I have finally handed in my work to the secretariat. They will now begin their work of co-ordinating the date for my defence.

Hallelujah! (or Alleuia, whichever you prefer).

There were so many mistakes in my draft and the computer problems that I have had didn't help me much. However, the dice is cast and I am now waiting. Someone told me to go around Italy. You know what? My budget is limited. Italy is expensive. The rest of Europe, more so! So I'll just keep to my room and work out the notes for my work waiting for me back home. If anyone tells you I'm on holiday, **?!**%$ him. I'm not allowed to swear so the thingy back there was not a swear word ... what were you thinking?! :D

Ha! Just as I was so relaxed, another thing pops up. I have already lost my Word for Mac programme to a grave mistake I made. Then, I discovered that I could just print the pages that needed to be corrected using AppleWorks. Now I discover that my work is riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes. How could I have been so blind?! They say that one should never correct your own work. I agree. However, owing to the frentic pace in which I want to finish, I cannot impose my needs on my friends who are now in the midst of exams. What about the priests I live with now? Well, I can't impose on them because they have lots of work to do as well. I don't know them that well to impose.

So now, after printing out all the final copies ... I have to reprint and these would be post-final copies? I guess the previous lot were not final after all. Sigh!

What a day! Or rather, what a night!

Let me explain. I was on my way to have dinner with a friend who was in the same situation as me in Rome, only longer. The bus service changed their terminal to a temporary bus-stop about 150 metres from the first bus-stop after the original terminal. (Confusing? The bus services usually make minor changes in routes without much advance notice, here.) I didn't know of course, and there were no notices on the bus stop where I was waiting. I saw the bus turn out and then stop at the temporary stop. Realizing that this was one of the impromptu changes that the bus service does sometimes, I ran to the bus stop, thinking that it was going to leave pretty soon. When I reached the bus, it didn't open its front door, which was usually the boarding entrance (there's another entrance at the back and the centre door is for alighting). Someone shouted, "Qui!" (meaning "Here!") and I saw that the central door was open. I hadn't taken my first step when I just fell to the ground. I buffered myself with my left knee and my right elbow. I thanked the people who helped me to get up. I said I was okay, and they commented that I just had a bout of bad luck. Actually I wasn't feeling unlucky. I felt humiliated. Whatever dignity I had as a forty year old fell together with me and was left on the floor. I felt just a little sore because the temperature was close to zero during the time. I got on, sat down and rubbed my knee. The bus didn't leave until five minutes later. I rushed and fell for nothing!

After the meal, I felt a little more sore as I got up from the table. It was when I got back that I felt this dull pain on my right shoulder. Evidently hitting my elbow on the cobblestone ground did something to my right shoulder. Sleeping on my left side was difficult because my left knee hurt. I had thought I had a bruise, but I didn't. This scares me a little and I hope it would not be something serious. Sleeping on my right side was even more difficult. My right shoulder had to bear the body weight! I rubbed some cream on my hurting shoulder and knee and got to bed. With a little bit of adjustment, I slept on my left side.

It wasn't until this morning that I really felt the stiffness and the pain. It is not a sharp pain, but a dull one when I move my right arm. Managed to get up, celebrate community mass, breakfast and to the university for my moderator's signature for my work. Two more left to go. I'll get theirs when they come to the university for exams tomorrow and on Thursday.

Pain. I am getting old. Many staying with me are in their seventies and eighties. They say I am young. I don't feel that way. I feel absolutely old. The pain reminds me that I'm no longer the youth that I was. I am old. I shouldn't let flattery get the better of me.

From the time and date below, you'd know that I never made it to the walk under the snowfall. The snow changed to rain just as I was about to get my coat and move out to the open. When I realized the change, I decided that walking in the rain isn't my idea of fun. Sometimes I have to do it in Singapore. So what's the big deal. Furthermore, it was going to be wet and cold. So, that's all I had for my experience of snow in Rome.

It's just twenty past noon as I write this. The sun has been shining since it came up this morning and there were just clear skies. A good day. Just not as exciting, to a tropical dweller, as the day before. Got to just wait out the weekend. Most of the others (those from Singapore studying here) are having exams and meeting them would only cause a loss of study time. So, I am alone. Lonely? A little, but I do interact with the kind people I live with at the moment. I shouldn't be ungrateful. They are a good lot with kind hearts.

I went to collect the copies of my work for submission from the photocopy shop and lo and behold, I was walking in snowfall. Asking some Italians around, I found out that it was the first time since the eighties that they snowfall like this! Unfortunately, the flakes melted once it reached the ground. Unfortunately for me, because I would like to experience snow in its entirety but fortunately for the Romans because the city is not really ready for snowed-in conditions.

The time is 12:45 in the day now. It has been snowing for about half an hour. God must have blessed me for allowing me to experience this. Thank Him!

If the snowing continues, I will take a walk under snowing conditions at about half past three. I hope it would be a pleasant walk. I'll try to post again after my walk.

My work has been approved for handing in! I spent the whole of last night (Chinese New Year Eve, in case any of you are interested) and the early part of this morning to finish all the rough edges and corrections of my work. I went to bed after 3 am and got up in time for mass at 7:15. As it is, I'm sluggish right now. Let's just home this last leg of my stay in Rome is going to be memorable in a good way. I managed to get everything to the photocopy shop. They would be printing the four copies that I need to hand in together with the form that the three professors who are guiding me have to sign to say that they have accepted my work.


Then it is waiting for the date for defending the work. That would be another stressful time for me, except that it would be less stressful than the months past.

Now that I am a little freer, I find that everyone else is having exams ... Talk about timing!

Today is Chinese New Year in Chinese. It is hardly spring here. It is still cold and I hear that in the US, it is even colder. Well, not expecting to stay here for the rest of winter, I didn't prepare myself well. Fortunately, I have been able to cope because I don't go out much.

Chinese New Year, nine of us Singaporeans gathered at a Chinese restaurant for a small celebration. I was very glad that I was not the only man there (6 women and 3 men). I had a nice time though the students among us had to leave for studying their exams ...

I'll stay cool for the next few days and hope that I would be rested enough to begin preparations for going home. That is another headache!

Finally! The professors have accepted my work in general. After my last bit of corrections, I should be able to get the final copy out and submit it. Thing is time. The university secretary's office doesn't work the whole day like that in Singapore. Then there is the bureaucracy that really takes time. So, it will take some time yet before I can buy that ticket to return to Singapore. However, the path is clearer now and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My computer is shot. I had made a mistake when I used Drive 10 to correct some errors with my HD. It took away my Mac OS X 10.1.5. My installation disks are at home. Fortunately, the OS 9 is still functioning. I must make sure that I don't get that erased as well. First time I sms'ed my brother with a cell phone that I have absolutely no idea what it's number is. Strange right? My bro lent me his extra so that if he needed to, he could contact me. I was so frustrated that I pressed a few buttons and then before I knew it I had a short phrase. I continued and the message appeared. Then fiddling with the controls. I managed to send a message to him. I hope it doesn't cost much. Anyway, he replied and I took almost forever to reply him.

After all that, he suggested that he courier the installation disks to me. I thanked him. I wish I could say profusely because that was what I was feeling but I couldn't do that with sms. I only hope that the disks would reach me quickly. The last time a parcel was sent to me. It stayed two weeks at airport customs!

I am frustrated because I don't want to lose time. I made a copy of the backup of my tessina and then used a different word processor to open it (Claris works 5 ... Appleworks 6 does something strange with the justification when it prints. don't know why). Its a tedious and labourious process but I don't want to find out later that my Word was also affected by the accidental erasure.

Life must go on because la vità è bella. (which means - Life is Beautiful. Title of an Italian film)

Hiya!

This is Kenson from Rome.
I just discovered that this is a better way to update you than the previous methods through my homepage.

Anyway. Stay in tune for latest posts, okay?

My email is at my homepage - homepage.mac.com/kenson/