the mem card reader so I'll upload the pictures later.

Back to work after a week off.

It's called Golden Week; I was technically off from Friday last week, but the Wed and Thu was rather slack so it was almost like I had those 2 days off too.

We didn't really go anywhere except ride around the local area half exploring and half Paul showing me places he'd been to while I was away during training. Yasu and his girlfriend (from Osaka) stopped by for a brief visit on Sunday before heading off on their way to Ibusuki. It was nice seeing them again, I'm so happy for him to have found someone.

Anyway, about my day... first day at my own regular school!! I was nervous because the guy I'm replacing was there today too so I was worried that the kids wouldn't like me etc. etc.
I taught 2 of the 3 lessons today and they were actually OK. The kids seemed to have enjoyed the activities/games and had fun.. although some of the kids in the second lesson were a little rowdy, and a couple clearly seemed like they were in the wrong level... later I was told that those kids actually skipped a whole level because the parents couldn't bring them in at a different time on a different day; that explains a lot!
Jesse (my predecessor) joined in with the kids so that helped quite a lot.

Oh yeah, here's a photo I took when we had lunch at the tonkatsu (ton=pork katsu=cutlet... basically pork schnitzel) place. ^-^



little man from the tonkatsu place
(sadly though, I had to bury him in cabbage and sauce and eat him...)

Hello! Hello!

Yes it's me. Been away for ages , but now I'm back. (I don't think it's actually been that long but anyway...)

I guess the last time I posted was when I was in Nagoya. I've been back for almost 2 weeks now, and I'm loving it here in Kagoshima (although I miss everyone in Osaka.)


4 Days in Nagoya

The few days I was there I wasn't very happy.
The training was fine, and the people were fine.. but the hotel was terrible; it was tiny, it wasn't very clean, and it reeked of tobacco!.. so bad in fact I asked to change rooms the next day.


2 Weeks in Osaka

After 2 days of orientation to the company/training I went shipped off to Osaka with 7 other fellow trainees who are all very cool to hang out with. I do hope we get opportunities to catch up sometime in the (nearish) future.
I was much happier in Osaka, the accommodation was much much better and the place is just generally more interesting and nicer than Nagoya.
Our trainer was great too, so that was a bonus.

Plus I got to hang out with Bachiko and Idel and other fellow dragonboat teammates; we had a hanami party thing at Sakuranomiya on the Saturday night before my birthday then the next day Bachiko, Yo, MayaP, Idel and I went to this bird and flower garden in Kobe and had lunch there before going to a really nice onsen.
And to make it better, the next day I met up with Ayaka and we went to a really cool takoyaki restaurant where they have the hot plates in the middle of the table so they just pour the batter and put stuff in it then you cook the takoyaki yourself.

I missed Paul a lot though, we'd call and send messages to each other several times a day.. so yeah, my phone bill's hit the roof..

Oh yeah, and the day before I took the plane back to Kagoshima, I met up with Idel and she stayed over at the hotel did my hair for me ^-^ It took ages and we hardly got any sleep at all.. but now my hair's all in little braids, yay!


Anyway, it's really good to be home (even I was only here for 4 days before I went off to Nagoya..)

I have some photos I want to post, but I'll do it tomorrow or something.
Lots of other bits and pieces I want to post about, but can't think of them right now...

Ah... yeah there's a vending machine for crepes nearby, it gets refilled every 2 days of something and sells out real fast. We tried the choco-strawberry one, it was delicious!
You can see a picture of it in Paul's blog; he also took a picture of this sign for a local bar... hehehe!

We moved into our apartment in Kagoshima on the 1st and have been exploring around the local neighbourhood feel much like tourists. We keep saying: "It doesn't feel like we live here..." but don't get me wrong, the apartment is really comfy, quite a step up from our old place in Osaka (it's brand new and the rent is much cheaper too!) It's just that once we step outside, we see mountains everywhere, vegetable paddies, extremely friendly people... no feeling of people rushing around... everything's just nice and relaxed.
Riding down our street this morning, we saw an amazing sunrise: a flaming orange sphere climbing slowly between 2 mountains, it was absorlutely beautiful.

Holidaying time for me is short, but even so, I think this year or so will be like one big holiday, a true working holiday as Paul said.. hehe
My time with Peppy Kids Club will finally start. I'm typing this up in an internet cafe in Nagoya, trying to kill some time before I meet the PKC people. My flight from Kagoshima arrived in Nagoya around 10am, but the meeting time isn't until 2pm so I have quite a bit of time to kill.

**********

Anyway, here's a run down of what happened over the last couple of weeks:

Mar 17 ~ 28
My last 2 weeks at Mitsubishi Electric. My replacement came and I started training her. Had my farewell dinner with my bosses on the 19th (a bit early but that was the only time when everyone is in Japan and not on business trips.) I didn't think that people at work would care much about me leaving, so I was surprised to find that some of them were rather sad. It's nice to know I was appreciated though. I think I would miss T-san the most, I really liked O-san too because he was really friendly, and the Chinese guys were really cool too, so I'll try and stay in touch with them.

Mar 27
I went and visited Kazumi and Yukiko and their baby Akira. It was the first time I caught up with them since last November (?) and it was the last time I saw them before we moved. Hopefully we'll see each other again in the near future.

Mar 29
Paul's last day of work.
I was home packing and waited for people to come take our futons away.
I had misread the information on our local city office website, and called in too late for the collection on the 27th so we had to call a private large rubbish collector which cost 20 times more!! (8000yen as opposed to 400yen!!!)
Yasu took me out for dinner with his gf Noriko. He's soooooooo nice! When I asked him if he knows of any plumbers I could call to come fix our leaking tap, he offered to come fix it for me. Unfortunately the home store was closed by the time we finished dinner, but they still came to our apartment and figured out where our water meter was and how to turn the water off. Oh, and I got an email from him not long after we moved that he's already started planning a trip to Kagoshima!

Mar 30
It rained all day.
The Kuroneko (parcel delivery/courier/moving) people came to pick up our stuff and did a great job packing our stuff in to a 2cubic meter cage.
Bachiko came over in the late afternoon and picked up our TV and cabinet. I went with her and we took the TV to her dad's place (it was tough trying to the get the TV up the narrow stairs!) then we picked up Idel from the station and went back to Bachiko's apartment where she made okonomiyaki for us. I would say Bachiko is my best "Japanese" friend. I'm really gonna miss her and Idel.

Mar 31
Did a lot of packing and taking rubbish to the bins in the park.
Sent out 2 little boxes at the post office. After packing some more, we realize that we probably need to send a couple more large boxes.
Met Ayaka and we went for dinner at the new shopping complex near Otori station. She gave me a litte blue box and Paul a stamp holder, and she even made phone straps for us! I really wish I'd started hanging out with Ayaka sooner, she's like the Japan version of Anderson for me. Paul says we're like 2 peas in pod, and it's kinda freaky how similar we are.

Apr 1
The day.
Stayed up till around 5am cleaning the apartment. I felt really cold and sick after my 2 hour nap so I didn't do much in the morning.
We had Kuroneko come pick up 2 large boxes and 3 smaller boxes to send to Kagoshima... yeah, so much stuff!!
Ayaka came by and gave us a box of cookies and some cakes. So is a really really nice and friendly person.
Then landlord came to check out the apartment and get the keys from us. I was really surprised at how surprised and impressed they were when they saw the apartment. They gave us all our deposit back! Considering that we thought we would get nothing back.. the 70000 yen was a huge bonus!
Paul's friend, Nate, came out and met us for lunch and saw us off at the station.
We flew out of Osaka in the evening and picked up our keys from the agent in Kokubu and moved into our lovely new apartment.

Apr 2
Did a lot of walking exploring the neighbourhood, changed our address at the city office, and bought mountain bikes with baskets on the front. I had a little crash landing just as we got home (yeah, already!)

Apr 3
Went and had my eyes checked and ordered glasses.
Did a lot of riding around. Paul got a little sunburned.
We rode out to the water and took a couple of pictures of Sakurajima with our phones and sent them to people.

Apr 4
Stayed home most of the day, did a little bit of shopping in the morning, got the milk delivery organised (the milk lady was really friendly.. she came round in the afternoon with about 1.5L of samples for us!)
Picked up my glasses then did a bit more grocery shopping then made stroganoff for dinner.

I have probably mentioned this before, but anyway..Unlike what we're used to in Australia (or other Western countries), Valentine's Day in Japan and (supposedly Korea and some other Asian countries) is when girls give chocolates to guys. Then the guys return the favor on White Day (March 14)..

I didn't take a picture of the ones I made for Paul; they're essentially the same just with a bit more detail... hehehe
(he just messaged me to tell me that the first one he had was delish! yay!)

I posted a photo of the ones I took to work with me (they call it "giri-choco" meaning moral/obligatory chocolate or something like that) with the recipe I used:

http://koalamunchies.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/assorted-truffles/

Another little update on things in motion in my life at the moment:
- confirmed when I will be moving to Kagoshima, well roundabouts (as in Mid April rather than late May)
- everyone at work now knows I'm leaving at the end of my current contract (Mar 31)
- still have to find out if they will pay me out for the leave (10 days) that I have accrued, or if I will be taking the leave before I leave.. either way, the end is in sight!
- have been looking into apartments in Kagoshima and will probably have to head down there in late March to get it sorted out first
- am looking into enrolling in an environmental science course from an Australia university that I can do through distance learning, and in a commonwealth supported place so I can defer payment of the fees.. still not 100% decided yet, but I do want to get back into studying soon


Things happening now:
- Getting really busy at work; I have this really long technical report to translate, but I keep getting other little tasks that sidetrack me...
I guess I should expect more of that to come before I my time is up here.
- Haven't really done any exercise recently, I really should.. I think I'll try and squeeze in a bit of Wii Fit again tonight.
- Haven't updated my food blog for a while either... still need Paul to send over some photos from a while back.. might get into it again when I'm not so tired (and have remembered to charge the batteries for the camera!)


Anyway, off to the shops now for some last minute grocery shopping.

Finally told them that I won't be working for them after March.
However as two of my bosses were in meetings all day today and they didn't come back when I was leaving at six, they were only notified by email.

What I did was consulted O-san when there were only the two of us in the office (he's the oldest guy in our office I think, and I find him and T-san the friendliest and easiest to talk to) and told him that I won't be able to continue because my fiance is being transferred to Kyushu. He was really understanding and helpful. He said something along the lines of: "it's your life, just tell them, they should understand because it's unreasonable to make you stay if you want to be with your other half.... etc."
Then when T-san came back to the office, he helped me break the news and to my relief, T-san was really nice about it. His reaction was like: no you can't go!! there's a lot of work I need to do for me.. if you were getting married in Osaka, we'd definitely try and make you stay, but Kyushu... well, shoganai na.. blah blah blah... itai (it hurts/ouch)

I was dreading having to explain myself again, but fortunately M-san and S-san didn't come back so O-san said just let T-san explain to them this evening and then you talk to them next week.. but I felt uncomfortable doing that so O-san helped my type up a really polite email explaining the situation and that I'll will talk to them in person next week. O-san is sooooooooooooo nice (T-T)

I think I will actually miss O-san and T-san.

this is a great site for information for living in japan

http://unit.aist.go.jp/internat/aic/StartersHandbook/index.html

We just got back from the dentist... I was rather freaked out and stressed while we were there...
but it turned out alright; didn't hurt, the dentist was nice and friendly (and gentle quote Paul).
We both had one filling done each.. it cost about 10000yen for Paul and only 3000 for me because apparently under the company medical insurance thing that I have I only have to pay 30% just like when I go to the doctors. It was soooooooooooooooo much cheaper than I thought it would be... ii na!

Paul's teeth seem to be in pretty good condition, he'll probably just need one more fix-n-clean done next week and then he'll be alright to wait till the next check-up. Whereas I, on the other hand, would have to go back several more times because I have a few more cavities to patch up (T-T)
I guess the good thing is, it costs a lot less for me to get my teeth done than for Paul... I should get it all done before I quit this job (while I'm still under the company health insurance scheme).

Well, just a couple more hours before I head out again for me annual health check.. I can't eat anything before then and I didn't have any breakfast this morning because I was too lazy to get out of bed early enough. *stomach grumbles**