fi the sick cat

it was only my first day of work officially as an AP and i fell sick. damn.

came home last night with a fever, sore throat, throbbing headache, and was just shivering all over. wrapped myself in sweaters and blanket and went to sleep immediately after downing medicine n water.

this morning i had to force myself to get up at 6am and leave home by 7. downed more painkillers and figured my way out to a school all the way in jurong east. all while lugging the darn heavy briefcase and trotting in heels. the journey took me 2 hours in the end. which made me late for an hour. sheesh.

as much as i find fulfilment in what i'm doing in my job, i can't help but feel it's taking a toll on me physically. second time i'm sick on the job. i'm seriously drained and tired of finding my way to a new school in some ulu part of singapore which i've never been to/heard of before, each and every morning i'm doing school visits (which is most of the time actually). tired of not knowing exactly where to drop off the bus, not knowing how long the journey will take, having to ask passerbys all the time how to get there and blah. tired of waking up at 6am and getting out of the house before the sky lights up. each day i go to somewhere different. i feel like i've travelled to more parts of the island in the past 3 weeks than i had in my past 23 years.

been getting more sorethroats within these few weeks than i ever had. i have to talk continuously the entire day, and not just talk, but actually talk clearly and impeccably since it's a literacy test i'm conducting and i have to be as precise in my pronunciation as possible to make it fair for all kids. have to repeat and repeat, emphasize on certain words and stuff. arghhh my throat's just killing me and i'm eating lozenges ever so often.

alright, before i sound like some whiner. have i mentioned we can't really go on mc or leave? technically we can, of course. but like this morning when i was sick in bed and didn't know how i'm gonna survive thru 2 schools the entire day, i knew i just can't cancel out on the schools cos our schedule is so tight and it's just not professional to cancel out at the last min when the visit is already pre-arranged. sigh. lotsa issues to consider.

another 2 new schools tmr. another early morning on the bus to gawd knows where.

it can only be the kids' smiles that sustain me.