Murphy - Don't I just love this guy...

I had my first birthday overseas! Absolutely different from the one I had last year (which was my 21st so naturally it would have been quite a party compared to this year's). Thank you to ALL the people who sent greetings live! (mum), via phone (dad), MSN (bro), e-mail greetings, e-card greetings, and of course, greetings via snail mail (which I consider the only TRUE form of mail). Special mention goes to cui, dor and dada...

1) Cui: Because she sent me such a long wonderful e-mail and "sang" me a birthday song in it (her promise of a present also helped). But I really appreciate her gesture, because she INITIATED contact (I sent an email but it was to a wrong address, so I won't count that...) and all the more because I know she hates computers and is rarely on them but she made such an effort to do it...Because she loves me :)

2) Dada: For keeping up the LHFC practice of sending "reflections". Great recollections and reflection of SUPPOSEDLY being the SKP at my 21st birthday party (C'mon.. you were a GUEST la... just that you had additional tasks...hee..)

3) Dor: For dedicating a blog entry and a webpage (http://minz.poonpipi.com/) to me...

My flatmates put together a little celebration for me too! Super sweet of them considering we've known each other for only a couple of weeks...

Presents from them! See that little ticket? They bought me a ticket to Edinburgh!

Looking pleased....

Don't be silly..of course it's cold! I wouldn't have killed the little squirrel and put it on my coat otherwise, would I?

Onto the events of today...

Went for a little walk through the forest to see the river that runs through my campus...

Blackberries!

Isn't nature beautiful?

It was on this walk that Murphy enters the picture. Murphy.... of the "if anything can go wrong, it will" fame. In my haste to see the river, I missed a step and (no, I didn't fall into the river!) sprained my ankle... Haiz... I've seen lots of sprained ankles but this is the first time I ever actually had one... By the way, the above photos were taken after my ankle was sprained... I tell you this so you won't imagine the worst and think of me crying in the forest... It's not really painful, I could still walk, and I DID have to walk a pretty long way after that.. but c'mon, the last injury I thought I would have was a sprained ankle!

I brought lots of band-aid cause I figured that would be more useful, what with me cooking everyday and using knives and I never for a moment thought about a sprained ankle. I can do a beautiful (to me, anyway) figure-of-8 to immobilise the ankle BUT I have no crepe bandage... See what Murphy meant?

I have to go out to buy one quick.. because Murphy also says "left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse".