they don't say it's that for no reason

This time last week, I was super excited and was on the verge of posting the gorgeous pictures from Albert Park, but due to my massive work load and having to prepare for my neuro lab and to get ready for my sister's impending visit, I postponed the uploading of the studio-like picture... this time today, my mind is filled with burning 'if onlys' and 'what ifs', sheer panic of my doubled work load, and nearing the brink of paranoia.

It is funny how in just the space of a week, things could change so much. I could have thought of a million other titles for this post. But since my week started with Indah and I talking about the whole bad omen and Hungry Ghost Festival, I guess it portrays my recent mishap just right. For those without any Asian background, the Hungry Ghost Festival is the month, the seventh month according to the Chinese lunar calender, when the hell gates open and all the souls roam the grounds. During this month, people offer food, money and other things to these souls. Likewise, it was thought that it was the month of bad luck, that essentially, more mishap were to happen during this month and people had to be extra careful in whatever they did. And though I'm not always that superstitious, the 7th month, as most call it, has had its impact on me. Uncle Jerry's mother, my grandaunt, passed away during this month last year. And my dad broke his patella too. Incidentally on the exact same day. So it makes you wonder....

Thursday srated off like any normal day. It was one of my busiest day. Everything started off fine. The pharmaco lecture went a tad past the allocated 45minutes, Don Love's lecture was good and easy and understandable, the Biochem lab was marvellous with Aaj and I getting great results and we finished about one hour early. And so nothing could have gone wrong right? Wrong.

I had a million places to go after lab, I had many errands to run, there were many things I could have done. But being the organised person that I am, my mental list of the things to do that day had 'Bus ticket' flashing away. And so I turned down lunch with the gang, excusing myself to run the seemingly other important errands. So my bus card was topped up to the max and instead of going to the Engineering library to book a room for my tuition later with Jenny, I went to have a look at jewellery at some stalls in the Quad. It was Thursday and so we had our market day that day. As most of you know, I'm not jewellery inclined but due to my bare neck in my halter neck ball dress, I thought, 'hm...a necklace won't be too bad'. So I shopped. Bumped in Aaj and Mal shopping for gigantic chandeliar earrings and continued looking.

One of my biggest regrets to this day, and what I could only blame it on my sheer stupidity was to leave my bag about 3 feet away to try on a necklace. It was Thursday. I know I keep on repeating it, but it was Lab day, I had an extra hand carry bag, the Quad was crowded, nothing could have gone wrong right? Wrong. I was too trusting in a sense. And I think you all know what happened if you don't already. I turned to fish my purse out of my bag to pay for a necklace, but alas, my Converse shoulder bag was nowhere in sight. My first instict was okay, so I must have placed it somewhere else, maybe not near my hand carry bag, I searched the grounds for awhile and thought, okay, maybe someone's pulling a prank and took it away to give me a fright, I searched the Quad a bit..all this time, refusing to let the thought of it being stolen from right under my nose sink in. Or perhaps yearning that it was the two former thoughts that occured so I didn't have to put with the possibility of a missing bag with all my valuable possessions, especially priceless genetics, biochem and pharmaco notes.

But no. Whatever happened, happened. My bag was stolen, grabbed, taken away from me. I didn't really understand the circumstances until Mal asked me what was inside, then I realised man, I did lose quite a lot. They left my hand carry bag, which was good, cos I had my stats and biochem lab notes inside and my dirty lab coat, sometime I wished I had stuff more things inside to reduce my lost. But as Indah said, I had no inkling that this was going to happen. So Uni security was notified and since the Quad had many surveillance cameras, they actually did capture the footage of it happening. According to Aaj and Mal who watched the video, the whole thing was neatly planned and had I turned around to my right at the right moment, I would have seen one of the bastards standing right next to me. He was the one who took my bag, passed it to another guy while another was watching their back. It happened real fast and they took off.

So that left me, bagless, noteless, purseless, cellphoneless, and poor. I was at a lost. Thank God I had great friends who stood by amidst the chaos and really lent their helping hand. I'm thankful to Aaj and Mal's clear head for leading me through that rough time when I was thinking of what to do next. I'm thankful to Indah who searched through the rubbish with me. I'm thankful to Marilyn and Noella who went all way out to notify security and showing that they care. I'm thankful to Tony for lending me his phone to call mom. I'm just grateful that I had great friends who were there during that time. And despite the fact that I was feeling really down and nothing could've put a smile on my face, knowing and seeing all of you guys going all way out to help, really made my day. I'm thankful to Duneeshya, Aaj, Marie and Marilyn who so willingly lent their notes to me. To Indah and Tony and Marilyn for providing me with the recordings. The most balming words I got that night came from my best friend over the Tasman, Katyana Azman. She said, 'So what if the assholes got your notes cam? You do them again, and you might find out what you've missed out before.' Those words were enough to give me the motivation to keep trudging along. And after that, I knew I would survive this ordeal.