Having back muscle spasms, shall try a heat pad later on. Did some reading today, went through the big Apley .. just spine and hip. =( Sigh.

I hate my neighbours today. They went off somewhere else to stay for 10 days and left a bunch of contractors working on their home, and I was rudely awaked in the afternoon by horrid drilling sounds. Almost set Brownie on the load of them. And Brownie acted odd today! My dad came home and didn't latch the front gate - one moment Brownie was out in the garden hurling abuse at the workers next door, and the next moment he went all quiet. I went to see what's wrong, and to my horror I found the gate ajar!! Apparently he was hiding somewhere outside, because the moment I put my head out of the door he came bouncing back into the house looking a little alarmed and flustered, and was smiling all the way through dinner. I'm guessing he thinks it's a nice game or something, getting me all worried like this. Then he started yammering at Mariah (yes, my dog talks), bugging her to bring him out for a walk. He does this every day at 6pm, don't ask me how he knows the time.

Got a little upset today due to the drilling, and found my tank looking murky due to a clump of Caulerpa algae that decided to do sexual reproduction. And my skimmer isn't working, so yx convinced me to go get a new one. The stupid place only had the smallest model left, but I was a drowning man clutching at straw, so heck ... turns out it works pretty well too. It's a Macro AS100 needle-wheel skimmer. Not bad for the price! Bought a galaxy coral since I was at the shop, and a bunch of red macroalgae.

Back still hurting, stomach growling and feeling shitty in general. Must be the pre-test syndrome, where instead of studying I do all sorts of frivolous things just to calm down, and I get all fretty and irritable. Shall dig up posts from months ago to see if the signs and symptoms are similar.

On a happier note, I think Dopey is becoming Hypochondriac the 2nd. First the "deafness", and now she has hallux rigidus, pes planus, tibialis tendinitis, ligamentous laxity, tight tendo achilles, and what I think is an equinus gait when she was young. Aiyoh ... the posting is starting to get to you! I'm dearly hoping that this doesn't happen during the paeds posting. We can't have groupmates thinking they are 3-year-old kids and start sucking their thumbs. =p My dad gets this way sometimes - no, not the thumb-sucking. But generally he gets phantom symptoms every month or so. This month's highlight was a "vertigous" giddiness (it wasn't), while last month's was some strange pain over the inguinal ligament that was tender only when prodded at certain positions.