My laziness is calling me again, that's why my updates are getting slower.

Christmas day here is SOOOOOOOOOO veryyyyyy quiet. Mainly because 95% of the shops are closed and people just celebrate at home or somewhere else but the city. There weren't many things I could do, so me and my few other friends decided to do baking, cooking and watch drama. What a typical aunty's life... Actually no, we are training ourselves to become the perfect future housewives. We made different food - seafood pasta, pizza, chowder, pie, soft-centred mocha pudding （心太软）, creme brulee and scones, from lunch to supper. I dunno whether the food consider delicious for other people but it is for us cos we made it~ Not bad la to be honest.

Yesterday was boxing day, a shopperholic day. It was busy almost everywhere. Everyone likes sales. But the sales weren't as huge as I thought, I expected 30%-80%, lol, how greedy... I bought a long pants and a bar of chocolate.

Karen and Kei's Birthdays

As I mentioned, there were many b'day celebrations last week. We celebrated Karen's b'day at Fujiyama Tepanyaki on Tuesday. The interesting part of dining there was that the chef cook in front of you. Like this:

It's actually quite entertaining, especially when he did the fried rice because he made us catch eggs! First, he threw a raw egg and we had to catch it with a bowl. Then, he used the eggs we caught and fried egg, and he would throw small pieces of fried egg and we had to catch it with our mouth! We all manage to catch the raw eggs in our bowl in 1 time, but for the fried egg, i caught it for my 2nd time, karen 3 times and Justine & Anin caught it the 1st time! Let's see Anin's expression when he threw the fried egg:
Finally, after he was done with the fried rice, he filled the rice in bowls and threw them to us, again, we had to catch it with another bowls. None of us missed that 8-)
Karen with Justine, Me and Anin. Happy 22nd Karen!! xoxo

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Kei Kei's B'day @ Martha Pantry

Yes we all love baking and dessert so we decided for a high tea at Martha Pantry. It's a very fancy place where we can get tea in cozy teapot, and XXS desserts on layer glass trays. We got really excited when we saw them. Imagine how girls react when they see cute stuff.
Cozy teapots with flavoured tea: Pink one was Peppermint jasmine tea and blue one was vanilla rose(?) tea if I'm correct.
The birthday girl with our fancy refreshments on the tray. A candle for Kei=) xoxo
Sarah's mum and Sarah. Her mum came for her graduation. Btw, there were so many parents around last week cos it was graduation period. I miss my family too!!!

Anin's 21st

Karen, Anin, Justine, me

(13 Dec)Happy 21st Anin - who refused to blow candles for her 21st b'day. Accept it Anin!

Had a really great time at her place in Naenae, where we have to take a train to get there (sounds far but actually not quite, train is like a bus here). As usual, Anin and her family always feed us with heaps of delicious food and her bunnies often entertain us (one of them is at Justine's arms in the photo). We had a food marathon (is the spelling correct?) from 3pm till 7pm. We were all well-fed like her bunnies. And and, I had satays and chendol!! The food that I miss so much....T.T

There are many things we can do at her house - ping pong, piano, wii, board and card games, ransack anin's room and try on her heels ( I think she has the biggest shoe collection among the friend I've known so far)

We are glad that Anin is turning more asian now (cos she used to be internally white, tho she's still). Good job Anin! Our aim is to turn you into pure ASIAN!

Random stuff - Pick and Read

• Yay, off day today! Actually I only work for 3 nights, off 7 days and 4 nights. I like this, not too busy or too bored, still can enjoy the holiday.

• This coming Monday-Wednesday is graduation period. Congratulations to all my friends who graduated!! I'm one of them but I'm attending next year's convocation. So I'll be a guest this time. Hopefully the weather will be good on the parade day.

• I'll be going back to Malaysia in about 1.5 month time! Excited~ At the same time, it's sad that some of my friends here are going back to their countries for good.

• I think I'm overdosed with caffeine now. Had a coffee and tiramisu today, I can feel the speed of my heart beat...

• Oh ya, 2 days ago, I managed to grab an online deal from Groupy. It's a salon package! It includes professional consultation (according to the description), cut, blow, colour, highlight, treatment and GHD finish at Stella Hair Design. I got this worth of $285 package for $90! There goes my 4 nights of work (Don't get me wrong, I mean restaurant work!). But yea, I think it's a pretty good deal for my Chinese New Year new hairstyle. The voucher will be expired in Feb 2011 so I'll go to the salon in mid-Jan before I leave to Christchurch. It'll be my very first hair-dye. Still haven't decided what colour I'm going for. Any suggestions?

• 3 close friends (Anin, Kei and Karen) birthday celebrations this coming week! Gonna have lots of programs this week^^

Round and Bald

There was a Christmas special event at the Old Bank Arcade this evening. If you buy more than 20 dollars, you'll get to enter a lucky draw. The prizes were very attractive so Karen and I went to draw a luck. Unfortunately, it's not our luck today. It was funny that we stood in front of the prize list and picked the prizes we wanted as if we can get them very easily, lol. Anyway, what's not ours is not ours.

Another beginning day of work for the week. It's quite a good working day for me, cos it's busy. And my tasks were mainly wash dishes, dry, serving and clearing table, not much talking and thinking, which I prefer, rather than taking order and sorting bills. And since it was busy, I was always busy in front of tauke neo (btw, 'tauke neo' means 'female boss/the boss wife' in hokkien). It's funny that she called me Ah Hui. Quite nice to hear that actually, cos no one in Wellington ever call me that, it's how my family call me. Than other staff think it's easier to remember, so they also start to call me Ah Hui, lol.

I find it quite hard to introduce myself in NZ, cos it's hard for kiwis to pronounce and remember 'Hui', so usually I introduce myself as 'Lee' to kiwis (which I don't really like but I'm quite used to it already), the problem is when they talk to my friends who call me 'Lai', sometimes there will b disconnection on the person that they are talking. To mandarin speaking people, I usually introduce myself as 'Lee Hui'. So I don't really know which one is the best to use.

Working in restaurant, I find myself taking one extra meal, I have 4 meals today! Usually in the working place, we have dinner at 9pm, which is just when I finish work. But I can't starve b4 I go to work, otherwise I have no energy to work. It's nice to have different dishes, but the food there is quite oily and salty - MSG (it's how usually Chinese restaurant food taste). I guess you'll see me round and bald after a month XD.

Can't believe I was so loso for my last post! Anyway, I went to find my boss yesterday and made clear of my working schedule and also got my pay! =DD. I neither got fired nor quit the job.

Had my last Survival German class yesterday. I don't think I'm a survivor in Germany yet tho. To be honest, it's quite a hard language to learn. Every single objects has its own gender that we must remember, even non-living things! Ich bin verwirrt!!

To be continued

Yesterday was a fun day. 2 BBQs parties in a day. Went to Petone and Lower Hutt for groceries shopping in the morning. Haven't been there for more than a month cos Francis family went back Malaysia for holidays. Saw the family today, Lucas, the youngest son has grown bigger, very nice to hug. Lol. Went to Justine's house in Churton Park in the afternoon. Thank you n ur parents for the BBQ Justine! It was a good weather to BBQ.

In the evening, we went to Karen's place for another gathering. Before going to her place, I decided to go Oriental Kingdom to tell my boss that I wouldn't be able to work that evening although she didn't tell me that I have to work on that day (Yea, I didn't actually know which days I work..). When I reached there, it was very busy so I decided to call her instead when I reached Karen's. Just when I about to call her, I received a phone call from my boss! And she asked why I was not there. I told her I wasn't informed that I hv work that day and I couldn't make it that evening. She asked me for reason and I told her that I needed to attend my friend's party. I was actually very nervous when I talk to her on the phone. Obviously, going to a party is not a good reason for not going so I was being told off and she asked me if I could go in 15mins time. I actually promised that... When I told my friends about it, they think that I should not go, and in fact I should quit the job not only cos it's under table but also she din informed me which day I need to work, and that she shouldn't have told me off. I hv the responsibility to ask her in advance also la actually. And since it's under table, I won't be able to get any reference from her for future job so it's a bit pointless. I was a little break down(mayb not that serious laXD) cos I wasn't sure what to do. I wouldn't want to take the job if it's a full time, but since I only work for part time until mid-Jan, I would continue the job. It could be a training for me to do things faster which I really need as I mentioned earlier. Anyway, I decided not to work last night and texted her saying that I usually can't do on Saturdays. I texted and called her but there wasn't any reply. ( to be continue....I'm falling asleep now, very sleepy...)

ER....awkward.....

Has been quite a full day today, well, kind of....So what I did was woke up about 10am, make myself lemon manuka honey (I'm having sorethroat, but much better now) and some cereal, watched drama as usual, had lunch then went up to Kelburn for swissball exercise. The exercise was pretty intensed sometimes so I just stopped there till it came to the easy one XD. After that, I stayed at Kelburn Campus to use library internet (like many asians do). My plan was actually to get half-price sushi at sushi B (after 4pm), so I decided to spend my time in the library until 4pm. Anyway, I got the cheap and yummy sushi at the end after a LONG queue. After coming back home, I realised I still have an hour b4 work, so being a hardworking girl, I decided to watch another episod of drama.

Nothing much happen at work today, just that it can be very busy in certain period and very quiet sometimes. The most frustrating time is not when it's very busy (altho it's still quite), it's the time when the tauke neo is around, and there wasn't much things to do but you have to act to be busy! Like wipe the CLEAN tables, place the pepper and salt PERFECTLY on the table, pick up a small piece of paper from the floor(maybe not this, but I can do this next time).

OK, my title is mainly about this. After finished my duty time at 9pm and got my dinner, I thought maybe I should be nice to drop by at Satay Kingdom (Oh I should explain a bit on this, Oriental Kingdom and Satay Kingdom are 2 restaurant owned by the same people and they are just opposite each other. Satay Kingdom only serves Malaysian food while Oriental Kingdom serves both Malaysian and Chinese food). Anyway, I worked for 2 hours in Satay Kingdom yesterday B4 I was asked by the tauke neo to go Oriental Kingdom so I kinda know the staff in Satay Kingdom (they are all Malaysians). So after work, I decided to visit them and get to know them more. When I stepped in the restaurant, I tried to be very cheerful and friendly by saying:"Hallo~~~~~!!!........".....and... everyone was like doing their own things, a lady looked at me and noded her head once. For that moment, I could hear the crow's noise（乌鸦飞过的声音）。。。And then the lady asked: “来找老板娘啊？” I wanted to say :"噢，我是来探望你们的” but it's a bit awkward to say that when they din respond when I say hello, so I said: 噢，是啊，来找老板娘。After a while, I just said: 嗯...那我走了，拜拜~ and left.... ER....awkward.....

Anyway, I'm quite excited for tmr, will have 2 BBQs, one for lunch and one for dinner. LOL, 3 times of BBQ in a week!! Well, it's the summer trend I guess! Not sure if I have work shift tmr but I won't be going anyway. Might need to call the boss.

That's it for this post, night~

1st day of Work

I just came back from work, first time working since I come Wellington 3 years ago. Haha, finally...but not office job, it's 'rojak' work in a Malaysian/Chinese restaurant (not the high class restaurant you imagine). It's NZD 9 per hour, I think it's considered as underpay but oh well, I won't complain about it, cos it's not a long term job. I'm actually pretty happy about it cos I din aspect they would take me as I'll be leaving in mid-Jan. I guess they really NEED people.

It's my very first time involve in hospitality industry, you can imagine how slow I do things while other experienced people work like a machine around me. And, the restaurant are usually very BUSY! Serving and washing are not hard, but taking order and paying are still hard for me. I'm not familiar with the prices and the money machine! But it's a good training for me. I really want to work fast. But I'm happy to earn my own money.

It was just a 3-hour training just now but I'm pretty exhausted now. Another 3 hours tmr evening, and will be even busier. So I need to have enough rest before that. Oh btw, the good thing working in restaurant is that you get free food so I can save some money on groceries shopping.

I'm very excited about Project Runway S7 finale later! I'm gonna sit back and relax for the rest of the evening.

Update

For those who haven't know, I have completed my Bachelor of Architectural Studies and my convo will be in May next year. Wuhoo!! To be honest, I'm not super excited about it (but I was when I was still rushing my projects) cos I know that I'll be continuing my studies (most likely Masters) in future, not that I'm very ambitious, just that this bachelor degree doesn't mean much to many people, including me. But I'm glad that I can take a year off before crazy uni life start again. I actually enjoy what I study but cos I really wanted to do well, I often dragged myself into pressure. Oh by the way, my results are all out. A- s for my design paper and interior fit-out technologies, and a B for my pacific design environment paper. The B paper has hinted me again that my writing is still a 'half bucket water'. But overall, I'm very pleased with my results=)).

Ok, talking about my holidays, it has been GOOD! I like holidays, especially in spring-summer. I got mostly good weather every day and how I wish that we owned that throughout the year. These days, my daily routine is wake up late, eat, hang out, online and watch dramas. I do feel a bit guilty after keeping this routine for more than a month now despite that I enjoy it very much. Well, I did do some meaningful things, like taking up German classes, catching up with friends, baking....um....that's pretty much it><. And I still have a list of things yet to be done. I really need to start doing my portfolio!

I MISS my family and friends back in Kuching!!! I'm pretty bad in updating my news and catching up with some of my friends but I really really*1000000 looking forward to meet them. I enjoy reading my friend's blog and fingers crossed that I will update my blog more often as I have time now.

Ciao!

拜三，呼吸的一天

今天是拜三，offday, 可是莫名其妙还是那么早醒。。。是习惯早醒了吗？还是外面的声音让我醒过来？还是脑子装了很多还没完成的东西。。。

最近花了不少钱，买了一个二手mini oven，耶，终于可以bake东西了！不需要常常用microwave，买了一张二手椅子,我现在这椅子难坐到不行，作了振就身体酸。不过我还没拿回来，要扛回来，蛮重的，还不知找谁帮。还有加上去整骨的费用，不过这费用还比古晋那个便宜，现在想古晋那个真的很吞钱，去调一次五分钟，RM100。。。

今年的生活也没什么很大的改变，不一样的是以前总是有msn跟他聊天，今年我又要更独立了。。

我交换的计划有变了，其实交换不是单想去就马上去，还要考虑怎么应付经济等等的问题，去那里的费用一定不少过这里，而且加上难得去到那里，应该会有些旅行，所以打算今年毕业了找工作，工作一年存钱，学点德文，然后2012年才去。

等下九点去第二次整骨，这次过后可能一个月去一次还是怎么样再看吧。下星期假期了，两个星期，可是功课很多，应该不算假期，是要我们把功课完成的日子。

很想念大家，才回来一个月，感觉回来很久了。。。

十分钟伯克

早安阿各位！多二十分钟有课，乘现在update一下伯克。
回来惠灵顿大概一个月了（啥！才一个月，感觉好像好久了）。感觉自己老了，很多事情都很懒得去尝试，也懒得去多认识人。有次和朋友去参加International Party (其实我不是，不过还是去），人很多，结果我们去到就只那桌上的食物吃，它的活动我们都懒得去参与，主食pizza还没出，结果我们几个坐在门口（食物出来的门口）等，食物一出我们就上前拿，哈哈，有点热惹人厌吧？现在最大的乐趣就是看连续剧，上网，占大部分时间的还是做projects。
噢，要去学校了，迟点再update。

My Vision 21st

I've set a few BIG plans for my 21st (they are big for me at least and I'm SERIOUS about it)

• I WANT to go MELBOURNE during my trimester break (mid-year) , I WANT to visit my frens there, look for interesting buildings, exihibitions, etc.


• I WANT to find an INTERNSHIP in Welly and if I manage, I'd take it as my part time throughout the year. I WANT to ENRICH my resume and portfolio ( which I havent completed).


• I WANT to apply for STUDENT EXCHANGE for my 4th year Interior Architecture. My aiming universities are University of Texas at Austin and University of Art and Design Helsinki (at the moment). I need to work really hard for good grades, I need to get a recommendation letter(s), I need to write a persuasive statement of purpose for my application. I need to be fully prepared in order to get the exchange.

• I WANT to graduate this year. After I get a degree this year, I WANT to come back to Malaysia and go to Taiwan for travelling. I WANT to visit Kwang Yee and all my friends in Taiwan.

What I need to do now is to continue my savings for travelling, find heaps of information and get as much experience as I can for the exchange programme.

EXPERIENCE , INDEPENDANT