Will and Grace does......Europe maybe??

For the last 6 months, I've been talking with Will non stop about what we should do for out 2009 trip. We both decided to cancel out January Gold Coast trip to save more money and leave to have a proper overseas holiday together this year. December and January was insanely busy with relatives visiting. February, which I was hoping to be quiet, is extremely busy for work, and it looks like March might even be worse.

With the lack of time for us to plan anything together, I was a bit worried as to what is happening with our holiday. We've discussed broadly what we want to do, which was what the dinner at Efendy was for. Go over travel brochures! It narrowed it down a bit, but there are still too many places we wanted to go together. (Honestly, the best way is to take 6months off, but neither us can afford to do that!)

However, I get an email from Will today with a brief 10 point plan and some links to research he's done. After about 2-3 emails, I think we nutted out most of what we want to do! Now its a matter of sorting out how much leave we can both get, and actually pick the right time to go! Then we can get into the nitty gritty details. Where to stay, what to do and what to eat! There's still work to be done, but we've got a lot more structure to work with now instead of just "lets go on holidays together".

We're both hoping this will be the best trip yet! We're trying to combine touristy sightseeing in the big cities, relaxing in small country towns, harrassing locals with a whole heap of partying thrown in! Oh, and of course get up to the usual Will and Grace shenanigans! Basically shit that only us 2 can get into! And probably jokes that only the 2 of us will get and laugh at for the next 10 years! It really helps when you get someone just as insane as you, who thinks exactly the same as you! This will be Will and Grace does Europe......with a big bang!!!!

BBS...

December is my yearly MIA month. The kids are here for xmas, so I've been kicked out of my room....AGAIN. Atleast this year I've got my dad a new PC so I can use that to treat my internet addiction. (And hopefully update my blog!) The rest of the family arrives later in the month, so the house is only going to get more crowded with more people and more screaming kids.

Xmas is around the corner, and I'm starting to go a bit crazy with the stuff I've been buying for xmas presents. Every few days I'm getting things posted to my work. Today I showed up and I had 2 packages sitting on my desk. 45mins later, I got another hugeeeeee box of stuff delivered to my work. I've also got bags of stuff I've bought over the past 3 weeks, which I haven't taken home yet. I'm 2 packages away from needing a forklift to get these presents home!

I'm backkkkkk with a new box!

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front lately simply because I've been busy setting up my new baby beast of a box. My old PC was basically a dying piece of crap. About a year after I got it, it started to overheat at random times. 3am in the morning, when I watch a video, burn a DVD, convert a video etc etc. The fan also started grinding and spinning out of control. I've turned the PC on when I'm on the phone, and the person on the other end would ask if there's a plane flying over my head. I wasn't going to get a new PC until the new StarCraft came out. But since my friend can get such kick ass low prices on the parts, I thought it was time to upgrade.

We specced my machine up, got the parts and spent my bank holiday long weekend building my baby. And lets say everything that can go wrong, did go wrong. To cut a long story short, 3 weeks later, after countless reinstalls, part upgrades, driver upgrades, pulling apart and reassembling all the parts, I have my baby. It was a pain in the butt to get here, and I got some fantastic help on the way (Thanks!!).

I don't wake up at 2am because the fan is so loud it wakes me up. I can convert mass amounts of video without the PC overheating and the internal alarm going on. I used to have to take the cover off, take my desk fan and shove it into the box to cool everything down. There's also no bloody blue LEDs that light up my whole room and keep me up at night!! Expect some more posts with plenty of photos once I get all my photo processing softwares back up to date!

I've also upgraded to two 19" LCD monitors, side by side with digital outputs. I would take a photo of my new setup if my room wasn't so damn messy. But take my word for it, my new baby is gorgeous!

I'll be back...

So much has happened since my last entry. I've started my new job, which is good so far. The department seems a lot more willing to spend money based on the jars of chips, cookies and other snacks stockpiled in the kitchen. My working hours have been unstable as we're trying to work through a few things at work. Hopefully once its settled down, my hours will be more consistent. The people are really nice here, but it doesn't look like a team that will appreciate my flying screaming monkeys. Not that my old team appreciated them that much either.

A few weeks ago, my Grandma had a fall. Not just once, but twice in an hour. Since October last year, she has been falling more and more frequently. I purchased a phonealert system, where you have a waterproof pager that she could wear 24/7. When she needs help, all she has to do is press the pager, and the phone will automatically make an emergency call to all the phone numbers I've set in. This time, she set off the alarm twice. Luckily, I was at home both times. The second time she fell, she must've hit her head on her walking frame, because her head was covered in blood. She had basically tore the skin on her forehead and there were massive gaping wounds on her head. We immediately called an ambulance which arrived within 10mins (We're only 2mins drive from the ambulance depot). I hop into the ambulance with her so I could translate and we're driven to the emergency room.

Now I know that public hospitals are stretched for resources, and given a choice, I would have gone to a private hospital. But private hospitals don't have an emergency department so we had to go public. This was the start of a 4-5hr wait where my grandma basically got ignored for the entire time. 3hrs wait in, a nurse comes in and draws some blood and checks her blood pressure etc, then she disappears again. It wasn't until about 1:30am that a doctor came to check on her, and it was only then that they bothered changing her bandages properly. She's 94yo for f*cksake. A little more attention would've been appreciated.

We left her in the hospital for more tests throughout the night and basically she stayed in the hospital for over a week where they did test after test. And the conclusion to all of that was a recommendation that she should go into a nursing home. We kind of expected this as it is getting harder to ensure her safety at home. You basically need someone at home 24/7 to look after her incase she has another fall. We've been lucky in the past that everytime she's had a fall, she hasn't broken any bones and was concious to press the emergency pager, but we're not always that lucky.

My dad and sister has spent the past 2 weeks looking at nursing homes, hoping to find one close to us, is mainly occupied by people who speak cantonese AND has room for her. We eventually found one about 5 mins drive away, is fairly small so she gets more attention, has predominately cantonese speakers and is quite spacious. Under the hospital's recommendations, she was discharged directly to the nursing home. They basically recommend that she doesn't come home for a few months until she settles into the new place. My grandma has been living with us even before I was born. Its going to be a big change without her around.

When she was in hospital, I went to visit her with my parents, sister and youngest nephew. As we were visiting her, my nephew started acting strangely. Next thing you know, he's telling us that he can't open/close his jaw. I noticed his face was kind of swollen, but everyone thought he's just put on weight. Then he started telling us he was having problems breathing. My sister immediately rushed him to the emergency department, which was only on the floor above us. Luckily we were already at the hospital, because my nephew's face and throat started to swell, cutting out his oxygen supply. It looks like he was having a slow allergy reaction to a new medication he was taking so we had to keep him there overnight to monitor his condition.

Like I said, a lot has happened since my last entry. Hopefully things will calm down soon so I can do some mego blogging.

Finally moving on

It started the day I got back from my Singapore/Vietnam trip. Actually, it started whilst I was on holidays. I got an email from the head of recruitment within the company asking me to contact them. When I got back from my holiday, I gave them a call, and basically they were trying to poach me across. Strangely enough, it was through a recommendation from my Manager. Strange, because the day I got back, he asked me to tell him when I am ready to move on, and he will come after me. So recommending me to someone else was a strange move.

The interview went well, but it wasn't what I was after. It was almost pure management, but at that time, I was still in holiday mode and I literally thought "I can't be bothered doing this job". So I declined the offer. Then it was farewell after farewell, with things changing every day. I was going through the "Do I want to keep working in this industry" thing, and after my talks in Singapore, I actually felt like throwing the towel in and just moving to London within a month. Luckily, the alcohol kicked in and I became lazy. The game plan was to let everyone who had to leave, leave. Once things have settled down, reassess my position, find out what I want to do, and come up with a plan to do it.

I talked to my old manager (who had moved to another department after "The Announcement") a few times, each time mentioning my intentions of working overseas, and if he knows of any London positions, to let me know. He flat out told me that he would NOT support me if I wanted a role in London. Why? I'd be no good to him overseas.

A few weeks ago, we were chatting again. I had a whinge that I needed to get out of here. Anywhere but here. He took it as a sign to kick things into motion. I was still unsure as to whether I wanted to go work with him. Not because of HIM, but because I'm not sure I want to stay in Sydney. Then he dangled the carrot in front of me. They're setting up a team in London. Damn! So we started talking. And when one of my other colleagues found out we were talking, he basically tried to get me across to his area instead. Meanwhile, LinkedIn was proving useful where I was getting calls from recruiters out of the blue. They were calling my office number scarily enough.

With all these opportunities and offers coming up, I basically decided it was time to move on. Anywhere but here. And in the end, I've decided to go work with my old Manager, who I guess will now be my "now" Manager. The work sounds really interesting as its more investment banking and less retail. Theres no test team currently, so I get to set everything up from scratch MY WAY. Its going to be a fantastic challenge I think.

The paperwork is almost done, and they've finally decided on a date to let me go across. Starting next Tuesday, I will be working in a new department with a new team doing new things. Can I say excited?? I've actually already met the team last week. I got invited to the team dinner at the Australian for beer and pizza. My other workmate wanted to know if it was going to be a big night, so we could prepare. To judge if we were going to need bacon and eggs the next day, I messaged my manager "Did you book a hotel room for tonight?" to see if he's going to get so hammered he needs a place to crash. Except I left out the "need a place to crash cos you're going to get shitfaced" off the message. And little did I know that he was in a meeting room, with his laptop hooked up to the projector and the whole team watching my message appear on the wall. Shit. First 5 mins of the team dinner was me explaining what the hell I was on about. Great first impressions....SoRMuiJAi style...

A ray of sunshine through the storm

Things have been really hectic around here lately. People are leaving every day and we've having about 2 or 3 farewell drinks a week. I've been getting calls and emails from recruiters and friends have been sending me whatever leads they have. The whole daylight savings thing on the weekend has confused the hell out of me, and I don't think I'm fully recovered from the jetlag yet! (Old age does this to you). Infact, I completely forgot that Moishii had booked tickets for our next holiday when I was overseas! (I know, planning another holiday whilst I was on holidays.....). I was checking the daylight savings thing hasn't messed up my calendars when I realised I didn't have the dates in my calendar, infact, I didn't even know the dates full stop. Moishii had organised everything for me! LOL Atleast it put a smile on my face when I realised that I've got another holiday booked!

Lets hope things calm down soon. Actually, it will calm down soon. April 10th is D-Day. April 11th will be VERY VERY quiet at work for those of us who are staying...

The big chop?

Its been a strange 2 weeks for me. 3 days before I went on holiday to Singapore and Vietnam, we got notified that our department will be scaled back. Basically they were going to cut about 50% of the people. Being in IT, this obviously meant we would have the biggest casualties. Between the announcement and me going on leave, was 3 days. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday involved drinking non-stop with my workmates. We found out Wednesday morning at 9am. By 11:30am, we were at the pub having drinks. At first I was terrified. What would happen if I get the chop? I won't have a job! I have a mortgage!!! Then after the 2nd beer, I realised that I shouldn't be worried about finding another job. Infact, one of my workmates commented that I am easily the most marketable person within our group. By the 3rd beer, I really didn't care anymore. If they got rid of me, they would need to pay me redundancy which would be even better for me. 3.5hours of drinking does that to you.

Thursday involved farewell drinks for one of my close workmates. This involved a free bar tab from our manager (Partly for his farewell, partly to make everyone else feel better about the situation) which meant I didn't get home until way past 11pm after we ended the night with shots. Friday arvo we had the farewell lunch (Yes it was a bit out of order) which was at the Bavarian Bier cafe. This again, went for another 2-3hours.

By the time I left work, all the managers were still in the meeting rooms discussing who stays and who goes. I told my manager I am happy to have the catchup when I am back on holidays. She seemed a bit reluctant at first, but she agreed to hold off on our talk. 15mins later, she called be back up saying she really wanted to have the talk with me ASAP, as early as the Monday. Since I would be in Singapore, I passed my sister's home phone number to her. I went on my holiday as per usual, and woke up extra early on the Monday (5:30am to be exact) to log into my work email and find out what is happening. Apparently they made an announcement that our team size was going to reduce by almost 75%!!! Not the 50% we had intially thought it would be.

I already came to terms that I could possibly be unemployed when I got back to work, so when my Manager called me, I was more than ready for the news. What I wasn't ready for, was the fact that they actually wanted to keep me on. I actually made the cut. Infact, I was so shocked, I didn't know what to say. I kind of just went "Oh, ok. Sounds good. I'll talk to you when I get back". Ever since then, I have been thinking about what it means to me. Of course I am utterly flattered they want to keep me on out of everyone in the team, but there are much more implications to that which I won't go into.

Anyway, I decided not to think about it and just enjoy my holiday. Mind you, it didn't stop me having a few heart to heart conversations with my sister and brother in law. There are alot of options which I will think about over the next few weeks.

Last Thursday I logged into my email and got an email from our HR Recruitment MANAGER. I immediately emailed my workmates to see if they knew what was happening. Was I fired after all? Why is the Recruitment MANAGER contacting me? Only people who didn't make the cut will need to see them to see if they can be redeployed in other areas. This was really strange, but again, I decided to wait til I got back.

Today I get into the office and I gave the Recruitment Manager a call, and apparently, someone had recommended me to someone who contacted him to contact me? So I've got a meeting arranged with him to see what they want to offer me. Feels good to be head hunted I guess. So whilst I was worried about what is happening at work, the first 30mins I got into the office has already reassured me that I have nothing to be worried about.

So the next few weeks, if not months will be interesting for me. Who knows what will happen and where I'll end up. All options are being considered right now. Stay tuned.

P.S. I'll be updating with my wonderful Singapore/Vietnam holiday soon. It shouldn't take half as long as my last Italy/Mykonos/Istanbul blogging....

R.I.P. Granddad

Its been a strange few days for me. I found out that my Granddad in China passed away on Friday. Strangely enough, I wasn't really upset. I guess we knew it was going to happen any time, which is why my Mum went back for over a month last year to spend time with Granddad and Grandma. I think I am probably more upset that I am NOT upset about him passing away. I think it's a bit different for me compared to the rest of my family. I was born and raised in Australia, so whenever I did see him, it was for the week or the month I am in China visiting. I never grew up with him living down the street from me. And because of other reasons, I haven't been back to China for almost 5 years. I think that's probably my biggest regret, that I haven't been back to see him or my Grandma for quite a few years. At least he passed away at home surrounded by his family with his last final wish fulfilled. R.I.P. Granddad.

It's almost time!

I just realised in less than 3 weeks, I'll be off to Singapore and Vietnam for a holiday. It wasn't until my sister mentioned it that I remembered that I had a flight booked! How can I "forget" such a thing? Admittedly, work has been crazy lately. I've been writing so many strategies and documents that I can't even see straight. Ontop of that, we've started interviewing people to hire as my "mentor". Lets just say, the interview we had last week, gave us a good laugh on Friday afternoon. My manager has promised not to subject us to that again.

So back to my trip. Going to Singapore is a no brainer for me. I used up my frequent flyer points and booked myself a flight on the airbus off the internet. Vietnam was a different story. I had originally planned to go Singapore and Shanghai to visit baby Ashley, but the price of a ticket from Singapore to Shanghai, is over $1k. That's a bit too much to spend for the 3-5 days I wanted to spend in Shanghai. Instead, I asked my sister to scope out tickets or tours to Vietnam/Thailand since you can get an all inclusive tour plus airfares for way less than a grand. Hearing that I wanted to go Vietnam/Thailand, she immediately decided that we should do a girls weekend away. She mentioned it to my brother in law, and this was what happened:

Her: "I'm thinking of going Thailand or Vietnam with Lily, for a girls weekend."
Him: "Sure, that's a great idea!"
Her: "Good, so you're ok with looking after the kids?"
Him: "WHAT?! Aren't the kids going with you?!?!?!"

Teeheehee. So I basically told my sister to book whatever was cheap. I didn't really care which country I went to, as long as there were discount airfares. So now, we're booked for Ho Chi Minh city. My brother in law, has also sweetly forked out for a 5 star hotel for us because of safety etc. Which turned out really well because the hotel is located just a few blocks from Ben Thanh markets where I intend to do most of my shopping!! I need to spend a bit more time researching Ho Chi Minh city and also learning a few basic Viet phrases, but I need a break at work first. Plus I need to finish blogging about my last trip!! I've only got a few more posts left, I promise!

Quiet as a mouse

I'm about to fall asleep at my desk any minute now. I got up at 5:45am this morning to take my brother, sister in law and baby Ashley to the airport. That's the last of the visitors and now my house is eerily silent. The house has gone from an average of 17 people and night, to just 4. There are no toys littered across the hallway. The bathroom isn't flooded. The plants/grass/flowers are now safe. My dog will finally get some rest after being terrorised for a month. And me? I have my room back and I am slowly packing all the stuff away to get back to normal life. I miss the kids already. Whilst they gave me a throbbing headache every second day from the screaming and the running and 1001 questions, I still miss them very much.

I love seeing how the young ones all get along so well. They only see each other once a year, but they're not cousins who just nod at each other and then go their own way. They LOVE playing with each other. The older ones look after the little ones (the brother's don't even look after each other!) and the younger ones really look up to the older ones. Even the rowdiest one tries to look after baby Ashley, giving her kisses all the time!

The good thing is, I won't have to wait another year to see the kids again. I booked a 2 week trip to Singapore using my frequent flyer points. I based my holiday on whether I could get the Airbus A380! I managed to book the airbus going to Singapore, and decided to book the 747 on the way back to Sydney, in order to spend an extra 4 hours with the kids. I'm also looking at some tours that I might want to go on whilst I'm on holidays. The current options are a 2-4 day tour to Thailand or Vietnam, possibly Shanghai to visit my brother and see Ashley. I've also asked my sister to find a cooking class for me in Singapore. I know they have some around the botanical gardens and specialises in Singaporean/Malaysian food. So that'll be something different besides my usual sleeping in, eating and shopping. Lets see how it goes hey?

I'll be updating the blog later with what I've been up to in the month I've been MIA. In the meantime, its back to work for me :( *SigH* The good thing is, I got in early, so I'm leaving early.

This is going to be a hectic month!

Things have been hectic for me, and its barely started. My sister and the kids are here from Singapore, meaning I'm pretty much going to disappear all of December. I've still got events in my social calendar for December, but I certainly won't be taking the responsibility of organising anything else (Which for some reason, always gets passed to me). I was going to write some nice blog posts and throw in some photos I've taken, but here's a quick summary as to what's happened in the past few weeks:

- CookieJar girls night in - Mey kindly offered her place for a bit of a girls reunion. Which involved make-your-own (MYO) viet summer rolls, a bottle of delush Chianti red wine and fondue (amongst other junk food). It started off with a bit of girly banter, which turned into a full of bitch-fest that resorted in dirty jokes! As it always does! After stuffing ourselves until we could barely breath, we settled in for a perving session of Jessica Alba. Good Luck Chuck. Now I found this movie HILARRRRRRIOUS! People think Jessica Alba is just a pretty face, but I can tell you, she's fantastic as comedy! Plus she's HOT! Like H-O-T. I've said this many times, even at one work function (Yes, bad move) that I WILL TURN GAY FOR JESSICA ALBA! God that woman is hot.

- Moishii's 27th Birthday - This was held in Bexley North in some dodgy joint called "Ruby Lounge", and the Greek Night was called "Caramela". The restaurant was attached to some dodgy pub that even the locals don't frequent. The good thing was that the drinks were super cheap! Hellooooooo Vodka! $4 a vodka is pretty darn good IMO. The bad thing for the restaurant was, because they made us wait til about 8:30pm before we could go in (even though they're supposed to open at 8pm), we found out about the cheap drinks. So when they charged me $7 for a vodka, and others $4.50 for a straight OJ, we just decided to hit the pub instead. Which we ended up doing because by 10pm, all we had was dip and salad. And poor gus didn't even get a bread roll and had to share with someone else. So after about 3-4 vodkas at the bar, we headed back into the restaurant at 10:30 get a platter of unknown meat and some chips. After 5 mins of eating that, most of our table gave up on the platter leaving alot of the food untouched and hit the pub again. 45mins of drinking, we all head back inside only to find out that for our $40, there's no dessert, tea or coffee included. With that, a few of us decided to leave. Some headed home, whilst me, Cherry, and voice of an Angel headed off to Burwood where we ordered mass amounts of food and dessert before calling it a night after 1.

- Fisherman's Wharf Seafood Restaurant - I took my parents to the new seafood restaurant that has opened in the top level of the fish markets for Yum Cha. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. Infact, alot of the people we saw at Yum Cha, usually frequent the various yum cha places in Chinatown. Looks like there is stiff competition out there.

- Sydney FC vs LA Galaxy - After David Beckham saved our lives last time, I decided that I had to go watch him play when he was in Sydney. We actually had pretty darn good seats for the price we paid! I brought my DSLR along to get a few action shots, but in my eagerness to take photos, I didn't check my settings properly. I accidently changed the mode whilst taking my camera in and out of my bag and when it mattered the most, the shots came out blurry!! *cries*

- The Malaya - Our once-every-3-weeks lunch with my workmate found us at Malaya again. After hearing me rave on and on about the Sze Chuan eggplant, we went back and ordered the set menu for 2 people. I was a bit hestitant at first, simply because I hate Otak Otak. I've tried it many times in Singapore, and regret it every time I get it. But the ones at Malaya were TO DIE FOR. If Otak Otak tastes like that in Singapore, I'd order it more often! We paid $50 each for lunch, but the food was so unbelievably good, it was worth every cent!

- Pizza and Party - We had a farewell lunch last friday for a workmate and ended up at the Australian Hotel for some beers and pizza. No photos here because we were all busy eating. And I decided to lay off the alcohol at lunch as well. Not because I was being good and cutting back on the alcamahol, but because we had our work xmas party that night and I didn't want to be sleepy for it! Our xmas party this year was at GPO. At first I couldn't understand how they could fit a few hundred people into the place, that is until I found out that we booked the entire bottom part of the GPO. All the usual restaurants (Post, Prime etc) were closed. In the underground section, all the bars were stocked with all you can drink beer, wine and champagne. There were pool tables and heaps of arcade games (Daytona and pinball machines!!!!!). We also had the dancing head thing where they put your head onto these digitally created bodies and generate a music video clip for you.

Unlike last year, which was heavy on alcohol but light on food, this year was a perfect balance. There was food EVERYWHERE. We had a sushi bar, an oyster bar, a pizza bar ontop of all the trays and trays of finger food that included fish and chips, spring rolls, vegetable crumble pies, meat pies, quiches, calamari and the most DELUSH rare wagyu beef rolls. By 7pm, I was screaming I was full! By 7:30, whilst shoving another spring roll down my throat, I was still screaming I was full. This continued until about 9pm, when we all abandoned the food and hit the open bar for some much needed vodka. Next thing you know, I was on the dance floor. By 10:30, when people started getting sufficiently sloshed, they brought out more pies (after the dessert already came out) to help with the alcohol munchies! HOW COOL IS THAT! So everyone started eating again before we hit the arcade games, where I am the reigning queen of Daytona. 4 out of 4 races! EAT THAT!

I also complained to my workmates that I've never been kicked out of anywhere before. So one of my workmates stayed with me until EVERYONE had left and we were surrounded by security asking us to leave. Woohoo!! Ok, well I wasn't FORCEFULLY EJECTED from the venue, but I finally lasted until the party ended! So to celebrate that little achievement, we headed off to the metro for more drinks before I stumbled home at 2am.

- The Kids - Now that I've semi caught up, my sister and the kids are here from Singapore. I've got a few days off here and there in December to spend more time with them. We're currently planning on going fruit picking again and possibly to the Blue Mountains. I was also planning on doing the Bridge Climb with my brother and my nephew (When he arrives), but I think its going to be hard to get a date that will suit everyone. So I might forego that and use my day off to watch my nephew compete in the tennis camp again. We'll have to see what happens.

So if I'm very quiet in December, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just busy with the kids. I'll try to update this post later with a few piccies. And as for the rest of my holiday posts, that's going to have to wait. I think its becoming a pattern. I can blog my heart out, but once I get close to having to relive my Mykonos experience, everything comes to a screeching halt....

OMG! I'm published!

I was procrastinating at work and was reading an article on how people meet friends online etc. For some unknown reason, it triggered me to google myself. And guess what? I've been published into a book! Not "someone used my exact name in a book", but literally, I've been published into a book!!

A few years back at my old company, I gave an interview on the life of a Tester. Somehow, that interview got published into a book!

http://careerfaqs.com.au/TitleDetail.aspx?TitID=16

I'm going to Angus and Robertson after work to find that book. Holy batcave! I don't even remember what I said! I do remember that I said one line that he absolutely loved and asked if it was ok to quote me. But I thought he was going to quote me in a "Testers" section, not put my whole interview up! God...I hope I didn't go the interview straight after having my coffee or green tea.....those who worked with me would know what affect that had one me!

OMG!!! I'M FAMOUS!!!

A quick update for now...before the enslaught!

I know I'm way wayyyy behind in my blogging on the trip. I promise that will come soon. Once I work up the courage to sort through the 4000 photos that I took (Not including the photos that Moishii took!). In the meantime, here's a quick update to my life:

- Been sick for 3 weeks, I think I am finally starting to recover (After the chemist gave me the strongest of everything they have). The jetlag ain't too bad. I just don't want to work!
- My Manager is now gorrrrrrrn, so I'm managerless for awhile. Woohoo!
- MnMs is in town, meaning there will be lots of food posts eventually. God, all we ever do is eat!!
- I rocked up to volleyball the day I got back from OS. Got there early, so I parked my car opposite the sports hall and sat there next to a van. There was a guy in the van. 5mins later, I see a head bopping up and down around his lap....he quickly shoved the head down with his hand....Another few minutes later, the head finally emerges and I see something being errr...spat out. EWWWWWWW!! Apparently they're cleaners for the office blocks around there. How do I know? They got out of the van and grabbed their cleaning gear from the back to head off to work.....
- I have yet to unpack.

I welcomed the unwelcomed call

So I got a private number call on my mobile last night in the middle of my cooking crisis. (Crisis as in the food wasn't cooking fast enough and I was starving). I answered, ready to rip off someone's head when I found out that it was Moishii callilng from Turkey! OMG! We had a quick chat when I suddenly dawned on me. 10 days until I go on holidays!!! OMG!!!!!! 10 days!! And it didn't help that Moishii kept cursing me saying that I won't make it overseas! Then we had another crisis to deal with, we're meeting up in Rome, but we don't know where to meet up! Looks like I'll have to drag out all my documents to find out who arrives when and what the flight numbers are. Otherwise I might be waiting at the wrong arrival gate! OMG!! 10 days!!!!

Wedding bells and a goth

Cookies needed some models for her makeup class. And somehow, me and Mey got volunteered. I love how I get volunteered for stuff. Just like my manager and workmates "volunteered" me to do a company wide "presentation". But that's another story. So after recovering from my sore throat, I rocked up to Mey's on the Sunday, and suddenly I was plonked down and creams and powder was smacked onto my face.

The transformation in progress

Anyway, here is my "evening bridal" look. (Yes I know, some of the shots were done in daylight)



And Mey's Goth look:

Cookies has "volunteered" to do all the makeup for our future movie shoots :D

Whoa! Slow down!!!

I can't believe how crazy work has become over the last few days. Thursday last week things were still ok. I had completed my project way ahead of schedule with only a few other tasks that needed attention. So I was asked to jump onto another project as peacemaker/cleaner-uper. Basically, poo hit the fan, there were conflicts and heated arguments, and I was thrown into the mix to make everything better. I finally managed to settle everything down and was ready to put my head down and charge along with the actual work, when at 3pm, my old project manager came up to me and said "When you get a chance, like in the next 2 hours, could I get you to have a catch up with so-and-so for a handover? You're our new test lead on the project and will be taking over everything, and so-and-so is also going on leave and today is her last day". Talk about advanced warning!

Ontop of trying to finish my 2 existing projects, I now have to take on another project which is HUGE in comparison to my current ones. I was always meant to jump onto the project, but my focus was purely on the technical component and I was also supposed to "do my own thing" as we're in the middle of revamping all our work processes. Instead, I now have to do both the technical component and worry about the main body of work. This is ontop of the interviews I have to go to. No, I'm not looking for a new job, only looking at hiring other people to help me out. Oh, I've also been roped into all our process improvements which are just eating away at my hours. PLUS, I've been "volunteered" to give a presentation on my experience on my last project. If that goes well, my PM would also like to "volunteer" me to do a company-wide presentation. All of this needs to be done before I go on leave which is just 4 weeks away! And if we do find a new person by then, I'll need to train all of them up!

It seems everytime I'm about to go on leave, work just explodes into craziness. Infact, I felt the first twitch in my face just then. Not good. I should really stop looking at my calendar. I think in my 7.5hr working day, about 4-5hours are purely for meetings. OMG! HELP ME! I'm definately going to need my holiday in a months time.

This is going to be a VERY long day....

We had a farewell drinks thing last night after work, generally at these functions, I tend to leave around 8pm at the latest (Considering is a weeknight). Last night, the speeches didn't even start until about 8pm, so by the time speeches were done and calls for final drinks before the bar tab closed it was almost 9pm. We were all going to leave, but somehow I got suckered into a game of pool, and a bunch of us stayed back at the pub until about 11pm when we got kicked out. Instead of going home, we moved onto the next pub for more drinks before we got told that we're going to get kicked out soon. I decided it was time to leave whilst the others decided to stay til closing time. By the time I got home, it was well past 12:30am.

It wasn't all the alcohol that killed me, it was the fact I couldn't sleep. I don't have a pounding headache hangover, I have "the whole room is still spinning" hangover. It feels like I haven't slept in 48hours. It was a bacon and egg roll type morning.....I would love to go home because I'm just not functioning. But with the amount of work and commitment going on, I can't go home. And I can't even have a quiet night in since theres Meyo's birthday thing tonight. And there is no sleeping in tomorrow since I need to be up early to be ready for beach volleyball. And of course, Sunday is Mothers day. There will be no rest for the wicked this weekend. Maybe someone should just shoot me right now. Atleast it stops the room from spinning.

Its already begun...

I've got less than 2 months before I embark on my 3rd overseas trip to Europe. I've been looking forward to this for so long! No overseas trips in 2006, save all my leave for one big perfect holiday. There was plenty of stress and lots of money spent, but its all done and I'm ready for my trip.

Today, my workmate asked me when I was going on my holiday. Then I started discussing about where I was going, what the plans were etc etc. And how I am SO OVER looking through travel books. Ever since we booked the last thing needed, I haven't looked at anything related to the trip. I needed a break from it all.

So as I was rushing home from work today, I walked past Flight Centre and saw my travel agent, poor Jessica, sitting at her desk. I thought, what a perfect time to go remind her I need to pick up my tickets soon!

As I walked towards the shop, her eyes looked up and saw me, then practically popped out of the sockets.

Jessica: "Oh my gosh! Just the person I want to see!!"
Me: (Thinking she was being sarcastic) "Are you sure about that??"
Jessica: "You must be psychic! I was just thinking about you! I've got news for you"
Me: "Its bad isn't it......?"
Jessica:"Unfortunately yes.......I just got a fax and your tour has been cancelled...."
Me: "Oh. Ok."

I wasn't even SHOCKED. I didn't yell. I didn't cry. I didn't kick up a fuss. Infact, Jessica was more upset than me! (But I think that was partly due to the fact that she knows she has to see me more often again!!) And its like I KNEW something like this would happen. And I don't think anyone who knows me will be shocked by this news either. I know me + Moishii = Bad News. But come on. This is ridiculous!

Before I booked the tour, I called up the tour company and asked what is the likelihood of the tour being cancelled, and would I be better off taking the next tour (Which departs 7 days later) that is guaranteed to run no matter what. The answer I got was this:

"To be honest, this is our most popular Italy tour and has run every year. In fact, in the history of running this tour, it has NEVER been cancelled before."

*Sigh* When it comes to us, history means jack all. Now its back to the drawing board. To make things worse, that was the perfect tour. Not only did it take us to every place we wanted to see, but it also operated in the opposite direction of EVERY SINGLE OTHER TOUR across all the companies. And it worked perfectly for us because it allowed us to leave the tour early and do the other cities we're both dying to go to. THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT TOUR! ARGH. I need to do some research and stress some more.

I'm not overseas yet and its already begun.....all bets are off for this year......

Its that time of the year again!!

Today is the day we get "The Envelope"! "The Envelope" is basically notification of our renumeration for the next year plus any profit share. Am I happy? Yes I am! Could I be even happier? Of course I can! When I got verbal notification of what I was going to get, I was initially disappointed. I wanted more! (I know, I'm greedy) But considering how last year had completely exceeded my expectations, I should be happy with what I got this year. I guess I was hoping for miracles. Lets aim for bigger things next year! :)

Pointless rant about volleyball and photography

I had an exhausting weekend. Usually after my 1.5hrs of beach volleyball, I go home, shower and passout. This week, after our class, we commandeered a court and played a few games with the other people in the class, plus a few stragglers on the beach. So after about 3hrs of beach volleyball, I get home, shower and sleep. Surprisingly, I didn't sleep the entire night away. I managed to drag myself out of bed after an hour nap, which was sooooooo hard to do! All I wanted to do was sleep! But then considering the past week, the earliest I've gone to bed is midnight, beach volleyball may not be the cause of my zombification.

I finally got to sleep in on the Sunday (First time in agesssssssssss!) and decided to take my camera for a spin at the Auburn Japanese Gardens. I haven't been to the Japanese Gardens in YEARS! I used to go there all the time with my family for BBQ. The last time I went would have been......10 years ago? And the time before that would have probably been about 5 years? I was quite disappointed when I got there yesterday. It seems to have lost all its glory. Of course, I was going in Autumn, and all their Cherry Blossom trees are bare or missing. The wandering peacocks also seem to be missing. I remember as a kid I could wander through the gardens and see a dozen or so peacocks roaming around. Yesterday, all I got was a few swans and ducks. Quite boring photography subjects to be honest. But then, to make a shot interesting, its up to the photgrapher more than the subject itself.

I'm quite lucky to have a workmate who is a top notch photographer. He's the one who's been convincing me to get a DLSR for about a year now! So when I finally caved in and took the plunge, he promised that we'll go out one day and take some shots together. Of course that hasn't happened, and the little photography tutorial he was supposed to give me, hasn't happened either. But me, being the curious beaver that I am, has been a little obsessive about photography lately. I've been fiddling with my camera whenever I have free time. Turning this dial and pressing that button to learn what my camera does. So without any proper instructions, I took my camera out to the Zoo the other week and went nuts with the camera.

When I showed the photos to my workmate, he was impressed that I took so many shots all in Manual. He had guessed that I would be using the Auto function until we get a chance to take the camera out for a spin. But why spend so much money on a camera, only to use the Auto function? If I was to do that, I should just use a Point and shoot. And even then I don't use the Auto anymore on it! My philosophy is that you need to take a lot of bad photos, to take a good photo. Yes, initially a lot of my photos are going to be crap, but I need to learn WHY they're crap and improve on them. Taking photos in Auto is just the easy way out and I'll never learn how to take better shots. Photos in Auto would be "good", but considering the money I spent on the camera, I want them to be "F**kin awesome!!". Of course, sometimes you just have to use Auto, like when the scene is just too hard to take (Cloudy, sunny and raining all in one go) or when you're drunk. :D

The other thing I've noticed since I got my camera is that I am addicted to Flickr. Not only are there thousands and thousands of awesome shots that you can use for inspiration, but its a chance to get feedback on your own shots as well. I've also used it as a backup of my photos. When I spent the long weekend battling a stupid computer virus, there was a 10min window when I tried to reboot and it said "Disk Failure". I had seen something like that previously, when my computer got fried. I felt the blood drain from my face when it looked like I had lost everything on my computer. Lucky it was a false alarm. So for the past week, I've been uploaded a whole heap of my photos onto Flickr. I've even upgraded myself to a Pro account so I can have unlimited storage. For a trigger happy person like me, I need all the backup I can get. Plus, I figured it'll be a good way to post up photos of my trip without completely killing this blog with the 234452353 photos I post up!

Anyway, you can check out my photos if you're bored.