Comas, Cars, Contracts, and Competitions

What a crazy and exhausting week this has been!

 First up, last Saturday the other two touch rugby coaches and I took our girls’ teams over to the other international school in town for a touch rugby tournie. Things were going well until one girl complained of a headache. Keeping in mind it’s always a million degrees in KL and she’d played three games so far that day, I assumed heat stroke and told her to make sure she was drinking enough fluids, and made sure to keep an eye on her. Long story short, things quickly got worse and we took her to the nurse’s station where the nurse decided it likely wasn’t heat stroke, possibly was food poisoning. At any rate the girl was getting worse. The parents come and take her home, but then I get a phone call at 4:30 Sunday morning from a very worried mother telling me that the doctors need to know if there is any chance E has a head injury from the tournie. There wasn’t. So at 5 in the morning I’m at the hospital with the two most worried parents I have ever seen, while the doctors try to determine what is wrong with their beautiful 13 year old daughter. They know her brain is swelling but they don’t know why. For the next 2 days E is in a drug-induced coma to try to reduce the swelling in her brain. Two of the scariest days I’ve had in a long, long time. Thankfully her swelling reduces, the doctors wake her up, E slowly returns to normal and 6 days after the ordeal began, she is sent home. The doctors still have no idea what happened other than E developed some sort of brain infection, that just went away.  Thank heaven she’s okay.

Second, and far less worrisome, my car started smoking again. This past June, I literally killed my piece o’ shit car. I cracked the engine block, blew the head gasket, did something or other to the radiator… and numerous other terrible things. Mr. Won, my mechanic, kept my car all summer while I was home, so that it… and a great, big repair bill, would be ready for me when I returned here in August. So for three months and a bit… the car has been running more or less okay. That was until Thursday when steam was rising from it again. YIKES! Fortunately, I was 1o seconds from his shop and so I drove straight there. Whereupon I’m greeted by Mr. Won who says to me (in his Chinese accent) “whoo-ahh, you very thin now!” Umm, thanks. Knowing that had I gained weight instead of lost it, he’d be just as quick to point that out! So the next day I pick up my car, get a lecture and a lesson about making sure there is water in it, (oops) and am told there’s no charge. Rock on, two for two, Mr. Won is officially my favourite dude of the week!  

Number three, met with the big kahuna at work this week (so not my favourite dude right about now) about my future… am still undecided about where I’ll land next school year. Deadline for telling him I want this job again next year is in 10 days. Hmm…. things are about to get interesting.  

And last but not least… yesterday I played in my buddy’s annual “6 Nations Touch Rugby Tournament.” Countries represented included: Sweden, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and a team from the other international school in town. It’s a great day of mixed team touch rugby. Here’s team Sweden scoring a try.

 

First I was drafted by the Japanese team when they thought they wouldn’t have enough women, but then I got traded to the UK for a couple plates of sashimi ; ) Kidding, the Japanese team had heaps of women and the UK’s captain clearly saw that I was oozing with talent

 

Whatever it was I jumped on board Team Mother England (with good buddy and actual Brit, Hannah) and wound up even scoring a try against the mighty All-Blacks! Wooo-hooo! Now my leg is all scraped up from my slide into the end zone…. but whatever… I scored!!! Unfortunately, there was a rain delay

 

and I had to leave before play resumed to get ready for my big night out with Renee and friends at our buddy’s field hockey team’s fundraiser.

An awesome day in Tamland!