Voiceless

23rd Jan (Thurs)
Started coughing like nobody’s business.


24th Jan (Fri)
Morning – did all the briefing to the creative team/ spoke to client/ discussion with team

Late afternoon – strange… my voice was breaking up

Evening – each word was unwilling broken into 3 or even 4 weird sounds…


25th Jan (Sat)
Morning – total lost of voice. Can’t even mutter or say “um”

Late afternoon – met up with wanlin for a trip to Agnes B. at Isetan Scotts. Had resorted to writing my replies and questions on a little red notebook.

Evening – Luck sure wasn’t by my side as my pen ran out of ink. Lucky for me, wanlin had an extra pen to spare. Headed down to CQ to take a look at the rdshow followed by dinner at Tampopo with Tampopo (aka wanlin aka breda).

Night (around 10pm) – took a long while for the bus to come. Reached Toa Payoh central and realized that I didn’t know how to get to Mount Alvernia. In the end, I flagged down a cab and keyed in the location on my handphone. The taxi uncle was taken by surprise and even more taken about when I tried to speak but all that came out was coarse noises like “ah..”, “ummm”…

I supposed the uncle thought I was a mute as he stopped asking and began gesticulating to me as well. When he stopped at the traffic light, he actually searched frantically around his seat and pulled out a coupon. He flipped to the back and wrote “shortcut”… ahhh… he was going to turn into a shortcut to Thomson rd so that we can reach Mount Alvernia a lot faster.

He drove past a school (which seemed like the school for the deaf) and pointed to me while nodding profusely. Hahaha.. I wanted to laugh and correct him at the same time, but I couldn’t. I was laughing with no voice AT ALL.

When we finally reached Mount Alvernia, he only accepted $4 for the cab fare instead of the $4.60 stated on the meter.. oooooooooo

Finally got to the doc and my condition? Throat infection and more specifically swollen vocal chords. Reason? Nothing that we could put a finger to it.

After spending close to 2 hrs at Mount Alvernia, it was past midnight and I had no choice but to flag a cab again. This time, I wrote my address down on my little red notebook. But ‘sadly’, the taxi uncle this time round did not take much notice of it and so I didn’t get any discount for the return trip. Hahahaha…


26th Jan (Sun) – 29th Jan (Tues)
At work, colleagues (including my boss) poked fun of me the whole day as I relied heavily on my little red book and laptop to type out my responses. Even my boss joked that he was getting good at guessing hand signs. And my poor colleague became my “official” spokesperson. Hahahaha…


30th Jan (Wed)
Due to some work issues, I had no choice but to attempt to speak. A wrong move. My recovering vocal chords swelled even more and had to visit my family doctor for medicine (was finishing up the original dosage). He warned me not to speak anymore. Not even to whisper.


31st Jan (Thurs) – 2nd Feb (Sat)
Silence….


3rd Feb (Sun)
Reunion dinner. But I broke the tradition. I used to finish half a plate of prawns but given that I was still recovering, I had to give it up. Succumbed to scallops, pork and quail’s eggs instead.


4th Feb (Mon)
Gradually recovered my voice and began speaking.


5th Feb onwards…
Recovering in progress….there goes my new year goodies…