What a Month.... What a Year!!!

Wow... today's already the last day of the month and the year.... time just simply flies. This month has amazingly flown by... I've had my parents here for most of the month... It has been a good time to spend some time with the folks - needless to say, the nagging of 'going to the gym' was there, but other than that, we played gin rummy, ate alot, and just vegetated.

So on reflection 2006 has been an interesting year.... let's see what happened:

January 2006 - lost Toby, went to Singapore for a holiday, spent Chinese New Year with the family after a long absence ;-)

February 2006 - Buffy had a litter of puppies, which out of the litter, I decided to adopt Waddle to replace Toby. I also started to get irritated with working at a sucky company called Opez and started looking for new jobs.....

March 2006 - Delise had her graduation and my brother moved to Perth to pursue his doctorate degree (which I doubt will be his last degree that he's collecting!).

April 2006 - I started a new job!! Way cool... and I'm still at the same job.... extra way cool!! :D
And I started my own company called Mustard Seed Consulting.... this company needs to be further developed in 2007!! Also started the volunteer singing at 2 of the hospitals here with my brother under a group called Healthcare in Christ

May 2006 - Eat Inc blog was formed... but we havent been quite proactive with it, so 2007 might be a good year to start being a little more proactive

June 2006- My Birthday!! :) & this blog's FIRST anniversary :)

July 2006 - got my 'freedom papers' officially... FINALLY.... and was suppose to start on a 'healthy' regime but ... yeah... postponed it to January 2007 :P...also started being a little more active in church and started attending YA....

August 2006 - Went for a murder mystery night which was pretty cool.... had a National Day BBQ at my place - my first official party at this house....

September 2006 - Went for a fruit party.... got a little fruity...

October 2006 - had an awesome Girls Night Out at Burswood... unfortunately we havent had one since :(

November 2006 - my aunt came for a visit... and streaked my hair pink... but it didnt quite last :(

December 2006 - had an awesome Christmas Party at work.... parents were here ...received great Christmas presents from Santa ...went to Fremantle Prison for their 'torchlight tour'

So what's 2007 going to be instore for me? No one knows except for the one above.. however, I do have a couple of things on my wish list which I hope gets answered before 31 December 2007....

Daylight Savings

So WA aka wait awhile, has decided to join the rest of the world and adopt daylight savings. We're on a 3 year trial to see if they like the idea of daylight savings... kind of funny I know to have a trial for daylight savings!! Whilst I welcome this move of having more daylight hours (it doesnt get dark now till 8.30pm) I have today fallen victim to the change of time - but I blame the computer!!! I changed the time on my computer and somehow, thru some miracle, all my appointments have changed as well... so today, I had an appointment for a long awaited massage at 1.30pm... but because of this change of time, my calendar on my computer put the appointment at 2.30pm! So I had forgotten all abt it and slacked off to the post office only to come back to the office to have a message waiting for me that I'm late for my massage appointment! ARGH! Could have done with a nice relaxing massage!!

Muppets

Back when I was in school, my friends and I formed the 'muppet babies' club... even though we were 16!! I was Fozzie Bear... and just doing this Muppet Personality Test I got of April Rain's blog.... Guess which muppet am I??

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!" You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up. If only your routine didn't always bomb! You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

Pinky Airport Driver

I did a little experiment on Monday night and streaked my hair pink (only the top bits)... I like it but trying to get used to pink streaks :) Anyway, now's the season of everyone flying here and there... and I've become designated airport driver... here's my airport driving schedule so far

12/11 - pick aunt from airport
13/11 - send EC to airport
25/11 - send WL to airport
1/12 - pick mum & EC from airport
2/12 - send CK to airport (am)
2/12 - send EC to airport (pm)
7/12 - send aunt to airport
9/12 - send DC & family to airport (I think!!)
10/12 - send YW to airport (pm)
10/12 - pick EC from airport (not sure wat time)
11/12 - pick dad from airport

Anybody else want to be added to this list? :P

Winery Cruise

Yesterday, our office was invited to a winery cruise hosted by one of the financial planning companies that deals alot of their investments with us. There were approximately 50 of us and most were their high net worth clients (and also our investors) and suppliers. SJ and I 'scored' a thank-you mention by the host when he was giving the speech... and me being the only chinese on board made it easier for people to spot me. The food was pretty good I thought - well there were prawns and a pretty good vegeterian lasagne and free flow of wine :)

We also did a wine tasting at one of the wineries and I tried the Rose wine which smelt like Ribena... even tasted a little like Ribena.... the dessert wine was good though... nice and sweet :)

The sucky bit was trying to get back to the office after the function - there were no taxis :( and then when we finally caught a taxi from the Hilton (after taking the blue cat bus out of the bell tower) the taxi driver was a grump!! He accused me of not being careful and hitting the car door on the roadside bench... like hello... didnt he realise how bloody windy it was as well???

Old Friends & Lobsters

Last week a very very old friend & her family from TCC Singapore paid Perth a visit and stayed at the Pastors house. I had the luck to crash in on their dinner on Thursday night and had dinner with them all, realising that I havent seen GG & GME for like 11 years!! They said they last heard me going off to the UK and then lost track of my whereabouts since....

GME was my Missionettes leader when I joined the group in 1985 - alot has changed in the program since as well. Anyway it makes it a total of 21 years of knowing her. Good grief... time just flies...

We met up for lunch again on Friday at Fremantle. Had Cicerellos... yumm .... and pigged out. We said our good-byes after lunch - hopefully she'll send me some pics so I'll be able to remember them by.

For dinner, the young adults 1 & 3 combined a dinner and had lobsters courtesy of our resident lobster diver. We had 7 lobsters shared between 16 of us. The lobsters were so good!!! Unfortunately I was still quite full from lunch so couldnt quite appreciate the lobsters as much as I would have loved to.

Books & Perfumes

I know I've been slack in updating this blog. Too many things have been happening... all good though :) A lot of eating parties and get together with friends before the leave Perth for an extended long holiday, or some they're going back to get married. At the moment, I have my aunt bunking in with me, my mum arrives next week and dad follows suit shortly after. So I'll be busy with the folks... social life will be at a stand still for the time being...

Anyway, I've been obsessed with books and perfumes the last couple of weeks. In a span of 2 weeks I have bought 5 (or is it 6?) fiction books and 2 Jamie Oliver cookbooks... I'm kind of excited with the Jamie Oliver cookbooks as one of them has a recipe for Yorkshire pudding!! :) And I absolutely love Yorkshire pudding!! :) Hopefully next year I'll venture into a different type of cooking as well..... trying out the Jamie Oliver recipes :)

As for perfumes, I've been hanging out at the perfume shops and departmental stores, spraying samples and smelling them. Gave me a headache after a while. So far, I got the D&G Light Blue (courtesy of my aunt), and the CK Summer (the bottle is so so cool!) I want to buy one more bottle and am currently debating betweeen the Armani Code or the DKNY Red Delicious. Decisions decisions... my rationale is that I havent bought this much perfume since my uni days :)

Idiot Alert!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!!!

No... I'm not the idiot for once... but it's with this guy that comes into the office. To me he is a space waster - he isnt employed by us, but the boss has given him a desk space to use and he doesnt come into the office everyday. When he comes in, he opens envelopes and does mundane stuff... I call him the space waster... amongst other names... he has other names like dirty old man, space waster and a f**kwit

Time and again he's asked me really dumb questions. Once he asked me what happened to his files as he left his computer running over the weekend and when he came back on Monday the files are 'gone' and the computer had rebooted itself. So I asked him if he saved his documents and he just looked blankly at me... and I said if you don't save your work, you cant expect it to be there when you come back after a few days... anything can happen like a computer rebooting itself....

Strike Two was when he asked me to do some interest calculations for him on Excel. So I did them and he thought I had some jazzy programme to do it. Anyway, I told him I saved the file on the shared directory, and he said he has no access to that directory. Next, I said I'll email it to him, then he said he has no internet access at work. Finally I asked if he had a thumb drive so I'll copy the files over. He asked me what a thumb drive is... after I showed him one, he said Oh yeah I have that in my drawer!! After I copied the files into a thumb drive, and went to his computer, his computer doesnt have a USB port!!! What the ....

Strike Three came this afternoon... he had already irritated me earlier in the afternoon when he tried to get me into trouble with the boss... then he wanted me to send an Australian cheque to Vanuatu, so I asked him to check that it can be done... so he said he'll email Vanuatu... and then he asked me what is the internet address here... So I said what do you mean by internet address... he said he is emailing someone and wants that person to reply to him here (at the office). So I asked him how are you emailing this person. He said I'm writing to him from my computer here.... but I dont have a work email address, so this person cant reply to here. So I told him that whichever email address he is emailing from, when the person receives it and hits reply, it will go back to whichever email address he has. So he said...But I want the email to come here not to my home.... It didnt make sense to me at all, but to avoid me getting anymore dumb answers, I gave him my work email address. Ok seriously, I think he lives in the stone age. Just then the phone rang for him, I told him he has a call waiting for him, and he asked me which one... erh.. we only have ONE phone line here and there was only ONE light blinking on his phone!!!

I had to go for a drive to get him out of my sight... seriously.... I might just end up being as stupid as him if I hang around him too much ....

Meeting with old friends...

Last night, my brother and I got invited to the Pastors house for dinner.... we had mee siam, roast pork, apple strudel and waffles. But more importantly, they had some very special visitors from Singapore - Pastors ST and MT .... they were only in Perth for one night as they had planned to travel down south from today until it's time for them to fly back.

I've known PST and PMT since I was a Missionettes girl... (gosh that's like a super long time ago!) and I haven't seen them for a very long time - could even be as long as since I've been to Oz as they've been travelling missionaries to India as well.

Anyway, it was a good evening catching up with them, talking abt old times, sharing jokes (courtesy of PST) , and playing a game of Taboo. Unfortunately we forgot to take some photos :(

The beginning of the 4th Qtr

Time just flies and now we're into our final quarter of 2006 - which means 8 weeks to the arrival of my parents. Things have just been happening the last couple of weeks that's led me to be a little lazy to write. I've finally recovered from my cold and the cough lingered on for a while longer, but it stopped last week. I still get abit of the 'ahems' but not as bad.

Last long weekend we ended up in Orchard Glory Farm Resort for the annual church camp. I have to admit that one of my motives of going there was to enjoy the good spread of food that was on offer, and needless to say, I was not disappointed. The dogs had a great time with with all their voluntary babysitters. I think they were pretty knackered by the time we left camp.

Last week, TC was back from Melbourne for a friend's wedding, so we (the ex bird girls) met up with TC on Thursday night at the casino and had dinner and a couple of drinks. I've found ou t that slushies at the casino is really good...

Then on Friday, I had a pretty classic day being a liability on the road that I was told to stay off the road in case I create a bigger liability... but we had DM's birthday (DM is the sister of my boss GL) and we headed to Oriel's for a nice relaxing lunch - with wine of course :) then dinner time, we had a couple of friends over for steamboat, moon cake and playing with lanterns (courtesy of CY's mum). Our original plan was to play the lanterns at Kings Park or a park nearby but after stuffing ourselves with food, we couldnt quite move. We ambitiously tried to get some inspiration from the moon and tried to write some chinese poetry but due to our limited grammar in the chinese language, we didnt quite accomplish that.

On Saturday, I spent a relaxing day at home just vegeing out and sleeping. There was a young adults dinner at the Santa Fe Restaurant which was really good and coincidentally, KM was having her friend's hen's night there as well, so we managed to sneak out every now and then. So as you can see, I've been stuffing myself.... I should get myself back to the gym before my old folks arrive and start their annual nagging .....

Aussie Germs are Weak :)

A couple of times last year, when I was working for the terrible company, I tried ways and means to have sick days. When my friends were sick, I offered to share drinks with them. They thought I was nuts coz if I had wanted to just sit at home, I can just call in sick. But the conscientious part of me says that I have to be sick to stay at home.... I know... I'm nuts

Anyway, earlier on this year, when I was back in Singapore, my friend LYT wouldn't share a drink with me coz she said she was sick. So I said to her, let's see if Singapore germs are stronger than Aussie germs coz I can't seem to get sick from Aussie germs.... so we shared a drink.... a couple of days later I not only fell sick but lost my voice for ONE WEEK... what was also good was that I scored another 4 days of extra time off....

Back to the present... I'm sick again... , I think I got my germs from some Singaporeans and Malaysians... and this time round, I dont really want to be sick coz I actually like my job! I've been stuck at home since Wednesday afternoon... sleeping, coughing, wheezing, sniffing, sneezing and when I cough, the dogs actually get scared :( My tummy muscles hurt from all this coughing... coughing sucks... The best bit is that I found out from the chemist that there's such things as cough capsules... yay... considering I'm not a fan of the cough syrup :)
Anyway, back to the couch....

Sept 11

Do you know how a certain memory of what you were doing at a certain time when something happened would always be inscribed in your memory? This is one of the dates that I think will be in everyone's memory. Time passes really quick that 5 years has come and gone since Sept 11, 2001. Common questions are Where were you when the attacks happened or What were you doing when you heard abt the attacks?

For me... I was still living in Sydney and getting ready for bed approx at approx 11ish pm when I saw on cable news abt some aeroplane flying towards the WTC and that just caught my attention and my eyes and ears didnt leave the tv or radio for the next week.

Fruit Party

Apple, Grape & Kiwi

So CB had a fruit birthday party last Saturday - she's the Grape :) Initially I was planning to go as a mangosteen but it got cold that night so I didnt want to risk wearing that top. It was an interesting party seeing what some of the other people wore. The more creative ones were CB as a grape, there was a watermelon as well, a couple of strawberries and peaches and who could forget seeing bananas in pyjamas!! I wonder what CB would come up with for her 21st!!

Sting Ray vs Steve Irwin

The news since 11am yesterday, one of Australia's more prominent conservationalist and environmentalist Steve Irwin got stung by a stingray's barb and died almost instantly. With his big eyes and smile, he always reminded me of one of the sesame street character,Elmo. Not meaning to be insulting, but just the facial expression reminded me of a muppet character. I have to admit when I first knew of him, his accent used to drive me insane - and it still does but after being in the country for a couple of years, it's pretty bearable. However, in his programs and appearances in the Jay Leno show, one could always see his passion for the animals that he showed.

Being a diver, and reading of how a stingray can kill someone is pretty freaky. I've seen these creatures in the water, gliding majestically in the water, one wouldn't think that they are capable of killing anyone even though we know that their tail is poisonous.

Here's to Steve Irwin, and as how my friend DLKP so eloquently put it, we need to eat more sting rays now to avenge what they did to him....

The Captain Did It ....

Contrary to popular belief, it wasnt the butler that did it, but the captain. What am I talking about? Well last Saturday night was the much anticipated DiG's murder mystery party. I gotta admit, I didnt quite know what to expect but I did have a good time. It was a role playing party, each of us had to play a part - I was the owner of a girl power employment agency :) We were 'interrogated' by the police chief and we were provided with clues through out the session. In addition, we were given a script on what to say when we were interrogated. At the end, we were given a piece of paper to guess who the murderer was. It was something different, a unique way to have a birthday party and the mini Freddos in the Freddo ice cream cake was yuuummmm...... And I managed to have a 'teensy' bit of DiG's home made bourbon... I wanted more ... pity I had to drive :(

After the murder mystery party, I headed down to meet my bro and his friends at the Belgium Bar....

Did I mention that last weekend was suppose to be alcohol free? :P

Happy Birthday Singapore

Yeah OK ... I know this is like one week late... Singapore's National Day falls on 9 August. This year, my bro and I decided to be a little patriotic. So we thought we'll invite some Singapore friends over to watch the National Day Parade (NDP). Little did we realise we actually have pretty limited number of Singapore friends. That was kind of sad. So in the end we opened it to the 'public'. We had a good mix both from church and EC and my friends - German (SF), Brazillian (LF), Indonesian (SW), Malaysian (YW) and Singaporeans. The Aussies bailed out :P It was also a case of East meets West. We fed them a good ole BBQ - but we at least had the usual chicken wings!! Impressively, the plates were in the theme of red & white. SF & LF made some Brazilian home made chocolates which literally melted in your mouth. The main purpose of this function was to watch the NDP. However, after several attempts to connect to the webcast, we managed to log into the Tamil webcast .... unfortunately, none of us could speak that language. Anyway, thanks to yours truly, who happens to get brain waves every now and then, suggested to EC to try and get the English commentary from the Singapore radio stations and it actually worked!!! Have to admit I lost interest in the NDP after a while.... the booze was more interesting.

It is funny how at these social gatherings that people would open up a little and you learn something about people that you wont learn if they weren't in these social gatherings. All in all I had fun - I wont comment as to how I felt the next morning.... after consuming wine (I lost count how many glasses), one can of Smirnoff Ice Blacks, bourbon and cokes, and vodka and lemonade..... for once I couldn't face food in the morning!! At the end of the evening, SF, EC and I finished a bottle of Jack Daniels.... here's a pic of us having dinner :)

Singlish....

SINGLISH PET PEEVES Does bad English irritate you?

What is it about bad English in Singapore that irks you most? Local words like 'lah' and 'lor'? 20 (10%) Bad grammar 102 (52%) Accent 26 (13%) Singlish is OK 49 (25%)

Total votes: 197

Perhaps this poll is too soon to criticise but to have a quarter of the people polled to say that Singlish is OK is disturbing. I had a hard time trying to decide which bad English of Singapore irked me the most. It's everything.... but what irks me most is the bad grammar and the accent. Personally, I have not been an advocate of Singlish ever since I was a kid.... perhaps it was the family upbringing where my dad always said we need to speak the 'Queen's English' and 'open your mouth when you speak'. Having been away for a number of years now, when I'm back in Singapore or when I hear another Singaporean speak in a foreign country I literally cringe. It makes it funnier when you try to hear a Singaporean speak Singlish to a non Singaporean and they have no idea what is going on. The foreigners think that we're not speaking English as we speak too fast. Singaporeans need to remember that when they are in a foreign country, they need to speak slowly as non Singaporeans are not used to our accent, slangs and lingo.

Having said all that, I admit I do speak with a bit of lah sometimes but that's only to fellow Singaporeans... I'm the first to admit that I speak differently towards Singaporeans and non Singaporeans..... but that's just because I dont see the point of being 'aksi' and I dont want to be labelled by fellow Singaporeans (especially relatives) that just coz I live overseas I now behave like an orang puteh.

An Alcohol Free Weekend....??

Yeah that's what I told TM and CB when we went out for lunch on Thursday... but do you think I managed to do that?? Heh....

Last Thursday, TM, CB and I went to The Vic for lunch ... once again, the lunch and company was awesome... after lunch it felt so good to just laze about as the sun was shining after like 1.5 weeks of rain and cloudiness .... we continued to sit and consume more alcohol. Somewhat through that, we decided to go to the Subi Hotel for more drinks... so off we went - on the way we got CB her Japanese Mayo and TM got a lamp.... and it's a really really cool lamp!! By the time we were at the Subi Hotel it was past 3pm (now where did the afternoon go.... and I'm loving my new job - I didnt feel the guilt to rush back to work!) Whilst consuming some Coronas, I made a comment on having an alcohol free weekend... TM and CB had the 'yeah right' look on their faces.... but for all intentions and purposes I was set to prove them wrong... until CB suggested meeting at the Queens on Sunday (today) for a Sunday Sess.... All in all it was a great afternoon spent well with two great friends...

Come Friday, YW asked if she could come over for some wine so there goes my weekend resolution... well one can always argue that the weekend starts on a Saturday :) However, I can safely say I didn't consume any alcohol on Saturday - instead went out dinner with the YA3... I have to say I'm still reserved with this group - as I dont really know how much I can 'push' them and also the extent of their sense of humour and I suspect their sense of humour is 180 degrees away from mine.....

This afternoon was indeed spent at the Queens... giving CB some morale support on her first official 'date' .... but I think she did pretty well :)

I've got DiG's murder mystery night next week which I'm pretty excited about... except I havent read the synopsis and figured out what I have to wear!!!

What Being an Aussie Means.....

I got this from JH today.... and no.. I'm not an Aussie :P

Being Australian is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch

American shows on a Japanese TV.

Oh and...... Only in Australia ... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in Australia ... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Australia ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.

Only in Australia ... do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.

Only in Australia ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Australia ... do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Australia ... are there disabled parking places in front of a skating rink.

NOT TO MENTION...

3 Aussies die each year testing of a 9v battery works on their tongue.

142 Aussies were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.

58 Aussies are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.

31 Aussies have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree; while the fairy lights were plugged in.

8 Aussies had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.

A massive 543 Aussies were admitted to Emergency in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.

and finally.........

In 2000 eight Aussies cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.

Good things comes in Threes

After being a grump last week, the rest of the week was exciting and busy (?) ... I should have posted this last week as it's been on my mind to do so... but time didn't permit.... Anyway, here's the 3 good stuff that happened and it all happened on the same day :o)

The first is that I am now officially a free woman and I have the papers to prove it :-P Even though I shouldn't be proud of this piece of paper, but it makes me a free woman. It's been a long and tedious journey to get to with a lot of support from family and friends and not forgetting the Big Boss above.... Secondly, had a great time at dinner with TM..... yeah... we had dinner and bourbon and cokes again!! Finally, RT called me up and I was so excited. I seriously thought I had lost contact with RT coz he some what disappeared from the face of the earth (well OK I knew he was being posted overseas for a couple of months but we lost touch - it was his fault!!). Anyways, he dropped in for a couple of drinks and we caught up with what has happened with life over the last half year. This also means I have my aqua buddy back so no more excuses for not going to aqua classes anymore... :o)

Grumpy

I'm grumpy.... just in case the people I'm grumpy with reads this blog, I cant say who or why I'm grumpy. But you would think people would have abit more consideration.....

Rainy, Gusty Winds, Cloudy Skies....

So today's weather had a severe weather warning, with strong winds, rain and of course cloudiness. When I described the weather to my pal LKP, he said it reminded him of Edinburgh... and how living in Edinburgh was like one of the best times of his life... and I would concur with him and I think most of the HWSRC gang would agree as well. Time really flies, 10 years ago this month we all graduated from HWU. 10 years on, most have kids, careers and living in different countries. Top of the list are the Bean Family, they have 4 kids and one more on the way - they can pretty much have a basketball team. The rest are a little more normal, with 1 or 2 kids... and LKP has a baby girl on the way...

If the weather continues like this, it'll make me nostalgic and who knows, I might start posting what we used to do at uni.... but the top 10 memories are (in no particular order)

1. Graduation Ceremony, Sunken Garden Party, Throwing caps in the air in Princes Street Gardens
2. Playing with fireworks during Chinese New Year in the middle of the night in winter... oh and throwing
oranges in the loch as well
3. Snow fights, making snow families, sliding down sunken garden in trash bags.
4. Getting in trouble with the warden for making too much noise in my room with like 10 people squashed in
5. Drinking at the pub, Doctors and everywhere else on Grassmarket and in HWU
6. Cooking, eating, more cooking, more eating
7. Hogmany
8. Driving to Manchester to watch Jacky Cheung concert and driving back in the middle of the night. Not that
I understood much of what was going on in the concert
9. Going out for suppers just on the eve of my exams in the middle of the night (dont tell dad!)
10. Making friends and forming HWSRC

The week started .....

My week started pretty good (I got a new sofa) and it got a little bad (when the sofa delivery stuffed up), then it went satisfying (coz it was hospital ministry week & Ikea apologised for sofa stuff up) and then it stuffed up again (when the carpet people and I had a miscommunication in the time they were coming in to clean my carpets). But.... the week ended great!!!

I met a new friend, TM and he's such a great guy.... we went out for lunch at the Vic. It was suppose to be a lunch and a drink... yeah right :P A lunch and a couple of bourbon and cokes later (well, CC & Coke for TM), we continued drinking at the office, and then dinner and drinking at KM's and then to Carnegies where we had TC's farewell and met the rest of the ex bird crew. Incidentally, it was dinner at KM's new house which is absolutely gorgeous :-)

Anyway, 11 (eleven) hours after TM & I started drinking, we stopped drinking at midnight.... that's like approximately 15 bourbon and cokes of varying sizes and amounts... I have to admit I lost count after a while....

Score 1 for Me

Well, to continue on with my sofa saga, the delivery guys called at 3pm to say that they would be at the house in 45 mins to an hour. We got back at 4pm and it didnt arrive till 4.30pm! At least it finally got delivered.... BUT to add insult to injury, the bottom of the sofa had a tear!!! AAARRRGGGGHHH!!! EC and I had to decide if we wanted to call Ikea or not to ask for a new sofa but we decided against it.

Had my whinge to mum and dad as well and dad suggested I write in to complain. So I wrote in last night continuing from my earlier emails and telling them abt the tear. Earlier on today, the supervisor at Ikea called to pacify me (well I've actually cooled down anyway and the sofa was really comfy last nite) and offered to pay me back for the delivery charges and a new sofa. I declined the new sofa so we came to an agreement that he'll give me vouchers for the delivery charges and for the tear in the sofa.... :) :) :)

Now I have another excuse to drop into Ikea to buy some more stuff :)

Ikea Delivery Sucks

On Monday, I got a sofa from Ikea and arranged to have it delivered. It was a rip off when at the delivery desk I got told to pay $60 for the delivery when only a couple of days ago, when I got the washing machine, I only paid $30. Anyway, totally BP, so had to pay $60.

Anyway, at the delivery desk @ Ikea, the knick knock of the guy there said to call a certain number after 9am on Wednesday as delivery would be on Wednesday. At 9am this morning, I called the number and then the same knick knock, gave me another number to call. When I called the other number given, IT WAS SWITCHED OFF! How spastic is that - to be a delivery company and still have the phone switched off? So I called the knick knock guy again to say the phone number he gave is switched off and the knick knock guy said that he cannot do anything about it. What a load of croc! So I got pissed off and called Ikea Customer Service, and I dont know why it's called Customer Service when they werent very helpful at all. The girl told me that they were loading the truck, so not answering the phone. So I said to her if they're loading the truck, why can't she go and ask them what time they can deliver my furniture, and then she said that they dont work for Ikea and they are at another warehouse. So, I wonder if she's psychic?? She then basically told me that I have to wait until the phone is switched on. I know this place is WA aka for Wait Awhile, but seriously, this was getting abit ridiculous. Here's a quote from the Ikea website that says:

"Our Customer Services departments will endeavour to resolve any issue to your satisfaction. "

What bull! I was also that I could write in to lodge a complain - which I did obviously. I also asked if I would get a reply - and I was told Yes. But heh.... surprise surprise, I havent got a reply yet!

Finally got thru to the delivery guy @ 10am who told me that they were going to deliver my furniture between 12.30 and 1pm - but they'll call an hour before arriving. So it's all good - or so I thought!! It went past 12.30 and still no call, so I called again and another guy said that the first guy who told me 12.30 - 1pm shouldnt have said that and instead it will be at 3pm!!!! Like What the F**K!

Update - 2.45pm
Well it's now almost 3pm, and I just called and asked if it's coming and I've just been told it will be in abt 1.5 hours - which makes it 4.30pm!!! And I should just wait and they will call me an hour before they get to my place.... Do they actually think people have got time to just wait all day?

Pirates of the Caribbean

Went to watch the latest Pirates of Carribbean movie last night with SLB, PB, my brother and me. I enjoyed the movie - pirates lingo is a little hard to comprehend at times, but the SFX was all good. I can't comment on the ending - there wasn't one!!!!



Which Pirates of the Caribbean character are you?

Haven't done this in a while

Lately I haven't come across any weirdos (to put it mildly) on the net, but came across one this afternoon and I thought I should post it for the hell of it :-) and Hopefully he had deleted himself of ICQ - we don't need another one like him around!!

JBoy (ICQ NUMBER: 292-120-989) :

When are we catching up?

JF:

do i even know u?

JBoy (02:48 PM) :

Not yet, I'm a friend you haven't met yet.

JF:

so why would i want to catch up with u then if i dont know who u are?

JBoy (02:53 PM) :

Because I'm a nice person and maybe we were meant for each other. But we won't find out until we get to know each other.

JF:

so maybe u should get to know me first even b4 asking me out that was pretty rude

JBoy (02:55 PM) :

Or are you pretty rude for taking such a negative attitude to a lovely gesture to get to know somebody?

JF:

says the person who doesnt even say hi but very straight forwardly asks when we can meet up

JBoy (02:58 PM) :

We've actually been chatting for 3 days now, obviously you don't remember. I'm thinking of deleting icq anyway. After a week of using it, I don't think I like the sort of people I've been meeting on here.

JF:

3 days?

JBoy (02:58 PM) :

Surprised?

JF:

doubt it

JBoy (02:59 PM) :

Like I said, I don't think I like the sort of people I've been meeting on here.

JBoy (03:00 PM) :

If you're an example of the kind of "friendliness" I'm going to be experiencing on icq, I think I'll delete it right now...

JF:

byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

JBoy (03:02 PM) :

Just some advice for your profile: Where it says "Generally an easy going person to talk to " you might want to change to "a real bitch" Bye.

June Birthday Babies

By some strange co-ordination of things, my family including both mum's side and dad's side have managed to have quite a few June babies all within days of each other. My mum (being the very organised person that she is) timed it well to have my brother born a day after my birthday .... so we have ...

June 18 - Millie
June 19 - Shen Mei
June 23 - Wendi
June 24 - Erwin
June 25 - Su Ann

There's also Inez and Joshua, but I get confused with their dates. I think Inez is on the 21st and Joshua is the 27th. In addition, a good buddy of mine, Wendy is also on the same day as me and we share the same name, though different spelling!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!

One Eating Kaki Balik Kampung

So CY has gone back to KL for one month.... one Perth eating buddy down... on the upside, he has promised to update the Eat Inc blog with his food adventures as he's also going to China for a couple of days... wonder if he'll have some snake :)

Meanwhile, I'm trying to pig out as much as I possibly can, coz come July 1, I am hoping to be a bit more disciplined with my eating and exercising plan ... one can only hope....

Goodbye Chicken Farm ....

We had a bbq at KM & DM Chicken Farm today as we bade farewell to their house. They move to a new house over the next couple of weeks.... wonder if they'll still call it the chicken farm or something else??

On another note, TC has been transferred to Melbourne, so we're also going to have to say good bye to her as she leaves Perth on 15 July. She's going to be greatly missed :(

Another year

Another birthday has come and gone.... I decided that quiet celebrations were in order this year so just had a simple dinner with some friends and tomorrow night some dinner and more importantly alcohol with some friends. Anyway, I got myself a couple of birthday presents :) I got my hair done (more blonde streaks), a moon stone ring, a chakra bracelet (very pretty with all the colours) and a dolphin anklet.

Thank you to everyone who has wished me happy birthday on emails, sms txt msgs, blogs and cards. It's all very much appreciated to be remembered.

Shortest Daylight in Perth

Today is the shortest day for the southern hemisphere.... so that means days will get longer from tomorrow ..... which is good - I am not a fan of the sun setting at 5.30pm. And on the other side, the northern hemisphere will be experiencing their longest day...

Life

I was reminded of how short life can be last week when one of the Uncles' in the church suddenly went home to be with the Lord. He was out walking his dog, doing his normal exercises when suddenly he suffered a massive heart attack and *poof* he was gone. This was a guy who was fit and got a clean bill of health from the doctors just a couple of weeks ago. On one hand I think this is the best way to die, no pain no suffering... however, the suddeness of it on the loved ones left behind isnt so good... the shock of it on his family was very overwhelming. I can now understand how my granny and uncle and auntie and dad felt when my grandpa passed away suddenly as well in 1958.

Rest in peace Kelvin, from the eulogies heard last night at the memorial service, I think you have done God, your family and yourself proud.

Cash & Cars

Hhhmm... wish I had some of that in real life... Last week, EC bought the Walk the Line DVD which is an autobiography of the legendary Johnny Cash and June Carter. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The soundtrack is also very good, this coming from a person who tries very hard to appreciate country music.

Last night, we went to watch the new Pixar animation movie, Cars. THE MOVIE IS SO SO GOOD!!! As with all Pixar movies, the story line wasn't corny and it had a moral at the end of the movie teaching humility and teamwork. The characters as always are cute and adorable. McDonald's is offering the toys as part of their Happy Meal.... maybe I have to live on that for the next couple of weeks to collect the cars.

06.06.06

This date would only occur once in a lifetime ... I wonder if it's any equivalent to Fridays the 13th

Revelation 13:18
" This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666."

Happy Anniversary to this Blog!

It's been one year since I've started blogging... wow... time really flies.. Cheers :)

Chats....

OK... in some ways, I would like to think that I'm a 'seasoned' chatter on the net... I mean I've been using various chat programs for like the last 10 years!!! However, on an off chance today, I found my way to my ICQ webpage and realised that people have been leaving me messages on there which I've not known about! I came across 2 negative comments about me... here's what they said

Diesel wrote: <228811699>

What a total waste of an effort! Total rudeness from her-I'm awestruck at what posesses people to act like her!? Good luck with Prince Charming-you'll need it !

Oh,and one more thing-you're 'About Me' above says you're 'easy going person'...Fat chance of that- you bit my head off just for asking where you're from ! Check my profile was the reply !!! Go figure.

David wrote: <82170190>
Gosh u wern't very friendly were u. wasnt expecting much, just common courtesy as to a stranger. Apologies if this sounds harsh but I dont think this was all my stuff. Good luck with prince charming!

OK so those were the complaints... here are my rebuttals

1. I have a profile, I spent time on my profile writing up where I'm from and other bits of information about myself, I made the conscientious effort to write my profile, so why cant you do me the courtesy of reading my profile first?

2. On my profile, I do say I dont like dumb questions. Asking me questions where the answers can be found on my profile is classified as a dumb question. Perhaps I should specify what is my definition of a dumb question for these dumb people.

3. When someone randomly chats to me, the first thing I do is to check their profile and see if I can gather any information on them. Just coz the lazy ones dont, doesnt mean that everyone is like them as lazy...

4. Sure I'm easy going .... but everyone has their faults and limits.. and to those that know me, knows that I dont like dumb people.... and those that know me better, knows I have limited tolerance for dumb people.... my tolerance level do not hold to people who are childish, screamish, irritating, too overly 'ladylike' and pretends to be a damsel in distress... etc

5. Finally, it's a frigging chat.... different people react differently to words. Some normal people when I say please check profile - after they ask a dumb question, they actually do check the profile and the apologise for not checking it first... and from there, we actually can have a decent chat.

Anyway, I've been battling a headache for the last couple of days, so seeing these online didnt impress me too much, I'm in 2 minds as to leaving them a nasty message myself... but then again... I'm a NICE person... ;-)

Music, Movies & Makan

Last Friday, a part of the Hillsongs Worship Team was in Perth to have a 'Just Worship' Experience. Apparently it was their first WA trip.... It was held at the Metro Church @ Beaufort Street, Northbridge. We (CY, my brother and me) qued up since 6.15pm and waited.... the worship didn't start till 7.30pm (thanks to CY for getting me a bubble tea to keep me occupied). The aim of this worship was to raise money for the Hope Rwanda cause - a project which is organised by Mark & Darlene Zschech from the Hills Church in Sydney. Perth raised well over $40K for this fund raising project!! The worship ended about 9.00pm.... which I think was a little disappointment to the Hillsongs fan club.

On Tuesday (cheap arsed Tuesday) we (HT, my bro and me) went to watch The DaVinci Code. Enough hype has been said for this movie which came from the same titled book by Dan Brown. The movie was a disappointment as it was draggy at some bits, the parts where they could have explained better wasnt explained properly (no wonder my dad got confused when he watched the movie!) and it was a LONG movie....

Whilst there's a lot of talk about this movie and churches everywhere are raising issues as to the lies in the book - where personally I am getting a little tired of all this controversy talk... I believe that if a person's foundations in the Christian faith is strong, you would take this book as fiction reading, and ignore the fact that in the beginning of the book it does say that careful research has gone into the book. In no way should the contents of the book falter a Christian's believe. This reminds me of a movie I once saw in Edinburgh - The Last Temptations of Christ.... which was also a controversial movie/book. Finally. as dad pointed out to me last night, this book is a good way to share the Christian faith with non believers.

Meanwhile, the Eat Inc gluts have been pretty quiet... CY, my bro and I managed to have lunch at the Bella Rosa @Victoria Park on Sunday and we stuffed ourselves with the pasta. The portions were huge and they were generous with the seafood....SJ at work has been feeding me with really yummy afternoon teas of pastries from Jean Claude and other bakeries .. tomorrow he's going to cook a curry for lunch... sigh.... I think I have to hit the gym properly....

Weirdos

Weirdo Warning on ICQ - 257-433-042 (Mark)

mark (04:46 PM) :
hi

Me (04:55 PM) :
hi

mark (04:56 PM) :
how are you my name is mark

Me (04:56 PM) :
hi mark

mark (04:57 PM) :
which asian country are you from ?

Me (04:58 PM) :
see profile
mark (04:58 PM) :

didn't come up that's why i have asked ,but now it's ok

Me (05:00 PM) :
ok

mark (05:00 PM) :
do you have pic of you ?

Me (05:01 PM) :
no

mark (05:01 PM) :
ok piss off then

Me(05:02 PM) :
hahah u just gave me a reason to write what an asshole u are on my blog

mark (05:03 PM) :
you asian all are so cheap

Hands up if you think this guy is a fked up arsehole? But at least he's in Sydney... not in Perth!

Stuffed

I received an email from TC yesterday asking what I was doing tonite. Told her I would be going to the gym unless she can convince me otherwise... and her alternative suggestion was way better than the gym... it was an invite to the HYATT for a free dinner!! Who can say NO to that and free alcohol as well??!?!?

So off we went tonite to the Hyatt for dinner. It was the launch of Hyatt's new menu. There was a great sample of appetisers (about 5 types). They gave a little bit of each on the lazy susan so we could pick what we wanted to eat. There was a Hyatt representative on each table as well (about 20 tables in all) so that they can gather feedback from us. The main course was yummy.. I had the rare steak cooked to perfection with a seafood stick of prawns, scallops and oyster!! The dessert.... was... oh soo good (this from someone who isnt a fan of dessert) . There was a taste test of 7 different types of dessert on a plate for each of us, and it was fun trying to guess what each dessert was according to the menu. To top of the evening, each of us were given a mini chocolate cake to take home .... I havent tried it yet as it looks too rich and I'm too stuffed to eat anymore tonite...

Eat Inc

A couple of us have set up this website called Eat Inc which incidentally sounds like 'eating'. It's a site dedicated to FOOD. The main objective is to recommend places that we have gone to eat or have successfully cooked at home. There's a couple of Eat Inc 'branches'. So far, Singapore, Malaysia and Perth. Hopefully in time to come we will be able to branch out more and offer a wider variety of food choices on the site. The site is slowing being developed with the help of Twelve Baskets so be patient if you do drop by the site and give us any positive and creative criticisms so that we can make your visit a happier one.

Whistle While You Work.....

The last couple of weeks has just flown by, I'm now into my 4th week at my new job and so far I'm loving it. OK people who know I usually whinge by now, you would be surprised I haven't whinged yet. The people are easy going to work with, as long as I get my work done. They actually listen to opinions and adopt any good ideas that you have. I get to set protocols as to how I like things done. The plus is that we have this great kitchen at work, so last week I cooked laksa and this week, chicken curry is on the menu. Oh and SJ and I have similar taste buds (not bad for a kuai -lo) so every now and then he buys us afternoon teas, pies and scones. Very sneaky, coz it means I have to go to the gym a little bit more often. Another good thing is I get encouraged to go to the gym as well....

Striked Out

Singaporeans went to vote yesterday and since I'm not in Singapore and since I didnt fly to Canberra (yeah right!) to cast my vote.... I've been striked off the Electors list... yay!! It doesnt make of a difference to me... hopefully, I'll not have to vote in Singapore it's a waste of time.....

Speak Well Speak Up Speak Out

My bro and I did this test on the weekend thinking that we could participate in the challenge only to realise that the challenge was for2005! We were both pretty impressed with ourselves at our score as we did it in one attempt!! I stumbled onto this Speak Good English website some time ago and it was part of the Speak Good English movement that the homeland was trying to promote last year. I dont think it worked though just looking at some of the Singapore blogs that are on cyberspace. This movement is highly overdue as there is a need to improve some of the pronunciation and grammar usage by the inhabitants of the homeland. How ironical though to have a Speak Good English campaign, as I remember when I was growing up, they had the Speak Mandarin Campaign! Although that campaign didnt quite work on me.

Anyway, I recommend this website, it has mini quizzes for you to take to see how good your grammar is and the pronunciation.... also has lessons on how to improve your English... this is something that should be looked at if the homeland strives to be a global centre for businesses.... and people would stop pronouncing vegetables as ve-ge-ta-bles.....

Introducing Waddle.....

Meet Waddle who's 8 weeks old..... the latest addition to the family. He's one of the puppies that I've decided to keep in memory of Toby. All the other puppies have been rehomed or sold. I pray that they have all gone to good homes. Waddle already has some of Toby's traits so let's hope he'll continue to be a chip of the old block and follow his father's footsteps :)

The 50th Post

OK.... I've reached the 50th post.... it's been a slow climb I have to admit... but hey I got there...

Anyway, it was my first day of at my new job yesterday and so far so good :-) It's always good when 1. the boss doesnt mind that you can come into work late as long as it's before lunch time and 2. the boss comes and tells you that it's enough for the day and I can go home at 4pm!! Yeah!!

It felt funny yesterday as I sat through meetings and all I could think of was time sheets and what if I still had to account for 6 minutes of my time and what would have been on my timesheet for yesterday.

After a very hard and exhausting first day of work yesterday, it's Anzac Day today - a public holiday. Don't I just time it so well?? :-) Anzac Day in Oz is a reminder to the country for the servicemen and women who had served the country in all the wars, but the most prominent one being Gallipoli during WW1. So plans for today.... given the cloudy weather... pure vegetation

My Very Own Sampan

So I'm about to embark on my own sampan and it's scary. When I was a kid, dad bought me this Smurfette Poster on the left and through out the years I'm often reminded of this poster. Even though I would still be employed by a company and be paid, I will have to learn how to set up my own sampan and be responsible for it.

The last couple of days, in the midst of vegetating at home and with HT who is also bumming around, I've had to think of a name for my company which would have significance to me, and checking out domain names and ASIC. Whilst this is all so exciting, I'm also apprehensive and scared as this is all a whole new challenge for me.

I've come up with the name 'mustard seed'. Why you may ask. It has a lot to do with faith , both between myself and God and between my future 'clients' and myself.

Whilst reminiscing with my brother and some friends about Sunday School songs we used to sing, a chorus popped into my mind which to an extent describes the challenges that will lay ahead for me

I don't know about tomorrow; I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from its sunshine for its skies may turn to gray.
I don't worry o'er the future for I know what Jesus said;
And, today, I'll walk beside Him for He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand.
But, I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand!

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow
by Ira F. Stanphill

Bloody Pissed Off

Today has been one of those days that just absolutely pissed me off. It started off with this morning when my darling of a satay sent me a txt message to ask if I had any client files at home, and if I did, I was to bring them in. That triggered alarm bells in me as I still had 2 more weeks to work at that place. When I got into work, I got called into her office and was basically told that I could pack up and leave. The convienient excuse she used was 1) the directors decided and 2) that there wasnt enough work to sustain me for the next 2 weeks. What a load of crap. Anyway, to add insult to injury, when I was packing up my desk, my boss STOOD next to me, watching my EVERY move to make sure I didnt take any 'client information' like WTF... 1) I'm not going to a competitor's firm 2) I'm out of that industry for the time being and 3) I've only been in the frigging company for a few months and didnt get a chance to know any clients!! Besides, if I had wanted to get client information, I would have done that ages and ages ago!!! Duh.... Anyway, I really felt like a criminal. My satay has such double standards.... when her darling secretary got escorted out of the building from her previous job (to join satay and satay is a competitors firm) she was all indignant abt the way the secretary was escorted and today she bloody did the same thing to me - except it wasnt out of the building but out of the reception area!! She didnt do it to the other people who left and they had gone to competitors firm.... Anyway, I am just pissed off that I got treated this way. They could have had the courtesy to give me a couple of days notice and not spring this surprise. Then again, it is to their advantage to spring the element of surprise on me. Admittedly, the last couple of days I havent been very motivated and just couldnt give a damn... but still, that was no reason for them to do what they did.

I'm giving them till Wednesday to pay me .... if not, I will kao buay kao bu....

And after all that... I did some retail therapy and got myself a new phone... I'm back to being a Nokia phone user....

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE :-)

An Interesting Week

I've had a very interesting week that I should have posted as it went by but I was tired the last couple of nights... right now, I am pleasantly pissed after consuming 4 bourbon and cokes and a shot of something JR recommended with no dinner... and typing is not very easy at the moment!!!

So lets start of with Monday.... I handed in my resignation... where I got all the usual 'we are so disappointed' kind of crap... come on... do they actually think I believe that they are sorry to see me go?? They're probably jumping for joy! I just was pretty surprised to hear words like 'I'm not impressed with you', when like think about it, after all these months of unnecessary stress, do they actually think I would have stuck on?

Had a flu shot on Tuesday - no big deal but it was free so I thought what the heck, one more thing to scam off the company. However, as I was asked to tend to the phones on Tuesday whilst the rest of the people in the company went to play models for the day, I had a pretty good heart to heart chat with the IT guy, where I learnt some stuff.

On Thursday, I was asked by the HR Manager to reconsider my resignation. They apparently thought that I resigned coz I was asked to do my CA... like WTF... are they that dumb and so blind? Studying is the least of my worries... Anyway, I couldnt 'accept' their kind offer of a 6-12 month contract with no CA enforced onto me. BIG DEAL.... like what dad said to me, if I was to accept their offer what is to stop them from picking on me again? They may stop picking on me for a little while as they put their hate energy elsewhere but who knows within a month or two again, I'll be on their hate radar again. As always, dad always has a good point.

Thursday night, Calvin, my brother and I joined a multi church group to visit and sing to the patients at Holywood Hospital. I have to admit, it's one of the rare hospitals that I have visited that has no 'hospital smell'. There we sang and ministered to the sick patients with our singing. It was an experience. Some of the songs which we sung were from the days of old and it brought back memories. Managed to teach Calvin actions to Sunday School songs like "He's got the whole world in his hands"

Tonight, we (PG & JR and me) had to go for lawn bowling with the social club. Prior to going to the bowls, we ended up at the Rosemount and had a couple of drinks... that kind of helped us get thru lawn bowls. I swear, after a while, I have no idea what is going on. I think 10 pin bowling makes abit more sense.

I think it's time I foraged for some food in the pantry...

Good Stuff

God answers prayers in the strangest ways. I asked Him to open doors for me as he sees fit and then presto...I get a new job totally different to what i'm doing now yet at the same time relevant to my studies.... yiippeee.... I'm just so happy to get out of the hell hole. Here are the top 10 reasons why

1. No more impossible productivity targets and chargeables for me to meet
2. No more being treated like a child in kindy being told very sternly what can and cannot be done
3. No more forced and unnecessary over time and having to account for every 6 minutes of my day
4. No more being asked by a non comprehending dolt of a boss if I REALLY have to go to the airport to pick my parents up
5. No more having to wear stockings, closed toe shoes, and play conservative dress up
6. No more having to be stressed about getting to work on time, stressed about taking time off, or even stressed about asking to start a little later or leave a little earlier
7. No more being paranoid that the secretary and bosses are reading our emails and being told by the secretary that I'm a F*****G Idiot
8. No more knowing that when the boss praises you, it's not sincere as she believes that once she gives me a praise, I slack off as I think I've earned brownie points
9. No more 6 monthly reviews
10. No more having to deal with 2 faced people who tells you that they are helping you and goes behind your back and gets you into trouble with the boss

and Yes I promise this time I will try and stay in this job for a longer period of time :)

A New Life Begins

My brother officially moves to Perth tomorrow to continue with his studies... and will be living with me for the next few years.. I think it would be a pretty awesome/strange/wicked experience. In the last 12 years, I've only 'lived' with him for 2 years while I was back home and working there. Since then, he and I have been living in extreme ends of the northern and southern hemisphere. Of course there have been times when we were back home together for holidays, but at holidays, everything is all just fun.

The food ministry aka YA3 will now have a new member :) We did say that we dont want to have a doctor in the ministry, but for my brother and other future members, as long as they are not a medical doctor that practices medicine, we'll allow them to join us.

Alot of people have asked me if my brother and I get along... I suppose we do... our friends hang out together when we're back home... but we're now both grown ups so maybe abit of adjustment on both our sides to get adjusted to.

I think I have to be mindful of the chores that we have to do... I dont really want my old man to complain to me that I 'bully' my brother. But really, I only get him to do all the man chores... then again... he says in his blog that he's coming here to a life of hardwork and household chores...

Work just sucks more and more.....

I know I keep whinging about work but really work just gets from bad to worse. There's a rumour going on this week that we're abt to get uniforms to wear... IF I was in a service industry, constantly meeting people and clients, I can understand the need for uniforms to represent the company... but we hardly see anyone nor have any clients come into our office... and we have to wear uniforms?? Good grief...

Last week I scored a brownie point by doing an almost perfect file and I got 'praised'.... later on I found out that my satay doesnt like giving me compliments and praises as she feels that each time she gives me a compliment or a praise, I slack off thinking that I can be abit slack now that I've achieved some brownie points... that obviously pissed me off... but earlier on this week, I queried a client over a transaction on his bank statement which as work goes, it was my satay who had to ask the client abt this transactions coz low lifes like us are not allowed to speak to clients... and it turns out that it was a transaction that could have been easily recognised had I looked at the tax portal - well in the first place, the person who made the deposit into the bank account should have narrated the transaction better!!! Anyway, I got a blasting from my satay asking if I actually go thru the processing instructions and if I had, I would have picked up the transaction in the tax portal.... So I admitted that I dont use the processing instructions... Hey I'm a Pro at what I do so why should I?? Anyway, today I thought I will have a search for this processing instructions to see what the big deal is all about and I found out that it actually doesnt exist on our database but on the lap top of Number 1!!! Like Hello... how the f**k am I suppose follow these instructions if they are not readily available to staff??? Just coz the client that I requested this query from is some high flyer in some bank... he's being treated like a god... I think the bosses fail to realise that people do make mistakes.... to top it off, I later found out that satay made an error with some pension calculations as she used the wrong date of birth for one of the clients, and in that process, they had taken out excess pension money for the year... HAHAHAHAH!! She stuffed up!! So nobody's perfect, but I'm sure she will find some excuse to justify her for that.

Another guy at work got told that he works too slow and he needs to work faster - especially in the processing. Do they think we're robots now? He's only been with us for slightly over 2 months and has to learn so much new stuff and yet they expect him to work faster... and to make matters worse, they've changed his seating as well to be just outside the bosses office so that they can keep an eye on him...that's just so pathetic.

And of course, the bosses have their favourites, so no matter what any of their favourites does and does not achieve, they are excused and spoken for by the bosses... but the underdogs and low lifes like us who are constantly under the hate radar, whatever we do or dont achieve, we get blamed for it

This is my latest chant.... I NEED A NEW JOB.... I NEED A NEW JOB....I NEED A NEW JOB.... I NEED A NEW JOB....I NEED A NEW JOB.... I NEED A NEW JOB....I NEED A NEW JOB.... I NEED A NEW JOB....I NEED A NEW JOB.... I NEED A NEW JOB....

Congratulations Delise!!

Delise graduated last nite from UWA and we were there to witness it with her. Great job Delise!!! We kind of crashed in on the post ceremony celebrations ... free food and free wine... after that we headed on to Northbridge for supper... ultra tired as got home and slept at 1am but it was well worth it spending the time with her.

Delise leaves for Singapore on Thursday... *sob sob* so tomorrow night we're having a party for her... not so much as a farewell party but a party to celebrate her achievements and our looking forward to her return in a couple of weeks.

Dim Sum

There are certain 'must eat' things when one goes for dim sum... let's see.. there's the prawn and char siew chee cheong fun, there's the 'dan tart' (egg tart), pan fried radish cake and har kow. Once these are served to me, not matter in how big a serving, I am satisfied... and, I just had that for lunch :)

There's an eating crew starting to form between myself and some the younger generation at church - namely Delise, Calvin and Tim. It's great fun. For some reason, I actually prefer hanging out with these bunch of people rather than ... CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED ...

Anyway, we talked abt forming a eating and food ministry and our aim is to meet and eat. I know we're gluts ..... :) But it might be worth giving this some serious thought if we can also include perhaps helping out shelters to provide food and stuff to the homeless and needy. If eating is our passion and we are able to eat, wouldnt it be great to share eating with the rest of the world that has trouble looking for food?

Buffy Puppies (4)

The puppies are growing.... their eyes have opened and their noses are turning black. At first I thought they had contracted some strange disease... then I realised dogs have black noses!! Duh!! They've now started to 'crawl' and can now 'sit up'. I'm having a hard time trying to decide if I do want to keep one of the puppies or not. Part of me do, and part of me don't. They've also outgrown their play box, so I need to find another play box for them....

After crossing hump day

Thursday at work was pretty stressful. I had my 'review' meeting with satay, number 1 and the HR manager. They said that they were pretty happy with my performance and the usual crappy bullshit stuff..blah blah blah.... But hey did I have a choice? They forcefully imposed me a couple of stuff that I had to do and face consequences if I didnt, so what bloody choice did I have? To top things off, they wanna see me in a months' time again. I'm sick and tired of being under their radar and I dont agree to number 1 being in all these confidential meetings between satay and the HR manager and myself. She cant even handle being a effective manager herself so really, I think they need to be speaking to her as well.

Thursday night, had dinner at home with IRC and we had chilli mussels cooked by yours truly so obviously, I'll say that it was pretty yummy :) We watched a couple of dvds as well and had a couple of drinks - a pretty good night catching up with a friend. On Friday after lunch with DiG, we did a little therapy shopping... and I think I got a bargain... Got a pair of Hush Puppies shoes for $50 down from $100!! How cool is that!?!?!

Weekend is here again, was meant to go to KM's place for dinner tonite but that got cancelled, but it's all good, just means I get to read my book and vegetate a little bit more .... KM and I are on the prowl for a new job ....

Autumn

Autumn officially started last week... however, the weather is still in the high 30s degrees C, today for example was 36 degrees C... the air conditioner is on almost 24/7...the insects are still everywhere... I'm sick of seeing flies, ants, strange bugs around the house... it's still so summery... The only thing that makes one know that it isnt quite summer anymore is that the sun has started to set by 7pm. Bring on the cooler weather!!

I couldn't resist this one....

this guy thinks he's an italian stallion! this just makes it so hilarious that there are people who think so highly of themselves out there! :)

140-734-193 (08:20 PM) :
wanna make love honey..
ME (08:24 PM) :
do u actually expect someone to say yes?
hero (08:24 PM) :
most say yes
hero (08:25 PM) :
22 cm n huge
ME (09:03 PM) :
so?
hero (09:04 PM) :
do u have msn
ME(09:04 PM) :
no
hero (09:04 PM) :
u could see
ME (09:04 PM) :
i'm not as sick as u
hero (09:04 PM) :
22 cm n huge
ME (09:12 PM) :
so?
hero (09:25 PM) :
so what u want
ME (09:36 PM) :
nothing

Another Dumb Chat

This chat just proves what Singapore men are like - well some of them I guess.

dave (11:31 PM) (ICQ 203-897-052):
Hi, are you in perth?
ME (11:32 PM) :
yes
ME (11:32 PM) :
havent we spoken b4?
dave (11:32 PM) :
i dont think so, i am a singapore airlines pilot anyway, and will be flying to perth soon, you like to chat?

ME(11:33 PM) :
ok
dave (11:34 PM) :
how old are you and what do you do?
ME (11:34 PM) :
3+
ME (11:34 PM) :
super
dave (11:34 PM) :
as in insurance? and unit trust financial planning etc?
ME(11:35 PM) :
as in SMSF
dave (11:36 PM) :
nice, i am dave, what is your name?
ME (11:38 PM) :
Lin
dave (11:38 PM) :
nice to meet you lin, where are you from originally?
ME (11:38 PM) :
singapore
ME(11:38 PM) :
and all this u're asking is in my profile
dave (11:39 PM) :
ok sorry
dave (11:39 PM) :
are you married?
ME (11:40 PM) :
no
dave (11:40 PM) :
do you have a picture?
ME (11:41 PM) :
no
dave (11:42 PM) :
can you describe how you look like?
dave (11:46 PM) :
you there
dave (11:51 PM) :
hellol?
ME(11:52 PM) :
dont u have any more original questions to ask then the usual wat do u look like questions? it gets kind of boring
dave (11:52 PM) :
ok, i fly to perth soon, i like to meet you if you are attractive?
ME (11:53 PM) :
that's even more lame
Asian Princess (11:53 PM) :
bye

Buffy's Puppies (3)

Buffy's Puppies  

Kindergarten vs Work

I want to have a whinge, a big mega whinge. I'm beginning to see that I dont go to work everyday, rather I go to kindy. I get told what to do, when to do it and have got no freedom of speech or decisions. I also have a 'uniform' to wear. OK, so how did I come to these conclusions? Read on..

First the uniform. Apparently we have to wear stockings to work... regardless of weather or seasons. What era do they think we're living in? Do they know how hot it is to be wearing stockings in 38 degrees Celcius? Besides, low lifes like us dont have to meet clients nor do clients come into our secluded office much so why do we have to wear stockings? Last week, the HR manager came to our office to steady the ship (as we had 2 resignations in 2 weeks - which I thought was pretty cool)... Anyway, she came in to have a chat with me and noticed that I had walked around the office bare footed... like hello, it's bad enough having to be in heels all the time!! Then she saw that I was sitting cross legged on my chair and I wasnt wearing stockings!! Goodness, she nearly died of shock, kept asking where were my stockings and if I did wear stockings to work!! Thinking fast I told her that I did wear stockings that day but my stockings had a tear so I had to throw it away... Phew... close shave ....

Secondly, being told what to do. Remember in school when we were told what we had to do and when we had to finish it by and how to do it?? Exactly how we're being treated at the moment. Everyday we HAVE to finish our timesheet and we HAVE to update our job register and we get a whack of the cane if we don't do it. Today I got a 'nice' email abt time management. Is it not good enough that I am being forced to hit 85% productivity every week but now I'm being told how to manage my time? I think at uni we were given better time management than this! Funny thing is, the person who sent me that email is a good half a decade younger than me and what does she know abt time management when she doesnt even do half the things she tells us she will do!?!? Alas, she doesnt get into trouble for that as she's the apple of Wong Ah Ma's eye.

Finally, the backstabbing and bitchiness and politics and unfairness that's going around. After number 1 sent me that wonderful time management email, she IM number 2 and told her what she just sent to me and that I'll probably start complaining to Number 2 abt it and she tried to get on Number 2's good books by telling her that all she (Number 1) is doing is trying to help me... yeah right... doesn't she know that we see her a double agent? I mean she acts all nice with us, gets us to tell her what we think and feel and then she runs off to Wong Ah Ma with the stories! The stupid thing is that we get all these waste of time emails to do all these bloody admin stuff when Number 1 doesnt get questioned by Wong Ah Ma that she has abt 25 review files sitting for her to review our work whilst she wastes all these time getting us to update all sorts of rubbish and no one asks her why she hasnt reviewed these 25 files... how unfair is that? I think these people need to go for some management classes....