About Nothing

Haven't been blogging cos I have absolutely nothing to blog about. I'm in the office and supposed to be busy. I just signed in to distract myself from the Ho Ho Ho talking to nobody in particular. I mean, I'm pretty sure he thinks he's talking to me, though I don't understand why he should think that, given that I have neither replied him nor looked his way once. Can't he tell that his presence is NOT acknowledged by anyone here? Sorry, that's inaccurate. We all know when he's stepped thru the front door. The irritating voice and the ho ho ho laughter reach us before anything else. Plus he comes in for work a good one hour AFTER everyone does, annoys the shit out of us, disappears for breakfast for another hour, disappears to "site", lunch for at least 3 hrs, come back to office for an hour (talking non-stop about nothing for that one hour) and ends his day at 4pm. What a great life!

I'm not jealous that he's got a great life, really. There's no way I would lead my life like he does, shirking responsibility ("oohh, how can I sign? I'm not responsible you know? I'm only the Resident Engineer, not the responsible person!"), blatant disrespect to colleagues he deem lower class than him ("oooh the bloody receptionist, how dare she talk to me like that? How dare she ask me to sign the form?"), causing trouble for everyone on his 1st day of work, being argumentative to get out of working, refusing to listen to simple commands to get out of working, asking a million unneccesary questions not to understand the work better but to get out of working, probably a maid abuser, skiving not just 10-20% of the time but 99%.....I really wonder how he got to where he is now, how he can even talk himself up ("RE is the KING of the site you know?")

OK. He's gone for his 3 hr lunch break now. I can work again.

Updates

Work: Frustrating. Moved to site office a couple of weeks ago. Cannot print, cannot scan, dunno the fax n phone no., cannot get in touch w Pipeline staff cos they were also shifting. No PC for me, had to sneak into PUB's room everyday even though I'd been asked to evacuate. No stationery, piles of papers n shit all over my desk cos I got no files or clips to organise them.

Health: Not v good. Been put on metformin to cure my PCOS problem. Metformin has been making me nauseous and been lao sai-ing nearly 3 times a day for a week now.

Marriage: Been stuck with hubby 24hrs a day for the last 3 month now. Surprisingly still OK, not too annoyed with each other yet. 'Cept for one stupid misunderstanding, it's actually quite fun working together, eating together, going to supermarket together, meeting friends together, going home together, sleeping together...oh dear.

Fun: Hmm...not been catching up with friends as much as I'd like to. V nuah. Must do more sessions like last weekend w Todd. Wasting too much time on facebook doing stupid things. Why issit so addictive? Bought a laptop at Comex yesterday. Compaq V3506 at $1799. Should be part of work (can claim, yeah!) but it's always fun to have a new tech toy.

Shopping: Been hibernating ever since spending too much on one single item from Tskye. Forgot abt GG5 sale, hope it's not ended yet!!!!!!!!

Book Review

Marley & Me - Life and love with the world's worst dog. Stu bought this for me from the airport. Very enjoyable read, everyone who loves dogs and especially those who has had the privilege of owning a crazy one will LOVE this book. Marley sounds like the combination of Zuzu and Moopie's worst habits, times ten. Reading this made me wish they were here to salivate all over me right now...

Book Review

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Very enjoyable book by Afghan author...especially the wife beating parts. But fret not my happily-ever-after friends, this book does have a happy ending.

The story is something like: young girl kena forced to marry old man, a decade and no kids later, old man takes in another young wife. Big wife jealous of small wife, but they finally become friends and gang up against old man. Then u have the Taliban goondus and war as the backdrop....so this book is also quite educational, at least it made me more interested in Afghanistan than ever before.

Read proper synopsis at:
http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

Moopie Cartoon

With Zoe & her mummy @ Wisma Food Republic

See, when I take the picture, Zoe eyes me with suspicion (or a look of disdain?). But when her mummy is behind the camera, Zoe gives a cheeky grin. :-)

Back in Sin

I have not written anything for 3 months, and it took more than 3 attempts before I remembered the log in and password for blogger! I'm sitting in the PS office, waiting for hubby to finish work with my growling tummy (and also growing, as I've been eating non-stop since stepping into Sin on 3rd June). I still dunno if it's good to be back at work here - I received a warm welcome from all, but I've been put in a freezing office by myself. The work is what I'm used to before I left for Oz, but I'm not sure if I'm relishing this shit again. I'm glad to work for a boss whom I can crack silly jokes with again, but I'm not looking forward to seeing him quarrel with every tom dick n harry we work with. At home, I enjoy annoying Mimi but miss my Moopie like mad. I'm so happy to see my parents again but I dunno how long more I can stand their constant chattering and nagging. Dun worry, I don't think there's anything to complain abt regarding friends (heehee). Jus listen to me whinge...life is never perfect and nobody's ever completely satisfied isnt it? Anyway, I'm gonna make the most of the next 12 or 18 months. Work and play hard, hopefully save some money at the end of it, and don't stop eating all that delicious yummy greasy cheap hawker food that we can't find anywhere else in the world.....IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK.

Bloody Fitness First

My complaint letter - which they promptly replied and put everything right.


The General Manager

Fitness First Castle Hill



Attention: Nathan



Re: MEMBERSHIP COMPLAINT



Following numerous recent discussions with Fitness First staff and unresponded complaints to the Fitness First Website, I provide you details of my membership complaint for your urgent attention.



On 27/01/07 I entered a contract with Fitness First at Castle Hill. This decision was entirely based upon representations made by your sales person Mitch. The issues that are in dispute are related to claims made by Mitch that;



The usual rate of $39.99 per fortnight has been reduced to $29.99 per fortnight due to the “open weekend” the club was having at that time, and;
I can access any Fitness First clubs, including overseas ones using my usual membership without additional costs or charges.


The first point was obviously important with the second point convincing me to sign up. Flexibility with the membership was important as I was headed for Singapore in 2 week’s time and intend on utilising at least 2 clubs (Norwest and Castle Hill) in Sydney.



I was very happy with what Mitch had confirmed to me and even persuaded my husband, Stewart Hine, to join so we can work out together. He went to Norwest and signed up on 08/02/07.



On 13/02/07 I made a visit to the Norwest club, for a work out and to get an Overseas Club pass for my Singapore trip from 15/02/07 – 25/02/07. To my surprise I was told that I have the “Home” membership and could not use any clubs other than at Castle Hill. Any differences between “Home” and “Passport” memberships were never explained to me by Castle Hill staff until that time.



Both myself and my husband has spoken to Kelly and Mitch from Castle Hill Club on numerous occasions since 14/02/07. I had requested that I be given the correct membership that I have been sold by Mitch, at $29.99 per fortnight. They have not been able to resolve the mistake in my membership. I had also written twice to the Fitness First website but received no response. Mitch set up an appointment to see me at 11am on 17/3/07. He was not there and did not have the courtesy to cancel our appointment. I was disappointed that this matter has been further delayed, adding to my disappointment.





I hereby request that my membership be converted to what I have been promised at no extra charge within the next 48 hours. This request is made on the basis that information that I relied upon to make my decision to join Fitness First was misleading and did not represent that nature of the membership that I purchased.



If this request cannot be acceded please terminate the contract under clause 15 of your Membership Terms and refund all amounts that have been debited from my account. Should Fitness First again disregard my complaint this matter will be referred to the Consumer Tenancy & Trader Tribunal for determination.



I can be contacted at (02) 9636 0126 during working hours or 0417 619 518 should you wish to discuss this matter further. I look forward to your reply.



Yours sincerely,


Hui Ching Hine

Membership No: AUS5591246

Eurolounge

Thankfully, before the stupid movie, hubby and I went to a nice nice restaurant for dinner. Eurolounge is now my fav restaurant in the ulu western subs of Sydney! Suspect the chefs are Malaysians or Singaporeans though (Alex Hau and William Teoh). Don't care, as long as the ambience is posh (preferably candlelit), service immaculate (attentive friendly cute waiters with a sense of humour), menu impressive (using cheem words to describe an otherwise simple dish), food good (hard to describe how good is good, considering what a glutton I am), I'm willing to pay and come back again and again.

For entree, we had the Chef's Tasting Plate for two, which came with oysters au natural, garlic & chilli scallops, prawns w mango coriander salsa, smoked salmon rolled with cream cheese and seeded mustard honey sauce, stuffed mushrooms n asparagus dipped in cheesy sauce in a little cup.

I had the Seared Duck Breast (copied from menu - Duck Breast fillet pan fried served with jus and an orange sauce with a macadamia and chilli cous cous and five spice) as my main while Stu had the Poulet d’ete (Whole roasted baby chicken de-boned and filled with a sweet potato, bread and thyme stuffing served with dutch carrots, snow peas and apple & ginger chutney).

The duck was delicious but a bit too fatty, the macadamia cous cous really yummy. We found out that the chicken actually has a size (5.5), and miraculously deboned yet still looking like a whole chicken. Wish we had room in our tummys for desert, else we wouldn't have left for the movies...

My aim is to find all award winning restaurants in this area and try them all. Ssssslurp.

Babel

What a waste of $30.60 (for two). No wonder it's called BABBLE...probably the worst Brad Pitt movie I'd seen. There's guns & drugs, blood and gory, Japanese girls in short skirts, Brad Pitt, nudity, all the key ingredients for a great show.....but I still don't like it. Too slow paced, arty farty and a stupid storyline based on nothing. I paid to be entertained, not bored...fed up.

Back from the North

Just came back from a 1-week holiday up the Northern Coasts. Stu and I woke up at 3am on Saturday morning, packed our bags and started the 10-hr drive to Lismore at 5am. Stayed at his friend's place and visited Ballina, Lennox Head, Byron Bay. Many firsts for me this trip - first time sat in a car for 10-hrs straight up, first time seen a skinny dipper, first time jumped into unknown watering hole in the middle of nowhere, first time hit cane toads with a golf club, first time seen a wild koala on a tree just off the road, first time fed cows, first time rode a horse for 2 hours, first time fell off a horse, and first time had a horse roll over me. Well actually the horse slipped and fell, that's why I fell, and I was bloody lucky to just get a bruised thigh and nothing else. Drove another 2 hours to Gold Coast - had the best time there cos I was right in my element with the shopping and good good restaurants. *Aquatichue - Gold Coast is the place to move to if I were you*

Now I have to go back to bed cos I'm down with fever. Will post photos on flickr soon.