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? 

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!

Superexcited and Leave Emails

About few weeks ago, superexcited came back from his holiday. Boy, wasn't it SO peaceful when he's not around. When he came back on the first day and attended his first catch up meeting, he was furious. Apparently he "just" learned that Creamer is going to be on leave the whole following week. And after that, Water Tap will start his paternity leave. And as the result, we had to finish some projects a week early, yep, a week early, before Creamer goes on leave to prevent any issues.

He was angry at Lao Er because Lao Er didn't mention it to him. But you know what, when I clarified with Creamer (sometimes I think maybe I am nosy :l), Creamer said he told superexcited before he went on his holiday. But after he came back, he'd forgotten all about it!

And then, what's funny was, he asked Little Miss Nice to update our weekly leave email. Every Monday we receive an email listing all approved leaves for this week and the following week. Superexcited says it's because Lao Er didn't approve Creamer's leave yet, so it didn't appear in those emails hence Superexcited didn't know. Ok fine, we can include not approved leaves too. No big deal.

Then, he also asked Lil Miss Nice to include the leaves of the directors. He said to her that his leaves weren't in those emails. He wants them in those emails too! So Lil Miss Nice came to me requesting update. I don't do this work often, so I had to check the code. When I checked it, you know why his leaves weren't in there? It's not because directors' are excluded, but it's because he DIDN'T submitted his leave!! -___- how can his leaves be in those emails if he didn't enter them in?? The system is not that smart to know oh, you are going on leave, here I will put them in my list -_-

Little Miss Nice then said, she kinda recall Superexcited complaining about this same thing before, and that's also because he didn't enter his leaves in. But they didn't have that gut to say to him that you need to enter your leave. So what Ante Meridiem did that time was entering his leaves on behalf of him. -.-

I've read My Stupid Boss by @chaosatwork, but I didn't think that mine would behave like the boss in that book sometimes lol.