2 minutes of fame

Full day yesterday. I was to do a reading at the promotion of the book "Readings" at Borders, Curve but because my story in the book was 18SX, I had to write another PG-13 story for the reading for "Readings". Just to add to the excitement in my life, I had still not finished the story by the time Saturday came along and Saturday morning was my daughter's sports day. So that morning itself in between getting her ready, I was trying to steal time here and there to scribble down the so-called ending of the story or at least some sort of ending that would work for the reading. Then it was a rush to the door and to somewhere in Damansara area for the sports day - made it just in time for the kids' welcome march/dance thingy with ribbons. Fuihh! Grabbed a seat near the lanes and proceeded to ignore all the other kids' races until my kid was up. Cheered her on as she did the classic balancing ping pong ball on spoon race. Became kiasu parent with camera as she received a medal. Stayed on to watch her best friend race and afterwards more pictures of the girls with their medals in front of the Vico van dispensing cold chocolate drinks (Milo van tak datang pulak tahun ni). Then raced back home where I had about an hour to type out the story before having to leave for Curve.

Got to Borders before 3pm - very unusual for me to be early. Omigod, the set up seemed a bit formal at Starbucks and there were people there already, just waiting to be bored by me -yikess.......freaking out, freaking out. Saw Sharon Bakar but no other writers... aaarrghhhh... must I be the first to read? Sharon saved me, agreeing to do the first reading. My daughter came with me as my one man support team.

"Why are you scared?" she asked.
"Because I'm freaking out that people won't like my story!!" Head in hands, feeling nauseous. Can't bail out now, not least because Sharon will kill me but also can't very well lecture my kid on not being scared to try if I fail to set an example myself. Bloody hell. What have I got myself into?

Sharon read first. Oh my God, forgot how good she is at entertaining people and her story is brilliant. I'm up next. Try to smile. She introduces me. Legs prop me up. My kid pats my arm. I reach for the microphone. Here goes!! Focus on my daughter's face as I start.

Aaaah, sigh of relief. It's over, people clap, am so glad I did it. And am so glad I did it before the other more entertaining authors read! Now can sit back and enjoy the other writer's readings. Some of them are so young! Good for them. I had no clue when I was their age. Someone came to me for my autograph?? what?? why would anyone want that? Bask in my minute of fame. It literally lasted a minute. Back to reality - now kena pergi tesco kat sebelah beli susu anak and ayam...

An eventful day for me.

road trip, interrupted

last weds, the family headed down south for a 4 day road trip. It was the first time we had gone for a holiday this long since our now 7 month old baby came into our lives and i felt so proud of my very efficient packing (i need to get out more).

suddenly, somewhere in negeri sembilan, the husband started getting painful spasms on his side. i kept telling him to pull over so i could take over the driving but stubborn man that he is, he kept on driving in between yelling out in pain. In Ayeh Keroh, Melaka we drove to Pantai Hospital's emergency unit. For the next 5 hours, they shot him twice with painkillers while they did tests and then finally the CT scan results came out, showing there was a stone between his kidney and bladder, too big to go through his system naturally. He needed to be admitted so I drove like the wind back to KL to his usual hospital, making it there just before his last shot of painkillers wore off. The operation was scheduled early the next morning so that night all 4 of us camped out in his room. The kids were very happy and cheerful, a different sort of adventure from the one originally planned but an adventure all the same. And the important thing was that we were all spending time together, way more time, without any distraction whatsoever. Thank God, his procedure went well and we went home that evening. I unpacked our luggage, sigh, all that efficient packing....next time, then.