Moka Houz

Hello 2009!

2009-01-11T17:55:00.004+13:00

Happy New Year! The start of another year..... sigh......

Anyway, after spending days reading other blogs and after a failed attempt at blogging (as you can tell from the time that has passed since my last post), I've decided to start blogging. Again. Start anew. Again. New year. New look.

Well, highlights from my life since my last post:

Work
Went to West Malaysia and Thailand for a holiday
Went back to my hometown for a holiday
Work
Sat my first qualification exam and PASSED!
Work
Went to Melbourne for work
Went to Tasmania for holiday
Went to World Youth Day in Sydney
Work
Went skiing
Work
Turned a year older and none the wiser
Went to Brisbane for work
Work
Stuck around Christchurch over the few days I had off over Christmas/New Year
Back at Work

In that order. As you can tell, life has not been too eventful. And in life, some things never change. I still whine a lot and I still drink lots of coffee. As I looked back over the last year, I wondered where the year has gone. I seemed to have lived through a whole year in what felt like 2 months. I put that down to the fact that I was inundated with work... all those ridiculous overtime that I had to do during the year. Those inconsiderate ex-colleagues who all decide that they will flock overseas for their OE, while leaving the rest of us stuck in Christchurch with a huge pile of audits to get through. All that is over now.....2009 is suppose to be a better year in terms of workload (or so my boss keeps telling us).

So, what does 2009 have in store for me? Well, a few things to look forward to and a few that I dread:

Work
Sitting my second qualification exams which involves 6 intense 2-day workshops (taking up my Friday aftie/Saturday) spread over a 6 month period from April to October (one workshop per month) followed by a 6 hours exam at the end of October
Going to Melbourne for work (hopefully)
Working overtime
Going to Brisbane for work (hopefully)
Going to Australia and back to Malaysia for a holiday
Trip to China (if someone actually organises it). Otherwise, a trip to Europe (provided that I get my extended leave approved)

Well, 2009 is looking to be another busy year. With my second qualification exams just round the corner, I'm trying to enjoy my last 3 months of freedom while I still can. My colleagues keep telling me that once the workshop starts, my social life would go out the window! How would I keep myself sane over this next year? Well, I figured I'll blog about it. A problem shared is a problem halved......well, in this case, no matter how much I whine about my busy-ness, I have a feeling that my workload isn't going to halve itself just like that. I'm just going to have to plough my way through the year....with lots of coffee to help me. And they say we're in recession. With the amount of money I've spent and am about to spend of coffee, our economy will be booming again in no time!

Off now for another coffee. I have another week of work to look forward to. Hope your week will be more enjoyable than mine.

Update on Life

2007-11-20T21:07:00.000+13:00

For someone who claims that she blabs a lot, I certainly haven't done a lot of that since May. Well, what can I say, life has been slightly too busy to do a lot of blabbing. What has happened since May? Well, lots of things, which can be easily summarised into the following bullet points:

Work
Farewelled a friend
Work
Training in Wellington for work
Work
Turned one year older - at least didn't have to work and managed to get a 4 day weekend, which I spent over at the West Coast with family
Went to Brisbane.....for work
Caught up with high school friend in Brisbane
Got sunburnt while in Brisbane
Went to Tekapo for a day
Work
Work
Work

Like I said, life hasn't been too eventful. Daily weekday routines is wake up, work, home, sleep. And it goes on for the whole week. Weekend routine is wake up, babysitting, church, sleep, wake up again and feel gutted that I have to work again the next day, resulting in a restless uneventful and depressing Sundays. My life is so depressingly lame. However to brighten things up, there are a number of things to look forward to by the end of the year:

Work
Performance appraisal for the work done in last 6 months
Work
Stocktake in Timaru - which means plenty of mileage claim
Work
More stocktake
More training
Sister's friend arriving in NZ for the first time for a week
Work Christmas lunch
Work
Work
Christmas break - where I'll travel a bit around West Malaysia and Thailand before going back home to the town I was born

OK, have to admit, not everything on the list is worth looking forward to, but there are SOME things that I really really look forward to. Like the Christmas holiday break. One month.

And next year, I'll do something about this lame life that I'm living. Do something more than just work and home, work and home. There must be something else I can do. Like exercise. And boss some other poor graduates around! That would be my new year resolutions, which I'll never achieve!!!! Oh well, cest la vie. Ciao for now.

I'm going to Melbourne...

2007-05-18T22:37:00.000+12:00

Ok. So it's almost been a month. I've been to Sydney and I've been back for a couple of weeks now. Although it feels more like a year ago since I got back from Sydney. As the title suggests, I'm going to Melbourne. No, not for a holiday (altho I wish I am), but for work. And just to top it of, there has been news of OT. Yup, that's it overtime where we don't actually get paid (now what was it they said in the employment contract.....your salary takes into consideration the amount of OT you're expected to work bla bla bla....yea, right...). There were meant to be three of us, but now there's two. So, you can just about imagine. On the bright side, I'll be in Melbourne for 2 weekends and surely they can't make us work through the weekends. Coz that would just be plain mean.

Updates since last month. Well, have now learnt that computers don't like me. Nope, they don't like me one single bit. The problems I was having on my laptop, well I had it looked at. I kinda have to when it keeps blue screening on me in the middle of working. And because these are leased, they had to send it to the computer company to be fixed (and I won't mention on the blog what kind of laptop I use....for their sake). There were problems with the motherboard AND the onboard memory. Whatever that means. Took about two weeks all up to get my laptop back from them. Not that I had to pay any of it....after all, it's a work laptop. And so, I powered it up today. And fair enough it's not blue screening, but there are just still teeny tiny bits of problems on it. Like an error problem and an application error which happened on two separate occassions. Coz I had been turning my laptop on and off throughout the day - need to conserve battery power. Power cord was left in Wellington with our IT guys. Let's just hope that the laptop works. Because I'm heading to Auckland first on Sunday and then on to Melbourne on Thursday evening. And if problems arise on my laptop, we'll I won't be getting much work done. That much I know. And with all the OT we'll be doing in such a short space of time, let's just say that it's not good. Oh, did I also mention that I will be getting my mid-year review just after I get back from Melbourne...... On top of that, my chitty chatter wouldn't even allow me to put a comment on it. I can't even see the box where you're suppose to type in the message. But it must still be there because other ppl are still posting messages on it. So, Clement, I'm not being rude and not responding to your messages. I just haven't been able to. See, computers don't like me. Enough said. (And Clement, in response to your messages, I didn't tell you Marcus is my cousin because you didn't ask. :o) How did you find out anyway?)

I've finally got round to start packing my luggage yesterday. Another one of those where I've left it to last minute. First because I didn't want to jinx my chance of going to Oz and then it was just plain busy-ness and laziness. Haven't finished packing yet. But that's the job for this weekend. And I'm leaving Sunday. So, why am I wasting my time blogging on a Friday night instead when I should really be packing? I don't know. Need to blog I guess. And procastination. After all, I have the whole of tomorrow to do my laundry and have it dried in time for me to finish most of the packing by the end of the day. I suppose. My usual Saturday schedule of babysitting little Chris is not going ahead tomorrow. Mainly because he's gone to Malaysia with his parents to visit grandpa, grandma, greatgrandmas, uncles, aunties and the list goes on. After spending the last nine months babysitting on Saturdays, I now frankly don't know what I'm going to do with my Saturday tomorrow.

On Sunday, will be going to Auckland. Staying at Grand Chancellor out by the airport, which is fine. The client is only suppose to be about 5 minutes away. But given Auckland, 5 minutes away could potentially mean 1/2 hr, give or take, with their traffic. Melbourne, will be staying in CBD at Hotel Ibis, which I believe is a 3 star hotel. Let's just hope it's good enough. I can't really complain. Being sent to Melbourne is an added bonus for me. For me, it's really to catch up with my two best friends and relatives. And I'm staying on for an additional second weekend, because believe it or not, luck is on my side and it happens to be Queen's Birthday on the first wknd of June. So I was able to stay until Monday. Which would mean that when I get home on Monday night, it would be straight to bed for me coz of work on Tuesday morning. Oh boy am I looking forward to that - late night home plus a 2 hr jet lag, plus Christchurch at that time would probably still be dark at 7am in the morning. Heck, it's already fairly dark at 7 am now. The joys of work....

Anyway, this has been a long-winded post. Time for me to go do something more productive. Like check to see if the download is complete so I can start watching even though it's already 11pm and I should really head to bed. Who cares. It's Friday. I can do whatever I like. I'm sure you'll hear from me when I get back from Melbourne. Or if my laptop plays nice, while I'm in Auckland/Melbourne. And Terrence, I'll see you around in Melbourne. Catching up sounds like a good idea. May just have to be in the weekend. Unless I somehow miraculously manage to get out of working OT on weeknights! Auckland/Melbourne, here I come.

4 days in Sydney

2007-04-25T14:45:00.000+12:00

Well, it has been a while since my last blog. I'm pleased to report that nothing much has happened in my life since then....except for work, work and....whatdaya know, work. Yesterday seemed like a day from hell. Nothing went right. For some reason I actually woke up thinking it was a good day. But, no. My laptop has been having some problems lately and yesterday was one of those days when it decided that the problems was to keep popping up. So enough about that...it's all in the hands of the IT guys.

The other thing being, trying to get visa into Australia. I'm supposed to be sent to Australia for some client audit next month (Melbourne to be exact)....but have been running around yesterday trying to find out what sort of visa I need. But it doesn't sound too difficult to get one, from the people I've talked to - colleagues, friends. The travel agents on the other hand were a fat load of help....they knew nothing about the visas I'm enquiring. So enough about that. I'll just have to ask at the airport tomorrow on my way to Sydney. Fingers crossed and hope that getting the proper visa wouldn't be too much of a problem.....or I lose my trip to Melbourne. And I'll get upset...very VERY upset. But of course that will not happen, I won't let that happen to me.....or so I keep telling myself so that on the off chance, I may get lucky....

Enough of all that hoo-ha. I'm putting yesterday behind. It was a day from hell and no way do I ever want a day like that again. It doesn't help that I have plenty of work to finish up and I just don't feel particularly good about leaving things unfinished and then going on a holiday. Doesn't seem appropriate but never mind. Not all my fault......

So this trip to Sydney tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. It's always good catching up with old friends....in this case, a friend I haven't seen in about 9 years. And plan for lots of shopping and stuff....and just chilling out. And eating. One downside to it, I have to be at the airport at 4 am, which means an early night for me or I'll never wake up in the morning. Me, I'm never a morning person. It's now almost 3pm and guess what....I haven't even packed for the trip. This is not like me at all....usually I get super excited about holidays and pack about a week ahead. But here I am sitting here, blogging rather than packing. I just can't be bothered. And I know that I'll probably forget to pack something coz I have left everything to last minute.

Well, enough blogging. And no, I'm not going off to pack. I'll get round to that later....maybe tonite. I'm going off to read a book now. Catch you when I'm back from Sydney. Cheerio.

The Weekend is here....

2007-03-30T21:12:00.000+12:00

Phew....what a relief. What a week it has been. When there's no work, there's absolutely nothing to do, when there's work, a whole bunch of work came in all the same time....sigh. What a life. Today I had the joy of going out to a client's to do the riveting (not) stocktake!!! Counting counting counting..... Whoopie! The skill you need for the job is....make sure you can count. And the dreaded news is that with companies having various balance dates (March, June, September, December), I'll have more stocktakes to look forward to later on in the year.....I love my job.

The second great thing about my job is waiting for some of the clients to get the information to you. When they want something done, you have to be super efficient but when you want to get something done, they expect you to sit around waiting for them to get their acts together. It's all fun and games.

The office always finds a reason for going out drinking. We call it 'work hard, play hard'. Being the 31st March tomorrow, that's apparently a good enough excuse to get the whole firm down to the pub and have a few drinks. One of the social events where you wouldn't usually find me participating in. Not being anti-social or anything but I'm just not a big fan of being in a super noisy, super crowded place. Always makes me feel quite claustrophobic.... which is also why you won't usually find me around malls window shopping close to Christmas time.

Time flies. Didn't even realise that next week is Holy Week. And I'm not proud of the fact that I haven't done much this Lent. Didn't even think about what I would do for Lent and now Lent is almost over. Sigh....naughty naughty me. Bad bad girl. But I am looking forward to the 4-day weekend. It will be a good break. And a couple of weeks after that, we have ANZAC day and I'll be going to Sydney for a 4 day holiday, which would be nice. Before that though, I'll have to get through next week first. Holy Week is looking to be a busy week for me.... with choir practice on Wednesday night, and playing music on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil...it should be good (and I'm not being sarcastic). I'm looking forward to it.

Well, it's 9.30pm and I'm feeling sleepy already. Must be time for bed. Feeling old....Baby sitting tomorrow. Something to look forward to. Till next time, hope you take care.

Someone please help me....

2007-03-27T17:00:00.000+12:00

I'm going absolutely insane with boredom. I feel like crying, I feel like sleeping. I'm going nuts. I'm going delusional. Please please please get me outta here....Feel like screaming at the top of my lungs!! Enough said. URRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

Another day at work...

2007-03-27T16:16:00.000+12:00

Another day of boredom. It's now 4.16pm. And i'm bored. Plus i'm now annoyed. I just spent the last 15 minutes typing up a blog, which I subsequently lost and I don't know how that happened. And now I've lost all motivation and energy to retype all the crap I was typing before. Of things worth mentioning are:

I went to a wedding in the weekend. And to cut the long story short, I was Congratulating the bride and groom (whom I've known for a while but not very well). Because they are two lovely people and they seem like a match made in heaven. So, they deserved it and I'm glad they got married. It was one of the best weddings I've been to, not that I've been to that many, but nevertheless.... everything seemed to turn out great for them, including the weather which has been crap all summer until last Saturday.

Anyhow, I can hardly remember what I was typing up. But the fact that I now can't remember it even though it was only a few minutes ago means that it can't be important. 40 minutes to go. There must be something I can do...people I can annoy. Hopefully, I won't face another day like today. Without a doubt, if I do, I'll go insane from all the boredom. Can't stand it anymore. Need something to do. Time to sign out and annoy someone else. Enough rambling and whining for one day. In fact, day in day out, I whine and ramble so much that someone should pass a law to limit the amount of whining that a person can output in a day. Anything outside that limit and I should be fined.....it's only for my own good. Rightiho, till next time, I hope you enjoy your day.

Boredom

2007-03-23T16:37:00.000+12:00

I'm updating my blog from work at 4.37pm on a Friday aftie. After a long hard week a work, I'm now out of work. Have spent the afternoon surfing, reading news, surfing, reading news, reading blog, surfing and finally, blogging.....all at the firm's expense. Hey, I've tried asking for work. They just have none for me. Not my fault that I'm bored. So, decided to be productive and put my time to good use, which happens to be blogging.

It sure feels good just sitting around. I should enjoy it while it lasts. It is suppose to get really busy and hectic by end of July. Beats sitting around doing nothing I suppose. All the good websites like Trade Me and YouTube have been blocked. Next week should be interesting with a mixture of work in line for me. A couple of days out near the airport and one day at Ashburton (about an hour drive each way). Imagine all the mileage claim that I'll get that day!!! Should work out to about $160 for the drive to and from Ashburton. Should be a very enjoyable drive indeed.

Plan for the weekend: wedding to attend, baby to babysit, and maybe if I get round to it, room to clean. Maybe.

That's all from me for now. Back to surfing I guess. Pretty soon, time to knock off. Until then, surfing and counting down. Have a good one...till next time. :o)

Missing Home

2007-03-19T22:14:00.000+12:00

Whenever I mention the word "home", I never quite know which home I mean. I really consider myself having two homes. One home is where I grew up until the age of 13....and the other is where I spent the remainder of my life...up to now that is. Doesn't necessarily mean that it will be my home forever and ever. Absolutely not.

What does a lonely girl do on a night when she is bored and when she isn't doing much at all? Well, she thinks. Yes, thinking...and thinking is never good. Coz thinking led me to go read some friends' blogs and catch up on their life. And after reading a few blogs, I find myself missing my friends back at home. And when I think of my life now, it's kind of sad to think that my friends are now all over the world.. which leaves me by myself here in Christchurch. Not that there's anything wrong with Christchurch. I've always liked Christchurch since I moved here and I still do. But it doesn't feel like much without your friends by your side (physically I mean). See, this is exactly why I shouldn't be by myself. I start to think too much and now I feel empty and somewhat depressed. Just to illustrate, this is what my brain feels like right now:

Image is provided courtesy of a friend.

So, I've been thinking. Then I wondered what my life would be like if I haven't moved to NZ when I was 13. The number of possible scenarios that run through my head is endless. As a result, I find that I have wasted about half my evening thinking useless things....things that would never eventuate anyway. Silly me....I could have done so much with that time. Sigh....

Whenever I am down, I think too much. When I do that, I find that the following quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn helps...sometimes. It carried me through my final year at uni. I first heard it from a wise priest at a retreat.

Guess what?
When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are.
Whatever you wind up doing, that's what you've wound up doing.
Whatever you are thinking right now, that's what's on your mind.
Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened.
The important question is, how are you going to handle it?
In other words, "Now what?"

These words are indeed meaningful. Whatever has happened, it has already happened. No amount of thinking that I do can change where or who I am now. So why do I waste my precious time wondering about something that can never happen anymore. The conclusion and the lesson is, I should stop feeling sorry for myself. Get a life and make some friends. Easier said than done but better than wasting my time day-dreaming.

Knowing me though, I'll probably be back in Square 1, which is doing more unnecessary thinking and wallowing in self-pity. It will be one of those lessons that I know I should learn but I never do. :0) It's my own fault, I know. Oh well, cosi e la vita. (which I think translates to "Life's like that"). Time for me to do something else (like watch TV) before heading to bed. Cheerio.

Weather

2007-03-18T13:06:00.000+12:00

Yup, the weather deserves to be blogged....because it has been a crazy summer. Well, the lack of summer should I say. Summer is officially over and what a cold summer it has been. Feels more like autumn if you ask me. Cloudy, rain and cold. I could probably count the number of sunny days with one hand.

We're into autumn now. Although it feels more like winter now. Just the other day, as I was walking around town returning to the office from the clients, the weather was just crap. It was really really cold and the rain just couldn't stop pissing down from the merciless sky. On that same day, it hailed (and snowed up on the mountains). And just as I'm blogging now, I can hear thunder. For those of you who don't live in Christchurch, we don't get a lot of thunder around here....it's really quite unusual.

As a result of the crap weather this weekend, this means that my laundry will never dry if I don't put it into the dryer. Not that I've gotten round to doing my laundry this wknd. But I will have to....sometime today. And daylight saving kicked in this morning. What that means is, we gained an additional hour today. 3am became 2 am. This has thrown my entire system out of whack....combined with the miserable day. Now I just can't tell what time of the day it is. Feels like it's 6pm, even though it's only 1pm, which is making me miserable.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. Don't feel like it. Maybe I should just call in sick. I wanna stay home and do nothing. Hopefully the weekend will be here again before I know it. And for heaven's sake, Mother Nature, please give us back our summer that we missed.

OLD PEOPLE SYNDROME WEEK

2007-03-12T20:07:00.000+13:00

In relation to my previous blog, maybe I didn't touch wood when I said I did. Or maybe, just maybe, as much as I hate to admit it, I am just getting old. I thought I saw the end of the Old People Syndrome....but no, things just keep happening to me.

I discovered just this morning that I appeared to have misplaced my EFTPOS card. Well, actually, I didn't appear to have misplaced it, I actually did misplace it. Now, the last time I used it was yesterday morning, to buy something from the bakery. The transaction itself seemed to have taken forever...but I'm pretty sure the lady at the counter gave me back my EFTPOS card. And I was pretty sure that I put it back in my wallet. But the funny thing is, it's not there..... and after searching hi and low, it's not anywhere. And I have no freaking clue where it could be. Maybe I didn't get it back from the lady. I'm gonna have to give them a call tomorrow. That's on my to-do list tomorrow. But in the meantime, my mind is still trying to remember where my card could be. I just have no recollection at all of where else I could have put it.....none at all. But for now, I have just put a stop to my account. And thank God the lady at the bank was being understanding. Not that it made me feel any better about this whole hoo-ha.

I guess on the bright side, it's only my EFTPOS card and not my credit card. Coz, we all know that that would be worse. And I have checked my account balance. No transactions seem to have gone through it since my purchase yesterday. But then, why would it if I just misplaced it.... what a mystery.

Now, in normal circumstances, I would term such an event as being unlucky. But after the week I had last week, I have now come to the conclusion that I am just getting old.... and it's just so scary to think that there is absolutely nothing that I can do to fix it. I mean, if I'm getting old, I'm getting old....what can anyone do about it.

Moving away from the miserable topic, I have more things to whine about. Now, I've only been working for 4 weeks (and 2 of these weeks I spent on training). And I only have had one month's salary. So why on earth would my colleagues insist on making us already poor graduates even poorer by asking us to do morning tea shouts????!!!!!! And it's not even something that I can claim back from the firm! This is simply ridiculous. But in order not to make myself the most unpopular and anti-social person in the office (which if I did, I can just about imagine the worst that can happen somewhere down the track at some work-do), I've decided to just buy some rather cheap savouries and slices and get it over and done with. And also at the same time, get use to the fact that people in the office will always be out looking for excuses for any morning tea shouts, such as, new people arriving, people leaving, birthdays, not doing time sheets and I'm sure the list goes on forever and ever. Not that I should whine about it. Because in about one year, I'm sure we'll be doing the same to the graduates next year..... and I certainly wouldn't mind having free food. :o)

Anyway, rather than spending the rest of my night on writing up this post, I think it's time for me to be doing something else more productive. Like watching TV. Till next time.

OLD PEOPLE SYNDROME WEEK

2007-03-09T19:59:00.000+13:00

So.... what do you think the title of this post suggest?

Is it because I've seen a lot of old people this week?......No
Is it because my client this week is an old peoples' home?.....NO
Is it because this is the Old People Syndrome Week? I wish.... not to be oblivious, I'm not even aware of such a week.... I doubt such a thing even exist.

I know you're dying to know what the hell I'm going on about (not).... but here goes anyway. It's something I made up for the week that I've had. Let's start with Tuesday. I was "asked" (more like told) to talk to a group of Year 13 students about my job etc etc..... As I was talking to these students, I couldn't help but think back to when I was in Year 12 when someone else was standing in front of the class talking to us about being an accountant. And then, I couldn't help but think how old I must be to be talking to these students (even though I'm only a few years older than they are). Well, it sounds alright so far doesn't it? Well, the week gets worse....

Let's skip a day and go to Thursday. It was in the afternoon (so maybe we should blame it on the fact that it's Thursday afternoon and almost time to knock off). So, there are 4 of us on the audit team working at the clients. Let's name the other 3 team members A, B and C (it's very original and it protects the identity of these people....not that they are the ones who should be embarassed....). Let's say A had to return to the office in the afternoon and I've been asking A a whole lot of question for the day. So, after A left the clients, I had a question I wanted to ask B. Knowing perfectly well that A wasn't there, I had, rather loudly and rather confidently, called for A. And it wasn't until B and C started to look around and then proceeded to look at me that I realise what I had just said. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.....

It was Thursday night. I just had a shower. I needed to dry my hair. So, I grabbed the hairdryer from the cupboard, which is where we usually kept it. And then, I must have got distracted. Because the next thing I know, I'm looking in the cupboard for the hairdryer and it wasn't there. At that point in time, I was thinking I'm gonna have to storm out of the bathroom and tell someone off for removing the hairdryer from the bathroom. And just as a storm was brewing up inside me over this issue, I suddenly realised that I was actually holding the hairdryer in my hand. *Roll my eyes*....sigh.... But the week just couldn't end there.....it had to get worse.

Friday morning. Arrived at work. Sat on the table. Discussed an issue with my manager. And then after a while, my manager asked me a question. And I told him, I was working on the inventory etc....only for him to stop me. And then he rephrased the question. Turned out that he had asked me, "Where's the kitchen?". So, that was a hell of a week. And luckily it's the end of it. *Touch wood*. Well, I'm hoping that's the end of it.

Time for this "old person" to finish off the blog. Must be needing my rest. Till next time, my dears.

HOME SWEET HOME

2007-02-27T19:30:00.000+13:00

Ah~ It's so good to be home. Home in my own bed. After 2 weeks of being away, I feel overly tired. Tired of everything really. Tired of living out of my suitcase, tired of moving around here and there, tired of being deprived of access to internet, tired of being bitten by mozzies, tired of eating out all the time, tired of sharing rooms with people I don't really know. (I don't mind the sharing really...after all, I'm sharing a bedroom at home.... so I'm already use to it). And so, after gaining a few pounds (from the $45 dinner allowance we get plus the $12 lunch allowance in the weekend AND the free breakfast) and after doing enough networking to last me a lifetime, I arrived home on Friday night and spent the weekend recuperating via sleeping.

It's just good to be home. Despite the cold rainy not so welcoming weather, I prefer the coolness to the hotness in Auckland. And for the second year in a row, I spent Chinese New Year alone. (Alone being defined as away from my family and friends). Not that I really mind. It's not like we usually have a big celebration or anything.

One thing good about being in Auckland (well, actually two)..... It was definitely good to catch up with people I met when I was doing my internship last summer. And the second being, it was defintely a good transition from being on a holiday mode to working mode. At the same time, I think it took my mind off from feeling lonely....that is until I heard from my friend in Melbourne yesterday morning. But after that, I guess work kept me busy enough to be feeling sorry for myself. Fingers crossed and hope that I get a client in Melbourne....that way, I would be able to go to Melbourne to visit family and friends.....

So, that brings me to work. Second day at work and I survived. Spent the first day hanging around the office doing add-checks (yea, that's all I did after 4 years of university....well, at least I'm being paid). But at least it's not too bad. Haven't done anything embarassing yet, which is always a plus.... [touch wood]....

Anyway, best I go now. Time to rest up for another day of "riveting" work!!!

DEFEATED by StatCounter!!!!

2007-01-28T16:05:00.000+13:00

So much for trying to keep a low profile. After a week of editing the side bar elements and NO POSTS, my cousin discovered my blog...somehow or rather. Maybe I should have kept away from his blog, but it does make an interesting read when I have nothing else to do. If I were to guess, I would guess that I was busted by StatCounter (Well, how accurate was that guess??? I'm right, aren't I? :p) Well, I have now removed traces of any evidence that would lead back to my profile... in case a stranger pops by the blog. :)

Anyway, after spending months of reading other blogs and after a failed attempt at blogging, I've decided to start up a new blog. Start anew. After all, this is 2007, a year full of changes in my life and I hate change. So I can already tell that this year is going to suck...bad. But life goes on and what better way to deal with it than to blog about it.

Two weeks to go before I have to start work. Two weeks to go before one of my best friends leaves for Melbourne. The other one has already gone to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Change, change, change....did I mention I hate change?? No more sleeping in on weekdays, no more month long holidays, no more bunking...to sum up, no more freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I guess I could look on the bright side, at least I'll be earning money and I'll have to widen my circle of friends. And, in two weeks, I get to stay at a posh hotel while training in Auckland for two weeks....but still, it doesn't stop me from dreading change when it happens. So, it will be interesting to see what 2007 brings.

So there....I'm sure by now, you could have figured out the purpose of this blog....it's really where I can ramble, yarn and whine...and every now and then, maybe something to keep my friends informed of what I'm up to.....other than the loads of rubbish I'll be outputting here. :o)

That's enough rambling, yarning and whining for the first post. The only thing missing was my cup of Mocha. Oh well (sigh)....Signing off now...till next time. Over and out.