First day of internship notes

I over-estimated the time needed to get to the office again – I arrived about a half hour early, took a short puff and sat in the car for about 10 minutes. Dunhill Ice is the bomb!

That’s the nice thing about this office – it takes less than 15 minutes to get here, and the route is pretty straightforward, without the need to go through any tolls. The only thing is the horrid condition of the highway to get there. And I don’t need to worry much about shoes – the office has a no-shoes policy, which will hopefully encourage more pedicure awareness. AND IT ISN’T LIKE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE HERE! At least, not yet.

Supposedly, there are three other interns here who are also from Taylor’s, one of them whom I’ve seen pretty often, and we shared some classes together (Winston’s class, was it?), and the other one whom I’ve known since foundation. The office seems to be made up of all ladies, most not older than 30, from the looks of it – mainly Chinese, but definitely female majority. I haven’t seen the actual boss yet. They seem friendly enough – either it’s my own tenseness, or that the first day of work post-new year is typically bleaker.

The receptionist seems the friendliest for now – she speaks with a pretty thick mainland Chinese accent, so it’s gonna take me some time to get used to it. And I’ll need to stop blasting my music so much – my junior was right, I am partially deaf as it is. And for some reason – or maybe it’s my own problem – people seem to speak much softer than usual now. I think it’s just my eardrums losing their elasticity.

Then again, the place seems relaxed enough – company culture isn’t too strict, and conversations run quite freely. I guess it’s just a matter of familiarizing myself with this kind of culture. Strange, because I didn’t have this problem when I was at my waitress job – maybe it’s because I already had a set task list when I was there, so I could just go about with my work.

Here: everyone is busy, because there’s a huge event coming up next week, and it’ll be more or less the only event that I (as well as the other few interns) will be working on while we’re here.

The office itself is pretty clean-cut – white walls, plain desks, interesting light fixtures here and there, framed paintings and photos accentuating some parts of the walls, decorative items in selected corners, some printed encouragement quotes stuck here and there, and a small Christmas tree in the middle of nowhere.

For the first half hour since I walked into the office, so many questions run through my head. What am I gonna do today? Is it possible that I’d screw up on the first day? What about lunch – do they just take the short walk out to the nearby business area, or do they drive out? Where’s the bathroom? Do I get a punchcard (I did and I got a detailed rundown on how to punch it)? What if I’m assigned something big today and I screw it up? What if I forget who I’m supposed to report to?

I should have slept wayyy earlier the previous night, and that coffee shouldn’t have been so strong. Pre-mixed coffee somehow tastes better than home-made coffee now – my taste buds for coffee have been more commercialized.

~

By the way, my right arm muscles are sore now. Seriously? Just from playing darts? I need to do more weight training.

~

My supervisor sits upstairs – the kind of lady who is pretty, but seems intimidating. I wonder if I made the wrong choice by mentioning during the interview that I want to be put in more situations that I have to talk to strangers to hopefully “cure” my people-shyness. So much for being a communication student.

The dress code still hasn’t been clarified – should I dress like blouse and skirt/slacks every day? Or can I go a little more casual, because some members of staff don’t seem quite fussy about lengths of skirts and all that.

I wonder when I’d ever get over my first-day nerves. I suck at meeting new people in person – being shy isn’t really a good thing, especially when you have an inherited ego problem. Placing an online order for sex toys would be less awkward and nerve-wracking than this.

This is like when I first joined Taylor’s for my foundation course – the awkwardness level was over 9000. And it stayed that way for a while, and then I met the same people over and over again every semester, which has its pros and cons. I really hope it won’t take as long for me to melt into the company as it did for me to melt into Taylor’s culture.

~

The lesson learned today is that you should be very careful about what you say during your interview – I mentioned that I wanted to be forced to communicate more with strangers during my internship, and right now I’m being put in that situation and am partially regretting it. The problem with strangers are that not all of them are nice, and I’ve come to realize that I have a slight stutter problem, even when I’m talking to my best friend (whether it’s nerves, or just that I want to talk too fast but my mouth and tongue can’t keep up).

~

I met the head of marketing on the day that I came for my interview, and when I was introduced to her, she said that she recognized me because of my tattoo. So far, I haven’t been called out on it negatively.

~

Just 11am and I already find myself looking forward to the end of the day. Has it really come to this? The extent to which I prefer to avoid all problems and just hide in the comfort of my social shell, that I’m dreading the next 7 hours of work on the first day already? FML is right.

~

Is it normal to be sitting around waiting on the first day? Or is it just my lack of initiative? Perhaps it’s my own thing that I put too much emphasis on rank difference, and I hate being the one who’s asking so many questions that seem to be just basic knowledge.

What I know is that you’re usually the black sheep on the first day, especially if you’re shy. I’m sitting here with two other girls who are around my age, and who are more or less from the same course, and yet I’m not consciously included in their conversation. Well, of course, that’s because their conversation is all about the work they have on hand, which is something that I would be doing in the future, but that’s not the task I have on hand right now.

My classmate is sitting outside, quite far from where I’m sitting. And I’m still not comfortable with walking around the office – it’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to, I think…

It feels like I’m free-loading, because everyone else seems to be really busy with other stuff – calls, typing, printing, moving around. Nice songs are being played on MyFM (played upstairs and downstairs in the office, at a fair volume), and it’s taking some effort not to sing along as I usually do.

~

Lunch was nice – new colleague Polly drove us out to the nearby area for mixed rice. From them, I noticed some of the company culture, and what would be the typical work pattern. One of the questions were how many days of vacation we would get for CNY, and we came to the conclusion that we would get a fair number of days, since the work place itself seemed very Chinese-friendly, with all the feng shui set up and all.

After lunch, I’m still more or less task-less – people are typing out emails to guests and calling people from a list, and I’m still sitting here.

Common traits: Maternity & child expos

I've ever only worked in a regular office and a restaurant as a waitress, as well as a part-timer at expos and/or warehouse sales that sell baby products. The company that hires me when they need me often only need my role as a promoter, and nothing else.


I worked my first day of December at the 4th Maternity and Children Expo 2012 (day 2) at the exhibition hall at Mid Valley Megamall. Including the previous time I worked, I was to man the towels and blankets bin, which is right next to the apparel bin (I do not like being responsible for that bin).


So basically all I had to do was to replenish stock, inform the "division manager" when on-hand stock was running low, keep rearranging everything every 10 seconds because everyone throws everything everywhere, answer everyone's questions, and keep reminding everyone who comes by my bin that there are samples available, hence there is no need to open every damn thing to "feel what a towel feels like".


Despite everything sounding so frustrating, I was bored (or tired) enough to notice a lot of things, especially the general characteristics of the customers. I shall categorize them into a few, and these apply to those people whom I have observed only. Don't bash me for insulting pregnant women. =P


The people might just have one characteristic to them, or a combination of a few, even from the same subtitle, which shall be quite interesting... I have also come to realize that the stupidest thing that you could give a kid (regardless of age)  at an expo with thousands of people is a balloon on a stick. Dangerous, that stuff...

Travel Style

• Solo - doing everything alone, while the spouse is looking at something else; or maybe they're just here alone
• The Typical Couple #1 - looks homey, loving, and usually a bit lost-ish at what to get for a new baby, or what to look for in general
• The Typical Couple #2 - from the looks of it, they just got off work, and both look bloody professional and stylish (most of the time). They will ask the same questions as #1, but would ask less and do more discussions among each other
• Threesome - the couple brought their mother/mother-in-law/sister/sister-in-law/aunt, or whoever who has experience in looking after babies
• The entire nucleus family - the couple brought each others' parents and siblings to join in the shopping fun
• The ancestry - grandparents, nieces, nephews, each others' extended family... you get the gist
• Swift - arrives, scans, locks target, gets rid of doubts, deal done
• Indecisive - arrives, scans, scans again, locks on multiple targets, uses multiple strategies to get rid of doubts (not very effective), scans again, locks on targets (less than first attempt), deal done gingerly

The Ladies

• "Look! I'm botox free!" - they have their eyebrows halfway up their forehead... and they're usually very weirdly shaped
• "I shall fan away the rainclouds with my lashes" - it looks like they took 3-4 pairs of those super thick lashes, then glued them on their already heavily mascara-ed lashes
• "Imma part time clown!" - 3 inches of foundation in the wrong shade, 3 tablespoons of black crayon for the eyebrows, unintentional super goth panda eyes, and those kissable rouged lips. and don't forget the clown blush!
• "I ran out of make-up, so I used my calligraphy ink" - I dunno what's going on, but I remember than my overly diluted chinese calligraphy ink looked like that on my skin
• "I've never used a towel in my life" - opens every single packaging to "feel the fabric"
• "I MUST show everyone my brand new bag!" - yeah, by shoving it into everyone's body
• "I just finished performing for a burlesque gig" - super heavy ... everything - think Christina Aguilera in Burlesque, or on The Voice
• "I couldn't find my brushes, so I used shadow stickers" - a patch of unblended eye shadow on each eye. Usually monocolor, shimmery, and typically purple, for some reason. Very rarely, you see two tones of the same color.

The Gentlemen

• "Kill me now" - somehow, he got dragged to this hell of boredom
• "Whatever you like, honey" - is there to accompany the wife, but when she asks him about purchases...
• "Hmm... Yes... That's nice" - almost like "whatever you like, honey", but is more attentive to his phone/device than to his wife
• "I look so cool wearing sunglasses indoors with a giant Mickey Mouse T-shirt" - personally, I find these just... not cool
• "I'm a proud daddy!" - helpful, interested, enthusiastic, and will bomb his wife with a stream of muttered suggestions
• "WHERE DO I GET *INSERT NAME OF PRODUCT HERE*?!" - will determine what his wife wants, and demand it in a friendly way from the promoters
• "I'll be here if you need me" - sincerely wants to help, but somehow become a source of congestion due to the basket and the bags

FAQ

• *referring to polyester fleece blanket* Is this a towel or a blanket?
• Are these 100% cotton?
• Are these suitable for babies? (epic fail)
• *has the sample right in front of them* Can I open this? I wanna feel the quality.
• What is the towel for? [to cook and eat]
• How do I use the blanket? [you cut it up and stir-fry it]
• Only one piece in there (sealed plastic packaging)? [no, we can somehow fit 10 of them in that flat bag]
• *giant price tag on the item* How much is this?
• *over 20 items of the same design in front of them* What colors do you have?
• *has been fiddling with sample for 10 minutes* How big is this?
• Where do I pay? *I point toward the cashiers.* Oh, is it where the big "cashiers" sign is? [oh, no, you are mistaken, it's behind the big cashier sign]
• *points to large bath towel* Is this a bath towel? [no, it's a handkerchief]

Frequently happened scenarios

• I get down on my knees to access the stock, thinking solely on replenishing the display stock. As it is, it was awkward to be bending down to everyone's butt level, while being sandwiched by distracted people, but someone (many times) just had to hit me in the head with something - a pouch, a bag, or worst - a shopping basket.
• A lady will argue with me that the ragged sample's fabric is not the same as the one in the package. Dear lady, that poor piece of crap has been abused for over two whole days, by unforgiving hands.
• *hears sound of package opening* I say: "I'm sorry, you're not allowed to open that. Here's a sample." That's different, they say. then continues molesting the fabric. Usually doesn't make the purchase.
• Same as previous, but push the 'repeat button' 3 times. On three different products. And each time they just smiled sweetly at me, as if to say that a sweet smile can compensate for the potential infection that a baby might get if they used that molested blanket.
• Some people have their bags swinging around, especially those with chains, buckles, or any ornaments that dangle around. Many times, they have almost ripped out my piercing.
• Insist on bringing their large stroller, a few bags for everything and everyone, and insist on letting their children handle the balloons, then use the stick to whack the crap out of everyone.

Alright, alright. A lot of that is actually exaggerations to some point, but still true. And I don't mean to discriminate, really, but it's just what I noticed.


There were, of course, some very nice people - sweet couples, cute kids, friendly family members. Overall, it's an experience. And it's work~

Recent events

Alright I promised that I'd blog about the recent events that happened at work. For some particular reason my boss was telling the Myanmar guy the difference between the guy's and girl's toilet. We use Malay with him, so essentially 'perempuan' means girl and 'lelaki' means boy, but he didn't know these two words, so we thought of all kinds of ways to explain to him the difference between 'lelaki' and 'perempuan'. We even got to the point where we were pointing at boobs and penises, but in the end he had to go home and ask his friends. =_=


I've been seeing a lot of topless Ramesh these days. Not on purpose, but he has a habit of undressing before going into the bathroom. And on one particular day Vinh was running out from the kitchen topless to the toilet for I-dunno-what. Ramesh is more of muscle + baby fat, Vinh is lean muscle.


Anyway, I thought I'd update my skin-care regimen here. The last time I posted about my skin-care regimen was the time I was using nothing but warm and cold water to wash my face, exfoliating every now and then. I got this tip from Ushishi's post. Supposedly all the cleansers, toners, moisturizers, etc are chemicals and they mess with the pH balance of your skin. So using warm water first to soften the pores (not open) and clean out the dirt etc, then rinse with cold so that the pores harden up again. I'd then use tea tree oil for blemishes.


I followed that regimen for around a month before going for a facial treat. Compared to when I was 14, my skin has improved tremendously. When I was 14, the extraction process took up a lot of time as my pores were packed with crap; that particular facial around a year ago made me realize that taking care of your skin does pay off - the extraction process was under 5 minutes, and there weren't many 'things' to get out of my skin.


So then I was put on this regimen - cleanse, tone, serum, moisturize, eye cream. Supposedly tea tree oil works well with blemishes, but it dries out the skin (according to my mum's friend anyway). She introduced some Bioelements products from USA and I really love the moisturizer. *forgot the name*


A few days ago I watched one of Petrilude's videos on skincare. After that I've revamped my skincare routine. Previously I'd do the bare basics - cleanse, tone, moisturize, eye cream. I'd swap the cleanser for a tea tree blackhead exfoliate (TheBodyShop) every alternate day.


Now I double cleanse, tone and moisturize every morning and night, adding eye gel to the night part. And just before I sleep a touch of tea tree oil to the blemishes~ Here's exactly what I use:

• L'Occitane Foaming Rice Cleanser for first cleanse
• Swap between L'Occitane Foaming Rice Cleanser and TheBodyShop Tea Tree Blackhead Exfoliating Wash on alternate days on the second wash
• Dermalogica Multi-Active Toner
• TheBodyShop Vitamin E Moisture Cream
• SK-II Advanced Eye Treatment Film
• TheBodyShop Tea Tree Oil
• Vaseline Petroleum Jelly as lip care before sleep

On days that I wear makeup in the day or just have to walk under the sun, I slab on some sunscreen (Biotherm something something =P) and some fine powder (Pigeon Pressed Powder in Beige) to mattify the post-sunscreen, oily-looking skin.

I'm totally obsessed with TheBodyShop and tea tree products right now. TheBodyShop does not export to China as products that go into China must go through animal testing. And I find that their products are very ... nature-friendly in a way, and it's more economical than brands like SK-II, Laneige, etc. My mum went through 'brand stages' - first Dermalogica, then Biotherm, then L'Occitane. Right now she's still in the L'Occitane stage, but she still purchases from Dermalogica every now and then. Visits to the Biotherm counter in Jusco Mid Valley was a must every time we went there, but we rarely go near the place now.

I'm still in search of a really good concealer and a proper foundation, preferably liquid. I can't do dramatic dark looks without ending up looking like a zombie. =P


*  *  *


If you're an active YouTuber and/or Xiaxue/Ray William Johnson/Michelle Phan follower, then you'd know the whole Peter Coffin-Kimi Kobayashi thing which is all the rage on the net. Peter Coffin is a YouTuber who does mostly parodies and was recently slamming Xiaxue on Twitter. Xiaxue did research on both Peter Coffin and Kimi Kobayashi (supposedly Peter's Japanese girlfriend) and found suspicious stuff. After posting about Peter Coffin stealing pictures from a Korean ulzzang's website and using it as Kimi Kobayashi and creating this Kimi character as his girlfriend, Peter supposedly wrote a legal email to Xiaxue, but real lawyers have proven this email to be suspicious as well.


I would think that if a guy were to quit his permanent job (whatever it is) to be a full-time YouTuber, then he ought to be spending time making videos instead of making up a fake girlfriend. Oh, and slamming on intelligent and significantly more popular people (women) like Xiaxue. I'd actually aspire to become Xiaxue, though sans the Barbie-like style. I love her self-confidence, talent and courage. Self-confidence by not taking much of others' criticism to mind and doing her thing. She's a meffing talented blogger. And her courage to speak her mind. Every girl should be Xiaxue in some aspect. She's an amazing girl. XD


Next time I go to Singapore I gotta keep my eyes peeled so I could get a photo with her if I ever see her on the street (if I have the guts by then =X).

Scary workday

Just a few days ago my senior told me that many customers have been complaining about my attitude - long face, cursing, etc. After that I made it a point to plaster a smile on my face whenever there are customers, even if the smile looks completely fake and insincere.

I just noticed that I'm always late at work by 15 minutes. =P The restaurant's clock is faster than mine by 10 minutes.

I got to work today, noticing the new part-time staff. He's called Tom, from Myanmar, and like the previous one who came to work, he resigned after half a day. Reason? The work was too tedious. But this one actually asked his wife to come around and help him breach the topic. And I've also learned one thing - never trust a guy with a mop. =P

There were two problem customers today at lunch - one who complained about the lack of minced meat in her noodles (small issue) and another one who complained about everything she could think of.

The pictures on our menu are for illustration purposes only, so some of the pictures don't actually look like the real thing that comes out of the kitchen. This picky trio of aunties (with heavy makeup, ancient perfume and fake hair color) complained that the "Three Cup Chicken" rice doesn't look like the picture. Fine.

Then they complain about the chicken being still cold on the inside. Please lah. I've eaten food from the kitchen many times and every thing is hot, if not warm, on the inside. Fine, reheat the chicken. Then she complains about the numbers in the menu (which is one thing that many people complain about).

Usually the waiting staff would observe tables and see which dishes have been emptied for clearing. Unless the dish is cleared of most stuff and/or obviously unwanted by the customer, I don't touch it. This auntie comes and retort me saying 'Why do you clear other tables but not ours? Can't you see we're finished?' (Something like that)

I wanted to start cursing her and yelling at her on the spot, beat the shit out of her stupid fat head. But to stop giving her anything else to complain about, I just slapped on the fake smile and cleared her stupid table. Their dishes were still full of rice, sauce and whatnot. Even Karen didn't want the leftover rice (she usually takes some if there is for her two dogs).

Then when they asked for the bill, they asked whether we accepted credit cards. Like how I respond to all other customers who ask the same question, I said, "I'm sorry we don't, because we don't have a telephone line yet." Her response was like, " 'We don't have telephone line yet' ", mocking me.

I mean, FUCK YOU BITCH! The whole bloody row of shops don't have a telephone line because fucking TM won't get around to doing it! Anyway she and her two bitch friends left and everything went back to normal.

Then after lunch, around 3.30pm, two men in formal wear came in. The boss was suddenly on the phone, went to the washroom, whispering for me to call A Tinh. The Nepalese in the restaurant already had their red ICs, it was the Vietnamese who had to wait for another few months.

Karen and her friend were suspecting that they were from the hygiene department (or something like that) that came for inspection. And just a few moments earlier the "spy woman" came in. She usually dresses in tight shorts or pants, a tank and a sports jacket, with her hair in a bun and a white headband.

Only after A Tinh sneaked to the back did I know that this was serious business. She left her apron in the washroom, went to the kitchen and called Sao, Vinh and Hoan, then went missing for around half an hour, by which time the two guys and the "spy woman" were gone.

The "spy woman" drives an old edition Proton Saga with the licence plate WGW 2787. So if you see her and/or her car near your restaurant, be alert. She will ask almost all the staff about lots of things, from your name, your nationality to how the restaurant runs. It would be best to fake not understanding her more than half the time, or say 'I dunno' all the time.

Scary how the day turned out. Though I was obviously local, and I had my IC with me, I was nervous max. Maybe it was because of knowing that my friends were in risk of being thrown into jail, sent back to their country or sucked of all their money to bribe the authorities.

* * *

I'm feeling more and more distant with my dear now. It's like the love between us just froze. It's not that I don't love him anymore, it's just that it's getting ... bleak. The routine between us has gotten monotonous for me. All the problems in the relationship is with me.

I just hope I'll get over this soon and have our relationship back to normal.

But what he said hurt me - he said that I've changed, I'm no longer the me that I was 2 months ago. It's like he threw a knife at me, it's like he's saying that the new me is nothing different from those heartless girls out there. I'll admit I've changed - in both interest and maturity. I've lost the obsessive interest I had for the GazettE, though I still love their music. I've come to learn that life isn't all about laying back and having a good time - it's about experience.

I'm basically the old me, just with new interests and better maturity. I still procrastinate like hell, I still like to snack in the middle of the night... Or perhaps it's the new interests and maturity that scares him. He told me that one of his exs went for national service, and by the time she was back she was a changed person.

A person can't stay the same forever. Changes happen, whether you like it or not. What if the world never changed? Life would be so drab. What if people never changed? I wouldn't want my friends to have the logic of a toddler. Changes will happen. In people, in the world, in the universe. It just depends on whether you can accept it and learn to adapt. I can't stay the same forever. It just isn't me. I hope one day you'll be able to accept that.

All in a day's work

Business is slow these days, there are even some days when there aren't any people at all for a few hours at a time. I guess being a waitress is hard - when there aren't any people you die of boredom, when there are people you die from rushing everywhere trying to split yourself in a few.

Today was one of the 'no people' days, where there wasn't anyone from around 4pm-7pm. I think I failed to introduce my restaurant staff. XD

• MANAGER: Mr. Tan
• GENERAL MANAGER (GM): Emily [Taiwanese]
• SHAREHOLDER (I think): Karen
• BARMAN: Ramesh / Raymond / Ramen (every one calls him differently =P) [Nepalese]
• WAITRESSES: Tinh [Vietnamese] & moi
• KITCHEN CREW: uhh, I only know some of their names, and they're a mix of Vietnamese and Nepalese people

Ramesh and Tinh are the two who does practically everything in the restaurant, including their own job. The only few from the kitchen I know are Sao, Vin (nice ass guy XDXDXD) and Lian. Basically all of them are really nice, friendly people, the only thing is that we have the language barrier. They only know bits and pieces of English and/or BM and/or Chinese and sometimes they speak with a rather heavy accent.

NEVERTHELESS! I shan't be down, 'cause we're on speak-and-laugh terms now. XD At least I think we are. I'd like to think so anyways. I would say my manager has a rather ... interesting taste in shirts. The first week I worked there he wore normal white shirts (the same one) and jeans, recently he's been appearing in beach shorts and slippers.

And the sexiest ass award goes to ... VIN! 'Cause he really does have a sexy ass. =x It's hard not to notice especially when he's wearing fitting jeans (D&G) and has his ass facing the food window. I think he just got his salary recently, 'cause he's got a haircut and some new accessories, punk-rocker style~

Back to today. The 3-hour stretch between 4-7pm was seriously silent. Karen was on her laptop (HP mini), the dining area staff (Ramesh, Tinh & myself) were sitting around. Here's what happened:

All three of us were actually sleeping at the same time for some time, until I decided to do a 'market survey' of the entire block. There were not many people at Shapa Shapa Shabu, but more were at Drinks.

* * *

My favorite hotpot restaurant is (was) Tasty Hotpot near SMK Seri Saujana. My mom told me that they had moved from there to a block away from where I work with a new restaurant name: SOULAR Steamboat and Ramen. Though under the same management (lengzai Francis), the porridge base is gone and the taste has deteriorated.

Uhhh...

I timed my piercing, I forgot to time my lenses - yes I got pretty lenses that last for 3 months, but for most of the two months wearing them to work would be just adding to the work load. =x

Work is getting tiresome especially without the GM around - the marketing manager at my place doesn't help much. She does take one or two plates once every hour, but that's it. Whereas Tinh and I do everything.

We had a new guy come in today, but he left as fast as he came. He calls himself Sky, supposedly from Myanmar, and wears gold watches and uses a Blackberry. The reason for his resignation? The job was too tedious, especially the sweeping and mopping part. Fuck him.

I miss my dear so much. All day at work I wanna hold his hand, hug him, have him beside me. All day I wait for him to make a surprise visit. ><

Work

I'm currently working 10 hours a day as a waitress at a restaurant called Taiwan DAMI on Jalan Radin Bagus, Seri Petaling. I start at 12.30pm, and finish at 10.30pm. The few hours in between allow me just enough time for baths, simple meals and sufficient sleep (though I'm not sleeping well lately).

Life since Feb 7th is deeply contrasting to the days before - previously I would wake up, get a bite of something, switch on the PC then sit there until night. Now? I wake up at 11am, clean up a bit, have something to drink and get a banana, then head out to work. Until 10.30, I go home, bathe, bitch about my day then go to sleep.

Technically speaking, I'm working 7 days a week unless I ask for leave, which I have for this Saturday so that I can go for my driving test. I'm gonna miss out on a lot for this, especially the upcoming mojito open house at Tropicana tomorrow.

I used to check up on blog and Facebook updates every single or alternate day, and this is the first time in many months that I left Facebook and my blog abandoned for such a long time. =P

Anyways, I'll be on a semi-complete blog hiatus from now on, depending on whether I feel like blogging or not. As for Facebook and Twitter, they are updated practically daily via DiGi SMS. Speaking of DiGi, does anyone know where's the Maxis Center closest to Seri Petaling? I wanna change my Celcom to Maxis. =x

I actually haven't worked like this in my entire life - anytime I'm told to do tedious housework, I only get to do ONE type, as opposed to now, I have my duties divided between my co-worker and me, and even so, the work is like OMG, especially during lunch hour and the dinner rush.

I hate it when parents bring those brats with them and just allow them to do whatever shit they want to, then have us clean up after those brats later. The noise is one thing, the cleaning up is another. Then there are those inconsiderate rich bitches with over-penciled brows and gazillion tons of makeup who don't bother to budge even when hot stuff is coming.

There are also the assholes who flick their cigarette ashes every where except in the pristine ashtray on the table. Fuck them. And those who take the time to dress up nicely then smoke like a typical prostitute on the streets.

Anyways, I quote my aunt 'it takes all to make the world', though I hate that it also takes assholes and certain bitches to complete the world.

Also, Taiwan DAMI is in need of extra employees (whether they admit to it or not). If you're interested, please proceed to 147, Jalan Radin Bagus at anytime between 11am-11pm (though it's not recommended that you drop in at lunch or dinner hour). As for telephone numbers, I only have the GM's mobile number and not the boss's mobile number.

See you in, what, another couple of weeks' time? I dunno. I just know that I'm looking forward to Saturday. =)

Bacon macaroni

For some reason, I'm feeling really pissed today. Maybe it's hormones. Anyway, I went to work at about 2pm today as my aunt had other things to attend to regarding the renovation of the new office (I think). When we got to the office, the first thing my aunt and I did was eat. She had made some bacon macaroni with button mushrooms. Really nice. So the next time I'm gonna make spaghetti (yes, I know, very messy) with either chicken soup, mushroom soup or cheese and herbs spaghetti sauce. And to grate some cheddar cheese on top, I've devised a way of placing a couple of slices of the cheddar cheese into the freezer overnight, then it'll be hard enough to grate. But this method has not gone through experimenting yet, so I would not suggest anyone try this yet.

So about the whole day I've been making quotations and filing quotations. I like quotations, I even like how they spell quotations. Maybe it's 'cause it's something like filling a form (I love filling forms, regardless of what form they are). The jar of chocolate cookies I put at the office has not been finished yet.

I'm getting my PMR results on the 30th. I think that day will be the end of my life. So now I'll proceed to playing mindless and childish games. Listening to 'Tilted' by Lupe Fiasco.

BBQ + office work

Well, maybe the reason for the frequency of this blogging is that there's almost too many things happening during the time that I am bored and usually I'm not an important character in that particular incident so I'm just writing it down...

A few days ago at dinner, I asked my mum whether I could get a couple more piercings, this time helixes. I thought she would just ask, where, when, how, how much, that sort of thing, then only decide, but she just said no. The reason? Still studying, have to wait till I graduate. The good thing about my mum is that she would allow many things. About all this body modification, do what you like, but just don't go beyond boundaries. What she would not stand is a messy room or desk, staying for a party till 12am on a working day and stuff like that.

18th December, I woke up at around 11am. After dawdling for a while, I went to buy my weekly magazine, which appeared to be not that worth it as I got blisters - yes, blisters - wearing slippers and walking too quickly. After that, I switched on the computer, I forgotten what I did, I only remember copying a couple of recipes then my mum called to confirm the time of the barbecque party. Then I called my friend who was supposed to lead me (plus my mum and sis) to the venue of the party (my classmate). She confirmed the place and time of meeting. At 6.15pm, I started getting ready for the party, which is about the exact time my mum came back from work. I hastily pulled on my jeans and long T-shirt, put on a light bit of makeup (although not very visible in the evening and night sky), got everything into my bag, pulled on my socks and canvas shoes and we were off.

It took us quite a while to see each other and to actually get to his house as it was quite hard to find. When we got there, we went in, and just lolled around before actually grabbing something to eat or even drink (the drinks were almost all finished, what's left was ginger beer, which turned out to be quite nice later on). We started off with a batch of sausages. I grabbed a black pepper marinaded fish fillet and just left it on the barbecque thing... After a while, the host's dad brought out a large bowl of hot spaghetti and a separate bowl of meat bolognese sauce. Quite nice. After a while, we started barbecqueing chicken wings marinaded in olive oil (I think) and garlic. Half way through barbecqueing my wing, someone asked me whether the fish fillet on the rack was mine... Hehe... I ate it anyway, it was a little dry, but delicious.

While waiting for my chicken wing to cook, I helped a couple of friends barbecque a couple of fish fillets and marinaded prawns. At last, my chicken wing was done. Yet halfway through eating it, the host threw a squeezed lemon at my group of girls to get our attention to say that is was time for the photography session. I left my chicken wing, thinking to finish eating it later. The whole photography session took about half an hour (we only took about 8 pictures). After the photography session, I went out to finish my chicken wing, risking food poisoning as it was drizzling. We Bluetoothed a couple of music files to each other and at about 10.15pm, my mum called to fetch me home.

Well, this morning my alarm did ring at 9.30am, the exact time that I should wake up to prepare for everything for work the following afternoon. Instead, I snoozed and snoozed till 11am. I was like, OMG!!! I rushed to get cleaned up (I just remembered that I forgot tobrush my teeth... yuk...) and dressed. Before putting on any makeup, I went downstairs to prepare my lunch box. I was thinking of the leftover spaghetti from last week (I know, probably inedible), but then I found that my grandmother had planned to make lunch out of it with the can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup she went out to buy, on purpose, not knowing that we had a couple more cans of chicken soup left in the cupboard. Well, I passed on the spaghetti and just extracted a packet of instant noodles randomly from the noodle basket and decided to make 'dry' asam laksa noodles. After putting the cooked noodles in the lunchbox container and draining the excess water from the pot to get to the bits of noodles at the bottom, I put the powdered asam laksa soup into the noodles, mixed, then added a very little bit of chilli powder and freshly ground black pepper. Tasted quite nice, but by the time I got round to eating it, it was unreasonably dry.

At work, I started off with a huge pile of letters that needed stamps. After that we did filing till we went home, which was about 6.45pm. While my aunt was pulling her hair out filing his stuff, my aunt's husband (aka Managing Director) was reading about zodiac signs. Well, after that I got home, meowed at a kitten, ate my dinner, copied a couple of Japanese phrases into my book, bathed, watched my sis play Facebook application games, then now I'm blogging and playing with my pet on Facebook. Night!

The GazettE rocks!!

Another day of work, after almost a whole morning of snoozing... I slept at 1am last night after finishing a day in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. I'm now planting lots of turnips, a few rows of tomatoes and 5 melons (melon seeds are expensive). I've just bought some grape, peach and apple seeds to plant in my patch of land near the chicken coop.

I've missed an issue of ePop... It's kinda bugging me that I missed out one issue... My sis came back from work and she said that there was currently no stock of ePop, but I think she was talking about the DVD rental shop she's working in on Tuesdays and Thursday. I dunno when she's going where because she's working at two places now.

Working at Munters is kinda nice, maybe because the people there are really friendly and my grandmother's niece's husband is the managing director there... Hmm.. Oh well, I'm currently in a GazettE craze... I just found a solution to make my muted Internet audio, well, unmuted! Just because of that, I was overjoyed as I finally could watch the videos I've been piling up in Youtube, and also see some GazettE videos... I just realized that most of the visual kei musicians, those I love right now any way, that is Miyavi and The GazettE, and maybe other musicians, are really cool and serious in their photos, but they're actually very cute... That's what I think anyway...

I've had a really wierd dream lately... I dreamt that I was in a kinda school for all ages run by my secondary school's ex-vice principal, and one of the staff was my primary 4 math teacher (who is kind of a maniac at times). There were spare parts of animals in the science section of the school. Then after a while, the math teacher got possessed (by whom I don't know) and he started murdering all the students one by one... For some reason I get these really wierd dreams, although I think why I dreamt the possession was because I just defeated Vegnagun and Shuyin in FFX-2, and in a short clip it showed that Baralai was possessed by Shuyin and Nooj planned to shoot Baralai in order to defeat Shuyin and Vegnagun. But in the end, the Gullwings defeated it and him.

My mum and sis are now in Penang most likely, it's actually my mum's business trip, but since it's the school holidays, she brought my sister along while we stay at home to work... My friend just informed me of a barbecque party at my old crush's place on 18th December and from about 8am-12pm... I could make 8am, but I have to go to work at about 11am ... But now's she's told me I have mistakened the time. It's the same date, but 8pm-12am... And I thought they were going to have a barbecque party in the morning.

I'm now listening to Guren by The GazettE...

Work, work, work, GazettE, work...

Work is important, especially during the holidays. It keeps you from wasting your parents' money paying excessive electric bills that you build up while using the PC or PS or XBox or whatever 24/7. And while working, you also help yourself by earning some money for future use, which is very good assuming you want to move out from your parents' house as soon as you are able to drive by yourself and mature enough to take care of yourself in the 'wild', or assuming that you want to quickly finish college/university and prepare yourself to go to the country that you want to migrate to. It's good. But the important things are, you socialize more with people and you become more open to new people. In my opinion, people who are introverts (that includes myself) or people who are not very social can't really be country leaders. Rock stars, Hollywood stars, world-class models, yes, but not at the rank where you have to make extremely important decisions (except during parenthood where you have to think up names for your kid, how to educate them, etc., don't misunderstand, I'm still underage, but I'm just saying...). As like me, I just want to be a famous V-kei star in a band that performs music in various styles and languages, if that doesn't happen, I'll perform solo. My wishes will be posted on my other blog, I forgot the URL, but it says there 'それわ、愛してる', or something like that. It's gonna be a long list and it's gonna expand as time goes by.

Why am I writing so many things anyway? It's not like I have a very active and eventful life that I have to update my blog every few days. Oh, well...

Salaries...

I was supposed to update the blog yesterday, but I was at work and at night I was too busy watching V for Vendetta and Final Destination 3. More FD3 than V anyway. I've just finished my second week of work (just a few days of the week) and just yesterday I got my salary!! RM5/hour, which totals up to ... I'm not telling you, just in case you come rob me at night. xP

Yesterday was supposed to be the last day for one of the sales department staff, Rodzy. She's a nice lady, friendly, jovial. In the afternoon, Ms Ang, my aunt and I went for brunch at a kopitiam near the office. While eating we chatted about things at school. I had a hot lemon tea with kaya and butter toast, while we shared a serving of rather fatty Hainan chicken rice. I finished up what they couldn't finish, then we went back to the office. I did my filing, typing, printing, scanning, emailing and faxing. At about 4pm, we ordered pizza and Rodzy bought a moist chocolate cream cake. A while after the pizza arrived, we started the little farewell party. Rodzy gave a little speech and we dug in. I had two slices of pizza, a breadstick, a small bit of cake and almost a whole seafood lasagne. So after that little party I think I've gained a couple more kilogrammes. I got home at about 2000+, bathed, then flew downstairs to watch V, just about then my mum got back from work, and she also bought McDonald's for us. I had the Spicy Chicken McDeluxe xP.

I'm now trying to listen to Reila by The GazettE.

Office life - first day

The holidays are here, my aunt's facing a little shortage of staff, so I went to her office to help her out. She picked me up at about 1230 then drove straight to her office. There was only a couple of staff members in the office when we arrived. We were introduced, then my aunt assigned my work. I was to do some filing, lots of typing and some other stuff. She taught me what I needed to know for that day's work one by one. The Internet server was down almost the whole time, which really harassed my aunt as she wanted to check her inbox in Outlook for interview request e-mails. Anyway, as I was typing a list of quotations(?), another couple of staff members entered the office, both guys and one of them oh-so-cute. After I was finished typing the list, I continued my filing which I started doing long before I started typing the list as the list was more important. By the time I looked at the clock, it was already about half past five. I finished my filing, cleared up the cluttered desk, put everything back into place and waited for my aunt to pick me home.

The next day was a home day, and I stayed home and played all day? I dunno, the whole day was too monotonous to remember, so was the next. Today, however, I awakened at 1000 but then fell asleep again till about 1200 (that's why I'm a panda). I just remembered. On Thursday night we watched 'The Scorpion King' starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Kelly Hu. I love The Rock... I had a small tray of Chipsmore Hazelnut cookies for breakfast, and cheese cocktail white bread hot dogs with mayo and hot English mustard and a fried egg. Simple, fuss-free and delicious, not to mention filling.

I'm listening to 'Forever Love' by X Japan.