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Last Friday I signed a new employment contract and the new start date will be 16 April. Seems like I have another two weeks to fully enjoy myself before returning to the workforce. What will I be doing for my new role? Actually I don't really know as well, but it should be better and more free than my previous job for sure. My aim for 2007? A good pay job without doing much work. haha... yeah, I've started to down grade my aim for this year! Sometimes we need to relax a bit in order to walk a longer journey, don't we? :)
I have been busy with assignment lately. It's all about brand marketing, it's quite tough at the start however if you read through the textbook, it might be easier to write the report. This is a group assignment, my group consists of 5 people, with 3 chinese from China. It was a terrible experience to work with them. I have to re-do everything from the section that they have submit. I haven't been working lately on assignment and I did that last night till 1am and almost fall asleep. There should be another 20% contribution required before we can submit next Wednesday. Yes, you guess it right, our team did it at last minute. :)
Next week I am flying to Christchurch for a 6 days. Might be just catching with friends... and wondering around to enjoy the historical atmosphere that you wouldn't find in Auckland.
It has been a week there I have no access to Internet at home. That is bloody painful especially when I have urgent emails that I need to check or reply to. Here I am, in the Internet Cafe - paying $6 per hour. Bloody expensive I would definitely say.
Oh well hopefully the new connection can arrive asap. It has been taking them one whole week to process my order, I rang them 3 times and... they kept on telling me it might take two weeks. OMG, how could such a simple thing can take them 2 weeks? Gosh, what kind of customer service this is? I really lost my temper when dealing with them. They got me a Dial-up but... my laptop can't get onto the Internet.
Anyway, enough of this. I should take my time to process all the urgent stuffs within this one hour... since I am paying it.
Will be back when I have my new connections... hopefully not far away.
It is that time of the year again!
Perhaps this year might be slightly fun and exciting? We are entering the 12th
in the cycle of Pig! There must be something extraordinary with year 2007? You
tell me maybe sometime down the track?
Anyway, it’s Chinese New Year eve today, what’s your plan?
Or how was your celebration? I have had a lovely & yummy re-union dinner at
home. My mom has done a very good job in preparing us with four dishes and one
takeaway roast duck from Chinese shop. My mom has started with the preparation
since early morning, while my bro and I have went grocery shopping to meet my
mom’s demand…:)
Our dinner started at 5pm, everyone was chatting together,
sharing the happiness around! It was an amazing night where my brother’s
girlfriend joined us at the dinner since her parents are not in Auckland. All
ended up with full stomach. How I wish I remembered to capture the moment we
have the dinner. Oh well, there always tomorrow :)
My parents’ friends are coming for lunch tomorrow. Mom has
prepared them curry and two unknown dishes. I might find them out tomorrow.
Maybe I will not be home? My brother is trying to escape from lunching with
them, I might do so as well? lol
There wasn’t big Chinese celebration in a foreign country.
How I hope to be in Malaysia now to capture the group photographs with my
friends? Sharing the life experiences where we have gone through since we last
met? Or perhaps find out how much we have changed all these years? Oh well…
maybe these have to save till next time?
After tomorrow, it’s time to return to work again! What a
short weekend! There will be a conference starting at 10.30am, which meant I
could leave home later than usual. YAY! The conference ends at 10pm, that is
the scary bit! Luckily I have a class on Monday night, I was given permission
to leave at normal working hour *cool*
Having say that, my schedule will start to be very tight
from next week since uni starts. I am taking two courses this semester both
covering topics as Brand and Customer Relationship. Hoping these two subjects
are going to be an easy peasy one or else… I might have to struggle for four
months. Hmm if everything is going smoothly, my graduate cert will not be far
from reaching… did think of whether to do master, however the tuition fee is
damn expensive, it cost $20k even for a permanent resident. I wonder how much
international students pay for it. $20k for a master – worth it or not? I guess
that’s all depend on individual and what he/she wants to achieve from their
life. I am not longer interested in moving up the corporate ladder. I no longer
foresee it as an exciting and challenging experience. I saw my manager and
managers from other business units have spent hours and hours in the office,
being at work earlier than others and staying till late evening. How couldn’t
see myself to scarify my personal life and valuable hours to company, giving up
my interest, hobbies etc just to keep myself moving harder and harder to reach
the top? My CEO, a 46-year-old lady, who has served the company for seven years
now has announced to leave the company by the end of the financial calendar.
What she left with after leaving? A luxury paycheck and…? And what else? Nothing
really, other than money. Well, with that luxury paycheck, she might be able to
do whatever she want, but the question is, will she be happy? She has no
family, no children, will she be lonely? She has no one to share her happiness and sadness. Even though she
used to be staying at the very top position within a listed company, at the end
of the day, she still left and someone else will be doing her job. Successor
can be very short and is it worth to spend all your life in working harder and
harder to achieve that hard earn successes?
Oh well, I am getting lost on my writing. I guess it’s
better to stop here before I totally out of track.
Alrighty, enjoy yourself to the fullest during this special
occasion.
I has been in my new job for almost two weeks tomorrow, but I felt like a year now. Starting to wonder how am I going to get through this the whole year? The first day of work, my colleague told me, "Jessie, I am going to show you some development work." "Development?!!" I was shocked. Why I need to know programming? Ain't I involve with html and css? I do not understand until later he disclosed: "this is part of your role." WHAT?! When does this programming become part of my role? OMG. I definitely remember what I told the manager - programming is not my thing! AND? What had happened during my first day? Anyway... guess that I can't do anything except waiting for end of the year to start with job hunting again?
2007 is not my year - until today I can see unlucky thing continue coming! I just don't like it! Hopefully after January... my luck will change...
Anyway long weekend this week... yay at least I can an extra day at home... or spend one full day shopping?! hmm...
I am finally back from the long long trip. It was an awesome but extremely tiring trip. I never know that travelling could be so exhausted! Imagine you have a travel plan, with time-table and list to-do daily, with non-stop activities last for 10 hours per day... that was how my travelling life was for the past 3 weeks. Till the last day in Paris, I could take it no more and decided to take half day off and stayed in hotel. It was just fabulous. I recharged my body and the soreness starting to go away after a few hours slept in that afternoon.
Anyway, just a brief recap from 28 Dec to 6 Jan. I have actually typed it out once I arrived at my cousin's house that night. When I tried to publish it, the whole thing just disappeared. The cookies have expired... it drove me nut as it was quite a detailed summary of my trip both in London and Paris. I guess I have to do everything in brief now.
Ok - I prefer Paris than London even though there were full of dog shit on the street. The city was still appealing. The structure of the buildings and design of the whole city are really neat.
As in London, it gave me an old city feeling. We went to visit a few places like Big Ben, London-eye, Herrods etc. And these few places are quite nice, tidy and clean. The rest of the places... from my memories, the buildings look old and dirty!
Both cities have a few similarities. HUMAN everywhere. Gosh, you hardly can make a room to walk or shop comfortably. You need to know how to squeeze in the crowd. The skill that you required to survive in both cities - act fast else you will be left behind. That was how I feel. For example, we went to Madamme Tussode in London. Once we entered the building, oh my gosh, the scene was scary. I felt like I am in a marketplace. People everywhere. When we were trying to take photos with those 'wax stars', there's the challenge. You need to run to the wax stars fast enough in the crowd, the photographer has to be smart enough to be in the right position to take the best picture. Well, I pretty satisfied with the outcome of our photos taken in Madame Tussauds. Thanks to Chun Siew, one of the members in our travel group.
Well... the trip overall is satisfying. A good chance to see what's on the other world. Thanks to my cousin for all the arrangement where I didn't need to worry about accommodation, budgeting and stuffs like that. And a great company of the members within the travel group.
Hope to have another one soon but not too soon... as it is time to recover from my expenses.
Photos will be uploaded soon once I got them all from the other members.
We are heading to London today... approximately 5 hours drive, however, might take longer due to the first ever experience we had earlier of the trip. So this time we are going to leave late morning around 11am to ensure that the road is clear of ice.
From now till 6 Jan I will have no access to Internet (I think there will be no such nice place offering free internet access as the hostel I stayed in Barcelona) therefore I have to live without Internet for almost 2 weeks, do I manage to survive??
Then... on financial side, I left £60+, I wonder if I can live with that for 5 days in London... maybe it is time to be on diet, no more shopping... and save these last bit of money for entry fees to popular places... else... my last resource.... credit card... should I?! Well, see how good I can control myself when I am in London... oh and for sure no more shopping, my luggage is almost overweight I think...
Well... the other two cities (Barcelona + Geneva) were a little disappointing as they are not as what I have expected... hopefully London and Paris will be better?! Will see... and tell you my thought later...
Lastly... I want to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007 and see you next year
After a whole week off and been travelling around... I started to feel sickness is attacking me... soreness of body, body suddenly feel cold... it might be signalling me that I should start taking a good rest...
I am starting to miss home... really want to fly back to Auckland instantly if I am allowed to in order to seek for my own freedom... my own happiness within my room... haha! I guess I miss my bed the most now... and my cosy room... travelling is not as good as what I have thought... ah no... I should say... it all depend... depend on who you travel with and people that surround you... then I guess I don't feel good to travel with someone that I am not so familiar with?
Another 2 weeks to go... how am I going to survive through all these days?
Maybe my decision of travelling to Europe is totally wrong... really not as what I have expected...
It is a quiet Christmas for me this year... wasn't like last year.. during this time, I was holiday at the Coromandel... and enjoying the view of the surrounding...
Even though I am at Europe but so quiet around here... everyone is staying at home... and for me... staying home as well and do nothing? Ah well.... who knows what is going to happen next... however we are having steamboat tonight.. that's all I know and what have been planned.
Ok people, I have had a look on the photos just now for what currently are available in my cousin's laptop, I might manage to upload some later on... some of them I really looked like I have been staying in Eskimo... haha....
Alritey! for now... wish you all a Merry Christmas and receiving lots of presents... and I have nothing for this year... poor me :)
I am back from Geneva! A beautiful city with peaceful surrounding. I like it even though the people there cannot speak much English, they are really friendly and helpful.
After a few trips in Europe, I found out that not all European are friendly. I have to be honest, Kiwi is one of the friendly group. I started to miss my home after just a ten-day trip. Weird aye! However, home is the most comfortable place for me with all the freedom that I seek for.
The CHF currency and NZD are pretty much similar... therefore I done quite a lot of shopping... especially chocolate. Those made in Switzerland chocolate are nice and I bought quite a lot... 20 blocks? hahaha.... They are very smooth...
Geneva is totally different to Barcelona. It is more modern, hard to find those historical building. Therefore, we spent most of our time eating, shopping and taking a few photos...
I am going to stay in Northumberland for Christmas, then going to Newcastle during Boxing day to grab the sale. Hopefully I won't be overspent. My luggage is starting to increase its weight. Kind of scary as it only allow me for another 4kgs to avoid overweight fees.
Same as usual, the photos will only be up when I get back to NZ.
Wow... it was a long and tiring day... went out for 12 hours and of course lots of photo taking again. Very nice historical building by Gaudi.
Barcelona is quite huge and have many parts... Luckily metro can access to everywhere... else our legs will suffer a lot. Of course some of the places we have to walk... gosh... it was tiring... we went to the park ... with Gaudi work again.... and have to climb up hill... 600 metres... gosh... I ran for most of the way... I bet that after this week, I might drop 1kg, if not, I will be sad... haha...
Basically yesterday we went to visit those most important attractions in Barcelona and did a bit of window shopping. Things here are not very expensive, almost the same price as in NZ, and clothing fashion also same... so why buy here...
Oh I met a quite scary incident... pick pocket... oh gosh... first time ever I saw it on my own eyes. It happened on my friend. She was walking about 100m away from me. At first I didn't see anything different, until she went up the stair, it was so crowded that time, I saw two persons trying to unzip her small backpack. I was trying to get my friend and told her but too late, they already manage to unzip the whole bag, starting to take out the 1/4 of the gloves from the backpack. At that time, I was totally back-out then yelled out my friends name. Luckily they didn't grab the bag and run off... they quickly walked away without turning back. Gosh... it was terrifying. I was so scared if they looked back and found me, then what will happen on me? Lesson : have to be extra careful within the crowd else do not bring any bags. hehehe...
Ok, should prepare myself to go out again.... another day in Barcelona today then we leave tomorrow morning. Next destination Geneva.... wondering whether I can have access to Internet there.... hehehe.... else have to hear from me when I get back to Newcastle.
I cant believe I almost online everyday during travelling. I am in Barcelona now, thank God, there is free Internet access in the hostel. Nice aye.
First of all, the keyboard here is so different to NZ standard, all the symbols located at different position, and most of them I cant figure out how to use... haha. So some of you might find that I dont use appropriate symbolic, dont blame me.. I am fairly new to this Spain style keyboard.
On arrival, it was quite disappointing. The place looked dirty, pack with unfriendly people. We took train to city, the surrounding was more like industrial area to me, full with either unwanted metal else drawing on walls.
We stayed in a hostel called "helloBCN". The hostel is not a bad place though, quite city centre. The environment is good, well of course, as I mentioned earlier, free internet access, and in the room itself, it has safety box and the "key" to the room and the safety box are very high tech. It is a card that access to these two. Gosh. First time I saw such a high tech hostel. Then plasma TV, around 30 inch I think, two of them. Then free breakfast. Wow what more can you ask for for such price. hahahaha....
Didn't get to travel a lot during the night time, we spent an hour hunting for food then end up at an Indian shop eating kebab. What a funny night. We looked around the shops along with photo taking.
I think that is all for the update and will be back more ....
It has been the third night in Belford... now is 4.33am but somehow I am sleepless. I wonder if it's jet lag? However, after 3-4hrs sleep per day, I totally feel refresh. My sleeping hours has become a bit weird after I came here, around 8-9pm I am totally exhausted and sleepy, then until 12-1am, I am awake. Crazy right?
Yesterday spent whole day in Newcastle city! Thanks to Yang An who offered to be our tour guide and camera man for the two ladies! He must be extremely patience... he accompanied us for 7 hours, well if bus trip was included, that would be 9 hours.
We went shopping - well of course just window shopping, all the things here are deal! There are just 2-3 stores offer good price, but I'll wait till boxing day. Wei Shan said boxing day they have sale from 50%! wow.. if it is so, then the clothing will be cheaper than NZ. I was a bit excited and marked down all the stores I want to return later.... haha...
I quite like the place here... the building really historical... no matter it's a house or shop... gosh, I always see these in the movies, never believe I can see it through my eyes today!
Tomorrow flying off to Barcelona... I hope I can sleep like normal while I am there, as there will be no Internet access for me if I am sleepless!
In the early morning, we were preparing ourselves in a rush to start our first day trip to Edinburgh. It actually wasn't really an early morning, when we left home, it was 9.30am, the day looked great with sunshine even though a little chill!
Once we got in the car, things were set to go. There were few cars on the road probably heading to the same or different direction to us. We were surrounded by acres and acres of green land! Blue sky and green ocean, it was totally picturesque. Everyone of us was really excited for the trip.
Half hour later... it changed our trip... the icy road has caused our car out of control! Unbelievable... the car slipped terribly. It hit on the side strong wired fence harshly. Left side of the car badly smashed. The airbag popped out and the car was making a 1.5times self-turn on the middle of the highway! I was totally blackout at that point of time. I believed non of us actually figured out what was happening! The process was fast... the car then moved from left to right by itself... I still can pictured it clearly... first time ever in my life that I met a car accident. The front-end totally wrecked, battery water or whatsoever liquid was non-stop dipping! Once the car stopped moving itself, we rushed out from the car and luckily everyone was still in good condition. I hit my leg during the incident towards... I couldn't even recall what hit on me... it was really in a mess at that moment! Anyway, until now my leg still feel the pain and of course here came the bruise. I should say we were sort of lucky at least during the whole process, non of the other cars crashed on us! Else.. I can't imagine what will happen.
The police came after half hour or so and took down our details for the accident record. It was a long wait for the tow-away truck to arrive and sort-out the damaged car. It was getting a bit windy where our toes almost frozen. Another 1.5hrs later, the tow-away truck came and we thought we won't be sent to the garage with the car. Unfortunately we were not as there were no seats for passengers. We have to get into the police car and a free ride to GaustHouse (I think that's the town name). Anyway, the policeman was really friendly then followed by the bar owner of GaustHouse, we ordered hot chocolate to cool us off, who knows when we were about to leave, he did not want our money for the bill! Englishmen are really nice and friendly! They really do show them they care and we are asian, they treat us in no difference.
Well, even though there was an accident today, it didn't stop us from taking photos. A few photos were taken at the accident, then followed by a few that taken around Belford.
Europe trip sounds like a very fun and full of excitement!
Apparently, staying in the plane for two days - flying from NZ to HK (10.5hrs), HK - Amsterdan (12hrs) & Amsterdan - Newcastle (1hr 20min), one word I could describe it - TERRIBLE! The second flight, I was getting sickening! Asked the stewardess for aspirin to stable my situation.
After my first flight, I was nearly going to cancel the rest of the flight and either go to Singapore or Malaysia. The nearest countries! Gosh, I dare not take the long haul again next time if there is no over night!
From NZ - HK: AirNZ was used. The plane was good, up to long haul standard with individual entertament. I didn't manage to enjoy the entertainment as the flight took off at 11.55pm where I was really tired. After my meal, a few minutes of movie watching, I fell asleep. Damn, did not watch the Miami Vince and Lady in Water. Hopefully this will be on again during my trip back. The whole 10hrs trip, I only managed to finish You, Me and Dupree. Not so bad! But not really a comedy type of movie as it classified.
From HK - Amsterdam: KLM was used. Gosh, no individual entertainment! Only a shared TV at the central. The TV that nearest to my seat was broken. Some more, the sound system were really annoying! I would say, if you are going to do long haul, please stay away from KLM airlines! However, there is one side should be complimented. They served several round of food. Two main meals, one very light snack and one light meal. Unfortunately I didn't manage to enjoy all the food since I already got so sick...
From Amsterdam - Newcastle: KLM cityhopper was used. Nothing much interesting here as it was a short haul trip. So nothing to expect and wishing to arrive my final destination as soon as possible.
Something unpleasant: I was being stopped at the HK airport before boarding. Guess what?! It was passport checked, I was the only one being checked!! Gosh...asking me a series of question like why I didn't have a visa to enter UK. Hey... I am holding Malaysia passport, why do I need a visa? Hello... he must be kidding me... and he used a special glass to do a thorough checking on the last page of my passport. Hmm did I look suspicious? I asked another passenger! he was laughing to when the custom checked on my passport. Sound like I have stole someone's passport for personal use.
Then when I gone through Amsterdan, the lady also asking for my visa! I started to freaking out if I can't get into UK, I spent two bloody day on the plane and if they have to transport me back straight away, this is going to be ridiculous.
Anyway, thing seems to smooth out a bit when reaching Newcastle.
Well... tomorrow I will be out of Auckland! I have been waiting since.... June? haha was crazy doing countdown and I couldn't believe the time is here...
I hope that I will stay healthy for the coming weeks... so that I can play the fullest... lol... It was a bad day since yesterday, not sure what's wrong... Yesterday I went the mall with my mom and I sprang my leg... then when I can home... had lunch then I had diarrhea...gosh! today my foot still painful and kind of hard to walk around... arg! Hopefully two days on plane, it will recover itself...
Well... I guess ... I have to start packing? haha I haven't done any packing yet... and I hate packing stuff the most...! Oh well... I can't avoid, can I?
3 weeks no blogging --- maybe? haha
Well see ya all next year... and before that, I got something to say...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone... all the best for the year ahead of us...
I am taking this week off... feel so good...! haha
Last night I managed to sleep around 3am.. and guess what? I woke up at 7.30am and never feel tired! It's Monday today... slept 4.5hrs, not tiring and no Monday blues at all... this is really amazing!
From this, what have I discovered? Job - working for a job that you do not enjoy, equal to killing oneself...
Anyway, forget about job today...
I went to have a hair cut... FINALLY...! Um.. I look at myself in the mirror, I can't accept my new look... haha! now I am panic, how do I take good pictures during my trip
3 more days to go... I haven't pack any of my stuffs! I don't know what to pack honestly... haha... and haven't prepare my foreign currency... ah... why the world have so many types of currency?
Alright, don't know what should I blog now.. till then... enjoy your week people...
