My Birthday

Today is my Birthday... :)

I actually have no idea how I managed to get home last night. But I did wake up this morning in my own bed. And with no hangover. I guess I am one step closer to proving my theory, that the more you drink, the less effect alcohol will have on your body.

I feel so old. I am already dreading my next birthday. And my current one hasn't even passed yet.

We dropped by the Burswood Casino last night to meet up with a couple of friends before going to Dino's to celebrate. And I got my ID checked.

Yay !!

I have never been so happy getting my ID checked before. haha !!

I even thanked the security guard.

So ... I guess its still all good.. :)

Christmas Shopping

Last night was my last chance to go Christmas shopping. So no matter how bad my second hangover in two days (from the previous night) felt, I dragged myself out of the house to pay the city a visit.

Perth has changed heaps. I fly back about every 8 months or so, but I hardly ever get to see the city during daylight times - I usually come home at daylight. There were so many new shops and buildings. I was very amazed. It no longer felt like I was walking around in my home city. I was starting to feel like a tourist.

I had only two things on my mind when I hit the city. Christmas shopping and food. The octopus mayo Tamaki hand roll from Jaws did not disappoint me. It tasted as yummy as I last remembered it to be. But I was a bit let down when I noticed my favorite Hot Dog stand outside Myers was no longer anywhere to be seen.

My Christmas shopping expedition lasted about two hours or so. I'm one of those people who would just buy something if I like it. After two hours I had pressies for nearly everyone. Although I think I got more things for myself in the end.

Pete's Christmas present was probably the hardest one to find. Only had I then realised, I was only positive he was either a Medium or a Large in shirts and was either a size 32 - 34 for pants. Naturally, I had to call and wake him up to confirm the sizes. I had first seen this shirt I really liked for Pete, but they only had it in Large and Small sizes - He confirmed he was a Medium.

After about another 30 mins of non-productive shopping, I went back to buy the shirt.

It's not as if I couldn't be bothered to continue hunting around... but I honestly could not find anything else I liked.

Anyway, if it was really too big.. we could always take it back.. :)

1st night back..

Yay !! I'm back in Perth ! hahaha... :)

After so many years away, (working interstate), it is so nice to be back home !

The flight was horrible though. I was squashed in a window seat with two rather large guys, who I have no idea how they managed to get into their seats. Needless to say, I didn't even bother to try to make a trip to the toilets. Both of them were fast asleep (and snoring) as soon as they finished the food served.

Must remember to never get a window seat again...

The funniest thing occured in the airport though, I was approached by some lady who gave me her name card and asked me to give her a call the next day, as they were looking for new faces. I got a good laugh out of it though, I asked her how old did she think I was, she said 19-20, I told her I was 25 (*ahem... yes.. I know 26 very soon.. but still 25 now !). She said I had really nice complexion ... *sigh.. I know.. Its probably just another scam. But it still feels nice when another female tells you, you have a nice complexion.

The first night back did not disappoint me. I was playing fifteen-twenty and dice games until there was no more alcohol left in the esky.

Now I have a splitting headache. I really must be getting old. I never used to get hangovers before.

Must be the jet lag......

Were is the Panadol when I need it ?!!?

Home Time !

Ok.. my flight is in an hour.... :)

It's a domestic flight.. so 30 mins before the gate closes should be good enough.

I realised that if you go too early, you would just be stuck in the neverending line. But if you are running a bit late then you should be able to just go to the express counter tell them your flight is leaving in 30 mins and just check in.

Everything is packed.. (I hope). Not that I really need anything. 1/2 of my life belongings are still in Perth. I should be able to just pack my undies and laptop and just fly home.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Xmas and have a safe and Happy New Year !

Ok ... Must really get to airport now............. bye !

Barbie Torture

"The girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity and see the torture as a cool activity, in contrast to other forms of play with the doll," said Agnes Nairn, author of the report....The types of mutilation are varied and creative and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving."

Ah ha ! I am not alone !! hahaha.. !!

As a kid, I hated playing with Barbie. I didn't know why, but I just hated her. And it wasn't just because she had the perfect boobs and body. (I was too young to know about boobies then). I just simply didn't like playing with Barbie.

I was only ever given one Barbie doll when I was a child (a Christmas present from one of my aunties). To my mother's amazement, I had somehow managed to pull her legs off from her body and decapitated her head.

Needless to say, I never did receive another Barbie doll after that one.

"The types of mutilation are varied and creative and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving."

Gosh... microwaving.. I wonder what happens when you microwave Barbie..... ?!

Lessons

A lesson to all....

1. Do not lose your boyfriend's house key

2. Do not lose your boyfriend's new house key

3. Do not lose your boyfriend's new house key on the day of the move

We had only just came out of the real estate agent's place an hour ago and already I had lost his keys. The envelope the keys were in was not sealed - so its not entirely my fault.

Luckily, for us, the agent did give us another set of keys.

Yesterday temperatures hit 33oC and on a hot summer day like this one, the last thing you would want to be doing, would to be moving homes. The new place was on the top floor of a 3 level apartment. Pete had failed to mention to the removalists one very important detail - there were no lifts in the apartment.

So to stop them grumbling, I told Pete maybe we should help out with the moving. We actually ended up doing most of the moving from the bottom of the apartment to the unit. Only the beds were left to the removalists.

Three flights of stairs.

I gave up after the first hour and just sat down opening boxes.

It didn't help that the apartment he rented was a split level apartment - another flight of stairs.

Total of four flights of stairs. 33oC heat. No keys.

Needless to say, he wasn't exactly in the happiest of moods.

Gamers

This article I read kind of made me reflect on a few things.

One thing in particular would the thing I used to do the most, and the one thing that I am seriously missing at the moment - Online Gaming.

In most relationships the guy is the full time gamer and the girlfriend suffers (or is usually pissed off) because not enough time is spent together in the relationship.

But in my relationship - I am the gamer.

Although, I have to admit, I have cut down on alot, in terms of the time in hours I spend playing games. I no longer play two online games. I just play World of Warcraft (WoW).

I decided to give up on LineageII and gave my account to my friend's girlfriend (whom he somehow managed to convince to play). No idea how he did it, but boy would I like to be his girlfriend for one day - on second thoughts .. maybe not.

Out of a possible of 75 levels in a player's character life, my mystic priest character had reached level 70. Which made it kind of difficult to let go - it was actually becoming like my 'mini me'.

LineageII is rather a full time game. I had my own group of gaming friends (who happen to be my friends in real life) and a group of online friends (who now exist on my msn list). I also was pretty high up in my own Guild which one of my close friends started. To this day, I believe he is still stuck on LineageII, I'm not sure because I haven't seen him for about 6 months now.

But it was still extremely hard to give up.

Before I stopped playing, I would spend atleast 4 hrs after I got home from work playing LineageII. I also managed to stop going to nightclubs and drinking sessions and stay at home to play LineageII instead. Which all turned out quite well for my wallet and liver. But I was slowly becoming a gaming freak. It was only when my close friends started not to ask me out for dinner parties and other outings (because I was fast becoming a habitual no-show) that I realised I had a problem. I was addicted to my online game.

And now that I am in a full time relationship, gaming has become a bit of a luxury. I only get to play on the weekends and sometimes not even then. If I'm lucky, then I'll be able to sneak a couple of hours in after I get home from work.

This morning I woke up at 6am. Somehow my body clock thought it was 7am. With just a moment of hesitance (thinking... should I go back to sleep?!) I sat up, grab my mouse and keyboard and logged onto Warcraft.

Only to realise all the realms were offline due to server maintenance ..... dammit !

GGrrr.... and No... I didn't manage to go back to sleep. :(

Australian

I've been sick for the past two days (the heat in the apartment finally got the better of me), as I turned on the T.V. for some news updates, I saw the most disgraceful images ever.

About 5000 people had gathered around The Shire (Cronulla) and were bashing anyone up who were of Middle Eastern appearance. Not only did they attack anyone of a Middle Eastern appearance, they also pelted Police and Ambulance officers with bottles. Many were draped in the Australian flag and chanting Waltzing Matilda - as taunts to drive the "Lebanese" people out. It was a sad case of what Alcohol can do to fuel hatred.

But this only made me feel so much more sicker.

It had just been about the most Un-Australian thing I have just about ever seen.

The media are racist themselves. Labelling the 5000 crowd "Australians who were attacking anyone Middle Eastern men". That is just so wrong. The 5000 crowd were not "Australians" they were 'White Anglo-Saxon Australians' attacking any 'Middle Eastern Appearance Australians'. I so hate to have to be politically correct - but in this case its justified.

This was the day Australians attacked Australians.

I am born in Australia, I consider myself every bit Australian. My parents are from Hong Kong - a place which for me, is just a holiday destination.

This is my home.

I probably get most annoyed when someone comes to ask me 'So where are you from?' ... my usual reply :

"I'm Australian... but if you are referring to my Ethnic Asian background, my parents were originally from Hong Kong."

Australia is a multicultural country. We pride ourselves from being different. Do not forget that every white Anglo-Saxon Australian is a descendent of an immigrant also.

I am, You are, We are Australians.

Symptoms

Question for the girls:

• Have you every wondered why you needlessly, viciously lash out at loved ones, friends or co-workers ?
• Do you blow minor events into monumental proportions ?
• Do you shut out the world and dwell on past hurts ?
• Do your jeans mysteriously shrink two sizes once a month ?

If you answer 'Yes' to all of the above .... (and you are female) .. then you might be suffering from PMS or PMDD. If you're female and reading this .. you would probably be thinking .."yeah .. I know it already". Guys... pay attention to the above symptoms and the info below.

So here are some facts for the guys:

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) refers to the variation of physical and mood symptoms that appear during the last one or two weeks of the menstrual cycle and disappear by the end of a full flow of menses.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is the term used to describe a specific set of mood symptoms that are also present the week before menses and remit a few days after the start of menses and also interfere with social or role functioning.

How common is PMS?

Up to 80% of women have cyclic symptoms associated with their menses but only about 3-5% have symptoms so severe that it interferes with work, school, usual activities or relationships. The average onset is 26 years of age with symptoms often becoming worse over time. Other mental health problems and diagnoses are often associated with PMS and PMDD, especially major and minor depression.

Its a common condition. We all know it exists. It only lasts for a week or more. So just put up with it. Do not even attempt to try to pick a fight with us during this time. It can only turn ugly.

And when I have trouble putting on my jeans (which still fitted perfectly 2 days ago) .. "uh oh, someone has to go to the gym".. is definitely not the answer I want to hear.

So just remember that it's not entirely my fault that I nag at you when you make a stupid mistake. You know what time of the month it is. Don't do anything stupid to piss me off. Be thoughtful and sensitive. Otherwise, just make yourself scarce.

And 'No' you do not know what it feels like. So don't even try to sound like an expert. If you really wanted to know, I might be obliged to take a knife and stick it up your butt and make it bleed for 7 days. And until I do that, only then would you be coming close to understanding.

Just remember that you promised me immunity during this period of time.

Important Facts

Some important facts :

• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it...I probably should stop yelling at him now).
• If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (omg... Gotta tell pete this... doubt it would stop anything though).
• The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.F.G. !!)
• A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life - if I'm male, I want to be a pig too).
• A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy....but I'm still not over the pig).
• Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Do not try this at home...... maybe at work).
• The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. ("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!" ... humm.. pig or praying mantis ? ... Pig).
• The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes... lucky pig... can you imagine ??).
• The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty at the bottom of the pond ?).
• Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity).
• Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know).
• The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm........).
• Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference ?)
• Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (OK, so that would be a good thing....)
• A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder who was paid to figure that out ?)
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that).
• Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that too).
• Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer).
• Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (huh ? What about that pig ?!?)

Selfish

To my absolute horror, I woke up this morning to find my beautiful pearlscale goldfishes all bashed and tattered. Their pearls were all missing. Their fins were torn and their bodies bruised. And if they were having trouble swimming before because of their 'round' body shape, they were having more trouble now. I was half minded to just put them out of their misery.

But not until I find the culprit.

Overnight my boyfriend's male Golden Severum was chasing the females around the tank, and so the females were getting pretty stressed out. Therefore, he thought it would be best to move his female severums to my little goldfish tank. The severums although still young are atleast 12 cm long. What idiot would put two mildly agressive fish into a small tank with three little pearlscale goldfishes ?! I would think only an idiot who is selfish enough to think only of the well-being of his own fish and not anyone elses.

There is no way a pearlscale can out-swim a golden severum.

Not only did he do this. But he did it behind my back. I definitely would of objected if he asked me before putting his fish in. (most probably why he didn't bother asking).

It wasn't until I woke up in the morning that he said to me... "Dear, I put Goldie into your tank... But...". I promptly shot out of bed and ran outside to my fish tank. And watched in dismay at the damage inflicted on my pearlscales.

If you wanted to separate your fish... THEN PUT THE DAMN THING IN A BUCKET !!!

I was so ANGRY....

I wanted to put a skewer through his golden severums and string them up and see how they like it.

But I couldn't. How can you blame a fish ?! Especially when their owner is an idiotic selfish bastard...

Its a Girl !

Mrs Ang (one of my close friends in Sydney) is proud to announce the arrival of their 8.4 lb baby daughter !!!

Yeah !!! got baby for me to play tonight.. muahahaa... :P

8.4 lb... I really want to see how big that is. Especially since I was over 10 lb when I was born. Yes, I was over 10 pounds. I had the proud status of being the biggest little baby girl in that hospital during that period of time.

Can't wait till I get to see the baby.... :)

Caffeine The Way To Go

"COFFEE and tea may reduce the risk of serious liver damage in people who drink alcohol too much, are overweight, or have too much iron in the blood, researchers reported today..."

It's Official ! A study of nearly 10,000 people has showed that those who drank more than two cups of coffee or tea per day developed chronic liver disease at half the rate to those who drank less than one cup each day.

On average now, I drink atleast 3 cups of coffee a day. I don't actually think I can survive on less than 2 a day. I would just fall asleep on my keyboard - or worse, fall asleep and freeze to death in the Data Center ! It's 6.30pm now and I've already had 3 today.

So if this is true, does it mean that if I continue my coffee addiction, I can drink (alcohol) as much as I like still ?!

Or am I just dreaming ?

You Were The One

You were the one who asked me to give you just one chance
You were the one who had me at first glance
You were the one who called me every night to say sweet dreams
You were the one who taught me how to make love

You were the one who made me cry
You were the one that made me say goodbye
You were the one who gave me your ring
You were the one who I considered as my soul mate
You were the one who taught me not to hate

You were the one that said you will always love me beyond any doubt
You were the one I thought I could not live without
You were the one who could always figure me out
You were the one who taught me about red wine and champagne
You were the one I said I will never see again

You were the one I wanted to grow old with
You were the one who made it seem like it was all a myth
You were the one who I could not face without a tear
Now you are the one who asked me to attend your wedding next year.

Last Prayer

(Gerberas placed on the steps of Martin Place, Sydney today).

The Lord is my Shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death;
I will fear no evil; For thou art with me.

- The 23rd Psalm -

Minute of Silence

No one is forced to take drugs. Everyone has a choice. No one puts a gun to your head and forces you to take drugs. So when Singapore says that Van must die because he could have killed a lot of people with the amount of Heroin he was carrying into Australia, Van is not the one who is standing next to them forcing them to take it. He commited no murder, He is simply another carrier. And although I agree on what he did is wrong. I definitely do not think he deserves Death.

Sadly, when there is a demand there is a supply. Even with Van caught 3 years ago and put on death row - did this do anything to deter the Bali 9 ? Van's Death Sentence did nothing to discourage them.

For all the 25% of Australians who voted to have Van executed - you all better hope that none of your friends and family members makes the same stupid mistake as Van did. Or even get caught with a mere 15g of Heroin - because the Death Penalty for Drug trafficking in Singapore is Mandatory.

Van has shown remorse from the beginning, he has helped with Officials, he regrets what he has done. But still the Death sentence stands. At 25 years of age, this is just a total waste of life. Does anyone actually think he would do this again if let out of prison ?!

The death penalty is barbaric. You cannot rehabilitate someone who is dead. What happened to 6th commandment - Thou Shall Not Kill ? We are human beings - This is no different to Murder.

His poor mother, now finally allowed to hold his hands on the final day, is still unable to even give him the final embrace to hug and feel the warmth of her son for the last time.

She has been sentenced to eternal grief.

My heart goes out to Van, his mother, brother, family and friends.

At 9am today, I will observe my minute of silence and pray for you.

Bandwidth War

Yeah !!! It's the 1st of the month ! ...... YES ! Finally ! No more 56k modem speed !!

My Internet connection at home had been slowed to 56k for the past 10 days now.

10 agonising days. No Warcraft for 10 days already...

A couple of days ago, I deliberately stayed back to checked up on what my housemates were downloading on to their PCs that managed to hog up all the bandwidth allocation by mid-month.

I found out that one had BitTorrent running, downloading all the current episodes of this Taiwanese talk show.

The other had LimeWire, and was downloading what looked like Japanese porno clips.

All of this downloading was still happening when our Internet had been capped to 56k.

What should I say to make them a bit more considerate of the other person in the household that uses and pays for the Internet connection ?

Better still, how do you approach someone and tell them to stop downloading porno ?!

In my last job, as a Systems Administrator, I found out that this guy in Finance was downloading porn, but I wasn't sure how to deal with it. It took a lot of determination to not go and report it to his manager or my manager, as I knew he would definitely lose his job. In the end, I went and had a short chat to him and mention the name of the website that showed up on my ISA logs and he knew he was caught. I told him, if it never turned up in my logs again, I wouldn't do anything about it. Sure enough, the downloading stopped and he apologised to me for his actions and the whole affair was never mentioned again.

But this is a entirely different matter. It is happening in my own home, not my workplace. I don't have jurisdiction over him. And there is no 'manager' there to fire his butt.

This whole bandwidth issue is really starting to piss me off. Short of actually going to both of my housemates' rooms and disconnecting their cables, is there anything else I can do ?

Is there any tools out there that I can download to limit the amount of bandwidth a program is sucking ?!

Anyone know some discreet ones.. Or something I can put on their PCs that they wont notice ?

Any ideas ?!

Warning Call

I have finally brought my ticket for my trip back home to Perth. I actually only got the single trip ticket, as I figured it would probably hurt a lot less if I paid for my ticket in two separate transactions than if I just brought a return ticket and had to paid for it all at once.

I know.. It's all in the mind.

But it makes me feel better.. ok ? Atleast it doesn't feel like I've created a financial hole in my credit card.

I just hope that there are still tickets back to Sydney when I try to buy one later on. I know that secretly inside me, I'm hoping that either Qantas or VirginBlue will do a last minute special. But the remote posibility of that happening is just like waiting for a miracle to happen.

Hey.. who says miracles don't happen ?! You have to be a bit optimistic.

Anyway, in preparation for my trip back home, I gave a warning call to my three closest drinking buddies back home. Funny thing was that when one of them picked up the phone, he just said:

Ok.. where tonight ?!

Me: What 'where tonight' ? I'm still in Sydney...

Drinking Buddy : Really ? Still in Sydney ? I thought you are calling from the airport here. That's what you did the last time you were back. You gave me like 10 minutes to get dressed and meet you in Dreamland !

Me: Well... I decided to give you guys some warning this time ok ? ...*pause*... To stock up on the Panadols... hehe..

_____________________

I'm flying back on the 21st of December back to Perth ... Home sweet home.... :)

Countdown : 21 days to go....

Beer Goggle Effect

Finally, someone has actually bothered to have gone and worked out the scientific equation behind the beer goggles effect. The Beer Goggles Effect is the terminology used to describe people who suddenly (due to the influence of some substances) find another person increasingly attractive. This famous ideology is used to reference the instances when a person finds another person sexually attractive, even when that person is by no means appealing. When this happens, that person is usually in for the shock of their lives when they wake up the morning after, in bed, with the supposingly sexy looking person.

"The beer goggles effect isn't solely dependent on how much alcohol a person consumes, there are other influencing factors at play too," said Professor Nathan Efron, Professor of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester. Amazingly, scientists now believe you don't even need to have had an alcoholic drink to suffer from the beer goggles effect.

"The formula shows for example, that a person with poor vision who's talking to someone in a very smoky bar will be experiencing a beer goggles effect close to someone who has consumed eight pints in a smoke-free and well-lit room."

The formula can work out a final score to measure the effect:

• A score of less than 1 means no beer goggle effect - an ugly person remains ugly.
  
• A score of 1-50 means a slight beer goggle effect - making a person you would normally find very unattractive slightly less "visually offensive".
  
• A moderate beer goggle effect is indicated by a score of between 50-100 - a person who is by no means appealing becomes suddenly sexually attractive.
  
• A score of more than 100 indicates a severe beer goggle effect - the "fugly" you were talking to an hour ago now looks like Kylie Minogue or George Clooney.

For example, someone with normal vision who has drunk five pints of beer and see someone 1.5 metres away in a fairly smoky and poorly lit room will score 55, which means that they would suffer from a moderate beer goggle effect.

Increasing beer consumption to eight pints (2.8 litres) increases that score of 140, leading to a severe beer goggle effect.

Therefore, I would say that the outcome of this scientific experiment would conclude that a person should not consume more than 5 pints of beer to be under the "legal limit" for Beer goggles effect.

Interesting thought, as I met Pete at a night club on a very smoky dance floor with poor lighting and having consumed about 6 bottles of beer (usual start to the night). So what does that say about us ? Could I be still under the beer goggle effect (from all the previous excessive drinking expeditions ?!)

gosh.. I think I should try to stop drinking for about a month and see what happens.. :)

Draw Your Own House

Based on your drawing and the 10 answers you gave this is a summary of your personality:

Your house tells the world that you ought to be a leader.
You are a freedom lover and a strong person.
You love your house and family.
You are a gifted artist as well.
Once you have a problem, you need a friend with you.
Your life is always full of changes.
You are very tidy person............ ?!?
There's nothing wrong with that because you're pretty popular among friends.

Your life is always full of changes.
You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible.

You love excitement and create it wherever you go.

You see the world as it is, not as you believe it should be.

You added a flower into your drawing. The flower signifies that you long for love. It also safe to say that others don't see you as a flirt. You don't think much about yourself.

________________________________________

As I was reading through that list of personalities & qualities, some of it I agree with and some of it I would hope to be true. Especially the bit about "You are very tidy person". Anyone who knows me personally would know that this is not true.

Back when I was in high school - my room was famously known as the room where you could not see one patch of carpet big enough to step on. Meaning that it was all covered by 'something'. My room was messy but not dirty.

I was also famously known within my family as the one who escaped being burgled. We came home rather late one night and as we stepped into the front door, it was obvious that we had been burgled. Everything was everywhere. We were also missing all of my dad's prized bottles of Cognac and XO. Everyone of us each ran into our own rooms to check what we were missing. Evidently, it turned out to be that I was the only one that did not have anything stolen.

Reason ? Quote from my lovely mummy:

"Ah-Mui..When the burglers got to your room, they must of thought someone else must have broken in before them... so messy.. cannot even step inside... !"

Oh well.. atleast I didn't lose any of my prized possessions ...

Click here to draw your own house

Billy Kwong's

Last night Pete took me to dinner at Billy Kwong. Yes, the famous Sydney restaurant from Kylie Kwong. Pete had been raving on about the house speciality Crispy Duck and Beef Brisket ever since I had met him. I have always been convinced that I could probably find the same quality of food from Billy Kwong served at some Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for about 1/2 the price. So I had always refused to go there.

But since Pete is paying.... why not ?!

The restaurant itself is actually pretty small. The miniature tables and stools make the place seem very cramped. Which actually made it quite hard for everything to fit on the table. As usual with fine dinning places the dishes the food gets served on is about twice the size of the portion of food. Therefore, the two person table we were sitting on was barely able to hold the teapot, tea cups, bowls and bone plate settings. And the food was yet to arrive.

The waitress that was serving us managed to accidentally drop and break one of the serving plates she was handing out. So it seemed hardly surprising that we heard someone drop some plate or chopstick every two to three minutes. Although all of this, kinda added to the fast moving atmosphere of the restaurant.

Just to satisfy Pete, we ordered the famous Crispy Skin Duck with Blood Plum sauce and the Beef Brisket (Wagyu Beef). Yes, Wagyu beef brisket. The Crispy Duck was a bit too much on the sweet side, but the beef brisket was good. I personally think anything made from Wagyu beef would be good. You can't really go wrong with that type of high grade beef. I mean, it would have taste great raw!

We also ordered the stir fried mixed mushrooms. But due to the size of our table, they did not bring out the mushrooms until we had finished off one of the dishes. So by the time they did, we were 3/4 full already.

Setting itself to be a Chinese eating house, Billy Kwong missed out on a very important detail. That is to keep their patron's teapot full. We had the lid off our teapot for the majority of the time. But the staff there failed to notice this little Chinese custom.

Overall, the food was pretty good. But I still think I could have found something of a similar quality in Chinatown. And yes, at 1/2 the price as well.

Too Slow

My internet has been capped to 56k. Again. *sob ...

It's 7pm on a Sunday. And I need my weekly dosage of World of Warcraft.

Desperately.

It is more than slow. It is painstakingly slow. Just what am I supposed to do from now until bedtime ?

It is only the 20th of the month. Which means I will have to endure this modem-like speed internet connection until the end of the month.

GGrrrr...

If I wasn't so lazy I would hit the Internet cafe about now. But after our badminton (now a regular weekly) session, the last thing I want to do at the moment, is to drag my butt out of my room.

I really really need to detox over an online gaming session of Warcraft.

Go Aussies ~!

After more than 30 years, the Socceroos have finally qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany!!

Woohoo ~~!

It must of been the most nerve-racking Soccer game I've seen in a long while. Especially since the Socceroos had to beat Uruguay by two goals to make it to the World Cup. The Socceroos lead by 1-0 at the 90 minute mark. The match went into extra time, and then going into the dreaded penalty shootout. In the end, the Socceroos defeated Uruguay 4-2 in the penalty shootout.

Man of the moment must have been the Goalie (Mark Schwarzer) who made two historic saves.

I must say though, there are some dirty players in the Uruguay team. The classic moment was when one of the Uruguay players was rolling around on the ground in pain (faking it) and the cameras caught him peering through his hands to check if he scored a penalty kick.

My hands are all red now - I think I was slamming them down on the wooden table at the pub a bit too much. My voice is also hoarse from all the screaming. In the end, the whole pub erupted in-line with the whole Telstra Stadium as Socceroos substitute John Aloisi netted the winning kick.

Must go get Socceroos jersey !!!

Fire Warden Training

I had to get to the office before 9am today for Fire Warden training. (I don't usually have to turn up to work until about 9.30am). As I spend the majority of my time at work stuck in a comms room, therefore Fire Warden training was pretty much compulsory. Since only a limited number of people actually had access into the data center, all the people that worked in there had to go for the Fire Warden and Fire Extinguisher training. Meaning that there was no way I could actually get out of it.

I didn't actually know there were that many different types of fire extinguishers. We were told of 6 different types (each marked with a different coloured band). There were ones which are to be used for only electrical fires, flammable liquids but not cooking oils and fats. (I wonder what happens if you do). Another one which are specified for rubbish\paper and cooking oils fires but not for flammable or electrical fires.

In the case of a fire, wouldn't you just pick up the fire extinguisher that was closest to you and just use it ?! And not worry about whether or not it is for the correct type of fire ??

Luckily there were ones which are just for 'General Purpose' usage. Meaning you could use them for almost anything. Which in my opinion, kinda makes the other ones redundant.

But anyway, for those who want to know, these are the ones marked with a Black or White band.

Fire warden training turned out to be quite fun. Especially when we actually get to play with the Carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. Its quite loud and creates a big puff of smoke. Along with splatters of dry ice. Nice thing to play with on such a hot day.

Actually, it would be great to use as a quick beer stubbies cooler on Friday afternoons!

The only problem with the training was that we actually had to go through with the whole procedure of actually evacuating the whole floor. Not really much of a problem...

Except for the tiny little fact that I work on the 43rd floor !!!

Being assertive (as the trainer put it) and getting people to evacuate the floor wasn't such a problem.

But the climb down from lvl 43 to ground floor certainly was.

I think I now have a valid reason to skip gym for the rest of the month...

First Kiss

My buddy and I were chatting in the car on the way back home today, and for some reason, the topic of 'My First Kiss' suddenly surfaced. For curiosity's sake, I popped the question at Pete.

His reply was ...

"I can't remember"

"uh? why not ?"

"Ask any other guy about their first kiss.. I bet you they won't remember.."

Is that really true with all guys ?!

I can remember my first kiss.

Well, if you don't count the small-peck-on-your-cheek ones or the sweet-kiss-on-your-forehead type. I mean the real kisses where you and him, for a moment, share and breathe in the same air.

Not only can I remember who it was with. I can remember where it happened and how it happened. I can still remember the boy's full name and what he looked like. Well, vaguely what he did look like. I'm not sure where he is now. Most probably back in Hokkaido. Yes, he is Japanese.

So why woud girls be able to remember all their first times ?

Or do all guys just suffer from a genetic disorder which inhibits the growth of the temporal lobes in their brain, so that their long-term (or for some cases) short-term memory has been severely diminished ?!

I hope my cute Japanese guy still remembers me

Too Ex

My airticket back to Perth at the end of this year is going to cost me an arm and a leg. So far the cheapest I can find is $455 - One Way.

Pete actually suggested driving back to Perth in his Jeep. I'm seriously contemplating the offer now. Although I really doubt I can imagine myself to be stuck for 4 days in his Jeep. Even after an hour in his Jeep, I feel like my breakfast is already starting to come back up. Apparently, according to Pete.. "It's just the way the Jeep is built". Who in their right minds would build a car that bounces over the slightest little bump in the road ?!

4 days of continuous bumpy ride.. humm..it could actually be a very good way to lose weight..

No. I have got to stop thinking about that option

My mummy and my grandma got all excited when they heard I was going to fly back for christmas. I doubt there is anyway I can get out of it now.

Dammit

I already feel broke, and I haven't even brought the airticket yet.

Pain

I'm one of those people who have a gym membership but would probably only make it to the gym once in a blue moon.

So after much persuasion from housemate A and Pete, I decided to join my housemates and our group of friends for a badminton session yesterday.

Bad move. I should of stayed at home and played world of warcraft for the whole day.

The Badminton session turned out to be a very strenuous cardiovascular workout. (For me anyway). By the end of the 1 1/2 hour session, I was sweating (like a pig) and puffing (like a smoker with bad lungs). And I don't even smoke !

By the time we finished lunch and got home, I fell asleep on the sofa before even making it into my bathroom to take a shower.

My body feels a lot worse today than it did yesterday.

Like someone just threw me against a brick wall.

My neck is pain. Arm is pain (moving it is out of the question). Shoulder is pain. Legs... I don't even want to talk about it.

The whole freaking right handside of my body is @#$* in pain...

70/30 ?

How Boyish or Girlish Are You...?

You Are 70% Boyish and 30% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

-------------------------------------------------------------

Another fun little personality test from BlogThings. I think I was more interested in the outcome of this test, simply because it had something to do with my nickname given to me by my drinking buddy.
My nickname amongst my group of drinking buddies in Perth is derived from a boy\girl personality ratio.

95/5

95/5 = 95% Boyish and 5% Girlish

I never had the chance to ask them what the 5% was..

Morning Call

I've been wanting to give my drinking buddy back in Perth a call to check up on how she is for the past month. But after I reach home, the last thing on my mind is to hunt for my mobile and actually sit down and give her a call.

So I gave her a morning call instead.

Morning call at 9am (my time), which is 6am (her time). It's moments like these that I love daylight saving.

Regardless to say - she was still in bed. I chatted with her and managed to get her fully awake before my train reached the tunnel and lost connection.

I only had to say 'Wei' (meaning 'hi' in chinese) and she knew it was me already. When I asked her how did she know it was me (as I had deliberately used my work mobile so that she wouldn't recognise my caller ID), she replied :

'Even though after all these years, nobody else is crazy enough to give me morning calls - its only you..'

Opps.. :P

I used to remember we would go drinking all night and get home about 5am in the morning. But then for some obscure reason I could only ever sleep for about 3 hours. So I would wake up early in the morning and as I was bored and still slightly hyper, I would call everyone else who went out with me that night and pester everyone of them until they would wake up and meet me for breakfast.

I would happily get out of bed and take a shower, but by the time I go back to my room to get changed, my bed would look unusually appealing - so breakfast usually becomes brunch.

For those several years, my morning calls became a tradition.

Ah...

Those were the times...

Melbourne Cup

We finally made it to the TAB counter after about an hour of queuing up in Martin Place.

After leaving the counter with $37 dollars less in my pocket - I realised I had placed my bets on the wrong horse.

Duh !

I had mistakenly put down the horse's Gate number instead of the Horse Number.

*sigh..

So my original picks of (1), (2) & (7) became - > (14), (24) & (5)

Can someone tell me what the odds for (14), (24) & (5) are ?!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant. Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle. You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs. For you, comfort and calm are very important. You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection. You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

-------------------------------------------------------------

I actually think about 90% of it is true for me. Try it for yourself

If you can..

If you can start the day without caffeine
If you can be cheerful while ignoring aches and pains
If you can resist complaining
If you can stop yourself boring people with your troubles
If you can be grateful every day for the food you are offered
If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time
If you can overlook it when people take their fustration out on you
If you can overlook it when, although through no fault of your own, something goes wrong
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment
If you can face the world without lies and deceit
If you can conquer tension without medical help
If you can relax without taking alcoholic substances
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs

You are probably a dog or a cat.

Too Hot

Today it probably hit the high 20s.

But in my apartment, it feels like over 40 oC.

Since our apartment has no air-conditioning (and yes.. I live in Australia), I could only open my small electric fan and put it on full blast.

No use. It just kind of circulated the hot air around my room. So I opened the sliding door to let some outside air in. Hoping it would cool things down a bit and make the room less stuffy.

Bad idea. In less than 5 minutes I could hear the train run past. It was loud enough to wake up the dead. Nearly forgotten we live right on top of the train line.

Sigh... The things we do for cheap rent.

Can't sleep with the door closed. Can't sleep with it opened.

It should be prohibited to build apartments facing west and not have aircons installed by default.

It's only spring now and it already feels so hot. Can't imagine how we are going to survive summer.

It doesn't help that today is Day Light Saving - I just lost an hour of sleep.

I swear it was only 2am when I last looked at the time on my PC, but now it suddenly is showing 3.14am.

Really need to find a place to move.

Perfect Place?

We may have finally found our so-called 'perfect place' to buy ! Whoopee... !

Although when I seriously sit back and evaluate the details and specifications of the townhouse, it appears we have seriously downgraded our requirements. I think the reality of the Sydney housing market has slowly seeped in.

• 1. We are no longer looking for 2 bedroom apartments - simply because we will have a better chance affording a 1 bedroom

Which actually means anyone else who will come over and visit us from Perth will now have to sleep in the lounge room.

• 2. We have expanded our locations to include lower north-shore suburbs, and not just eastern suburbs and inner western Sydney.

Which means we would probably lose contact with half our friends. As I doubt many of them will be willing to depart with $7 ($3 bridge, $4 tunnel) everytime they have to come up and visit us.

• 3. We have lowered our requirements to go for a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 carspace townhouse. Which is a far cry from our previous searches for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1 carspace apartment.
  

But the reality is that we would probably never be able to find a 2x2x1 apartment that's within our price budget in Sydney.

I just hope that when we go to check out the townhouse on Saturday, it is able to live up to our lowered expectations. (fingers crossed!)

Death Sentence

I hardly comment about politics (not because its useless to comment about Australian politics) or other countries laws. Just simply because there is nothing I can say. But there is one case lately that I have been following quite closely on the news. It is the one about an Australian who is facing the death penalty in a foreign country.

This particular case is of a young low-level drug mule who did it to pay off his brother's debt. If the Death Penalty must be imposed, then it should be on the high level bosses.

Sadly this case has not received much attention from the Australian media. At least I can definitely say, it didn't receive the same attention as the Corby case did. I hate to think that it is because he is of an Asian background and not a White Australian. But chances are, it probably is.

I don't know how to justify the Death Penalty. I don't think any institution or human being has the right to take the life of another under any circumstances. How can Society disapprove of Murder and then deliberately take the life of another?

An eye for an eye makes the world blind.

Breast Cancer Week

One of my colleagues at work sent this email around work today. Its Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Another year has passed so quickly. I strongly urge everyone to at least visit this site and buy a Pink Ribbon and support the Breast Cancer Foundation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: FW: Breast Cancer website - 60 seconds to donate for free by clicking

It only takes a minute!

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site!

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com

Again, please pass this along to everyone you know!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email Nightmare

I've just spent the last 2 hours of my working day trying to figure out a way for sending DSET reports to DELL. Its 6pm now, and we still haven't worked it out. Trend for Exchange seems to be able to chew-up everything in a zip file and dump it back to me saying that it has hit an exception rule, as it detects the email as containing an 'Isolated Executable'. SurfControl is worse, it just says I'm trying to send a virus.

I've tried GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo. None of them work.

They all say I'm trying to send an executable file... :(

When I opened up the report file, I noticed most of the files were just .htm files and cascading style sheets. Then I realised what the scanners must be picking up. There has be some scripting code used within some of the .htm files.

Dammit.

Technology just got too smart for its own good.

This is one time that I really feel like technology has just backfired on me.

My company uses two sorts of security packages to filter our emails. And the result of implementing so much security checkpoints ? I can't even send a simple standard DSET report to DELL to fix my server issue! Grrrr....

I think the only thing left for me to do, would be to dialup to my own ISP and use my external email account from my ISP to send those zip files over to DELL.

Perfect. I now need to think of work-arounds solutions just to send an email.

Taxes

I finally received my tax return statement from the ATO (Australian Taxation Office). After nearly lodging a claim for everything I could possibly claim for (without being audited by the ATO). I managed to claim some of my tax back. It isn’t a lot. But it is better than nothing.

During one of the previous year tax returns, I actually had to pay the ATO money due to my HECS debt.

I have a cookie tin where I keep every single receipt that might be able to be used in my tax return claim. And when it is time to submit my tax return, I just take my cookie tin and give my Tax Accountant a visit.

Australia has some of the highest income tax rates in the world. With the highest marginal tax rate at about 47%.

As I slowly read through my statement, I realised I would probably be in HECS debt until the end of my working life. Depressing.

I also realised I had paid a 5 digit dollar figure in tax for this financial year to the ATO.

I wanted to cry.

The ATO just took away the steering wheel, front leather seats, a set of 17” alloy wheels and possibly the 10 stack CD changer to my future new car.

I'm an Expert !

After nearly 2 years on Experts-Exchange, somebody has finally accepted my answer as the best solution to the question they posted! For those who don't know, Experts-Exchange is one of the biggest IT newsgroup sites which has over 1 million IT solutions documented online.

I feel all techie now.. ! (Techie not Geeky .. there is a difference !!)

From the email they sent me, it says "I have earned 2000 Expert Points and have been rewarded with a grade of A".

Whoopeee !!!

If only Expert points can be converted to real dollars... *sigh..

Meeting with the Big Boss

At 3.30pm today I have a meeting with my team leader's manager's manager. The manager of our whole Australian Operations department in Sydney.

Scary.

I still have no idea what the meeting is for. I only know that yesterday I recieved a meeting request in my Outlook inbox asking me to respond 'Accept \ Deny' the meeting. In situations like these, is it even possible to deny a meeting request from your boss's manager's manager ??

I had no choice but to click on the Accept button and send the reply back to his PA.

So here I am now, with 12 minutes left to go, twiddling my thumbs. I can only think he would want to discuss my performance. Why else would he want to see me ? Unless he has a server at home he wants to configure. But then that would be double handling. I'm sure both levels of my managers before him will be able to handle my performance issues. They report back to him in any case.

I'm trying to think of all the possible situations that I might have stuffed up at something. Or may have caused someone to complain to him about my performance.

Nothing. Mind is blank

Don't upper-level management people know they can cause heart attacks in their people by sending out meeting requests with no descriptions ?!?

My List of 10 Things

My best buddy recently sent me a link to a blog she reads religiously. And since I had surfed nearly every possible thing to read on web today (yes.. another boring day in the office), I decided to give that link a visit. My buddy was right, this guy's blog was interesting. The first entry I read talked about his 10 achievements to date and 10 things he wanted to do before he died. He asked his readers to do the same as him and start their own list, and experience the feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction. Just like he did.

So here is my attempt to list my 10 achievements to date:

• 1. Win an award for academic achievement at a Tertiary University Level
• 2. Drink a 700ml bottle of Chivas - all by myself (and not puke)
• 3. Travel and relocated to new places to work all by myself
• 4. Fallen in love
• 5. Drove from Melbourne to Sydney - without ever being in Sydney before.
• 6. Have not succumbed to peer-pressure to start smoking or take party drugs
• 7. Skied down Perisher Blue mountain without needing help
• 8. Win the drinking game 10-15 continuously around the whole karaoke club - twice
• 9. Gone to a strip club at a bucks party (and actually had fun)
• 10. Loved someone enough to let go and wish them the best and genuinely meant it
  

And following with tradition, here is a list of 10 things I would like to have done before I die:

• 1. Complete my A.M.E.B 8th grade Piano exam. (Currently on 7th grade)
• 2. Travel at least once around the world - before I have kids
• 3. Get married
• 4. Let go of my career when my first child is born (and be financially comfortable)
• 5. Buy my daddy a Mercedes Benz for his birthday - while he is still young enough to drive
• 6. Meet the child I am sponsoring through charity
• 7. Complete my Masters Degree
• 8. Build my dream house
• 9. Start my own business after my children start schooling
• 10. Be able to comfortably retire with my hubby before the age of 40

Looking back at the things I achieved, I realised I do have some which I'm proud of, as I had actually put in alot of effort to make it work. Some just happened out of pure stubbornness and my own mischievous will.

When I look at the list of 10 things I want to achieve before I die.. well..humm...

I really hope I would be able to achieve some of them.

These two lists actually took me alot longer than I thought it would. And I must admit I feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that I can actually physically list out my achievements. To anyone that actually does read this, try doing one yourselves. It is worth the time.

You are what you eat

Recently I read about a study which came to the conclusion that a person's choice of food is dictated by that person's sate of mind. Meaning that if the person was angry then they had a higher percentage to turn to chewy foods (eg. Steak) and they would most likely pig-out on chips and potato wedges if they were stressed. Interesting enough the study also concluded that gorging on cakes and sweets is a sure-sign that you were sexually frustrated.

Hummm.. now that is an interesting topic to ponder.

Chips and potato wedges (covered with gravy) are my favorite comfort food and I personally think they can cure any state of mind. But I'm not too sure about the relationship between pigging out on cakes and sweets and being sexually frustrated. I personally would like to be able to pig out on ice-cream and tiramisu without some other onlooker thinking I am sexually frustrated.

iPod ... with Video??

A colleague of mine sent around an email to all the 'known' iPod owners in the office today.

----------------------
Sent: Monday, 17 October 2005 12:31
Subject: Ipod owners

It was worth the wait …
Suckers :-)
http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html
----------------------

I certainly felt like one. Even thought I didn't buy my iPod (Pete brought mine for me), but I did buy a iPod Nano for my cousin. I'm pretty happy with my iPod with colour, it does everything I want it to do - play music & store photos. I'm not 100% sure if I would ever download TV episodes onto a handheld device - which is why I don't think I would invent in a new iPod. But then I doubt I would of brought my cousin the iPod Nano if I knew there was going to be a iPod with Video released in a couple of weeks.

The two are basically different devices for different uses. But then again, it would of just be nice to know they would release something so soon.

I'm not berating Apple and I still love my iPod. But it would of been nice if they released both of them at the same time.

At least then people will have a choice.

Bunny Rabbits

I'm the proud owner of two very cute rabbits. I love them heaps. Words cannot explain. I can sit there for hours just watching them jump and run around at home. They are not only just cute, but also very intelligent. My bunnies will only do 'their business' on a place with newspaper. They have hardly ever poo-poo anywhere else. I'm so proud of them.

Photos of my bunnies are showing on my Flickr album, which is displayed on the links column to the right hand side.

So imagine my dismay when I read the following article while I was browsing through my daily news on the Sydney Morning Herald...

"Accused of bestiality with rabbits and their mutilation deaths, the 36-year-old New Zealand-born businessman found himself in the glare and flashes of television and newspaper cameras when he left Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.... In addition to the bestiality charges, he is charged with 18 counts of aggravated cruelty to 18 rabbits whose mutilated and partially skinned carcasses, many with their skulls crushed and ears cut off, were found throughout the Sydney CBD over a six-week period in July and August. Some of the rabbits were found dumped in a lane at The Rocks or inside women's toilets in the York Street building where he operated a financial planning and mortgage brokerage... "

After reading the article I wanted to go to the Central Local Courts and throw carrots at the idiot.

Bastard..!

Even a jail sentence would be too good for him. I would confine him to a small space and force him to eat only rotten carrots for the rest of his miserable life.


Click here for to view the full article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rabbit-torturer-in-spotlight/2005/10/13/1128796630255.html

Highschool Friends..

My high school friends have always been close to me. Although my bestest best friend from my high school days is no longer the same one. We all still remain quite close. We have our regular gatherings (for the ones who are now located in Sydney) and all try to meet up together when our Stewardess high school friend (who works for SQ) flies in for one night.

As our air stewardess buddy was flying in on Sunday, we got together and did our usual gathering over dinner. After much debating (over mass emails) we decided to go this Spanish place for Tapas. Dinner was not too bad. But the service was atrocious. We stood at the door for about 10 minutes. I accidently tripped one of the waiters a bit (it was an accident). But in the end, I realised it was only because of that we had got his attention. After another 10 minutes or so, one of my girl friend's partner politely got up to get our menus. He had probably noticed my patience was severely wearing down. By the end of our meal, we had still get to receive our jug of water.

I don't understand how a place like that could survive in a city like Sydney. Especially in a street that had 5 other Spanish restaurants.

Our first high school friend to get married did so the previous week. And so 'marriage' was pretty much the topic of the night. I can remember it wasn't that long ago that we still bitched about each other's boyfriends. And now we are already on the topic of marriage. Scary thought.

I could tell we had all grown up quite alot. We talked about our plights with house \ apartment hunting and about how busy we were at our various jobs.

Topics that definitely wouldn't of come up when we were back in the days of Perth.

Black Thursday..

I know I have pretty bad luck sometimes. It usually starts off as little things going wrong in the mornings and snowballs into something much bigger by the end of the day. This was one of these days.

The following were the string of events in order of occurrence.

1) My fish tank cracked...

As I was getting ready to leave my apartment (putting on my shoes and about to dash out of the door), I noticed a pool of water underneath the table which holds my fish tank. The table was soaked with water and was over-flowing into the carpet. Upon closer inspection I noticed a 5-7 cm crack towards the bottom of the tank.

Damn.

Emergancy evac procedures were carried out. Which included the re-location of all goldfish and snails to separate plastic containers. And also carrying the tank to the laundry basin - so it can happily continue to leak out the remaining water left in the tank.

Which subsquently meant that I was late for work again.

2) I was stuck in the lift on the way down to lunch. I repeat.. STUCK in the FREAKING LIFT !

I was trapped in the office lift for a total of 17 minutes on my way down to lunch, with two other guys. I think men get more agitated than women in situations like this. One of the guys just kept on pressing the alarm button. The other just kept on muttering under his breath. I luckily had my mobile with me and SMSed the good news to my manager - as an excuse to have a longer lunch break. When the doors finally opened, we had to climb out as the lift didn't exactly make it to the 38th floor. It was kinda 3/4 of the way there.

3) One of the production servers crashed.

With no apparent reason at all. It just died. By this time, nearly everyone in my team knew I was having a bad day. And so they handled the fault.

I had a feeling this wasn't the end to my bad day yet.. It was all just building up to the climax.

4) The new server I was going to attach to the SAN didn't have enough PCI-X slots for the HBA cards. (ARRggghhh .. !)

This was bad. Really bad. It meant that all my projects that depended on this server being attached to the SAN now had to be on-hold. Until the idiotic sales guy can send me the right parts, either HBA cards for the PCIe slots or change the model of the server to something that will accommodate everything we need.

When I let my project manager in on the bad news, he wasn't very pleased. But nevertheless, I'm not the person who deals with the ordering of equipment. I'm just the techie.

So that's about it. For now.. I hope nothing else will happen tonight. (fingers crossed)

Bad Day Rating: 8.5/10

Bali Strikes Again..

"MORE than 20 people have been killed... in a series of near-simultaneous terrorist bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali..."

It has happened again. Just 11 days short of the 3rd aniversary October bombings in Bali which killed over 200 people.

Every time it happens (Bali.. Spain.. London), those who have lost loved ones in terror attacks will re-live the pain again.

The war against terror - there seems to be no end.

Unhealthy Obsession..

My closest cousin has an unhealthy obsession with handbags. On last count she told me she has approximately 10 'treasured ones' and a unknown number of normal-other-use ones. The 'treasured ones' are the European branded bags and costs over $400 each. (You know ..the Gucci's...LV... Prada .. etc..).

Don't get me wrong, I own a Gucci too (only one.. because I can only afford one - for which I use for work). It's a great bag. Although, I'm not sure if it is worth a price tag of $955, but it has yet to fall apart. Which I can proudly say - It has done much better than the other ones I was using previously. In most cases, my handbags only last about 3 months or so. I think it has something to do with the amount of stuff I put in them.

My usual workbag contains.. external harddisk cover (with my harddisk), CD pack (my survival kit), a few network cables (sometimes) and my iPod. As I said before, it's my 'work bag' .. it contains everything that I need for work.

But, I seriously think that 20++ handbags is getting to be a bit too much.

So here I am now, brainstorming what to get my cousin for her birthday. I had a chat with her bf, and he suggested that I can either continue her unhealthy obsession with handbags or get her the iPod Nano. (Dammit.. both are just as expensive !)

I told him I'll get her the iPod (atleast the iPod has a retail price tag) and leave him to continue her unhealthy obsession.

One dead Fish..10 stitches..

My favourite Pearlscale goldfish died today. It never swam very well (just kinda wobbled around). I thought it was a common trait amongst Pearlscales - since they are so fat and round. Just like a golf ball. I jumped on Google and did a quick search - a couple of the websites I read said that it might have had a problem with its swim-bladder (and can be genetic). Is there any solutions to this ? I don't want this to happen to my other Pearlscale. Does anyone know ?

Today has just been a really bad day. Besides the fact that I had to go into the office to work (on a weekend) and missed the first half of the Eagles game. Pete had also managed to injure himself. Stupidly.

About 20 mins after the Eagles had lost (it was a very close game.. all credit goes to the Swans though - they did play very well), I recieved a SMS on my mobile. The SMS was from one of his friends, saying that Pete had hit his head and was on the way to the hospital. I replied his SMS with the following message..

"Ok .. I know the Eagles lost the finals.. but it's not the end of the world ! Just tell him to stop hitting his head against the wall !!! .."

I already had a crap day the whole morning and was in no mood for jokes.

Pete came home with his head half bandaged (10 stitches) and one very bruised arm.

At first I thought the bandage was fake. But as I continued to stare at him, I noticed his left eye was completely swollen and had a couple of quite visible cuts below it. I was shocked, but extremely pissed off. Trying my best not to raise my voice, I asked him what happened, he replied he ran into a closing door - playing with the boys.

I was so irritated .. I couldn't even be bothered to ask how he managed to do that and just walked away back to my room.

I actually wanted to laugh.. But I couldn't.

Canberra ...3 P's (no more)

Canberra is famous for the three P's... "Pornography, Pyrotechnics and Politicians" ...

Well, Canberra can no longer be known famous for the three P's. As it is official, Pyrotechnics (Fireworks) is no longer available to the commercial public - It is Banned.

Over the past weekend we drove down to Canberra to buy some fireworks to celebrate the chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. All chinese people like a big bang during celebrations, and since fire crackers were definitely out of the question we decided to take a 3 hour drive to buy some fireworks from Canberra.

ACT, the supposedly last state of Australia where fireworks are legal, who sells its products & services to all other states (where fireworks are illegal). Sadly, this is no longer the case. I nearly walked through the whole of Fyshwick and all the pyrotechnic stores I found were closed for the year. The only shops open were XXX rated stores and car dealers. It felt so eerie walking through that suburb.

Not only was our three hour drive to Canberra to buy fireworks spent in vain. We also missed out on watching the all-important AFL preliminary finals between West Coast Eagles and the Adelaide Crows. Growing up in Perth, the Eagles are my home team. I spent a whole hour in the heart of Canberra trying desprately to find a local pub which broadcast the game. After questioning a couple of locals, I realised there was only two pubs in the whole city centre of Canberra. The closest one - An Irish pub - didn't even have a TV.

And this we call the Capital City of Australia.

I ransacked my brain of all the possible places that might be broadcasting the game. I finally found a DickSmith store which I know sells electrical goods (therefore must sell some sort of TVs). Unfortunately they were playing some loop-back tape of pre-recorded ads (Dammit !!). After hunting around for a few moments more in the freezing weather (9C), I gave up and started my long trip back to Sydney.

On the way back I called one of my friends back in Sydney to send me periodic updates of the game via SMS to my mobile. (For the record, we won ! Eagles kicked ass !!!)

House Hunting .. still....

I've finally found something thats within my price range (only just), of a reasonable size and in a good area. Whooppeee ~!

I sent an email to the real estate agent requesting for more information on the apartment. The usual Strata levies other outgoings and a floor plan. I got a simple email back with the strata levies but no floor plan. So I replied the email and asked if I can arrange for an appointment time to go view the apartment. Two days later.. still no reply.

I was thinking.. (dammit..) someone has beat me to it, and put an offer in for the apartment already. I decided to give the agent a call to verify this. As I was genuinely interested in this apartment and desperately wanted to see it.

If I had thought real estate agents were rude previously. This one takes the cake.

She answers the phone with this weird tone in her voice (it just so happens to be the agent who replied my email) and asked which apartment was I looking for. Then when I asked if I could arrange for an appointment to view the apartment she said this:

Agent: We only want geniune serious buyers for this. We are not interested in showing the apartment to researcher or browsers who wont actually make a commitment until 6 months later.

Me: I'm sorry...What do you mean ?

Agent: I mean we aren't interested in showing this apartment to anyone who is just browsing the market.

Me: Ok... I understand (you biaatch)... I am interested. At least interested enough to give you a call (dammit!). Well, I can only be interested to a certain level - as I haven't even seen the (freaaaking) apartment yet. (I really wanted to hang up on her already).

Agent: We only arrange for appointments Monday to Friday during working hours.

Me: Which would mean 9 - 5pm ? I work full time... I really don't think that would be possible.

Agent: As I said before, only serious buyers.

--- End of Conversation ---

Far out... that's customer service for you.. !

Well, if I didn't need to work (and had won lotto) then I think I could accept that schedule.

And if I wasn't working, I doubt the bank would approve my home loan ! (unless, obviously if I had won lotto - then I wouldn't be needing a home loan anyway).

I understand the need for sales people to screen out potential vs 'do-not-waste-my-time' buyers. But this was really starting to get ludicrous.

Even if I do finally get to make an appointment to view the apartment - I doubt I would buy it.

Does Mahjong Bring Out The Worst In Us.. ?

Mahjong is a game I picked up since I was a child at home. My parents played it religiously every weekend. Since I was the eldest child at home, I ran the 'water and tea' department. Which is the job of making sure everyone of my aunties and uncles' coffee or tea cups were kept to a reasonably full level. Therefore, I constantly had to be around the Mahjong table. We have a total of five Mahjong tables at home. And about seven sets of Mahjong. My grandma even gave me one of those sets of Mahjong when she came over the last time to visit me from Perth. (Is she trying to get me adddicted to Mahjong ??)

Mahjong is a game which I must agree brings out the worst (or the best) in us.

From a young age, I saw even my sweetest aunty lose her temper when another uncle had gamed on her card. And I had often seen my other aunty throw a Mahjong tile irritably at the table when it wasn't the tile she had hoped for (she even threw it at my uncle a few times). My mum and daddy can also never play on the same table. The result would be just like world war 3 in the household.

My daddy is a man of few words. But put him on a Mahjong table and even he starts to evolve take on the characteristics of other players. He begins to speak alot louder (possibly to keep above the noise made by the tiles) and even starts to joke around with the other players.

Or maybe we are all just sore losers. And Mahjong just brings it all out. There is no sportsmanship in this game.

Last night we decided to play a game of Mahjong.. and the result ?

The most swear words I had heard in a three hour interval. Followed by one of the guys leaving (at the end of the game) and later calling me to tell me that my other two friends were both sore losers.

I told him he was too.

Food poisoning.. and now the flu ?!?

My last three days in Hk was spent in half in bed .. the other half of the time was spent in the bathroom hugging the toilet.. !! My stomach violently reacted to something I ate whilst in Macau. I really don't know what it was.. could of been the BBQ food or double layered milk pudding or even the Portuguese Tart I had.

I knew I shouldn't of been such a pig...

Now that I'm back in Sydney, I had only lasted one day before the Sydney flu bug snared me as its next victim.

*sob**

I hate being sick. Especially since I think I've run out of sick days at work already. (dammit..no pay).

Well... its not all bad. I've managed to level up two levels in World of Warcraft. That's all I've been doing. Sleep... Warcraft.. Sleep

*sigh**

I've nearly gone through another tissue box. I've just been piling all the tissues on my small table next to my bed. I have one BIG mountain of tissues now... The bin is just too far away.

So freaking hot....

It is so freaking hot in Hk right now. I've never actually visited Hk in summer (mind you.. its nearly the end of summer anyway). But it is still so @#%#$ HOT .... and SWEATY.. and STICKY ... just ...YUCK !

I think its best to stick to the overpriced end-of-year trips from now on.

Had a massive shopping day ... (again).. followed by drinks in Lan Kwai Fong (LFK). LFK is the famous place in Hk filled with bars and discos. The icon of nightlife in Hk. Well, for tourists it is anyway. The drinks there are seriously overpriced. But the atmosphere is great !

Tomorrow will be heading to Macau.. just hope i can wake up in-time to catch the Ferry !

1st day of shopping ...

We finally arrived last night after a 10 hour flight. Flight was ok.. the cabin crew kept on giggling throughout the whole trip. Have no idea why. But on the way home we went to get some congee and roast pigeons (typical supper combination in Hk). Normally, I hate the idea that I'm actually going to eat a pigeon. But these were seriously yummy.

This morning when we woke up we went straight out to Mongkok (Hk's famous shopping district) to meet up with my god brother. And when he said he'll make us 'shop till we drop'.. he kept his word. From 11am till 8pm non-stop. My legs were killing me. All the gym sessions with Pete didn't help at all. I was finally getting to the stage where I'll walk into any shoe shop and pretend to look around then sit down and try something on, just for the sake of being able to sit down for a couple of moments and to take my sneakers off.

At about 8 we called it quits and decided it was time to bring all our shopping home so we could nurse our sore feet.

I guess being in Australia all the time we depend too much on our cars. I use my car even to just go down the road to buy Maccas. I really should start to use my legs and walk around more in Sydney. My best buddy and me were both dead by the time we reached home.

I was already on the verge of chopping off my legs. They didn't feel like mine anymore...

One more day ... !

Tomorrow I'll be boarding the Virgin Atlantic flight to HK with my best buddy for 5 days of serious Eating & Shopping. (Whoooppee !)

I've been waiting for this day on my calendar for 3 months already..

Charmaine has already promised me she will take me eating around Macau.. And my god brother has already taken two days off work just to take us shopping around HK.

I think I'll just pack my Jeans, a T-Shirt and my undies.. :)

Only 14 hours and 25 minutes left to go now....

Today is Daffodil Day ..

"The Daffodil is the international symbol of hope for all people affected by cancer..."

I had nearly forgotten today is Daffodil Day. It was only when I was stepping out of the Wynyard Train Station that I saw the volunteers selling Daffodils Day merchandise, raising money for the Cancer Foundation.

I brought a bunch of Daffodils and sent a silent prayer for my youngest uncle who is back in Perth winning his battle against Cancer. Winning.. not even sure if that is the correct word to use anymore. My uncle spent nearly a year doing chemo and radiotheropy.

The last time I was back in Perth, I gave my uncle a hug before I left and it was then I realised how much weight he had really losed. I could easily feel his shoulder bone when I wrapped my arms around him. A man which at one stage of my life had told him he was getting 'fat' .. was now probably a third of what he previously weighed.

Gotta stop getting all teary now .. and get back to work. :(