I slept at around a quarter to 1am trying to finish the last few 30 pages or so of ‘Salem’s Lot.’ Again, the book wasn’t how I remembered it which makes you think- it might pay to read books you’ve read in the past. I used to hold it in high regard like it was the best vampire book I ever read but now I may have to revise that. It’s not a diss against Stephen King or anything, but it’s like finding yourself at a high-school reunion and realising that the people you were enamored with turn out to be not all that you thought them to be. But when I finished, it was like parting with a good friend and there are no regrets.

Lily tried to wake me up sometime during the night, but this time, my body prevailed over waking up for the cat which we’ve been doing the day she arrived.

Tested negative- but I’m not surprised. I feel fine though you go through your day in a sort of surreal daze as if any moment, you’d wake up and everything was a dream. My throat has started to feel scratchy and I could feel when I cough, that push of phlegm in it, but who knows. I’ve bought a ton of lemons and a jar of expensive microbial honey and perhaps, I may be overdoing the hot drinks- the acid may be irritating my throat? Is all this vitamin C overload pointless?

After reading news that Netflix has spent as much as $60 million per episode on the upcoming new season of Stranger Things, I went back to finish the previous seasons as I had stopped mid-way in the 1st season. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t how I remembered it which meant I wasn’t really paying attention to it. Or maybe because someone was always pushing out the same plot of 80s kids stumbling over puppy love, aliens, and demented demon clowns every 5 minutes.

Anyhow, it was truly the 80s of my childhood- in a way. Growing up, I didn’t really have friends, but I had a great imagination, so I simply created the friends that I wanted and the adventures we had. But it was in part, fed by the stuff I read in those years: Nick Joaquin’s Pop Stories for Groovy Kids (which became my template for how I should sound as writing in a non-native language); The Body by Stephen King and my favourite, The Long Walk, also by King. So I actually did have a happy childhood just being by myself.

And when I grew up and finally made friends, imagine my disappointment- but that’s another story.