Been home one week today....

... and finding it surprisingly difficult to be home alone this time around. No, I don't mean that I wish I were staying with family, or that family were staying with me. What I mean is that I MISS KEN. I thought it would get easier with time, and it has been just over 6 months, but it is not, not, not, not, getting easier. Maybe it is just that all the adrenaline that kept me going the whole of last year and the early part of this year has all disappeared. Maybe it is just that the one month travel was so "full on" and busy that I did not have time to think about missing Ken.... but now I am home, loads of downtime, no pressing tasks, on my own most of the time (which is better than inflicting my moods on any of my long-suffering family and friends), and it just hits me hard every day that Ken is no longer next to me. Sunday and Monday were BAD nights. :'(

Went to meet a good friend for lunch yesterday and did a bit of wandering before that - and one shop I went into, the lady says "Shopping alone?", and, MAN, that almost set me off into tears! Managed to control the tear ducts though (THANK GOODNESS)... You see, when Ken was around (and well) neither of us EVER went shopping alone. We had such pleasure in shopping together, even if it was just window-shopping, or grocery shopping, or even just wandering around a DIY shop or a pharmacy. It didn't have to be anything 'major', we just loved wandering around together. And now, well, I go shopping on my own :-(.

Enuff of the misery... let's get back to life again.

Picked up my Dad this morning and went to the LLN (National Electricity Board) to collect a refund on my deposit on my electricity account for an apartment that I had sold in DECEMBER LAST YEAR!! Sheesh, talk about inefficiency! In Singapore cancellation of utility accounts is immediate, and refunds happen within 2 weeks. Here, the cancellation application was submitted on Jan 6th. The account did not get cancelled until about 1.5 months later, and the refund took 8 months - and that was with constant phone calls and reminders! I was lucky that my Dad did everything for me - submitted the cancellation application, chased them, followed up with them, etc. And I am lucky that my Dad knows how to deal with government departments!! Dealing with them just drives me to despair. The only truly efficient govt department is the one dealing with issuing of new passports - now THEY are amazing. TWO HOURS flat, from submission of form to receipt of new passport. Not a lot of countries can beat that. Now why can't they be equally efficient in other areas???? 'Tis a puzzlement.

Tomorrow morning, my parents are coming over to my place, and from here we are going to go to Hospis Malaysia. Want to donate a whole bunch of stuff that was used for Ken (including a ripple mattress!) to Hospis, and also make a cash donation. They were amazing people, and their support was invaluable. They get zero funding from the govt, and are totally reliant on private organisations and individuals. So, anyone with some spare cash and feeing generous, do donate to them! It is tax deductible too :-D.

That's it for now... till next time, have a great day, every day!