Last day at QR National

So after the long 4 weeks notice, the last day finally came. It was a luxurious day, I got into work at 9.30am and had morning tea for my farewell at 10am. As I had influence over the food catered for morning tea, I specifically got Rahni, the office manager, to order no muffins. To my disappointment, according to the caterer, muffins were called 'cakes' and muffins were still ordered!

The awkward moment came as my manager gave a speech and handed me a gift wrapped in silver paper and a card. I didn't open the gift right away. And I had to give a speech, which I was not prepared for, so I said some nice things but could have given a better one if I had been prepared. Note to self next time.

I was very delighted to see the gifts that I got, they were a set of purses and a thick scarf to prepare me for Sydney. I later found out that Rahni had accompanied my manager Jarrod to look for the items. It was an awkward experience for both of them so I was touched they did it for me.

At 12, Sarah, Margarita, Lyn and Helen had lunch with me. It was also Helen's last day. We had lunch at Harlequin Jack and I had the fisherman's boat which was huge. I also got a delightful call from Greg Gilbride, the consultant whom I worked with on my first project at QR National. He arranged for a catch up with me over coffee at Saffron. So not long after lunch, I had coffee with dear Greg and we had a good catch up over coffee and tea.

After throwing out most junk on my desk, and packing the rest up, I waited till Debbie left for my farewell drinks and went over to her desk to play the prank on her. I had printed sticky notes saying 'Debbie is a sex bomb' and stuck the sticky notes all over her computer screen. I had already asked for permission from her boss Brendan if I could, and he said go ahead! This would be a follow up to Stacey's prank of setting auto correct to change 'the' to 'Deb is a sex bomb' on her computer.

After that, I happily handed over my office passes and hopped out of the office for the last time. I felt happy as I knew my time there was up. Headed to Cicada for my farewell drinks. It was good to see Bev, Ranald, Erin, Bing, Dim, Alister, Kit, Angela, Pauline and all my other colleagues one last time before I set off to Sydney. I didn't have too much to drink and had relatively tame night as we finished up at the bar at half past 8 and headed to Vapiano for pizza and pasta.

Overall, it was a great day. Kind of sad to close one chapter of my life, but as the saying goes, one door shuts, another opens :)

No carbon tax please!

So today I went for a lecture organised by UQ Business School at Central Plaza One and it was a lecture by Robbie Cooke, the CEO of wotif.com. After relishing on camembert cheese, crackers and grapes, I sat through an interesting lecture, which I consider to be a free advertising campaign.

Aside from that, preparation for the big move progressed today. I have found temporary accommodation at 2 Bond Street, Sydney and will be staying there for 2 weeks. I have also booked my flight for 24th July, which means I will going for Moo's Wild Wild West party the night before I fly off and will be getting pissed drunk on my last night in Brisbane!

Also, this weekend I will be going to O'Reillys Gold Coast Hinterland for a winter getaway with some friends. Looking forward to that!

So on to the topic for the day... carbon tax! Now that my pay is more than $100 lower this year because of the flood levy tax, Julia Gillard is adamant on passing this carbon tax which will do nothing but raise cost of living for everybody and being a middle income earner, I am sure that I will more likely than not be worse off with this stupid tax. Why are we Australia taking the lead in imposing this tax that will result in other countries having an edge in production and cost reduction? The rest of the world must just be laughing and feeling sorry that our country has been hijacked by a bunch of Greens who happened to played a crucial part in helping the PM betray the elected PM and now Julia needs to return the favour by passing this significant tax.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the days to come as there seems to be major opposition against this tax and there are calls for an election to take place now as the Labour government's popularity percentage has gone down as low as the 20s. I am all ready for Tony Abbott to take over this country now.

Need to get excited for new beginnings ahead!!!

So the best thing that has happened today is I finally get the results for my employment background screening and everything went alright... thank God! Then I started feeling overwhelmed... I have to move to a new place and find somewhere to stay and I am getting cold feet about my new job... I have a million thoughts in my head now and for some odd reason I want to delay my flight to Sydney for as long as I can... now I am even thinking of flying there on the Sunday before the first day of work... hmmm

Well today I tried something new... I made stir fry hokkien noodles... and for the first time noodles were tasty :) I am super proud of myself... in fact I should take a photo of it and post it here hehe... Ok I have leftovers so I shall do it tomorrow and update this blog post

So I have always written about exciting things that have happened to me... but like all persons, I have my worries, my troubles, issues... today I am having another round of arguments with my mum... sometimes I think it is really unfair that because she is the mother, she is allowed to be angry at me but I am not allowed to feel the same way... after all, I am the one having the high stress life having to face the corporate world... somehow it always revolves around how she feels, how we kids have offended her... we don't get some slack cut... and I am made to feel guilty for being annoyed, bothered and stressed out by unkind things that are said by her... Am I supposed to feel absolutely sorry and guilty that I am unhappy with my parents? I believe that God said to honour your parents but surely God must have said something about treating your children well and not give them so much stress and make them feel so guilty when they don't live up to your expectations

So back to my preparations for my new life ahead... it's supposed to be so exciting but somehow I don't feel it... maybe I need to be down there and experience what it is like again to be around so many young lively people again... indeed I must have forgotten what it feels like to be in a buzzing city... well, not too long before it all begins again :)

So much has happened... too much

Wow... I looked at the last post and it has been one and a half years, 4 jobs after, moving to Brisbane, back down to Sydney, back up to Brisbane and now packing up to move back down to Sydney (again!)... so much has happened... I read the post and recall the wonderful days when I was living in the tiny shoe box in Potts Point... the fun outings to restaurants and bars with my dear friends in Sydney... I am angry at myself for not having kept this habit of writing everyday... there has been so much that I have left out in my eventful life... so now I can only do my life justice by reviving this blog... and for everyday that I do not have much to write on, I will write about the days that I have had during this past one and a half years... memorable days such as my trips to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hawaii that I have had in the last 12 months... the new experiences that I have had... deep sea fishing, Usher concert, crazy shopping, musicals, bar hopping...

I feel an overwhelming sense of lost time right now... so much has happened... I have grown so much in these years... tonight, for some reason it hit me that if I didn't start accounting for my life now that someday it may be too late and I would have lived this life in vain

So as I sit on my bed, getting ready to go to bed and face another day at work tomorrow, the fourth last day at QR National as a commercial analyst... how do I feel... nervous as my employment at Macquarie is not finalised yet... my life is hanging on a shoe string... I have replayed in my mind countless number of times of what I would do and how life would be and how I would cope if things didn't go well with the employment check for Macquarie... all I can do now is pray and I know that regardless of what happens, I have faith that it is meant to be the best outcome for me

So one of the main things that have happened in my life since the last post, and this one is significant is my discovery of my faith in God... I have found joy in my life again... I no longer feel anxious and depressed that I do not know where I am heading in life... I have been able to live peacefully and joyfully everyday knowing that God loves me and will be here with me always... this has changed my life greatly and I am so grateful that it has happened

Now this post is meant to be just a short one to wet your lips... Can't wait to write more tomorrow!

Peace out!

Last Days in Sydney

It's less than 24 hours before I move to Brisbane for my new job as an economic analyst at Dept of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation of the Queensland Government. I'm so excited, nervous and sad about leaving Sydney.

Since I have found out about the job a week ago, I have been running around organising everything and meeting up with as many people as possible. Last night, I had a farewell dinner with Nick, Nena, Mizzah and the Bruneians in Sydney. We went to BBQ City, a Korean place on Liverpool St. It was good food and good value too. Service was good as well. We then had drinks at Chamberlain Hotel, which was quite nice but quiet since it is after all a Monday night. I had a cocktail of vodka, apple juice and cinnamon sugar... delicious!

Last Saturday was farewell with the Waterloo boys, Ange, Grace and George... went to Busshari... highly raved Japanese restaurant at Potts Point... it was good BUT the boys were still hungry after eating 200 bucks worth of food and were insisting on going to Burgerfuel after... :S
so we went to Burgerfuel... interesting place... huge burgers with burger holders... fries are sweet potato fries... names of burgers like Bastard and Greedy Bastard lol

Then we were finding a place for drinks and were lured by some promoters to try out a new dance club called aero space or something... on the 3rd floor of the empire hotel building seemed quiet n scary so we decided against it and went to elk for drinks instead... was nice place n we played backgammon, chess and drinking games... all won by Master TG Chen

On Friday night, after catching up with some at Customs House Bar, having dinner at Sushi Tei, had drinks at bar 333 and then tried Zeta Bar at Hilton... love the place... spacious, nice decor, good atmosphere... drinks a bit pricy though... but for the experience its worth it

So next time I write I'll be reporting from Brisbane! xoxo

Harold and Kumar Down Under

Sunday night... or Monday morning rather... I'm sitting, unwinding and recapping the past week... another great week of fun and new experiences... highlight of which is my school friends coming to visit Sydney from Singapore and Melbourne. This morning we went to Zilver for yumcha... in terms of food and service, the best I have had in Sydney yet. Goodies include pork ribs (to die for), beef balls, chee cheong fun, quail's egg siewmai and lots more... The only thing was we had to wait for a good 30min before being seated and there was an extra $10 charge for kitchen which was totally unnecessary... other than that two thumbs up... my friend from Singapore was happy with it, so happy that she had to do her har gow dance! lol

Yesterday, we went to the Sydney fish market... had lobster, fresh prawns, oysters, octopuses, calamari and fish... was great! Good day out and then headed for the Rocks market and the Opera House for sight-seeing... The Rocks market is interesting with a lot of quirky unnecessary things like overpriced herbs, oils, chilli... My friend definitely liked it and bought a few things like lipgloss in shells as souvenirs... They then went on to Luna park for a ferris wheel ride and Maissey's at Neutral Bay for sticky date pudding, which they thought was too sweet and could not finish.

On Friday night, when they first arrived, I tagged along to their accommodation which was a god forsaken Formule 1 hostel at Strathfield South... the room was bad... the sheets had white stains on them, we told ourselves it could have been detergent but that was an excuse for children and we are definitely all grown up to know that it was not detergent! The toilet/shower was so small that you could only rotate while standing in it... The bed had booger on it and the cups were oily... The sink was in the room instead of in the bathroom... And I had a sleepless night on the ground as I crashed there with them since it was too late and troublesome to take me home.

On Monday, I had dinner at Alfredo's an Italian restaurant near Gateway building in the CBD. It is a really good restaurant and we had penne with hazelnut sauce, pasta with crab meat in white wine sauce and rack of lamb... all were good except portion was a bit small... good thing I loaded up on fried rice and eggplant and fish beforehand lol

Last week I did not get up to much except go clubbing at Bamboo, the club that is Martin Place Bar during the day... very popular spot for Asians mostly... music was not bad except repeats itself... cover charge of $25 which is standard... had a male stripper which was weird and fat and old...

That's all... next week my bf comes back from NZ... yay!

2 Weeks' Redemption

Hi all, sorry for not having written for ages. I have been busy. So there is much to update on. Firstly, two weeks back, a friend of mine Pauline was in the city so I went to have drinks with her at the Establishment and then crashed at her hotel room in Westin. It is a wonderful 5 star hotel with a big room and great view. The photo here is of the clock tower that is part of the view from the room.

Last weekend, I had a good catchup with my ex-uni mates. Had yumcha at Palace Restaurant, which we think is one of the the best yumcha places in Sydney and we highly recommend it!

This week I had my hair cut at FM hair studio on Kings Cross. The service was excellent and the cut and price is good too. I highly recommend it. I didn't do much different to my hair just a trim and wash.

On Friday, we went to equilibrium, me and the boys... and we sat by the staircase toward the club and were eyeing chicks walking up the stairs... and all the girls were wearing the shortest dresses and skirts and it was a sight for sore eyes but my guy friends were not complaining hehe... it was soooo seedy of us!

Yesterday, we went for to the beach since it was a sunny day. We decided to try the Dee Why beach. It was a great day out and I didn't get burnt without any sunblock :D Walked miles up and down the beach twice and my legs were sore from that. There were not many good looking people to sight at the beach unfortunately... For dinner, we drove all the way to Granville (close to Parramatta) for charcoal chicken. The funny bit was when Endra, one of my friends asked us to make a booking... when we got there, it turned out to be a dodgy place like a McD's joint lol... the food was good and cheap

Granville was a first visit for me and it was quite interestingly different. Firstly, there were many black people which is a rare sight in Australia... there was even a black street with a black club. There were of course many Lebanese since it is a Lebanese area. We went to a dessert place after to have baklava and other Lebanese sweets. One of my friends got the wrong order, the glasses had washing water in them and the lady came up to me and said "You can eat anything you want but please put your foot down" when I had my leg up on my cushion. I thought that was appallingly rude. One thing for sure I am never going back to Granville again!