the sky doesn't look good in the background, though sky was gloomy..it was a very sunny day that afternoon, good weather despite all the rain for the previous few weeks. We were lucky to get the good sun in the afternoon, we managed to play some games at the arcade, did some cycling and some crazy photo shootings.. that's en and me

just had my dinner at the restaurant downstairs with 3ric, i was on morning shift today and it ended at 3 this afternoon. Nothing much that needed my attention so far for today, everyone seems cool with the new system, they didn't really ask that many questions either. i am not sure whether to feel happy that they are good with the new system or that it's the peace before the big storm? i can't help but to worry as well.


whad i did today?
- trying to fix up the AR balancing which screwed up last thursday
- update some server backup stuff
- setting some access rules in the firewall
- tidying the hardwares and softwares to get them ready to do the handover next week


sooner than i think, i am actually coming home next wednesday. a part of me feel happy about it, a part of me already started to miss this place and the people here. lonnie is a very slow pace, boring place i must say, everywhere is closed in the city during the weekends, you have to drive out to visit other places, to be frank .. you can't do much here. haha. but i already started to miss the place, the last time i felt this was in hobart, the same piece of land, tassie.


lonnie project is definitely an eye opener for me, to plan everything by myself, to allocate work to my team and getting the people at the hotel to work together towards the new changeover. i kind of enjoy doing such planning but it's stressful too. my mind just can't stop thinking about what to do the next day, what did i miss out, what do i need to prepare.. things like that even though i was out there touring tassie on the weekends.. or even when i am driving the car. ha. i told nadia (my cuzzie who is going to be a mom soon) that i felt as though i am the big mommy this time, i am worried about my first child (lonnie's project).


i may have set too high of an expectation of myself for this project, i don't feel satisfied with the results somehow. the people here are nice, i can say that now because they are still nice to us after system has gone live. haha. i don't think i did a good job this time, it could be that the mgt of the site was already problematic? when such of a thing happened, i can't help but to put some blame on myself too, for not helping them to sort things out earlier on. sigh.


surprisingly, the finance dept here are very nice towards me, usually it was the FO or HSK people who are very nice to me in the past install but i am very happy that i can click quite well with them. their i.t. vendors here are v. nice people too. H and J. they are kind enough to come in to help me out with the changeover, we discussed together to get things sorted out, we chatted and joked around. i really enjoyed this 'relax moment' when i was with H n J and the finance dept. i guess this is the part that make me kind of upset because i won't be coming back to lonnie anytime soon unless it's for holiday. L is resigning as well so i guess it's even harder to keep in contact..


haiz, there's nothing much that i can do... we needa move on..
if possible, i would like to visit lonnie again, having some tea sessions with these people.. aww :(((


can't sleep now as i am still full after the dinner, usually it will take me roughly 2 hours before i can get to bed after a meal, my habit. didn't sleep well and enough lately, on the day that changeover, i worked more than 24hrs str8 and only manage to catch some rest for 4 or 5hours before i headed down to check things out again. i guess the lack of sleep kind of make me to feel even worst.. i told tasha this evening, i am so tired, didnt sleep well. she asked me to rest. but i told her, my body wanted to go out and have a walk but my eyes are shutting. ha.


L has invited me to drop by her new place if i feel bored at lonnie over this weekend, it was really nice of her. i guess she must really LIKE me ha ha (if the hotel's car is available tml, i will probably visit her new house, i am keen to go but it depends if we've got the car... haiz), we had some fun talk before they went home yesterday (friday) after i was stuck with J to do some acct balancing.. they offered me to taste Goji (Go Qi Zi) that day, i told them how the chinese boiled them to make drink which is really good for health and stuffs, they did some research on it as well because they wanted to plant them!! man, i can't do that in sg!! ha. L was curious about my age which i was quite unwilling to reveal to any of them earlier when i first got here, i'm afraid that i may be too young to do this project for them, well J guessed i am mid-late twenties, i gave her a @@ look, she added this later "you look wise" "wise comes with age" haaha.... that's how funny they are :P L managed to guess my age! Applause for her!! usually angmos can't guess asian's age, likewise that we can't guess theirs, but too bad, i already know their age because they put that in the system during 1 of the training session and i saw it lol!! :P


i think they are quite surprised when they know my real age? haha, L said H commented that i am a very smart girl too lol!! that makes me very happy! hahahahha... i gotta treat H better when i see him on monday! haha. well, yeah.. it's good to have such fun time despite the usually training and planning which i have to do each day. it's a good break and consoling enough to make me feel better when i was so tired everyday. thanks L, J, H & J.


*J was so funny that she said Goji make people look young, "do i look twenties?" i can't stop laughing because that was too exaggerating!!! she's in her 60s already!! for crying out loud, that's too much of a big difference J!! my can't-stop-laughter made her continue "ok, how about 30s?" hahaha... :P*


anyway, i am glad that i volunteered to take up this project instead of the other one as it somehow clashed with my hk holiday the last time. :)


lonnie, i will miss you.
thanks for everything
a.

it has been 8days since i'm here in lonnie (launceston)... things have been going on well so far, no big dramas, people are kind to us - my team so far.. which is good. it's my first time leading this installation, many would think that it should be easy for me as i've been going on for biz trip with my boss for so many times, i should do fine.. oh well. i wouldn't say that it's not true at all, i do pick up different things in every of my previous installs, but i usually leave the thinking part to my boss while i'll be the assistant of his. But i have to do the thinking this time round, it's a new challenge, a new experience which will do me good.


Doing project planning is not easy, i don't dislike it, in fact i kind of enjoy the process being as a team leader this time. however, i do feel the pressure and afraid that things might not go well, everything to go completely out of control, and what i feared most? to have people to feel disappointed in me.... i used to be the 'leader' when i was young, being the group leader, being the chairman of my club activity, being the one whom people could rely on especially for things related to comps when i was in primary/secondary school. If i was given a choice to be the leader, i try not to if i can, i don't like the feel to assign tasks to people, i don't like others to think that i am abusing the authority i hold in hand as such things happened before the last time, that's why i reject to be one again after. Being asst. to the head is cool enough for me. Guess it's some kind of a barrier which i need to cross over/overcome myself in some o days. Shall see...


Yea, doing project planning is not ez. I have to think real hard enough each day to see if i missed out any of the things to be done or planned for that day. I have to do preparation before i went to bed if i have training session the next day, getting all prepared for the guys here to bombard me with questions. The thinking and preparation - the tough part for the project. I can't go to bed if i haven't got those things all planned out, so.. that's pretty much of the life i go through now, every day. People here have treated us very nicely so far. I hope it's the same when the system goes live here... i see too much of a difference b4 and after live, so.. i am keeping my fingers and toes crossed now... ><"


Hardware installation has pretty much done up now, except that we had some error with the tape backup card in the server, 3ric will fix that up tomorrow. The training session started yesterday, Friday... the reservations training. i took the morning session while 3ric took the afternoon's. It went alright. I always tot that it would be an ez day for us, a short day for us yesterday but it turned up to be the longest day i ever worked since i got here!! Ruthie stayed up to 9 to fix up the company profile as much as she can, she's doing a great job!! A nice lady too. We had dinner together in the training room and we chatted a little, discussed a little about that day's training and stuffs. To kill the still atmosphere in the training room, so i tried my best to talk as much as i can, to keep her less bored as well.


... ok.. my weekend!!!
Arranged to meet at 9 for breakfast to discuss where to head to for the day, i woke up at 8 this morning. Had a comfy shower, went down to the basement to kept away the licence cds in the storeroom and met the pres and 3ric for breakfast. m3t lynn downstairs while keeping the cds, she's the fc here, the one who picked me up at the airport last week. She's a nice lady too, but i guess she must be really busy lately which throw her off a little... plus i have been kacau-ing her for the past few days. haha. =X.. but overall she is good. Man, looking at her sometimes, it just remind me that i have to learn the AR module in my system before i gave them the training this coming thursday. This is stressful!!! Argh.


anyway, we decided to go Cradle Mt. today and head for Tamar Valley (the vineyards) & to do hand gliding tomorrow morning. Cradle Mt. is a full day thingy, it takes about 2hours to drive there from the hotel, the road here is easy to drive, unlike in sg.. too many small roads =.=" in aus, so long that you are on the correct highway, you are safe. Oh well, but if you on the wrong highway, sorry, you have to drive to the next town to make a u-turn. lol.
today's weather is fantastic, it just brighten my day when i get the good sun, the good weather when i go travel, especially during my weekend off days. As i recalled when i went for the Rotorua trip in auckland, the sky was greyish, weather was freezing cold despite that it should be SUMMER, sigh.


here are some of the photos... :)



FL

time now: 7:51pm, saturday
i am alone in the training room now, was doing server and firewall setup. I managed to get the firewall up running, my workstations and server are getting the internet now. There will be a hell lot of patching to be done. But i am quite happy enough that things went on smoothly for me today.


i was supposed to wake up at 9 this morning to catch Lynn, the FC here to discuss a few things with her since she's coming in to do her stock take today. I ended up waking up at 1130am. I was shocked and did a reallllllll speedy change and wash up and dashed down to the training room - looking calm and steady. Who knows deep down within me, i was panicking like hell!! Haha. Anyway, somehow she can't finished her stock take as i was holding on to this key that the whole hotel has just only 1 of this key - the place where all the new machines and stuffs are locked, i will be responsible for them.


I asked Lynn and the receptionists for some directions to the nearby marts if there's any. They seem quite far to me, so i ended up walking to the city which is behind the hotel to have a look - hoping there's fast food or some place which i can get some foooooooood... very little restuarants, but many cafes and bookshops. I guess the people here really love to read!!! You get to see bookstores again and again when you take a take different street to walk. I was famished, no breakfast as i woke up late, i walked into this cafe hoping to get the lasagne but they told me they are closing already, for crying out loud, it's just near 2 in the afternoon on a saturday. sigh. So pathetically, i can only get a quiche and a apple strudel. They taste good, quiche was hot and.. nice.. i will go back again to get it soon :) i will make sure that i go earlier this time to try out their dishes and take away the quiche. lol.


Ok, enough said.. here are some of the pictures i took. There's no me inside yet, waiting for P and E to come tomorrow and next tuesday. Then we can go out to play during the weekends. hee. well, hope work is smooth each day... please please?!



FL

happy beeday mi :)

a.

Seems like i never get enough of Hong Kong!! Never!! Yes, never!! :)
I have lots of photographs taken during this trip but i am just too lazy to edit and put it on web. It's tiring...hee... sooo what you see is really what you are going to get... :P
Enjoy..


At the peak's madame tussauds... it's a fun day!! We went to Ocean Park in the morning and took a cab up to the peak in the evening, i actually asked the driver to drop us at the peak tram terminal at the downhill but he drove us up, oh well.. it's good, save us time and the taxi fare isn't expensive at all :)

It was blardy hot hot hot that day, you have to drink enough fluids otherwise it's definitely that you get heatstroke. Everything you see, it seems as though the atmosphere isn't clear but that was because it was too glaring that day, maybe's its my eyes only, i had a little problem keeping my vision focused. ><

Up at the peak, it's still hot hot and hot!! But thank god that there's air-con in the cab, i actually asked the cab uncle to tune the air-con to make it cooler, at least i get some cold air for 15mins while i get the humid and sun for 8hours. How did i do that!?!??!?! Sg humidity and hot weather - can't compete with HK at all...

We chose a super auspicious day to plan our ocean park + peak... on the saturday!!!
You get people, crowds, people, crowds, kids, everywhere, anything you want - you need to queue for at least 20mins, under the big big sun. Arrrrrrrrr....!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hk population - 7.5m
Sg population - 4m
This explains whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough of craps, i am just going to keep writting the same thing again and again and you may not even know it!!!!!! Baaaaaaaaaa.....~
Alright, enjoy the shots i had with the celebrities and the political people... :)

a.

Genting Show Mi 2007 Photos Preview
It's my first time trying out flickr pictobrowser, quite fun...
It should be easier for me to upload and organise my pictures...
Anyway, genting text will be coming soon, just... not today...

我有一點點小累啦
要用華文打字 很慢 很辛苦 (也不清楚 blogdrive 能不能 support 中文字 就試試看吧﹗)
常常有很多話要說 可是因為打得太慢 都忘記想要打什麼啦﹗﹗

下次才 update 雲頂 Show Mi 的 posts 吧
嘿嘿

中文blog 其實也不錯﹐ 挺喜歡的
覺得用中文字來表達蠻親切 蠻有挑戰性的
希望我不會半途而廢啦﹗﹗﹗

嘿嘿﹗


*本想去跑步 有點懶散 明天吧 .... 就先在家裡做做基本運動*
*我也要瘦身﹗﹗﹗*

大家期待的部份﹐ 終于來了
可我一點都不願再多體驗一次了


Rushing to get lightsticks & to Airport
It was about 6pm when we were all ready to hail a cab from the hotel to set off to Hung Hom 紅磡 to get our light sticks. Thinking that we still have time as our flight was 8.40pm. The hotel was very nice i must say, their porter actually went out of the hotel, to the road junction outside the hotel to hail a cab for us. Service standard - 100%!!! I can't remember his name, but i guess i could remember who was it if i see the face again haha. Anyway, it's soon, i will be going to Hk in aug again, not for concert, but for the summer sales :) heh heh.


The cab took us to Hung Hom stadium, jun stayed in the cab while i ran to get the lightsticks. The aunties were so crazily fighting for business!!! A few crowded around me, while i look for other aunties to see if i can get other different designs for the sticks. Sad, all the same =.=... the aunties had arguements among themselves right infront of me in order to fight to get me to buy their light sticks. It's the first time that i encountered this, i was stunned a little but looking at my watch, i don't have the time to waste, i said out to them in a slightly louder+harsher+steady tone, that i will get 1 light stick from each of you (3 or 4 them there) since i need 4 light sticks myself. Bought it, and ran to my cab.


We alighted at Kowloon MTR station as taking a cab to Airport would cost us 200HKD. No more cash already lah~...
Anyway there is an airport express transfer to the Airport from Kowloon station, 15min journey only. We spent some time at kowloon station to re-pack our luggage again as my sister said all dvds need to be in the luggage. - i had a few of them in my hand-carry bag actually but i've got to repack. ><


Then we 沖沖沖 to the Airport, reached at 730. HK Airport isn't that big, but it is longgggggggggg.... you need to walk probably 5mins - very quickly to reach from counter A to the last counter.. yes, that long!!!... we went quickly to our luggage check in counter, it's closed. Yes, it's closed. Time was about 7.40pm. It's closed. We were puzzled and began to panic a little and went to ask at the other counters. Guess what? None of them can answer us, they would just say, they don't know, they don't belong to this airline, you can try asking blahblah counter and they start pointing at directions but did not pinpoint which is the one. We ran like nuts at the airport. Anyway, the reason we were panic was because we only realised that our flight departs at 8.15pm and not 8.40pm. I don't know why we kept thinking that it's 8.40pm even before we fly to HK... it's always 8.40pm all the while...


We got to be mentally prepared that we've missed our flight. Still running around at the airport, from counters to counters - none of them was helpful. I've never heard so many "i don't know - ngor mhm ji dou / wo bu da qing chu" "我不清楚﹐ 不知道﹐ 你去問其他人 "  that many times within that short time. And yes, we missed our flight. Jun's hp was running low batt - as usual. She went to locate the power plug at the airport to get her phone charged, while i dialed home to break the bad news to my family. I was already in very bad mood, yes, very bad bad mood, my face was really black... Same goes for Jun... A part of us felt angry as the people at the airport are not efficient and helpful, a part of us felt depressed and worried about the responses we were going to get from our families, suddenly i feel.. everything seems so new and unfamilar to me.  There's nothing we can do, but to check what and when's the next flight to SIN from any of the airlines.


心情糟透了
家人的責罵 我和友人的擔心于害怕
很吶悶 心情糟透了



經過一番挨罵
Getting scoldings was expected, being asked for detailed explanation was expected as well..
While Jun was still charging her cellphone, i called home to ask my sis to check the next earliest airline that flies back from Hong Kong, at that point of time, i believe this is the most important thing should do... rather than having to explain what happen, how are we, and so many other questions... we have our luggages around us, i just want to know when is the next flight to go back to SIN, that's all. There isn't any Jetstar counter @ HK International Airport, just for you information, you've to go online to their website to check out the fares and schedules, no one at the airport is able to help you. I've checked SQ and Qantas airline, single trip back to SIN, each ticket can cost us easily one grand SGD. Yes, unbelieveable...不可置信


更諷刺的是 all airlines websites were down at that time when my sister was anxiously checking the details for me online, ain't sure if it's my modem at home playing up or that the websites are really down or processing real slowly...

My patience has ran out, so did Jun. We had ran around at the airport like idiots, knowing that we've missed our flights, with luggages with us, websites down, no laptop or cellphones with WIFI features to let us go on internet, i hate it.... i really hate it... That's why i am so desperately wanted to get a PDA phone that support WIFI feature, there's free WIFI at the airport, but i have got no equipment to use it, how sad. Something to laugh about, to add on to our frustration, there are actually a few free-internet stations for the public to use at the airport. But you've to purchase a coffee from their counter in order to get the mouse from them. Another thing to add on to my anger, this young lady who's using the machine just told us plainly that we can get a mouse from blahblah counter, and .. hell knows what and where she's talking... arghhhhh >< i almost wanted to strangle her =.=" 卡死你


Jun managed to dial home with her slightly-charged cellphone, she told her family everything, she's in bad mood as well.. asking her family not to ask that much questions but to help us to find the next flight home...
While both my sister and her brother were trying to help us to book tickets from Jet*, the web was slow, plus we have to feed them all sorts of information, i'm worried that tickets may be sold out due to that EVERYTHING was so slow, i told jun that i will go get a drink at the counter to get that mouse to use the internet stations at the airport. So i went... with not much HK cash with me, i just order a simple mango shake to drink, also telling the counter that i would to use their internet stations, i need that mouse. Guess what he said? I need to pay another HKD100 as deposit for that mouse, no more cash left, i find it ridiculous, really!! 沒耐性了 i talked very quickly, feeling really frustrated...
 
"i don't have HKD cash with me now, do you guys accept cards?"
"yes we do"
"great! deduct that 100bucks from my card and treat it as deposit, you can return me in cash after i've used the mouse"
"we can't do that"
deep in my heart, i scolded w.t.f?!?!, "what?! why not?"
that guy just looked at me helplessly and keep trying to tell me to same thing that they can't do it, deduct the money from my card and pay me back the deposit in cash, idiotic...
"so how?? i need to use your internet, you wouldn't let me pay for the deposit using card, so how?" - the very singaporean style of asking people for other suggestions, i'm really mad, it seems like everything didn't go as our wish that night, just that night.


"you can leave a card of yours with us, and we can lend you our mouse"
"what sort of cards you mean? bank cards or what?"
"any type of cards that is yours"
i was thinking, huh? what card? we don't prac this in SIN at all, i didn't give them my bank card, of coz not, i gave them my krisflyer card instead, at least it has got my name on it, even if i lost it, i can get it replaced from SQ anyway.
And thennnnnnn, i finally got that stupid mouse. I could have just go to the hardware shop at the airport to buy a mouse myself, to save all these trouble - but i only thought of this after all these shits i went through.. duh...無話可說


所有那晚發生的事 太莫名其妙了﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗
有太多的感觸 驚慌 不知不覺 憤怒 沮喪 焦慮..... 很混亂
我們在機場小睡了一晚 家人們也安慰的道 "很好的經驗"
的確﹐ 我讚同這個說法﹐ 它是一個很好的經驗
可是﹐ 只要一次就夠了   =_=""


如要打趣的說﹐ 我們好象在拍 香港電影
(ran around e airport + trying to find out if there's a possibility to delay the flight a little for us to catch up the plane + missed the flight + no wifi equipment to go online + sleep @ the airport for a night)
this very day, it's show mi last day concert in HK, a night we spent homeless at hk airport...
thinking back from now, i feel that this is an interesting experience to me, i don't feel the anger anymore, just find it funny now...

i am even more amazed that i didn't tell almost anyone about this encounter as i want to leave this in my blog, to read back again in the future.. heh.
oh well......