What an Unlucky Day

Let me tell you how unlucky I was last Saturday 😑

It started in the morning when we were at the airport, sending my parents off. We had Subway foe breakfast. The girl who served me heard my order incorrectly. I ordered ham, egg and cheese sub, but when she was about to put my sub into the toaster, I noticed that she didn't put egg on it. So I asked, "And the egg?". She then asked, "so you want to add an egg?". I said yes and she put it in the toaster and the rest went fine.

However, when paying, the total came up to $9.95. I was confused, coz I thought my sub cost $5.50ish. I did order a cookie, but it should come up to $7-8. I still paid.

But the more I thought about it, I felt even more off. So I came back and looked at the menu. The price was $5.85! The annoying bit was, the menu was on TV screen that kept rotating, so I had to wait for a while for it to change and couldn't point it to the girl before. Same thing when I went back to the girl and asked, we had to wait for a while for it to come up.

Then the girl said, it's because I ordered Ham and cheese sub with extra egg. I was like huh? @_@ ham and cheese with extra egg, is different to ham, cheese and egg sub? She called another girl out and she said it's because I didn't say "breakfast". WTF, I ordered an 8:30 in the morning. Your brain should have clicked by itself.

The other girl then asked, what exactly that I said. I said, "ham, egg and cheese". The original girl then said, "Oh sorry. I thought it was ham and cheese".

By this point, the other girl was already looking annoyed. She then said, "Breakfast only allows 4 salad. You had full salad." I was so angry. How would I know?? And I had 5 salad! So I said to her, "I had only 5 salad, so $2 for 1 extra salad?? ". Seriously I can buy a bag of spinach or a kilo of onions with $2!

She then said, "It should be veggie delete with extra ham and cheese". I said, "Ok". Then she asked, "Did you pay with card?". I said yes. She looked even more pissed.

Then, guess what she did? She slapped $2.85 on top of my receipt on the counter, turned around and went inside without saying a word. The original girl went along with her. Without a word. Not a single sorry for the inconvenience. How rude.

I froze there for a moment due to the shock of that treatment. I've never had anything that rude in Australia ever. Even when customer service in Australia is just so so. Then I took my stuffs and started to leave. But I was still so annoyed, so I turned around still in anger, looking to that direction.

There was another male staff serving a customer. Not sure if he saw the whole drama, but he noticed I was looking angry. So he asked if there was anything wrong. I asked if he was the manager. He said, no.. Not really. So I said, don't worry then if you're not the manager. He asked, "Are you sure?". I said, "Yeah, don't worry".

The other girl was coming out from the back and I so didn't want to see her face again, so I left.

Really, I was SO angry to the point I had the urge to throw my sub at them!

Arggghhhhhhh 😤😤😤😤

OK, moving on.

After my parents got in, we went to the toilet and I banged my hand on the toilet paper dispenser, hurting my finger a bit.

After that, we went to take a bus. We already saw that bus stopping in front of us on the way to the bus stop. But it wasn't the designated bus stop, so we continued to the bus stop. Then we saw people running to that bus. Turned out that it WAS the bus!! Dammmmnnn, we then ran back to catch it. So apparently the driver hadn't driven this route for a while, and last time he did, the bus stop was there. He didn't know it had been moved across 😩

OK, so we made it to the bus. I took a seat and OMG... The guy sitting behind me stank!!! 😵😵 can this day go any worse 😑
Luckily our stop wasn't far. We survived by using hand cream.

When I was getting off the bus, guess what? I was stuck between the glass and a guy with a huge backpack!!! The guy was standing in the middle of the door, I was behind him, and there was another passenger getting off in front of him. So, he stepped back to let that passenger off not knowing that his backpack was squeezing me behind him!!

My god.. At this point, I knew it was my unlucky day.

Then we went to the mall to shop before movies. I checked out some leggings in Big W, tried them on and when paying, I just realised that the price was $30, not $12 😕 I went back and check, and turned out that the price was right. It was just because I started browsing at $12 rack and made my way from there, I just assumed that I was still at the same rack. I was already at the register man...

We then went to cotton on. I saw some sunglasses with a sign on top saying 5 for $10. So I thought hmm that's good. So I picked 2, and got some bath bombs too. They were all in the same rack. Got to the register, and the girl said, only the bath bombs are 5 for $10. I said "oh? I thought the sign was for everything on that rack". She said, "The sign says Fizzies 5 for $10". Damn.

Twice in a day. Hm.

Lunch wasn't nice too.

Then we went to buy our movie tickets. The lady serving was an older woman, so she was a bit flustered. She asked which movie and for what session. We said Small Foot, 4:15. She pressed some buttons and asked what time again. We wanted to use 2 prepaid vouchers and 1 ticket using my points. But she said we didn't have enough points. Strange, because when we bought our first movie tickets, the girl said I had 1 free movie to redeem. We weren't fussed at we could the points next time, so we paid. Oh, she asked what time again.

Got our ticket and we left. I checked them and the freaking tickets were for 2PM!!!!! 😑 long story short, we told the lady, but she was in the middle of serving coffee for a customer so we had to wait for a while. She knew she stuffed up and wasn't angry or anything. Just even more flustered. Then finally she exchanged our tickets, but still asking "What time?". My sister was already sick of saying 4:15 so many times. In my life, I've never said 4:15 so many times within 15 minutes.

We still had time before the movie. So I looked for a news agency to buy a lottery ticket. Hopefully after so much bad luck, my luck has finally turned.

How 2016 is So Unpredictable, So Far.

What 2016 has so far taught me is how quick things could happen. 1 minute everything is fine, next minute my colleague has just resigned. 1 minute life is good, the next minute that damn email telling us to sign that contract arrives in our mailbox and causing headaches to all of us. One night I didn't have job application sent, the next day I've got an interview scheduled. You really never know what could happen.

The other day I booked my tickets for the next holiday. The dates overlap with tap water's holiday, but I have lodged this holiday from long ago so I shouldn't be the one to freak out. But I did. I was so worried of what ifs and I thought I would just push the dates a week earlier just to save me headache and nervous breakdowns.

He was surprised. He said I didn't have to, but it would be great if I could. So he doesn't have to leave his job. Remember this point. So he doesn't have to leave his job to have holiday. I have paid, but the tickets haven't been issued, so I told the agent to hold the booking, called everyone who's going and asked if the could change and then contacted the travel agent. Took me 2 hours at work to sort all this out. And you know what, even my mobile phone credit ran out in the middle of a phone call dammittt! I had to call up again and repeat everything again. Finally it's sorted out.

But then after that, little missy said to me, "Ni wan dan le!". Turned out that he and his wife wanted to go to Europe in that month too! By me changing my dates, the dates became overlap with his dates! Oh God, so much drama. His wife insisted on going on the planned dates because she wanted to have her birthday overseas! Little missy was so pissed off and went on seek looking for jobs -_- I did tell you before, our IT dept has become so small that it is impossible for 2 people to take leave at the same time.

I tried to fix an issue and it caused even worse problem. That day I thought little missy was mad at me, but luckily it turned out that he was mad at his wife for being stubborn.

The next day he came happily again. They moved the dates a week early too. However he said to me, if he can't take 3 weeks off, he will find another job. He also asked me if I was thinking to find new job? He said he wants to try. I'm not sure if that's only if he can't take holiday or not.

But now, can you see the pattern? Honestly I thought the same thing too when my leave overlapped with water tap. I thought if I couldn't take it, I'd just leave my job. Water tap did too. And now little missy too. I didn't tell him about my plan at all, but he has same idea as me and water tap. Nobody is attached to this company and doesn't mind if he/she has to quit. It's so fragile, don't you think?

Anyway that night I fell asleep by 10:30. Too much stress on that day, my energy was completely drained -_- wasn't a good sleep though, waking up during the night and woke up at 5:30 in the morning.

But at least, little missy won't leave the company because of me. So hard pleasing everyone eh? Tried to make things better for me and water tap, but ended up making it hard for little missy -.- but yeah little missy hasn't even lodged the annual leave yet, how would I know??!! Water tap told me not to feel bad as it wasn't my fault, but I still felt bad. If there is medicine I can take to make me a little bit more ignorant, please let me know. I need plenty of that!

Not my fault, but why do I feel bad??

Sometimes I wished I don't get to feel bad easily. People who are ignorant are really blessed.

I've booked our tickets for our next holiday. But after I booked it, I remember that my friend did say to let her know if we're going, so I told her. Once I told her, she said she wants to go, but apparently she might not be able to take leave on the dates we've already decided. Now, I feel bad because I can't change the dates.

Last week was the same too. Water tap booked his holiday without checking if someone else already booked annual leave, and it clashes with me! He asked if I could change the date, which I can't, as my sisters can only go on those days. He said no worries, he should have checked anyway, but I still felt really bad.

Back to the friend who wants to join us for holiday. She can join the Hong Kong part, which is 5 days in total flying in and out. Only around 3.5 days full time free though. I also feel sorry coz I feel it's not enough time for her for holiday. I've suggested that she stays longer or come ahead of us so she has more time to enjoy, but she doesn't want to be alone :l

This all reminds me of what I said to Robin Hood last week. She felt bad that her desk was moved, her manager apologized to her (Mr Prick had treated her like slave for the whole project and thought that she's his. He complained she's slow while giving her all the work with no clear briefing whatsoever. He doesn't want her to do any other work except his work, eventhough he knows she has other work to do. Such a dickhead) and huge meeting was held after she complained about 1 of our projects that's super overbudget. She said, she felt sorry coz they did all those for her. To which I replied, why do you feel sorry that he had treated you so badly??? It's clearly not her fault that he was being super bossy and all, but she felt bad when he apologized.

And now I'm kinda the same. How can I be more ignorant? :/

Tired tired tired...

Did I tell you I've been feeling so tired these days? By the time I walk out of the office, my brain feels like it's been fried crispy. Or like it's been squeezed dry. My work has always been very busy. Since my very first day, it was busy. That's why I've been wondering why the last few weeks have left me feeling so drained. I should be used to it right?

But I should have known anyway. Our IT department is the smallest that's ever be since I joined. 5 full time developers that include the manager, and 1 contractor that works once a week less than 8 hours. To make it worse, we have a lot of developments going on, bugs to fix, and the manager is on holiday. Leaving only 4 full time developers and 1 contractor (7 hours only per week).

I said to little missy yesterday, I feel very tired everyday, my brain is very tired. He replied, "everytime I go home, I only want to sleep". That's the same with me. I still hold the urge to sleep, but by Friday night, I can fall asleep as early as 9:30. Not because I want to, but because I can't stay awake. I asked him, "are we very busy? Why am I so tired??". To tell you the truth, busy is normal for our company. You can notice when it's not busy, but busy is our office nature. You can feel guilty when you have nothing to do for half hour. He then said, "of course we are busy, so many projects and we are 4 people doing 5 people work". I think he actually meant 6 people work. Because even when that manager is here, we're still very busy.

True that. I just never thought about it. It doesn't make it easier too that the other department is full of newbies that can't make our work lighter. Incomplete or incorrect information being supplied, errors that are not really errors... Those cause us to waste so much time coding and investigating just for nothing. Plus I have personal stuffs to think about too.

Everyday after work I furiously play piano tiles 2 on my mobile on the train just to untangle and relax my brain. Weird you might think, but it does relax my strained brain. Criminal minds relaxes my brain quicker though. Unfortunately it's only on once a week :( but yesterday, I really didn't want to concentrate and think to relax, so I went to a book store, went to children section and just read Noddy and His Car.

Damn... Why retirement is still 30++ years away???

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Xin Nian Kuai Le! ^^

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!! Xin Nian Kuai Le! Gong Xi Fa Cai, Wan Shi Ru Yi, Nian Nian You Yu :)

This year my parents are here with us in Sydney, sooo we had our family dinner with our cousins at our place, and I got red pocket!!! ^^ well I know you might say, "You're already working anyway, you shouldn't get red pockets anymore!!". But still, getting red pockets take me back to my childhood when eventhough we weren't allowed to publicly display the celebration, had to have a letter written by my mum to get us out of school for the day, but we actually celebrated it quite festive.

Compared to kids nowadays, I think we had it better when we were kids. We always got new pyjamas and clothes for Chinese New Year (get cut growing up, but usually at least we got new t-shirt for pyjamas), had cookies, cakes, cashews and lollies ready at home for the guests, and on the day we went to relatives houses to say happy new year. Mind you, we didn't get red pockets from all of the relatives. Growing up, my uncles and aunties from my dad's side never ever ever EVER gave us red pockets. They all had mutual agreement of not giving them away to their kids. So what I was looking for was really the cakes and cookies and cordials lol XD I guess I was glutton even since I was small :P orrrrr I've always been able to find the good thing in everything ;)

We also always had Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with my dad's siblings family. I personally did not enjoy those dinners. 1. It was 10 dish Chinese dinner. Every food came 1 by 1 and took 2-3 hours just to get all the food out. 2. Apart from me and my sisters, we only had 2 similar age cousins. 1 of them is a boy, so he didn't count back then lol. The rest of the cousins were at least 6 years older, so sitting with them - who I honestly think had no interests whatsoever to 4 of us - was very boring. We weren't close either. The only occasions where we meet during a year were Chinese New Year and weddings. But at least we had those dinners as a tradition.

The one we always looked forward to was either going to my mum's family home on the Chinese New Year. That's the time we got our red pockets and meet the cousins from my mum's side. Compared to from dad's side, this cousin relationship is way way way wayyyy closer. We're all pretty much 1 year apart to one another, so it's really easy for us to get close to each other. Eventhough in total we had 6 years gap between me who was the eldest and the youngest one, each of us had few kids to play with, and 5 of them actually lived in the same house, so we were all close.

The food was more enjoyable too considering we didn't have to sit on the dining table and eat nicely. There wasn't enough chairs on the table, so we got to sit on the couch or sitting on the floor eating. It was so much fun :)

It's good that we were all growing up together. Looking at my 2 little cousins now, I'm pretty sure receiving my red pockets were more fun than them receiving theirs. Now it's only 2 of them getting the red pockets while on my time, there would probably be 5-6 cousins with me excitedly shouting Kiong Hee to an uncle or auntie who just arrived at the door and not even in yet XD It was fun times. I'm glad I have those memories :)

This year we tried to make our house look festive too. We had the cookies and cashews prepared, hung the Chinese ornaments and also stick some paper cutting and of course the monkey king decoration on the wall :) the only bad thing was just we still had to go to work :(

Well... at least I've got my colleagues wishing Happy Chinese New Year to me :)

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!! ^^

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.

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

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

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.

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? 

The End of the Most Interesting Presidential Election of Indonesia

Last night the Indonesian General Election Committee finally announced the winning presidential candidate. The good guy won :) he got 53% while the bad guy got 47%. So glad he won :)

Not only this election was the tightest one we've ever had, this election period was also the most interesting one. Only this time, I spent my lunch breaks checking kompas.com and detik.com. Only this time I googled both candidates trying to find how the world viewed both of them. Usually not interested in news, especially politics, this presidential election surely changed me.

Since last time I blogged, which was the day of the election, so many things have happened. Ridiculous, funny and embarrassing thing I have to say. Straight after the quick count started, both parties claimed victory. My reaction was "What the.... ". Where else in the world in could happen? Nowhere else but Indonesia :) the bad guy knelt down to the ground to praise the lord for winning the election. The good guy simply announced he won the election. Honestly I didn't get why the good guy did it. He's been reasonable so far. While the bad guy has always been weird, so it's no wonder. A friend told me that the good guy had to declare winning too in order to force the General Election Committee to do their job and not be biased towards the other party. But anyway it was an embarrassing moment for Indonesia and it made it to the Australian news soon after.

Then after that, the bad guy kept saying he was winning (eventhough around 10 of quick count institutions results showed otherwise). When people pointed out that the quick count showed the good guy was winning, he said not to believe in quick count results and just be patient to wait for the real count.

Not only that, he even had BBC News interview... *sigh.. now that is real embarrassment -_-" If you watch it, you can see how his real characters are. He was impolite, rude and emotional. I can only thank god he didn't win, and that the anchor lady was very professional to handle the interview. Else, it would be the most watched video on YouTube.

In the interview, he was asked questions in regards to the election. Many institutions show results that you are losing, what do you say? He claimed that he could bring forward more than 10 quick count results that show he was leading, and that those who show the good guy winning were commercial institutions and paid to report those results by the good guy. Now now.... If I were one of those institutions, I would sue him for spreading false rumor and defamation. Imagine 10 institutions suing him, he would have to pay out so much money to them.

He also said that the good guy was not a real good, humble, down to earth or people person. He claimed that the good guy was just made, a part of grand design to win the election. Well helloooo even if it was a grand design, he did more work than you. He's been working in Jakarta for around 2years only, but how come I saw more results than you who's supposed to be working since like maybe 20-30 years ago? If it was a grand design, I still want to applaud the good guy for what he did.

And lastly, when asked what would he do if he lost? He replied "what? i'm confident I'm winning. But if Indonesian people don't want me, I can go back to my old life. I have a good life! It's actually a quiet life away from politics. But I'm confident I'm winning." 

That point has been said by him a numerous times. He also made a point that he indeed had made similar statement so many times, while the good guy only said it ONCE. He said he would accept whatever result Election Committee gives. He would respect it. 

You know what? A day or 2 before the announcement, he asked the Election Committee to withhold the counting because there are so many frauds and abnormalities surrounding the election process. That he's been cheated. Man... It is getting interesting...

The general election committee ignored his request lol Well that's the right thing to do, they didn't give any evidence. Only saying they would provide the evidences soon. Now keep that so called "evidence" in your mind. I will get back to you on that one.

On the official announcement day, all the results showed the good guy was winning. The good thing about Indonesian quick count it, it's usually accurate. There is only 1% chance of difference with the real count. Hours before the announcement, he declared that he's not going to accept the results as they feel like they've been cheated. And decided to walk out of the election. What the....

Now now let's recap. Who declared himself winning even when all results showed otherwise? The bad guy. Who said he was winning when most quick count institutions said he wasn't? Who said he was still leading when real count showed he was losing when 90%+ of the votes had been counted? Who said he was confident even until 2 days before the announcement? The bad guy. Who said on BBC he was confident of winning and even if losing, he would accept it? The bad guy. Then who is that guy saying he's been cheated and would not accept the results??? He even had the face to walk out of it -_-

After he declared he was leaving the election and would not accept the results, there were confusions on whether he meant withdrawing himself as one of the candidates or just leaving that place. However, short after that he said that he would not appeal to Consitutional Court as he already withdrew, but instead would try other legal way. Then yesterday, 2 days after the announcement, he stated that he was going to appeal to Consitutional Court. How inconsistent! And his campaign team stated that he didn't withdraw from the election, but simply withdrew from the counting process -.- Yeah right. I think that's what they decided to say after they realised that there is a point in constitution that stated that presidential candidates cannot withdraw between the time they were officially confirmed as candidates until the end of the voting process. Withdrawal means jail for 2-5 years and a fine of 25-50 billion rupiah (AUD25-50 million).

And to make it even more funnier, yesterday they claimed that South Korean and Chinese hackers were involved in making the good guy win -_- the counting was done manually, and the results were scanned. Which part of it can hackers manipulate?? 

Then later yesterday, he or his team appeared on the news saying to world to hold congratulatory greetings to the good guy as there were so many discrepancies and frauds, and that all has not finished yet -_- duh malu dehhhhhh -.-

And the latest news is...... *drumroll* the bad guy had lodged a report to the police that ALL the evidence that proves the frauds, manipulation, and whatever he's been claiming all this time HAD BEEN STOLEN!!!

It can't get any better... *gelenk2* I think I would still be following indo news for many months to come -.- ugh... My data >_<