Friday, August 23, 2013

Unfortunate incidents in 2013

Few weeks ago my bestie said to me, lately there have been a lot of bad things happened either around us or related to us, making her worried. I personally didn't think much of it. Maybe because it happened to people closer to her rather than me, but then today I think she's right, quite few of bad things happened lately.

1. Her grandad passed away in January. I didn't think this was weird, her grandad had been ill for a while, and was already old, so it can be considered normal.

2. Her grandma's friend or cousin passed away not long after her grandma. This was sudden, but I can't recall if she had heart attack or stroke or something else. It was normal, but considering those 2 happened pretty close, it was a bit.. you know.

3. Had train line stopped because someone died in Como.

4. She was trapped in her office lift due to electricity problem and fire.

5. Someone committed suicide by jumping from her balcony in Regis apartment in the city. Some of our friends live in this building.

6. Someone fell from a bridge at kogarah station on top of stationary carriage and then fell to the platform. Not sure what happened there.

7. Last week, there was accident in Puncak, a bus full of Christian retreat members going home to Jakarta fell off the cliff. About 13 people died... 1 of them was the sister in law of my dad's second nephew.

I actually didn't finish writing this draft when I started it last year, so I can't remember if there is anything else. But all those mentioned above happened within short period of time. So it was pretty worrying :/

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Catch up! XD

Hello guys,

Been a while since my last post. Since March, a lot have happened... Well not really, the truth is my sisters always monopolize my PC and my parents came to visit for 3 months, jd ya gitu dehhhh komputer bener2 out of reach deh kali di rumah -.- tp ya thinking about it, maybe it's okay... I do use pc from 8.30-6pm every day, so I guess that's enough.

Anyway, what's happened since March... The annoying agent of mine asked to extend contract, saying the owner requires all tenants to be on contract. Blehhhhh I've been renting for so many years and none of the agents required such thing. Rese aja -.-

Then... My parents come.we didn't go holiday, but been going out every single week to suburbs. I think when we tried to count how many suburbs we've been to in 3 months, we got around 16 LOL. But all was enjoyable.

What else hmm.. oh my sister finally got her PR!!! After 3.5 years FINALLY she got it yayyyy ^^ but really she didn't lose much, she got Medicare since she lodged the application, and between us three sisters, she's the one who takes the most benefit from Medicare. Meaning dia tuh yg paling penyakitan :p winter bisa kena flu or cold every 2 weeks gt, blm bae bener ehhhhh sakit lg -.- plus gondokan, tiap brp bulan ke specialist -.- mungkin kl diitung n dibandingin sm my surgery, we might still be on par :p

With her having her PR, now we're officially going holiday to Japan!!! Hip hip hoorayyyy ^^ though we couldn't get cheap tickets since the deal came up when she hadn't got the PR, but we are going to Japan!! How exciting :) we've booked everything except shinkansen and currently making itenaries :)

Oh, I've got my certificate 2 in Mandarin :) and had a catch up with my tafe friends once. They are still fun to be with, and we still get along well. So happy :) but biarpun dpt cert 2, td di toko ditanya sm customer brp karat emasnya aja bisa salah nyebut 24 T.T really need practice nehhhh :( my reading is good though... *bela diri* :p

And Kantor makin ngga2 aja :/ si super excited apalagi. Tp ya asal ga ada si super excited ms Gpp sih, tp si krim jg lama2 makin nyebelin :/ tar deh next post bakal indo semua supaya aku ga ketauan XD but either way, mrk ga tau ini punya sopo jg hohohoho...

Oh I also went to lots of tourist places. The truth is, when my dad came last Dec, he planned to stay for 3 months, so I bought these iventure tickets for going to aquarium etc, but his PR was processed and required him to leave the country before it is finalized, so I ended up giving it to my friend. We went to madame tussaud, aquarium and Sydney tower. Madame Tussaud was pretty good I think, aquarium too. But Sydney Tower was really nothing. Just looking at scenery. We chose it because we would never go there if not for this card. And then we also went to Alexander exhibition that I won last year. Ended up exploring the whole Australian museum. They have pretty good stuffs! They have dinosaurs too!

Anyway I typed this a while back already, better publish this then! ;)

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Lift.. oh lift... ;P

I've just moved into my current unit few months ago right, and during the first few weeks, we noticed that people living in this building have a weird attitude :/ All of them, when getting into the lift with us, NEVER EVER swipe their card!! They wait until we get off to our level then they swipe their card :/ Weird eh???????

My sisters and I talked about it and agreed it was weird... and then came to these conclusions:
1. Kogarah is not a safe area so people have to be very cautious and not swipe the key when people are around so they can't follow them home.
2. Kogarah people are weird and petty and believe that all people are evil.

And then one day my sisters said to me.
My sister: "Ci, I was getting in the lift with some people and then when swiped my card, it didn't work. Kept trying and still didn't work. Then one of the guy said to me, yeah you have to wait until we get to the first swiped floor and then the light's off and then you can swipe your card."
@_______@

Okay, so we've been thinking bad thing about our building neighbours >>>____<<< Apparently according to that gentleman, once the lift broke down and after it was fixed this issue appeared and they can only swipe 1 level at the time -_-"

Moral of the story, don't make your own weird conclusions =.=

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I had a bad day

Today has been so annoying. Let me just tell you how it was.
 
First, my cousin was leaving to Melbourne to stay for a year or two and me and my sisters wanted to send her to the airport. To get to the airport I needed to catch a train from Kogarah to Rockdale at 9:34, and then catch a bus in Rockdale @9:44. We left late as we had to clean up the house a bit because our rental manager was supposed to come this morning for annual inspection. We ran all the way to the station and still missed the train. Luckily when we arrived in Rockdale, we can still catch that same bus.
 
Anyway, long story short, we got the flight schedule wrong. She should be flying at 1 PM, but I thought she would be flying at 12 PM! Therefore we got to the airport around 10 AM. My cousin herself was still at home when we arrived at the airport -_-" And Domestic Terminals SUCKS, they only have 1 cafe in the whole terminal, and the price is exxy! -_-" That's one.
 
Second, at 10:30 I saw a missed call, which out of ordinary, I called back. Turned out it was my agent and she was quite upset that nobody was home and she could not get into the unit. She said I should have called her to arrange for another time if I wasn't at home so she wouldn't have to waste a trip! I was like, wasn't it written in the letter that I CAN be NOT at home and she can still get into the unit using management key and will leave me her business card. Plus, I was damn sure it was also written to fill in the form and leave it on kitchen bench for her to collect. Anyway she said it was completely the other way around -_- "" What could I say apart from sorry? But I was 90% I was right. Anyway she'll contact me again on Monday. My agent is always clumsy. This is not the first time things like this happened. I actually said to my sister this morning, I think our agent will stuff up today's inspection, something must happen, i.e. she brought wrong keys, or did not bring 1 of the keys, etc etc. Maybe later I can make a full post of this.
 
Third, we got this Picadilly stockland giftcards during Xmas promotion, and one of those cards expired today. So we went to city after the airport to use it. I was thinking to use it for Yum Cha, but then they said they didn't take it. Fine. I then thought I can use it at newsagent for scratchies or magazines or anything really, they also did not accept it. And finally before giving up since the other stores were hopeless, they are all expensive stores i.e. jewellery store, maternity wear shop, suits shop, etc.. we tried asking a cafe at the ground floor, FINALLY, they said they took them! hip hip hoorayyyyy so our lunch were cut down to 23 bucks yayyy... but well you got the idea how troublesome it was. So next time you get a Stockland giftcard, and the closest you can go to in Piccadilly, don't be to happy. But George's cafe does take those cards. And their food was quite good actually, the salmon I had was good and not overcooked :)
 
Fourth, this was the MOST annoying thing I had today. I went to Harvey Norman Martin Place to claim 100 free photos allowance that I get from buying extended warranty for my laptop a year ago. Parts of that extended warranty are:
1. 1 Laptop health check up once a year for 3 years.
2. 100 free 6x4 photos each year for 3 years.

So I went there to claim my first year photo allowance. However, when I asked the manager how do I do that, he said that it's only for camera extended warranty, not laptop. You get only checkups for laptops. I was furious. He was the one selling that laptop to me last year PLUS the extended warranty and I recall him telling me I get 100 free prints each year!!!!!!!!!!!! And now he's saying that it's not for laptop?????? I was so so so so SOOOOOOOOOOOO pissed off!! and then when he attended another customer, I took out the booklet and checked it again, I was 99% sure I WAS RIGHT and HE WAS WRONG. And yes I was right, this is what it says on the booklet:

 
 
See Photo Processing allowances has small 1,2,3 and Annual Hardware Checkups has 1 next to it? 1 is Laptop, and if annual checkups has 1, and means laptop, why Photo Processing doesn't?? I said that to the manager and he read through it, and then I said, if you don't give it to me, then that's fine, I will just contact Harvey Norman Centre and complain or can you check somehow? I really wasn't bluffing. If you think I like to complain then true I do, if it's my right, then I have to get that right. But I really was not in the mood to argue, so if he didn't let me then that's what I'd do. The manager then said "OK I can give it to you". I replied, you can give me the free photo or you can check? He said "I can give the free photos to you". That's it. NO sorry. NO bullshit of "Oh I didn't realize" or whatever. JUST those. If he didn't think I deserved his apology, at least acknowledge that he didn't know or forgot!!!! HOW RUDE!
1. Last year he did say I could get photo allowances and my sister did hear that. If now he's saying I can't, wasn't he LYING to me last year???? and trying to trick me to get the extended warranty??
2. If the extended warranty has now been changed and laptops don't get photo allowances, well, that's not my problem, I signed last year agreement, and no change of agreement has been given to me, so for me, it still is the same.

So, a bit of warning guys, if you want to get extended warranty from Harvey Norman especially Martin Place with the manager, who I think was called Roy (that's what he wrote on my extended warranty later on. If it wasn't his name then I wouldn't now either), please make sure you remember anything he said and match it to the boolet. AND MAKE SURE to keep and bring the booklet when claiming. Last year he told me I would only need to bring my receipt. Lucky I brought the booklet too. I'm so gonna report this to Harvey Norman -_-""
 
Fifth, we went to DSE at George St. I saw a digital photo frame at DSE North Sydney sold for $30 down from $60. Apart from photo files, that can also play movies and mp3s, so I thought I might get it. However, at George St it was sold for $60, and was said that it's already on special. I came up to the counter and asked about it, and they said maybe North Sydney one was a display model, which I replied no, they have same number of stocks as you. Anyway the staff basically just said no. I don't know how they all trade, I mean some other stores would match the other branch's prices and sometimes even other store's prices. But again, I don't know. The guy wasn't really helpful, and I was already in a bad mood due to all that have been happening all day.
 
After that we went to Myer to go to toilet since that's the cleanest around Town Hall :P and then since we've been walking from morning, we ended up going to have a foot massage at Town Hall station ehhehehhee... and I did have mandarin practice conversation with the lady who gave me massage hehehe.... and she understood!!! yayyyyy so happy :)) That massage was expensive, but I think it was worth it :P
 
 

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Fried Onions :P

I had this conversation with one of my colleague the other day and I thought I'd like to keep it here :) He's a Maltese I think, but he's one of the people who like to try different food, Asian or non-Asian, spicy and non spicy too (though I doubt he can stand hot XD he did say he can :P). It started with me asking my colleagues who like crystalised ginger since I had one and did not want them. So here it goes..

Me: does anyone here like crystalized ginger?
 
Blue J: Never tried it?
           You know what I need? FRIED ONION? Do you know a good one that you use and
           you were recommend ?
 
Me: Do u wanna try lol (The ginger I mean).
       Go to Asian shop, they all good ahahahahah
 
Blue J: I don’t really like ginger.. very strong taste..
            Ok - I will trust you!
 
Me: Why do you need fried onion?
Blue J: MI GORENG DON’T PUT ENOUGH IN THE PACKET!!
 
Me: LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!! :P
 
I forgot my colleagues are all mi goreng fanatics :p I ended up telling him to fry them himself  and told him for the first time that they are actually french shallots, not onions ;P and ended up googling how to fry fried onions and translate them to English XD Got the recipe in my office PC, might paste it here later on.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

What happened in 2012

Can't believe it's now 20 minutes to year 2013! Half an hour ago I was falling asleep complaining why the midnight is still so far away and now I don't think I will finish this post before 2013 T_T

2012 has been a good year for me. It was tough sometimes, but I cruised through it quite leisurely. I can say 2012 was one of my easier years. Past 4-5 years have been hard, and 2012 fell into the easy category. Now let me reflect on what happened in my 2012.

I took a Mandarin class! and I didn't think for weeks or months to come to decision, only 1-2 days :) And I'm still sticking to it. Well I do need to enrol to continue the class, but I will continue.

I also had my surgery in March. Had my first experience staying in a hospital hehehe... well it was the second if you count the day I was born XD and I had my first experience of anaesthetic hohoho... :P It was just as my colleague told me before the surgery, "The best sleep I ever had". My last memory was my doctor telling me to move from the bed to the operating table and that was it. When I opened my eyes again, it was 2 hours after and surgery was done! My first words to the nurse were "Was it done?". It really felt just like a blink of eyes @__@ At the beginning, I was given a private room ^^ but then in the afternoon, the nurses came and said there was a lady who had just given birth, so if I didn't mind, they'd like to give my room to her so she can have some privacy. How nice of me giving her my room :P But I didn't mind the shared room either, there were only 3 patients including me. 1 was a guy who broke his foot and did not make any sound all day. The lady next to me was a bit noisy, she woke me up a few times that night by keep calling the nurse over -_-" But I was under morphine, so just close my eyes and I'd be dreaming again before I fall asleep. And I mean it. Anyway, just an advice if you happen to visit someone who just had a surgery. After the surgery, we are still under morphine and left over anaesthetic from the surgery, those make us nauseated. So, it's better to not bring us cakes or bread or heavy food. My cousins and friends brought me err... kinda embarassing since it was after surgery -_-" but they bought me cupcakes, mocha hot cross buns and easy way ;P out of those, only Easy Way tasted the best and did not make me nauseated. The cupcakes and hot cross buns were great too, don't get me wrong, but a swallow gives me nausea, it was quite hard to eat. So better bring sweet drinks with no milk i.e. iced tea, aloe vera, wang lo kat maybe? :P Baker's Delight's hot cross buns are really great, the nurse asked me that night what is it that I have in the paper bag, she'd been wondering what smells so good. It was the mocha hot cross buns :P

It was a small procedure that granted me the permission to take 7.5 days sick leave off work and let me fly for holiday! (My specialist told me last year, that I wasn't supposed to fly until I had my surgery. Honestly, I kinda thought it wasn't really true, but just to be on the safe side, plus my mum would go off if I flew, I didn't fly for the whole year). So, this year I had holiday to Singapore and Indonesia.

I met my 13 years long chat friend for the very first time. Having known him all these years since my junior high, but I had neither speak to nor meet him. It was nice to finally meet him and his family. Should have done it sooner maybe haha.. but better late than never, and I hope there will be many more meetings in the future :)

We moved house last October. Our apartment was sold to a buyer who would stay in the unit, so we had to move after around 5 years living there. It was sad to leave, but I like my new place too, and it's good to have a change of environment :)

What else... hm... I regained some old friends, becoming even closer to some friends, and met new people. I made some more crafts and learned some new ideas. I heard more critiques, and I learn to listen, take the ones I can apply, and ignore the ones I can't take. Got even closer to my colleagues, though I think I become even more shameless *wide grin*

Lots of things were broken and I bought replacements. Some of them were expensive too, but it's good to replace things that have worked their asses off for years. It's just the time to move on. Saying that, remind me I need to buy new vacuum cleaner ;P

And I think I spoil myself a little bit more this year :) I deserve it.

The thing that I had less this year was cooking and reading books. SOOOOO lazy to cook this year. I ended up having catering. But it was good though, I got it from Maranatha. I stopped because I moved to Kogarah. Hope I can be a little bit dilligent and cook more next year. I read a few indo books this year i.e. My Stupid Boss and Curcol Kantor. Soooo funny! I had to hold my laughter when I read them in trains :P And started The Girl with Dragon Tattoo trilogy. They are good books really, they become my favourites. Everytime I read them I always think "Arghhhh the author has passed away T__________________T"

Anyway I started writing this on New Year's eve, but I just finished it on 19 Jan :/ I guess this would come up on top of the posts I did earlier today ://

The Hottest Day in Sydney

Yesterday was the hottest day in Sydney EVER! From memory, the weather forcast said it was going to be 37 degree max, however it turned out to be 46 degree at around 2-3 PM in North Sydney -_-"

When I heard it was going to be a hot day, I brought my fan to work (normal fan doankkkk yg musti dikipas2 sendiri, bukan pake batere :P). I didn't care if my colleague would laugh at me >( From experience, our office aircon has this habit of breaking down on the hottest day -_-" And yep, how I am a psychic :P it broke down TWICE during the day. Once in the morning just after the longgggg friday morning meeting. My team leader was briefing me on a new task I needed to do, and I could feel the hot air coming from the window next to me. I said to him, "It's hot T__T", and he said "Yeah heard it's gonna be a hot day". And I couldn't feel the aircon :S Then my IT boss started closing all his blinds and turned off the lights huahahhahaha poor him, he has his own office, and MAYBE, he doesn't aircon ventilation in there.

Just before lunch the aircon was on. Just a tiny weeny little bit though *sulking*. My friend suggested to come for lunch at her lobby since it has aircon, which I refused becozzzzzzz I would have to walk outside for 10-15 min one way before reaching her officeeeeeee T__________T and after that 10-15 min again going back to the office TT__________TT No wayyyyyyyy =.= I'd just hang around in the coolest part of my office, kitchen. Lucky there wasn't anyone there, so it was cool *phew*. My colleague was wishing it would break down again so we could go home. Not in my opinion. Even if it does break again, according to my experience, it would take until 4.30ish - 5ish for the directors to release us home. I prefer to have the aircon works.

Then after lunch, the office became hot again. 2 of my colleagues asked me "Can you faint? So we can go home?" -_-" I wished! My friend also suggested that to me lol :P and the weather forcast on my PC shows 46 degree!!!!!! My weatherzone app too T______T I straight away whatsapp-ed my cousin who was staying overnight at my place to break an egg on the balcony and see if it was cooked LOL :P But she didn't do it though *memble* :(( She said no way she's going out :P So that's how it feels to live in Arab :/ Then an email circulated which said something like this "As we all know, the air conditioning is not working. The technicians are currently trying to fix the airconditioning that broke because the thermo detector, located on the building’s roof overheated and tripped the ‘chiller’. " -_-"""""" That damn chiller had been tripped twice yesterday -_-""" why didn't they put something between the thermo detector and chiller so they can't trip each other?????? ughhhhhhhh and yes I was fanning myself with my old manual fan. Oh, and the creative girl started shouting "WHO WANTS ICE CREAM??????????" and of course *uhuk uhuk* I was the first to say "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" hauhahahahahhaha.... got the new calippo coke and lemonade flavour :)) it was good hehehehe...

My colleague told me, her friend's financial planners sent her a picture of the temp of where he was, and it was 50 degree! And that ANZ branch doesn't have adequate aircon, so he was working from his car hauhahahahahahaha =P

anyway the aircon started working at around 3:30 I think. I don't know how long I spent sitting on my desk staring at the monitor just writing an update query. Apparently that happens to to my colleague on the other side. Oh well... it was hot man, what can you expect, my brain really stopped functioning. No wonder people who are stranded in deserts end up fainting or falling asleep. Just can't keep your focus.

The train station was b****y hot! There were delays in every single line that is not undergoing trackwork -_-" "Expect delay for 40 minutes" that's what they said on the site. I didn't feel the delay, but they limit people coming into platforms in North Sydney. And lucky me :)) I got the trains with aircon woohooooooo ^^ My sister didn't get aircon in one of her trains hehehe... poor her.. :p Ah, before I left work, I called my cousin to make sure the apartment is COOL when I get there :P

My unit was cool and finally cold when we're home so it was nice. Around 8 the temperature went down and there was cool breeze. Around 9 it was already 23 degree. -_-" 46 degree in the arvo and 23 degree at night. How extreme :/

Flood in Jakarta

It's funny how we're having extreme heat here in Sydney while Jakarta is flooding everywhere. I showed photos that I got from my friends and family to colleagues and they were all so shocked. Kinda embarassing to tell them that no, there was no typhoon or storms or anything, it's just that the river is too dirty that rubbish stucks etc etc... indo indo... make me proud sometimes donk :P eh, speaking bout the flood, here's what my mum sent me the other day:

"Ini tweet dr seorang asing mengenai banjir Jkt... Everywhere in the world flood is measured by
'centimeters' or 'meters'. Only in Indonesia flood is measured by 'dengkul', 'betis', 'paha', and 'pinggang'. I'm confused."
 
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL =P
 
 
It's true though, I was chatting with my friend the other day when the flood started, we were reminiscing how flood was such happy memory in our childhood day i.e. yayyyyy we can't go to school :P And she said, yeah there was one time she woke up in the middle of the night, still asleep she tried to find her bolster so she put out her hand to the floor side of her bed and she touched water. Her room was in flood!!!! And then she woke her sisters up. And then she went saying, "kayanya itu sepinggang pembokat gw deh...." hauhahahahahhaahahaa... so true... but then she thought again and said "hm... I think she was about 160 cm" ahuhahahahaha... as for me, I said to her about my experience like this "wkt masi di toko sih kayanya yg paling dalem tuh below 1 m deh. Maybe about 80 cm?". So I think I'm more logical in this case :P But maybe the real reason I used cm or m is because I didn't jump into the water so I don't know if it was dengkul, betis, pinggang or paha hauhahahahahhaha.... Just FYI, was reading Kompas this morning, and they do use same terminology, always use betis, pinggang, mata kaki, leher, etc to describe the water level :P
 
Anyway, this flood got me quite worried.
 
1. My grand uncles were forced to leave their home coz it was flooding. My mum sent me the photo of their complex entrance gate, and the water covers up to about 50 cm from the top of the gate. So maybe roughly 150 cm?
 
2. My eldest uncle's home was in flood too, and my mum said he's only got a bottle of water left. He has a family of 4!!!! And she said he couldn't get out anymore. Got me so worried!! Then I contacted one of his daughter who lives in Sydney about it. She replied sometimes after saying, "Ud ci... uda beli.... Gaaaaaa... Aku ga tau mamamu dpt kabar drmn, org aku uda cek. Mereka baru nyetok lagi 5 galon. Mamamu dikerjain papaku kali. " -o- what theeeeeeeeee my uncle yg ituuuuuuuuuu ughhhhhhhhhhh -_-""""""" I just remembered that he LOVES playing with my mum's panicky trait -.- My mum does have this very panic/worry/bawel trait, I don't know how to explain it. And this uncle of mine knows it very well and LOVES making her panic -_-" duasarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
3. One of my best friend's home in Jakarta is in flood. Looking at the photo that she sent, it's sebetis lol :p And her level 2 is for storage and not as big as the level 1, so she can't really evacuate her stuffs.
 
The news says Jakarta will be "sinking" on 27 Jan 2013. Hope it won't happen. Surely it's so fun to hear all of this news and not actually experiencing it, but I do hope it won't happen. And I'm pretty sure when human predicts it, it never happens :) which is a good thing thoughhhh :)
 
It's my friend's wedding too today in Jakarta. Hope everything goes well for his wedding. We went to same school since kindergarten, primary school, junior high, senior high, and surprisingly he showed up on my first day of uni too -_-" We didn't get along well during school, but it did get much better during uni, even went for road trip together. How I missed those time. Anyway hope the wedding all goes to planned :)