My December 2022
I am back on Medium but not to write about football this time. Well, there will be some mention of it but it is not an article dedicated to football. I would just like to reflect on the last month of the year 2022.
The month started with the World Cup going on. The final group stage matches were going on and I was following the action as a neutral. It was nice to watch the matches as a neutral because there is no tension felt going into the matches as opposed to watching matches featuring my favourite teams. Having said that, I hope to never again watch World Cup matches as a neutral and that my team, Italy qualifies for future versions. I was cheering on the underdogs and countries that have never won the World Cup but it wasn’t to be. In the final, there were Argentina and France, neither team I wanted in the final but the lesser of the two evils would be Argentina for me so I supported them in the final. I wouldn’t say I was delighted they won but more contented that it was not France who won it.
Early in the month, I left for my cousin sister’s wedding in Malaysia. The first time our family will be on the girl's side of a wedding. Most of my cousins are males and there are only three females in the family, my sister included. The wedding went fine although the dance performance was an absolute mess. It was horrible! I never really got a chance to dance much at this wedding though. I thought maybe we could be dancing the night away during the wedding reception but it was not to be. Unfortunately, my son felt sick and started vomiting so we had to leave early from the reception.
For the wedding reception, we stayed in a place that is rather ironic for me, i-City in Shah Alam. If fate had other plans, this would have been my “sasural”, the place of my in-laws. My ex-girlfriend before I met my wife stays in this part of Shah Alam and when we were dating, she would tell me about this place. I eventually came here as a married man with a child, married to another woman. The hotel we stayed in was beautiful though. Such a pity that we were there only for one night though. It’s been a long time as well since I stayed in a 4, 5-star hotel. I left a day earlier than my parents and sister to return to Singapore with my wife and son as my wife didn’t have enough leave and had to work the next day.
That is the day something terrible started. It started with a mild cough that I felt came from not drinking enough water. My throat felt dry and I started drinking water like a camel to make up for it. I slept late as well as I was catching up on work and while I was doing that, I watched two movies on Netflix. I was very tired but yet before sleeping, I thought of getting one out of the system after being aroused by both movies I watched. While I watched the first movie in full, the second one, I skipped to the fun bits. The fun ended at the end of ejaculation.
The next day, I felt terrible. My throat was still dry but it didn’t feel like a sore throat, there was still a cough and my body felt so weak. I went to the clinic but was told it was full and I should return at 2pm. When it came to 2pm, I took a nap instead. My family had returned by then and my sister and mother were ill too. More my sister than my mother. Somehow I dragged myself out of the bed, did a COVID test which came out negative and then got my mother to accompany me to a clinic. The ones I went to were closed for the day so I had to go to another one and I was so weak I was afraid I might faint.
At the clinic, it was confirmed that I had a fever, cough and phlegm. A repeat COVID test was done and it came out negative again. I thought I would get antibiotics but the doctors here are reluctant to give them nowadays. That marked the start of my ordeal as I struggled badly with a respiratory tract infection. One thing sweet to come out of it immediately from it was my wife feeding me. I never expected that from her.
After 2 days, I went to another clinic, one of those that I normally went to and got the antibiotics but that just made matters worse. The antibiotics escalated matters for me as I got gastric, started feeling nauseatic and hardly ate. Slowly, I stopped taking the antibiotics as I felt this was causing me to suffer. My tastebuds had also gone. I asked a doctor friend and he confirmed that the antibiotics are causing gastric and frying my tastebuds. At the same time, my sister, mother and wife were also ill but the latter two recovered quickly. Whatever it was that I was having, it felt worse than COVID and secretly, I hope to be COVID-positive so that I can recover in isolation. It was a selfish thought but I felt I could recover faster in isolation and I wanted to revisit the time I spent alone in isolation when I tested positive in April.
Quite early into my sickness, I braved myself to go along with my wife and son to the Christmas Wonderland thinking it might make me feel better but it didn’t quite work out. I was just pleased to be there for my wife and son though. I missed a friend’s wedding although I felt better when I woke up that morning. My appetite was still bad though. That evening, I went to another friend’s house with my son for Christmas and struggled badly with eating, managing to eat something at least in the end. The day after, I went to work and I struggled badly. My energy was low, my appetite was poor, I felt like I had no strength and the heat from the sun was sapping whatever remaining energy and strength I had in me. On the 22nd December, I had one last work engagement for the year and while by then I was feeling better, I was caught in the rain.
The day after marked the first day of Naam Ras, a biannual Sikh event held at the Singapore Expo. I was getting better but not in optimal condition yet. We came a bit late after picking up my wife from work. My sister missed it as she was sicker than I was. We stayed on until the end and it was so emotional to see the procession carrying the Guru Granth Sahib leaving. My father and I had the opportunity to get near the procession to carry the palanquin on which the Guru Granth Sahib was. That day revitalised me as I looked forward to the time to go to Naam Ras each day. We didn’t stay until the end of Days 2 and 3. On the final day, Day 4, we stayed on and sang along to the shabads. It would get emotional for me when I followed wholeheartedly but I didn’t care. In the end, it was a spiritual, enriching and uplifting experience like it was in previous editions. I can’t wait for the next one to come along.
I was also taking this downtime to not do any work, chill out and watch movies. But time flew by so fast that you can’t do everything you want to do in this time. Just like that, the seconds, minutes and hours ticked by. The days galloped from one day to the next. I wanted to spend more time doing nothing but chilling but I don’t feel I did that enough. Just like that, the year ended and we are in a new year and back to work. Another year to grind and hustle. Life’s rat race continues. Life really flies by fast. It waits for no one.
