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^^

Agapanthus: Love or Hate?

Martin is like our savior! We met him on our last night in The Bug. We just had our dinner and he just walked in to stay for the night. We had a small chat and one thing leads to another, we mentioned that we were looking for jobs but haven't got much luck.

This is when he mentioned that he needs some people to help out in his farm. He promised to pay us hourly rate and said we can work as long as we like. We were so thrilled to hear that! Absolutely the happiest news we had heard for some time.

The next day, we drive up to his "farm" and it was actually not a farm. It's his house with a huge backyard! Almost a forest I daresay! He's based in Japan therefore he lease his house with a sleep-out to others. He just came back from time to time to NZ both to work on his property and also for holiday. So happened we met him at the right time, right place.

Our life as a gardener begins! Our main job is dealing with Agapanthus. It is a form of parasite plants that grows very fast and eventually will take all the soil nutrients and killed other plants in that area. The roots are full of tubers - potato-like. Too bad it is NOT a real potatoes or we will be pleased. Free potatoes hahaha^^

Anyway, our job is to kill/remove all agapanthus plants in his property. To avoid the plants from growing again, we need to remove as much roots as possible. The tuber removed will be smashed to smaller pieces to kill it and avoid it from giving energy for new plants to grow. The potatoes are where all the nutrients are. It gives energy to plants.

We had a love/hate relationship with agapanthus. We loved it for the money it brings us but we hate it for the work. It is quite a hard work. It is a rather strong plant therefore not easy to remove it. Also, the juices from the tuber as we smash it, splattered all over our body...gross!

I think I'm slightly allergic to it as over the time, my body starts to develop some mild rashes. A little itchy. Twister diagnosed that I might be allergic to plants. First kiwi fruits, now agapanthus. Anyway as I said it's a mild one so it heals pretty quickly this time around.

If skin rashes isn't bad enough, think of sandflies! I super duper hates SANDFLIES!!!!!! That damn small bug keep biting me that makes me so damn itchy. Not only that, it leaves marks on my body!!!! Until today, the marks are still there, not completely healed yet!!!!

For nearly a month that we worked for Martin (on and off), we were introduced to Banana-Passionfruit vines, Gores that prickles and also Deadly Night Shade that produces poisonous berries. We need to removes all these plants too, apart from Agapanthus.

Martin would like to practice "permaculture" where everyone grow their own foods and reduce from buying from the market. A self sustain theory. It's a good idea really, to grow your own fruit trees and vegetables which you can harvest when the time is right. Grow your own chickens for the eggs and meat. You can also breed cows and sheeps too! Pretty interesting. Defintely save a lot of money!

Apparently, this concept is widely accepted in NZ. You don't need a huge space for that, you just need to know how to maximize the space you have. Really economical once you know how.

For nearly a month here in Nelson we learnt a lot just from working as a gardener for Martin. We learned more about the nature, trees and stuff. Not bad, ay? You learn while you get paid?

Without knowing it, we spent a month here in Nelson already. Work is on and off, depending on weather and also depending on our boss. I would still say, it's really a blessing as we don't have to work in vineyard after all LOL~~