Friday, March 30, 2007

My week.

Last week would have been very mundane, if not for the fact that, it was my turn to serve the Altar at the 7 am Mass in church.

This is my tenth year as an Altar Server and it has brought a lot of spiritual peace inside myself. I have enjoyed doing this and since I have 'inherited' it, I am 'unofficially in-charge', since no one wants to do it. There are six of us, and apart from an architect and a storekeeper, are all retirees. So I am left to draw up the roster every year. Besides, I am also in charge of the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharists, for the daily 7 am Mass. With three teams of three Ministers working weekly, I have to step in whenever anyone is unable to serve, or simply not show up for duty.

Tuesday saw me at the Immigrations applying for my new passport. The place is like a 'big supermarket'. You go in, take your photograph, fill in the form and proceed downstairs to pay by Nets and drop off the form into one of the boxes. Very much like an automated self check out counter. They have since written to tell me to collect my passport.

Monday and Wednesday were my exercise days. Yes, I have gone back to the track for brisk walking covering six laps. Since I have to baby-sit Emma on Friday, I now consolidate into two days, doing 6 x 2 = 12 laps for the week. Previously it was 4 x 3 = 12 laps. My diet has worked and my weight on Wednesday was 66.3 kg. Getting close to my target of 65 kg. With reduced carbohydrates, I get hungry faster. Without caffeine, my decaf coffee and tea without sugar taste bland. I put half teaspoon of raw sugar to my decaf coffee to cut the bitter taste. Takes the fun out of growing old.

My grand daughter Samantha, called Wednesday night, to say that she was off to Pasir Ris for an overnight stay with her class and teachers. She was to learn how to be independent. This is the first time, she stayed out alone, without the family. She was rather apprehensive about the whole thing. So I consoled her into learning all she could, and to enjoy herself. After she got back, she told me of the cockroaches and dirty toilets.

Emma, my youngest grand daughter, livened the week, when she spent Thursday and Friday with us. I always looked forward to her visits and baby-sit her for the two days in the week. I noticed she had grown and put on weight, and her appetite getting the better of her, especially around her waistline. I compiled 114 pictures of her into a DVD, and added a lively children's song to it. She was so enthralled by it, that she asked to watch the disc many times. I miss her after she goes home on Friday evening.

Saturday morning, I had to see my GP, because I had ran out of my medications for my hypertension and cholesterol. I was happy to tell him of my diet and weight loss. He was quite chatty and asked about various things. Maybe he is as lonely as I am.

Saturday evening, I had dinner at the market with my No. 1 daughter and grand children, Samantha and Timothy, after the 6 pm Mass in church. Samantha updated me on her overnight adventure and Timothy, being hyperactive made a nuisance of himself, as usual. Nevertheless, a nice simple dinner before they left by bus for home.

Early Sunday morning, I was up as usual for the 7 am Mass in church. Being Palm Sunday, we all carried the palm for the priest's blessings. The Mass was long, due to the re-enactment of our Lord's Passion. I helped out with the collection and served as Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist.

At 9.30 am, I was back in church for the Rosary in the Columbarium, a monthly event on the first Sunday of the month. I have been in charge of the Columbarium ever since it was planned for the new church. Earlier on I also visited the book centre, which I was supposed to manage, but withdrew due to internal problems. Since I missed out on the Penitential Service for Easter, I made my confession to the priest before leaving the church.

Back home, I read the Sunday papers in peace, and had my decaf coffee. By lunchtime, my son called after the 12 noon Mass in church, and came to collect his mother and myself for lunch. What a nice gesture! We joined up with my daughter, son-in-law and Emma at Tiong Bahru Food Centre. Table full of food, it was good and tasty. Emma had fallen asleep earlier, but got up surprised to see all of us eating at the table. She joined in happily.

My son-in-law then brought us to collect his new Mercedes Benz. He had traded-in his Jaguar. We all piled into his gleaming black Mercedes and went for a drive to Marina South where we stopped for a drink and to see the new Clifford Pier. Emma was busy exploring her father's new car. As usual, she was very happy with all of us around her and making us laugh at her many antics.

It was 'car fever' as we proceeded to Borneo Motors to see the Toyotas and Lexus, because my son had decided to change his Volvo. He test drove the Lexus RX350 and the L250, but could not test drive the Toyota Camry.

We finally sat down to a nice dinner at Tiong Bahru, blowing my diet. A very pleasant Sunday after all. If I had not gone out in the afternoon, I would have stayed at home listening to the oldies on FM 90.5. Sometimes the oldies are not that old! Growing old, I now cherish time spent with my family and always enjoyed outings with them. And so another week had gone by.

Till then....

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