Mood: Calm 
Vaping: Vozol 12000 Watermelon Bubblegum
Weather: 27°C, Clear
Location: Mont Fleuri, Mahe, Seychelles
I don’t know if I’m calm or fuming mad: earlier this morning my employee called telling me that she has gone to the toilet 4 times already and is vomiting. I asked her if it was the same gas-related thing she got last week and she hesitated, but I told her to go to the hospital anyway. She told me she didn’t want to go to the hospital because they would give her sick leave, and that she doesn’t want sick leave because she just got a few days off last week. As an employer, I have to still apply humanity to my decisions – what am I supposed to tell her, weather the storm? How did she expect me to react when she called me? My training has taught me to “go to the doctor” to get a diagnosis so that you can get treated. So obviously I wouldn’t blindly tell her to take a Panadol and power through.
So anyway, I told her to go to the hospital and at around 4:30pm she comes back to us saying she’s got sick leave from the doctor and her diagnosis was “food poisoning” [insert facepalm emoji here]. So tomorrow my sister and I have no choice but to wake up early and head to work. We already lost 3 full days of peak payday season so we really do not have a choice but to do this. We were supposed to take things easy this week, I was going to clean up the apartment, finish up laundry and then start packing for my trip. But now I’ll have to push all that for the end of the week. We will have to work at the store tomorrow and the day after. We are also expecting a personal box to arrive but according to Fedex tracking it hasn’t left its location. Bummer. Does anything ever fall into place? I now highly doubt the items will arrive before we leave because lately, Fedex has been calling us 2 days after it arrives on Mahe. Last year they were on top of their game, the minute the tracking says “Mahe”, they call us the same day for delivery. Thylvethter’s automatic feeder is in that box. I don’t really care about anything else, I just really need that one. How else will she get fed?
I have glycolic acid 50% gel peel on my face. I think you’re supposed to leave this on for a few minutes. But I’m leaving it on until I complete this blog. Ever since I my got sunburned at Baros my face has developed freckles and they’re clearly here to stay. When I have more funds to burn I will do a medium chemical peel. I am starting to look old. I don’t even look like someone who is in their early 40s but someone in their late 40s. I’ll also be ordering estrogen cream for my face. I’m literally going to put vaginal estrogen cream on my face until I get the regular one. I don’t even think there’s much of a difference. I’ll also be ordering a derma pen. The challenge is to get it here, because there is a rechargeable battery in the model that I’m interested in.
I honestly think I’m growing a moustache. I started noticing it some time around December 2023. Whenever I take selfies, or if I look carefully into the mirror, I can see it. It doesn’t feel coarse in the area, nor does it feel any different from the way it used to be but I can see it. After this blog post I’m going to try to shave the area and see if it makes a difference. Ageing sucks. I didn’t know all this would start to happen in my late 30s and just speed up in my early 40s. I expected to hit menopause in my early 50s (as my mother did) or even in my late 40s which is common enough. But my 30s? I was completely blindsided.
I spent almost all day waiting for the guys to complete installing the AC. They came by at around 10am, and completed the installation at around 2pm or so. They installed a non-inverter AC so I expect our electricity bill to skyrocket. I clearly told the landlord to install an inverter AC but clearly he had his own best interest at heart – a non-inverter is cheap, doesn’t require a lot of maintenance and is the better option for this kind of climate. The only downfall is that it’s not as energy efficient as an inverter AC, so I carry the burden of its only disadvantage. I’m on HRT but my sister isn’t, so she struggles with all the sweating and hot flashes on a daily basis. Hopefully this AC will help a bit with those. I remember the first time I knew 100% I was experiencing hot flashes – I was at STC hypermarket and the AC was on full blast. I literally felt cold, my skin was cold to the touch but there was this internal heat I was experiencing, almost as though my body was confused. As the saying goes, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” I was certain it was related to menopause. HRT has immensely improved the quality of my life.
I went by my mother’s place this evening. She called earlier to tell me that she submitted my condo application form but because I didn’t have a pay slip as proof of income, I would have to submit my bank statement. We had to go to Orion Mall to buy printer ink and then I printed out 6 months of my business’ bank statement. As April is not yet over, I submitted my bank statement from Oct 2023 – March 2024. I placed the document in an envelope and sealed it so that my mother won’t go through it. I hope that completes the application. The next step is they’ll go over the application documents and confirm if 1. I meet the requirements of government-assisted housing and 2. which type of housing I will be assisted with. If they feel I meet the requirements of a condo, they’ll call me over to sign which officially puts me on the waiting list and I can jump on board their Home Savings Scheme (HSS), for the monthly commitment amount to be automatically transferred to them each month until I get my keys. Apparently there is a minimum of 3 years on the waiting list and a maximum of 5 years. So I better sit tight and get comfortable in this apartment. I don’t have a car yet, so there are advantages to just staying here. I get to share rides in my sister’s car. If I live on my own I will definitely need my own car. I also get to continue raising my cat comfortably, as I have permission from my landlord to keep her here. There is absolutely no chance in hell I will abandon my cat. Now that we have AC, I won’t have to worry much about keeping my postcards and other collectibles in a dry environment.
Here are the main meals I had today, lunch was edamame with popcorn chicken and air fried pumpkin, while dinner was spaghetti with the remaining 2 pieces of popcorn chicken:
I’ve got only 1 portion of edamame left, and I think I’ll give that a rest. I had this for lunch yesterday, it was a mix of vegetable boiled in broth and then strained, as well as pasta sauce with popcorn chicken:
I’m still stuck on 50 Kgs. I’ve been 50.xx Kgs for many weeks now, my caloric intake has not surpassed 1000 calories at any point during this time. Safe to say I will have to drop my daily consumption further. Tomorrow I’ll take a protein bar to work with me and some oat milk, and that’s what I’ll be eating until I return from work. For dinner I’ll boil the last batch of edamame.
Okay, I’ll go an wash the glycolic acid off, it’s literally still burning my face.