A Singaporean In Australia

It was an unusual Sunday. I learnt a lot of things and those were reasons to rejoice but in the end it was overall a pretty bad day and I was to be blamed for it.

Eugene asked me to help out at Uncle Lai's. He had some problems with a leaking main water pipe. We woke and 7am, took a light breakfast and went over in Eugene's car. Jen wanted to tag along. Mistake no. 1: I let her.

It was to be a day of hard work. It felt like another day at work but I never complained. These two guys helped me so much since I came to Perth. Doing them a favour would be something I wanted to do for sometime to show my appreciation. Moreover, I would have a first hand experience how folks here fix up their problems in their own home. Whatever it was, Jen had no business to be here.

The copper pipe that provides all the water that Uncle Lai needed

We coupled, bent and jack pipes all morning and dug dug dug.

The existing old copper water pipe was leaking and costed Uncle Lai a hefty water bill for a while. So he decided to change it and was quoted a bill of over $1,000 for the job. He found that it was unacceptable so he decided to do it himself. It was obviously not a job for 1 man so he roped in 2 more for the mission. We removed tiles of paving in besides his beautiful swimming pool and dug downwards to search for the pipe trail. There were areas where we didn't think wise to dig because it would affect the foundation of structural elements so we avoid those areas. As a result, we needed to jack new pipes underground to bypass these spots where laying was not possible.

It was hard work. I hammered the pipe at one end while Eugene pulled on the other end. The process was repeated over different spot. It felt like a gym session. Jen came out to peek several times. Mistake no.2. I let her. It was a scorching day. All three grown men found it really bad, cursed and swore in Cantonese several times. Jen had no business to be out there in the sun, periodically or not.

By the time we finished it was 3pm. Mistake no.3: I didn't make sure Jen had a proper lunch. We went home in Eugene's car. The temperature of the car was high due to the weather. Mistake no.4: This was similar to the incident when Jen fainted in Joanna's car and I repeated it. I should had gotten Eugene to turn the fan higher as it was stuffy and hot in his car. Moreover he was more of those 'rough' drivers.

I felt feverish and sick by the time we got back home. I noticed something not right with Jen by now but I felt helpless and didn't know what to do. She went to bed while I made dinner. I decided to make something nice for Jen. Mistake no.5: I tried to be too creative and whipped up noodles in peanut sauces with nicely cooked thick beef slices and half a hard boil egg with an undercooked yolk. I thought it looked and tasted pretty ok. But obviously it was too exotic for an unwell person to take it in. She couldn't finish dinner, within 10 minutes she puked it all out. It was the first time she vomited during her pregnancy. That was probably unrelated to the pregnancy. She was truly, unwell.

I cleaned up the mess, got her to take her bath, tucked her in bed and rubbed Ruyi Oil over her temple and belly at 20:30 hrs. She managed to sleep soundly after 1 hour, not before moaning uncomfortably a couple of times in her half-asleep state. She refused to take any medicine as she thought it was 'bad for the baby'. Again, I felt helpless and sad. Given a choice, I would not want anything to happen to her in favour of the baby. Baby is really important to us, but Jen is everything to me. My existence in Perth and whatever difficulties I'm overcoming everyday would be totally meaningless without her.

We are due for the next appointment to hospital tomorrow. I hope she'll be well when she wakes if not I'll leave for work with a heavy heart after the appointment. She's finally breathing normally in her sleep now. I'm relieved. I had forgotten I was supposed to feel sick. I felt alright now, somehow.

It's sad to say I had learnt nothing since the last time she fainted. I really doubt my readiness to cope with her eventual labour and ability to perform my responsibilities properly when the baby comes.