Friday, January 21, 2011

Progress Friday

In a week where I've been sick and tired of going to the hospital, and sick and tired of dealing with the drastic cuts in running water, it's a miracle at all that I got any writing done.

Mauritius is experiencing one of its worst droughts ever. Reservoirs are nearly dry (and it's only now that it's in such critical states that the authorities decide to 'look into' options such as desalinating sea water and finding new water boreholes! But that's another tangent I can rant on about, so let's not go there.) So yeah, we have running water only from 4 AM to 10 AM everyday. After that, your problem, not the authorities'. Have a water tank installed, you might say. Got not one but two on the building, and most of the time, there's not enough water pressure to allow the tanks to fill up (authorities again. See a rant pattern?)

But once again, 4-10 AM everyday ain't really that bad... if you're at home to get everything done. Let's see - shower, laundry, dishes, cooking: all need running water. Fine... if you're home at that time! What happens to working women/households? What happens when like me, you're stuck in a hospital waiting room every morning? You get nothing done, and after a while, that becomes an awful bugger!

Speaking of hospitals, how can it be that people wake up one day and are perfectly civil and cordial to you, and the next they couldn't give more of a damn than to kick you all over the place without a hint of information? Happened this morning, when I had to a) 'supposedly' see a doctor who is not my physician, b) see a doctor when I have just 2 more days to go, c) wait for my doctor when today's not her day to come in (that kinda killed my patience, yeah!), and d) be made to feel that I was a total pest when I asked what was going on. Took me asking where my medical file was (oh wait, it's floating around the departments!) for the people in charge to figure there was absolutely no reason for me to see the doctor today when on top of everything, she wasn't even supposed to come in! I mean, 'sheesh'! No wonder people rant about the Mauritian services' sector. A day like today (and the Monday I had last week!) would turn anyone into a Tasmanian Devil.

All right - back to progress. In all this mind-numbing hoopla, I did manage to turn in another chapter and trod along with the WIP. Totally not close to my desired target, but at least I'm moving ahead, which isn't a bad thing.

Lifestyle-wise, nada. Yes, I'm tired, washed out, with my right side feeling like it's had a bad case of sunburn (which puts exercise out of the equation, coz I can't even stretch my arm). But I'm not making excuses. I'm just resolute that I'll get more done next week. More, better.

So on that thought, I hop on into the weekend. Hope you have a nice one!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

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