Reno & Decor Can Kill

I just realised that renovation does cost a bomb! Like, a huge C-4 bomb to your money coffer . if you intend to have the modern chic look, as though a designer himself has put some touch to your home, be prepare to fork out a big lump sum.

Nowadays we see magazines showing how to decorate your house depending what mood you want to set it to be: modern, retro, feminine, you name it. And it always looked so nice from the glossy page isn’t it? It makes you yearn for something similar too isn’t? I know I do.

Apart from going through magazines and numerous googling session, I finally understand that it is not easy to build your “dream home”. Unless you have a plush bed of cash waiting at your beck of call. It is definitely not likely, if you have a budget to adhered to.

Let me break down to you my result of early research into reno & décor:

Bathroom

If you were thinking to get a chic modern bathroom (think white small cabinet with small white porcelain sink, white toilet bowl & mirror) that will easily set you AT LEAST RM2k back. Oh, I haven’t even look at the bathtub price.

Now think again if you have two or three toilet that you want to renovate. Naturally you can change the faucet design to any other that they have, but that too is a cost, mind you.

Kitchen

Don’t you think range cooker is all in the rage nowadays? I do. In fact, after having been using it for quite some time in oversea, I came to adore it. I was thinking of getting one, but then when I take a look at the price, I almost had a heart palpitation. A range cooker with hood can easily set you RM6k back. And I am looking at the cheapest here.

My colleague told me, the metal sink with two partition for washing costed her RM600!

Now, I haven’t even been checking out the price for custom made kitchen furniture yet. You know, those cabinet doors that don’t bang upon closing, Chic modern design with the colour of your choice. But I was told, be prepare to fork out twenty grand for it. Again, my blood pressure shoot up like the geyser.

Electrician and plumbing work will cost about RM4k.

Retiling

Let’s say you bought a pre-owned house and you hated the sight of the floor tiles. After all, big tiles is in the rage now as compared to small tiles. A quick quotation told me it will cost approximate RM7-8k.

I forgot how much it cost for a build in wardrobe though. I guess my mind starts go hazy after seeing all the cost involved just to decorate a place to call home.

Furniture

A simple 3 Seater sofa cost about RM2-5k (depending on the brand & design, material: fabric? genuine leather? bycast leather?)

A bed frame with a relatively good mattress cost about RM2-5k too, depending on the brand,size, thickness etc.

Nightstands, cabinets are not that costly, but it will probably cost you about RM1k?

Oh did I mentioned, the above cost is only for a tiny condo? I shudder to think of those Semi-Ds.

Initially, I was dreaming of getting a custom made shoe rack and a daybed. But now I have soberly shelf it to the back of my mind.

Haze Made My Mind Go Hazy Too~

Damn the haze!!!

I am back to feeling sick again!

For more than a week, I was constantly at war. My immune system was battling with viruses so rapidly that I have to keep adding “back up troops” 3 times a day.

It started with the feeling of hot. I knew I was feverish then but I persevere on. I continue to go to work like normal and pop panadol in due time. Very quickly, my fever subsided.

But Mr Cough lingers on. For a week, I was coughing and coughing and coughing so badly that I’m beginning to feel embarrass to go to work. I wouldn’t want to spread the germs to all albeit “sharing is caring”. though I don’t think any of my colleague will be particularly happy if I do

I tried my best to cough gently and, less noise, less frequently. It kinda works because not much people realised that I was even sick. It is either I’m too insignificant to be noticed or I managed to masked myself pretty well.

Unfortunately, I am someone who hates to take cough syrups. I can self-prescribe myself medications, but I just wouldn’t touch the cough syrup. Only for cough alone, I would turn to Chinese medicine. Normally, I am not a big fan of Chinese medication due to my mistrust of their credibility however, for cough, I personally think that swallowing black pills is so much easier than swallowing *raspberry* cough syrup.

Yuck!!!

Anyway, just when I thought the worse is over and I have won the battle, the taste of victory that still lingers in my mind  suddenly vanished.

Come Monday, and here I am, sick again.

I woke up and my throat felt parched like sandpaper. Then when I drove to office, I find the weather much too gloomy and instantly I knew that the haze has taken a toll to the worst. A few hours confined in my office cubicle had me feeling rather heaty and I just knew it. I knew I’m having fever all of a sudden.

Drink more water. I know.

I had been drinking tonnes of water but it doesn’t help. Not my fever nor my sore throat.

Throughout the day all I’ve been thinking was to go home and rest.

Naturally I didn’t do that, simply because I already spend a better part of the day at office. If I were to go for MC, it’s kinda a waste IMHO. So I tell myself that I will persevere until end of the day, and if I am still feeling shitty, I can then go to a doctor and get myself a MC for a good rest the next day.

Insurance Agent Sux!!!

Can someone please tell me honestly what does an General Insurance agent does? Yup, I am talking about car insurance agent.

Truth to be told, I have no idea at all. None. Apart from collecting money for insurance renewal, very promptly I may add, what else do they do?

Aren’t they the one knows best of laws and regulations and procedures and stuff when it comes to claims and accidents and all? Aren’t also they are supposed to give us the best advice/guide us on how to handle/proceed when it comes to the moment in need?

In my fantasy world (I know it is a fantasy now for even putting hope in agents!) I sincerely believed so. But now I know better. Apart from taking commissions and protecting their company’s pocket, they don’t give a damn to any policy holder.

Sadly, this happened to my family. My brother met with an accident early last year and subsequently a lot of things happened which I will not elaborate here…when we refer to our agent to make claims, then a lot of issues came up. Finally at one point, when my brother enquire further, the answer he get is “I don’t know”

Like is this even acceptable for an agent to say “I don’t know”? Like, can’t she (yes, a mature lady) find it out? Check with company or such?

No. She didn’t think so. In the end, my brother has to solicit a lawyer to act on his behalf to make claims on the party at fault. Naturally, once lawyer is thrown into equation, everything settled smoothly.

And promptly.

Oh, and now the agent says, since we have solicitor lawyer to make own claim, this has nothing to do with the insurance company anymore. To put it bluntly, this is not part of her job scope anymore. Her work is done! Though I don’t know what did she do in the first place.

Another case, again my brother met with an accident late last year, and the repair cost plus lost of use is claimed on the party at fault too. In order not to tempered with my car’s NCD (yup, he was driving my car then), we have to pay upfront to the service center, and then claimed back from the party at fault.

This my friend, is deemed not part of our agent’s jurisdiction either. According to her, if we want to expedite the payment and such, we need to chase them ourselves since we are not claiming our own insurance company, but as a third party claim.

So it means, all the endless phone calls to service center and also the other party insurance company is to be borne by ourselves. This has nothing to do with our agent.

It has been more than half a year and we have still yet to receive any payment. Through the wonder of Google, I did find out from forums that it takes forever to get paid and such hence most dubbed insurance company as leech – because they are all bloodsuckers!

Now back to square one: What does a General Insurance Agent do again? It seems like quite a lot of things are not “fallen under their jurisdiction” anyway.

Perhaps its just me, but I surmise that my agent sucks.

BIG time!!!

Me, an IT geek?

I am so very proud of myself. And also to whomever that create the wonder of world wide web, as well as Google. With it, I can do magic as well.

Just take for example, last week I have some difficulty accessing to my online 2D game. For some unknown reason to me, my laptop just failed to access to the web server, despite numerous attempted to uninstall, reinstall, not to mentioned copy the entire file from another computer.

It can function well on my bro’s computer, but not my laptop. That kinda make me depressed for like, nearly a week. The depression sunks deeper especially during the time when there is double exp event going on.

Just when I thought, enough is enough! I gotta take control of the situation myself. So I called up my friend, who’s a genius in IT see if he can find out the root of my depression. But alas, my friend is not free. About to embark on a weeklong holiday escapades with family.

For a short moment, I was thinking, “oh well, it’s okay, I’ll just wait for another week to fix my situation. No biggie”

But then my itchy backside gets the better of me. Out of some spur genus, I went and googled online to see if I can fix this mess myself! After several failed attempt at searching at the wrong area, I finally found it.

I finally found the “cure” to my depression. It was unbelievably easy, once you know how, and why. It was just some stupid security pre-setting from Window Vista which I have to manually made some changes to.

Seriously it was that easy. Just a few clicks away and voila! I can play my beloved game again.

Now, I am always eager to go home after work just to continue my game. Call me a game junkie if you must, but my current addiction will last me for a while.

p/s: my laptop is not designed for game, plus it’s like, 4-5 years old? So the RAM cannot support it to the fullest. I was toying with the idea of getting a new monster CPU, but then, reality bites! We are talking about moolah here-.-“

Something that I seriously lacked off right now.

Darn!

Life @ Fast Lane

Time flew....come this Friday and i'll be free again. Literally free.


Without knowing it, I almost cover for my A.M for 3 weeks. She's on leave due to personal reason so I have to relieve her work. This is our company policy to relieve another person's work when he/she is on leave.


In short, you may not be at office, but your work must still carry on. Say if you plan to go for a holiday, firstly get your colleague to help relieve your work for the period you'll be away. Then only you apply for leave. So, better treat your colleagues good heh heh heh ;p


The person that used to relieved her has tender resignation letter therefore my A.M need to find new people to relieve her. And yours truly was chosen.


At first, I was like, hey!!! I'm freaking new here. How on earth do these people think that I am capable of A.M's job??? Are you all nuts??? I've just reported to work barely a month ago!!!


That was three weeks ago.


Time really flies huh? Three weeks has passed. Just like that.


Three weeks ago, I was really nervous and worried endlessly. I worried that my inexperience will shine like a beacon for all to see. Then I worried that if people might snigger behind my back and well, badmouthed me. I seriously don't want any unnecessary attention.


Three weeks later, I am still surviving.


I must say, this unexpected job allocation really force me to mature faster. This is because I need to learn faster, do faster, grow faster and gain double experience faster.


My transition in this double workload is made easier by all the help and encouragement I get from most of my colleagues. Truly I feel blessed because everyone is really very kind with their words and helping hand.


Due to my inexperience, whenever I faced any situation, big or small, I keep asking around. All I did was ask, ask, ask, and ask. Most of the time, I really feel inexperience because whenever my colleagues give me a "solution" I'll be thinking, "wow, why can't I think of this before?"


Nevertheless, I really enjoy this challenge. Although I spend longer time in office than I used to, but I get a sense of satisfaction. Especially when my work get acknowledged. It really made my day.


Nehhh, I am not a workaholic. I still very much honor my code of conduct: Never bring work back home!

Fainting Spell

For the first time in my life, I fainted.


Yeah~ Like, really passed out.


On the street. Full of passers by.


So embarassing right? I'll never be able to go to pasar malam for quite a while now~


Last saturday started out as any normal Saturdays. We went out shopping, have lunches and stuff. Then came at night.


Definitely one of my most memorable night in my life.


We already bought movie tickets for Avengers (midnight show) so we went to pasar malam (night market) to have our late dinner. Halfway walking and my tummy started to feel ill at eased. But I thought it's okay, just nature call.


But as I was having fried koey teow, my tummy really feel bad now so I told President that let's make a move as I need to go to toilet. Only taking a couple steps, I started to feel violently ill.


Really, really sudden. No warning at all.


Suddenly my legs cannot support my weight and my vision gets dark. I was leaning heavily on President, concentrating really hard to put each step in front of me while I was sweating profusely. All I can hear is President keep asking, "are you okay?" "how are you?" "what's happening?" "can you walk?"


The next thing I know, I'm already sitting on the floor, albeit in a weird angle. More like, I kneeled to the ground. I've actually passed out for a second or two. Thanks to a nice lady (probably a vendor at the night market) and some other vendors who saw how President struggles to get me up, she generously came and help me up on a chair.


They offer medicated oil which Presidents help to apply on my temple. And it did kind of rejuvenate me a little. So who says that there are no good samaritans out there?? There are still good hearted people out there amidst the "face paced" world we lived in. I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all those who helped me unconditionally and may God bless your kind soul!!!


Okay, enough of digression.


A few minutes later as I feel a little stronger, I told President to bring me to toilet because ehem, I really need to go. Like, really, really need to go desperately.


The walk to the nearest loo feels like a climb on the Everest to me. I still need to lean heavily on President while sweating profusely like a pig, only to find BOTH toilet is occupied!!! Darn I really don't have energy to stand hence I squated right in front of the toilet.


When the lady came out from the toilet she probably had the shock of her life, as I'm sure I'm quite a sight to behold hurhur~~


President was afraid that I fainted inside the toilet that he called me 7 times, of which I only picked up one call. I was, in the toilet, you see~ lol;p


Seriously, I was sweating so much that anyone can mistaken that it's raining-.-"


Finally, I feel slightly better, with President's help I managed to somehow walked back to our car and find a nearby clinic to check on my condition.


Doctor can't find anything wrong with me as all my vital signs are normal:
I am not dehydrated
I am not anaemic
I have not caught fever
My response is normal

Okay, so maybe my blood pressure is lower than normal, BUT that can't mean anything. I was let go with some antibiotics for my slightly scrapped knee, I did flacidly slide down afterall (applied acriflavine to disinfect) and I am 25 bucks poorer.


Finally President came home and googled my condition. What happened to me is called  "vasovagal attack"


It is a common type of fainting and the factors could be due to stress, lack of sleep, overtiredness, dehydration et cetera et cetera....


 So, in order to get more rest, I was forbid to watch the Avengers-.-"


Darn, I wasted two good tickets! -.-"  iwasconfinedathomebypresident

Mind your own language

Sitting here alone in my office, listening to my colleagues talking…suddenly a thought popped into my head.

Through their conversation, I unconsciously picked up some discreet hidden agenda. The more I listen to it, the more prominent these hidden agenda stare right back at me.

I am sure it is not intentionally made. Perhaps they just think this is really funny and all, but somehow, I find it rather insensitive rather than funny.

So what do you think I’ve picked up indirectly?

Language.

Truth to be told, most of my colleagues hailed from Chinese education background. Except yours truly. And someone else.

Recently, I’ve heard quite a lot of remarks and jokes aimed at the “somebody” over his language handicap. How they made fun of him and how he might screw up due to improper usage of Chinese words that may be interpreted wrongly and offend potential customers.

Thing is, “somebody” will be going to a place filled with Chinese community and our colleagues here were making jokes over his handicap.

I’m sure they find it funny and harmless. Perhaps, it really is harmless.

But why do I feel so ill at ease?

Personally, I don’t agree with them. I mean, yes I understand that Chinese language is very important today and it is more and more in demand. However, that doesn’t mean English is not EQUALLY important right?

What I don’t understand is how people can go on and on and on.. campaigning on the importance of Chinese language, yet they overlooked/ignored English Language.

Why is it that some people looked down on “banana” people (people that don’t read their own mother tongue) and think that we’ve missed the world?

On the other hand, we have never looked down on people that can’t string a proper English sentence. Have I looked down on people like them?

No I haven’t!

I have not laughed at them or belittled them at all. I certainly don’t think they’ve missed the world!!??

So why is it that you can only master ONE Chinese language and we can’t master only ONE English language?

Just because English is not the language our forefathers speak?

Oh come on!

Grow up please!!!!

FYI: I have the utmost respect for people that can speak both language fluently. I have many such friends and I am proud of them for not belittling either one party that speak only one language fluently.

Kudos to them!

Trapped!!!!

OMGGGGGGGGGG

Today I witnessed something unbelievable!!!!!!!!

My God of all things can be done, but this????

You see, one of our colleague was accidently trapped in one of the Director’s room (unused at the moment) and he can’t opened the door from the inside, which makes him trapped.

We tried to help him from the outside but can’t either…the door just won’t bulge!!! Something is wrong with the lock mechanism. So we called for reinforce team – HR Dept that have the keys.

BUT, the key doesn’t work its magic either. So our poor colleague is really trap this time. Big time!

There on the other hand, our PIC is there making so much noise of how “no people are allowed in the rooms and such and why our colleague is in there without authorisation?”

Well hello??? It is an empty room after all and our colleague was on the phone so he just wanted some privacy. Not that he wanted this to happen right? Why make such a big deal of it?

Seriously I don’t see what’s the big issue lor right??? Just find a locksmith to open up the door that’s all!!!!

Instead, scold scold scold!!! What’s the point?

Though they did get people from the Maintenance to “solve” this issue, our poor colleague was trapped for quite a while.

Then suddenly, our PIC came over and joked with us saying how “fortunate” it happened to one of us instead of the boss-.-“

Hello?? Less than 5 minutes ago you were reprimanding all of us over the phone and now you happily laugh and joke with us?

Talk about 180 degree turn!

Finally our colleague was “freed unharmed” which I think is the most important thing ever.

This has really become the hottest issue in our department right now. ^^

My Progress @ Work

I have been working for a week already. My relationship with my colleagues are getting better as well. In the beginning, I have not make much friends but today, I see a vast improvement already. My social circle has grown bigger and bigger already. Which is definitely a good thing.

I mean, making friends is better than making enemy. It make me feel less lonely lol;p At least now I got more people to chat with me so I feel less boring.

So far, work was uber boring! The first few days there’s intensive training for us newbies as well as a plant tour. That was good because it feels that there is something to do. Subsequently, there’s nothing else to do.

My immediate superior did hand down some customer for me to follow up but then, they weren’t really active. I was also given some databases to mass mail but that’s pretty much about it.

I finished off everything and now sitting in the office with nothing concrete to do. So I spend my time doing some reading and and reading and reading. It gets so freaking boring that I keep yawning every few minutes.

To make things worse, IT man has yet to set my computer to the internet, which means I can’t even go online!!!!!

There’s really nothing I can do lor seriously. Although I can’t say I’m very familiar with my company’s product but still, it’s really boring here…

Everyday sitting in the office doing nothing. Listening to MP3…..urrggghhhhh it’s really no life here in office man!!!!

I wanna work!!!! Else I’ll get so mushroomed that I’ll get lazy -.-“

Not that I’m any hardworking to begin with!

Me @ Work

I have started work with my new employer for a week. Unfortunately, I even gotta work on Saturdays. Alternate Saturdays for half day. And my first Saturday is a working Saturday hurhurhur….so happy hor? -.-“

Seriously, time passed very fast when you are enjoying yourself. I actually had a week break in between working for previous employer and new employer. However, that week just came and go in a blink of an eye.

There I was happily cooking drama at home and before you can utter “hastalavistababy” it’s Monday and it’s working day.

I was pretty nervous at first because first day ma…how will my new colleague welcome me? To top that of, I forgot to prepare food for lunch!

Rule #1: Always bring something to eat on the first day of work. This is to be the back up plan in case you can’t make any friends fast enough or get any invitation to join your new colleagues for lunch.

Well of course if you are a social queen then you obviously will not have any issue with this. It helps too if you are a prom queen.

Let’s face it, which guy don’t wanna date their hot colleague for lunch?

Or if you are always a loner and don’t mind eating alone, well….i guess you too won’t have any issue here.

But yours truly here hates to eat alone in public. Out of desperate measure, I grabbed some cookies and stuff in my bag.

Luckily, my colleagues are pretty nice. And I have lunch partners. Thank God!

My first day started as me walking into the office bearing visitor pass (they held my driving licence as hostage!) and fill up forms before the HR Manager came and brief me on the company rules, strata, and bla bla bla… and my first impression is…me don’t really like her….hurhurhur…

THEN I was introduced to EACH and EVERY people in the office – exchanging handshakes and names and pleasantries….to e-ve-li-bo-di….

For two floors!

Obviously, I can’t recognise most of them lor…knowing me, I’m really bad with faces. I can remember names much more easily compare to faces.

But all in all, I suppose this is how big organization works. I mean, good also la, cuz this is definitely the fastest way to intro yourself and get to know others. Whether you remember them or not after that, well, that’s entirely another issue.

LOL

Cheapo Man doesn't have any future!

My GOD!!!! What a cheap man!!!!!!

Totally cannot stand this type of people lor....beh tahan!!!!!

I went to a workshop in my office area to get a quotation for my car fender (the part that got bang!) and the foreman quote me RM350. So I called my "banger" (the idiot that bang my car!) and told him the price.

Guess what?!

He says its too expensive and according to his friend, it cost around RM200++ only so he say he will give me RM200. I was like, WHAT??? DO YOU EXPECT ME TO FORK OUT RM150 MYSELF?????

ARE YOU NUTS????!!!!!!!!

That cheapo man gave me another option, which is to bring my car to his friend's workshop in Puchong and he will bear the full cost of repair.

WELL, HELLO???!!!!!! HOW DO YOU EXPECT I'M TO GET MY BUTT THERE???? WHO's GONNA FETCH ME TO WORK AND STUFF???????

He stupidly suggest, "your friend"

LIKE HELL!!!!! YOU THINK ALL MY FRIENDS DON'T NEED TO WORK IS IT???? YOU THINK THEY CAN FETCH ME WHENEVER I WANT IS IT????? YOU THINK EVERYONE IS LIKE YOU SO USELESS IS IT?????!!!!!!! F*** YOU!!!!!!!

He even has the cheek to say "I don't want to talk about who's at fault now"

F*** YOU!!!! OF COURSE IT WAS YOUR FAULT LA!!!!!! HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE TO JUST RAMMED OUT IN T-JUNCTION WHEN THERE'S A PERFECTLY BRIGHT RED CAR RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU???!!!!!

YOU'RE WHAT??? COLOUR BLIND???? OR JUST PLAIN STUPID???!!!!!!! MY CAR IS SO SHARP YET YOU DIDN'T SEE IT????? WITH ME HONKING YOU BUT STILL YOU CAN'T BRAKE IN TIME EITHER!!!!! DAMN RETARD LOR YOUR REACTION!!!!!

It's really frustrating trying to talk sense and logic with this sort of cheapo man I tell you. I wasted my phone bill listening to him talking bullshit! Finally he says he will have to skipped lunch for a week and raise me RM50 to make it RM250.

LIKE HELL I CARE IF YOU EAT OR NOT!!!!!!!

By then I was really tired. Emotionally spent. I refused to talk to him any longer so accept his stupid offer. I rather fork out Rm50 and have it done in a good place rather than go to some cheapo place that the work might be done shabbily.

Understandably, Sunway area is slightly expensive for car work. But then, since all posh cars came here, then we can be assured that their handiwork is of top-notched right?

And the best thing is, it is convenient for me! Since I worked at this area, I can just drop my car and walk to my office! Otherwise, how do you think I can go to work????!!!!!!

Bahh!!!! Cheapo people will never think of others but themselves! Do you think I want to cheat him out of RM50???!!!!!!

What is RM50???!!!!! You think I can get rich by that is it????!!!! My God!!!!!! Please la, I have no intention of cheating you any amount whatsoever lor...I only quote you the price the workshop quote me!

Arrggghhhhhhhh I can't believed I sacrifice my lunch time over such cheapo man! FYI, I too, skipped lunch that day already!

I sincerely wish you live a long life! Please use this time on earth and learn how to be a decent man and ACT like a MAN should!!! Please don't go around bargain price like you were in a market buying fish la! Damn siasui la u!

**But to give credit to you, you did pay promptly - even if it was a meager amount. At least you did one thing right in your miserable life.

Not an ordinary leap year 2012

ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHH~~~~~~~

I had a bad start for today. Just when I thought there's not much traffic in highway means it's a good thing - bang!

The next thing I know I have been involved in a car accident!

Curse my self for taking a new route to work today! I should have just stick to the usual route!!!!

Of all day, of all possible things, of all possible person, WHY ME???????

It all happened in a T-junction in an industrial area where the owner of a brown Wira "didn't" see me/my car and bang me in the intersection. Knocked my right side fender and now I can hardly open my door!

Of course that person is at fault la! Of course he had to pay me la. I got his name card so in a while more I need to forego my lunchtime in search for workshop to quote my car's work value. Of course I need to make sure that mister PAID me before I dare to start the work.

It's not a major production but still, it needed some knocking and painting lor. I don't know the cost but seems like Sunway area will be slightly more pricey lor.

Of all day, today is supposed to be a special day. It's leap year after all - happened once every four year....

Definitely not a forgettable leap year lor...

Thank God it wasn't a major one.

-to be continued-

My ship has landed!!

Finally! I can finally say that my ship has come in for me. It has docked on my private port and waiting just for me.

Boy was I happy beyond words! Truly am! On the night that I've got this wonderful news, I practically can't sleep the whole night. Well, caffeine in tea is to blamed more than anything actually;p

In my previous post, I've mentioned that I've landed a job but the perks aren't quite satisfactory right? Well, guess what?

I've another offer, with even better perks! In fact, during interview when they agreed to my expected salary I was already elated. Then when I checked my mail for their promised offer letter, my eyes nearly pop out of their sockets!

They were even more generous as the offer price is EVEN higher than what I expected! I was like OMG!!! OMG!!!! OMG!!!!!! Is this real?????

I was DELIRIOUS~~~~

Previously, I was still considering if I should quit my current job and switched to the higher pay one. Despite the pay, my current job is really more related to my degree. I mean, I should at least work what I've studied for right? Like, really utilized what I've learned in Uni and stuff?

That's because the new offer I got (say, Company B) job is similar with my previous job, which is not really related to my field of study. Despite the low pay in Company A (my current one), I think I would really quite enjoy the work. The working environment here ain't too bad really.

Despite my friends and family kinda leaned towards Company B, I seriously was still considering. My question is, should I work for passion or money?

But after I saw the offer letter and their offer, all my objections or worries vanished into thin air. POOF!!!!!

You may say that I've sold my soul to the money devil or whatever, I don't care!

I am so changing my career course! Because of this step I took, I am kinda forever changing my career course literally. Now, this will be my course. This will be IT!

Just in case you were wondering what dissatisfactory I have with current Company A, I have stated my expected salary and they never said anything about it. Mostly my fault too as I was too nervous hence I forgot to asked about the salary. Here is where I made my biggest mistake in my life - I "assumed" they will give me the salary I wanted since they never said anything about it.

After all, it seems that it's kinda a culture for employer to always negotiate and bargain your expected salary only syok geh...and when Company A don't, I stupidly assumed they are alright with it!

BIG MISTAKE EVER!!!!!!!!

I only get to know of my pay when I came to start work and sign my contract. It finally revealed to me my salary. I was so shocked beyond words and I even made a call to my superior to clarify - and it seems I was already given a "senior level" salary bla bla bla....

The pay they offer is actually even lower than my last drawn pay in last year March! I was thinking if I should continue on or just stand up and walked away.

But I felt that it's extremely rude and it will reflect badly on me if I did that. So without anymore choices, I signed it.

Of course I was very unhappy la, I mean, most people will only settle for higher salary instead of lower right? But here I am, on the opposite direction! @@

You have no idea how bad I felt for my self then. I persuade myself, my friends, my family that this is my fault so I have to lived up to it. I have to bear the consequences of my mistake.

So when Company B request me to attend an interview, you bet I didn't let this opportunity slip by.

And I have never looked back since...

Found a job

I guessed I haven't been coming here more often already. Busy with life, that's why.

I know, it's just lame excuse. But! Sorry excused is better than none LOL;p

It's almost 2 mths that I came back from NZ. CNY had came and go....I've also been actively hunting for work since then. At that time, I felt quite sorry for myself because of all that I applied through jobstreet, only ONE called me.

Naturally, I was thrilled. I mean, one is better than none right? So happily I went for the interview only to be told stuff that I never imagined I'll be hearing. Can't divulge too much here because it's not safe. Bribe me and I will consider telling you. muahahahaha;p

Just when I already accepted the job offer, calls started to pour in. I have rejected some and also acccepted some for interview. NO harm looking for the best offer right?

Afterall, there are some details that I am not satisfied with my current job. Of course if I can get better offer isn't it better for me too?

As for the job scope, it ain't too bad. I believe I would quite like it actually. Of course, there's always a buts right? I'm still new so I haven't been doing anything that carry heavy weights.

We'll see how it goes from here......

Bye Bye Blenheim~

Without knowing it, three months have passed by. My three months stint as mussel opener has finally come to an end. Despite all my grumbling and pain, I kinda missed it and feel sad that it has all come to an end.

Believe it or not, I really feel sad to leave that stupid company. It's because I've made lotsa great friends there and I regret having to leave them so soon, just as we all become closer buddies.

I still remember when we first started working, we hardly have any friends there. When we were about to leave however, we've made all sorts of friends there that make us part with heavy hearts. Each and everyone of them has etched deep in my heart and the memories we made will be fondly cherished.

I agreed that my reason of sadness is not because of the job, but of the people. It is those people that we called friends that make our mundane working life so much more bearable and fun too. I've actually had a lot of fun working there. After all, we create our own fun right? *wink*

My last day of work is definitely my wettest LOL;p It's a tradition for the people that will depart to be hosed. And yours truly got hosed, drenched from top to bottom. I retaliate back of course! It's a battlefield in the factory ^^v What a field day it was. We really had a grand time didn't we? XD

We may have to say our goodbyes now, but I believe our parting is not forever. May our path cross again in the future ;-)

After spending 3 months in Blenheim, it kinda become a home to me. Never thought I might actually like Blenheim (because previously I don't) and now it's time to say bye bye.

Like it or not, it's time to move on with my life.

Good bye Blenheim, Hello West Coast !!!!!

My Life at Mussel Opening

After weeks and weeks working, I still find it hard to increase my numbers in mussel opening. Seriously, I have tried my very best every day to improve. In fact, I have also take pointers from Dinosaur as he is the fastest among us four. He took the time to study other's skill and method then he will tried it himself and share with us the outcome.

Finally, I get used to a certain technique and so I stick to it. Only thing left to do is to improve my skill and increase the figure. I have hoped that with time, I can and will get better. But most of the time, I'm the slowest among four.

Despite how hard I worked on it, I'm still not fast enough. I really wished I could be faster, but still not fast enough. It's damn hard to increase the score!!! There's a day when I only managed to open 4.2k and a certain Mr A opened 13k mussels.

Talk about a big gap.

This is like a huge sea between our score -.-"

Eventually, our fingers suffers from our determination to increase the scores. Twister suffers the most. Her icky fingers can't bend at all! She suffered from triggered finger disease due to opening too much mussels. Godzilla suffers from blisters on her fingers and it hurt so much that she has to put a number of plasters on her fingers everyday before going to work.

Still does that, until today - which is like 3 months already.

Haven't heard much complain from Dinosaur though. He probably the only one barely get nicked at all. As for me, my fingers suffer from mild triggered finger disease as well. I can bend my fingers, but most morning when I wake up, my finger muscles are so stiff that it can't be bend immediately. It needed time to relax and it get so much better after I dip my fingers in hot water.

According to President, hot water is the best remedy for triggered finger. If it's acute, then one need to take medication or worst still, steroid injection. I know all these because so happened at the same time, President also got inflicted with triggered finger disease. He injured his finger due to long hour of operation at work.

Pretty much same scenario with us. Holding knife for a long long time. Though we operate on mussels and he operates on human being;p

Anyway, after nearly 3 months of mussels opening, my best record is only 7.5k which is like, only HALF of the highest record achiever hold by Mr A. I have heard that a certain Mr P's record is a whooping 15k though I didn't actually saw the figure myself. Mr. P is extremely fast too, I have got to give it to him.

At times, I wonders if all these people that opens like 10k mussels a day are robots or something? Their hands are like robot!! So fast and precise! Won't they feel tired at all?

My record is barely passable but I always feel very tired at the end of the day. My hands will be so sore and tired that I barely have enough energy to lift the heavy butcher knife to do cooking at home.

Not only that, sometimes my hand hurts even when I'm just combing my hair. In my quest to improve my score, I have hurt my wrist. Therefore, my hand movement has been restricted a little. Certain movement of the wrist will make me gasp in pain.

Yeah, pity me I know. At times I felt pitiful too. My beautiful pair of hands.......

My Life @ Blenheim

When we finally received the call we were waiting for, we made our way to Blenheim (pronouns as Ble-num).

Blenheim will be our home for 3 months.

Blenheim will be where we work for 3 months.

Blenheim....oh Blenheim....

We found a place to stay and coincidentally our landlord is a Malaysian! Chinese too! Talk about a small place ay? It's a nice place to stay with internet for $90 a week. Not a bad deal really. Me and Twister shares a room and the couple took the other room. The bathroom was huge!!!! So is the backyard!!!!

FYI: we even have our own lemon tree growing right out of our room window! Not to mentioned, there's grapevine, apple tree, plum tree, nectarine tree, peach tree growing in the backyard! Yum yum!!!! Too bad it's not in season yet so we don't get to sample any :-(

The factory we work at is a mussel factory. Our job is to open mussels. Yeap, doesn't sounds too hard? Try open 13k mussels a day and tell me if it's hard or not. Trust me, it's so damn hard to get that figure! I have no idea how those ppl did it. What are they? like, robot or something???

Our work shift is pretty shitty too. Working hour is 6am - 3pm....6AM ok??? I need to get up at 4AM lor since there's only one toilet!!!!! After breakfast and stuff, we drove about 15 minutes to the factory as it's 13km away....I pretty much think we are the only one stays so far away from the workplace.

First day in the mussel opening table and I hated it. I hated the company, I hated the system, I hated the management and I don't even fancy the people there. You have no idea how lousy it was! Allow me to describe to you in gore details.

When we first arrive, we follows the crowd into the workplace. Before we enter, we need to wear uniform and gumboots first. Then we need to step into a water bath to clean the sole of the gumboots. Upon entering the "washing area" we need to scrub our gumboots thoroughly to remove any dirt, then wash our hand with soap and sanitize it before wearing gloves and sleeve covers.

Even the gloves separated into 3 type: linen, latex and rubber gloves. First you need to wear the linen, follow by latex and rubber gloves in separate hand. Things like this weren't taught to us. We just follow blindly and study what the local people do and we imitate as best as we could.

At this phase, I was already not happy with the management. How could they not teach us newbies? Do they expect us to know all these like we have done it all our lives? Goodness me, of course not! WE have NO idea whatsoever, IDIOT!!!!

After wearing gloves and a plastic that covers our arm, we exit the washing area into the mussel opening table. As we enter, we need to dip our gumboots into a water bath again to remove dirt from the sole. All these are done in the name of hygiene. After all, we are handling food therefore hygiene is really important here.

Once in, we need to wear apron to protect ourselves from the "mussel juice" as we called it. Then we pick a knife, sanitize our gloved hands and head to our table. The tables are numbered from 1 - 40 so we need to stand in one and alternate it the next day in a zigzag manner.

Which number will we be standing? NO IDEA.

No one direct us to our position. Not even the supervisor. We have no idea and we just stand there like some idiots whereas the locals (has been working there for some time) just march into the stand. Apparently, we can pick where we want to stand.

Like we know huh? Turn out, we just went to stand at places that no one claimed yet.

Then the mussels drop into the conveyor belt. Then we have no idea what to do next or how to do.

Then we see people opposite us opening mussels at lightning speed. Means we can't see anything at all. I just saw their hand move very fast in grabbing mussels and opening them.

We just stand there staring. We seriously have no f*king idea what are we to do. We naively assumed that we will be taught. After all, it's our first day at work. Not like we ever opened a mussel before in our entire life!!!!

I don't even know which is head which is tail of the mussel nor which side to open. We practically looked at each other bewildered and stared at others "pro openers". Like, 5 minutes later, an Asian colleague took notice of us newbies, stopped what's she been doing and came over to teach us.

Finally, we kinda get the idea of how to do it, which shoot is for rubbish and which shoot is for mussels. In fact, for the first week or so, I don't even realized that I've occasionally hold the knife blade wrongly. Until the supervisor come and correct me. Finally my dense brain realized that the knife has only one side sharp enough to cut, just like our regular knives at home lol...I know I know I'm darn stupid...laugh all you want...I think it was hilarious too LOL ;p

At the end of the day, we all can check how much mussels we have open and guess what? I manged to open 14xx mussels!!!! Bravo!!! Kudos to me^^ Of course, until I see what other's scores were like 6 - 7 k average.

I felt like dying then. It wasn't easy to open 1k mussels ok? Godzilla asked the supervisor what's the average target to achieve and she mentioned 6-7k....

I died a second time then.

Lake Tekapo

I believe Lake Tekapo is one of the most beautiful place in New Zealand. If you were here in south island especially, you should not give this a miss. Definitely most come.

Lake Tekapo is famous for its powdery blue water lake. It's in that colour due to the minerals in the water and rocks and stuff. To know more about the geology, you may google it;p The Good Sheperd Church and the Coolie Dog statue were probably the most photographed too.

For a simple minded girl like me, Lake Tekapo is fascinating due to its unusual colour and also the scenic background of southern Alps. Snow capped southern Alps in the winter is really a view to behold.

Of course, nearby, there's also quite a few beautiful lakes such as Lake Pukaki, Lake Alexandrina and Lake McGregor.

One of the biggest attraction in Lake Tekapo is the Earth & Sky Observatory in Mt John. This is the best place to view stars and moon and galaxies and also the aurora. If you are lucky, you may get to see Aurora Australis!

Well, I wasn't that lucky. I only managed to see the moon surface, and some zodiacs stars, some unique constellations...and also the milky way! Not too bad ay? Their powerful telescope is really amazing as it allows us to see stars that are a few million light years away.

Apart from that, if you have some cool DSLR cameras, they will also help you to take beautiful pictures of the milky way and moon. Truly amazing when your own camera can capture such beautiful view. Too bad mine is just a normal digital camera. Can't do that lol ;p

Besides the observatory, I have had the most sashimi in my life here in Mt Cook, slightly further from Lake Tekapo. The Alpine Salmon farm sells the freshest salmon sashimi, smoked salmon and fresh salmon fillets to all. Previously, I hardly take raw fish but this sashimi was different. It was so fresh so tender that it practically melt in your mouth! It was absolutely delicious!

If it come out from someone who don't eat sashimi, I bet you can take my word on it ^^v

After filling our tummy, we went to Mt Cook to take a look at the famous Tasman Glacier. A short walk of Tasman Walk will lead to the river with glaciers floating around in the powdery blue water. Not a bad sight! Not like we get to see glaciers everyday lol.

We just snap snap snap away to our heart content ^^v

Reasons to go to Kaikoura

As usual, lazy bug got the better of me. Sorry for neglecting this site guys^^

our gardening job in Nelson eventually comes to an end as our boss is heading back to Japan. We HAD applied for another job position in Blenheim but then it will not start work until further notice. We did however went and signed a contract with them already so basically our job is secured. Just that we have no idea when it will start work.

They said they'll call us you see...

Since we have got about 2 weeks of free time before work is expected to commence, we decided to travel to as much places as possible so as not to waste any time. From Blenheim we travel down to Kaikoura for their ever famous crayfish a.k.a lobster!

Damn is the crayfish expensive! Cheapest and smallest crayfish itself would have cost NZD65 alone! Still, although it is expensive, but we still need to give it a try^^v It tasted really fresh and delicious! Although the price is a little steep, but i reckon it's worth a try! My first time ever - eating crayfish;p Me like!

You'll also get to see many many seals here in Kaikoura. i was told those big lumpy fat thing can chase human and attack human faster than they seemed. Personally, I have been frightened by them! You see, we were at the seal colonies area and busy snapping photos...Little did I know there's one giant seal lying nearby.

That thing must've sense human=danger hence it shouted at me and give me possibly my biggest fright! Imagined how I jumped when I suddenly heard noises when I couldn't see anyone. My goodness it was really terrifying experience for sure! It kinda went like this, that seal shout, me too shout (due to fright).

It was really kinda embarrassing as there were people nearby. They probably think what an idiot I was to go agitate the seals. Not that I wanted to! I just didn't realized they were so near to me. I swear!

To think about it, my best memories of Kaikoura has got to be the Mt Fyffe. Last year, Cunning and Small Gas climbed it and for some reason, I wanted to do the same too. Mind you, I am not much of a climber myself. In fact, I tire out too easily. Not only that, it was the worst time of the month for me.

But SOMEHOW, I have this strong desire to conquer Mt Fyffe. I know I'll porbably have a helluva time climbing up but I still wanna give it a try. Slow as I might be, I wanna do it! I believe Dinosaur and Godzilla were probably surprised at my determination. It was after all, 4hrs up and 4 hrs down.

I think, the biggest reason has got to be Mt fyffe is a snow capped mountain. I think I just want to feel and touch snow one more time since it's already the end of winter already. Other than the skiing trip in Mt Ruapehu, we haven't had any close encounter with snow anymore.

As predicted, the climb up was really torturous. It was really tiring for me as I hated the part climbing up. I have no problem with coming down though;p We slowly made our way up and stop at some points to snap snap snap more photos. Finally, we reached the hut.

The Hut is like the main stopping point for all before you continue to climb to the peak. This is the place where there's bed for you if you wanna stay overnight and toilet too. We had our lunch picnic there surrounded by snow. Really cold but really sweet experience.

I even made some miniature snowmen to represent my family members^^v It was so cute! Not to be beaten, Twister and Dinosaur made a bigger one as they claimed mine's too small to be counted as snowman-.-"

They finally modified the snowman into "Ultraman Snowman" which actually looked like Teletubbies more;p It was really an amazing experience. Definitely not something we get to do everyday.

Oooohhhhhh the snow fight! How could I forgot about it? All four of us were playing snow fights like children. I am not surprised if the mountain is ringing from our peels of laughter. It was truly a wonderful memories for me. Our trip to Mt Fyffe were really spectacular in every way.

I'll cherished the memories we have created in Mt Fyffe for a long long time.

Caught your own dinner before?

Like many city girls in the world, I have never caught my own dinner before. In fact, I hardly ever have to worry about food since my mom always cook at home. As you can imagine, I'm pretty helpless in kitchen as well.

To me, food is purchased from the market or restaurants or whatever. Cooked or in raw form. Never in my life have I ever tried to harvest my own dinner. I have never grow any vegetables before in my life that's for sure!

Neither have I fish before!

Imagine my joy at catching my very own first fish in my entire life!

Whilst we were at Nelson working, on our free time, we followed a friend to go fishing. He's a fishing enthusiast and he offered to teach us the ropes. Definitely a wonderful experience.

I used to think that fishing is boring and it's for old people. But really it wasn't that bad. Frankly speaking, I actually quite enjoyed it. It almost feels like fishing can be my new found hobby. It wasn't that hard to learn anyway.

When I cast my own line at the beach and waiting for fishes to catch my bait, I was gleefully anticipating to catch my own fish. The moment you feel that the rod is slightly jerky as though being pecked, that's the indicating that a fish is hooked. This is when you reel your line back and hoping you had caught a fish and not false alarm.

As I felt the faint jerking, I reeled back the line and voila!

A fish!!!!!

I had successfully caught my very own fish!!! OMG!!!!!!

That was really a grand feeling I'm telling you. Although it's just a small species of fish (mullet) but I am extremely proud of myself. Now I can finally say I have caught my own dinner. Hurray^^

But I don't know how to gut a fish though hahaha so our dear friend here does the honour for me;p Later on we all had a delicious meal of oven-baked mullets for dinner^^V

For the record, all of us caught something as well, Dinosaur caught the biggest mullet while mine, Godzilla and our friend's were mediocre size. Twister was the winner that night. She caught a crab instead of regular fishes.

This I believe is what people call, being different^^