December

I was going to keep very still in December hoping nothing bad happens to me while I sneak into 2021. No such luck. The Universe is screwing with me!

Mid December, I woke up one morning and realised there was something wrong with my left eye. It was seeing sparks, masses of floating thingies and there was a translucent thing covering my vision. I'm a bit puzzled why these symptoms did not set off alarm bells. Instead I waited to see if they were temporary. So unusually calm of me, right? At lunchtime, I started to go into panic mode. By then, hubs had returned home and together we went to see a GP who said I had to go to the emergency department at a hospital to get my eyes checked immediately. So we went to the nearest hospital, really dreading the long wait. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 situation, hubs was not allowed to accompany me in the emergency room. I think he was rather relieved to go home and take a nap. By the time I had my eyes diagnosed and discharged, I had spent a total of 6 hours there. The eye doctor said what was happening to my left eye is a natural aging process. (my ass!) I was experiencing a rather acute version tho' probably made worse by a small bleeding in the eye. The important thing is my retina is unharmed and I wasn't going blind. The bleeding is very small so the eye will heal itself. The bad news is there is no fix for the floaters or translucent thing blurring my vision. The sparks or flashing light had stopped by the time I saw the doctor which is good because I was told that's a bad thing to happen to your eye. Over time, the blurriness could get better on its own or not. The floaters are permanent. The good news is the brain can be trained to not see the floaters. What kind of good news is that? Since then, I've gone back for another check-up and my retina is still fine. So yay, not going blind. As if to console me, the eye doctor said she sees floaters as well. Now how does that help me? Also, the same shit may happen to my other eye as well. Thank you doctor, I needed that info!

It's been a little over 2 weeks since the floaters came and the doctor is right. Over time, I've been able to ignore the floating critters especially when I'm focused on something. Once my mind wanders, I see the floaters again. The blurriness has lessened quite a bit. The thing is the eye-aging-process is still on-going, taking its own sweet time. It hasn't quite stabilized yet. Recently, in the morning when I open my eyes, first thing I see is a million black dots. They look like black dots but I think they aren't actual black dots. I see them from both eyes. They last from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Then they either disappear or my eyes stop seeing them. It's very weird and irritating. But I think it's not time to worry about them yet. The eye doctor said to run back to them if I see flashing lights continually, my eyesight gets blocked or a new mass of floaters appear. 

So I didn't manage to exit 2020 gracefully. I wanted to enter 2021 like a boss but it's more like I stumbled in. Damn! Despite all the shit 2020 has thrown me, I'm not depressed and am feeling rather optimistic about the future. After all, I'm still alive and in one piece. I survived 2020!  

Believe it or not, I was quite productive, craft-wise in December. I decided to focus on finishing my UFOs because I didn't want to carry them forward another year.  

I had this piece of white cotton canvas I had painted on which I started to rescue in 2019. I slapped on 3 birds and a sun and I call it "I thought it was Gingham Friday." Anyone get the humour? I laughed my head off when I came up with it. Are you sick of my bird, sky, sun quilts? This won't be the last one...

This quilt can be viewed from 4 different directions. (in case you didn't figure that out)

Next, this cat cut-out from a previous 2019 project, I had left under a table forever. I removed all the dust, washed it and forced something out of it. 

I decided to focus on the cat and sewed my favourite stitches to cover up the whole cat. The idea was to have a heavily embroidered cat wearing the embroideries like tattoos. There were a few stitches I wasn't entirely happy with but YOLO.  The title of this quilt is "Cat On A High". Not clever but I couldn't think of anything suitable. (the fish/balloon is a hallucination)

I added the fish because I view my quilt as a single-panel "comic strip" so a little humour is always attempted. My humour is heavily influenced by Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side. Is it obvious?

I had some regrets about the choice of fabric for the backing. (the method a la Janet Bolton) I wished I had a light blue polka dot because I thought it would go better with the front but I wanted to strictly keep to using my scraps and not BUY MORE FABRIC!

This heart themed embroidery thingy I started in early 2018 but lost complete interest in. I had zero inspiration so I made it into a cushion.

Since this is a use up my scrap project, I crazy patched the back of the cushion. And of course, crazily, I liked the back more. I call this "Crazy Heart". I worked on one more UFO art quilt and it's almost finished. I'll show it once the binding is in. 

On December 28, Singapore bravely (or crazily) went into phase 3 of reopening. Yup, just as cases are exploding around the world, we're relaxing our measures. Masks are still mandatory but we can dine out in a group of 8, previously only 5 allowed. There are other relaxation on the capacity limits of premises, live performances, congregational and worship services. Only time will tell if going into phase 3 is a mistake. Vaccination against COVID-19 has begun, starting with high risk health workers. Elderly, 70 and above will get vaccinated from February. As I am not a health, frontline worker or elderly, I will have to wait for my turn but it will happen sometime this year. The vaccination is free and voluntary. Interestingly, the government does not want pregnant women and anyone under 16 to get the vaccination until more data is available. I wonder what percentage of eligible people will reject the vaccination? SEE you soon in my next post.