Insomnia. It’s what greets me as each day comes to pass and another comes to greet me. Yesterday was unbelievably bad, much worse than the usual. Instead of falling asleep somewhere at 6 in the morning, after a while of staring off into the ceiling despite being in bed, I decided to get up and do some exercise.
I guess you could say that today was (sort of) a day of firsts. I did my first day of (real) exercising at home, even if it was just around the driveway, jogging for about half an hour. Today I also helped my maid make breakfast by frying the bacon. I know it’s not that difficult a task, you just place it in a batch of frying oil and then wait for it to crisp, but at least I’m doing something to help around AND my maids are not telling me to not be in the kitchen. Instead of going to mass at noon and attending with my cousin who was staying over I fell asleep and woke up in time to prepare for mass at 6 in the evening.
Bronze dress is from Greenhills Tiangge; Cream and brown bag is from H&M Beijing; Studded sandals were purchased from Taobao.com; Cold-resistant leggings (super reliable) from Marks and Spencer Manila.
So in other news, today was mom’s birthday. Chinese tradition states that I wear red to celebrate the birthday, but since I’m on the whole get-thinner-so-I-can-fit-back-into-my-clothes-before-I-left-for-Beijing phase, my choice of wardrobe is much more limited.
Me and my family attended mass together, which is something that we haven’t been doing for a long time, especially since I sometimes go to mass on my own and well…..being abroad for a year hasn’t left me with a lot of chances to go out with my family for special occasions – like Christmas, New Year, my sister’s graduation, brother’s birthdays, and the like. After the mass, we tried this new restaurant near our church called Maimee’s Garden Cafe. It’s been open for 2 weeks and the atmosphere is quiet, and the food is not that bad, and it’s a good place for family dinners an the like since it has big servings.
Back to topic of Mom’s birthday. It was weird how everything looked from my side, across from dad who was seated at the head of the table. Being a family again, but also us being just more grown up, it was such a different feeling in some way. The last time I had a real big dinner with my family, my sister was still in her 4th year of university, I was just passing the time before going back to Beijing, there were just a lot of things different than from how they are now. I find it amusing and also insightful, how things have passed.
I wonder, next year, or 5 years from now, or even more, how will things be then… I wonder.
