ONe of ThOsE dAYs...

today was one of the shitty days at work... nearly 3 months since i started work at this company, and today they decided to give me very constructive feedback since i started... i could accept all the feedback except one... and i was very surprised and i would say shocked that they told me that, cos i completely had no idea that i was doing that and it was very unconscious on my part, and i did not even realise i was doing that until they told me... and now, it's like time to awaken and step out of my comfort zone and start acting like a professional... it's just too bad that this had to happen before the weekend that i was looking forward to... oh well... i shall try not to think too much and just focus on doing my job well and incorporating their feedback...

anyway, exciting thing that my family is coming to visit for two weeks... and we are going on a few roadtrips... so that should be exciting... i love roadtrips... just not reading the map and navigating though... haha... we are going down to wollongong and kiama for a day trip on sunday, so that should be fun, and apparently it's going to be good weather, so hopefully i can post some pics soon...

非常失望。。。

I got my first "normal" referral this week, and the worker works in the hangar which makes boeing planes... being my first normal referral and bcos it is a very foreign and complex workplace, my manager and mentor were very concerned and made sure that I did all the right things and followed the procedures... made sure that I did all the preparations necessary before i went out to conduct the workplace assessment...

the assessment was conducted on friday... the rtw coordinator who was supposed to bring us into the premise was 40 mins late, so in the end, the whole assessment was delayed and we had to go back in the afternoon to complete the assessment... i was completely exhausted by the time we finished... the whole workplace was really intense and foreign to me... i was really out of my depth and now that i know i am going to be on this account... i don't know what I am going to do... cos I am not allowed to take pictures so it was really difficult to visualise the equipment and the postures... I don't even know what the stuff there are called... even though everyone back in the office was telling me to not worry cos i am not expected to know and that it is a very complex workplace, but i can't help getting stressed... by the time i got home, i was so very tired, but we had planned to have a movie night that night...

went to castle towers to watch the watchmen... i was very very disappointed, i had such high hopes for the show and i was so excited to watch it all week, and in the end, i was so disappointed... the movie was really long, it ended around 12 midnight... i was falling asleep about halfway through the movie already... i thought it was an action movie from the trailers... but it ended up to be very gory and bloody... and what really concerned me was there were small kids watching the movie and i was like oh man, i don't even dare to watch the gory scenes, i can't believe the parents actually brought them to this movie... very disappointed with this movie... by the time we got home, it was around 1am and i was so zombified... had a quick shower and went straight to bed...

one more week before my family is here... can't wait to go on the roadtrips... hopefully everything will go according to plan...

2 more WeeKS...

it has been going on 3 weeks now without any new referrals for me... I am sooo bored and sick of staying in the office all day... so now all i am doing is help out the other consultants with writing some reports and reading reports... i am seriously bored... who knows when I will be getting a new referral... currently i have one miserable file... people are complaining that they have too much work and no time, and here I am... thinking oh man, i have no work and too much time... it's ridiculous... and traffic to and from work is killing me... days when it's really good traffic, i will take about an hour, and days when traffic is sooo bad, like today, it took me 2.5 hours to get home, it was not funny...

i have been busy lately doing research for the road trips and the accomodation... accomodation is really taking me a long time, cos the last weekend is the easter weekend hence alot of the places have min night stays and are more expensive cos it's the long weekend... so basically that's what i have been busy with for the past 2 weeks... other than that, nothing really much to report on...
and the thought for the day, in fact for the whole of this month and the next... SAVE MONEY!!!

ENd of StRess...

finally... i have finally managed to submit the application for the visa... it's been quite a stressful few months... kept worrying that i will not be able to get the paperwork in time... i can now heave a huge sigh of relief... now all i have to do is attach all the supporting documents, and wait for the good news that i am granted the visa... which hopefully will not take long... i definitely have been losing sleep over this whole visa thing that it's not funny...

on the work side, it's been really quiet and boring these 2 weeks, cos there were no new referrals coming in, and i am just helping out with the other consultants and doing my own thing... which is really making me sleepy, especially in the afternoon... hopefully referrals will start coming in soon cos i definitely prefer to be busy than having nothing to do... and my manager's going on leave for a whole month to get married... so i dunno what is going to happen in the meantime...

today marks the end of my freedom... and being at home alone... cos uncle and auntie are back... i quite miss and enjoy the peace and quiet, although i got quite paranoid a few times over the last week when i heard some noises... to the point of taking a knife upstairs to check it out...

MaJor addiCTiOn...

have not felt like blogging for awhile... mostly bcos there is really not much to blog about... work is still as usual... have been struggling abit to finish all the reports and having to get used to the idea of not being able to finish something and having to do another thing which I am really struggling with as I am someone who likes to finish something first before going onto another thing... but i was told that in this role, I have to be able to prioritise my work which can sometimes require me to do something halfway and having to finish something else... also beginning from next week, we will be having a year 3 student on placement at work, although i am not the supervisor obviously, but it will be interesting as i am still adjusting from being an OT student to an OT... it should be interesting to see how and what it looks like from the other side... i would like to try being a supervisor in future if an opportunity comes up...

i have been alone for a week now... and the house is very quiet, especially at night, but I am quite enjoying this brief period of silence, being able to do what i want and when I want... tried to cook the linguine today for lunch... i was so looking forward to eating the linguine but it did not turn out well... being lazy, i decided to cook the whole packet and all the carrots on the fridge and forgot to add salt, so the end product was a carrot-smelling linguine with no taste at all... it was so unappetizing... in fact, thinking about having to finish the whole packet makes me lose my appetite... similar thing happened the last time i tried to cook fried rice... at least that time i had people to help finish the food, now i dunno what i am going to do...

i have been so addicted to this korean drama that pong recommended... called the last scandal... so sad that the female lead in the show apparently committed suicide last year... the show is really hilarious... i am so addicted that you would not believe the lengths i went to to watch the show and buy the dvd... let's just leave it at that for now... but I would really recommend this show if you are into romantic comedy...

下了好几天。。。

seriously, although i must have said it a million times, but the weather here is really unpredictable, i was complaining about the terrible heat last last week, and it has been raining practically non-stop since last week, and today was the first time after so many days that i actually saw the sun... the good thing was that the weather has really cooled down alot, but apparently after the rainy period, it's going to be hot again... why can't it just stay cool but not rainy...

work is quite tiring mentally... got this really complex client at the moment... my mandarin-speaking one actually... thought the file would be a good one bcos i am able to communicate in the same language and she would feel more comfortable speaking to me but at the moment, she is being very non-compliant... i have three files at the moment, one is going to close soon... still waiting for a new referral to come in... i am quite enjoying occ rehab to my surprise.... although some aspects of the job are quite challenging and sometimes, stressful, but i like the challenge and being able to go out and see different workplaces and talk to different people... very unexpected... but now is still in the early stages, so i guess we will have to see what happens down the track...

visa is a pain in the ass... it is taking forever, i have already sent the applications to the assessing body and afp, but apparently there is still no evidence of them receiving the application, so i am quite worried, don't really want to go through the same thing before... while working that day at woolies i had this sudden thought abt the bridging visa, becos the student visa is expiring at the end of march, so if i apply now, i will be granted a bridging visa in the meantime, however, the bridging visa will not come into effect until the student visa has expired and i have to abide by the conditions placed on the student visa, which was only allowed to work for 20h when semester starts... and so i started to panic that day, cos that meant that i will not be able to work fulltime... but thank god it has been settled and all i have to do now is to fax them a letter saying that i have completed uni... crossing my fingers hoping that they received my application and not get lost somewhere again... i even paid extra for registered post this time to make sure that it goes exactly where it was supposed to go...

other than these, nothing very much has happened... i have been working 7 days a week since jan... and have been feeling abit tired now... everyone who found out that i was working 7 days a week all expressed amazement and asked why i have not quit woolies yet... i was like the money's good... which is true, and at the moment, it is still manageable... so we will see what happens...

热到要死。。。

update on the workplace assessment i did with kate... it was more an ergonomic assessment and an initial... the feedback was i should have asked for more details regarding the duties and also explain the reasoning behind the advice i gave to modify her workstation... which i have been trying to search for it on the internet with no luck yet... but i was speaking with one of my colleagues and she mentioned about me being able to attend one of the ergonomic training if there is one in future... that will definitely be good if i could attend so that i will be able to explain the worker why i do this and that... and also, since that incident at uni... nat and amber have been telling everyone about it and i am sooo embarrased now... cos i know that things are not as they seem... and they kept calling me a "little celebrity" and i would be like nope, it's not like that, but going into details would be too much hassle... so hopefully they will get tired of saying it after awhile... and we were supposed to have students from uni, s'poreans i might add, that day but for some reason, they did not appear, i got excited for nothing... my manager is going away for the next two days, which meant that she would not be able to check the reports for me to send them off... which also means that i am going to be so bored like i was on friday...
being a person who likes to get things done within the timeframe, i am not liking this system of having to get everything checked by my manager before i can send them off... cos she has her own stuff to do and she takes forever to get ard to checking the reports, and so i am late sending the reports in to the respective parties... which i don't like...

visa-related... abit of a progress these few days... cos i emailed the dept of immigration to ask about the conditions of the bridging visa and so now i have pretty much confirmed going on the skilled migration visa... and i sent off the assessing body stuff yesterday so hopefully i will hear back from them next week and also send off the afp stuff next week... and it's kind of like back to square one cos this visa was the one i was going under until uncle suggested i mention to the company that they can sponser etc... and then this whole delay bcos they have to find out more details about the visa... and also the good thing abt the skilled migration visa is that i can do it online so that will much faster, all i have to do is scan all the docs into the computer...

non-work related... last week was mich's birthday, so she requested cook this pasta thing called cannelloni... i was like what?? never even heard of this before... so auntie cooked ricotta and spinach cannelloni... it turned out to be ok, but because you can really taste the ricotta and the spinach whereas when she makes lasagne, the spinach is pretty much masked by the tomato base, you can't really taste it... it's quite mushy... and then we had chocolate cake after... oh very rich choc cake... have been eating alot of bad stuff lately... and the next day at work... one of the colleagues brought in these box of muffins... oh man, could not resist and ate a huge choc chip muffin... after eating the muffin, i was like i am going to puke... so full after that i did not eat lunch either...

and it is so hot here, people are dying in melbourne... cos of the heat, alot of the forests are on fire and people who are living in those areas surrounded by forests have their houses being burnt and people are dying... it went up to 46 degrees in melbourne and here it's like 40 degrees... i really hate summer...

LiFeleSS...

nothing really much happened since last week.. except today, went out with nat on another workplace assessment and it was so coincidental that it was at cumberland and the client was someone i was actually familiar with... so when we got there, i was actually hoping that i don't bump into familiar faces but of course, when we got there, i saw jane first, then maree and some of the staff there were surprised to see me too, and they recognised me... i was actually quite embarrassed... but the assessment was pretty intense and quite lengthy... too bad i did not get a chance to say goodbye to some of the staff when we left... dunno if i should be glad or embarrased that they recognised me... when we got back to the office, nat started telling amber i was like a celebrity at uni... it was sooo embarrasing... but considering how i hounded the fieldwork staff before, they probable remembered me bcos of that... and i did not know if i should ask jane about the thesis and publication... although currently i really am not in the mood to do anything related to the research...

and also, i received another referral yesterday, and i will be going out to do a workplace assessment with kate tomorrow... and i guess this one will be more formal compared to the one we did last week cos kate will be there and whereas i was speaking in mandarin that day and they can't understand what i was saying so i probably got away with some stuff...

the visa thing is still in progress, everything is still happening very slow, cos i am still waiting for confirmation regarding which visa to use and also waiting for the company to produce a position description...

so that's what been happening last week and till now, nothing really exciting, oh one of our relative came for a visit that day, have not seen that uncle for awhile, so it was good to catch up with them... actually kind of dreading work at woolies this week, cos both days are long shifts... prefer them to be short shifts now... especially on sundays...

会讲华文是有帮助的。。。

nothing much happening this third week at work... but i have been going out on workplace Axs with Nat alot this week... seen quite a variety of workplaces, and also two ADL reviews... Found out that day that my manager and i had a miscommunication regarding the visa... the visa that the company is willing to sponsor me on is not the one that i was looking at, and what was worse was that the visa was a temporary one, which meant that I won't be a permanent resident if i go on that visa... so that was something that kind of stressed me out that day... and then today, found out that the AFP did not receive my application, and so i had to resend my application again, and pay again, and there is nothing i could do to trace back the application and the money...

on the slightly more positive note... i received my first referral today... and the injured worker was a Mandarin speaking lady... so what happened was i had to call the worker and she did not understand me at all... so i had no choice but to speak Mandarin with her over the phone... and after the phone call... people in the office started making fun of me... but in a good way, like you know in future all the chinese speaking referrals will be given to me and i could have been saying nonsense to the worker and nobody would know... so in a way... it was quite lucky i got to use my second language in my first case... but Nat's client was abit more difficult in terms of the worker did not understand her obligations and was unwilling to participate in the workplace assessment... so i had to like apologise a million times and finally, convinced her to attend the workplace assessment next week... but bcos my mandarin was quite crappy and i did not know how to explain some technical stuff to her in chinese, nat organised for an interpreter to come that day as well... so next week should be interesting... although i really did not expect to get my first referral that fast... i was really caught unprepared...

another more positive note, nat and i went to CBA this morning for an ergonomic assessment and on the way back, we got lindt iced chocolate takeaway... oh it was so good... sometimes, i wished i was working in that area, so i could go drink it every day... haha...

so at the moment, it's the end of another week of my new job... still trying to grasp alot of info and concepts... but i kind of like the challenge of the job... but can't really fully concentrate bcos of the visa issue... so really crossing my fingers that my visa will go smoothly...

oh and Happy Chinese New Year!!! can't believe it's the year of the ox and i am turning 24... damn don't even feel like i am 24...

比乌龟还慢。。。

second week of working... nothing much happening... was mostly reading up on my anatomy stuff... only went out with one of the consultants on the team for a worksite review that day to the commonwealth bank in the city... and after seeing the client, we had a mini detour to the lindt cafe there, and i had my really yummy iced milk chocolate... it was sooo delicious, and it was also really hot that day so the iced chocolate was definitely a highlight of my second week... and today one of the consultants on the team finally came back from her long holiday and she was also going to be my 'buddy'... so everybody in the office was really excited to see her and hear all the stories and bcos she also got engaged during this time, so the whole day, i could hear her repeating her stories to different people... and today one of the colleagues on my team got me to help her out with the filing of the documents, and i think the manager did not seem too happy with that... but i think starting from next week, probably i will get to go out more often, already at the moment, i have been booked in for an ergonomic assessment, and ADL assessment and a workplace assessment...

and i am still waiting for the results to be uploaded onto the uni system... seriously they are soo inefficient... really delaying my PR application process... and it's already mid jan and my student visa expiring soon... why are people so slow??!! and bcos things seemed to be moving so slowly, i decided to email and call the uni coordinators to find out what was happening... in the end, i got an email basically telling me not to keep emailing everyone and asking them about it and that they are currently working on it... well there's really nothing i can do now that they have basically asked me to stop harrassing them... sometimes, uni seriously gives me the shits...

1st WeEk aT wORk...

I survived the first week at work!! yes... the one thing which i like abt my new job is the really nice and friendly and helpful people in the company and the team... bcos the company is pretty small... there is abt 18 of us, so everyone pretty much can see and hear everyone... and the consultants on my team are really helpful, and my manager is very experienced in this area as well and the good thing is she is also an OT... on the other hand, the thing i did not like this first week was the days when i just sat and read the whole day... it was so boring, my eyes really hurt just from staring at the screen all day and sitting down for long periods of time... and dunno if it is bcos i am stressed out abt the visa or work, but i can't sleep at night, like i go to bed so early ard 10am and i wake up at 3am, and after that, i could not go back to sleep and i feel so crappy the whole day, and i get a headache at the end of the day... and my feet hurt too from the really uncomfortable shoes i wear... just not used to wearing shoes with heels and even without heels, my feet hurt too...

however, had some really good experiences this week... went out with the consultants to observed how they conducted workplace assessments, and i got to visit places like a construction site and i got to wear steel cap boots, which btw i have to get one sometime in the future too... i also got to experience what it was like up in the ferry master's cabin... cos the injured worker was a ferry master, so we had to go up into the ferry master's cabin to observe him carrying out his duties... but i got really seasick that day, and i really wanted to throw up... i was like telling myself to look straight ahead and wishing for my supervisor to hurry up with the assessment so that we can leave... but when we were abt to leave, we were told that the ferry was abt to leave for a destination, and the employed rep asked if we would be able to tag along for a return trip... i was like... you're shitting me... i cannot believe my luck... so in the end, i was really feeling so sick by the time we got back onto solid ground... thank god i did not throw up or do something embarrassing... and in the afternoon, i followed another consultant on my team to cabramatta to assess a worker who works at a bank... so yeah, had quite a few interesting experiences, and hopefully in the coming weeks and months, i would be able to go out and do stuff... although now i have to revise my anatomy and COP knowledge...

oh and another thing which i thought was pretty significant to me... that day when i went out with one of the consultants on my team... he introduced me as his colleague, and it was actually quite shocking to hear myself being introduced as a colleague rather than a student like i was used to during placements... but i still feel like a student... transitioning from being a student to an OT definitely requires some getting used to...

NeXT chAptER... aN OT (unofficial)...

yep, i am now an unofficial Occupational Therapist, cos i am undergoing training and will be under probation for 6 mths before i can be considered an official rehabilitation consultant, that's my new job title... yesterday was the first day of work for me... let's just say that the work environment and the culture are very different from usual hospital clinical settings... it's basically how you want to spend your time, but you have to make sure that you work 8 hours a day, but other than that, you can pretty much do whatever, so what happened was during lunchtime, not everybody will take their lunch together, some might choose to have it at their desk or have it earlier or later... and one of the nice things i thought was me getting my own workstation, which meant own desk, own computer, own phone and own company mobile phone... and becos we are an occ rehab company, workstation ergonomics is very important, so my manager got another colleague in my team to assess my workstation, which meant that today i got a new document holder, which is the kind that sits over the keyboard and you can type and look at the documents without having to twist your head... and the phone is a handsfree set, with the headphones and all... like a call centre... and apparently i will also be getting a new footrest tomorrow... i thought it was all very cool... haha... i was so tempted to take a photo of my workstation to commemorate... but everything was not as glamourous as it seems... even though i have not been doing any actual OT stuff yet, and i have just been assigned to doing reading stuff... watching my team members and from all the bits and pieces that i am learning along the way, it is really challenging, and you can get sued more easily than if you worked in the hospital setting if you did something bad...

but on a good note, everybody in the office are really friendly and nice... there's abt 18 of us in the office, and my team has 6 members, including me... so there's 4 OTs, 1 PT and 1 exercise physiologist... and being a kiasu singaporean, i went to buy my own organiser and notebook before i started, and now bcos all our stationary are pretty much provided, so we get our own stationary, own organiser, etc... and stupid me threw the receipt away so i can't return the organiser... what am i going to do with 2 organisers?? anyway, it's pretty boring now, and hopefully it will get more exciting when i can go out and do stuff... although i am not really complaining abt being stuck in the office cos it's so hot outside...

WOw... 2009...

we went on another road trip on new year's day... this time we decided to head south to the grand pacific drive and then further on to kiama... started early on our journey and left the house ard 730am... our first stop was the bald hill lookout which looks down onto the grand pacific drive... it was not as windy as the previous time when i was there with the berala gang... the weather forecast on that day was 34 degrees so it was going to be a hot day... but it was still not too hot till like mid afternoon...

anyway, our next stop was the grand pacific bridge, we initially wanted to walk the whole length of the bridge but decided against it cos it was getting quite hot... next we drove on to the buddhist temple in wollongong... it was so crowded... crowded with asians of course... so we did not stay long, but i was remembering when we also visited the temple a year ago... well nothing much has changed since though...

next we drove on to kiama... which was abt 45 min away from wollongong... and when we arrived in kiama, the first stop was the famous blowholes... it was abit disappointing bcos there was only apparently one huge one, and we did not get to see really huge sprays... i think the best way is to find out in future when would be the best time to visit in order to catch the huge sprays like we saw on the brochures... after that, we had a picnic lunch, and the weather was really nice, it was not too hot and the wind was blowing cos we were quite close to the waters... we brought along sandwiches and seriously, i am so breaded out now after both roadtrips...

our next stop was the carrington falls... apparently it is a 50m waterfall which falls into the kangaroo valley river... it took us forever to get there, cos initially uncle suggested going to minamurra falls instead cos it was closer but we lost our way and must have missed it along the way, so we decided to continue driving on to carrington falls instead... and i think we made a good decision bcos we could not only get to see the falls, there was also a small pathway leading up to the beginning of the falls, so you can actually get into the stream... it was so pretty and all of us went down... there were quite a few people there too playing in the water cos it was getting really hot... and the water was really nice and clear as well... the only thing i disliked was the stupid flies buzzing everywhere... we were all so excited when we realised that we could actually go into the stream... after that, we drove back down and the view was really amazing along the way... it was like acres of greenery and occasionally there were cows as well grazing... and we happened to pass by this farm where we noticed the cows were all lining up the hill, and they looked like they were trained or something bcos there were all just standing there waiting and not one cow moved out of line... we were so intrigued that we stopped to take photos... our last stop for the day was to kendalls beach... and we spent quite awhile at the beach... it was soo hot that day... initially i thought i would just dip myself in the water, but not actually swim, but prisy was like pushing for me to go out into the waves with her, and it was quite scary at first, bcos some waves were really huge and when they crashed on you, it really felt like you were being dunked and i was so scared... and i could not feel the sand below me anymore... so i did not want to continue but prisy and mich kept insisting that i go out with them... and after awhile, we managed to find a point where we could just try to outjump the smaller waves and i was getting pretty good at it, but when the huge waves came, either you close your eyes and nose or you dive under the waves, or else you get dunked by the waves... and also i hated how the saltwater stings your eyes... but after awhile, i was actually having fun, if i don't think abt what might actually be under the water and what i might be stepping or swimming in...

we stayed at the beach till pretty late, we started driving back to sydney ard 730pm, and got home around 10pm... all of us were exhausted... but i am very proud of myself that day cos i did not sleep at all the entire journey... usually bcos i get carsick really easily... i sleep on roadtrips most of the time, unless i am driving... but i was awake the entire time... but at the end of the day, i was soo tired... the rest wanted to watch kungfu panda but i gave up after the first 15 min of the movie and went to bed...

i can't believe i am going to be working this monday... it still feels unreal... i am officially joining the working class now... and i am turning 24 this year... damn... starting to feel old...

post- XmAs...

a recap on what i did over for christmas this year... worked on christmas eve and i was also closing... it was really quiet when i started around 6pm but it got quite busy around 8pm and i was working straight through... so needless to say, i was really tired by the time i got home... and currently, prisy and i are watching two animes... one called kenshin and we also decided to recap get backers again... and that afternoon, we watched journey to the centre of the earth... it was ok, not as bad as the reviews i read...

christmas day... we went on a roadtrip to blue mountains... it was really quiet on the roads that day... when we arrived at katoomba town, we saw this sign saying free xmas lunch... so of course, being kiasu singaporeans, we decided to have a stopover and check it out... it turned out to be free lunch organised by the local christian community for people who either have nobody to celebrate christmas with or people who were poor... so we felt really bad being there, but it was too late, in the end, we decided to quickly eat and make our exit... so by the time we arrived at the blue mountains it was like noon... and ohmigod... the place was packed with tourists, it was like everyone also decided to come to the blue mountains all at the same time... and it was mostly asians... michelle managed to persuade me to try the giant steps trail down one of the three sisters rocks... i should not have listened to her... the steps were so narrow and it was really steep and on top of that, it was so crowded... and not all the steps had rails on both sides... it was really scary... coming up the steps was the worst part... it got so hot by then... i gave up after going down maybe six flights of steps... that's it... if i kept going, i would not have the strength to climb back up... so prisy and michelle went further while i slowly made my way back up... oh man, it was really horrible... never again... my muscles are still aching till now...

boxing day... i decided to check out DFO bcos i really need decent work shoes for when i start work next week... so prisy and i drove down to homebush and when we took the exit to DFO... there was this long queue of cars going into dfo... i was like, you are shitting me!!! the whole world again decided to go to dfo to check out the sales... so in the end, after much difficulty getting into the parking we managed to get a spot but it was outside... the whole place was packed full of people, again mostly asians... seriously... and to illustrate how packed it was... the oroton shop had to close the shutters cos there were too many people in the shop, and so people had to queue up outside the shop to wait for their turn into the shop... it was crazy... in the end, i really did not have any mood to shop bcos it was giving me a headache, so i ended up with no shoes but a pair of work pants... and when we were backing out of the carlot when this car wanted to park, so the driver came down and told us to go back into the lot so they could park first, so ok we went back into the lot, then the car beside us was backing out too... so in the end, the car beside us went out first, and the stupid driver was gesturing to me to move further forwards, so he has enough space to reverse out, but there is only so much i can move forward without hitting the car in front of me... so in the end, the stupid drive got really impatient and started gesturing and scolding me... i was sooo annoyed and upset with the whole thing... and it did not help that it was hot that day too... never again will i go out on boxing day... it was just ridiculous and not worth it...

圣诞节快乐。。。

last friday was the last day of placement and officially i have completed the degree course... so now i am on a two week holiday before i join the working class... no more early days, and self-declared holidays... not much happening these past few days, still trying to look for a pair of black shoes to wear to work... what am i going to wear when i start work... headache... watched jumper that day, my advice is, don't bother watching the show and wasting time... the story has no plot at all and the main characters can't act... but i thought the chronicles of narnia prince caspian was pretty good, although the fight scenes were better in part 1 and alot of the battle scenes in part 2 looked like it was copied from lord of the rings... also, i started watching this jap drama called nodame cantabile... the show is ok, occasionally quite funny but i expected something nicer, judging from the reviews and the recommendations the show got...

two more days before christmas is here... it's always boring when there is a public holiday here, especially christmas, cos all shops are closed, everywhere is quiet... boring... this year i am only working on christmas eve night, and we are closed on both christmas day and boxing day... and i was not rostered on new year's day... damn... an opportunity wasted to earn more money... seriously i am really considering if i want to continue at woolies... i am so over working there and being the "cleaning" lady...

黑暗。。。

yesterday was one of the darkest days of my life... got back the results for my thesis and i did alot worse than i thought... i was very upset, and what made it worse was reading through the examiner's reports, the criticism from one of the reports was so harsh, i got even more upset... i really felt like crying but i was still in the hospital, so i was trying to hold the tears in till i got into auris... i was really upset that i did so badly... after 1.5 years of hard work, i certainly did not expect this kind of marks, and i told myself that i would not be attending grad in april, cos i dun want to be the last one going up onstage among the people doing honours, and also knowing that anna did well somehow made it worse, so i told auntie that if she called, tell her i am not at home... after crying for most of the night, i was much calmer today, although i was still feeling upset about the results, and i still did not print the feedback from the examiners yet... and i don't think i will be publishing the research, cos it was crap anyway, according to the reports from the examiners... still, i have decided that i will attend grad bcos i know that my family would want me to... i kept thinking of alot of "ifs"... if i did not do honours and just get a pass, i think it would be better rather than now having to endure the humiliation of being announced as second class in front of everybody... if i had a better supervisor...

and also something happened during placement yesterday which added to me feeling like crap... i was so worried that mu supervisor will fail me bcos of that incident but i don't think she will, judging from today... so now i tried to avoid similar incidents from happening, and just wishing that friday will come sooner...

WeT wEt WEt...

i survived the end of the second week of placement... whew... seriously i think i did more reading than more clinical work... it was really boring... anyway, can't wait to finish placement although i think i will miss my supervisor and the staff at the unit cos they are all very nice... but mental health is just for me... met up with piyo and her parents last wed for dinner at ceci's haha again... however, bcos they had a buffet lunch before they were still full, so in the end, i think they did not really enjoy the food... but it was nice to see piyo again, have not seen her for awhile, not even when i was back in singapore earlier... she looked the same but i think she looked slimmer... after dinner, we did not really do much cos it was raining... it has been raining for the past few days... and today was so heavy, it was raining practically from morning till night... but apparently it's going to be hot again starting tomorrow, the weather here is really whacked... i don't mind it being cold, just not hot... and not raining when i am outside...

went to see yochi yesterday to show her the grad gown, cos she is thinking of getting one made in indo rather than rent one here... so we just did some catching up cos we probably would not be seeing each other for awhile... and today, went for a haircut at this korean place at west ryde... i like the place there, the only thing is that they speak little english, so it was very difficult to tell them what i wanted... and the price is quite reasonable... oh and anna got her honours results back already and as expected she did really well, and now i am stressing out abt it, although i know that there is no use worrying abt it, cos there is nothing i can do abt it now... just have to wait till next mon or tues before i know the results... really crossing my fingers and toes...

SUmmER is hErE... cRaP...

it is the second day of placement... dunno whether is it bcos i am so used to waking up early and working for a full day that at the end of the day, i have a headache, and it does not help that it is so hot everyday now as well... placement is ok, not really looking forward to going to macquarie, but the good thing is my supervisor is nice and good, and one of the things i dun like other than the fact that the people there are always smoking as usual, is that i got assigned to this patient whose behaviour is quite sexually inappropriate, so i am so wary of any interactions with him, and it does not help that he is still so young... just hoping that this placement will pass quickly and everything will go well...

and i forgot to mention something important, well at least to me, my grad ceremony has been confirmed to be on 3 april friday... it seems so far away now... but i really hope that everything will go smoothly for me, and the honours results will be coming back to me soon, really crossing my fingers for this one...

for the past few days, i have been watching this korean drama called iljimae, with lee junki... ok, anna was the one who recommended to me before but i was actually hesitating of whether to watch it, bcos i did not really like him in my girl, too sissy... but i have to say after watching the drama, my opinion of him did change... his acting was really good in the drama and i definitely recommend it to people who enjoy korean dramas, personally i would rate the drama 8/10... but i have to warn you, the drama is very sad... but i still highly recommend it...

不想去。。。

the peeling-of-skin-under-the-shoe mystery has finally been solved... what happened was i got this black shoe from URS previously when i went back to s'pore and after wearing it for less than 5 times, the bottom layer of the shoe started peeling off like how a snake skin peels off... it was damn gross... and i did not know why it was like this, so i showed it to prisy hoping that she would know what to do, and she was like what the hell??!! i have never seen shoes like this before... yeah, me too... so anyway and then yesterday i showed the shoe to michelle and she was like oh it's like this, the shoes sold in singapore all have a layer of plastic stuck to it and you can peel it off if you want to or if not, just wait for it to come off... and prisy and i were both like ohhhh... thank god nothing weird was happening to my shoe... and i only wore it less than 10 times... seriously i think my feet are unsuitable for heels... heels and i are just not meant to be...

went to the city for lunch and bowling with yochi and joanne... bowling was quite fun but very short... the place we went to was glow in the dark and bcos we went in the afternoon, there was not many people... after that we decided to go have some dessert... we wanted to go to lindt since we were already at darling harbour, but we ended up eating waffles at andersen's... which was not bad actually... the waffles were fresh and we just sat and chatted... dunno if we would these opportunities once all us started working next year...

wed... went to my new workplace to meet up with the manager and the team... there were 5 team members excluding me... 3 OTs (plus me next year, so 4), 1 PT and 1 exercise physiologist... they were all really nice and funny i guess... i was given the opportunity to sit and ask them some questions... hopefully i will be able to work well with them as a team and adjust well to working life starting next year...

the thing bugging me now is the damn PR thing... and now that i think abt it, it's all uni's fault... if they hadn't wanted me to do another few weeks of placement now, i would have already completed everything and can start applying for PR... so now have to wait till jan before i can really do anything... and work kind of wants me to get it before my student visa expired in march... what a pain...

and today, met up with chunyi and amber... chunyi apparently came to attend her grad ceremony... too bad the rest of them were unable to come, otherwise it would good to catch up with them... but it was still nice to catch up with her and her new job... hearing her talk abt her job in singapore made me really hesitating abt going back to work... cos according to her and alot of other people, the work demands and the environment are very different... chunyi is apparently working from 8am-9pm every day... i was like ohmigod, that's more than 12 hours a day... that's crazy... and she also said that it is quite important to know how to speak the dialects like cantonese and hokkien... i was like oh crap... how am i going to work there then?

and btw, it was such a shitty day to be out of the house... it was pouring outside today and traffic was horrendous... it took me more than an hour to get to strathfield which is usually like a half hour drive... by the time i got there, and i was like half an hour late too... i was going into road rage mode... being stuck in traffic is definitely not funny...

YES!!!

you know there is this chinese saying which went something like good things will come after bad things... well you know how i had to fork out $12 for parking bcos of my stupidity on thurs, and guess what, on fri, after going for another interview at alexandria, i received a call from re-start consulting saying that they decided to offer me the position... i was so glad bcos this was my first choice and although alexandria was my second choice to date, it is really too far, it took us an hour and a half to get there on fri morning... i really have to thank my lucky stars... so i will be going there next week to discuss the contract and then i will officially have a job starting jan next year... although jan seems abit far away now, i still can't decide if i am excited or abit apprehensive about working in this area... no more sleep-ins... no more flexibility where i can do whatever i want and no more having to go uni, no exams... seems like there are more cons than pros...

and another week more till i have the clinical placement at macquarie... sian, thinking abt what happened the last time i was there makes me not look forward to the placement... hopefully, all will go well during the three weeks and the weeks will fly past in no time... and then break for another 2 weeks before i officially join the working class... and also in the meantime, waiting to hear back abt the honours results... really crossing my fingers as well... still deciding if i am going to continue working at woolies on the weekends... recently, they have severely cut my shifts and when i go to work, i am mostly on cleaning and returns duty which i hate...

anyway, all in all, i am reall glad that i got the place that i wanted... hopefully, i will do well in this area, although to be honest, it's not the area i wanted to go into as a first job... and also, for some weird reason, although i know that i should used to it already, the weather is really crazy here, it's like summer now, and it was so hot on friday and now, it is sooo cold, the wind was blowing so strongly the whole day... i am like wearing my winter gear again and with socks even now... ridiculous...although i must say that i prefer this weather to being hot... at least there are no flies...