Sweater Weather

  I have been sick for awhile now. I'm guessing it's from that day when I was cycling in the middle of the rain, and not wearing my raincoat and waterproof stuff. Oh well.

  We recently just celebrated Malaysia Day! Unfortunately, I was having some serious coughs and runny nose, which means I was not 100% into it. The event was hosted at our home, which means I dread the day where we have to clean up all the mess. It's made even worst since that I am sick. There was 30+ people at our house. I basically come in and out of my room every 30 minutes, saying hello and conversing with the guest, then retreating back to my room because its not good for a sick person to be with a crowd in such small places. From time to time, some of the guests comes into my room to relax. 30+ people in a small living room means it gets hot really really quickly. They come for some fresh air, and some small talk, before going back to the crowd. Lots of food, lots of curry (which is bad for my sore throat), but free food is free food. I basically ate curry for the next few days, which means that my ailments isn't exactly going away. All in all, the event was fun (I think). Lots of brand new Malaysians coming here, time to pass the torch I guess. The cleanup, not so much. Our lovely host was basically watching the TV the entire day (while eating all the leftover crisps), leaving me to clean up the mess. (I know he'll clean up eventually, but the keyword here is EVENTUALLY)

Figure 43.1: Not everyone is from Malaysia, but most are.

  Well, autumn is coming! Which means, sweater weather! Usually, the autumn means you get to put on those stylish layers! Them lovely scarves, those elegant coats. Unfortunately, this is Newfoundland, which means everything has to be waterproof. I don't know why, waterproof clothing aren't very stylish. I would say they look very practical though, but I guess that's it. They kinda min maxed it to be full practical, along with its extremely brightly coloured shell so you would be visible not only at night, but also through the fog. You would think that, "Oh, I mean everywhere rains! So its nice to have rain jackets sometimes but you could always put on some stylish outerwear!" NOOOOO, not only does it rain, there's huge winds, so it has to be windproof too! Basically, everyone here dress like how fishermen dresses in movies. Rubber boots, those bright yellow jackets, and that constant frown because who could smile in this weather. (I actually love the rainy weather here a lot, it's annoying but I love it. Whenever people start complaining about the weather, I just kind of go: hahahaha yeah... >.>)

Figure 43.2: Just in time for the weekends

  The other, more interesting thing that happened today (17/9/18) was that I had to dispose a dead bird. I had just finished my class, and I was about to unlock my bicycle and cycle home, when I noticed this yellow ball in this small patch of tall grass. I was like "oh neat, what's this" and lo and behold it is a dead bird. I locked my bike back to the bike rack and kind of just circled around the area. There was a bunch of people walking by but I don't think anyone noticed the dead bird. #1, it is hidden in this patch of tall grass, so you have to walk up to it to see. #2, in order for someone to even get close to this tall brush, they're probably heading towards the bike rack, and not many bike around here. I went back into MUN and grab a wooden stirrer from the cafe to poke the bird. Yep, it's fleshy. It's not moving, yep it's probably dead. I tore the middle pages from my notebooks, preparing to wrap the bird into it. The hard part was trying to grab the bird. Unfortunately, I didn't have the guts to just, GRAB the bird, so I was kind of fiddling around with the piece of paper and the wooden stirrer stick, trying to push it into the paper. 

  Some guy who was just walking by noticed me (I still had my helmet on by the way) trying to do something with a piece of paper and a stick next to the bike rack. I guess he thought its some bike related thing. So being a good sport, he approached me and said :"Hey, you need any help?"

And then I said: "Yeah, that'd be great, I can't do this by myself."

"Oh, are you trying to get the stick under or something?"

"No, I'm trying to push this dead bird into this piece of paper."

"Ah...." he said. And then he said "Ohkay." He smiled, and walked away.

  To tell you the truth, my heart kind of sinked a little. I was really expecting him to help me with this. But cause of that, I am now filled with determination and just went and grab it and wrapped it in the piece of paper. Oh gosh it's so squishy oh gosh. I then disposed it into the rubbish bin and kinda did a mini prayer of sorts, before finally leaving the university. Its such a pretty bird too! Greenish yellow on the belly, brown on the rest. Kind of went online and checked if I did the right thing throwing it into a rubbish bin. Turns out, it is. The other thing to do is let nature run it's course and let some other animal swoop down and eat it but this cadaver is right in the middle of campus, so I doubt any animals would be swooping down any time soon. Not only that, if left there, it may rot and may spread some sort of disease around the area (according to the article published by the Canadian wildlife association), it's also like, 5m away from the entrance of the science building, a high traffic area. They even end the article with that "it's okay if something dies, it's part of the cycle" so I use that as a pat on the back I guess.