Priceless moments

One of the joys of having to travel as part of your job is that you sometimes go to unusual places and might even chance upon unusual scenes or moments. This is one of them.

This was a video I took recently when I was relaxing at a local pub at the outer parts of NSW. The man who is playing the tambourine vigorously is 78 years old. His energy and flexibility is just amazing. Although he might be waking up the following day with a sore body.

Eclipse of the Moon

There is going to be an Eclipse of the Moon tomorrow, 28 August 2007 Sydney time.

Check out here and here for more information and the times throughout Australia. Hope to have your company wherever you are to watch this special event.

sigh~

It's been a tiring two weeks working away from home. Not to mention the fact that when I came back during the weekend after the first week, my phone line and broadband wasn't working so there goes any blogging.

Came back today after two weeks and my living room light isn't working! Hmm...not good!

Travel & Living Channel

One of my client's head office happens to be about 3 hours drive away from Sydney. As a team of us have to come here twice a year, the travel hours is a nightmare and we just stay around here.

I always love coming back here due to my recent discovery that the hotel that we always stay in has Pay TV! Now, I'm not excited just because there are additional channels. I am excited that they have 1 channel that is exclusive to just Travel & Living.

I can't wait to switch on the TV everytime just to watch all the food and travel program shows. There is even a series known as "Miami Ink". This program is about a really well known tattoo shop in Miami. It shows the people who come and get tattoos and the stories behind the tattoos. It does give an interesting insight into peoples' experiences.

There was another time when I discovered a dish that has uses a chocolate sauce. Yum~ anything with chocolate is fine by me!

So at the moment, my panda eyes are just going to get bigger as I just can't tear my eyes away from watching.

The behaviour of some people

Recently, I tried to apply for leave in November. However, in my company, if you have already been scheduled onto an engagement, you need to talk to the manager involved to release you. Considering that there is more than 2 months to go, I approach the manager to release me only to be smack in the face with some harsh words.

This is just a simple taking leave process but she is especially making things really difficult. Sending me really harsh emails and saying that I need approval from my partner. That is just ridiculous, I have followed per the company policy and we are not in high school. Intimidation or authority such as this is uncalled for. It may be the fact that the manager doesn't want to let me go but you just live with in and move on. Making it difficult for me to go on leave is not going to make me feel any happier to work on your client either.

我妈生我出来不是给你骂或欺负的！

At the end of the day, it says a lot if you need to resort to tactics like this. Authoritarian power never win hearts and minds over, personal power does!

We are in the working world now and are mature adults. I do not need to feel intimidated when I have done nothing wrong. Some people just really need to re-assess their behaviour.

Hair salon & exorbitant prices

I've had the same hairdresser since I was in high school. I remember me being young and innocent at a tender age of 14 walking timidly by myself into a hair salon for the first time.

He greeted me with a smile and took care of me. He was but an apprentice then, and instead of giving me the usual blow dry, he styled me hair with long cascading curls that caused eyes to turn when I was walking on the street. He gave me a haircut that was practically maintenance free, fuss free and the kind of hair that I can just jump out of bed and it still looks great. I was loyal ever since and grew up as his career grew and he had his own salon. He even opened up a second one in the last few years.

The prices that he charges are not pricey at all and at RM45 per haircut. Even my mom, friends and friend's mom became loyal customers. Those kind of prices and considering that this is a hairdresser that regularly does hair shows and fashion magazines. It's a steal!

That was all fine and dandy till I moved to Sydney. Finding a hairdresser that you are happy with is not easy. Mainly being a lot of the Asian hairdressers like to limit themselves to the usual haircut. Having been told that I have a round face and not suitable for any hair length shorter than my shoulder consistently starts to take its toll. The Caucasian hairdressers are more open and I got a few short haircuts which I get heaps of compliments on. However, they all happen when I was a hair model and this hairdressers are international hairdressers. I don't want my haircut to cost me the price of an air ticket!

I decided this week that it's time for a hair cut and pop into a new hair salon that opened near while I live. Considering that my hair is still short (pic), I was expecting it to be quick and modestly priced. Imagine my surprise when she told me that it will cost me AUD75 and she is going to put in some treatment that I don't have to wash out but just so that my hair looks great brings it to a total of AUD95! OMG!

Number one being, that treatment she mentioned sounds suspiciously like just leave-in conditioner and number two being AUD75 to trim my SHORT HAIR??

And this is just a simple cut and blow dry, there isn't even any hair wash thrown in!

The prices that some of these hair salons charged is just ridiculous! If anyone knows of any good hairdressers in Sydney, please let me know!

Spongebob Squarepants..

I LOVE cartoons! My dad used to always tease me when I was a teenager and I still watch them~. Ha!

You will always remember the favourites. JEM, Transformers, My Little Pony, Smurfs.

However, cartoons are not as what they used to be and being pressed for time and being a decade older, the cartoons nowadays such as Barney and Spongebob squarepants do not flick my interest. However, while doing some work at home, my eyes inadvertently browse over to the TV guide and I saw that the Spongebob Squarepants movie is going to be shown on TV. My brain started racking and I remembered people telling me that it was in the movie that you realised that Spongebob Squarepants is GAY!

Now, having not watch the movie before, I decided to watch it to see if this was really the case. 30 minutes into it and I was like, "You can really tell that this is a KID's movie, why am I still watching!".

Finally after heaps of advertisement and 120 minutes later, the movie ended and I did not see any second of it that inclined that he was GAY! Where did all those rumours come from??

What THE!!

You know you must have done something right when you feel like !@#$#@$ from lack of sleep, sunshine and food and someone says you look CHIC!

How is it possible to pull that off when you wake up with 5 minutes to spare to catch every ounce of ZZzzZZ that you can the past few mornings.

You know you've probably worked too many hours when the cab driver who sends you home says enthusiastically, "Enjoy the rest of the night...or at least what's left of it!"

One of those long long days

Most of us go know what we are in for when mid July hits and the busy season starts. Some are lucky, some have to slave away. Unfortunately, what was suppose to be a good client this year turns out to be one that is pressed for time and more work to do and a cut in the number of us in the team does not help either.

After working our asses off the past 2 weeks, there was only me and another colleague left this week. We still worked hard but not till the wee hours of the night as I don't think that our bodies could take it. We both agreed that panic mode will only start tomorrow and we will work through the weekend and Monday.

Alas! The director calls and wants everything to be finished up by tomorrow. OMG!! I don't even know how am I going to be able to do that. Fingers crossed and hope for the best while I am still in the office now and slowly working my way through. It doesn't help when you have these 2 BABOONS yakking away 10 metres from you. Yes!! 2 BABOONS whose sole mission seems to be to disturb and distract others from being able to concentrate on their work!

Go home..my dirty stares at your direction should be enough ammunition.