Week 22 - The need to be normal

This week marks the 22nd week of my pregnancy and I can hear myself letting out a long sigh of relief. I am relieved because literally speaking, I’m halfway to the finish line and in 4 month’s time, I’ll be normal again. Though I am still capable of ‘acting’ normal at this state, deep inside I’m anything but. When I look at myself in the mirror I’d go like “Oh my, is that my belly? What happened to my collar-bone? Are those really my boobs?!! ” It’s not that I’m in denial, NO. It’s just that, I need to feel that I am myself in order to function.

That explains why I am still wearing my favourite low-cut, size 28 jeans to campus. Yes, I know it’s not a perfect fit anymore, but heck, I feel good in it. You see, once I succumb to my pregnancy blues, I’d be this immobile person who prefers to watch TV all day and do nothing. Though this is my second, second trimester, I can’t help the way I feel. I guess my first second trimester with Alden was a breeze compared to this one. Yesterday, in response to all this personal turmoil, I decided to have a one-day break and be a tour guide for a day. Es’ friend Carol, who is currently in town for a holiday was in dire need of a tour guide in Christchurch city. Since Es is now heavily pregnant and having some kind of complications in her pregnancy, I came to the rescue and became the substitute.

I picked her up at 9 am and after dropping off Alden at the UC Childcare centre, we zoomed to the main UC campus for a quick tour of the university. Although the gloomy weather didn't warrant us the time needed to tour the campus on foot, I still managed to take some awesome pictures of Carol at a few strategic locations.

After the uni photo shoot, we headed to the city and went to the Cathedral Square. The cathedral is the city's primary landmark and is regarded as the heart of Christchurch, attached to the historic Worcester Boulevard, the metropolis Colombo St, and sits close to the meandering Avon River. Carol was lucky that I was in such a good mood to be her photographer. With my supervision, I got her to do a lot of outrageous poses at the cathedral. It was a lot of fun.

The last place we went to was a 3-storey souvenir shop called DF Souvenirs, situated at 730 Colombo Street. I have been to 6 souvenir shops in Christchurch and based on my reliable observations, this shop has the best pricing. Carol got histerically crazy when she went into the shop. She was going like "Alamak!! Murahnya di sini. $1.70 saja! Di kedai sebelah $2.50 kan Alice? Oh my Alice, cantiknya ni spoon, $8.90 saja!! Huh?! ni T-shirt $12.90 saja. Oh, I must get this...bla bla bla". I was going like "Ya, ya, beli lah semua. Cantik kan? Mana ko dapat di KK ni". If I were the salesgirl, I would have gotten a lofty comission. We spent about half an hour shopping and if it hadn't been for the fear of exceeding the parking time-limit, we would have stayed longer and Carol would have bought the whole shop. Surprisingly, I behaved the whole time and only bought 2 items; a pair of marine opal earings and a matching aqua-marine necklace :-).

Glad that the 'tour' went well, we headed back to the uni to get Alden from school. The day finally ended for Carol when I sent her back to Es' place. Before she got out from the car, she thanked me feverishly and said "Nasib kau ada bah...Walaupun ko pregnant buli juga ko bawa sia jalan jalan. Thank you Alice". Translated version: For a pregnant woman, you make a good tour guide ;-) Hehe.

The whole tour guiding experience was well worth the effort as it made me feel 'normal' again. I went home rejuvenated, eager for the next outing.