Thursday, December 31, 2015

Last Day of 2015

I thought I better type the last blabbering of 2015 before the clock strikes midnight. So here I am on the train to my cousins' place for dinner after a whole day of shopping in Liverpool Westfield. My first time in there btw :P

2015 has been a tiring year. Buying our first home, dealing with unreliable solicitors and too relaxed broker, had to hear how my crazy neighbors still trying to make troubles on our last day there, being left behind by more of my closest friends, lost trust in one of my closest colleague, fed up with work, had my temper exploded so many times, one of my closest friends turning into such judgemental and annoying person, etc etc... Even my dentist said to me, "We might have to look at the spleen in the new year, coz it seems to me that you've been under stress. You've mentioned about clenching your jaw on last visit too..." Yeah, I did tell him that I wake up with tight jaws on both my visits this year. Per his suggestion, I started taking calcium and magnesium this year. Btw, they do give you good sleep! I don't have trouble sleeping, but I noticed that when I take those vitamins, I have deeper sleep :)

Apart from the bad ones, of course I had good moments in 2015. Let me try recalling them: moving into our new house, realising that I still have friends who're willing to help with the moving even the ones I thought were not that close, living in between 2 very good, friendly and helpful neighbours, getting even closer with my other bunch of friends and realising how good and helpful they are, winning competition as the results of someone pissing me off, seeing how my dad is not depressed anymore, trip to indo and meeting my bestfriends again and still closer than before. Plus, I started going to gym and tried out the classes :) I got closer to my colleagues too!

I can't remember what my 2015 prediction was, but if it says friendships, then it's true. This year I've been asking so much favour from my friends, to the point that sometimes I'm ashamed to actually ask. But the people who actually helped me, they genuinely wanted to help and werent feeling troubled at all! And we got closer to the ones we weren't that close before too.

I didn't have much time to do crafts this year, but I will try to do more next year. I'm more into planners now. One reason is because I get forgetful, I have to write it down to remember. I don't like using the mobile phone as I realise using reminders make me forget even more. Having it written down in a planner let me review the plans for week ahead, and that way my brain gets reminded. I also write down things I have been meaning to do and start ticking them off the list.

I lost trust in some people and also got put off by some people. Well at least I learned not to give 100% trust in people. Regardless how well you know the person, you won't know exactly what they are thinking.

I will enjoy my last moments in 2015, and I hope 2016 bring me more exciting things and happiness in the way I could never have imagined it would be :)

Thursday, December 10, 2015

It Is Going To Be A Nightmare

I didn't plan to have a long post, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long one. So, bear with me please :)

Christmas is coming. Most people are excited about it. But of course not everyone. I remember when I was working in retail, Christmas was a very very busy period. It's cool of course having all Christmas decorations, lollies, songs etc. But what if those Christmas songs are blaring in your ears from morning to night everyday? By the end of day 2 I wanted to vomit when it's on.

Plus, you would think people are nicer because of Christmas. Not really. They are stressed and crankier than normal because the things they wanted to buy have been sold out! True though, most of our Christmas tree decorations were sold out within first week of December. Don't even forget about the long list of people they need to buy presents for. In Australia, people take Christmas presents quite seriously and buy presents for each of their family and friends. And also for people who take care of their kids I.e. my sister :P every Christmas, the bottom of our Christmas tree is always full of presents. Her presents from the children parents :P but no worries, I can always borrow them of her ;-)

Now back to topic. Christmas in our company is a NIGHTMARE. Ridiculously big projects all due for first working day in January. We had an awful Christmas 'break' last year. We worked overtime the whole Christmas to New Year period including Xmas eve and New Year's eve. I shouldn't have used overtime. We weren't paid for overtime. We involuntarily gave them our time as Christmas present. While the directors were on real Christmas break.

This year unfortunately and unsurprisingly is no difference. We have 2 big projects due first day back in January. One is a 100++ hours project and the other one is a complete new website. We knew we were getting it since months before, but only last week or the week before everything was settled to go ahead. I say "settled to go ahead", the other department was still having requirements and layout meetings yesterday. What date is today? 10 December. How many working days we have until Xmas and New Year??

Our team is the smallest it's ever been since I joined the company. IT team is half of what it used to be and the other department is half the size too. At the beginning of December, Superexcited said this line, "We are very busy. That's why we are asking Slitherin to come and help us. He is available and is willing to help. We just need to decide what parts we are going to give to him. It is of course an additional costs for us, but it is a cost that we're willing to incur in order to deliver the projects on time and relieve us off the extra pressure."

The truth? Slitherin only said he might be available. He hasn't even discussed about his hourly rate and stuffs with you know who. He was surprised when I cheerfully messaged him once I heard the news. Nothing was really arranged. And guess what? 2 days ago, Lao Er asked Little Missy to come to work at 7:30am-7:30pm in order to finish the project. "A cost we are willing to incur" MY ASS! A cost you are willing to incur or a cost you are making your employees to incur??? Don't bother asking me if Little Missy got any overwork pay. I doubt he got even dinner paid last night. No, make that I'm sure he didn't get dinner last night.

I told Little Miss Nice about it the other day. Here's the convo:

Little Miss Nice: I wish Superexcited would man up and tell them they briefed us late and that we can't meet the deadline they want.
No overtime pay ay?

Me: No overtime pay. I did ask Little Missy just to confirm, I kinda knew, but well I shouldn't assume :p

Little Miss Nice: Hahah true we shouldn't assume but our assumption are almost 100% right lol
Is Little Missy angry that Little Missy needs to come in early?

Me: Nah, still happy. Unlike us :p

Little Miss Nice: Hahahah ohh I'm glad him for that Little Missy is happy. I'm sure eventually will end up being like us and hating it

See that assumption part of it? It's true. Most of our assumptions are proven true.

About man up and tell client... That's something that our company lacks of. I usually blame the other department for it, but this week I realised it's not them. It's the directors.

1. The 100 hours project timeline says it's due next Friday. Yesterday they were still discussing about the layout. We are in no position to deliver next Friday at all. In meeting with the client, neither the director nor creamer said anything about it. Little Miss Nice who's not a manager at all had to bring it up herself that we are most likely not going to deliver!

2. On Monday a director of a big company we have a website for logged in to the site to do an assessment. He clicked on the link to go to the page, and waited. The page took forever to load and he gave up. Shot an email to us saying it doesn't work. Poker Face went panic and got me and water tap to look at it. We did do something prior week that made it slower, but that was expected. So we took it off, put it back to how it was before and told Poker Face. He logged in, load the page. It took 15 seconds to load and said, "It's not acceptable. You have to fix it". WTF??? That page has always been like that for the past 2 years and now you say it's not acceptable?????? Why didn't you say a year ago when there wasn't urgency to have everyone finish the assessment that day?? I'm sorry to say, but this is a typical behaviour of a store managers when they hear that area manager is going to visit tomorrow. What a joke! Water tap and me took 4 HOURS to try and fix it, and it the end we had to give up the whole reporting page to just have that page loading in 1 second. Originally they wanted all fixed. Which I replied, you have 2 choices: have all working, but that page loads in 15 seconds, or sacrifice the reporting and have the page loads in 1 second. Fixing it will take days. So they sacrificed the reporting page and said to revert the code back the next day. If I didn't say that, I think they are going to force us to fix it.

3. There's an issue within the site. It's only affecting 2 stores, and it's been like that since the beginning of that project. It's going to take 4 hours at least to fix. I don't have time and no one in IT is free, so I said no. Talk to the manager. He went to the manager and guess what? I got an email for that task due in 2 days time. Kill.Me.Now.

There are SOOOO Many of these examples happening. The funny thing is, they always say, don't say yes to the client all the time, manage their expectations, rah rah rah. All the nice talk and little quizzes to test our understanding. In reality? Of course we can do it!!! We have enough people to do it!! Again, my ass.

Apples NEVER EVER fall far from the tree.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Neighbors Stories

If you asked me what I like about moving into this house, I would say it's our neighbors. Both my left and right neighbours are very nice, but the one i'm going to tell you about are the older Croatian couple. They are a nice couple and very friendly. You know what, the husband is the one moving our front and backyard while my dad is not here XP

We didn't ask him of course. After we came back from holiday, the wife told us when it's time to mow the lawn, just ask her husband to do it. It's not girls' job, she said. Of course we just laughed it off, but then not long after when I got home, I noticed my front lawn was flat! My lawn is full of weeds so you do notice when suddenly it's flat. When we asked the neighbors, and thanked them, the husband asked said, "yeah, I wanted to do the backyard too but it's locked. So tell me when you want me to mow it". We told him don't worry, we'll do it ourselves but he insisted. Then, he did it then and there XD since then he's been mowing our lawn every 2 weeks :P

Plus, on taking the rubbish day out day, we noticed that by the time we got home the day after, the bins have been pushed in next to the house. Initially I thought it was one of my sisters as I'm the last one to return. However, later on my sister asked me if I did as neither her nor her twin did it. When we confirmed with next door, yeah it was them.

We met them tonight on our way home and ended up talking for quite a while. It's nice to hear their stories about the old times..

They told us in 70s, when they first arrived in Australia, the husband first pay was $50 a week and the wife's pay was $34 per week and it paid for rent and food for them and 2 children! 700 ml milk cost 20cents and a baguette cost 5 cents. Milk really doesn't have much increase. You can still buy a litre for $1 now. While baguettes hmm.. quite an increase. You can leave money for bread and milk delivery in front of your door safely, but outside generally wasn't as safe as now. There weren't much take away places, just fish and chips, burgers and such. You couldn't buy lunches on Saturdays because stores closed at noon! Getting a place to rent was hard if you had kids because landlords worried kids would damage the property. They said people with 2-3 kids usually lied and said they had 1 kid only if they wanted to rent. Childcare of course were not many, so the wife worked in the morning and her sister worked in the afternoon to take turns watching over the children. They had a tough life back then.

They said they had to work hard in a farm when they were in Croatia. They said it was a small village where they lived, probably 50-60 houses. Everybody knew everybody. When they took their children back there for holiday, their eldest was surprised, "Why don't people knock when coming to other house?? They just opened the door and walked straight in!". It's a pity now that that village isn't like how it was before. People don't know everyone anymore and it has grown too.

They were all good story and I guess, worth my blood being fed to mosquitoes listening to it :P

Sunday, November 15, 2015

When Someone Quits and You Know Who Doesn't Like It - Part 2

Hellooooo, your long awaited story is back! I know you guys have missed a certain someone in my office. Just admit it, someone I know keeps asking about him every Friday morning...MUAHAHAHA :P

So, someone in our company has resigned this week. I was pretty upset when I heard the story. Pavarotti has been working in our company for 6 years. He's one of my 'generation' and we've been working closely together for the past 6 years. We've mucked around and bitched about people in our company, so yeah it was a bit sad. I've eaten his snacks and stolen his teabags too. But it's good for him and I'm very happy for him.

You all know how Superexcited has issues with people quitting. Be it one of his favourite or one that he doesn't like. Tell you the truth, I still don't know which side is better. So when Pavarotti resigned, he gave his famous lecture. The content of that lecture I don't know, but don't expect something as easy as "I'm sad that you're leaving, we will miss you, but we wish you well". Expect something more like, "How dare you to go behind my back finding jobs. You are supposed to give us 3 months notice. I always give and give and give, but people never give anything back to me". Something along that line. Anyways, Pavarotti successfully resigned. Well done.

The next morning, Pavarotti went to Superexcited's office to ask if he could take lunch at 1:30-2:30 instead of his normal 1-2 lunch as he has a baby appointment. Superexcited's reply was, "What? You quit yesterday, and now you're asking me for a favor?". What.A.Jerk.

The rest of the conversation went like this:
Pavarotti: "No, I'm not asking for a favor. I am entitled for 1 hour break". Superexcited: "Yeah, you're asking for a favour! All these 6 years, you always come to my office asking for a favour. You never give anything back to me!".
Pavarotti: "I work my ass off these past 6 years for you!"
Superexcited: "I pay you for it!"

In Little Miss Nice's words, "What a BABY!"

What about all those overtime? We don't get paid for overtime and he always comes to the office WAY earlier than the office hours! All of those goes unnoticed, oh sorry, should be forgotten and unappreciated.

The whole conversation happened in his office with the door opened, so one of our colleagues heard the whole thing. He was actually about to turn down a job interview, but upon hearing how bad Pavarotti was treated, he decided to go for the interview. Not sure how it went though. If he got it and is going to leave, everybody is going to laugh. That's really Superexcited's fault.

I wonder how it's going to be in the other department. They only have about 7-8 people. Pavarotti already resigned, another one has resigned too according to my source (eventhough the person still have few months to go), little miss nice is going to start looking for a new job, and if that one person got the job, that would be 4 gone out of 7. Little Miss Nice wondered if Superexcited's going to finally realise. I really don't think so.


Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Things Indo Shopkeepers Say That Puts You Off Shopping

Indo shopkeeper can be very friendly (when they want to). However, they sometimes can't filter what they say...

In a clothing shop trying on jeans
Me: It's too small, I can't zip it up. Do you have one size up?
Shopkeeper: No, that's the biggest one. It's because your butt is big.
Me: -__- not buying anymore.

Got a text message when I got to department store from Skinfood about 50% off today (sometimes it's scary how they know where you are and text you special deals once you step your feet into the mall. Or parking lot of the mall... I wonder if Indo has privacy law in place). So I went.

Me: *browsing through the skin care products*
Shopkeeper: Hello...
Me: Hello.
Shopkeeper: We have special offer of 50% off skincare today.
Me: oh yeah, ok, thank you.
Shopkeeper: Sis, this product would definitely suits you very well. I guarantee it! *smiling widely while pointing her finger to a range of products targeted for acne prone and troubled skin*
Me: Wth... Let's go -_-"

My mum took us shopping pyjamas at the market as we needed some clean pyjamas for staying over at my bestie's. While looking, my mum also took a look at the range of nighties the seller had.

Mum: Do you have anything that's a bit wider from waist down? Nowadays the nighties are not as wide as they used to be at the bottom... (This is actually true. I noticed that too since I like flowy and loose nighties).
Seller: Ah, can't be, they are always the same size. Your butt must be the one getting bigger ma'am.
Me and mum: -.-
Me: Sir, you better not say that kind of thing to your customer if you don't want to drive them away -_-!
Seller: hahaha...

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

My Funny ANZ Complain

As you all know, we bought our first home early this year. The whole process was a complete nightmare that I keep putting it aside to write. I have a draft written since early this year, another notepad with all the points I'm going to write, but never had enough willingness to toughen up my heart to remember everything and put it to words. Because I know, I would have my blood pressure up and brain boiling while typing it all down.

However, this is a little bit too good not to be written straight away, so here we go :) *deep breath*

I have my home loan with ANZ, and they do have quite a big part in making the whole thing with buying my first home a headache. Therefore, I wrote a letter to them last Sunday and lodged a formal complaint.

In my letter, I said when I decided to take on ANZ homeloan, I felt I was in the good hand. Everywhere there is ANZ ads, there would be those awards badges on them too. So I thought I would be fine. However, from the very first chance, ANZ stuffed it up. 
  1. My letter of offer had wrong interests rate on it.
  2. I went to the bank to open an offset account to be linked to my loan account. I specifically told the guy, I wanted to open it for my offset account and gave him my account number. Next time I went back to the bank for other thing and casually mentioned it, guess what? My offset account hadn't been linked to my loan -_- AND, I got charged for account keeping fee as it wasn't linked to an mortgage account. This $10 was later on reimbursed.
  3. I took home insurance with ANZ too, and later on I wanted to change the excess. So I emailed the woman who I took the insurance with, asking her if it's still possible and how much would it cost. It took her few days to reply and another few days to return and say she'd do it soon. But then she emailed me back saying she couldn't and that she'd get someone from insurance to contact me.
  4. Time passed and I got a letter from ANZ saying they noticed that they haven't got my building insurance cover details. They sent me a form for me to fill out with the details. Refer to point 3 please. Duh??
  5. Got a letter from them saying they will charge me $107 for registration fee on withdrawal of Caveat. What caveat???? No heads up or further information. Just that. This again was cancelled, after a lengthy chase done by me and my broker. During the whole process, they told my broker they would call me directly, but nope, not a single phone call.
  6. In August, they increased the interests rate for investment loan. However, they only sent the letter in September. So by the time I got the letter, my interests charges were already increased.
I lodged this complain to ANZ using their complain form online. I thought hm... good, they have complain form. Plus, the textbox character limit was 10,000 chars, YES! My whole letter was 6000+ characters. So, I copy pasted it into that box. Then... yep, only 3/4 of it got in. Great.

So, while lodging my formal complain, I actually added point 7: Your complain form sucks. It says max 10,000 characters, but can't even take my 6,000 characters letter. 

I'm speechless.

Yesterday, I received a missed call from their complain department, and today too. So I called them back. Told the guy that I received missed call from this person and got this reference number. He then put me on hold and transferred me to that person.

The lady: "Hello Vicky"
Me: "... er... it's Purple Lady"

Awkward....

My name is completely different to Vicky.

Anyway we discussed about the whole thing. She was very nice and understanding and sympathetic and understood that I was furious with the whole thing. I actually felt bad for her and anyone who work in complain department. She tried to explain about the whole caveat thing, and about the interests rate. She explained how the increase was passed on by the government and there's nothing ANZ could do about it. I made it clear that my complain wasn't about the increase, but rather about their delay in notifying the customer and the way they word the letter to sound that it starts in October rather than August. She acknowledged it and promised to pass it on to relevant department. She also asked which branch I opened my offset account and the insurance cover, and said that she's passed my feedback about the complain form to their IT department.

Afterwards, she said as a goodwill gesture and since I've been a customer since 2004... *wrong answer buzzer honks* Another mistake ANZ, true I opened my saving account in 2004, but that account was non-active for almost its whole life! I closed it down few years ago completely. And plus, did she mean that have I not been a customer since "2004", she wouldn't offer me anything? OK, back to her words. "As a goodwill gesture, and because you've been our a customer since 2004, we're going to credit $375 - your Breakfree package fee - to your account, and we'll pass all your feedbacks to relevant departments." 

Honestly, when I heard about it, my thought was, all those headaches, energy, and stress they caused me are only worth $375????? It's worth WAY more than that! I actually felt a little bit insulted. And also, seems like my 11 years loyalty isn't that appreciated too. But that's the only thing she could do, and it's better than nothing. What else could I do?

She assured me this is not ANZ's standard of service. She also said that they would take my feedbacks and improve. To which I reply, yes I hope so too. Coz next time I get the chance, I'm leaving ANZ.

It's funny that when I was lodging a complain, I actually managed to add something to my complain list. And while on the phone with the complain department who's trying to deal with my complain, even they made a mistake on the "Hello", and ended it too on the wrong foot with "since you've been a customer since 2004". 1. I hardly used that account, so obviously they didn't check thoroughly. But well at least they checked something. I give you that. 2. As a goodwill and a customer since 2004, so what would happen if I weren't a customer since 2004? Do they only offer that $375 only if I was with them for 11 years? Hmm..


I'm not happy with the title of this post, but can't think of anything else really :/

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Clocks, Please Tick Slower :(

I don't know about you guys, but nowadays I feel that time goes quicker and quicker. Sometimes I actually believe that Earth rotates faster and faster as it ages, though I don't get how come all the clocks in the world know they need to tick faster.

When I turned 21, my workmate said to me, "Time starts to fly after you turn 21". God, how correct she was!

Nowadays I never feel I have enough time. True, everyone has 24 hours in a day, but come on, just like not everyone gets full with a bowl of rice, I believe most people don't find 24 hours enough too. Especially if you work full time. When I was 7-8, I remember I was home drawing. Everytime I looked at the clock, only 5 minutes had passed. It was so damn slow! Now? Everytime I look at the clock, another hour's gone. Except when I'm having that famous Friday meeting...

I go to work around 7, arrive home either 7:30 pm or 8:30 pm depending if I go to gym. Then shower, eat, and there 8:30 or 9. I only have 2 hours before bedtime. Then I get confused, what should I do? Should I do some reading? Should I watch movies or series? If yes, what series should I watch? Conan, Lan Ling Wang, Perfect Couple, Hotel King, Bones or Lu Zhen? Or should I refresh my Mandarin? Or should I do some crafts I haven't finished? Which one? Then I pick one of those things to do, but when I'm doing it I think, "Would it be better if I do other thing?". As the result I wasn't satisfied :l

Same thing with weekend. When I'm home, I calculate how many hours I have before I have to go out or before bed time. And there goes those thoughts again of what to do now.

I wonder if it's the process of getting old. I used to love sleeping in. I still do now, but nowadays I feel like I better not waste those time sleeping and better wake up early so I can do weeding instead while the sun is not too hot!

Today is Thursday. Now, everytime Wednesday or Thursday come, instead of being happy that weekend is so close already, I think, "OMG, another week's gone already??". Well I'm still happy when the weekend comes, but you know what I mean.

I wonder if it's because we have so many things to do nowadays. Go to www.YouTube.com and you are guaranteed to waste a lot of time there. Open your instagram and half hour's gone. And that's just instagram, not facebook. Plus, all those messages and people on whatsapp you need to respond or contact. I actually have to think first what I want to watch on YouTube before going on the site. Therefore when I'm there, I can go straight to it instead of staring down at my home screen and find other random thing I end up wasting my time on.

Last Sat to Mon I had a kind of mobile detox. My prepaid credit expired on Friday, and I didn't recharge it until Monday (i was stingy to recharge on the weekend thinking I would be at home anyway and could use WiFi instead XD). I actually quite liked it. No responsibility to reply whatsapp messages, no urge to check Facebook and instagram, there was no need to check on my mobile really. It was calming. I could even turn silent setting off as I wouldn't get all those annoying noises for notifications. Maybe I should really turn all those notification noises off and I can keep my setting to normal hmm.. and you know what, those days felt a little bit slower.

I always think 24 hours a day is not enough. It should really be 30! And I think everyone should have 4 days working week instead of 5. That would be soooo good!

Do you feel your time goes too quickly too?

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Greenwood L'occitane Grand Opening Haul

Hehehe... I did a haul at L'occitane yesterday XD I knew Greenwood L'occitane was opening yesterday, and I knew they had this bag of gift for 50 first customers... which I wanted!! XD Unfortunately when I arrived, they haven't opened yet. And unfortunately again, yesterday happened to be the training day -_- so I was tossing to come or not.

The training finished at 9:15. I was so happy and couldn't wait to run out of the door. But... Superexcited started talking and talking, and making questions for us to answer (or to read his mind -.- sometimes I wonder, it is obviously clear that what he thinks most of the time is not what everybody else thinks, so why waste time to train us to be mind reader?). He also said that none of us asked questions! Excuse me sir, 2 people asked questions before -_-

At last, the training officially finished at 9:30. I straight away checked my email, nothing urgent needed to be done, great, then rannnnnnnnn to catch a bus. I had to wait like 5 minutes for the bus -.-
When I got to the store, it was PACKED! I saw someone giving out small bags of samples, so I hung around hoping to be given one XD Not long after, I did get one wooohoooo!

L'occitane Opening Day Samples
 Not bad ay? Really not bad for samples. That shampoo is big for sample size, and the perfume is not vial size too! If they're not stingy with me, I won't be stingy with them too! Here are the list of samples:
- Magnolia & Mure Eau De Toilette 7.5 ml
- Precious Cream 1.5 ml
- Amanda Milk Concentrate 6 ml
- Creme Perfectrice 1.5 ml
- Dry Skin Hand Cream 3 ml
- 5 essential oils shampoo 75 ml (Travel Size!)
- Voucher for Elle Hand Cream Collection with a spend of $30

My plan was go to the store, grab a hand cream, and then pay! What happened was, I got confused where the damn hand cream was, so one of the lady staff asked me if I needed help. I did ask her about the hand cream, and she did show me where. Then, she asked, "Would you like me to give you a hand spa?". I said "Yes, please!" *banging my head on the wall" I completely forgot my original plan and that I MUST go back to the office ASAP!

The handspa was awesome by the way. She exfoliated my hand and put on the most popular hand cream in the world, so popular that 1 tube is sold every 3 seconds. And then asked me to compare it with the non-treated hand. I could really feel the different and it felt good :) I was nervous though, thinking I had to go back soon.

Finished with that, she asked me if I needed anything else. I said I actually needed moisturizer. Every change of season from winter to spring, my facial skin always goes super dry, cracking, itchy and bumpy. Sometimes it gets incredibly bad, I don't even dare to put on my normal moisturizer as it makes my face stings! (I really shouldn't have said I needed that since I really needed to leave! But after that treatment, I thought maybe... there is a product that can help too).
She asked me how do I want the product to be like. I said I don't really mind as long as it's not too strongly perfumed. I've been using Garnier lately, and their products smell SO strong! I have always liked fragrances, can't believe that because of those products I'm actually turning into my mum who hates fragrances -_-.

She then brought the cleanser, exfoliate and moisturizer. She said that I needed a good cleanser and exfoliate as those bumps are dirt and needs to be cleaned out. She tried them out on my hand and yes it felt great. Damn. 

She then apply the moisturizer on my hand and asked if I liked the feel of it. It felt good, but it was a bit heavy to my liking. It was still a little bit oily when touched. I asked if that would be fully absorbed during the day, coz if not then I wouldn't like it. She said it will, but if I thought it was too heavy, there is another one she can show.

The other one has less fragrance and the price was not as expensive. It is absorbed more quickly and doesn't leave oily feeling on my skin, I liked it better. She did say though that I should only use it during spring. It wouldn't cut it for summer. Well I can try it first right? If it's good, I can always come back.

I ended up getting the cleanser too since it was half price. $14 instead of $28. I always use supermarket bought cleanser, so maybe it will make a difference? (I still have a lot of them at home though, what to do??? :P). Plus, since Dove cleanser cost me around $10 last year or the year before, this is actually a good deal :) So I went and queued to pay for those and also the small hand cream. She got me a membership form to join too.

While waiting, another staff saw that my purchase was going to be more than $60. They have a special opening day offer to get a bag of Gift with Purchase - The ‘Scent of Provence’ for $25 if you purchased more than $60. The content looked like it was worth it so I got that too. Later on I saw that bag had some tubes of mini hand cream too... I then left the hand cream I originally wanted to buy :P

They tried to care for the customers by giving out a cup of lavender earl grey tea, and there was also a box of chocolate at the register. I dunno if that's their standard customer service as this can really be considered as my first real visit to L'occitane. The staffs were friendly and helpful too.

While queuing, I wasn't sure if I could still get the free goodie bag, but then the guy at the register took 4 bags of them out. Yes, I was still in the game! Then another staff came up and asked how many more bags left? That guy said 3. I started to get worried :l My line was taking forever! The other line was faster. The guy who served my line took his time to show the samples, sprayed tissue paper for the bag with jasmine and bergamot perfume and even getting us to sniff it. Nice service, but not when you are racing against the other line to get the free bag!! Lol

When it was my turn, there were only 2 left. I asked him (tactfully), if I still could get the free bag for 50 first customers? He put 1 next to my stuffs and said, lucky! Phew.... =P the women at the next register got the last one down too. Lucky I did it first, there were in a group!

Sooooo here is the photo of the items I got in L'occitane that day!!! XD Both paid and free :P The bottom ones are the samples just for turning up. 

The top left ones, the blue pouch and 6 items below it are the $25 Gift of Purchase. It consists of shower gel, 2 tubes of mini hand cream, block soap, Jasmine and Bergamot Eau de Toillete and body lotion. 

The wrapped tall bottle and small brown box in the middle are the moisturizer and cleansing milk I bought.

And finally the hot pink pouch with 4 items below it are the goodie bag for 50 first customer I've been eyeing since few days before the opening *shamelessly happy* XD It includes mini hand cream (the one that is sold every 3 seconds), Rose Nude Lip Balm, Perfecting Cream and a body soap. I really shouldn't buy any more beauty products until next year -.-

After that I ran straight to catch a bus back. In total, I was away for 40 minutes @__@ Lucky nobody asked *phewwwww

I put my bags at reception and then with my colleague in the other department just so I didn't have to carry them to my desk and made it so obvious hahaha XD

Don't tell anyone ok? ;-)

Thursday, September 24, 2015

4 Conditions

This is a story about a friend of mine, as requested by him, let say his name is Denny :-P

Denny was in the middle of pursuing this girl. Everything was good and he liked her. So, one day he told her he loved her, and would like her to be his girlfriend. To his surprise, the girl told him, "Are you sure you want to be my boyfriend? You better think again carefully". Denny's face was like 0__0

The girl then told him, I have 4 conditions if you want me to be your girlfriend:

1. We won't date for too long. I'm not young anymore. We'll see how we go, and if it works, then we'll get married within a year.

Denny was surprised, but he thought, a year... It's ok, a year it's ok, if it works we'll get married. I'm at marriageable age anyway.

2. My boyfriend needs to have a house.

Denny said ok to this one too. He doesn't have a house yet, but he could get mortgage. This condition was accepted too.

3. My mum would have to live with us forever after we got married.

Hmmm.. Denny thought about this. This one was a bit tough. But Denny is a good guy and as long as it's reasonable enough, he wouldn't mind things. The girl's dad had passed away, and she's the only child, so it was reasonable enough to ask for this. So, Denny said yes to this too.

4. Your parents cannot live with us.

*thunder strikes* Denny was stunned 0_0 what? My parents cannot live with us but yours has to? This was a very tough one.

Denny said, "Hmm... That's pretty hard, I will need to think about it first".

The girl said to him, yeah, I've stated my conditions. You better think about it carefully and then let me know if you still want to go ahead.

When Denny told me this story, he said, "This is the only time I asked a girl out, and I'm the one who has to take time to think about it!!"

Denny then thought for a few days. The only think that was the issue is point 4. His parents wouldn't be able to stay permanently with him. But her mum had to. After much thought, he decided not to go ahead with this girl. He felt that it's really selfish of her to ask for her mum to stay forever with them, but his parents could not. If there is no condition number 4, he would have gone ahead.

So he told the girl that he's not after her anymore.



Monday, September 21, 2015

The Goodness in Our Company - Importance of Responding to Customers

I might have not mentioned the good things that our company does very often, but as annoying and special Superexcited is, he does have the customers' best interests in his mind and we do deliver very good customer service.

I noticed this many times before. Not just when I'm in Australia, but also in Indonesia. The first thing is the importance of keeping the customer informed of the progress. He always stresses to get back to the customer and tell them that we're onto it, or we still don't know what happens but our IT is looking at it, or it's fixed and they can use it again. He makes a point that it's ok we still don't know or still working on it, but make sure the customer knows we are looking after them.

Few weeks ago I received a letter from my lending bank, telling me the loan interest has increased. I remembered my broker mentioned about it weeks before I received the letter, and she said it shouldn't affect me, but she would check again. She never got back to me, so I thought all was good. So, on Monday I sent her a message asking if the interests really have increased. No response. On Thursday I gave her a call, once she picked up, she straight away said, "Oh, did your interest rate increase? Can you please send me this and that documents to me? I will renegotiate with them". Notice how she knew what I was looking for but didn't bother to respond? I sent her the documents via email on Friday.

I haven't heard anything from her since then. Today is Monday, I sent her those 2 Fridays ago. She didn't acknowledge the receipt of those docs too (she only acknowledged it once throughout our business together).

I remember long time ago Superexcited scolded Miss Nice to the verge of crying because she didn't email the customer that we would look at the issue he/she found within 6 hours of receipt. Honestly, that time I thought it was too much. I thought it was not even a day, and it's not that the issue has been fixed. But now I know, it's more than just being told it's fixed, it's to know that it would be fixed and that our wait doesn't go in vain. Afterall once time flies, it's gone and won't come back. So we know we're not wasting our time waiting.

So for that, I give Superexcited a credit :))

There are other good thing he forces, but I will talk about it later :)

Have a great week ahead guys!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

When Someone Quits and Superexcited Doesn't Like It

This story actually happened long time ago when Superexcited lagi kumat a.k.a needed his dose of medicine. Have put off writing it all these time coz everytime I think about it, I feel bad to this ex-colleague.

Once upon a time, there was an employee named Schwarzenegger. He was a great employee, but he wasn't happy in the office for a number of reasons. Please keep in mind that this happen when Superexcited was playing up, so a lot of things were just what the.... So Schwarzenegger didn't like it.

Micromanaging is one of the things he didn't like. At that time, every single day we had morning meeting within IT department and we had to say every single thing we did the previous day and what we needed to do on the day. Plus, have we used up the budgeted hour for that task? If yes, why? Why did you spend that much time for it? Explain.

That time was also the start of our keeping time every day. As it was very new, creamer was very... Annoying. Checking if everyone's done it yesterday, has everyone entered 7.5? If not, why did you only enter 6 hours? Because that day I had diarrhea and been running to the toilet every 5 minutes. All those kinds of things. Basically you were questioned about every minutes you were in the office. Thinking back, I wonder why didn't I escape back then.

Also, trainings. Have I told you about out company 'training'? I don't like putting things in quotes unless it really deserves to be quoted. Our training is not like other companies training where the company hires external company to give training to their employees, and also not sending the employees to some places out there to attend seminars or courses. Nope. Our training is 99% internal training, meaning Superexcited prepares a presentation with some 'lucky' employees about business related topics.

Yes. Business topics. But your department is IT?? Yep. My point exactly. Superexcited always argues that anybody in the company needs to attend because it's 'related' to the work we do. Okay... But what about FBT? What about how to write good electronic direct marketing? Well he wants everyone there, so he gets everyone there. Including the accountants and designers. Do we ever get IT training? Yes, probably 2 out of 100 trainings. And do the non-IT department staff attend it? They only attended 1 and they all put the same look IT people look when we have to attend those 'trainings'. Now you know how it feels. But only once and that's it. Superexcited only attended once too. How unfair.

Those 2 were the main things that made Schwarzenegger left. He couldn't stand to keep track of how many minutes he spent going to the toilet, how long did he go to kitchen to get water and why did he spend 2 hours looking at bugs. He felt trapped and he felt that he was at school. I did too. Everyone in the company would agree too (Again how did I manage to keep on going that time?? I really am tough!). Plus Superexcited talked a LOT that time. Monologues. Did we enjoy it? Nope. Could we not agree with bkn? Do you want to die? I think you get the idea. Everybody really just sat there listening (into one ear, out of the other) and nodded (i didn't if I didn't agree).
Schwarzenegger too wasn't happy had to listen to all that.

But what really pushed him over the edge was the lunch time trainings. We started having trainings during lunch. We could bring our food in, but only sandwiches. No hot food. Come on, most of our lunches are hot food. And, lunchtime trainings mean we don't have lunch break really. They said the trainings are half hours. The one I attended took 45 minutes. Did we get extra break? Nope.

We had a big argument during our morning meeting. Schwarzenegger argued that working 8 hours a day with practically no break is not healthy. We think all day. We need to have an hour break to clear our mind and to be productive. Creamer responded, how many lunchtime trainings did we have? 1. And how many did you attend? 0. And he had a go at him for not attending instead of addressing the real issue.

True it was only the first one, but one would lead to another and by the time there have been a LOT, they will say well nobody complained? Why complain now? Plus, that time we had morning training every 2 weeks!! When I joined, they said it's once every 6 weeks. Not during this bloody period.

Nobody else supported Schwarzenegger's argument except me and Marico. Later on, he thanked me for backing him up in that argument. He was disappointed by the guys in their lunch group, during lunches they all complained about the same thing. But during the argument they didn't say anything. That time I was so fed up that I didn't care even if I was fired. Creamer was also a new manager, so he was really not a good manager. He agreed to anything Superexcited said. Enough said.

So the after that meeting, he resigned. I was very surprised. He was looking for houses and he didn't have a new job yet. But he couldn't stand it anymore and resigned. He gave 1 month notice. He didn't do anything wrong. 1 month is the agreed notice required per the contract. However, well... You know how Superexcited is, don't you? He was so angry about him leaving, about how much we have trained him and he just leaves, about the 1 month notice itself, that he was supposed to tell them first that he was THINKING to leave, that he believed Schwarzenegger's got a new job already, blah blah blah... and he told Creamer to make sure to give A LOT of work this 1 month! IMHO, that's stupid man, what if you give him a LOT of work, and he did it all terribly or made it so complicated? Who's going to cop it? US! It's not against the law to make your code unreadable or unmanageable, you can't sue him for it!

During that 1 month, Superexcited NEVER EVER talked to Schwarzenegger. He told Creamer, to tell Schwarzenegger not to attend the Friday morning meeting again and instead work in the other area. He wasn't allowed to attend the training session too. But tell you what? Pretty much everybody kinda envied him for not needing to attend those anymore XP

Oh, and when we had drinks next door, he wasn't invited. This was how it went:
Slitherin, Schwarzenegger, and Creamer were talking about work in the hallway when Superexcited came to them. Superexcited then came in between Schwarzenegger and the 2 guys, then asked,
Superexcited: "Slitherin, are you coming for a drink?"
Slitherin: "Yeah"
Superexcited: "Creamer, are you coming for the drinks?"
Creamer: "yes"
Superexcited: "Ok! See you soon!"
And he left. He behaved like Schwarzenegger did not exist. Funny eh?

However the worst came on Schwarzenegger's last day. He went to the bosses to say goodbye. Lao San was sad to see him go, but wished him well. Poker Face wished him well and told him to return the book Schwarzenegger's borrowed whenever he's done with it. Schwarzenegger knew Superexcited hated him, but he was being polite, he couldn't just say goodbye to the 2 but not him, so off he went. In Schwarzenegger's words, "It was the worst 30 minutes conversation in my life."

Superexcited said he couldn't wish him well. He was disappointed that he left. He's given him everything and he just left (that's his trademark line. Though usually we don't know exactly what he has given :l) and blah blah blah... Long story short it was AWFUL. Our receptionist was passing by when they had the conversation and she was like, "It's awful. You don't want to hear what he's saying to him. I feel sorry for him".

So that's my friends, what happens when you leave and he doesn't like it.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Big News!!

Or, Big Newsoooo!!! XD that's how Soo In Woo said it in Prosecutor Princess :p

I almost missed my massage appointment because of this news! Guess what?? Few days ago, Little Miss Nice just told me, Creamer a.k.a my manager, ASKED HER OUT!!!! 0___0 my jaw literally dropped when I heard that! I could only say what? How? When??? And, did you say....? She was like say what? I said, did you say yes?? To which she replied, "Of course NOT!!". And I took a breathe of relief lol.

Apparently about 2 weeks ago, Creamer took her to one of the meeting rooms in the office and asked if she wanted to go out for drinks some time? She played dumb and said, "Oh, I'm going out with the guys tonight after work!". He then said, "No, I mean next week or the week after maybe?" Little Miss Nice kept playing dumb until Creamer explained that he was actually asking her out.

Little Miss Nice said no, saying she was kinda seeing someone. Creamer then gave her this look that say really? Are you serious? You don't have a boyfriend! She then said, "Really, I don't tell people at work, but that doesn't mean I am not seeing anyone!".

Oh man... That was a big news. Creamer actually asked Miss Blondie out a while back, which I don't know true or not, but some people heard that too. And I just knew that another guy from work asked Miss Blondie out too before 0_0 that's news...

Actually, within our VIP group (I named the group lol), some time last year we were gossiping about Little Miss Nice and Creamer. Me as dense and insensitive as I usually am on this kind of thing, didn't notice much apart from the fact that their work related talks at Creamer's desk is getting more and more often and longer and longer. Plus the whisperings. However, Water Tap and Slitherin noticed how Creamer stepped back and gave way so Little Miss Nice could come into kitchen when he was leaving the kitchen. Mind you, that kind of chivalry wasn't shown to me! Oh gosh, wished I kept those whatsapp messages during that period! Damn! -_-

I did notice though, just before I went on my holiday, they became really close. And I thought damn, they are becoming a couple, I can't complain about him to her anymore now! But Water Tap didn't agree though, saying last year was obvious he was flirting, but this year is more like close friends rather than flirting. Also, Water Tap recalled, on our catch up drink with former colleagues, Creamer said he was kinda seeing someone from Tinder. Hmm...

Little Miss Nice agreed, saying yeah last year she noticed it, especially during Christmas party where he kept playing with her hat. Yeah that was a bit Errr... And she said, he didn't use to come to Friday drinks with the guys, but then he started going (I've never been to those drinks unless company pays for it XD). She said, at the beginning she thought he's trying to fit in as he doesn't have a group he belongs to. Everyone in the company sort of has their own little groups, I.e. the Indian goes to lunch together, the other department has lunch groups etc, while he doesn't, really. A bit of commercial break, I do get along well with the Asians, but I don't think I belong to any groups too. I have closer friends in different parts of the company, which is good I think.

Anyway, about the drinks. She said Creamer kept joining the conversation where she was in. AND, regardless of who was talking, he kept staring at... HER! XD she felt so awkward, it's not her who was talking! Look at the person talking!!

Oh, another thing, in the middle of that conversation where Creamer asked her out, they were interrupted. Little Miss Nice changed the subject straight away. She said, "It was SOOOOO AWKWARD when he walked in!! Because he ASKED ME OUT too earlier!!!". Wow.... 0___0 that's really my face when I heard it 0_0 I could only say "Oh..My..God". Previously, I asked her if the girls knew about this, and what did they say? She said, "They said they are glad it's not them". That's exactly what I thought when I heard about the other guy .____.

I haven't named the other guy, but Little Missy calls him Da Sha Bi.

So? What do you think? Big news eh? I know this post will entertain at least one of you XD it did entertain my bestie and family lol


Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Nominations War

Seems like I've never mentioned the nomination program our office has in place.

As a motivation business, our company has some programs in place to motivate and recognize employees who do great job. It is great of course, being recognized by our peer of the good job we have done and even maybe made as the team member of the week.

So, this is how it works. Every week, employees can submit nominations for their colleagues/bosses who they think have done great job, have done the extra miles, have helped them during the week, being a great mentor, or even for little things such as bringing their baking stuffs in to share with their colleagues. Then during our weekly meeting, those nominations would be read out one by one, people clap, and then team of the week as well as team member of the week would be selected. Their photos would be on company intranet that week.

For each nomination made and nomination received, points would be given. Also, if you are the team member of the week, you receive extra points too. These points would be accumulated and the person who has the most points within the month, gets a CD... to select :) I said select, because it's not for that winner to take home. It's to add to the company's CD collection :) you can take it home for a day or two to copy it :) oh, but you can select ANY CD you want, if Superexcited likes your choice or that the CD is appropriate to be played in the office, I.e. no techno stuffs. It's good that Britney spears actually made into the list. I think... :)

Anywayyyyyy unfortunately eventhough being recognized is great and stuffs, everyone in my department is generally busy. Second, we are not the bullshit type of people who write long and funny nominations for people. And third, we can't play the CD in our area anyway, there's no CD player. Fourth, can you imagine making nominations every week? After a while it becomes so redundant. And back to the 2nd point, we just feel it's not worthy of a nomination anymore. As the results, my department hardly nominates.

Until 3 weeks ago when you know who made a comment to our manager about the fact that I've only made 3 nominations this year, and Little Missy only made 2 (and 1 of them was actually a nomination I made for another colleague but I put me, Little Missy and James Bond as the nominators!!). When our manager said that, Tap Water and me kinda got into heated argument as both of us feel that we are underappreciated by the other department.

The thing with these nominations, you can nominate a person, and you can also nominate a team. What tap water and I notice, the other department most of the time nominate IT in a team, I.e. the whole project team which includes IT and the other departments. However, they can nominate their department colleague individually too. But hardly with IT. After I realized that, I feel ripped off to nominate the other department that often. I do still nominate, but I think before I nominate.

Finally the manager said he didn't ask us to nominate other department. Just nominate within us. The other department nominates their colleagues right? So we can also nominate ourselves. It's a bit hard really, since even though we are in the same department, we usually deal with the other department more. So then, from then on we nominate our team mates every week.

So every Thursday, Little Missy and me remind everyone in our department to nominate and even giving suggestions on how to nominate for the others. As the results, last week for example, half or even more than half of the whole nominations were made by us lol. And now Little Missy is number 1 in the leader board, me number 2 and Barbie Girl on 3rd.

So funny really, I wonder what Superexcited thinks. Is he happy that his comment was noted? Does he realise that we do this just for fun and just to take revenge against the other department? I wonder...

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

GoMastercard Buyer Protection Cover Experience

Last week I finally took advantage of the Buyer Protection Insurance that comes with my GoMastercard Credit Card.

What Buyer Protection does are:
1. If the item you purchase goes on sale or reduced within 6 months after you purchase it, then you can claim the difference in price. Therefore, you don't need to wait until sale to buy things that you want.

2. If the item you purchase is rejected for a refund or stolen within 6 months (i think), you can make a claim.

3. If you become unemployed, then you don't need to pay the full amount of your balance. I can't remember exactly about this point, but something like this.

It costs some little percentage of my balance at the end of the month. I don't need to pay anything if I pay the balance in full before the end of the month too, so sometimes I don't even need to pay the premium.

Eventhough I've been on it for years, I've never claimed anything. This ofcourse due to my habit of only buying things when on special :P but then 2 weeks ago I FINALLY tried it myself :)

Remember those trips I made to IKEA buying furniture for my new home? Those side tables we bought had 20% off 2 weeks ago! Lucky I paid using my GoMastercard, so I could claim the difference. From memory, 5 of them cost $69 each and 1 was $59. Total of $404. 20% of that is $80.8. I could even buy another one for myself! (remember that all those were for my mum and sisters).

So I went to the website to claim. All I needed to do was fill in the form, filled in the date I bought it, how much was it, where did I get it, what brand and model, how much is it now, etc etc. It was pretty easy.

However I was confused when I filled it out since there was no quantity text box. We bought 3 x beige Askvol on our first trip to Ikea, then on the 2nd trip we bought 2x black Askvol and 1 Musken. So I submitted 3 claims, for 3 Askvol, 2 Askvol, and 1 Musken. Since there was no quantity box, I put the quantity in description box. I thought they would read it anyway.

Less than 2 days after, I got emails saying my claims have been approved! Was so happy with the speed and no hassle whatsoever. But when I checked the amount refunded, I frowned. I was only refunded the difference for 1 item in each claim eventhough I put quantity in the description.

I called the customer service whice by the way was very quick to pick up the phone! She was nice and friendly too. She listened and read my claims and said that it seems that the claim team was confused too and thought that the price I put in was the total price, not individual. Therefore only refunded for a single item. She then suggested to submit claims again individually this time for the rest of the items.

Then I submitted 3 claims again. 2 of them were refunded soon enough, but I didn't hear about the other one for almost a week! So I called the customer service number again. The girl who answered listened to me and took her time reading the claim. Apparently I made a mistake when answering a question asking if I've made a price protection claim on this item before. I put yes instead of no. I haven't been refunded for that item yet!

I explained that to her and she said she could fix it for me if I have time to hold on the line. She then did whatever she needed to do and fixed it there while I waited.

Then, done! All sorted out! Eventhough I had to give them a call, but on both occasions the girls were friendly, nice and helpful. And they do know what they are doing and how things supposed to be done. The claims were processed very quickly too.

1 think I noticed was, the 2nd girl I talked on the phone said at the end of the call, "Thank you for calling us to chase it up." It gave me the impression that she cares about the claims, and she sounded genuine too. Not like marketing-call-scripted type.

Overall I'm so pleased with my GoMastercard Buyer Protection experience :)

Sunday, June 14, 2015

St Anthony's Day

I'm going to tell you the story I heard when I went to the church yesterday. I haven't gone to church for ages, and yesterday I happened to pass the church and saw a lot of people coming into the church. So I went in.

After the Eucharist, the father told us that yesterday was St Anthony's day, and told us this story:
"St Anthony is the one we pray to for the recovery of lost items (I just knew this btw). I'm sure you heard a lot of great story about how St Anthony's helped a lot of people in recovering their lost items. However, this is the most spectacular one. "

"This happened to me 20 years ago when I was a young priest in Wollstonescraft. I had this bunch of keys, church key, car key, basically everything together. Before the mass, I put these keys on the bench. When I came back to retrieve them, they were gone!!! And do you know what I did once I found out they were not there?? Pray to St Anthony?? NO!!! Just like any other person, I PANICKED!!! Yes I panicked!!! Where are the keys??? Where are the keys??? I went everywhere trying to find them."

"Then, a lady who helped in the church when she found out that I've lost all the keys, she asked me, 'Have you prayed to St Anthony, Father?'. 'Have I prayed to St Anthony? Of course not!! Why would I pray to St Anthony??? I haven't got time to pray!! I have to find my keys!!!!!' Then the lady said, 'Father, I'm going to go inside and pray to St Anthony for the recovery of your keys'. I said to her, 'Fine, fine, if you'd like to do that, thank you', and then I kept on searching. "

"After she left, I had this sudden urge to go inside the little room. You know, the one the Queen refers to when she needs to go to the toilet (LOL!). So I went in, and do you know what I found at the bottom of the bowl???!! The keys!!!!!!!!! I then gingerly retrieved those keys, washed, and from then on, I will never ever doubt St Anthony again!!"

Friday, May 29, 2015

Superexcited Missing in Action

Every Friday morning after the meeting, my most loyal reader always asks if there is any story. Unfortunately there's nothing interesting happening lately :( Superexcited hasn't been doing anything weird lately :l of course it's good for us, but I'm kinda bored -_- though sometimes I wonder if it's really him behaving nicely, or whether we are used to him already :l

Anyway there are some small things I haven't told you about.

Few months ago, we had new carpets for the office. The color is back to how it was years ago, mix of greys with white patches. You-know-who's favorite carpet XP IMO it looks like the carpet constantly needs vacuuming. In his opinion, it blends with dust, paper, etc so people can't see dirt. Oh plus, we had the whole office repainted. Well, I really didn't see the difference. I didn't smell the paint too, so when he told us about it, I was like huh? Where? When? @__@

Then on the first meeting after that, he declared no food and no drinks during the meeting except for water XD no tea or coffee! We have always kept food to minimum, but for drinks we never had restrictions of what to have during meeting. Some people had tea, some people had coffee, and some had coloured juice, it was all ok, no problem. And now, just water XD plus, we were asked to sit at least 1 meter away from the wall hahahahhaa XD oh man...

Another thing was about leave (again). He's really contradicting himself a lot of time. He keeps talking about work life balance rah rah rah... That people should take leave every once in a while to rejuvenate, see the world, or see family. But when we take it, if it's not to his convenience, he complains about how he keeps giving and giving but people don't care. Well hello? Apart from job, I don't think I received anything from him :l giving time out? Meh, when I moved house, I wanted to have a day off, but I couldn't, because I had to go Live.  I wanted to come late, not allowed, needed to go live in the morning. You can leave an hour early. But then when I was about to leave? Not allowed, there was an error. Great. What did u say you kept giving?

That day Superexcited was angry because he just realised that Little Missy was going on holiday for the following 2 weeks. Not only that, tap water was still on paternity leave too. Plus, James Bond would work from home the following 2 weeks as his wife wasn't fit yet to take care of their baby (his mother in law helped all this time, but she's going back that weekend). Let me remind you that all those leaves were already approved. Little Missy's was approved last year, water tap 3 months before, and James Bond's a week before.

Anyway so he was furious. He couldn't do anything about Little Missy and Tap Water, but then he told Lao Er to tell James Bond to find someone to take care of his baby for that week. He had to come in the following week! Of course all expenses paid by James Bond, company won't help anything, surprise surprise! :P

There's no way in Sydney you can find someone to care for a baby for a week with 3 days notice unless you have family. Childcare you say? The queue can be years long. Nanny? $25 an hour. 9 hours for 5 days totals to 45 hours. 45 hours x $25 = $1125. I better just use my annual leave -_- again, James Bond has to pay.

Lao Er told him about him, said try to find someone. But the following day he talked some sense into Superexcited then came to James Bond and said, don't worry about it, as long as you work from home and contactable, that's okay. You don't have to worry. At least he talked to Superexcited.

James Bond ended up extending his mother in law stay for an extra week, so he only needed to work 1 week from home the week after. That week Tap water would start to work, so we have enough people in the office. James Bond only needed to pay around $100 to extend the ticket, so not too bad. Problem solved. And I think after he did that 1 week from home, he's glad he extended his in law's ticket. He said it was HARDWORK working and taking care of his son at the same time! xD

Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Princess' First Day Out

The announcement said we're approaching Narwee and it reminded me of an incident I experienced few days ago. So, here we go.

My sister and I were on the train home few days ago. I admit I'm easily distracted by little annoying things, so this girl sitting on the far back of my seat well, quite made an impression. She was Chinese, speaking non stop on the train from Central to Narwee. She was loud, so I turned around to see who it was. She sat on the very last row of my carriage occupying 6 seaters by herself. She sat right in the middle, with her stuffs around her. In Indo phrase, "Kayak punya nenek moyang loe ajeeee" (translation: did you think the seats are your ancestors'???).

She talked, sighed, yawned, and I don't know what else ALL the way to Narwee. All of those done loudly too. She was young, probably 20-30s. I might sound biased, but I wouldn't be surprised if all these behaviors come from older people. As people grow older, behaviors can deteriorate. But this one came from a young pretty well dressed girl. So I was quite surprised. Anyway I ignored her.

However, once the train started to move leaving Narwee, I heard a shrieking whimper!!
*whimpering*  "Narwee Narweeeeee.... Whoaaaaaa Narweeeeee"
Me, my sis, and another passenger turned around. It was that girl!! (I remember her whimpering and stomping her feet just like a little kid, but I could be wrong as I tried my best not to make her notice me =P I was really not interested in trying to speak mandarin with her).

Then, this convo happened:
Her: *still whimpering* Narwee Narweeeeeee
Oz girl: "It's okay, you can get off at the next station and take a train back." (in English)
Her: "I can go back then?" (In Mandarin)
Oz girl: ????? I don't understand.

Below conversation was all done in Mandarin.
Her: *pointing to a Chinese looking guy sitting in front of the oz girl, playing his mobile phone clearly didn't care about her. (Good on you!!)* "Can you speak Mandarin? How can I go to Narwee?"
Chinese guy: "Yeah, just get off next stop and take a train back." (he obviously looked like he didn't want to deal with her)
Her: *whimpering* "But the door didn't open beforeeeeeeeee. This is my first time coming here."
Chinese guy: "Yeah just get off next station and take a train back."
The train was approaching the next station.
Chinese guy: *doing hand gesture to usher her go upstairs* "Just get off here and change train"
Her: *standing in front of the wrong door and whimpers again* "The door won't opennnnnnnnnnnn"
Chinese guy: "The train is still running, how can it open the door???" *clearly losing his patience*
Me: *laughing* XD Now I finally understand why SO many Chinese open planes' emergency doors, demand stupid things, etc etc. They do happen!

The train finally stopped.
Her: *whimpers again* (man, how old are you??) "The door is not openeddddddd"
Chinese guy: *pissed off* "Behind you." 
Her: *turned around and saw the doors behind her are opened* "Oh? Hehe I didn't see, in Narwee I also didn't see hehe.."
Me: Duh??

Then she left.

What the... What a princess -_- exactly like a princess who's never gone out of the castle. It was obvious she was busy talking on the phone when the train arrived in Narwee and didn't check the doors behind her. If she just used her brain a bit, she would see that outside the door she was standing was railway track! How could she get off there?? Silly silly! Plus, on your first time in other country, shouldn't you be more alert and check your surroundings??

Oh man I was speechless. And laughing at the same time too HUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Sorry, but it served her right =P

Monday, May 25, 2015

Gym and Exercise Adventure

Well, I joined the gym. Sometimes I don't know if I should be happy that I've got friends who know me pretty well, or whether I should feel -__- when I realise that fact.

This is the conversation we had when Bonnie and Jen heard that news:
Me: I joined the gym today.
Bonnie & Jen: Why?? What happened??
Me: Hey!! What's that supposed to mean??
Bonnie: No, it's just that you don't seem like the type to exercise and want to spend a lot of money.
Me: *speechless*

And this other one when I told my bestow about it:
Me: btw, have I told you I joined the gym?
Bestie: Ow???? Is it free?
Me: *bullseye* they had free registration fee offer... -_-
Bestie: I still know you well apparently :P

I don't know if I should be happy or not lol is it me too obvious or they really know me well?

Anyway, for the past 2 weeks I think I've used my membership well. The gym is Health Mates in Revesby. It's a local gym, so no other branches. So far so good, the staffs are friendly, and I like the classes I went to. I just wished they had more classes past 7 pm. It's a struggle enough to be there by 7.

I had my programs done, my body assessment, and btw, according to the assessment, I fall into the healthy weight range, NOT FAT. And I fall to the lower healthy range, not upper! Take that uncle!! Background info: one of my uncle said I was fat on my trip back to indo which I am still resentful until now -_-

I did 3 classes for the last 2 weeks and went to the gym twice to exercise. It's really good considering I HATE exercise. I so can't find what's fun in it. I also wanted to do yoga on Saturday morning, but ended up going hiking with Bonnie. I wanted to still go yoga after to stretch and relax, but my sis told me wrong bus schedule and therefore missed my bus and was too late to attend. Then, I wanted to do Pilates on Sunday morning, but had to go to Ikea with Jen. Then I thought I could do Zumba after Ikea (afterall Ikea was 10 am start, zumba was 4 pm start. Should be ok right?). Guess what, we finished paying at 4 lalala.... XD

See? I had the motivation but extrinsic factors keep popping up :P but if you think about it, instead of yoga I had 1.5 hours hiking and 1 hour bike training (my butt still hurt until now. I never knew bicycle is such a hard work). Then instead of Pilates or Zumba, I had 4-5 hours walk around IKEA. That's not bad! XD

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Fifteen Facts About Purple Lady

I just finished reading Amelia Grey's Fireside Dream by Abby Clements. It's a great book by the way :) I recommend you to read it if you want something light yet heart warming. For full review, please check out at www.GoodReads.com =P

Anyway, at the end of the book, there are 15 facts about Abby Clements. So I thought I'd answer them too, just for fun :)

Where were you born? 
Jakarta, Indonesia.

What's your favorite tipple?
I had to google what tipple is lol. Chambord with lemonade, and vodka lime bitters.

What superpower would you want?
To read what people are thinking and stop them from saying things I don't want to hear.

Dog or cat?
Neither, but cat if I have to choose.

What keeps you sane?
My best friend. And Criminal Minds episodes. Ironic isn't it?

What scares you?
Ghosts. And dogs.

Beaches or adventure?
Both. But more to the beach side lol

What's your holiday read?
I'm not too sure what holiday read means, but if it means what I read again when I'm on holiday, then it's The Hunger Games trilogy and Kocchimuite! Miiko.

What is the best present you have ever received?
I don't know. They are all equally good. But I remember when I was really small, my uncles got me a really huge present. I was only 5 that time. The content of that big present was backpack and a range of stationery for school. Simple really, but I was very happy. And believe it or not, the pencils last even until now. Oh, and Swarovski pendant my best friend got me. I'd been wanting a Mickey Mouse Swarovski necklace, but being a tight ass I am, I could only look at it outside the shop window (literally outside the shop window). So my friend went to the warehouse and found this Swarovski pendant. It's different, but that's what she could afford. I love it.

What have you learned as you've got older?
That some people are just not worth it. Neither your time nor your energy. So keep reminding yourself to live your life for you and just don't let those people bother you.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I'm heavier than I look hahaha XD

Sweet or savoury?
Sweet.

What is your favourite way to travel?
Train. I can read my book without getting dizzy :)

What's your comfort food?
Instant noodle I think =P

Night in or night out?
Night in.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Who Would Have Thought?

What happens to people's life is really unpredictable. I bet my rich cousin wouldn't have thought that she would end up being a housewife who's very busy but happily stay home to take care of her kids and do perfect housechores (WITHOUT a maid!!). She didn't plan to live in Australia, she wanted to go back Indonesia, even after she got married. But here she is in Sydney.

Her sister on the other hand loved Sydney and wanted to stay here. But her boyfriend who ends up being her husband lives in Indonesia, so she had to go back.

And here I am waiting for my train at Central station. I never ever thought to study overseas when I grew up. My plan was simple. Finish high school, go to uni, get a job, get married and buy our new home. All in Indo of course. And what happened then? I came to Sydney before I even finished my high school, went straight to university. Started earning money while I was still in uni, graduated and got my first office job through a very unusual mean. Then bought a house before I got married. Wasn't really what I planned for, was it?

I wonder what will happen next.

Monday, May 11, 2015

The Judges

Some people judge people easily. I judge too, and to be fair I think most people judge, not just some. Some are outspoken with their judgement while some keep it to themselves. While in fact, nobody knows what's happened to a person unless you are that person.

There is a post on Facebook that's been shared lately. A teacher told her class a story. It's about a couple on a cruise ship. One night there's an accident and the cruise is sinking. There is only 1 spot left on the rescue boat. The husband jumps into that rescue boat and leaves his wife alone on the sinking cruise. The wife shouts something to him before he dissapears. The teacher asks the class, what do you think the wife said? One kid said, "You are a jerk!". Another said, "I've been blind all these time!". And another said, "i can't believe I've trusted you!". Then the teacher asks a very quiet boy, "What do you think the wife says?". The boy answered, "Please take a good care of our children". The teacher is surprised and asks if he's heard the story before, he says "No. But that's what my mum said to my dad before she died".

The teacher then tells the class, when those husband and wife got on the cruise, they already knew that the wife has got a terminal cancer and only has few months to live. The husband seeing only 1 spot left in the lifeboat has to think fast and decides to jump in for the sake of their children. Years later after he dies, their children finds his diary. There he writes, "As much as I wanted to die with you in the ocean, I have to take care of our children. And I know that's what you would have wanted too. So I had no choice but to leave you alone forever in the ocean".

Reading just the first part, I'm sure most people thinks what an awful husband he is. Harldly anyone will think that there's this kind of story behind it. Unless you've been there before. I myself sometimes find it hard to empathize fully if I've never been there before. However I try my best not to condemn since I don't know how it would be if I were them. But even with saying it, I'm still human and still can't help to judge sometimes.

Take this small example of my colleague James Bond. Everyday especially Monday and Tuesday, I take bus during lunch to North Sydney (to defeat Opal card system :P). Everytime I do, James Bond says, "You should walk more! We sit in the office all day. We should walk and exercise more!". I walk in the morning for 20 minutes going to the station. And when I told him that, he said "20 minutes is nothing!". Ok, what if I tell you this, he works for our company for more than 2 years now. He just knew yesterday that there is Domino's behind our building. Do you think he's walked more than me all these years? Does he know that I do have to walk first to the bus stop to get the bus? And that sometimes I stop further just so I can walk back? He told me to exercise, but on lunch time he goes to sit in the kitchen, eat and then back to his desk sitting again. Kettle. Pot. Black.

And you know what, sometimes I borrow James Bond card and use it so he can get cheaper weekly travel. Did he ever offer me to do it? ZERO. Last week I borrowed his card to take 3 train trips during lunch, not just for me but just for him. He might think it's easy to do, but it's not. Let me show you what I did:

1. Walk down to North Sydney for 12 minutes.

2. Hop on train to Milsons Point using my card.

3. Get off, run downstairs and tap off. Check the board, tap on with his card and run again upstairs to catch a train back that is going back in 1 minute.

4. Run upstairs, tap off, check the board, tap in my card and run downstairs back to platform to catch the train.

5. Repeat 2 more times.

6. Walk back uphills to the office for 15 minutes.

Do you think that's not enough exercise for me? 

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Busy Shopping Weekend! Part 2 :P

We had very busy schedule for Sunday. We hired a van to pick up all the stuffs and asked Kazeman to help us drive around the city. Lucky he is a morning person. Before I even told him the itinerary, he already said eagerly to start at 7 AM!! We did start with 7 AM train to the city. Met him probably at 7:15 on the train.

Here's our itinerary :)
1. Go to city to pick up Van.
2. Go to North Bondi to pick the dining table around 8-8.30
3. Either drop the table home or go straight to Yarrawarah to borrow trolley.
4. If we have time, go to Bunnings in Kirrawee to buy lawnmowers, laundry baskets and stuffs for the garden.
5. Go to Oatley to pick up organ by 10:30.
6. Either drop the stuffs home or go straight to Bankstown to pick the rugs up.
7. Lunch.
8. If we didn't go to Bunnings, go to Bunnings Bankstown Airport.
9. Drop stuffs home if required.
10. IKEA.
11. Drop stuffs to Yarrawarah.
12. Drop stuffs home.

What do you think? Busy eh? My plan was to be in Ikea by 2-3. But we ended up arriving in Ikea by 3:40 pm. Well... Not too bad right?

What was different from the plan was that the dining table was so big and heavy and hard to arrange in the van. Lucky the seller was really a nice guy and helped to load them up and arranged them properly. I don't think you would find this kind of seller often. The wife even gave us a bit of the paint that they used to patch it up if required. How thoughtful! We indeed needed it as the paint was scratched off etc otw home.

Even the parking was an effort! As pretty as North Bondi is with their terrace style townhouses and the tiny streets, the streets are TINY! And there are SO MANY cars parked along the street! The guy had to guide Kazeman to park every single inch of the way. Yep, every single inch. I'm not exaggerating.

Because it was a very big table and a lot of chairs, we had to drop them home first. Again, what an effort to get it in! Then we went to Yarrawarah to pick the trolley up. My sisters went straight to Oatley.

Even on the way to Yarrawarah we already knew we won't be at Oatley by 10:30. My sis text the owner that we would be late. Lucky she didn't mind (we got there at 11). I didn't know Yarrawarrah is so far! And you know what, after all that drive, we couldn't even use the trolley because the organ was too heavy!

I think our lucky stars were with us that day. The owner of the organ is such a nice lady too. Her garage is at the bottom of a slope, and he guided Kazeman along the way too, told him how to drive to get right to the best position to load the organ. Then, she explained every single feature of the organ, what issue the organ has, and even gave us the headset and make sure the chair strange doesn't contain rubbish. She also wiped the organ clean! She went all the extra mile for something she is giving away for free! Really, we were very grateful.

Now, the organ is heavy. She did say to bring strong people. According to her son, the organ weighs 200kg. I didn't believe it. Then I googled it and it says 230lbs, over 100kg. I was like omg, how are we going to load it?? But I thought we have 4 people anyway, should be okay! Umm... Not really. It was really a hard job. That dining table previously was nothing compared to this -.- but we eventually got it up in the van phew... The lady helped us too, even trying to find a piece of slate if we needed it.

Then, we planned to go straight to Bankstown as that organ is the only item in the van. Still have so much space. BUT! Just about 5 minutes drive, the organ fell! We had to put it up again and tied it to the cage. Originally we thought it wasn't necessary as it was very heavy already! But no, it still fell down. Looking at it, Kazeman decided to drop it home first.

Maybe it was really a good day for us all :) when we got home, we had to wait for my sisters to unload the organ. They took the train as the van was only for 3 people. At a time like this, Indo rule where you can fit the whole villagers into a vehicle if you can is really handy T.T then, tadaaaa my neighbor came out. We had a bit of chit chat and then I told him that we just got an organ but waiting for my sisters to unload it. Then, the magic question appeared, "Do you need a hand?". And world sparkled ^^ of course I felt bad asking him such a big job, so I asked are you sure?? It is very heavy! Which he replied yeah yeah it's okay. He genuinely wanted to help. So, great :)

And man, I didn't know that a guy's power compared to girl's is really that big!! Kazeman, my neighbour and me unloaded the organ and got it into the house and it wasn't as hard as when we loaded it up! And we only had 3 people! And I didn't help once they got it in the house (due to small door. 3 ppl can't fit you know XD). Man's power is scary.

That's one big job done. The biggest one for that day I might say. Lucky we have great neighbors :) next time I bake I will give them some :)

So, we went straight to Bankstown. Lucky my sisters weren't already otw home. We went to Bankstown Home Focus, picked the rugs, and had Oporto lunch. We weren't too late, it was around 1:30 when we had lunch. And maybe that Saturday was our lucky day. Even the Oporto guy was very nice and funny. All 4 of us ordered Wasabi Burger and chili cheese chips. Right before I paid, I asked him, "is it nice? If it isn't, I will change mine to something else". He replied, "The burger or the chips?". I said the burger. He said, "I haven't tried the burger, but I've tried the sauce. It tastes like wasabi, but not as strong. I've tried the chili cheese chips, they are great". Then after I paid he added, "If you don't like the burger, bring it back to me, I will change it for you". XD

The burger was good btw, and you can taste the wasabi. I was surprised, it was stronger than I thought it would be. Chili cheese chips were great too.

Then we went to Bunnings Bankstown Airport. It was my first time to Bunnings, and it was HUGE! We could easily spend hours there. What we were looking for mainly was a lawnmower. A staff tried to help us, but he was new, so he said to wait for the other one. The other one was AWESOME!! I told him my backyard size and told him I just wanted something easy. He said he would normally recommend the petrol one, but you need to know engines, I.e. sparkplugs and stuffs. You need to YouTube it and see how to work it together. It takes some time to get the hang of it. But if you don't have all those, he suggests the electric one. It has the power etc, the only downside is you have to carry the cord over your shoulder when you now the lawn. And you can't do it when the lawn is wet. I said I don't mind the cord, it's just like vacuuming the floor. And he went, "FINALLY!! Thank god!! That's what I always says! It's just like vacuuming! You carry the cord anyway! I don't understand why people always complain about it!". LOL

But yeah, he was good. Seems like Bunnings have great staff. Last time my sisters went to buy locks, they asked the staff too and they were very helpful. This lawnmower guy even point to each of the lawnmower and said this is great, this is expensive for what it's doing, this is rubbish, this one is the cheapest but great etc etc. It was clear that he was genuinely helping, not ripping you off.

Then, after that my sisters and Kazeman went to Ikea Tempe. I took the bus to Bankstown and changed train to Sydenham instead. My friend, Jen would pick me up from there to go to Ikea together.

She was late, so by the time we got to Ikea my sisters already got all things we needed (I got to Ikea at 4:20 while my sisters got there by 3:40). The wardrobe Jen wanted was sold out though, so she had to find an alternative. We finished around 5:30, loaded all the things into our van and drove to Yarrawarrah.

Lucky Jen had her in-law at home to help unloading her stuffs, he is STRONG!! So it didn't take us too much time nor energy. Then we dropped our stuffs home, and then went to city to return the van. Jen tagged along with us too so she could drop us all home :)

Then, dinner time! Finally lol. Everyone was so tired, Kazeman too. I told him he could choose what he wanted for dinner. He said, "No, better not, you guys would regret it later...". I said it's ok, even if it's Hotpot I don't mind. He then grinned widely and said Hotpot hahahha...

I don't know if that Hotpot was really good or I was very tired and hungry. We had very nice dinner. We finished by 9:30 and Jen dropped us all home. But I had to patch the dining table and chairs and take shower before going to bed T__T everyone was dead tired and went straight to Cotton Island, including Kazeman Hehehehe... Thank you so much Kazeman!! I bet he won't help me next time lol. But at least you had a new experience today, right? Driving a van! Hahaha XD

That's all! Busy eh? XD

Busy Shopping Weekend!! Part 1 :P

Boy, I had very very busy weekend last week. I woke up even earlier than my weekdays and already out of the house by 7! On Sunday we were even already on the train to city by 7.

As you all know, we just moved into our new house last month. So, last weekend we went to do furniture shopping. The prior weekend we already went to Ikea to see what we need to get. Last Friday we checked on Gumtree and all those furniture stores' website for all the things we needed. So the weekend was to finalize them all.

Saturday morning we left at 7 and went to North Bondi to inspect a dining table set. It was second hand, asking price was $400 for the table and $350 for 8 chairs. But if we buy them all, they're asking for $650. It's solid wood. Originally we thought to get one from Ikea, but the price is around $600 too. Plus it's Ikea quality, so well, you know, after 2 years maybe it's wobbly and stuffs. While this one is solid wood! And it has that unvarnished table top that I like. We saw it, liked it, haggled a bit and ended up buying them for $600. We will pick them up on Sunday. Phew, at least we didn't wake up that early on Saturday for nothing :)

We then went back to Bondi Junction, had brunch, checked out $2 japanese shop for those little things we needed for the house. Lucky we had brunch there, we won't have time for lunch later.

After that we went to Sefton to check out mattresses and beds. My colleague, Little Missy, told me he bought his bed and mattress from this place and says their price is very low. My sister actually went last Wednesday to check it out, but they already moved to Sefton. We got their phone number, got their new address and was told to call half hour before coming.

I called them before coming, and the main contact didnt pick up. Called the 2nd contact and was told they're open, just come. But weird thing happened, the main contact returned my call and said they have already closed their store and all of their stuffs are in his house in Burwood @__@ we could come if we wanted around 4.

The thing was, our next stop was Home Focus in Bankstown. Sefton and Bankstown are in the same line, so it works well. While Burwood is in different line. From Sefton to Burwood and back to Bankstown, I don't think we had enough time. We would, surely, if we drive a car, but we don't. And you readers, just read okay, DO NOT lecture me on learning how to drive. I will do it myself when the time comes. So, keep it for yourselves!

Wasn't it weird? The 2nd person said they were open. The main said they are already closed? We started to think there was some broken business relationships there... So my sister said, just go to Sefton to check it out! They said they are open, aren't they? I called them again and they still said they are open. So off we went.

The place was a warehouse. We had trouble finding it coz we didn't even know the store name. We only knew their phone number! Apparently they are called Awesome Furniture. The prices were alright, it wasn't as cheap as I wanted them to be, but still around $100 cheaper than Super A-Mart. I think I could get same or cheaper ones from Ikea, but my cousins warned me against Ikea beds as their ones already started to deteriorate after 2 years. And I did check Ikea's bedslates, they are very thin. I want something stronger. We got the prices etc and would come back later after our parents arrived back in Sydney.

Then we went to Home Focus Bankstown. We pretty much checked almost every single store! Home Focus is a shopping centre area for anything home decorating/furnishings. Well they have Gym World or something, but it's home depot really.

We found the rugs that we liked in the first store we went into, Rug Mart. But the price was a bit too much for the living room one. It's $350 for the one we liked for the living room, and $129 for the one in my room. My room's not that expensive considering Ikea sells that size of rug for $99 (And it's not as soft as this one!). I think I'm already biased here, aren't I? They did say they might be able to do something if we bought more. We left the store and checked the others, afterall, it was only the first one!

We checked so many stores, rug stores and furniture including DecoRug, Freedom Outlets, and Super A-Mart (the other ones I don't remember). But there were no other rugs we liked. And the price too, apparently compared to the other stores, the ones we picked were already the cheapest. There was one rug that we liked in Super A-Mart for the living room, but it's just plain colour, no pattern at all. And that I think already costs around late $200. Btw, Super A Mart customer service was really bad. Not rude, but just bad. We asked if they have other size for a particular rug, the girl said they come in 2 sizes, the big one and smaller one. Okay, there is the big one there, how much is it for the smaller one? She said, around $50 cheaper. She didn't bother at all to see which one I was refering to and check the price. Well, that makes it easier for me to decide :)

Super A Mart apparently has better bedslates compared to Ikea. The cheapest range has similar bedslates, but the more expensive ones have stronger bedslates. There was one that I liked that has thick bedslate for $600 or $700 I forgot. Probably $600. But it's bulky, hence will make my room appear smaller. Plus it's still more exxy than Sefton one.

Freedom Outlets was very expensive. Okay it's cheaper than Freedom, but really it's way out of our budget. I really need to be rich :l

But we did make a good decision with the dining table. With that quality, it would be easy $3,000 in Freedom. And still over $1,000 in Super A-Mart. Decent one in Super A Mart would be around $600.

So we went back to Rug Mart to get those 2 rugs. Thank god the living room one hasn't been sold yet hehehe... We negotiated the price and ended up getting them both for total of $430. Pretty happy with that :)) will be picked up on Sunday!

Then, we had to find our bus home T.T we had to walk a bit to catch the bus, and finally arrived at home around 5:45. What a tiring day! But no, we still have things to do. I had to make itinerary for Sunday as we have soooo many places to go, list the things we needed to get from Ikea and Bunnings, and checked out Bunnings catalogue. My sisters still needed to decide on the furniture she wanted to get.

Early start on Sunday!