Inner Meaning?

Watched James Blunt's video clip You're Beautiful for the umpteenth time and it just occured to me what it meant. I had always wondered why he made such a crappy video clip, taking his clothes off one after another (with the exception of his pants), then his shoes, lastly his personal items from his pockets. Revelation struck me, which is surprising considering I had just woken up, in a dazed mode, and still in my Donald Duck pyjamas. Combining the song lyrics and actions, he may actually be portraying himself committing suicide?

He did after all jumped into the icy cold sea water.

Out of ideas

HELP! I have been refused entry into MSN and Hotmail for almost a week now. It would not accept my password and goes to an error page. Argh! It's SO frustrating! Pages that require password, including gmail and photo hosting webpages, are slowly being affected!

I seriously need some IT assistance here.

Highlights & Observations

from my recent training course:

The most important toiletry item forgotten
My toothbrush! Argh!

A very important item left in the resort room
My mobile phone charger.

LOA chick
Heavy makeup. Shocking clothes, which included intentional boob-exposure singlets and bra-revealing bare back tops. Frequent wailings, exclaiming she would rather die than wear the Naruto-coloured safety clothes and steel-capped boots (you'd guess by now she's not an engineer graduate).

Corrupted
I've heard the most F*** words ever in three days at this program than my six years living in Australia. No kidding. The person who used it the most blamed it on the operators he had encounters with during his job. That's not a good enough excuse, mate.

Shocking end
One graduate confronted by the program organizer for causing trouble and behaving unprofessionally. In the minibus on the way home, he yelled out, in total shock himself, if he had been a pain in the ass. No one bothered to answer.

Alcohol overdose

I returned yesterday from my company's graduate development program. It was a nice opportunity to leave work! This week has been awesome, with Monday a public holiday, one day work on Tuesday, then off to this getaway at Moss Vale for three days and two nights.

The days felt much longer than my normal work day, indeed it was because the intensive program ran from 8am to 5.30pm everyday. Yes I'm whining about an extra hour of "work"! I don't usually take the incentive to do overtime, simply because we are not paid for OT.

Overall, the development program was well organised. This is the second of four such programs that I have to attend, along with the other new graduates. The remaining two programs will be held in Western Port and Melbourne. I'm excitedly waiting for that so that I can get a free trip to Melbourne!

We learnt about team work model on the first day, project management training on the second day, and business understanding and site tour on the final day. In addition to a high class accommdation and good quality buffet-style food, we were rewarded with an open bar - free flow of beer and wine - oh my, how the ah mohs loved that so much, drinking away as the night dragged on. Sometimes it feels hard to mix with them at this point, you just don't know what to else to say after a while. I'd rather retreat to my room and have a nice hot bath and watch the Masters tennis series on Foxtel. I'm getting sick of red wine in particular by now, especially after the Port Stephens wine-gulping forfeit.

And thank goodness that my housemate uses a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. I had left my mobile phone charger in my room at Moss Vale. Grrrr...how forgetful. A game of cards prevailed for my Friday night entertainment, with red wine as penalty for a Black Jack and getting 1.5 times of chip payment. Sounds unfair but you gain and you lose! Haha...enough of alchohol for now.

Monday: Sleep Day

1000 Sun rays piercing through the blinds. Time to wake up.
1430 Afternoon cat nap.
1730 Rudely awoken by two consecutive phone calls. Time to wake up.
1945 Finished baking a carrot cake.
2000 Over to a friend's place for dinner.
2100 Dinner not ready.
2115 Finally, time to eat.
2215 Watched Initial D-the movie.
0015 Still in holiday mode. Work starts in 8 hours. Sigh.

Best news of the day:
Dad was discharged today and is recuperating at home. To all my silent readers, thanks for your sms and msn messages.

Port Stephens Holiday

A very unsuccessful attempt to organise a getaway trip for a long weekend was redeemed by the occurence of yet another long weekend in the space of two weeks, this time only the priviledged few get to enjoy it. Yes I speak of a public holiday created purely for the reason of a company Picnic Day, of which I have been told nobody attends, and probably doesn't exist. I don't really care, because I embrace every single holiday I can get my hands on.

Friday Night Movie: Howl's Moving Castle - Rated PG Scary Scenes
Being a newly-converted Japanese animaniac this year, I couldn't resist from watching this anime at an absolutely shocker price of $3. Directed by the same director for Spirited Away, this film boasts of dramatic, romantic and transporting visions. It's quite comical as well. But I must admit I was confused at some stage of the show and have yet to resolve that state of mind.

Sat-Sun Getaway
Destination: Port Stephens
In just under four hours, we reached Port Stephens with our first stop at a winery. We then proceeded to look for our accommodation, with grave fears bubbling inside as we drove along Thurlow Avenue. Some of the buildings looked pretty run down, others looked too posh for our single night stay at Nelson Bay.

My doubts were quickly extinguished as I stepped into our fully furnished two-storey apartment, with windows overlooking the sea, surround sound system encompassing the whole open plan living area, main bedroom with toilet ensuite, and this is the best part: Copies of pirated dvds and music cds with a little note stuck inside - "If you like this cd after watching/listening to it, feel free to take it. Just leave a $5 note under the dvd player when you leave." The landlord is Malaysian.

After lunch and a delicious sticky date pudding dessert, we visited a few beaches in Nelson Bay and realised soon enough that many of the beaches here are short in length. One was aptly named "Little Beach".

In the evening, we went sea kayaking. Strangely, my yellow boat had trouble moving as fast as I hoped it would be, with the other two kayaks racing ahead of me. My friend who was at the back seat was also scratching his head in confusion. Maybe we were using the wrong technique. Oh well, we'll get to our destination, slowly but surely, while enjoying the scenaries around us. We arrived at a small beachy stop after 45 minutes of kayaking, which was long enough as my arms and upper back were already aching. A nice drink of champagne by the sea was beautifully enjoyed with the presence of dolphins swimming near the rocks. We then kayaked back, letting the currents float us back most of the time. Just before we reached the mouth of the marine bay, another pair of dolphins appeared very close of us. At this point, I was trying to dolphin-talk. Not a good idea. =]


Kayaking out to sea


The champagne's all mine!

Soon it was dinner time and we wanted to dine in a highly-publicised Italian seafood restaurant. Unfortunately we were turned away by a snobbish waitress who said the restaurant only took bookings. I didn't mind the restaurant's policy, just that the waitress didn't have to put on an arrogant attitude. Thankfully, we went to another Italian place which was just as good. I had the most delicious veal steak, topped with smoked salmon, prawns and a special Brandy cream sauce. Brilliant!

The night had just begun, with the mahjong pieces in action, followed by chor dai di (Big 2). I was the biggest loser, drinking up shots of red wine followed by gallons of water. Grrrrrr! No pictures allowed here!

Surprisingly, all of us woke up by 8am the next day. Big breakfast was on the menu - bacon and eggs. We thought the kitchen had oil but we were wrong. It didn't matter in the end - frying the bacon oozed out enough oil to cook the eggs. We then took a nice relaxing stroll along the beach near our apartment. The overcast sky didn't look too promising at this time and we were hopeful to ride our sand buggies later in the arvo.


After playing beach soccer



We later found out that the quad bike outdoor activity was an all-weather affair, with bright yellow raincoats provided to keep us dry and happy. It's amazing how much sand and sand dunes there were as we rode our quad bikes up and down the sand hills, accelerating as much as we can to get the thrill. There were occassional hiccups where some of us decided to be naughty and got off-track, eventually getting stuck in the sand and needed rescue. Another too cleverly manouvered his bike and flipped over, with the 220kgs vehicle pressing on to his ribs and neck as it rolled over. Hopefully there's nothing serious there. And I had the most trouble with my quad bike, stalling all the time because I keep forgetting to continously press the accelerator when I stopped. I must say, we had the most fuss and trouble, and there were just the four of us, plus the tour guide.


My rebellious Quad Bike


The photo that needed "directing" four times. Finally it was "CUT" with an excellent photo

As we made our long journey back home, we were very happy with our holiday, albeit short, but enjoyed thoroughly. A dinner stopover for nasi lemak at Paramatta made everything complete.

L

I'm driving like a lembu (malay for a cow) this week. Can't put too much pressure on my ankle, and the right ankle that is. Got told off by a friend today for driving with an injured foot. Guess she's right, I won't be able to slam the brakes should anything happen.

That's why I'm driving like a cow.

Jazzy feel

Made it to the jazz concert last Friday with a bruised foot and one crutch. It was amazingly beautiful that night, with the gentle breeze blowing against a backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We got really good seats, thanks to a distant friend who helped us book some priviledged seats.

Michael Buble was seriously one hell of a joker. I never knew he can be so hilarious, imagine laughing so hard at a jazz concert. It was so not what I expected. But it was serious fun! At one point, he got off the stage and started greeting his fans with his outstretched hands. When he breezed past where I was sitting, I managed to hold his hand. Hehe...

The next day, I got chauffered around Sydney, with two guys waiting on me (to be exact, passing time in StarCity's casino) until I finished watching the Menopause musical. No need to elaborate the details. Seriously, go and watch. It's very good.

I haven't received such special attention for a long time. I should carry on with my injured ankle charade. =]

Sigh

I'm super bored at home. Haven't gone to work for a whole week.

I hope dad's heart surgery today goes well. Lord, it's all in your mighty hands.

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Please pray

for dad as he prepares for a heart valve replacement surgery on Friday. Admission is tomorrow to do a few tests. Please pray for a successful surgery and quick recovery.

Mum was pleased that I finally broke out of procrastination and requested my echogram test results done last year at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Pretty sure I haven't inherited dad's valve incompetence problem.

Whiny, moody, cranky

Xray gave me a peace of mind that I did not fracture any bones. Now it's all left for the miraculous human anatomy healing to do its job.

I was happy until...

I sprained my ankle at a netball game

one week before our semifinals
five days before a musical at Starcity
four days before an up-close-and-personal concert with Michael Buble
one day before the dinner celebrations and conclusion of Alpha course
twelve hours before my boss is due back in the office after a five week break

Sigh it was such an enjoyable long weekend...until this happened.

The long awaited weekend

It's so rare to really enjoy a public holiday, and to rave about having a long weekend to friends in Melbourne. Certainly when you've stepped into the working world, Labour Days are appreciated so much more than when you were a student, and that wasn't too long ago for me, thank you very much. The amount of work I had coupled with after-work activities were pretty overwhelming and noted by my lack of journal entries since last Tuesday. It's good to be a busy little bee.

Saturday: Picnic-king
Went for a picnic with my church small group at Stanwell park. Wonderful chardonnay, crackers&cheese, soy crisps and good company make a simple picnic extravagant.


Having a go at archery...I wasn't too bad!


Rest point while enjoying the scenery


Breathtaking!


Sunday: Record-breaking drive
Clocked up close to 350kms in a day's drive to Blue Mountains. Woo hoo! A record drive for me. I know it wasn't on the list of "To Go" places since I've already been there 4 years ago. But I'll list it and strike it out anyway as explored attractions, although we didn't do Jenolan Caves. That would probably be a separate trip.

Driving isn't all that scary, though for the time being I'll try to avoid driving into Sydney at all cost. We took the scenic route and stopped by a few lookouts before arriving at the famous Three Sisters. I was unfortunate, yet again, to not have proper pictures taken here. My digicam battery went flat just before we got there. Photos of the same place on my previous trip 4 years ago were forever lost when my friend's apartment got ransacked and the camera stolen. I hope my luck with cameras will change the next time I'm there for a third visit, if ever that happens. Maybe I've been seriously jinxed, the Three Sisters were after all turned into stones by their magician father.


Wentworth Falls Lookout


Lunch at Leura, a town close to Katoomba


Snapped a cockatoo perching on a Porsche parked at the side of the road near the waterfall cascade stop

Monday: Rest&Relax
List of things to do:
1) Call to check if combat class is running. Attend if yes.
2) Wash my filthy car
3) Clean the cat's poo tray
4) Do the laundry
5) Clear books, receipts and papers lying around the living room
6) Mop the floor
7) Play netball
8) Bernard's place for dinner [edit: well not quite, since I was incapacitated, dinner was brought to my house instead....the power of a "disabled person".]