On the previous Saturday, i went to the hospital here for the first time. A church sister has just given birth to a baby boy. I went to visit her with a church brother. This lady's husband is a Kiwi and the mixed-blood baby is so beautiful (looks totally like Westerner). I was told that the NZ government subsidised their people for all medical fees that have something to do with having babies. She basically did not have to pay for anything since her pregnancy. Even staying in a single ward in the hospital is free.
On Tuesday, i did my first census here. In fact, it was the first time ever i did a census. I had not done it before even when i was back in SG and Malaysia.
On Thursday, i got my first fine for the new car.
I was at the client's place and the meeting lasted longer than we expected. The meeting was in progress and i noticed the time. I told my boss privately that the parking time was up but he said it was the same for his car too and told me to just leave it. We just continued with the meeting; I guess it would appear to be unprofessional if we were to stop the meeting for going to the car park to top up the parking fee. Anyway, i will claim the fine from the company and the company will in turn bill the customer fir it.
On Friday during the weekly church Chinese cell group meeting, i prayed out loud for the first time (in English). The group leader has arranged a roster for different tasks, and everyone will have to take turn to prepare dinner, to pray and to share testimonies every week. As i work till 5pm on Friday, it would be too late to prepare dinner for everyone (more than 10 people), and hence they did not put me in-charge of cooking (phew!). It was my turn to pray on last Friday, and i had actually never prayed out loud in front of anyone before. This was the first time.
On Saturday morning, i drove out to somewhere and had a first minor damage to my new car.
I was doing side parking (which i am really bad at) and went too close to the curb. The wheel rim cover (original Mazda) was scratched and a small portion of the medal even chipped off. What a bummer! :'(
Then in the afternoon, i also did my first full-blown household chores since i moved in to this apartment. I cleaned the toilet and kitchen, vacuumed and mopped the floor, did my laundry, took out the garbage, and prepared food for next week. I even tried cooking a minced lamb dish for dinner (i wrongly bought the minced lamb when i actually wanted to buy minced pork). Now the apartment is clean, tidy and smelling great, but i sure am exhausted.
It's time for bed. I bet i'm gonna sleep soundly tonight after all the exercising from doing all the house chores.
