"Good Luck Always Follows a Bad Streak"?

9th June. It has been a long time (15days) since I last made an entry. What has happened to me? I came down with a fever on 29th May and chicken pox broke out the day after. The doctor said I was infected but I do not recall going close to anyone with chicken pox at all! Anyway, I was given 35 Lovir pills to combat the virus. I was appalled at the prospect of having to down 35 pills over 8 days but here I am alive and kicking, after the last pill yesterday evening. The spots are still visible on my face and body and I really do hope they go away SOON. Chicken pox is the worst illness that I have had to go through. The first few days were totally unbearable, with poxes surfacing and I could do nothing but lye in bed and feel miserable.

Because of my chicken pox, Taiqi had to go home for a total of 18 days just in case I would pass the virus to her during the probational period. There are 7 days more to go, including today. I'm alone in the house now. It has been a long time since I last spent long hours at home alone. Although it is very peaceful and gives me a true break, I miss the noises and vibrancy. I also miss being energetic. The house has always been filled with noise and voices of Taiqi and Ah gui when I'm at home. This has been the case for the past 2 years (sans the period when I was in Canada for exchange). The deja vu feeling sort of transports me to back to the days many years back when I was in primary/ secondary school-coming back to an empty home and spending the quiet and sleepy afternoon hours alone at home. Or when it was the holidays. Ah gui and Mic were always at work and it had not even crossed my mind that I would expect to see them at home. I think I am so used to their absence that I still find it strange to be at home with them without Taiqi around.

In the one month since my last exam, I have had three bouts of major illnesses. Fever, bronchitis and now chicken pox. Actually the bad streak began even before my first exam. Imagine having fever just one day before the exam and with two other people sick in the house. I had thought it would be over there and then but things just went on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. And throughout these periods of ordeal, how could I have done without Ah gui? I appreciate having a mother who is always the stronger one when I feel weak. Where does she derive her strength from? The strength to buy and wash each and every mud-covered water chestnut by hand, cook the 4 meals each day for me to eat before taking my medicine, wake up in the middle of the night to feed me nutriact and millennium, and all these on top of cooking for the rest of the family and doing the usual household chores. Her love for her children has far exceeded the limits of her mortal strength and I wonder if I can ever match that high order love if our positions were reversed. At this point 2 sentences from a poem that Taiqi learns resonates in my mind:
“谁言寸草心，报得三春晖".

I am ever so afraid of failing her in any way.

P.S. I hope that what Gwen told me after my fever during the exam period , "good luck always follows a bad streak", will materialise this time around although it didn't one month ago. It is a very comforting thought nonetheless.