just thinking that this is the longest i've been away from singapore. it was five months before i went home for the first time, for a hurried and mostly jetlagged eight days in january, and now it's been another fivemonths, and i'll barely be back five weeks. by the end of august i will have spent a maximum of six weeks at home this academic year, compared to the usual fifteen. six of fifty two! i'm barely a resident of my own country. i need a proper rest, two months at home, lots of sleep and friendship and pleasure reading and writing reflective, properly-formed, editted essays again. this is not to be until the end of the second year, we worked out the other day, since there are the generals this summer and then another year of five-month terms. i think a leave of absence is definitely in order at some point.