Gossiping and rambling away....

(Wah so long post...add it on whenever I free one...thats y. Feel free to read if bored. ha. Some parts are more for myself to let off steam than for your reading pleasure. ;>)

Intro
My recent part time job as a waitress in a Jap restaurant. (Ask me for name yourself)
To count the exact number of working days is only 13, still counting...

Culture
The restaurant is very noisy, alot of shouting here and there. Japanese words flying all over the place. So noisy, so troublesome. Bo bian, its their culture. Have more or less gotten used to it though I still don't shout as loud and frequently as others larh. I always 'eat snake', tend to shout only when necessary. Got 100 over food dishes in the menu. Kinda overwhelming at first cos scared customers ask me questions abt the food that I dunno how to answer on the spot.

Business
Office lunch hour is hot. Fri nite is horribly busy. Queue outside waiting plus calls coming in to make reservation. I hate to be hurried to set table when there's a limit to the speed of my hands larh, so irritating. Just shut up lor, give me some peace larh. Btw if you are reading this, don't come here eat on Friday nite k, go elsewhere eat larz k! We are very busy alreadi. Will not give you our best service and attention one.

Salary
Ask me yourself. I already considered the pay as not bad for a waitressing job, as compared to normal $4 to $5 /hr in other restaurants. Different pay rate for weekday and weekend even. The staff will share the tips UNEVENLY. The longer period you have worked there, the more you will get. I got a tip of only $3, for the first time today. Dunno is a monthly basis or wat larh. Then if we hit sales target, I've heard we will each get extra hongbao money also. I have trust in this company cos it's a proper structured Japanese organization, from the way they conduct training and the staff hierarchy.

Colleagues
I don't like the supervisors here. There are 4 female and 1 male supervisors altogether. My past experience gives me the feedback that female superiors will not treat female employees as nice as male superiors would. I dislike Anne the most- her mean and sacarstic way of responding to my needs, her authoritative way of ordering me to do this and that and her unhelpful attitude twds me! My mum says maybe I have presented myself as those guai guai type, easily bullied pattern with my 'bookish' appearance, someone who will not whine or complain when being asked to do things so she dares to assert her authority on me as a supervisor. I hate it when she hurrys me to do things. Someone pls sing the song "shut up" to her. I hate it when she gives me the impatient look when I ask her questions regarding work. I hate it when she likes to question my every action. Cant she give me some freedom and the benefit of trial and error, bit*chy bit*ch lehzz. She is those kind who will leave me in the lurch when I encounter problems. BUT sometimes when she speaks nicely to me and say thank you to my help, I can afford to forget her mean-ness altogether. I becum willing to give myself a chance to change how I feel twds her. No..put it another way, I am allowing her chances to be nice to me b4 I give her a bad label permanently in my heart. It is afterall not a good feeling to dislike/hate someone. You are actually hurting yourself if you choose to hate someone.

If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you as well. If not, I will do nothing but merely treat you as invisible. This is what happened. Theres a full-timer, Kate. She is mean to me a few times so I decide to treat her as invisble at work, glance pass her everytime when walk past her, minimal interaction with her. But again, when she speaks nicely to me, I realize I can 'forgive' her altogether and decide to give her more chances to be nice to me b4 I decide to be nice to her.

But still, any questions or problems now, I will not choose to ask her or Anne. I not so stupid to get myself hit on pricky nails now.

I like Oliver, the assistant manager. He gives me comforting smiles and reassuring words. Nice. Such a good-mannered and responsible man. Definitely a good husband and father back in his home. Other colleagues I like will probably be Aurange, Kit, Shaoyu and Weizhang. They are the only ones who smile at me and offered to teach me stuff on my first few days of work out of their own initiative. Nice. Don't see I like blur blur in the restaurant... always quietly doing my work, I am so aware of those who are nice to me and who are not lorz. If I have a magic wand, I will grant those nice ppl to heaven straight away, and those 'bad' ppl to....well...the zoo.

Lesson
I have learnt many things needed for the work thru the hard way unfortunately, that is, through mistakes that I have made b4 and after being told off by supervisors after each mistake made. Probably also learnt to be more immuned to being told off for mistakes made liao, even when not entirely my fault and yet no room for defensive explanation. Still remember got one time I tried to explain why I make a particular mistake, my supervisor exlciamed 'Don't give me excuses!' and went off. But now I know her pattern larh, she is only fierce during busy hours. So no hard feelings twds her alreadi.

Debrief
Despite the seemingly long complaint of mine, I should think that this is a job that I can stay long thru my sch semester. The job itself is ok. Its just me not being able to reach the full comfort level with my colleagues that give discount to how I feel abt this job la so in the end is neutral feeling lorz. I will continue working when sch starts as they are very flexible with the schedules that we have.

Source of motivation
I am always calculating the money that I have accumulated so far from the job to motivate myself to hang on to it. Yeah...I need to earn back the money that I have spent in the holidays. So much 'losses' to recoup from frens' bdaes and the thai trip in this hol. For now, I will not allow myself to go shopping until I see my bank account money resume back to its 'golden line'. I literally walk past boutiques now without giving a second glance ok.

Reminder
Pls refrain from lending money from me these days as I'm feeling stingy and just so very afraid of not being able to get my money back from you. (note the dollar signs in my eyes these days) Ppl always say that when you lend money, you must lend with the mentality of not being able to get it back. Paiseh hor, I am for time being not attuned to that kind of mentality, for your info.

And for anyone who still owe me money whether recently or back in stone age, pls have pity on me and kindly return me out of your own initiative b4 I decide to hire loansharks to chase after you.

Last but not least, I am really not a calculative person. ( ;>)

Back from Karen village...(some pix added)

Sawadee Kha.....! I am back from Chiang Mai.. selective points to jot down and share...

It was difficult to stay perfectly clean and hygienic throughout the stay in the village due to the muddy soil everywhere and some form of inconvenience of washing. Infact, it would be troublesome to want to stay clean all the time. In the end, you will just give up abt stayin clean. Will not forget how Caixin laugh at me after spotting dirty marks on my hand even after my bath and wondered whether I had really done my shower or not. hahz. Quite embarrassing but funny. haha. Aiyar with the dark cubicle and icy cold water in the nite, how to bathe clean lehz you tell me? ;p

My first time witnessing and helping to build a check dam right from scratch. Digging soil, filling them in haversacks, carrying and stacking stones, cutting and inserting wood pegs etc. I enjoyed eating our packed lunch under our tent in the rainy weather with our hungry stomachs and drenched and stinky clothes. The food just tasted especially delicious.

I like the loud siren sound of the flying animal (lumur?) that we heard in our night trek in the forest. It was so distinctively loud and clear. I hope to have a chance to hear it again and even see how it looks like. The dark in the forest indeed has nothing to fear of...the only thing you should want to fear is the presence of other humans. (courtesy of what Uncle Sam said)

I had quite alot of mosquito bites on my legs and hands and also on my forehead. Now left the healing marks. Quite ugly. haz.

I am loving to eat vegetables. We eat them almost everyday. So crunchy and nice!

The kids here are all "lork" (handsome) and "swuai" (pretty), really !! Will remember some of the especially cute kids which of cos include Kana Por! I also cannot forget the eyes of a lonely yet smiley girl who is always alone with herself and never dare to speak up and play with other kids, due to her family background. I can see that she desires some attention and affection from the ppl around her but yet scared of intimacy with ppl. I dunno how to engage her in mixing with others as she just seem to prefer to observe ppl play, seemingly in envy.. The least that I can do is to hold and hug her to show some her of my attention...

I appreciate the presence of every individual member in the group. Each of them has in one way or another made my stay a pleasant one. Different personalities come together to bring sparks to each other. I've learnt much from them. Everyone has been cooperative and easygoing.

Many of us went for full body Thai massage in town on our recreational day. Quite an experience and pretty fun as we all are stationed together in a big room, experiencing the same thing.

When I am back home, I suddenly feel that I don't wanna live with the existence of the television and the computer. They had simply made life busier and complicated, somehow....haiiz.....

I think I have written 'ba lep ber durp" (too much) .... (the favourite karen lang we have picked up) I am lazy to describe all that had happened...I am just glad to have gone on this trip and experiencied something different from my usual life.



Our toilet and bathroom cubicles. They are beta than I had imagined! Lucky siaz...


Our makeshift tent at the worksite. All so drenched and dirty.hahz.


The xiao shuai ge in my eyes among all other good lking boys.


The super wonder kid who has great breath to boast of! Everyone adores her.


The sch kids posing for us on our last day b4 going to sch.

(pics taken by courtesy of Roy's album. Thanks for uploading. I like quite many of the pics U have taken from the angles you have chosen.)

'Away from office' notification

Incase I am 'accused' of being MIA (missing in action).

Just to inform you guys that I will be away to the long-awaited trip to Chiang Mai on Mon afternoon to 20th July for the overseas community project I have mentioned b4.

Bought a new 35 litres backpack just for this trip plus my own handheld carrier. Quite heavy, so hope all that I have brought along will be put to good use and enough for the trip.

Feel relieved that I have cut my hair short b4 this trip cos heard the bath water is reali cold. With the burden of my long hair removed, I think it will save me quite alot of trouble...yeah... I love the convenience of short hair.

For the first time, my mum, my sis and I will be situated in Thailand while my Dad in Malaysia. Probably have had a chance to tell some of you that my sis had recently set off to Bangkok for a mth or so for her modelling while my mum went along with her for the first few days. While I set off to Thailand on Mon afternoon, my mum will be back from Thailand in the nite. haiz...can't even see her in person to say bye at least. ha

Anyway, thats abt all.... remindin u not to sms me these days orelse overseas charge will be on your side I think....yeah.. so dun say I neva tell u. hahx.

Byebye for now....and thanks to a few of you for your thoughtful farewell sms. . .

"There's something about Mary" (typo: Mary=Gin)

I am quite stingy when I have no money but being stingy is not my nature. Let's put it this way. I am just being calculative on my "poorer" days. No movies and shopping. Pardon me pls.

I appreciate honesty very much but not demeaning straightforwardness. There is a difference. But given straightforwardness or telling lies, I wld still prefer the former but appreciate it less than the gesture of honesty.

I am not good at telling lies. Cos I am not spontaneous enough to think of imaginary details to respond fast enough. And I really don't like the feeling of it. So pls don't ask me play the card game Bluff. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean I have not told a single lie in my entire life before. It is totally impossible. Any person is already telling a lie if he says he never told a lie before.

I have alot of shortcomings. They are very hard to change though I always would hope to change myself for the better. It takes time and effort and some cognitive psychology to take place. I realized that it's easier to change how one perceive things than one's character traits. I used to dislike myself very much in the past but only in recent years I have grown to accept myself and my own identity.

I feel that there's no one and only one in the world cos infact, there will be many ppl along the way you would think that match with your liking. It's only a matter of who you want to give your heart to and stay true to it. Marriage is therefore a legal commitment to block one from any future temptations thereafter.

We have seen in movies and TV dramas when a married man say to his secret lover this line " If only I had known you earlier...." It depicts 2 facts. First, one may bound to meet even more suitable lovers along the way. Second, time factor is a crucial thing, as in who you meet first in your life.