Reflections on the past month

It's finally the end-of-month. And since its the end of financial year as well, I'm left totally exhausted from work.

Some reflections on the past month:

• Mrs Ang and baby Jo going back to Singapore and Hong Kong for 3 months. I miss bouncing Jo on my lap. (And miss having that urge to pinch her cheeks everytime I see her - even though I never actually allow myself to do so).
• Completed 3 server migrations and 1 production systems migration. (Something I originally thought was impossible to achieve in the given timeframe. It was subsquently completed in 1 week and my company expressed its graditude in movie tickets). *sigh... When you've been sleep deprived for a week. What good are movie tickets ??
• The Socceroos losing to Italy. Although hard to swallow the defeat, the Socceroos played well. And just by making it to the world cup, they have done wonders to the sport for Australia.
• I recieved an unexpected phone call from my first boyfriend. Although I have no means of contacting him, I hope all is well for him.
• Completed my 2nd last exam for my Masters. Only one more unit to go and I can't wait till its over.
• For the first time in the 5 years since I have left Perth, I didn't manage to make it back to my Granny's birthday. I talked to her for an hour over the phone instead and promised to be back for Christmas.
• Reaching the 1 year mark with Pete. Yet realising at the same time that we are facing a lot more issues than ever before. I guess there is no such thing as to even having a 'stable relationship'.
• Finding out I no longer have 20/20 vision and will require glasses when driving (especially at night).

Hope I am able to get a decent amount of tax return this year... :)

Why should I hire you ?

Armed with two final quotations, I went in search of my manager to get the much needed 'Approval' in order to get my new baby toy's purchase-order in before the end of finanical year. My manager it seems, was in the middle of a phone interview at one of the smaller meeting rooms. I waved my quotations at the door of the 'Fish bowl' room and upon recognising the vendor's logo, she waved me in and motioned me to be quiet.

She was on speaker phone.

It turned out she was nearing the end of the interview. And I was just lucky enough to catch the last question.

"So.. give me some good reasons why I should hire you ?"

"I am cheap. I will do whatever you want. "

I crouched down to the floor and tried hard to control my laughter. I mentally stopped myself from rolling around the floor in an uncontrollable laughing fit. Not just because it was on speaker phone, but because I was in the goldfish bowl meeting room. It wouldn't look too good from the outside. On the otherhand, if someone did come in, I could just try to pretend to have an epileptic fit.

But anyway, it turned out I wasn't the only one trying not to laugh. When I did manage to compose myself and get up from the floor, my manager still had her head in her arms.

The phone interview pretty much ended there. Apparently the guy was a PhD student. (He was applying for a junior systems analyst role). And my manager was interested in interviewing him because his agent had stated that he was willing to take the job on less than the salary package on offer.

I think curiosity got the better of her.

That has got to be one of the worse answers I have ever heard of in a job interview.

For the record, my manager approved the quotation I had preferred for my new server. My new baby is going to be equipped with 20gb of RAM. Yay !!

I wonder how fast WoW will run on that. (Just kidding... I will never do such a thing...)

*Fish bowl room - is one of the smaller meeting room at work, which my colleagues and I refer to as the 'fish bowl' room, because it is entirely enclosed by glass walls. Leaving the person inside the room feeling like a fish in a fish bowl.

Yummy !

The LaCie Skwarim (Blue) 60GB Hard drive....... *drools**

It's small and compact enough to hold in your hands. And at only 99 grams, it can just be a permanent resident in my handbag.

I guess its only downside is that the technical aspects of this drive aren't exactly smashing. At 4200 rpm with only a 2mb cache, it would definitely be one of the slower drives around. But where it lacks at speed, it definitely makes up in size and portability.

I'm still 50/50 when it comes to getting this little toy. The cheapest place I can find selling this hard drive (that would deliver to Australia) is at $299 (ex GST).

I still have 4 more days to decide whether or not I should actually buy it. (End of financial year)

If I do end up getting it, I hope no one at work would think it is a blue 'Post-It' note and accidently write on it.

Should I ... or shouldn't I ?!?

We are through !!

Pete put $10 bucks down on last nights game. If the above pic of the TAB ticket isn't that clear, he picked the following:

• Brazil --> Japan vs Brazil ..... verdict : Brazil wins

• Italy --> Czech Republic vs Italy ..... verdict : Italyl wins

• Ghana --> Ghana vs USA ..... verdict : Ghana wins
  

• Austrlaia --> Australia vs Croatia ...... Australia ....DRAWS ~~!!!???!

There goes $110.10 .... :(

An extra $110.10 would be nice, but atleast Australia got through to the last 16... !!

A win would have just been the icing on the cake. :)

wish me luck !

My exam is in less than an hours time. And something tells me that I should of spent more time last night studying than doing the ZF instance in world of warcraft last night.

*sigh.... It's too late to regret now..

I know I will pass. It just depends on what grade I will get.

When I first started my masters course, I made a point on keeping my distinction average.

Now, I just can't be bothered anymore. Especially since this is my 2nd last unit. I just want to get this over and done with.

Ok, have to go now. Wish me luck !!

I need glasses

After about a couple of months of squinting at sign boards, blurred vision when staring at my computer screen for prolonged hours and getting the occasional headache, I decided to take a trip to my local optometrist.

The optometrist put me through an eye test which required me to wear this hollow pair of spectacles that enabled him to put different lenses in.

Without any lenses inserted I could just barely make out the last line of letters on the screen.

Or so I thought.

With each lens he inserted, he asked me to read the bottom line again.

And my 'B' had suddenly became a 'T'.

"Oh my god... I've been reading the wrong thing all the time .. and you didn't say anything !!"

My optomestrist just smiled and continued the test. I realised he probably hears that line a hundred times a day, but for me it was a first.

By the end of the 30 minute test, the verdict was that I would require spectacles (no surprises there). But I would only require it mostly at night times and when I was driving.

*sigh...

I can no longer be known as the only member of my team who doesn't need to wear glasses.

funny stuff

Found this funny clip online at youtube. Its from a Japanese game show.

The rule is not to laugh. I really do feel sorry for the poor guy.. he is trying his best already.

ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ... :)



enjoy.. !

First Win at World Cup

Australia vs Japan...

3 - 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aussie Aussie Aussie ~~~~~~~~~~ !

So excited... :)

Pete was sending SMSes back and forth with his best friend in Macau while I was doing the same with my friend in Indo.

I think our phone bills are going to be as interesting as the world cup this month.

Unexpected

I recieved an unexpected phone call from someone last night. When I picked up the phone the person on the other side just asked "Hey Alice.. remember me ?". Since there was no caller-ID showing... all I could say was.. "No... who is this ?".

It was my first boyfriend. My puppy love. The guy I thought I would never break up with. Yet spent the last year with him plotting my escape route.

After the initial shock, I asked him how he was. (Just to break the ice). He replied he was doing well then asked me if he could ask me a question. I told him, sure.. since he had already asked one already.

"What was the first birthday present you gave me".

No idea.

I told him I didn't know and I didn't want to remember.

"Ok... can you remember any of the presents you gave me ?"

I told him "No".

After which he said he wishes me all the best and just hung up.

I spent the rest of my sleepless night thinking about that one question. I eventually did remember what I got for his birthday. But in the process of digging through the past, I also remembered everything else I went through because of him.

Everything I did for him and everything I put up with before calling it quits.

I bailed him out of jail. Took out a loan to pay off his court fees. Something that took me 5 years to pay off. Caught him in bed with a girl. (A girl I later became good friends with). And the slap across my face I had to ignore, just so that my brother wouldn't have him beaten up.

To be fair, it wasn't all bad. There were good times, otherwise I wouldn't have been in a 3 year relationship with him.

5 years to forget everything. And for one phone call and one silly question to bring it all back.

Thinking back now, I am amazed by all the things I was able to take in and just live with it and actually think it was ok. All because I loved him.

I guess you are allowed to be stupid once in your life.

Feeling Groggy

I realise I'm probably feeling groggy today because I was working until 3am last night. Yes, 3 freaking am.

And since I've been coughing up my lungs since yesterday afternoon, I can safely take it as the first signs of falling sick. Ok, maybe I'm not yet coughing up my lungs yet. But by yesterday night I was coughing so much I actually puked up what I had for lunch.

Ok. Too much information.

Normally I would embrace a sick day at home with open arms. It usually means a non-stop sessions of Warcraft in bed.

But not this time. This weekend is a long weekend !

Monday is a public holiday !! I already have a girl's night out and karaoke session planned for this long weekend.

I don't want to be sick ~~~~~~ !

Not happy, Jan!

Do or Die

Do or Die. I meant the Server I'm working on. Not me... :)

For the past week I've been trying to resolve a major issue on one of the production servers we have.

My manager gave the "Do or Die" signal with the deadline set to tomorrow morning. So if the server is fixed by tomorrow (Do Scenario), everything stays the same (fingers X). If not, (Die Scenario), we move everything ... and I mean EVERYTHING... onto our DR server. And hope our DR plan actually works and it covers everything.

But I've had about 10+ phone calls today and people every 5 minutes coming over to ask me unnecessary questions. So I told her, with all these interruptions, there is no way I could meet the Do or Die deadline by tomorrow morning.

She has taken my 'No Interruption' request quite literally.

Enough so that my office phone line has now been diverted to her phone and she is keeping all the people away, just like a fly swatter with flies would.

I really should get to my server now. Wish me luck !

Rise @ Darlinghurst

Last saturday, I went with a couple of my friends to the Rise restaurant at Darlinghurst. Rise by Hideki Okazaki is a Japanese restaurant with a touch of 'fusion'. Overall I would say the food was quite delicious. Of special note is their Soft Shell Crab Tacos, Truffle Infused Tuna Sashimi, Oyster Tempura and their Green Tea Creme Brulee dessert.

Their service however, is on a totally different level.

The cute Japanese waitresses were definitely a nice sight to look at. But weren't really practical when it came to chasing up a missing beer we ordered. After a couple of minutes (unsuccessfully) trying to explain to our waitress that we were still missing a beer, we decided to just order 3 extra ones instead. Not just to simplify things or because we were just alcoholics. But because the rest of us with beers had already finished our first ones. And it would just be easier to order more than to continue to explain to the waitress that we were still missing one from our first order.

I would definitely give the panfried tuna a miss. It was over-done and definitely not 'raw'. The wagyu beef or salmon probably would have been a better choice, as the guys who did order the beef were raving on about it the whole night.

The size of the dishes were rather small but still good value for money. We had a group of six (and a baby) so there was rather a long waiting period between entrees and mains. I guess with the size of the restaurant, it would probably be better to keep it to small groups of 2 - 4 people. As we were cramped in the passage way to the toilets.

Overall, good food, cute waitresses but bad service.